Does anyone know if there are plans to update Ark of Time, Labyrinth of Time, Azada, and Jewels of the Oracle to play on Windows 7. I really enjoyed these games and don't think I can play them on 7 because I cold not play them on XP,

Azada from Big Fish should work fine with Windows 7 -- and even Windows 8. I don't know if you'll find an updated disc version though.

You'll have to ask Wyrmkeep if they're working on a Windows 7 version. The version they updated for PC was made to work with XP.
http://www.wyrmkeep.com/labyrinth/lab_faq.html
Have you tried it in Windows 7? It might work just fine in compatibility mode, even if it doesn't work in regular mode.

Interestingly, Wyrmkeep made an iPhone/iPad version of Labyrinth of Time.

Jewels of the Oracle is probably a lost cause when it comes to getting a Windows 7 version. It will probably always have to be played using an emulation program like Virtual PC. Early Jewels of the Oracle discs were compatible with Windows 3.1, so could be played in DOSBox if you have a Windows 3.1 handy that you could get the files from.

Ark of Time should be played in DOSBox. It's another game that probably will never see an update.

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I have no idea who this seller is, but he claims to have made a compatibility CD that makes Labyrinth of Time compatible with Windows 7 and 8. He includes the original disc version with the auction.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251053181715

He has the same for Jewels of the Oracle
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251053180450

and Ark of Time
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230991589538

These may not be officially updated versions, and they are a bit pricey at $40 to $50 each, but he does have 100% positive feedback.

I just installed Azada on my Win 7 laptop and played for a few minutes. It seems to be doing fine for me. My version is from Big Fish.

Here's a thread that offers help to get it running if you're having problems. If using compatibility mode doesn't work, look at the information about editing Azada's options.ini file. (Careful!) Several people said that fix worked perfectly for them.
Azada Help with Win 7

"These may not be officially updated versions, and they are a bit pricey at $40 to $50 each, but he does have 100% positive feedback."

I have bought a couple of games from this seller and his "tweaked" versions run perfectly.
He has quite a good selection, too

Thanks for letting us know, Mad.

I cant afford the price. I will look up Azada on Big Fish Thanks for all the good info on these games.

I am resurrecting this thread since I finally decided to open my shrink-wrapped jewelcase copy of Jewels of the Oracle after, oh about 10 years, and see if it would run under WinXP. There has been mixed messages on the internet as to whether it would run or not.

Well, it appears the reason may be that there are actually at least 2 versions of JOTO floating around out there. The one I have is the jewelcase-only version with a date of 2000 and which has a readme that says it is version 3. It was released under the (old) Dreamcatcher name and the insert shows a compatibility with Win95/98.

I have tried this version on 2 separate WinXP laptops and the game can run right from the CD or you can copy the contents of the CD and click on LaunchJewels.exe to run it. There is no 'install' as such and Windows (ie. Registry) doesn't know the game is there. I did set the Compability to Win98 and Run in 640x480. Try as I may, I couldn't get the game to run full-screen and on bigger monitors the box the game runs in will be rather small. On my smallest mini (Samsung Q1), the size is not too bad and the resolution of the puzzles is rather good. Incidentally, the Quicktime provided on the disk is version 3, but I didn't install it; the QT 6.5 I had installed already works just fine.

The first/earliest version of Jewels of the Oracle (circa 1995/96) was a Win3.1/Win95 based version. There has been some info on the internet that this version can run under WinXP if you make sure to install Quicktime 2.0.3 (allegedly it can co-exist with other QT installed versions) that is on the disk and then set the executable JLaunch.exe Compatibility to Win95 and resolution to 640x480.

I'm away from my Win7 unit right now so I can't test JOTO on yet, but will do soon and report back.

That would be a good one to add to our Windows 7 and Gaming thread down in the Glitches forum. Anxious to see how it goes.

Thanks for the information, SirDave.

When Dreamcatcher reissued Jewels of the Oracle in 1999, they deleted parts of the game, perhaps because those parts of the game caused problems on what was then "newer computers." In the Jewels of the Oracle game that I bought around 1999, the parts where you explored the cave to find the puzzles were deleted, though the puzzles themselves were still intact.


The QuickTime on my Jewels of the Oracle disc was version 2 and came in a large box.
The copyright date on both the disk and the box is 1999.

I always thought there were two versions -- the old one and the new one with the exploration parts removed. But from what you say, and from the information on Mobygames, there are at least 4 versions.

I eventually bought a used copy of the original Jewels of the Oracle for Windows 3.1/95 (1995 version published by Discis). According to Mobygames, there was also a 1996 re-release published by Dreamcatcher. So along with my 1999 version and your 2000 version, that would make 4 versions (and there may be others). I don't know if the 1996 version still had the parts with the cave exploration or not. I would guess it did, and was similar to the 1995 Discis version. But the cave exploration was gone from the 1999 version.


Does it allow saving when run from the CD?
Does it prompt for where to put the saves?


Let us know how it turns out.
Do you have 64-bit Windows 7 or 32-bit?
The Windows 95/98 version of the game may have had 16-bit code removed.

Surprisingly, yes on both counts.




I have 64-bit Win7 and yes, that may be a problem.