[mart]

I was just reading the thread about Phantasmagoria 2 when I noticed the link suplied by Collector to

http://www.squirtthecat.com/

for the XP/Vista fix. To my big surprise I noticed a fix too for Amber Journeys Beyond. Perhaps most of you are already aware of this but for me it was a BIG surprise, as I only managed to run it recently after installing Virtual PC (which at first didn't like my XP installation at all).
I tried it and it works on Windows Vista. Wow!!! Thank you Collector for the link, and "Squirthecat" for your magnificent work!!! What a X-mas present!

[AndreaDraco83]

I didn't know about it! I used VPC myself!

What a great news! Thanks for pointing this out Mart!

[Fantasysci5]

Forgive an ol' (well, not actually, but) ditzy girl, but what is VPC? I know it tricks the computer into thinking it's another model to play older games, but wouldn't the compatibility wizard on XP work? Just curious.

[Collector]

Virtual PC

[mart]

@ Fantasysci5 - To answer your second question: No, it wasn't possible to play the ("cult") game on Windows XP by using the compatibility options. Script errors, dll errors (see the changes listed by "Squirthecat"). It has been a problem for years (see Google messages).
People wrote to the original designers, to no avail. For those who could afford VPC (when it wasn't free yet), there was a solution, but others could only play the game if they had still the original Windows running.
With VPC it can be played, but this elegant fix is much nicer of course. Note that there's still a problem mentioned with the fix when one stays too long underwater (game crashes), but I guess this can be avoided by moving fast during this episode (or otherwise a saved game will do. And apparently Squirthecat is working on this bug too). The site gives some other fixes for Sierra games too, so save those quickly :-).

[AndreaDraco83]

Even with VPC, I may add, the experience was far from perfect. If the game stood still for too long (i. e. when reading the documents), the program would crash and one had to exit and re-insert the CD from the case. I don't know if it is a general thing, but it happened all the time to me. Now, with this fix in hand, I can't wait to replay Amber!

[Fantasysci5]

Aww, I envy you Andrea. I wish I could play Amber. As of yet, I don't even own it!

[AndreaDraco83]

Well, if you want it - and with this new fix just released, I strongly recommend you to play it - there is a couple of good offers of it on Amazon.com.

[DustyShinigami]

I only learnt of this patch not so long ago, thanks to Collector's link in another thread, but i still haven't tried it yet. When i first played Amber i had to use an old 98 computer i have in my room. Thanks to this patch i won't need to disconnect my main computer for the 98 one and back again. I wish all the old games i have on my 98 rig would work flawlessly on XP, then i could get rid of it.

And i still don't understand how some people play older games using Virtual PC. Whenever i've used it, the 'virtual' hardware is soooo weak that running games is a very choppy experience.

[AndreaDraco83]

Well, I don't have an old W98 machine, so when I firstly played Amber VPC was the only available answer!

[DustyShinigami]

That's fair enough. I just don't understand why no one complains about the performance when running games with Virtual PC. For me anyway, it ruins the enjoyment when a game is so laggy, and when the audio consists of beeps, like when i tried Gabriel Knight 1.