Having Issues with Original Baldur's Gate game

gerbilsrcute

REALLY hoping someone here can help me....this is just too frustrating

Ok....should have followed the old adage of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" As would not have the issue I'm having if I did.
I have original cds of the baldur's gate game with the Tales of the Sword Coast....when first decided to replay the game several months ago it installed perfectly fine and I played it a bit.

Then the other day I had the "BRILLIANT" idea of installing tutu and some npc voice mods. Because the guide for THAT installation said that the game SHOULDN'T be installed in the program files I decided to uninstall and reinstall the game.

Much to my dismay the game now would NOT install now. Following some info I found online I went and installed it using safe mode....that worked....BUT now I can't get it to play. It does the same thing as when tried to install it the second time. Loads up the screen and then when I click play....nothing

Sooo.....back to the internet following various solutions to run the game in Windows 7 each time failing. Tried running the game in compatibility mode for windows 95 & again for windows 98. Did the troubleshoot for compatibility which said to run it in windows xp service pack 2....still nothing.
Even downloaded and ran Open AL.
Probably did more but am now soooo tired after playing with soo many things I can't even recall at the moment all I did.

I don't understand what happened. I was literally IN the game and playing it just MOMENTS before I decided to uninstall it, so it can't be anything that was added or changed with the computer itself. As odd as it sounds it HAD to be the uninstall and reinstall itself that did something, though I have no idea WHAT.

Any other suggestions? I birefly thought about buying the enhanced version...BUT....
1) Already have a copy of the original game
2) Did something like that once before (Archon Classic) buying a version of a game on steam already had, just because my controllers weren't working....only to find they STILL didn't work and I now paid more money for a game already had.

Sooo....am hoping someone here can help me out....or point me to someone/somewhere I can go to find some help.

ThacoBell

Oh boy, this is going to be finicky no matter what, but I can at least share what worked and didn't work for me when I tried to run it before we had the EEs.

1. I'm surprised running it in program files worked for you at all, as mine wouldn't run. Something about the system requiring permissions that the original games wouldn't be able to verify.
2. Having had it installed previously, and now it won't run properly, its possible that there are some remnant files still in the program files that is causing a conflict. Make sure all your installs really are completely removed. This was causing problems for me for AGES.
3. Compatibility mode and safe mode has never worked for me. Try running it with administrator privileges.
4. Get it to a working install again before attempting mods again. We can tackle that when we get to it.

Sadly, there are no concrete steps that I have found. I have had to use different methods on different computers (even on the same OS).

PaulaMigrate

This is also from memory - and I did many (even parallel) installs of the old game:
- Go to the Sytem Management/Programs/Programs and Features (not sure how that was called in the older windows versions) - that long list where your installed programs are - make sure BG is really deleted there. You can also use a tool like CCleaner or similar to do that.
- never install it from that autorun pop-up. Go to the CD directly and find the setup there.
- start the game via bgmain.exe not from baldur,
(- look for the NoCD crack that may still be around once you have the game installed.)
- before you install any mod, start the game once, create a character and make one save.
- make a backup of your unmodded game. If something fails, delete the corrupted game and rename the backup directory to what you gone game was named (otherwise you need to change paths in baldur.ini).

If nothing of that helps:
Search or ask at
http://www.shsforums.net/
There is all the knowledge about the old games, even if you may not get the answer within 24 hours or such.

gerbilsrcute

I did try running as administrator with no luck.

I didn't see any files left but that doesn't mean couldn't be. Will have to try that CCleaner or something. That will mean another uninstall & hopefully a better reinstall.

Will let you know what happens when I get a chance to do it.

gerbilsrcute

Still not working.
I uninstalled, checked to make sure it's all uninstalled. Ran windows, disc cleanup, did a windows defeat & downloaded & ran the free ccleaner. Then tried to reinstall & it didn't work. Didn't bother installing in safe mode this time (was tired) so not yet sure if it will play this time around.

I don't understand all these problems since it WAS installed. How could one uninstall mess everything up?

PaulaMigrate

Sorry, all I could provide was from memory. I was just looking through a pile of old CDs, but all I still have is old IWD. Looks I finally got rid of my old BG games (served me some 15 years I guess).

It was not easy for me to switch from the old game to EE and I did not do it until EET was released to make me play the game as one, like old BGT did (only EET is far better in consistency than BGT ever could be - there are far less technical limitations in EE:).

Why I mention this? Maybe because sometimes it's easier to move on than to be stuck in nostalgia? I'm not missing the old game now, and it's just been less than a year since I switched.

ThacoBell

@gerbilsrcute What directory are you trying to install to?

elminster

Yea I definitely wouldn't install it in like Program Files. Install it in like C:/Games or something

gerbilsrcute

Well as said in my OP, it WAS initially installed & working fine in program files. Due to thst & that was going to try & install a mod, I uninstalled the game. Wish I hadn't as that's when my problems started. Was fine until then. When installed in safe mode I had it just on c drive but it wouldn't play.

Also, as said before, thought about getting the EE but at this point not sure if would have the same issue with it or not.

PaulaMigrate

gerbilsrcute said:

When installed in safe mode I had it just on c drive but it wouldn't play.

For this case, did you check the baldur.ini and assured that it had the correct game path in it?
Like in these entries

HD0:=C:\BGII - SoA\
CD1:=C:\BGII - SoA\English\;C:\BGII - SoA\CD1\
CD2:=C:\BGII - SoA\CD2\;C:\BGII - SoA\English\;C:\BGII - SoA\CD2\
CD3:=C:\BGII - SoA\English\;C:\BGII - SoA\CD3\
CD4:=C:\BGII - SoA\English\;C:\BGII - SoA\CD4\
CD5:=C:\BGII - SoA\CD5\

where C:\BGII - SoA would be whatever your game install path is.

gerbilsrcute

Thanks all
Got it working again.

Guess now I have to decide if want to retry the mods or leave it alone...is it true that with voice mods etc it is about same as EE?

PaulaMigrate

gerbilsrcute said:

Thanks all
Got it working again.

Guess now I have to decide if want to retry the mods or leave it alone...is it true that with voice mods etc it is about same as EE?

You can just make a save copy of your game under another name before you start modding. To start this clean game, all you need to do is to open baldur.ini and set the path to that name to the right values as shown in my post above.
(And no, it is not like EE.)

gerbilsrcute

How is it different? Is it worth buying the EE if you have the original?

ThacoBell

@gerbilsrcute Well, the EE works on modern systems without any finagling, has fewer bugs, is more stable, and has a lot of quality of life improvements.

As for voice mods, the originals could only support so many sound files. If you add too many, the game will crash at startup. When used the original BGT mod back in the day, I had to remove some sound files to make room for the new ones.

gerbilsrcute

Ok
Thanks

PaulaMigrate

ThacoBell said:

@gerbilsrcute Well, the EE works on modern systems without any finagling, has fewer bugs, is more stable, and has a lot of quality of life improvements.

As for voice mods, the originals could only support so many sound files. If you add too many, the game will crash at startup. When used the original BGT mod back in the day, I had to remove some sound files to make room for the new ones.

Tobex solved some of it for BGT - but yes, in hindsight it was all a workaround on top of a workaround. It was great and it was fun at its time. The advantage of EE (and of EET over BGT) is, you get all of the full features in a basic game without hours of tweaking your install. You now start modding your game where the fun begins and not down in the bowels of the engine room.