nautilus

is there anyway to get this game to play on win 7 ???

Hi, I moved your post over to Glitches. I assume you mean the game The Mystery of the Nautilus. This game has been discussed here extensively in the past in terms of how to get it to run on newer systems - and I believe that the short answer is no, it won't work, although it might run if you used an emulator like Virtual PC.

Having said that, I moved you over to Glitches so that the techies can give you a definitive answer.

thanks , i did load the game but as soon as i click on play i lose control of my mouse..i have played this game along time ago.i think it was not win 7 though .

Nautilus would not even play on XP and it definitely doesn't play on newer systems. I never tried it with an emulator such as Virtual PC.

Big Fish sells a "dumbed down" version with a lot of the puzzles removed which will play on new systems, but it is otherwise the same game.

thanks for the info. went to big fish but did not see the mystery of the Nautilus...?? can you help ?

deleterman, it is here - http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/7572/secret-of-the-nautilus/?pc. But it is an abridged edition.
Windows 98@Virtual PC is the only way I can play the full disk version.

thanks for your info ,i did go to big fish and the name of it the secret of the nautilus..i got stuck the 1st 5 mims of the game ,is the a walkthrow for this game , like on utube or hints of so kind??

The original game has 2 walkthroughs here under Mysteries of the Nautilus.

They might help. There are You Tube walkthroughs though. You can Google it and see.

Thanks MaG..i will try that .

There are many many messages on Nautilus in Glicthes regards WinXP. It is just possible that the same approach would work with Win7 or Win8. Check the following message and thread.
http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/206772/Re:_Mystery_O_The_Nautilus#Post206772

I can't test this on Win7 as I am still using WinXP SP3 but I did revisit the issue and reinstalled Nautilus. Following the instructions in the above message, I installed with Win98 compatibility, installed patch 2.4, the Windows Media 8 codecs, and set Nautilus.exe for Win98 compatibility.
The game runs perfectly and the movies play on my WinXP SP3 system.

It would be worth testing on a Win7 or Win8 system to see if Nautilus could be made to work by this same method.

Robert

thanks for the info, having computer problems at this time so have to try later.thanks

thanks worked good.

I just came across this game on CD-ROM at a jumble sale, still sealed in its original wrapping! I haven't been able to play it either, on Windows 98, Windows XP (both on a VMware Player virtual machine) or on Windows 8.1, whatever set of compatibility options I tried.

By the way, this is the 2004 version (called Secret of the Nautilus) released in Europe by the Dutch company Dice Multimedia, a division of the somewhat notorious Disky Communications (ultra cheap, no-frills CDs with sometimes dubious sound), and is based on the DreamCatcher/T-bot Interactive release.

The cover lists this as XP-compatible, there is even a corresponding installation option, and there is a separate patch on the CD, Patch 2.4 (from December 2003), which has to be activated after installation. However, running it with or without this patch made no difference to me.

I think it must be a complex installation issue, in which, as some of you have said, also a specific version of Windows Media Player codecs is involved. The cutscenes, including the intro and the 'extro' are all in wmv, which is of course Windows Media's native video format. I must say I haven't seen this before. In fact, the apparently relevant DirectX 8.0 and WM Player 7.01 are part of the installation suite on the CD, but no luck whatsoever with that!

I found an archived Dice Multimedia webpage from 2004, which lists a huge chunk of their catalogue, 45 titles (!), both game and education, as being incompatible with XP, "although Microsoft ensured everyone that XP would be compatible with all existing games that worked under older Windows-versions".

Of course, these are all reissues of relatively older titles, but this must be killing to your business. It's like, here's the books we offer, but half of them have become unreadable after a year or two, through no fault of our own.

So, I don't think there's the proverbial magic trick that might make it work?!

Best,

Rich

As far as I know nautilis has never worked on XP... Magic tricks or not!

Robert Gault gave the link to Inferno's suggestions for XP earlier in this thread.
http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/206772/Re:_Mystery_O_The_Nautilus

If it takes all that to get it going, it's no wonder most people can't do it.

I am quoting Inferno's post below, but note that I've replaced Inferno's original Microsoft codec link with one from the Web Archive which allows you to download the wmpcdcs8.exe file. Microsoft no longer hosts this file on their website.

'Nautilus' is a very tricky game!
As I have noted above, for me Windows 98@Virtual PC is the only way to play it. VMware is not good here, and I am not quite sure about real XP. You can alsy try PCem - that's a new and very promising emulator!

Thanks a lot, Jenny for providing the new link to the Windows Media Player 8 codecs!

I could now follow all of Inferno's instructions exactly as he listed them, and the game so far works perfectly on Windows XP now, beyond the introductory video! And it can be saved too.

I had actually read Inferno's mail before, but was at a loss to find the codecs link, since, as you said, Microsoft obviously no longer supports these.

I had assumed that, because the CD came with a Windows Media Player 7.1 installer, it would apply the right codecs straightaway, but apparently this was not the case.

So I assume this procedure should work for most users, especially since I am on a VMware Player emulator instead of the real thing.

Again, there is no failure except in no longer trying!

Best,

Rich

P.S. On Windows 8.1 (host system), after installing the game following Inferno's instructions, the game crashes as soon as Cryo's "Omni 3D" (the ability to look around 360 degrees (pan and tilt) inside a node from a static point of view) kicks in. I don't know if there are ways to tweak monitor settings to deal with this, similar to Windows XP?

Hi there Iurii, good to see you again, good old Cryo addict (like me!)

I don't think I can run Virtual PC, from what I've gathered, as Windows 8.1 is now my host system. I suppose I could get Hyper-V, but I again made the mistake two years ago of buying a PC with pre-installed Windows, which is always the so-called "Home Edition", and not Pro, so I should have upgraded. Apparently, I no longer can, because Microsoft has discontinued its 8.1. Pro Pack, meaning I should move on to 10 now....

All of which only goes to show what a truly TERRIBLE company Microsoft is. So I guess I'm still on Windows for the sake of (in)convenience, silly me.

Fortunately, VMware works for me for all the vintage Cryo games I tried: Egypt, Jerusalem, Aztec, Pompeii, Dune.

Thanks for the PCem tip - it may come in handy.

Best,

Rich

Instructions for installing Virtual PC 2007 on Windows 8/8.1 are here
http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1042805/Installing_Virtual_PC_2007_SP1

Hyper-V isn't made for Windows 98, so getting the "Pro" version of Windows 8 wouldn't help much.

Thank you, Jenny, as ever, for your invaluable technical insights and skills!

Realizing, however, how complicated and frustrating Microsoft makes its various installation and upgrading procedures, I'll be sticking with VMware right now!

Best,

Rich