Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus Help

Opening Theme

Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus Update/Patch

Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus's original requirements:

MS-DOS 5.0 or Windows 3.0 or greater
386SX or better
2x CD-ROM
2 MB RAM
4 MB Hard drive space
VGA
Sound card Pro Audio, SoundBlaster, Thunderboard Sound Source, General Midi
Mouse

Audio Problems
- Poor quality or no soun d
- Unable to initialize your audio hardware

Extras
- EcoNews (PDF file) [0.99 MB]
- Ecoquest Supplement (PDF file) [4.46 MB]
- Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus UHS File (ZIP File) [6.32 KB]
- Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus Walkthrough
- Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus Demo (ZIP File) [788 KB]
- SHP Sierra Games Forums
- Find it on eBay
- Google

Audio Problems

Audio problems are common in the later Sierra DOS SCI games. There's no single fix for all these games. You can try the Windows version, if running on 32-bit Windows.

Problem - Poor Quality / No Sound (Win9x and XP):
The game has no sound or the music is of poor quality.

Solution 1 (preferred):
Play the game in DOSBox. It also will work with the MT-32 sound module, if you are fortunate to have one.

Solution 2:
Use VDMSound. The game work well with VDMSound. The sound will be as good as your audio hardware, and as with DOSBox, it works with the MT-32 sound module.

Solution 3:
Play the game with FreeSCI, a third party Interpreter for Sierra's early SCI games.

Solution 4 (DOS/Win9x):
Install DOS drivers for your soundcard. Without DOS drivers installed you won't have sound in a DOS window in Windows 9x. If you can't find DOS drivers for your soundcard, there is an alpha (developmental) version of VDMS that you can try.

Problem - Unable to initialize your audio hardware:
On starting the game you get the message:

Unable to initialize your audio hardware

Solution 1 (preferred):
Play the game in DOSBox. By playing your game in DOSBox, you can avoid this and other timer problems. Even the Windows version can be played in DOSBox if you install Windows 3x in it, first.

Back when computers came with a "Turbo" switch (a sort of speed switch,) Sierra's workaround was to turn off the Turbo switch to start the game, after which you could turn the Turbo back on. If you have your cycles in DOSBox set too high, you may still encounter this problem. You can mimic the turbo switch solution by lowering your cycles (Ctl+F11) before starting your game. You may raise the cycles back up after the game starts (Ctl+F12).

Solution 2:
Patch the old audio driver with GOSiERRA or SBSIERRA.

Solution 3:
Use an updated audio driver.

Solution 4:
Try installing the Windows version.

Ecoquest 1 & Windows XP

To get Ecoquest 1 to run in Windows 2000 or XP you can install the DOS version and run it with DOSBox or VDMSound. This should work without a hitch, The Windows version of Ecoquest 1 has the same problems starting in XP that the Windows version of King's Quest VI has and, unlike KQ6, there is not much of a reason to run the Windows version. However if you simply must play the Windows version, you can follow the same instructions as for the Windows version of King's Quest VI.

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