Windows 8.1 64bit cannot install Drakan

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GlutenTag

Windows 8.1 64bit cannot install Drakan

Post by GlutenTag »

Hello, I've just gotten Drakan: Order of the Flame and whenever I try to install it my computer simply does nothing.
My computer has an NVidia graphics card and I'm running Windows 8.1 (64 bit). By double clicking on the E drive icon that appears when I insert the disk I do get a startup menu, and when I click "Install Drakan" Windows asks me to give this program permission to change my computer. When I click "Yes", however, the prompt just disappears and nothing happens, nothing at all. By using Task Manager I see that my computer has an InstallShield Wizard (32bit) process running, but it's using zero CPU, and is simply taking up 1.2 Mb of space while doing nothing at all.
I've done a DXDiag by going into the disk (Which I can show you if you need it), I've tried to run it from Autorun.exe and SETUP.exe, I've tried to copy the files onto my hard drive and even install Patch 445 over it by letting my computer overwrite the old files (On my copy, not the disk...!).
Nothing worked.
Either there could be something wrong with the DirectX it came with (That shouldn't prevent installation), or maybe something is wrong with the InstallShield Wizard, possibly even that Drakan cannot function properly on a computer 16 years forwards in time. I hope not.
Anyways, I'm pretty close to trying out something really bone-headed: Uninstall the wizard and try to install Drakan anyways.

On a side note: I know that someone had this problem before and it was fixed, but they fixed it by using a VM which costs money, something I don't have. I'm looking for a way to do this for free.

Any ideas/suggestions?

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Windows 8.1 64bit cannot install Drakan

Post by UCyborg »

While we're not sure why original installer doesn't work for some people, i've posted instructions for manual extraction of game files from CD here.

Alternatively, because the game doesn't rely on anything installer writes in registry, you could simply download someone else's copy of the game and use that instead. AXE's copy with a bunch of extras is available at Game Front.

I'm currently uploading my copy on Dropbox, should be downloadable when it's done uploading (about half-hour remaining). It contains base game with the latest version of my AiO Patch, level editor and most of player created singleplayer and multiplayer levels. Compared to AXE's copy, I've removed some levels which don't work, made some non-working levels workable and included a newer version of AiO Patch.

Also check out this thread, it discusses some further improvements to the game beyond game patches. Since you're running Windows 8.1, dgVoodoo2 is absolutely essential, unless you'd rather deal with Microsoft's more complicated way of getting the game to work more properly on Windows 8.1 and are happy with lower performance.
Last edited by UCyborg on Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

GlutenTag

Re: Windows 8.1 64bit cannot install Drakan

Post by GlutenTag »

It worked, thank you!
I've played the game a bit and... it's REALLY old! Well, to be expected.
My only peeve with the game so far is how sometimes you can't hit enemies when standing next to them.

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