Pandora's Box

I just found my copy of Pandora's Box, a game I enjoyed playing.

I don't see it in the listing of games that will play on Win 7, so I'm wondering if anyone tried playing this game on Win 7 and what they had to do, if anything, to get it installed and playable.

Second, I know that there's a patch out there somewhere for this game; will I need to patch this game first?

Hi Mary,
I'm playing it now on Window's 7, 64 bit. You do have to patch it. I enjoy it in between other games that I buy. It says it was installed in 2012 and I can't remember what I did, but it does play. I don't have anything marked on my compatability on the shortcut either, but I have the setup that I downloaded in my downloads.
Kay

Thanks, Kayc,
I'll give it a try and see what happens (first I have to find the patch!).

The link to the one on the Microsoft site no longer works. Try the CNET one instead (click on the Direct Download Link):

Pandora's Box patch

Thanks Rushes.
Do I try to install the game first or do I need the patch in order to install the game?

You can also get the patch from the Web Archive version of Microsoft's patch page ***here***. The Web Archive archives small patches like this.


The game has to be installed before you can apply the patch. Also, because of its age, you may have to copy the patch to the game folder before running the patch in order for it to work.

Okay, thanks Jenny. I'll probably give this a try in the next couple days.

I'd be interested to know if it works Mary. I also have and enjoyed this game on my Win98. It didn't work in XP.

You may be interested to know that I just tried my old game on Windows 8 and with the downloaded patch from the Microsoft archives, it works fine. A very old favorite that never goes stale.

That's great news, Bristol. I'd like to add this to our Windows 8 and Games thread.

Go ahead, Drac!

Well, I got Pandora's Box installed, but that's about it.

I've tried all the various compatability selections, but with each one the opening screen of the game opens (the name of the game), it stays for a bit, then just closes with nothing further happening. I can hear my drive reading the disc for a few seconds, and then nothing. I get no error messages or anything.

I'm running Win 7 Home Premium, 64bit, Service Pack 1.

Anything else to try?

Mary,
Did you install the patch?
If not, try that.
Also, make sure you copy the patch to the game folder before you double-click it to run it. Some of these old patches can't find where the game is installed until you plomp them down in the game folder.

And if you've got an antivirus running, you may have to add the game's exe to the antivirus's "allowed" list.

Okay, I downloaded the patch, but FORGOT to install it!! Everything is running fine now; I just don't remember which compatability, if any, I finally settled on. : (

Thanks Jenny!

Hello,

I tried to download the patch, but was informed that the signature for
Pandora10a (2).exe is damaged or invalid.

My operating system is Windows 7 Professional.

Can anyone help?

Ole

The patch should be named Pandora10a.exe
If you have a patch labelled Pandora10a(2).exe that means you either downloaded the patch twice before to the same location on your hard drive, or you downloaded from a site where the person hosting the file had downloaded the patch twice before to the same location and uploaded the patch they got on their 3rd download.

Make sure all files starting with "Pandora10a" are deleted from your download location and re-download the patch. It should be around 985KB in size. Don't try to run the patch during the download -- even though the patch is small. Download the entire patch before attempting to run it, and change compatibility mode on the patch before attempting to run it. You may have to copy the patch to your game folder before running it (this is often true of old patches from the 1980's and 1990's).

Jenny - the patch that you linked to above says this as Ole stated for Pandora10a.exe (no 2). When you click on "learn more" it talks about IE 11??

I tried it in FireFox and it looks like it might have worked.

When I go there, I see a file called Pandora10a.exe and I don't see a "learn more" link there at all.

After you click the file to download it, the message comes up that the signature is damaged or invalid (in IE). That is where you will see the "learn more" link.

It worked fine in Fire Fox and I installed the game, set both the game and the patch for Windows 98 compatibility and it works.

I'm glad this thread was resurrected because I had never remembered to try it.

Oh, OK. After you click on the file and download it - let me try again.

EDIT: Nope, still didn't get any of that after I downloaded. I double clicked, but didn't go any further than that because I don't have the game installed on my computer.

Maybe you are in a different version of IE and maybe the version is the problem? I don't know. I'm not really sure what version I'm in.

I wasn't in IE - I was in Firefox. My version of IE is 11. When IE is open just click on Help and then on About Internet Explorer. That will tell you your version.

OK thanks, I have version 11. Did you try the download in IE. That's where it didn't work. So maybe Ole just needs to try a different browser.

Yes, I did get the error in IE 11 - The signature of Pandora10a(1) is corrupt or invalid. You're right - Ole should just use a different browser.

I didn't use IE when I downloaded the patch.
I used Firefox, like Draclvr did.
I have no idea what IE is doing, but maybe it has problems with files that you download from the web archive.

If you try to re-download the same file to the same folder, Windows often adds a number on the end of the file. So you get a series if you keep downloading.
Pandora10a.exe
Pandora10a(1).exe
Pandora10a(2).exe
Pandora10a(3).exe
etc

This is interesting. I've been playing Pandora's Box on my Windows 7 64 bit for quite a while now without any kind of patch. I simply chose to run it in XP service pack 2 and it worked. I just went back to see if it still worked. It does. I do have the puzzle game of the year edition. Does that make a difference?

All I know is mine is from 1999 and I don't believe it worked in XP but I'm not absolutely certain. I played it in Win 98.

Probably.
The ***description*** of the patch is


That lets you know about how old the patch is. Pentium III's were new in 1999, the same year the game was first published. The Game of the Year came out a year later, and probably includes the patch.

Update: Pandora's Box (standard 1999 edition; I found my CD recently) doesn't work on Windows 10 out of the box. However, the Pandora10.exe patch fixes that. The patch is still available here (at CNet). Amazingly it doesn't even need compatibility mode.

Pretty impressive for a 20 year old game

Obviously it doesn't run at the high resolutions of modern screens, but I'm happy to put up with that for the quality of the game.

I remember that game. It was a lot of fun. I will have to dig it out of my old games. I still have my old Sony gaming computer that I played it on!

It's good to know that the patch was able to get the 1999 version of the game working on Windows 10. I'll update the "Windows 10 and Games" thread.

I'm still playing but am almost at the end. This is my third time playing the game. Good to know that I'll be able to play it again someday when I have Windows 10.