I recently bought the King's Quest collection and have set up a copy of the launcher for my Space Quest games ( I have one of the older collections). I have 1-5 working but I'm having trouble getting 6 to work properly. I'm have set it up to work like Kings quest 7 but I keep getting a "error loading resource999.pal". I think I must be missing a file. Could someone with the new space quest collection, post what is in the "resource.win" file in the Space Quest directory (just open it up with notepad) and a list of all the files in the directory. Thanks.

I know I could just play the dos version through D-fend and dosbox but I would prefer to use the "fancy" launcher program. I know the dosbox route is easier but sometimes I got to do it the hard way. This way I also can run it without it checking for the cd which I would prefer to keep scratch free.

Well I figured it out. I guess the Space Quest Collection uses the dos version when they could run the windows version like KQ7. In the Vivendi forums someone posted what was in the sierralauncher.ini. I was missing -o infront of resource.win. Here is what you need to have to make the Sierra Collection launcher run the SQ6 windows version.

"Sierralauncher.ini" NOTE: yours maybe listed as Game 6 but I added SQ1 EGA.

Game7Name=Space Quest 6
Game7Prog=other
Game7Path=sq6
Game7Exe=sierraw
Game7Cmd=-o .\resource.win

"Resource.win" in the SQ6 directory

[Windows]
title = Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in The Spinal Frontier
wwidth = 640
wheight = 480
allowresize = false
sciMinK = 2100
sciMaxK = 5000
winG = false
confirmmidi = true
confirmdac = true
audioSize = 60k
dacSize = 32768
VideoSpeed = 300
cacheSize1 = 500
cacheSize2 = 600
movieDir=.\movies
robot=.\robots
patchDir=.\
resMap=.\
synthtype=basesynth

This what you need from the SQ6 cd

\English folder
\Movies folder
\Robots folder
language.ini
resource.000
resource.aud
resource.map
resource.mdt
resource.spx
resource.win
resource.ini
scidll.dll
setup.exe (not sure if it's required)
setup.sol
sierra.exe
sierra.ini
sierra.err
sierraw.exe
version (don't know the *.extension)

Maybe this will help someone out. This way you can use the saved games if you get stuck and no cd is required. The sound works perfect. Since I haven't played all the way through the game on this setup, I won't know if any other files are required.

It helped me out... sort of. This is "QFG" from the Adventure Games forum, btw.

BUT, although I can get through the intro now and whatnot, the game runs only on a tiny screen. It won't resize. I tried altering the data in the resource.win file, but no dice. Anyone know how to make it Windows, but fullscreen?

I think if you make it 640*480, that'd solve it. But it's been so long.

I like the way it looks in 800*600 in WinXP personally.

Unfortunately, because it's a Win app and not a DOS one, you can't Alt+Enter.

I'd use the DOS version anyway. Much more stable and easy to use.

- Spike

I just can't get the DOS version to work under DOSbox 0.63 or 0.65. I get a multitude of errors, usually PAL 999 or whatever that one is. I've tried adjusting the settings a ton of times. And the one time I had "the perfect storm" of settings, the game crashed at the intro with a VMD error.

And no matter if I change the screen dimensions (640x480, 800x600, etc.) in the .win file, nothing changes on screen. The size is the same every time.

In your case, this program can help you out.

I've tried to use it, but because the compilation directories have spaces in the names, it won't work - it gets stuck at D:/Sierra/Space and can't see the rest of the command line.

Damn. SQ6 sure is buggy is hell on modern machines. Did it run correctly back when it was released?

Also - Spikey - I suspect my error when running in DOS mode is sound or speech related - my sound has a lot of pops and static in the intro, and I think the VMD error it's failing on at the end of the intro is sound related too.

Are there any alternatives to dacblast?

What are you using?

The WIN file is useless to change as far as screen size goes. I mean change your display settings.

DOSBox 0.65 should run SQ6 DOS version fine.

With the default settings too- you shouldn't mess with DOSBox's settings, all that will achieve is you not knowing if the game isn't working because of a bug or because of a setting you'd changed.


