Phantasmagoria Help

Consumite Furore

Phantasmagoria Updates/Patches

Phantasmagoria's original requirements:

MS-DOS 5.0 or Windows 3.1 or greater
486/25 minimum
2x CD-ROM
8 MB RAM
5 MB Hard drive space
SVGA 256 colors
SoundBlaster & 100% compatibles, Pro Aud Spectrum, Roland MT-32 or General MIDI
Mouse

Installation Problems
- AutoRun Hangs
- Invalid parameter - co80

Audio Problems
- Poor Quality or No Sound with DOS Version

Game Specific Bugs

Extras
- Phantasmagoria Manual (PDF file) [3.45 MB]
- Phantasmagoria UHS File (ZIP file) [13.0 KB]
- Phantasmagoria Walkthrough
- Phantasmagoria Easter Eggs
- Phantasmagoria Desktop Theme (ZIP file) [13.0 KB]
- SHP Phantasmagoria Series Help Forum
- Find it on eBay
- Google
- Buy it on GOG

Installation 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 - AutoRun Hangs:
When you first insert the CD, the AutoRun will start and seems to lockup.

Solution:
It is just searching your system for a previous installation. You can safely quit the AutoRun and just open the CD to run the installer. (Right click on the AutoRun button on the task bar and choose Close or use Ctl+Alt+Delete to end task. You can also hold the shift key down when you insert the CD and hold it until the PC reads it.)

Problem - Invalid parameter - co80:
When installing the DOS version, this error message appears:

Invalid parameter - co80

Solution:
This is just a parameter specified in "INSTALL.BAT" that does not work in XP, just ignore it, the game will install, anyway.

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 (DOS version):
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.

Game Specific Bugs

Like many later Sierra games, Phantasmagoria has a few bugs.

Problem - Out of Memory Messages:
Out of memory messages with excessively large bytes requested

Solution:
Apply this Patch

Problem - Missing Spell Book Picture:
The spell book picture in Chapter 7 is missing.

Solution:
Apply this Patch

Problem - CD Read Errors:
Case 1 overrun and other CD read errors.

Solution:
Apply this Patch

Problem - Error 29 Lockup:
Error 29 lockup when using SoundBlaster 16 DSP version 4.05.

Solution:
Apply this Patch

Problem - Error 47, Not an Object (Windows version):
Occurrences of "error 47, not an object" when clicking on the door to the computer room in chapter five.

Solution:
Apply this Patch

Problem - Palette Problems When Save/Restore (Windows version):
The palette is trashed when saving and restoring games.

Solution:
Apply this Patch

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