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  • #1

    Drakan hangs on startup

    I downloaded Drakan and the 444 patch this morning and I have not been able to launch the game. Each time (at the end of setup and subsequent launches) the game shows the initial banner, fades to black, and nothing else is displayed. The music continues, but their is no disk activity and the keyboard is locked (have to cold boot). If I try to apply the patch, it fails stating "1) You do not have the correct Drakan patch for you're language (...) 2) Drakan is not installed 3) You're Drakan installation has become corrupted.
    I downloaded the 68,041,955 byte demo from ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/games/drakandemo2b.exe (mirror found on www.drakan.net). The drakan.net link to the patch file was broken and I got the 6,557,581 byte patch from http://psygnosis.svwh.net/drakan/dow...tch444_eng.zip (found on Surreal's web site). The www.gigex1.com site is apparently flooded this morning. I tried installing it into a specified directory initially, and then uninstalled and reinstalled into the default directory. Anyone have an idea what's wrong?
    <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>
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  • #2
    That patch is for the full game, not the demo.

    Nuke the whole mess, and re-install the demo from scratch, without trying to patch it...
    Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

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    • #3
      Thanks Kruzin, that explains the patch error message. I always try launching the demo first before trying to apply the patch. I just uninstalled, and this time rebooted, then reinstalled. Still get black screen hang after Drakan banner scene.

      Do you know if the demo includes the fixes in patch 444?
      <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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      • #4
        I'm sure it doesn't.
        I did run the demo some months back on my G400, and it worked fine. Good enough to get me to buy the full version, which has worked great, since the first patch, where they fixed the bumpmap crashes....
        Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

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        • #5
          So any other hints on what's wrong with my demo? How do you identify the demo version number? I found that I have a couple versions from PC Accelerator disks (Jul-99 & Sep-99) and I was about to try the newer version (don't know if this is the latest). I also finally got into gigex and am slowly (their server is gasping) downloading the demo from there. Do any of the demos have bump mapping working?
          <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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          • #6
            Kruzin, I tried the PC Accelerator version of the demo and it is identical to the version I got through drakan.net; both versions show v1.0 in the Drakan banner on startup and both have their latest files from 03-JUN-99, and of course they both hang.
            If its been awhile, can you retry you're demo? I wonder if it has to due with incompatibility with PD 5.30. I'm running on Win98. Anybody else running the demo with the current drivers?
            <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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            • #7
              I have the full game, and it was running fine until I install the 444 patch. Then it started freezing at random points, but I could never get very far without it freezing. The symptoms were the same - it took a hard boot to unfreeze.

              I had some success fixing it by just running the Powerdesk setup again. Just run it without uninstalling the PD by clicking setup in the mgafold folder.

              This worked for a while, then it started freezing again. I played around disabling DMA on my DVD-ROM and then reactivating it and that seemed to work, too. Strange, but the freezing is common to all video cards - not just Matrox.

              BTW, did you see my earlier post. Drakan.net has a more revealing costume for Rynn available for download.

              RAB
              AMD K6III-450; Epox EP-MVP3G5; G400DH32; Maxtor 10gig UDMA66; 128meg PC100; Aureal SQ2500 sound; PCI Modem Blaster; Linksys 10/100 NIC; Mag 800V 19"; AL ACS54 4 speaker sound; Logitech wireless mouse; Logitech Wingman Extreme (great for lefties)

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              • #8
                RAB, I'm unable to find any "mgafold" folder. Where exactly is this? I'm not sure what you mean by the PD setup. I can run mgasetup off of the installation CD which will install drivers, etc. I can customize my setting through QuickDesk and advanced display properties. Please clarify. I don't have a DMA problem as I'm running off of the hard drive and I'm using SCSI which isn't using DMA.

                Concerning Rynn ... you're post is what reminded me to try out this game. It was the photograph of Ms. Rynn that caused me to purchase my first issue of PC Accelerator. It would be entertaining to try the new skins though I doubt they got photos of the real Rynn. Will that patch work with the demo? Do you know if EMBM is enabled in the demo?

