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-   -   AG Community Playthrough #12: Gabriel Knight 1 (https://adventuregamers.com/archive/forums/adventure/26111-ag-community-playthrough-12-gabriel-knight-1-a.html)

AndreaDraco83 01-06-2010 01:51 PM

AG Community Playthrough #12: Gabriel Knight 1
 
Welcome, fellow Schattenjagers, to the AdventureGamers Community Playthrough #12, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father


As always, some preliminar forewarnings.

The adventure is old and may prove difficult to install and play on modern machines. However, the Sierra Help Pages are full of useful tips on how to overcome these problems, and, more importantly, the mighty Collector has provided a wonderful DOSBox Installer that really works like a charm and allows you to setup and play the game in no time. On the other hand, if you want to play the game in Windows, you can use the equally powerful Endroz' Installer for the game, although I don't know if this method is fully compatible with 64bit OS.

Once you have installed the game, try it. Everything OK? If not, don't panic! If you're having audio-related problems, you can check out this page, and this page will certainly come in handy if you're experiencing one of the nasty speed problems that unfortunately plagues almost every old game.

Like in my previous GK3 playthrough, all the images I will post come from the wonderful Belbor and his amazing site, The Pendulum of Life, a must for every Gabriel Knight fan. This time around, I will also use as a reference the extremely interesting material put together by Almirena and other dedicated fans for the Gabriel Knight 4 Campaign.

Now, as soon as all the partecipants have the game up and running, we can effectively start the playthrough.

ozymanhattan 01-06-2010 03:23 PM

I would love to get in on this. I have GK1 up and running, but not sure how a community playthrough works exactly. Could Andrea or someone provide me some details thru a PM or something similar?

Sounds like a great time. Very much looking forward to progress on this.

Denaron 01-06-2010 04:28 PM

Oh god, I'm having problems to run it on my 64 bit OS. I'll try using the dosbox.

By the way, i'm so happy to play this game with you guys. It's my first community playthrough, so please be patient with the newbie! :D

flamedrake 01-07-2010 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83 (Post 535061)
On the other hand, if you want to play the game in Windows, you can use the equally powerful Endroz' Installer for the game, although I don't know if this method is fully compatible with 64bit OS.

Unfortunately, this installer/patch doesn't work on 64-bit; however, if you have a 32-bit XP installation available, I strongly recommend installing it this way. It does a full install to the hard drive and properly fixes all of the timing bugs which can ruin the game on Days 6 and 9, and it's offered a more stable playthrough than even when I originally bought the game back in 1998.

I recently completed a Let's Play of Sins of the Fathers for another website, which ended up giving me a whole new level of respect for this game and for the series as a whole. Something like 85-90% of the information you learn on Voodoo is factual, and the hints to the mystery are so cleverly layered that it really rewards multiple playthroughs once you know what the hell's going on.

One of the things that struck me is that even after more screenshots than you can choke on and dozens of bonus videos, there are still loads of funny and interesting things to show off that I just couldn't possibly get to, and I'm still finding things I never knew about to this day. Sins of the Fathers is an absolute standout of its time and I think every true adventure game fan should give it an unspoiled playthrough if they have the means.

Cellardoor 01-07-2010 01:54 AM

I'm set up and ready to play. :) Thanks for hosting this playthrough, Andrea.

Little Writer 01-07-2010 02:28 AM

Used the Endroz' Installer, works like a charm! I'm ready to go.

I was wondering if anyone else has the novelization? I was lucky enough to find a copy some years back, though I can't remember where exactly I got from. I've been looking for a copy of "The Beast Within" novel ever since, but it's like they only ever released ten copies or something.

I've been wanting to read it again, but never got around to it. I remember it wasn't all that special, just cool to read this oh-so-familiar storyline.