In command line settings, you write directory names like this:
If the directory is SIERRA GAMES, it becomes SIERRA~1 .

You can also change resolution by going into Control Panel->Display-Settings->Advanced->Adapter->List All Modes

And, with due respect, just because you can't get a game running doesn't mean it's "buggy as hell".

Yes, SQ6 works fine even on my Win 95 machine in DOS.


That sounds unlikely. What sound card do you have, and what do you have audio and MIDI set to in Control Panel->Sounds and Audio Devices?

DACBLAST works in XP the best.

Tell you what, I'll try playing SQ6 in DOSBox later tonight. I may not be able to get it running and should test it on my end.

Regards,
- Spike

I still maintain "buggy as hell" because after searching for my problem, I found tons and tons of errors people are receiving just in SQ6. And because I've received three unique errors just trying to get the game to run in various circumstances.

Granted, a lot of it is probably because it was a borderline dos/win game, and because people are trying to play it on modern machines. But I've been reading about a lot of crashes, 999 pal errors, my own VMD error (which apparently no one can solve), audio-based bugs where speech downs the game, et. al. MANY more problems than SQ5, SQ4, or the rest of them. It definitely seems SQ6 is the weak link as far as programming goes.

I actually would prefer getting the DOS version to work, but no amount of wrangling under .63 or .65 will get it past the introduction. I agree that the sound card idea is out there - but it's the only thing I could associate with the problem, since the sound over the grey Sierra logo is very crackly, and the crash occurs right after the echo-heavy "DeepStar 86" or whatever is said at the end of the intro.

Here is the exact error I get at the end of the introduction:

Alert
VMD Error -51 -> IMD unknown : 1075
..\vmdcache.cpp(374)


Any idea what it means?

Figures that the .win file is useless. Resizing the display settings to something as low as 640x480 is ridiculous because of the icon mess I return to after the game. Thanks, WindowsXP... for your excellent icon memory...

Lastly, dosbox .65 won't run the game bone-dry or with any changed settings. If I run it within dosbox .65, I get "We're sorry, internal error - Error 99: Error loading resource 999.pal
../restype.cpp(56)"

And if I run it with the SierraLauncher's original configuration, it won't even bring the game up on screen - it goes to black for about one second, then dumps back to the launcher.

Ok, amazingly, I got it to run after MUCH trial and error. I'm making a whole new post about my specific error and overcoming it. However, the sound is still a little poppy, with crackles and whatnot.

Much thanks, Spikey and all others who posted. You gave me hope...

I think the difference is I'm that I'm using version 1.11 off the original Space Quest 6 CD and your using whatever version comes with the compilation.

I've also have since setup Police Quest 1-4, Quest for Glory 1-5, Leisure Suit Larry 1-7, Torin's Passage, Freddy Pharkas to run off the launcher without problems.

o i played torins quest to bad they couldnt make more cus of the shut down

Thank you Nathan for your researh, SQ6 is now working under my XP, have done as you said in your 2nd message

My problem is that: text messages are running too fast(disappear in 1-2 seconds), but seems its because of localised, hacked version, ie there no speeches/movies for some minor dialogs, and they disappear in a second. Seems there dialogs depends on sounds.
So question is: if there a text rendering speed can be specified in configurations files ?
Thanks for your help !

From Russia with ios75@mail.ru

Sounds like the game can't find the resource.aud file. It needs this to play speech and other sounds. What normally happens is it keeps the text windows up for as long as the speech segment lasts and then it closes it. If it can't find the speech file (resource.aud) there is no speech segment so the window just opens and closes. Make sure your resource.aud folder is in the same folder as the game and make sure the resource.cfg references it somewhere in the proper folder.

There'snt 'resource.aud' and many others movie-files in Russian pirate localisation. Seems, there're 2 ways:

1. create small fictive 'resource.aud' & movie-files
2. get normal SQ6 version & original 'resource.aud' (go here)


I tried turn off 'Speech' from cfg-file for watching non-fast intro... but nothing. However you can turn off it from game.