Zork Grand Inquisitor won't install in XP

My Zork G.Inquisitor, for which I paid a small fortune, has finally arrived.

First I just tried to install normally (in Win XP sp2). Nothing doing.

Then I put the .exe files in W95 compatibility mode - still nothing doing. It doesn't even start to install.

Please help!

(Dunno why I'm posting this Q here as well, as the same people who reply here, do tech on another forum, where I've already asked, but, Oh, well - I'm desperate! )

Core 2 duo 1.8 GHZ; Nvidia 7900GT, 2GRAM etc. Blah,blah,blah.

Moondancer cd or dvd version-?-- did you try this.
inferno's link

Oops, well now I've managed to install it, but it still won't initialise.
It's the CD version, Winfrey - thanks for the Inferno link - I'll go through the list, and see what happens.
Thanks!

here's the cd link
cd link

My suggestion would be to buy the xplosiv reissue
(hope that is the correct word) of the Grand Inquisitor,
it's cheap and runs like a bell!.
I have xp and servicepack 3. It's an english company
I believe

best wishes, flying dutchman 42, robert.

Yes,thanks FlyingDM42, I certainly would've bought the Explosiv version if I'd known where to get hold of one! (I didn't even know Explosive had brought it out too), and just knowing that there is an Explosiv version, makes me feel rather cross now, as I paid a lot of money for the version I did get.
Do you know if they've published Nemesis as well?

@Winfrey: Wow, thanks for that link! How did you know it wasn't working! All your help is much appreciated! I won't have time to do all that stuff just yet, but will let ya know how it went in a day or so.

Thanks again both!

I'd disagree about the Xplosiv version. It's no easier to get Zork Grand Inquisitor going with the Xplosiv version than with the original Activision version. Whether you can get the game going easily or whether you need to tweak depends on the computer configuration. I've even read that the Xplosiv version of Zork Nemesis does not on XP while the Activision version does.

This much I can tell you about the Xplosiv re-release for Zork Nemesis, I just played this edition a couple of months ago and it was updated for Win95/98 and it ran perfectly on my Win98se computer. Never tried it on XP but I had assumed that because Xplosiv updated this Dos game to Win95/98 that it would run in compatibility Mode in XP. But you know what they say about the word "assume"

The game is worth the trouble IMO.

Zork Nemesis always had a Windows version. The original version had both a DOS install and a Windows install option. The DOS install was meant for older computers that didn't have the specs to run the game on Windows. According to the instructions, the Windows version was more complete. Remember Zork Nemesis came out in 1996, when some people were still using DOS, or used it for games.

The Xplosiv version of Zork Nemesis works fine in Win 95/98. But by stripping out the DOS version they must have stripped out a little too much for XP. I'm not aware of a problem with the Xplosiv version of Zork Grand Inquisitor on XP, but Xplosiv didn't really "update" anything about the games.

I wonder if that could be the problem - I reinstalled the ActiVision 2 CD version on 2 separate XP PC’s - each runs the game without issue. I replayed the DVD version several months ago, same deal no problem at all.

What happens if you press the Esc button as soon as you start the game?

Edit -

I'm assuming this is you Traveler, so I'm borrowing information from your other threads that others may not have seen

I left out a word. It should have been
"I've even read that the Xplosiv version of Zork Nemesis does not work on XP while the Activision does."

Now you've done it... piqued my curiosity, as the reason I purchased the Xplosiv version was that I was led to believe that Nemesis was a Dos game.

So I did a little test with my Xplosiv Nemesis on XP but first this is an excerpt from the Xplosiv ReadMe file on disk one...

* * *


VII. MICROSOFT WINDOWS® 2000 AND XP USERS

In order for you to launch Zork Nemesis correctly, you will need to launch the program from your installation directory via Windows® Explorer

EXAMPLE:

C:\Program Files\Xplosiv\Zork Nemesis\Runnem.exe

Alternatively, you can..

1. Click-on the Windows START button in the lower Left-Hand corner
2. Choose the RUN option shown, and the BROWSE for the RUNNEM.EXE file.
3. Once you’ve located the RUNNEM.EXE file, you can then click-on the OK button to launch Zork Nemesis

* * *

For the fun of it I loaded my Xplosiv Nemesis on XP straight up without the aid of Compatibility Mode, Installed the game. Found the file RUNNEM.EXE in the Xplosiv Program File (as stated above), which by the way is a Activision installer file, you do not use the ZNEMESIS.EXE (also Activision) file which is the regular executable file that you would normally double click to start the game and the Zork icon. Started the game, watched the opening cinematics and played a few minutes.

Maybe this is why some had trouble with the Xplosiv version as they didn't look far enough in the read me file to see this last paragraph. There will be no start up icon in the start menu, in fact it will say that the Zork Nemesis file is empty, but I believe you can create a shortcut on your Desktop of the RUNNEM.EXE file to make it easier to start.

BTW...ZORK Nemesis, to me, is one of those games that doesn't look as good on a LCD Monitor as it does on a CRT Monitor. Thanks to Jenny100 for enlightening me to that.

I don't have the Xplosiv version, so I never saw the readme you mention. Very interesting info about the runnem.exe file. Hope it helps someone.

Oh, dear, you caught me out, Inland! (Seems incognitos on other sites don't work do they? - Don't tell Caroline on me, though! )
Well, you'll know then that I'm currently very distracted by the purchase of my new hardware, and tbh, I've been panicking a bit about wether my new hardware isn't going to make running these old games even more difficult. I think I'm going to have to take over my little boy's current PC for my old games, and build him a new PC with parts from my soon-to -be -ex rig. Problem is I'm hanging on to some of the parts.

I have to agree with Jenny, as I could not get
the explosiv nemesis to work on xp.
But Grand Inquisitor works fine on my pc, and
if moondancer cannot get her Inquisitor to work, she can have
one of mine (bought a couple for 5 euro's a piece a couple
of years ago)just for postage.

best wishes, robert

That is so very kind of you, Robert. Will keep it in mind if all else fails. I think what I should really do, is to install a version of Win 98 or Win 2000 (I have both)on an older PC, and see how that goes. I must just find space for it, and time to do it.

@Greyfuss: I've searched through all the ZGI installed files, and the only .exe's that I could find, was ZGIWIN.EXE,(the default program initialisation file , by the looks of it) and a HELP.EXE and a LINKZGI.EXE. No RUNNEM.EXE.

I haven't had time to follow through Inferno's procedure, though, - will try that this weekend.

Moondancer

The tips I have given you was in answer to your question about an Xplosiv version of Zork Nemesis.