Collector 01-07-2010 02:52 AM

Andrea is quite right. The Windows version will not run on 64-bit Windows. No 16-bit program will. The Hendroz installer is 32-bit, so will install the game on 64-bit Windows, but the game itself is 16-bit. Also, I have not tested the Hendroz installer on Vista or Win7, but his installer has not been updated for quite sometime, and may have permissions issues on Vista/7. Anyone that has 32-bit Windows Vista/7 and wishes to use the Hendroz installer should not install the game in a system folder, like "Program Files". Even if there are no problems with the installer itself, you may have issues with the game itself with the limited write permissions in these system folders.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamedrake (Post 535099)
Unfortunately, this installer/patch doesn't work on 64-bit; however, if you have a 32-bit XP installation available, I strongly recommend installing it this way. It does a full install to the hard drive and properly fixes all of the timing bugs which can ruin the game on Days 6 and 9, and it's offered a more stable playthrough than even when I originally bought the game back in 1998.

The DOSBox installer that Andrea linked to above does work on all modern Windows, even 64-bit XP/Vista/7. It does everything that the Hendroz installer does, except it sets up the DOS version to run in DOSBox, so it can be started from a Windows shortcut. It addresses all speed related issues, via a patch created by NewRisingSun. All that you need to do is insert your CD and run the installer. The CD will not be needed for game play.

Little Writer 01-07-2010 03:32 AM

I have Vista and used Hendroz. Didn't notice any problems. Of course I do install all my games in a special "gaming" map, so that might automatically avoid those permission problems.

I did notice I have a different version of that menu screen:
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...7371729-00.jpg

Denaron 01-07-2010 03:46 AM

I had a lots of problems when I was trying to set it up on 64 bits W7 yesterday, but finally, the game is working. The only way I'm able to execute it is dragging the sierra icon from the GK1 directory to the dosbox, otherwise the "64 bits error" pops out. I've used the collector's installer. Finally I think I'm ready, I wonder if this installer is patched with the bug fixes?

Intense Degree 01-07-2010 04:06 AM

Yay Andrea! :D

I'm all up and running and ready to go!

To anyone struggling to get the game working properly, it can be a fair bit of work on a newer system but be assured it is well worth it, including taking the time and trouble to get voices & sound up and running - don't miss out on the full experience of this gem!

AndreaDraco83 01-07-2010 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little Writer (Post 535112)
I have Vista and used Hendroz. Didn't notice any problems. Of course I do install all my games in a special "gaming" map, so that might automatically avoid those permission problems.

I did notice I have a different version of that menu screen [...]

Even if the link doesn't work, I can say that you surely have the right version of the menu screen. The one I used for ambiance values was used in the disk version of the game, while, if you have the CD version, you should see this picture, which I'm not particularly fond of, I must admit.

On the other hand, even more atmospheric is, in my opinion, the Menu Screen used only in the demo:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...KQ/gkdemos.png

PS: Thanks to ATMachine for the pictures! If you are lurking, please do come back and say hello! ;)

M-E 01-07-2010 05:18 AM

Anyone else on Windows 7 has graphical glitches with dosbox sometimes? Sometimes they are there, but after a few restarts they're gone. I guess that has to do with the windows color scheme?

ozymanhattan 01-07-2010 05:53 AM

I'm using the DosBox installer from Collector... not having any issues so far. Running Win7 x64 as well.

Ready for the playthrough as well... sign me up Andrea!!!

-ozymanhattan

Blackcat 01-07-2010 06:16 AM

All set to go!

Blackcat 01-07-2010 06:39 AM

The Dosbox GK1 installer presented me with the choice between original or smoothed graphics - which one would be best? (I chose original)

DustyShinigami 01-07-2010 06:40 AM

Aye, I have the Windows and DOS versions ready and waiting. I actually had them installed way before there was talk of a new community playthrough. :D

As for the Hendroz installer only working properly under 32 bit systems - well, that makes sense as my version of Vista is 32 bit. But I could of sworn I was using 32 bit when I had XP. Anyway, if I encounter any problems with the Windows version at least I can revert to the DOS version.

And before we begin, I think I'll give the comic book a re-read.

