Tips? I'm having trouble playing Retro CD Rom Games

[Johnway]

Here’s a video trying to open those games up.

View: https://youtu.be/uMPFcW7Qpuk?feature=shared

Actually i meant in launchbox. if you go into launchbox, find avaiation adventure or phantasmagoria (1995) within the interface, press play and see if it will install. it should detect the zip files and then do the work of unpacking and unzipping the files, installing the game and making it playable within launchbox.

 

[Victor Vector]

Actually i meant in launchbox. if you go into launchbox, find avaiation adventure or phantasmagoria (1995) within the interface, press play and see if it will install. it should detect the zip files and then do the work of unpacking and unzipping the files, installing the game and making it playable within launchbox.

Well Aviation Adventure almost did! I’m not sure how I got so close.

View: https://youtu.be/eVv0JccsUsY?feature=shared

 

[Victor Vector]

Actually i meant in launchbox. if you go into launchbox, find avaiation adventure or phantasmagoria (1995) within the interface, press play and see if it will install. it should detect the zip files and then do the work of unpacking and unzipping the files, installing the game and making it playable within launchbox.

Also here is a video of Phantasgoria. Looks close to working but still not playing. These 2 games are closer to working than the other games that don’t do anything after hitting install YES.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/HMwglEOqL-c?si=vgZn39Vr6w3omLGV

 

[Johnway]

ok had a look at the 2 videos.

I downloaded both of the games and tried them and again, no problems on my end. They installed and ran fine. i did notice in your video of Aviation adventure that there was an error unzipping. So its possible a bad file is the cause:

So maybe delete all the files for this game and try again.


Phantasmagoria is more interesting, it looks like it installed properly but doesn't start. The message at the start made me go and download and install it to see what happens when i try it. Again same message (swap disks) but for me it boots up with no problems. So i'm not sure what the issue is there. it could be the game files again, but i'm not sure what the zip file bundles. is it just the game or does it contain the other stuff the create the virtual environment?


This might be one for the Exowin3x discord for help as they probably have more indepth knowledge about it then i do.


The worst case scenario is perhaps reinstall Exowin3.1 again using the .bat file i mentioned earlier and try it again and see if Phantasmagoria works. and if that doesn't work, download a new set of files and see if that works.

 

[Victor Vector]

ok had a look at the 2 videos.

I downloaded both of the games and tried them and again, no problems on my end. They installed and ran fine. i did notice in your video of Aviation adventure that there was an error unzipping. So its possible a bad file is the cause:

So maybe delete all the files for this game and try again.


Phantasmagoria is more interesting, it looks like it installed properly but doesn't start. The message at the start made me go and download and install it to see what happens when i try it. Again same message (swap disks) but for me it boots up with no problems. So i'm not sure what the issue is there. it could be the game files again, but i'm not sure what the zip file bundles. is it just the game or does it contain the other stuff the create the virtual environment?


This might be one for the Exowin3x discord for help as they probably have more indepth knowledge about it then i do.


The worst case scenario is perhaps reinstall Exowin3.1 again using the .bat file i mentioned earlier and try it again and see if Phantasmagoria works. and if that doesn't work, download a new set of files and see if that works.

Oh okay. Do you think it’s possible that it allowed me to get the Victor Vector games upon original download but it will only allow me to download every game I want upon first download?

Also are there any other steps you do when downloading such as extracting or unzipping the files?

 

[Johnway]

Oh okay. Do you think it’s possible that it allowed me to get the Victor Vector games upon original download but it will only allow me to download every game I want upon first download?

Also are there any other steps you do when downloading such as extracting or unzipping the files?

i don't believe there is a requirement to download everything at once. I mean, its nice and all, but 365gb of data is really pushing it. TLDR: As long as you download the key files (so everything except the games themselves in eXoWin3x\eXo\eXoWin3x) the games can be downloaded later.

In the time i've spent testing and using it, i have had no problems downloading the files individually at a later date. in fact it was one of the first questions when i wrote the initial guide.

There's no need to unzip the files once you get them from the torrent, Launchbox will automatically unzip them and install on your behalf. Once the game has been installed by launchbox, you can delete the zip files or store them somewhere safe saving you the need to redownload them. You can always add the zip files back into eXoWin3x\eXo\eXoWin3x and then install them within launchbox.


i think the next best thing is perhaps run that setup.bat file and see if a reinstall works.

if not, delete the old exowin3.x files, redownload a separate copy of Exowin3.1 and see if a fresh copy works. Also check if AV hasn't done something silly and quarantined or messed with the files.

i would also check whether how you're downloading the files may be an issue. Perhaps when downloading the files with transmission got corrupted and caused problems? Perhaps try a different torrent like winscp? if you're using wifi, consider using a ethernet/lan connection to internet?

 

[Victor Vector]

i don't believe there is a requirement to download everything at once. I mean, its nice and all, but 365gb of data is really pushing it. TLDR: As long as you download the key files (so everything except the games themselves in eXoWin3x\eXo\eXoWin3x) the games can be downloaded later.

In the time i've spent testing and using it, i have had no problems downloading the files individually at a later date. in fact it was one of the first questions when i wrote the initial guide.

There's no need to unzip the files once you get them from the torrent, Launchbox will automatically unzip them and install on your behalf. Once the game has been installed by launchbox, you can delete the zip files or store them somewhere safe saving you the need to redownload them. You can always add the zip files back into eXoWin3x\eXo\eXoWin3x and then install them within launchbox.


i think the next best thing is perhaps run that setup.bat file and see if a reinstall works.

if not, delete the old exowin3.x files, redownload a separate copy of Exowin3.1 and see if a fresh copy works. Also check if AV hasn't done something silly and quarantined or messed with the files.

i would also check whether how you're downloading the files may be an issue. Perhaps when downloading the files with transmission got corrupted and caused problems? Perhaps try a different torrent like winscp? if you're using wifi, consider using a ethernet/lan connection to internet?

Well it did say there was a corruption in the transmission. But maybe I should try to just get individual games and use WinScp. But I don’t wanna lose the vampire games if I delete the files. Do you have any suggestions for the steps for trying to get them with WinSCP?

 

[Johnway]

Well it did say there was a corruption in the transmission. But maybe I should try to just get individual games and use WinScp. But I don’t wanna lose the vampire games if I delete the files. Do you have any suggestions for the steps for trying to get them with WinSCP?

if you navigate down to \eXoWin3x\eXo\eXoWin3x you can simply cut the .zip files and after you download a new copy of exowin3x you can paste it back into the same location. Sure, you have to reinstall the games, but that should be like a 5 minute job for each game.

Worst case scenario you can just download the .zip files if needed.

The Winscp torrent client is the one i used to download the ExoDos and the games. I suspect they work more or less similar to other clients and it should be self explanatory how to use it.