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Space Quest V: The Next Mutation Help

Space Quest V: The Next Mutation's original requirements:

MS-DOS 5.0 or greater
286 or better
640 KB RAM
8 MB Hard drive space minimum
VGA
Thunderboard Pro Aud Spectrum, Ad-Lib, SoundBlaster, MT-32 or Sound Source
Mouse

Audio Problems

Audio problems are common in the later Sierra DOS SCI games. There's no single fix for all these games.

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 driver,AUDBLAST.DRV (sb16drv.exe).

Solution 4:
Try installing the Windows version

Speed problems

As with many of the Sierra VGA games, Space Quest V 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 - EVA Pod:
When trying to rescue Cliffy in the EVA pod, it is hard to control the pod and it quickly uses all of its fuel.

Solution #1 (preferred):
Apply this patch by NewRisingSun. (You may still want to play the game in DOSBox.)

Solution #2:
Play using DOSBox.

Solution #3:
Use a Slowdown Utility.

Game Specific Bugs

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

Problem - Can't Restore or Quit At Cloaking Device:
Inability to Restore or Quit game when Roger runs out of time while trying to steal the cloaking device from WD-40's ship.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Can't Skip Polishing Star Con Crest:
Inability to skip polishing the Star Con Crest when running on 286 systems with EGA graphics.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

Problem - Icon Loss At Log:
Loss of the icon when Roger steps off the log which spans the river on Kiz Urazgubi.

Solution:
Apply this patch.

 

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