AndreaDraco83 01-07-2010 06:55 AM

If, by tonight, everyone's ready, I'll set up the first block for us to play.

As for the graphic novel, do you all have it? If this is your first time through the game - I doubt it, but still - I recommend reading it only after a certain point in the game, which I'll of course signal. Otherwise, feel free to re-read it when you fancy ;)

Fien 01-07-2010 07:34 AM

It took me hours to get the game installed, no kidding. Tried it several times on 3 computers, both the Windows installer and the DOSbox one, and also simply from the CD in DOS on my old Win98 computer. Every single time I got error messages during or after installation. :frusty: And then all of a sudden it worked! So I played a little, to see if everything was okay. Got wrapped up in the game, but after an hour the screen froze and I even had to restart my computer. Damn.

On the bright side, I love it. ;) Just like GK2, the game is much better and interesting than I remember it.

First time I played GK1 I used the Sierra Originals rerelease. Now I am the proud owner of the lovely trapezoid boxed version, which comes with a nice hint booklet, as I discovered today. Or is that included in all releases?

AndreaDraco83 01-07-2010 08:11 AM

I can't answer your question. I'm busy drooling over your trapezoid box.

Fien 01-07-2010 09:14 AM

My collection, in my gaming room. Well, most of it. A total of 274. Plus downloads of course. Trapezoid box in top left corner. Drool away! :P

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/6...00527ad.th.jpg

Fantasysci5 01-07-2010 09:39 AM

I'm all installed and ready! And yes, this will be my first GK1 playthrough, since I quit fairly early on. :P

DustyShinigami 01-07-2010 09:41 AM

That's an impressive collection, Fien. And that trapezoid box is very unusual.

I take it each time-block for this playthrough will be 1 whole day in the game?

Collector 01-07-2010 10:27 AM

@ Denaron, All of my installers include all relevant patches, both official and fan made (NewRisingSun).

Quote:

Originally Posted by M-E (Post 535122)
Anyone else on Windows 7 has graphical glitches with dosbox sometimes? Sometimes they are there, but after a few restarts they're gone. I guess that has to do with the windows color scheme?

This is an issue with the default output of DOSBox on Vista and 7. The installer configures using an output that will avoid this "color corruption".

ozymanhattan 01-07-2010 10:27 AM

In my ignorant youth, I got rid of my trapezoid box and just kept the CD.... I received both GK1 and GK2 as Christmas presents when I was 13 or 14. My parents were cool about me playing "mature" games at that age.

Looking forward to starting the playthrough. It's been many a year since I played GK1 so I'm looking forward to jumping back into the genre with this.

-ozymanhattan

AndreaDraco83 01-07-2010 10:40 AM

Impressive collection indeed, Fien :)

Gazzoid: almost. Probably we won't need a whole block for Day 4, but we'll cross that bridge when we'll come to it. For now, without further ado, here's a brief introduction to Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers!


Gabriel Knight is a thiry-something year-old writer who also runs an antique bookshop in New Orleans, Louisiana, and precisely on Bourbon Street, the historic rue that runs through the entire French Quarter. His two last books, Fire in the Hills and The Stalker, have been huge commercial flops but he's nonetheless struggling with a third horror novel - spare time isn't an issue, since St. George's Rare Books rarely has a customer -, this time around inspired by the string of killings that is currently terrorizing New Orleans, the so-called Voodoo Murders.

While many believe that the voodoo paraphernalia found around the victims are no more than a scare tactic - an opinion endorsed by the New Orleans Police Department as well as several different newspapers -, Gabriel has "recruited" his old pal Franklin Mosely, whom Gabriel knows since kindergarten and who's now a police detective, to snatch otherwise classified information for his novel - that is, after promising Mosely to make him the protagonist of the story!

