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In the middle of a massive nostalgia high, I rediscovered the Exile series of my childhood. The games that introduced me not just to RPGs in general, but to my favorite category of game altogether: the party based RPG. Imagine my joy at finding the full versions released as shareware! And imagine my pain when my modern OS refused to run these 16-bit treasures. But all was not lost, for there were forums! Surely they held the answers to this soul-threatening conundrum. Well... kind of? They used to? There are plenty of threads about the topic, but the passage of time has not been kind to the links or the information within. The text-only answers that survived were, to those of us inexperienced with legacy gaming, a bit vague. (For example, I tried to use DOSbox to open Exile 3 directly, before realizing that I needed to install an OS nearly as old as I am, THEN install the game. Seemed like a big pain. After looking up how to do it: confirmed big pain.) Enough with the self-pity and justifications, here are my solutions, in order of [my perception of] easiness: 1. Wine (Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X) I don't have Linux or Mac so I can't speak to this firsthand, but it looks very easy. It is also less resource hungry than using VirtualBox to run an entire 2nd OS. I thought I saw somebody in these forums mention that sounds may not work correctly in Exile? Perhaps somebody will clarify in the comments. 2. Windows 7 Pro only: google Windows XP Mode. Your OS comes with virtualized Windows XP support. You just have to download it from Microsoft. How easy is that? 3. VirtualBox with FREE copy of Windows XP.*** (OS X, Linux, Windows, Solaris) This should be the most robust solution, viable across any platform compatible with VirtualBox (or any other VM software. I used VirtualBox because it looked like the most common) and for as long as Microsoft provides access to free virtual copies of XP. This setup takes maybe 30 mins. Super easy. Note: the linked guide is targeted at website testers, who obviously need internet access within the virtual environment. You don't, and it is generally a bad idea to give old, unsecure OSs a front door to the internet. So skip that part. You only need the first 1/3 of this guide. After you get the virtual XP machine running, use the 'Shared folder' feature of Virtual Box (google for instructions) to transfer in your Exile installs and you're in business. Enjoy! 4. VirtualBox with Windows XP Mode*** (I think this should work for anyone with VirtualBox, but I think only Windows 7/8/8.1 and probably 10 users will care) This is cool for Windows users because it lets you run Windows XP applications on the same desktop as your normal system, whereas the VirtualBox solution above will confine your entire Windows XP system and its applications to a window. Not a game changer, just a little perk. I'm mostly including this option for diversity, and because it is actually what I have (I found this solution first). Easy to install, takes maybe 45 mins. Again, after you get the virtual XP machine running, use the 'Shared folder' feature of Virtual Box (google for instructions) to transfer in your Exile installs. Voila! 5. DOSbox with Windows 3.1 (BeOS, Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2, and Windows) If you are just as nostalgic for MS DOS and Windows 3.1 as you are for Exile, this is the solution for you. This is the most cited solution on these forums. I believe this is only because nobody bothered to update the solution somebody first found a decade ago: it looks like a royal pain in the ass to configure. You have to first find a copy of an ancient OS, then install it using ancient DOS commands, then install drivers to get it to work, then blah blah blah just read the linked guide. I didn't bother doing this, but I presume it works in the end. *** These XP copies are not activated and will, presumably, not work after 30 days. Or maybe there is a system clock workaround? I'm still looking for a way to avoid this, but haven't found anything other than simple piracy so far. But with a virtual machine it is trivial to export your save files and reinstall the OS/games in a few minutes. I'm only on day 2, so it's not a pressing issue. So don't lose heart! Exile is just around the corner, and the first loading sounds will send shivers of nostalgia down your spine. Good luck and happy gaming!
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Link (~2.711 MiB). This installer includes the three original SW scenarios (VoDT, ASR, and ZKR) as well as Bandit Busywork. The installer will create three shortcuts to the programs on the Desktop as well as a Start Menu entry with the three shortcuts as well as a link to the scenarios folder and an uninstaller link. This installer was built using NSIS and built using a Windows XP box. The actual binaries were cross-compiled to Win32 using the MinGW32-nightly makefiles (available in the svn). Although this is marked as an alpha, I have been using binaries compiled from trunk for several months now and I haven't had any issues whatsoever. Caution should still be exercised, however. Back up your stuff before use! Please report any issues or suggestions with this installer or these binaries to this thread. Happy playing!
