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King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride Help

King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride's original requirements:

Windows 3.1 or greater
386 minimum, 486 or better recommended
2x CD-ROM
4 MB RAM minimum, 8 MB RAM recommended
5 MB Hard drive space, 15 MB recommended
SVGA
100% Windows Compatible Sound Card
Mouse

 

Audio Problems

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

Solution 1 (preferred):
Play the game in DOSBox.

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 (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.

Speed problems

As with many of the Sierra VGA games, King's Quest VII has a speed bug. This bugs can also be avoided by playing the game in DOSBox. If you can't or don't want to use DOSBox, you can try using a Slowdown Utility.

Problem - Fire Cracker Blows Up Too Soon:
Every time Valanice tries to get the firecracker to the tomb door in time, it blows up in her face.

Solution #1 (preferred):
The KQ7 DOSBox installers that will install US versions 1.4, 1.51 and 2.00b and automatically setup the game in DOSBox. The Windows only KQ7 version versions 1.4 and 1.51 will be updated to version 2.00b with DOS interpreter. For the new Collection install the DOSBox Update.

Note: the 1.4 and 1.51 installers will not work for localized versions. Localized Windows only versions can be played in DOSBox if you install Windows 3x in it, first.

Solution #2:
Use a Slowdown Utility.

Solution #3:
Keep retrying. Each attempt will bring Valanice closer. Eventually you will get there.

Game Specific Bugs

There are a couple of bugs the game has that are not speed dependent.

Problem - Game Crashes When Starting Intro or End Movies:
The game crashes back to desktop when trying to play the intro or end movies, after applying the version 2 patch or the collection's DOSBox update. The DOS version of the movies are missing.

Solution:
Download the DOS Movies.

Problem - Forest Lockup:
The game locks-up when Rosella walks through forest.

Solution #1:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Wooden Nickel Lockup:
The game locks-up when taking the wooden nickel from mockingbird.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Mockingbird Keeps Stuttering:
The mockingbird keeps stuttering.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Spiderweb Looping:
The hummingbird / spiderweb scene keeps looping.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Wooden Nickel Won't Highlight:
The wooden nickel will not highlight in Faux Shop.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Headless Horseman/Bogeyman Lockup:
The game locks-up when interacting with the headless horseman or bogeyman.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Malicia's House Lockup:
The game locks-up when in Malicia's house.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

 

King's Quest VII & Windows XP

Update: The KQ7 DOSBox installers that will install US versions 1.4, 1.51 and 2.00b and automatically setup the game in DOSBox. The Windows only KQ7 version versions 1.4 and 1.51 will be updated to version 2.00b with DOS interpreter. Note that these will not work for localized versions. Not only does this solve the problem of not working in XP, it allows the game to be run in DOSBox, which also avoids the fire cracker speed bug.

Windows Version:

Version 2.0* of King's Quest VII seems to install and run flawlessly (except for the fire cracker bug which is speed related) on Windows XP. Versions 1.1 to 1.51 of King's Quest VII crash on launch with a dll error. Unfortunately, these versions also have no DOS version of the game included and you can't update to version 2.0, as Sierra never made a patch that would upgrade to this version. The only patch Sierra released for King's Quest VII was KQ7PAT.EXE, for versions 1.4 and 1.51, which only fixes a few minor glitches.

Shortly after shipping version 1.1 of the game in 1994, Sierra found many errors, particularly installation issues, fatal exceptions, and game freezes. Also, the game came out shortly before Win95 was released, which posed its own set of problems for the game.

To fix these problems with version 1.1, Sierra had to re-code a lot of the game. The patch would have been too large fit onto a single floppy since the fixes were so extensive. So, Sierra decided to send a replacement CD-ROM of version 1.5 to customers with version 1.1 who wished to update their game.

There is hope for owners of versions 1.1 to 1.51 of King's Quest VII. There are two game executables on the disc. When you install the game, the Windows shortcut will point to SIERRAWS.EXE. If you replace this with SIERRAW.EXE, the other executable, the game will run. Copy SIERRAW.EXE to your installed folder and change the target of your Windows shortcut from SIERRAWS.EXE to SIERRAW.EXE. The game will now start without crashing or errors.

Now that Windows 3x can be installed in the CVS of DOSBox, the Windows version can be played in DOSBox. This solution will also avoid the fire cracker speed bug.

DOS Version:

Version 2.0* of King's Quest VII for Windows installs and runs well on Windows XP. It also has a DOS version of the game included. However, there is still the fire cracker bug (which is speed related) to contend with. One obvious solution is is DOSBox. Even the earlier Windows only versions can be played in DOSBox, too, now that Windows 3x can be installed in the CVS of DOSBox,

To run the DOS version in DOSBox, you can mount a C: drive and your CD drive in DOSBox and run INST.EXE in the KQ7 folder on CD. You will have to mount the CD drive everytime that you want to play the game, if you install it this way. To play the game in DOSBox without having to mount the CD eveytime that you want to play the game, you will have to install the entire game to the hard drive. The Sierra installer does not allow this option, so you will have do it manually. This is easier than it might sound.

  1. Copy the KQ7 folder from CD1 to your Sierra folder on your hard drive except for these files: AUTOKQ7.ICO :

    AUTOPLAY.EXE
    AUTORUN.INF
    BDISK.EXE
    BOOTDISK.EXE
    BOOTDISK.ICO
    CONTACT.TXT
    COPYMEGS.EXE
    COPYMEGS.PIF
    CPUID.EXE
    D2HTOOLS.DLL
    FUN.BAT
    HDDTEC.EXE
    KQ7W.ICO
    KQCHECK.BAT
    RESOURCE.WIN
    SCIDLL.DLL
    SETUP.EXE
    SETUP.SOL
    SIERRAW.EXE
    VESATEST.EXE
    WHAT.EXE

    You can copy the entire folder and then just delete these files from the folder.

  2. The RESOURCE.CFG file will need to be edited. open the file in Notepad and add this to the end of it:

    resMap=.\
    resAUD=.\
    resSFX=.\
    patchDir=.\;.\AVI AUTOPLAY.EXE
    robot=.\

    and save it.

  3. Now all you need to do is create a batch file to run the game. Open Notepad and copy this into it:

    sierra -o .\resource.cfg
    :end

    and save it as KQ7.BAT in the KQ7 folder.

All you need to do to play the game now is to run KQ7.BAT in DOSBox. Note: If you don't want to edit the RESOURCE.CFG file or create the batch file as described above, you can download them in a ZIP file here.

*Version 2 can be found on the King's Quest Collection Series and The Roberta Williams Anthology

 

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