Gabriel may well have found the bestseller he's been looking for his entire life, but surely his nightmares have found him first. Every night, the same dream: "The pile of wood that fuels the flames is high and broad, an enormous bonfire. The flames rear up over the heads of the crowd. Then he sees that there is something in the flames, some matter, tall and dark [...] It's a woman. They're burning a woman. It punches into him: shock, horror, guilt. He feels a terrible guilt, although he does not know why. He's afraid, too, as he looks at her. He feels hapless and nasty - like a child caught stealing - but it's a thousand times worse, as if what he'd stolen was... Her life. [...] Then the woman's face begin to melt. The face in the flames restructures itself into the head of a leopard. It screams at him in fury"(1). And then, always the same image: "[...] something spins out, coming toward him, rolling in the air like a slow-motion bullet. He sees that it is only a medallion. The gold surface bears the images of a lion and a snake gripping each other in mortal combat"(2). He always tries to wake up, but he can't, not until the dream has forced him to see a man hanging by the neck from a skeletal tree. Himself. Thay is when he finally comes to his senses, usually screaming and sweating.

Grace Nakimura, his twenty-six year-old Japanese American assistant, blames these nightmares on his research into the Voodoo Murders - bad karma, as she puts it -, but truth is that Gabriel is having this very dream since he was thirteen(3), but never he had it more often than now. Could it really be somehow tied to the killings? And if so, what does the dream mean? Who is the burning woman? And what about the lions and the snakes? Being the guy that he is - jaunty, laid-back and unquestioning -, Gabriel doesn't put much thought in these questions, and while Grace fills him on the messages, he grabs his morning cup of coffee, reads his horoscope and the sets out, fires his Harley Davidson and scour the soultry streets of New Orleans in search both of inspiration and clues...

(1) Jane Jensen, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Roc 1997, pp. 2 - 3
(2) Ivi, p. 4
(3) Gabriel's actual age differs between the game (30) and the novel (33, as stated in Jane Jensen, op. cit., p. 61). In Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, we can see Gabriel's ID and the given year of birth id 1963, making him thirty at the time of Sins, thirty-one in The Beast Within and thirty-six in Blood. However, Blood states that Gabriel is thirty-tree, messing the whole thing up. For the sake of simplicity, thus, I prefer not to indicate a precise age for Gabriel and when it comes to important years of his past - the first occurrence of the dream, for example -, I'll stick to the timeline of the novel rather than the game.

Denaron 01-07-2010 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fien (Post 535139)
My collection, in my gaming room. Well, most of it. A total of 274. Plus downloads of course. Trapezoid box in top left corner. Drool away! :P

:crazy:

Hehehe, nice collection dude.

@ Collector, Ohh nice mate. Thanks!

Well, I've been walking around in the game and everything seems to be working fine, at least in day 1.

Sign me in!

Fantasysci5 01-07-2010 11:08 AM

Wow, thanks for the info, Andrea! That's very interesting stuff that I didn't know before playing. Not sure if you find it out later in the game, but it really helps understand the beginning better. Now I just wish I hadn't read the graphic novel first. :P

KasiaD 01-07-2010 11:36 AM

I have the game installed in 5 min with wonderful Dosbox installer :z
Watching the intro and opening scene made me sad a bit and also afraid that i will never play a better game again :frown:

Unless I replay this one of course.

BTE I love Fien's game collection.

AndreaDraco83 01-07-2010 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5 (Post 535155)
Wow, thanks for the info, Andrea! That's very interesting stuff that I didn't know before playing. Not sure if you find it out later in the game, but it really helps understand the beginning better. Now I just wish I hadn't read the graphic novel first. :P

Some stuff will be explained later in the game; some other stuff - like the meanders of Gabriel and Mosely's friendship; their relationship with Grandma Knight; Grace's obsessive family and her background - are only explained in details in the books, and I'll try to give you as many of these details as possible :)

Later tonight, I will post the first block with some interesting info.

SharonB 01-07-2010 12:07 PM

I love Fien's collection as well. Especially the bookcases to store them on. If only I had the storage space...

I'm using Hendroz' installer and it is setup already. I found that when I tested it, it appeared in a small window. So I turned the resolution to 640, the colors to 256 in the compatibility window and now it works fine as full screen.

