Hi, I'm trying to get Phantasmagoria 2 running in XP. I've followed these instructions:

Phantas II Win95

and the other one for running it with VDMSound. I get the new icon but when I click on it all I get is a black box with the title:

[Inactive VDMS Launchpad - P2DOS]

at the bottom it says:

Loading 'VDDLoader.dll'...
Checking for Phantasmagoria - Puzzle of Flesh CD in drive D:

and then that's it, nothing more happens. The disc is definitely inserted. Can anyone help at all, it's maddening, especially since Phantasmagoria 1 worked practically no probs whatsoever.

You need to determine which version you have of Phantas II.

My setup speaks to the DOS Version

Phantas II Win95 (written by "krkdnose") speaks to the Windows 95 version.

In order to get the Win 95 version running you must first convert it back to the DOS version which is what his setup is about. If you are running WindowsXP SP2 you need to make sure that your NTVDM System is running correctly with no missing or coruppted files. You can fins that information here - in the General Drill

If you are have trouble in getting his setup to work (both mine and his are complicated) before you get to mine. send him an email -- his contact info is on the bottom of the Setup's page.

Inferno

Thanks, I will probably send him a mail then. I have the Win95 version, there is no install.bat on the disc. I installed the patch and then followed your guide to playing it with VDMSound. The icon then comes up for playing it with VDMSound and that's when I get the message. I think the NTDVM system should be ok because I got Phantasmagoria 1 running no problems. Even if I try to run Phantasmagoria 2 without VDMSound, i.e. just by clicking on the P2DOS.BAT it still doesn't work.

Did you then follow my entire setup? Changing all the parameters? Have you closed out all extra programs? Display 800x600 16bit color?

Make sure that you also email hin your specs.

Inferno

If you can't get it to run under VDMSound, give DOSBox a shot. It's not the most user friendly program, but it generally gets the job done.

You can find it here: DOSBox home page

There's an odd sound issue some folks seem to run into with either emulator (and I've never found a solution posted anywhere). During the cut scenes and character dialog occasionally the sound will grind down to super slow mo - don't let it stop you from playing the game. It's a minor annoyance, and a great game.

Hiya, unfortunately I already tried DOSbox but to no avail. I think because it's just the windows 95 version, so I type d: then INSTALL (as it says in the manual) but it just says "illegal command" or something like that. I take it the manual was the same for all versions of the game, that's why it mentions dos installation even though I can't install it through dos. What I will try is uninstalling everything, then follow the guide to setting it up again, then write to who Inferno said, if this still doesn't work.

I'm wondering whether it's to do with the way I've set up VDMSound and the launchpad thingy. But then, if that were the sole problem it would probably still play without VDMSound, and at the moment it doesn't, just takes me back to the desk top.

Ok. I tried uninstalling everything and reinstalling it. I used the guide here:

http://www.battlebelow.com/shswinxp.htm

to help me set up VDMSound. I know it's for a different game but I just used the first section.

I then followed the other Phantasmagoria 2 guides like before (Inferno's for VMDSound config. and the other one to install the patch etc.) and still no luck.

However, one thing: when I tried to copy the launchpad file to the VMDSound folder it wouldn't let me, it kept saying access denied.

Also, now when I try to run the game with VMDSound I get the error "an error was encountered while attempting to load and display the Tip of the Day", which the first site I linked to said should only happen of you haven't applied "HKCU_Software_Freeware_VDMSound_Fix.reg", but I have.

So, anyone else got any ideas? If not then I'll write to krkdnose.

One more thing quickly: Inferno's (I think) mentions something about vesas. I'm not all that good at all with the technical side of computers and am not sure what a vesa is. Something tells me it's something to do with drivers but then I'm not entirely sure what they do either. Anyway, I haven't done anything about a "vesa" so could that be a solution? Just a thought anyway.

Chrisp:
I know that setup! It was one of the fisrt ones that taught me a lot of the principles I use today Good Job!

