Tex Murphy Oversee

[Birdy27]

Hm,

baught this old game yesteerday, but can only run software modus.
When I activate Hardware support, tha games exists when loading a scene without any notice.

Do others also have Direct3D problems with G400?

Knows someone what to do?

Ciao/2 Christoph

[bobmitch]

Go to either Access Software (now owned by Microsoft) or Microsoft itself. There is a download upgrade to v 1.04 that addresses many 3D problems. At release time, the game was designed to run on AGP cards. Then they found that there were many problems. The upgrade fixed it for me long ago with my old G200 and now G400

Bob

[bobmitch]

I love the Tex Murphy series. Have played since Killing Moon. Actually, Overseer supposedly pre-dates the other two. Takes you back to Tex's earlier days. Graphically, the game is OK. Was not written to rival the Unreal's or Quakes. BTW...be careful with the DVD version. I understand that there were issues. Perhaps they too are resolved in 1.04.

Enjoy...

Bob

[HollyBerri]

This original Access Software link will take you to the download.

How's the game, btw? I just got a DVD so I thought I'd try that version... gives me an excuse to finally crack the shrinkwrap on Overseer before I actually finish Pandora Directive ....

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Holly

[Birdy27]

Thanx for the tip, but the Update doen't help. The game exits right after loading :-(
When did your Tex Murphy exit before? Right after the loading of the office or after a reload?

Is there a prog testing the Matrox-Memory.

Ciao/2 Christoph

[HollyBerri]

Yes, I know Overseer is a revamp of either 'Mean Streets' or 'Martian Memorandum" (I think 'Mean Streets').

I have both those very old EGA or VGA games (they're available from a laptop supply company {???}) transferred onto CD but I had a hard time getting them running in DOS so have not played them.

Birdy27, I'll try installing the game (from CD so as not to spoil the test) tomorrow and let you know what happens.

I do think that a crashout like that usually is due to one of 2 things:[list=1][*] No sound/MIDI initialization;[*] lack of sufficient conventional memory or resources (yes, I know it's not a DOS game, but I suspect that a lot of these games still have some use for the first 640K).[/list=a]

While you wait, you might want to look at your IRQ list and see if you have any conflicts betweem your sound card and the G400. Also, have you set an IRQ for VGA in the BIOS?

Also also, if you are running DX6 or 7, have you installed DirectMedia 6 and the DirectMedia 6 patch?

-------------------------
Holly

[bobmitch]

I have always run the game from CD...not DVD. At the time of purchase...I heard of problems with the DVD version. Never did hear any more...I assumed that the issues had been resolved. Have you tried running the game from the CDs?

Bob

[HollyBerri]

OK, got the game installed and running (CD version). Saved after getting into Tex's office and looking at a few things, just to prove I could.

DVD did not work, even with the patch. Matrox's revamped Cinemaster seems to not quite be compatible. Looked like a fixable error, but the line in tex.ini was in hex and I don't know how to edit hexadecimal....

Did find some help files on the MS site though...

Are you by chance using a G200 PCI card, Birdy27?

Overseer only has HW support for AGP cards.

Also does not support the Millennium II or m3d, because of the lack of D3D support.

All right, a direct link seems not to work (man, I hate those MS URLs with all their redirects and parameters....),
so you can either try this url (copy & paste it if it doesn't work):

search.support.microsoft.com/kb/psssearch.asp?SPR=msall&T=B&KT=ALL&T1=7d&LQ=overse er&PQ=PastQuery&S=F&A=T&DU=C&FR=0&D=support&LPR=&L NG=ENG&VR=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.microsoft.com%2Fs upport&CAT=Support&VRL=ENG&SA=ALLKB&Go.x=35&Go.y=2 3

to get the search results from the MS Knowledge Base... or you can go to the MS Product Support homepage, choose "Searchable Knowledge Base", and search by keyword Overseer.

You get 46 results, which also include the hint and walkthrough pages for each day; useful for when you get running (and get stuck, like I always do)...

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Holly



[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 16 February 2000).]

[HollyBerri]

OK.... but now I'm snooping around Carl Linsky's house and I keep crashing out to Windows.

It's not so much of a problem; one of the nice features of the Tex Murphy series is that it remembers where you were practically to the pixel, so you don't lose any progress, but it is annoying.

I did get a msg at one time saying I was out of resources for Direct Sound/Wavetable.

So apparently this RealSound thing is a problem as well.

I'm about to try it with very few tray apps and startup programs running and see if that helps....

---------------------------------
Holly, who loved the domino puzzle (scribbling on notepaper, heheheheheh) and now remembers how much she misses good ol' adventure games...

[jspenc3]

I just got a DVD drive and wasn't able to get it to work with my Hercules TNT or now the G400. Had the game from over a year ago and finally wanted to play it (with the DVD enhancements) and now what!?? I have the 1.04ug but still no go. I have a PII400 and sblive. Not only does the software dvd not work (zoran is the only 1 that even tries, but it crawls!) and when I try to enter a world after the intro (if I skip it) it just exits back to the desktop! I know the CD version worked a while ago with the TNT and the same system, so I'll try that one again (but I want DVD!)...

[jspenc3]

Ok, tried it with the CD version and it worked great. What gives with the DVD one? Not only skippy video, but the 3d quits. Same game works great from CD versoin? I'm confused...

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-Jay

[HollyBerri]

jspenc3, according to the readmes, it seems that the original DVD version only worked if you had a hardware decoder card (not software DVD).

Those cards were pretty pricey at the time (still not all that cheap), so I guess most people couldn't get the DVD to work.

Thus the 1.04 patch, which adds support for the major software DVD engines.

But Matrox's software is a <u>modified</u> Cinemaster (I think) engine. So it still doesn't seem to work.

I did get the GPF box; details said the fault was in MCIMEM or something like that. Looked in tex.ini and there are settings for [MCI]. I suspect that if I changed one or more of them manually, we would be able to get the DVD to run... but the settings are in hexadecimal and I don't know jack about hex...

The CD version runs fine, except that the speech when Tex examines something is a little choppy, and I keep running out of sound resources for Direct Sound and Wavetable at some point and crash out.

So far haven't found settings that prevent this... but I reduced the number of voices and disabled almost all my tray apps and that seems to help. And maybe the new Aureal Vortex 2 drivers will help as well. We'll see, d/l-ing them now.

Are you experiencing anything similar?

Great game so far; I really like the improvements to the interface and the story (though I think Tex gives too many broad hints at times).

Although I am wondering how that navigation pad at the bottom of the screen will work when I get to the by-now traditional timed puzzle (like UAKM's 'Escape From The Security Droid' sequence or the maze at the end, or the "Move It, or Aliens Will Eat Your Brain" sequence in Pandora)... I hate timed puzzles, but at least these (usually) make more sense than the ones Sierra tacks on at the end of their adventure games...

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Holly

[jspenc3]

Yea, I know about the version differences. Problem is I've tried it with several of the software dvds and none worked (with my Hercules TNT or the G400). Guess then still have work to do on it (which probably won't get done...) But what buggs me is that it won't even load the 3d part of the game with either video card! Oh well, It's still pretty good with the cd version, I just hate to swap cds...hmm, guess I've found another use for my cdrw! 2 drives is cool!

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-Jay