                ------------------
                • ASUS P2B-S, PIII 450MHz, Award ACPI BIOS v1010, 128 MB RAM
                • MYLEX FlashPoint RAID+ (BIOS v2.02N) running RAID 0 on two 9 GB IBM DDRS 39130D Disks
                • Diamond MX300 sound card, now with MX25 S/PDIF output
                • Matrox Millennium G400 Max Dual Head - English
                • NEC 5FG monitor
                • YAMAHA CRW4416S and NEC Multispin 3x CDs
                • 3Com Fast EtherLink XL 10/100Mb TX NIC
                • US Robotics 56K Voice FaxModem Pro
                • Pioneer DVD-303S SCSI
                • Note--All SCSI devices (except disk drives on RAID) are connected to onboard AIC7890 U2W SCSI
                • Mainly running Win98 v4.10.1998


                <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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                • #9
                  Well, I looked, and I don't have the demo any more. I usually nuke those if I get the full version.

                  I have played Drakan several times over the last few days. The only problem I had was when I tried to use that "special" skin
                  It would not load the game most of the time with that little gem in there. (And it really isn't all that special...)

                  Ans no, the demo has no EMBM in it...
                  Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

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                  • #10
                    Kruzin, thanks for looking. Maybe I should start another thread and ask if anyone has the demo working with current drivers. I'm hoping this thread gets enough eye's. I tried several times to download the demo from the gigex.com site yesterday but the server was unavaialable and then finally only able to dish up 7-9 KB/sec over my DSL line: it would only download 6-17% of the file before dropping the connection. They make you provide an email address and of course I got a solicitation from Psygnosis this morning. I took the opportunity to inform them of my troubles. We'll see what (if anything) they come up with. Is the dragon the only thing that is bump mapped? I had read that the game had excellent visual quality and I believe that was w/o EMBM. It seems as if many people are still having hanging problems even with the latest game and 444 patch.
                    <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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                    • #11
                      Xortam,
                      Sorry about the set up confusion. I've been using the downloaded Power Desk (PD for short, its the the Matrox video drivers and screeen settings utility) from the Matrox web site. When you unzip the driver file, it creates a folder called mgafold. Inside mgafold is a setup.exe which you double click to install the new driver files into Windows. You could just as easily run mgasetup from your installation CD and it would do the same thing.

                      The installation CD had PD version 5.11 if I remember correctly. Matrox is now up to PD 5.30, which fixes several game bugs and has an improved Open GL. You can also download an Open GL that runs just the more popular Open GL games (Quake, Half Life). If you decide to upgrade the video drivers, make sure to follow the directions on Matrox's web site and use the uninstaller they provide. don't try to upgrade without first uninstalling the old drivers.

                      I don't understand why loading the game patch would cause problems unless it changes some video settings. By rerunning setup, you are basically resetting the video setup to it original state. But Drakan is the only game on my computer that would not run after I downloaded the patch.

                      RAB

                      AMD K6III-450; Epox EP-MVP3G5; G400DH32; Maxtor 10gig UDMA66; 128meg PC100; Aureal SQ2500 sound; PCI Modem Blaster; Linksys 10/100 NIC; Mag 800V 19"; AL ACS54 4 speaker sound; Logitech wireless mouse; Logitech Wingman Extreme (great for lefties)

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                      • #12
                        RAB, My mistake referring to the CD. I've been using PD 5.30 and TurboGL since they were released. I then had downloaded w9x_530.exe, but it didn't create an "mgafold" subdirectory. I don't have any such folder on any of my hard drives. Regardless, I understand what you're getting at.

                        I'm no longer trying to install any game patch. As Kruzin pointed out, the 444 patch is only for the full version; I'm trying to get the demo to work. The only other patch I was questioning is the new skin patch for Rynn but I haven't done anything with that yet (work on demo?).
                        <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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                        • #13
                          Yea, even without the EMBM, the game is visually one of the sweetest things I've ever seen on a PC monitor. The real-time lighting and stencil buffered shadows are awesome!

                          In the full game, the only things that get the EMBM treatment are the dragon, and most (but not all) water textures...and even just that little bit really does add a lot to the visuals...
                          Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

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                          • #14
                            Thanks for the confirmation Kruzin. Maybe someday I'll be able to see for myself.
                            I'll try asking the question again ...

                            Has anyone got the Drakan demo working with the current PD 5.30 drivers?
                            <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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                            • #15
                              Hey Xortam, I was running the demo version of Drakan when I had my old Productiva G100. Thus I already had it installed when I put in my G400 MAX. I now have the full version of the game and I have had no troubles with either version with and PD versions. You might want to try and disable bus-mastering to start up the game and see if it works. It hangs on me when I have it enabled (of course, it hangs on any game for me when it's enabled but...)

                              Just a thought. Sorry if it doesn't help.
                              "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed"
                              --- Albert Einstein


                              "Drag racing is for people that don't know how to brake and downshift at the same time."

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