MovieChat Forums > Zork: Grand Inquisitor Discussion > Anyone have any luck getting this game t...

Anyone have any luck getting this game to work in Windows XP?

posted 18 years ago by hunydu1
7 replies | jump to latest

Just upgraded to new computers at home and I have a BIG problem getting this game to work in Windows XP. Any ideas or tips? Using the Compatibility Wizard does not seem to help...

Jo Ann

[–] quapmocka 18 years ago

Try this website:- http://home.earthlink.net/~angeldancer27/XpGameList.htm

It has a list of how to get old DOS and Windows 95 games to work in Windows XP. Great site!! Zork is listed there. I'm busy playing it now.

:L:

[–] exocrine 18 years ago

It worked fine for me on XP.

[–] VoiD88-1 17 years ago

I have the CD version of ZGI and I tried the .cmd script from that website, wouldn't work... So I tried to figure out what went wrong, and it took me nearly 2 weeks to discover that whoever wrote that script made a mistake in adjusting the INQUIS.ZIX file.
This file tells the game where to look for the data which normally should be your CD-Drive. However, this won't work anymore on WinXP, because somehow the game is insisting on drive D:\ to be the CD-Drive. So I tried copying all the data from the CD to drive D:\, but that still wont work, because the INQUIS.ZIX also tells the game that this drive would be named "CD1_zgi", which normally won't be whatever you called your drive D:\...
So I tried this script from the website, and there WAS an improvement: Instead of insisting that no CD was in the drive, the game succesfully loaded, but when the main menu was supposed to open, the screen stayed black. I got the ingame-cursor, and it "highlighted" on certain areas of the screen, but when I clicked anything, the game crashed.
So I started the thing all over again and finally located the problem in the adjustment of the INQUIS.ZIX made by the script. I don't know enough of whatever programming language that thing may be to determine where the error is, but it just "forgets" a backslash in the paths for the files.
So after you executed the script from the Website above, open your INQUIS.ZIX (should be in the folder where you installed the game) in Notepad and look for the line

DIR: .\C:\Programs\Activision\ZGI\CD1zgi\zgi_mx

and replace it with

DIR: .\C:\Programs\Activision\ZGI\CD1\zgi\zgi_mx

Do the same thing for the following lines and the game should run smoothly.
I do hope I could help, because actually I have the german version of the game and also a german version of WinXP (so on my PC the folder actually is C:\Programme\...) and I was really amazed when this script still got the folder right.

For Zork-Insiders: Don't try to "kendall" this text, it already is as easy as I could put it...

[–] pirate_john 17 years ago

I signed up for Gametap a couple of months ago and this game is on it, so you can play it there if it doesn't work otherwise.

Spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Learn it, live it, love it.

[–] nat_tdd 17 years ago

I don't know how to help you getting your version to work, but I know there is a DVR version of the game that works fine on XP

[–] brianwolters 17 years ago

It worked for me with XP but not Vista, so I use it in Virtual PC with a Windows 98 session and it works great! This is still the best adventure game ever!

[–] spopt36 16 years ago

I got it to play on xp recently just fine. for a long time, i coudnt get the CD version to work on XP, even using all the tutorials telling me how.
but recently i found the DVD version of the game on a certain aquatic-swashbuckling *hint* website, and if you run it under Windows 98 compatability mode (right click the executable, properties, compatability tab), it works fine.