Kings Quest V No talking
 

Hi, I'm currently having a problem running my KQ5 game. I have a collector's edition pack (two disks, 1 - 6, I think it is 1999 but I don't have it right by me). Anyway, I'm having to run the games in DosBox and there isn't any talking. This isn't a huge problem generally as I've played the games several times and know what they are saying. However, there is a part where the music has to change and you get something at the end of the song. The game doesn't register that there is supposed to be a different song playing and so it gets stuck there.

I've tried changing the installation settings to the different sound options, but no luck. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

Try uninstalling and reinstalling with the appropriate installer here - it includes a fanmade patch that should fix the problem.

Still nothing
 

Thanks for your response.

I tried two different downloads. One wasn't the right edition and the other didn't help the scene. I figured out that it is actually the 1995 Collector's Edition that I have. The DosBox I'm using is 0.72. Is there a newer one that I need to use?

The download made the sound clearer, but there is still no talking. I played the game to the point I was stuck at (it can be done pretty early) but it still doesn't register the song. The part I'm at is where I get the golden needle. The helpers sing that song then I get the needle. Could I be missing a trigger? The helpers never sing the song. It is still the music that is normally played in the scene.

Thanks,

If you have the Collector's Edition, this is the one you need.

http://sierrahelp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=459

Why don't you run it on ScummVM? I generally find it easier to operate than Dosbox and IMHO games are run better on it.

Except when the game is setup for you automatically that is a completely moot point. Besides, DOSBox has superior sound.

It does? How so? (I'm genuinely curious.)

This is not just my opinion. It is also that of several musicians familiar with both. Accurate sound and high compatibility has been the two most important considerations of the main DOSBox dev. The beginning of the development of the accurate sound in DOSBox was aided by information provided by Vlad Romascanu, who was the developer of VDMSound, the fantastic sound emulator that most used in the early days of XP for sound emulation for DOS games. The OPL and AdLib emulation sound better, too. ScummVM now uses the AdLib code from DOSBox, but is somehow falls short.

The other thing is that it is far simpler to configure sound in DOSBox. Usually you have to do nothing to configure sound in DOSBox itself, but you do have to also configure the sound within the game's setup, too, but even that is usually straight forward. In other words, as long as you have configured the sound in the game itself, DOSBox sounds great out of the box.

The defaults for ScummVM often leave something to be desired. The audio setup in is spread across a number of locations within the ScummVM GUI and that is doubled by the fact that there are global audio settings AND individual game settings. With conflicting settings it is not always predictable about which overrides which. Correcting misconfigured sound in ScummVM can be a frustrating experience for those that are not familiar with what to look for. It can often be easier to either delete the scummvm.ini and start from scratch or manually edit the scummvm.ini file, which many will find as confusing as editing the dosbox.conf.

All of this is not to denigrate ScummVM. It is a tool that belongs in every retro gamer's toolbox and should at least be considered for any supported game, but it is not always the best or easiest tool to use. As far as sound goes, it does have one advantage over DOSBox. You can use combinations that are not normally possible, such as MT-32 sound with the Windows version of King's Quest VI.

In the case of SCI games (what this thread was about) DOSBox almost always gives you a more accurate rendering of both sound and graphics. For these games I only use ScummVM when there is some other compelling reason, such as to use the Windows version. Currently of the supported games only KQ6 has a more desirable Windows version over the DOS.