VDMSound Launchpad is installed into its own folder on my system.

VESA

Short for Video Electronics Standard Association, VESA is a group of monitor and video card manufactures that set various display standards.

A Vesa driver is a driver which implements that. Some of the older games require a Vesa driver in order to display the game correctly. Which Video card do you have?

There are universal vesa drivers which you can install --- VdmSound also has some Vesa capability.
You can find them here: Vesa Drivers

Inferno

Finally got it to work!!

I just tried it again and it worked, perhaps my computer was in a good mood. However, nothing's quite that simple, and my computer obviously wasn't in all that good a mood, because there are still some (minor) issues people might be able to help me out with.

For starters, the cursor is quite sticky. At the main menu screen, selecting new game etc., the cursor is fine and smooth. In game, however, the cursor is really sluggish, sometimes sort of stopping then skipping to where I want it to go. Any ideas, or is the game just like this.

Lastly, this might not be a problem, but when you save a game it says <PROTECTED> next to it. This doesn't mean that it's the password protected less intense version does it? When I installed it I didn't bother entering a password so I can't see why it should be.

I wonder if that <PROTECTED> thing is something to do with the game's gore controls.

That would be my guess as well - the game gave you an option to password protect the content control.

That's what I thought but I didn't put any password in. Any thoughts on the mouse movement?

Just had a look at the manual and it seems I hadn't read it properly. If you want the *more* intense version you have to put the password in. Seems as though I'll have to re-install. Still, open for tips about the mouse movement.

Hiya, me yet again! What I just said about password was wrong, I've just found out, but I think I know the answer. I think it just means protected as in properly saved, as opposed to the "book mark" option which is there for if you exit without saving, and which you can't just load up whenever you want.

Now just to solve the mouse problem!

Oh, ok, maybe that's not the answer, since now the bookmark is being classed "protected". Odd. Still, re-installing and expressly choosing the "more intense" version still gives me "protected" saves, maybe the protected actually refers to the "more intense" version after all. Well, I think that'll be the last post from me on this and I'll just wait and see if anyone has any advice on the other problem!

Right, OK, back again with a new, although perhaps related, problem! Occasionally the FMVs are almost grinding to a halt. They are not jerking or skipping, just playing verrryyyy sloooowwwwllllyy, and the speech slows down so that it's almost incomprehensible. Actually at first I thought it was a slow-mo effect but realised it wasn't when I reviewed the movie from the movie menu and it ran ok. For some reason I seem to remember reading somewhere that this can happen if you run it in XP, maybe you have to put up with it. Anyone know? Maybe it's linked to the mouse cursor being so sluggish?

Haahaaaa! You got it right about protected.

The FMV --- I had this problem until I increased my files to 100 in the Config.nt file
and increased the paging file.


What type of mouse driver are you using?
Inferno

Oohh, too much of a technical question for me! How do I find that out (about the mouse driver)? Also, how do I do this thing with the config.nt and paging?

To find out about your mouse drivers,
Click Start button, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager. Double-click the listing for mouse.

(If you don't know what kind of mouse drivers you have, chances are you are using the basic XP mouse drivers)

Config.nt and paging info is on Inferno's site ***here*** and ***here*** .

(Config.nt is under Increasing your Files and paging is Virtual Memory.)

Oddly enough I don't have Performance and Maintenance. I just clicked on the mouse icon in control panel, however, it just says "HID-compliant mouse", "Manufacturer: Microsoft".

I increased the config.nt number to 100 and increased the virtual memory to minimum 1500 and max 3000, but this made no difference either, just made my screen colours change to a brownish-grey for some reason. I then changed the number to 500 but it made no difference. Strange thing is is that this FMV slowing down problem doesn't tend to occur if I run the game without VDMSound, but then the sound is awful.

I should make it clear that it was the config.nt number I changed to 500, not the virtual memory.