Definitely worth a try - the thread is similar to those I found which also suggested checking hardware acceleration.

Thanks Traveller I will try that, unfortunately I had deleted everything and was going to reinstall in safe mode so I will have to reinstall yet again.

Jenny100 I tried hitting the F8 key when the computer first started and it all seems like normal to me how do I know if I am in safe mode?

The link below has a picture of the boot options screen - if you don't see this at startup, you're not in safe mode.

How to boot into Safe Mode in Windows XP

And you have to keep tapping the F8 key and "catch" it before Windows loads. Start tapping as soon as you press the "on" button. It also may not work from Restart, so you should shut the computer completely down.

Thanks everybody I was not in safe mode despite clicking the F8 key like crazy - sigh - it takes my computer 5 minutes to warm up so I'll just go and collect a good book...........

OK............Good News is I reinstalled having stopped virus guard and back up, and changed the graphic mode to DDraw and viola it works!! Bad news it is terribly and I mean terribly blocky, I checked their forums and some people talk about changing all sorts of things which I just don't understand, do you have any advice as to how to make it more watchable, I had the same problems with the Simon series (early ones)? Oh and by the way thank you so much with the way you have stuck with me through these problems if I solve this one I promise not to bug you for at least a week!!

Gabriel Knight was released in 1993, so the graphics aren’t exactly stunning by today’s standards. The game is however a classic, so it's well worth a play through.

You can view posted images for the game at Moby - your own should look similar.


Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers


Generally when I use Dosbox (or Virtual PC for that matter) I run the game in a window in it's native resolution, it helps to smooth out the jaggies.

Glad you got it worked out

Thanks mine is a little worse but not much, you are talking to a total luddite here, what is a native resolution?

With a game, native resolution is the resolution the game was designed to run in. I think with GK1 it's something like 320x240.

With a flat panel monitor, native resolution is the highest resolution the monitor can produce, which may be something like 1280x1024 for a full screen monitor or 1440x900 or 1920x1200 for a widescreen monitor.

If you run GK1 in its native resolution on a widescreen monitor it will be in a small window (a 320x240 window in a 1440x900 area of screen). But if you can reduce the resolution of your monitor to something like 1024x600, the screen space taken up by the game will be greater and you won't have the "postage stamp on your screen" effect.

Thank you Jenny 100 I do use 1280X1024 as normal as I have a flat screen, so I guess thats the best I am gonna get. Once again thanks everybody for all your help, just wait till I get GB2!!

I don't know if this will work for you or not. I have all the originial disks, but bought from GOG as all was built in, downloaded installed, went to my programs, to GK I,clicked on configured wizard and set to windowed. It's a smaller picture, but clearer, you can change back by doing it the same but out of windowed.
Charllotte

Is there a difference using the Gog version versus the original disk? As Jenny suggested above the resolution setting will alter the size of your game window.

With the disk version using dosbox you can utilize full screen by applying alt/enter then toggle back to window size using alt/enter again. The Gog version has dosbox built in does it work the same way by hitting alt/enter? I never tried that as Gog games I have defaulted to full screen.

My 23 inch flat panel full screen monitor is set to 1024x768 That is well below "native resolution" I use that setting because I like the way it "looks" for the programs I most frequently use. At that Setting playing GK1 with dosbox there is no issue getting full screen.

ssgamer thanks I haven't started playing it yet as am finishing another game, but will try your suggestion to see how it works. Oldmariner I think I have a 19"?? flat screen but I will see how your resolution works.