Betrayal at Krondor & Return to Krondor

[job32]

Simple question for any that may have played these. Is it worth the effort to get these games running? I have the latter game downloaded and possibly can get it running. I like some Sierra games, dislike other Sierra games.
Are they any good, if anyone has played them?

 

[ATenderLad]

Wowww I haven't thought about those in decades. I remember really liking Betrayal at Krondor, but it's been so long I don't have anything specific to point out.

 

[job32]

No worries. Just might be worth a go at some stage, If I can get it running. Might not.

 

[Ohaifriends]

Wow I remember these games from when I was a kid. A 7 year old me got freaked out because I played it expecting an E rated RPG, and it had some dark moments.

 

[null.problem]

I think Betrayal at Krondor might be worth your time (should be pretty easy in DosBox!), if you are okay with slightly dated CRPGs. Not like "tons of jank" or "have to make a specific build or lose" oldschool, but just not quite modern. I've heard Return is a stinker, but never played it. Post what you think if you give it a try!

 

[xuvetyn96]

No worries. Just might be worth a go at some stage, If I can get it running. Might not.

Haven't played it, but if it piques your interest then definitely check it out! I love a lot of old school RPGs and find many have a sort of depth that most modern RPGs lack, which is enough for me to look past the jankiness present in them. Are you planning on running it through DOSBox? If so, I'm sure myself and many others here would be happy to help you out with any roadblocks you encounter!

 

[zibltogt]

GOG I believe has these games fully working-- Betrayal at Krondor is incredible!

 

[job32]

Cheers, all good replies. I had a short go at trying to get Return To Krondor going on the Windows 98 Emulator through Retroarch & Dosbox-Pure (thanks to Obsolete's guide). It wanted a different graphics card driver or software than Direct-6(something) I think. You can't connect to the internet through windows 98 to download the preferred graphics thingy. I tried it with what was already installed and just black screen, little green line at the top. Basically seized up. Restarted & tried Planescape: Torment that was installed earlier and it wouldn't run on the display color options selected, changed to 256 when trying to run Krondor. Changed it to 32 colors, error, seize, restart. Changed it to 16 colors, error, seize, restart. Windows explorer crashed when I tried to open ' my computer' or 'control panel'. I actually got a fatal exception blue screen of death at some point. Never happened to me when I owned Win 98, thankfully. Not looking good to be honest. Win 98 on Retroarch is not as stable as it was back in the day. It may be down to the fact that you can't install it with space above 2GB through Retroarch & Dosbox Pure.

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

I recently bought the collection on Steam for dirt cheap, it looked like something I would be interested in. I think this thread is gonna make me check them out now.

 

[xuvetyn96]

Cheers, all good replies. I had a short go at trying to get Return To Krondor going on the Windows 98 Emulator through Retroarch & Dosbox-Pure (thanks to Obsolete's guide). It wanted a different graphics card driver or software than Direct-6(something) I think. You can't connect to the internet through windows 98 to download the preferred graphics thingy. I tried it with what was already installed and just black screen, little green line at the top. Basically seized up. Restarted & tried Planescape: Torment that was installed earlier and it wouldn't run on the display color options selected, changed to 256 when trying to run Krondor. Changed it to 32 colors, error, seize, restart. Changed it to 16 colors, error, seize, restart. Windows explorer crashed when I tried to open ' my computer' or 'control panel'. I actually got a fatal exception blue screen of death at some point. Never happened to me when I owned Win 98, thankfully. Not looking good to be honest. Win 98 on Retroarch is not as stable as it was back in the day. It may be down to the fact that you can't install it with space above 2GB through Retroarch & Dosbox Pure.

I would just go with plain old DOSBox instead of doing all that through Retroarch tbh. I just tested it out and was able to get the game running fine in minutes. No need to go through the trouble of emulating Win98!