I'm ready to get going whenever everyone else is. Really looking forward to this. Thanks for the background information, Andrea.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the box. I got rid of my trapezoidal box early on as space was always a factor. Then I got a square box and that went too.
I still have the manual, a hint book and the graphical novel. However it's missing the first and last page. It would have been in perfect condition if I kept the box. Oh well, that's water under the bridge.

Can't wait to start playing!

Cellardoor 01-07-2010 12:29 PM

Awesome, I already learned a couple of new things about the wonderful world of GK, and the playthrough hasn't even started yet! :D

HandsFree 01-07-2010 12:52 PM

Got it working in dosbox. There's a a lot of hiss and noise though in the introduction, is that normal?
I found the title music on the cd in the sfx folder (5.wav). It sounds good there, but not in the game... Could this be a dosbox thing?
But other than that everything's cool.

zobraks 01-07-2010 12:54 PM

I'll try to install GK and join the community playthrough. I already played it once, some three years ago, but got so frustrated by a bug in day six that I gave it up :( (although it was a tremendous experience while it lasted :)). One more reason to quit was that it was a floppy version (without voices), and now that I have a CD version maybe it's time to finally deal with this unfinished business.

M-E 01-07-2010 01:06 PM

I just noticed Mark Hamill is voicing a character in this game as well. Besides having played in a great movie trilogy he also voiced a lot of great games, The Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum as his latest voice masterpiece.

ozymanhattan 01-07-2010 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zobraks (Post 535185)
One more reason to quit was that it was a floppy version (without voices), and now that I have a CD version maybe it's time to finally deal with this unfinished business.

You will not be disappointed. The voicework on this game is phenomenal. Some people like to rag on Tim Curry, but I think he brings some cool character and charm, despite the occasional over-the-top embellish.

Gotta love Mark Hamill as well..... and of course the narrator is unique among gaming. Never have I heard a voice like that.

So many memories!!! :D

Luna Sevithiainen 01-07-2010 01:35 PM

Okay, I got it up and running. Only...is it possible to play it in full screen under windows? I remember someone saying it was possible, but my last playthrough I played it in small screen, while using Endroz's installer (otherwise I would not be able to save the game). Is there a new version of the installer to play it in full screen or did I miss out on something?

(sorry if it is already in one of your links Andrea, I guess I am a bit lazy at the moment. Blame it on being late.)

Denaron 01-07-2010 01:52 PM

Hey Luna, have you tried to alt+enter? I'm able to do that here, but when I play on full screen the colors starts to mess up.

Luna Sevithiainen 01-07-2010 01:55 PM

Doesn't work for me...if it were the DOS version I guess it would, but with the windows version I am having no such luck...

Edit: okay, blame this all on tiredness. When I install using Endroz's installer, it IS useful to click the "run configuration wizard" :crazy: There it says all about full screen...Don't ask me why I never saw that before...

Collector 01-07-2010 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HandsFree (Post 535184)
Got it working in dosbox. There's a a lot of hiss and noise though in the introduction, is that normal?
I found the title music on the cd in the sfx folder (5.wav). It sounds good there, but not in the game... Could this be a dosbox thing?
But other than that everything's cool.

Did you use the installer or did you set it up on your own?

My DOSBox installer will allow the game to run full screen with Alt+Enter. It also comes with a small utility to change a couple of basic DOSBox settings, including whether DOSBox starts full screen or a Window. You can also change the size of the Window.

HandsFree 01-07-2010 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Collector (Post 535199)
Did you use the installer or did you set it up on your own?

I used the installer but I already have dosbox and it's not in program files, so I skipped that part.
There are no problems with the screensize though, it's the sound. But I found it gets a bit better during gameplay.
I was just surprised that that 5.wav file sounds good on it's own, but when it plays in the game there's a lot of hiss and noise. I also played around a bit with the cycles setting in dosbox, but that didn't do much.


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