Games on DVD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kay Shapero
  • Start date Start date
K

Kay Shapero

Is there some sort of problem with XP (Media Center) and some games on
DVD? I just loaded RIVEN to my Dell XPS, and clicking on the link gives
nada. Going to where the link is linked to and clicking on that
sometimes gives the display, sometimes not, but when it does I can look
at stuff resident on the system like the "making of" or the readme file,
but if I click on play, the display vanishes and that's all that
happens. I don't even hear the drive start to spin - it's just like
clicking on the link. Nada. All of which suggests it can't find the
DVD for some reason.

Past experience suggests that if I ask Dell or Microsoft about this
they'll refer me to UBI Soft (owners of the game), and if if I ask
Ubisoft they'll refer me to Dell (or Microsoft.) I have already noticed
that sticking a disk into the DVD player brings up the "what do you want
to do with this" screen, and *none* of the options it lists are "run
program".

I'm using DirectX 9 which is what the program calls for. I'm pretty
sure this is not a compatibility problem; I know what to do for that,
and anyway there would be something before it blew up. It acts like it
simply isn't there.

What am I missing and how do I find it? Or is it probably a case of a
dud disc?
 
Kay said:
Is there some sort of problem with XP (Media Center) and some games on
DVD? I just loaded RIVEN to my Dell XPS, and clicking on the link
gives
nada. Going to where the link is linked to and clicking on that
sometimes gives the display, sometimes not, but when it does I can
look at stuff resident on the system like the "making of" or the
readme file, but if I click on play, the display vanishes and that's
all that
happens. I don't even hear the drive start to spin - it's just like
clicking on the link. Nada. All of which suggests it can't find the
DVD for some reason.

Past experience suggests that if I ask Dell or Microsoft about this
they'll refer me to UBI Soft (owners of the game), and if if I ask
Ubisoft they'll refer me to Dell (or Microsoft.) I have already
noticed that sticking a disk into the DVD player brings up the "what
do you want to do with this" screen, and *none* of the options it
lists are "run program".

I'm using DirectX 9 which is what the program calls for. I'm pretty
sure this is not a compatibility problem; I know what to do for that,
and anyway there would be something before it blew up. It acts like
it simply isn't there.

What am I missing and how do I find it? Or is it probably a case of a
dud disc?
Click to expand...

Riven is very old. Are you sure you're reporting the correct name of the
game? Riven was designed for Windows 95 and certainly doesn't require
DirectX 9 and is not on DVD! If your question is really about Riven and
not a later Myst game, then all I can say is that some old games will
run on some modern machines and some won't. It really depends on your
hardware. Riven runs on my elderly XP Pro box which has only a 1.5GHz
processor and a medium-quality video card. It won't run at all on my
son's box which is twice as fast and has a really expensive video card.

If you really mean a newer Myst game and it is on DVD, see if other
DVD's play in your drive. Also check on some of the many Myst user
forums such as Myst Obsession.

Malke
 
Is there some sort of problem with XP (Media Center) and some games on
DVD? I just loaded RIVEN to my Dell XPS, and clicking on the link gives
nada. Going to where the link is linked to and clicking on that


What am I missing and how do I find it? Or is it probably a case of a
dud disc?
Click to expand...
I found a batch of other games on DVD and they all worked, then checked
with Ubisoft, and apparently it's a known bug and there's a workaround
(set compatibility to Windows 98 of all things). I still have to figure
out if there's any way to put it into a window instead of having it
spread itself across the screen, pixilating the movies, but such is
life...
 
Riven is very old. Are you sure you're reporting the correct name of the
game? Riven was designed for Windows 95 and certainly doesn't require
DirectX 9 and is not on DVD! If your question is really about Riven and
Click to expand...

Yeppers - it was part of Ubisoft's "10th Anniversary DVD Edition" along
with "Myst Masterpiece Edition" (i.e. stills instead of the later
enging), and "Exile", all on DVD and all redesigned for modern machines
and needing (in fact including!) DirectX 9. I just picked up the lot
and wanted to make sure they all worked. Anyway, it only figures the
first one I try is the one that has problems that require Compatability
changes, and when I tried one I picked 2000, which didn't work. No
biggie; thanks for the comment.
 
Kay said:
I found a batch of other games on DVD and they all worked, then
checked with Ubisoft, and apparently it's a known bug and there's a
workaround
(set compatibility to Windows 98 of all things). I still have to
figure out if there's any way to put it into a window instead of
having it spread itself across the screen, pixilating the movies, but
such is life...
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the solution. I don't know the answer to the video
quality, but they probably do on the Ubisoft forum or on Myst
Obsession.

Malke
 
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