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Cheers, all good replies. I had a short go at trying to get Return To Krondor going on the Windows 98 Emulator through Retroarch & Dosbox-Pure (thanks to Obsolete's guide). It wanted a different graphics card driver or software than Direct-6(something) I think. You can't connect to the internet through windows 98 to download the preferred graphics thingy. I tried it with what was already installed and just black screen, little green line at the top. Basically seized up. Restarted & tried Planescape: Torment that was installed earlier and it wouldn't run on the display color options selected, changed to 256 when trying to run Krondor. Changed it to 32 colors, error, seize, restart. Changed it to 16 colors, error, seize, restart. Windows explorer crashed when I tried to open ' my computer' or 'control panel'. I actually got a fatal exception blue screen of death at some point. Never happened to me when I owned Win 98, thankfully. Not looking good to be honest. Win 98 on Retroarch is not as stable as it was back in the day. It may be down to the fact that you can't install it with space above 2GB through Retroarch & Dosbox Pure.

Yeah if the games are running on DOS you don't need Win98 to boot them. Just open the ISO or the zip files with DOSBox-Pure.

That being said for Win98 you can have an image as large as you want, but in your case on the smartphone you had to use 2GB due to size constraints IIRC. Proper DirectX versions will usually install along the game. And you shouldn't bother to mess with drivers except if you want early Windows games with 3D accelerated graphics running, like Half Life or Quake 3. Check this tutorial video if you want to go down that route. I got the drivers from https://www.philscomputerlab.com/drivers-for-voodoo.html

Also, Windows being Windows, using it in a VM like DOSBox, it will always be less stable than the real thing and prone to corruption if you dont tediously shut it down safely everytime. So you should copy your disk image (the .img file in Retroarch/system) and have as many backup version as you want to test things.

I don't plan to stay active on this forum, it's more and more polluted by advertisement and mods censoring with the same "rules" they have in mainstream gaming sites. If DOSBoxPure gives you trouble you should directly go to the Libretro forums. It's a process to be able to post there, as their antibot policy is really tight, but you'd get direct answers from the devs. https://forums.libretro.com/

 

[job32]

Yeah if the games are running on DOS you don't need Win98 to boot them. Just open the ISO or the zip files with DOSBox-Pure.

That being said for Win98 you can have an image as large as you want, but in your case on the smartphone you had to use 2GB due to size constraints IIRC. Proper DirectX versions will usually install along the game. And you shouldn't bother to mess with drivers except if you want early Windows games with 3D accelerated graphics running, like Half Life or Quake 3. Check this tutorial video if you want to go down that route. I got the drivers from https://www.philscomputerlab.com/drivers-for-voodoo.html

Also, Windows being Windows, using it in a VM like DOSBox, it will always be less stable than the real thing and prone to corruption if you dont tediously shut it down safely everytime. So you should copy your disk image (the .img file in Retroarch/system) and have as many backup version as you want to test things.

I don't plan to stay active on this forum, it's more and more polluted by advertisement and mods censoring with the same "rules" they have in mainstream gaming sites. If DOSBoxPure gives you trouble you should directly go to the Libretro forums. It's a process to be able to post there, as their antibot policy is really tight, but you'd get direct answers from the devs. https://forums.libretro.com/

Many thanks for all the help. Much appreciated. I hear you about the forum. I thought it would be more laid back but it seems to be running much like mainstream game forums alright. Few of my own posts have disappeared along the way. Anyway, cheers again for the help. I'll plug away gradually with experimenting on emulators. Plenty games to choose from, so no mad rush.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Many thanks for all the help. Much appreciated. I hear you about the forum. I thought it would be more laid back but it seems to be running much like mainstream game forums alright. Few of my own posts have disappeared along the way. Anyway, cheers again for the help. I'll plug away gradually with experimenting on emulators. Plenty games to choose from, so no mad rush.

Glad to help. Emulation is a lot of fun! But yeah, talking here about abandonware, only to get the same spam that it would be so much easierTM and more convenientTM to just buy it (again) on Steam or GOG for only 9.99... Got old really fast for me. There's something to be said about the ruthless efficiency of marketing and influencer's culture, that even on the forum of a romsite, there's no escape from it.

 

[dr grim]

Played Return to krondor back then.. thanks for the memory unlock !

was actually quite nice, a lot of rpg elements and team gestion, not sure how it aged today.

couldn't finish it though, played mainly as a kid and there was a lot i didn't quite understand.