King's Quest Reinvigorated

It seems nowadays that the golden age of computer games has come to an end. Is anyone with me? Today computer games such as World of Warcraft and Spore exploit Artificial Intelligence and cutting-edge graphics to appeal to the public. However, does anyone remember the good old days before all that, the days of King's Quest? Does anyone even care anymore? Well, some people do and those people are the brains at Anonymous Game Developers Interactive.

According to AGDI's About Us page, these folks are "a group of highly motivated individuals determined to revive the adventure game genre. [Their] aim is to remake classic Sierra On-Line adventure games, enhance them to modern standards, and then offer them as free downloads." And this is exactly what AGD Interactive has done.

King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown is based on the original Sierra Entertainment game of the same name that was created by Roberta Williams in 1984. The developers at AGDI have revamped it giving it new life at an extreme makeover. The current version of AGDI's remake (Version 4.0) was released on January 17, 2009 and is available for free download at AGDI's web site.

King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones is based on King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne, which was created by Roberta Williams and released in 1985. As with the first King's Quest, AGDI has renovated and re-released this game. The current version is Version 3.0 and it is available for free download from AGDI's web site.

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human. Well, since AGDI can't do everything, the people at Infamous Adventures have stepped in to remake King's Quest III. The latest version is 2.0. Cruise over to IA's KQ3 download page to grab this game.

UPDATE: 12-Mar-2013: AGDI has now released their own remake of King's Quest III, King's Quest III Redux: To Heir is Human, to compete with Infamous Adventures' previously released version. Now you can choose which version of KQ3 you want to play... or just try them both!

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella. At the current date, this game has not yet been remade. However, Magic Mirror Games is hard at work on this project. Hopefully we can expect a top-notch product from MMG before too long. In the meantime, try downloading the original King's Quest IV.

King's Quest V, King's Quest VI, and Beyond. The chances of these games being remade in the future are comparatively slim. This is because they don't need it. Try searching the Internet for the original versions of these games. They can be found on numerous abandon-ware sites.

It's nice to see the old games coming back.

Upside-down YouTube Update

It looks like the "&flip=1" trick to turn YouTube videos upside down no longer works. It was a neat feature while it lasted but all things must come to an end eventually. We'll see what YouTube comes up with next April Fool's Day.

Upside-down YouTube

Well folks, it looks like there are some pretty strange things built into YouTube's core coding. For example, there is a simple way to completely flip any YouTube page upside-down, text and all! I was lucky enough to stumble upon this obscure and bizarre YouTube functionality while I was surfing through videos late at night. All you have to do is fix "&flip=1" (without the quotes) onto the end of any YouTube URL! It's that easy! Let's try it:

1.) Check out this video: Training at Home. The french Spiderman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_-UGZokOU
2.) Cool, huh? Now try viewing it upside down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_-UGZokOU&flip=1
3.) Link to YouTube's explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/t/new_viewing_experience

Happy April 1st!

Wikipedia is Saved!

Over the past few months, Wikipedia, everybody's favorite free online encyclopedia, faced a dauning financial crisis. The Wikimedia Foundation (the people in charge of Wikipedia) needed to raise $6 million in order to continue functioning. Now, thanks to the support and donations of Wiki lovers all over the world, Wikipedia is out of the pit and back in business. I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone who helped in the effort to save Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, also thanks all of the free encyclopedia's supporters in a personal letter, which can be read online here:

Link: Thank you from Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales.

Riven in Windows XP

A few months ago, I wrote an article on my website about how to get Riven: The Sequel to Myst working in Windows XP. For the sake of disseminating information, I will post a link to that article here.

Link: How to Play Riven in Microsoft Windows XP

UPDATE: Google Pages has been disbanded by Google. Thus, Mind Palette (my late website) is no longer available. The original Riven XP article from the the website is here reproduced:

How to Play Riven in Microsoft Windows XP

This tutorial will teach you how to get Riven: The Sequel to Myst to run in Microsoft Windows XP.

OK, so you got this really cool game called Riven back when you were still running Windows 98/ME/2000. You played it obsessively; everyday, after school, you would rush home and throw one of the discs into your PC just so you could once more be immersed in that beautiful and shattered world that is Riven. Now, you know practically everything there is to know about the game. You haven't played in a while because you want to savour your hard-earned victory before returning to Riven, also you've upgraded your OS to Microsoft's brand spankin' new Windows XP. After a while, you get the itch again and install Riven on your new system. The installation process goes well. You open your start menu and click on your Riven shortcut... That's when your whole world falls to pieces...

Does this sound like you? If so, you've come to the right place; I went through the same agony you're experiencing right now. Luckily, there's a cure.

Riven Updater 1.02 Patch

The first and easiest solution to your problem would be to go to Brøderbund's Website and download the Riven Updater 1.02 Patch; however, this may not be quite so easy now that Brøderbund's Website no longer exists. Fortunately, one guy at Steve's XP Games Corner was smart enough to archive a copy of the patch before Brøderbund shut down. Thanks Steve!

Download Patch from Steve's XP Games Corner - 984KB .zip

Simply install the patch in the same folder that you installed Riven in (e.g. C:\Program Files\Riven on my machine).

Windows 98/ME Compatibility Mode

If Riven still won't run after you've installed the patch, try running Riven in Windows 98 / Windows ME Compatibility Mode.

1. Navigate to the riven.exe file on your hard drive (C:\Program Files\Riven\riven.exe on my machine.)
2. Right click on the file and click “Properties.”
3. Under the “Compatibility” tab, place a check next to the “Run this program in compatibility mode” option.
4. Select “Windows 98 / Windows ME” from the dropdown menu.
5. Apply the change and click “OK.”

QuickTime Movies have no Sound

Well, now Riven is playable, but why is there no sound for any of the movies? Is this the question you're asking yourself? Try this:

1. Find the file Mohawk.w32 in your Riven directory.
2. Open it with a plain text editor, like Notepad.
3. Change the line that reads “fEnableAudioProxy=true” to “fEnableAudioProxy=false” (without quotes).
4. Save the file in place of the original.

My Sound STILL doesn't work!

If editing the Mohawk.w32 file according to the directions above didn't work, the problem most likely is a compatibility issue with your version of QuickTime Player. Try uninstalling your version of QuickTime and installing the version that came on Riven Disc 1. This should solve your problem, if it doesn't, I'm afraid this author is all out of solutions. There is probably a solution out there somewhere, but it is not here. Sorry.

Conclusion

I hope this article has been helpful to you; if it has, be sure to check out my other articles sometime.

Text Copyright © 2008 by The Untitled One ;)