Stuck in Kings Quest 7
 

I am in the part were I'm supposed to pick up a fire cracker to blow up a door to a crypt but before I can even move an inch the firecracker blows up and I die. Please help! It's the Nightmare in Etheria chapter, but I'm still in Ooga Booga trying to find the head for the headless horseman.

This is a timing bug - the game was built for much slower computers, so they didn't have this problem.

Just keep retrying after Valanice dies. Each time you retry, you can walk a few steps closer. It's annoying but it should only take you a few minutes to get where you're trying to go.

Ah that makes sense cause the last time I played I did not have that problem at all and that was a few years ago at least. Well I've allready tried your idea and it did not work cause it allways blew up before I could get it out of my inventory and click it on the door. So how did you solve it? Is there anyway of slowing down the computer?

I have this problem every time I play, so have basically managed to get used to it. Once you've made it to the crypt screen, get as close as you can to the crypt door, then wait for the Headless Horseman to appear... This will prevent the firecracker from blowing up for a few seconds, which should give you just enough time to use it on the door. :)

This actually happened to me ones and I tried that but nothing happened, I just assumed that it was because the headless horseman was there and that I had to wait untill he went away again. But I will try it again.

You should be able to do it (at least, I was), but if you can't, you can try using a slowdown program like MoSlo or Turbo. Both should be available for free online. Those programs don't always fix Sierra's timer bugs, so I don't know for sure if they will work.

Thanks for all the help, by the way since you are interested in Sierra games, I was wondering if you have recently played Space Quest 7 and maybe perhaps even Leisure Suit Larry love for sail? I've been having trouble starting those two games up ones I've installed them.

I haven't played those, but what's the problem? I still might know how to fix it. ;)

A lot of the old Sierra games have some quirks on modern machines but the good news is that the same fixes work for most of the games.

Well in Larry the sound doesnt work really, and then after the first scene when the intro starts it kind of gets stuck, it's not like the game freezes or anything but you cant move forward in the game, you're just stuck looking at the cruise ship and people walking up to it. Space Quest I usually simply cant start and when I can, there's usually some bug hidden in the game that causes the game to end it self.

Are these both legal copies of the games?

Are you using the DOS or the Windows versions?

Yeah all perfectly legit.
I've got windows 98 and it still doesnt work, I'm guessing my soundcard and/or graphic card is to new maybe.

But regardless of the operating system you're using -- are the games DOS versions or Windows versions? (Did you install using install.exe or setup.exe? If it was install.exe it's a DOS version, and if it's setup.exe it's Windows.)

If you're using DOS versions, try running them under VDMSound - I've had a lot of luck with that.

The Larry problem sounds like a timing bug. Try turning detail all the way down and speed all the way up (or possibly the other way around -- detail all the way up and speed all the way down, I forget -- but I think it's the first :P). If that doesn't do it, you might try a slowdown program like MoSlo or Turbo (or use DosBox to slow down your CPU). Also check out Al Lowe's page and see if any of the things he mentions sounds like what's happening to you. And definitely download the patch - that might fix it.

For Space Quest, it'd help if you could describe the bug in more detail. Also Sierra has what appears to be a patch for SQ1 here, but I don't know exactly what it is.