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- Development
- Installation
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Until recently I did not realise that the first two games went through some very serious graphical changes after the initial release. I started digging for old versions and found quite a few old shareware packages of Exile: Escape from the Pit. However, I'm a bit confused about the chronology and release dates of those games. Here's the versions that I found (mostly at cd.textfiles.com): v1.0.1: exile101.zip v1.0.3: EXL103.ZIP v1.1: exile11.zip (October 20, 1995) v1.1: exl11.zip (November 7, 1995) v1.1.1: EXILE111.ZIP v1.1.2: EXL112.ZIP I've also found (through Google Groups) copies of comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg newsgroup posts made by Jeff Vogel that announce the release of v1.0.1, v1.0.2, v1.0.3 and v1.1 for Windows. Some of the shareware packages include a file called VENDINFO.DIZ which contains detailed information about the game, such as the release date of the current version and reasons for update. And here's where the tricky part comes in: the dates in VENDINFO.DIZ (and date stamps on the files where VENDINFO.DIZ is not included) are way off compared to the newsgroup announcements, especially for versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2 and 1.0.3. The news about the upload of v1.0.1 was posted on August 11, 1995, however the date stamps on the files in the v1.0.1 shareware package are from June 11, 1995. For v1.0.3, the announcement was apparently made on September 25, 1995, yet the VENDINFO.DIZ indicates July 14, 1995 as the version date instead. I would assume that the dates on the files themselves are correct, but then it means that no reliable date for v1.0.2, for which a shareware package seems to be unavailable. Another quite confusing thing is that in the announcements, the shareware archives' filenames always follow the pattern of exile1xx.zip. Conversely, inside VENDINFO.DIZ the packages are universally called EXL1xx. The third thing I was wondering about is that the version numbers as reported in each version are three digits separated by full stops (1.x.x), however VENDINFO.DIZ theres a single digit separated by a full stop from a two-digit number (1.xx). I would assume that since VENDINFO.DIZ files were apparently generated by the use of some programme and not manually, perhaps the limitations of that programme prevented from correctly giving both the version numbers and the file names, however I'd like to have this confirmed. Any clarification on these questions will be deeply appreciated.
- 2 replies
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- exile
- old versions
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I just installed Avadon 2 on my WinXP SP3 rig. It crashes, with Error Dialog, in upon entering some areas. Example: The first building (starting area) with a trap door. I can go down to the cellar via the trap door, but if I move to the area right, when I reach the white-floored area - crash Anyone else having this problem? Any solution?
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I just recently bought my new Windows 8 laptop. Then a couple of days later installed the Geneforge series. And now i'm realizing how slow it is :-P. The character and enemies lag a lot on the screen and it takes a long time for the engine to process the next round. Is there anyway to make this game go faster on my Windows 8 laptop. ~Cmiller
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Having trouble getting Avernum to start. I'm attempting to run the demo version on netbook: a Dell Insprion Mini 10, about two years old, 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor, 1 gig RAM, running Windows 7 Starter SP1, 32-bit version. 80-gig HD still has 35 gigs free. I have followed troubleshooting suggestions: rebooting, closing all programs (I've even killed all nonessential processes), running the DirectX executable, windowed, full screen, various graphics options, made sure all drivers are up-to-date, etc. Every time I start the program, it's the same: I get the "choose resolution" prompt, but after moving through it, the process simply stops. The only indicator that I have as to the nature of the problem is that when prompted to select a resolution, there are no resolutions listed. This netbook has only two resolution settings, 1024x576 and 640x480. With older Spiderweb programs, this is not an issue: when prompted to change resolution, I am presented with a proper 3x4 interface flanked on either side by blank screen. I am hoping to attain this with the latest product... but I'll settle for windowed and running. The Silent Assassin will settle for nothing less than total wold domination! So! Rolling three dice to attack Indonesia from East Australia! Again!
