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Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest SWAT Help

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    Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest SWAT Updates/Patches (none)

Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest SWAT's original requirements:

MS-DOS 5.0 or Windows 3.0 or greater
386 or better
2x CD-ROM
2 MB RAM
19 MB Hard drive space
VGA
Sound Card W7DAC Pro Aud Spectum, SoundBlaster, Sound Source, Thunderboard or MT-32/LAPC-1/CM-32L
Mouse

 

Installation Problems

Like many of the later Sierra games, Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest SWAT has installation problems with the installer not fuctioning with faster PCs or under Windows XP. The game will install in Windows XP without trouble if you just avoid a couple of things.

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 - Hidden Setup:
On Windows XP, the setup music can be heard, but the setup window is nowhere to be seen.

Solution #1 (preferred):
Install the DOS version.

Solution #2:
Use this small utility to show the setup.

Solution #3:
Switch form the XP theme to Classic Windows. NOTE: This does not seem to work for some.

Problem - System Test Crash:
The installer crashes when running the system test with this error:

SETUP caused a General Protection Fault in
module _SETUP.EXE at 0004:6357.

Choose close. SETUP will close.

You can't rerun the setup without ending the process (Ctl+Alt+Delete) or rebooting.

Solution:
Skip the system test. You will still be able to install the game.

Problem - DOS Installer Doesn't work in XP:
The DOS installer errors out and then fails.

Solution:
Many of the commands used in old BATCH files don't work under Windows XP. Try mounting a C: drive and the CD-ROM in DOSBox and then install the game in DOSBox.

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

This error is timer related. It only occurs on computers faster than those of when the games were originally released.

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 the updated driver,AUDBLAST.DRV (sb16drv.exe)

Solution 4:
Try installing the Windows version

Speed problems

As with many of the Sierra VGA games, Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest SWAT has some speed bugs. These 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.

Here is a list of problems with solutions/workarounds.

Problem - :
 

Solution #1 (preferred):
Play using DOSBox. Even the Windows version can be played in DOSBox if you install Windows 3x in it, first.

Solution #2:
Use a Slowdown Utility.

 

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