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Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:12 am
by Peregrynn
Hi, my question is about the Drakan game on Windows 7, I had the full game with some player made levels installed on this PC, and I uninstalled to try and get the new patch working. Now it will not reinstall on this PC; I'd appreciate help in fixing this! I keep getting a message that the installation file won't run on this 64 bit system, and that I should contact the software manufacturer for suggestions. I tried the new AiO patch, and the Drakan 10th anniversary patch, but to no avail...Any help would be appreciated; I really like the game and would love to get it going again.
Thank you,
Peregrynn

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:12 am
by Arokhs Twin
Hmm, the game should install on 64 bit systems - if it has installed on that system before it could be a number of things. You could try right clicking on the installation file and selecting run in compatibility mode for Windows 98 (if that does not work try the others) and try disabling antivirus whilst the game is being installed.

Make sure your windows files are OK by running sfc / scannow and check for malware and viruses. Malware bytes is a free tool which is good for finding things that others miss.

Note that once you do get it to install the game will not run until patched with the 445 patch and you may have to enable dev mode.

Failing that Axe had a copy of the game as a download that can be simply extracted and registry keys installed via a batch file. Unfortunately the link to it no longer works.

Axe - have you got an updated link?

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 5:34 pm
by UCyborg
Are you talking about SETUP.EXE file inside Setup folder on the game CD? Or running it indirectly via Autorun.exe. If running either of them gives you the message you posted, it means that the file is corrupted so Windows fails to execute it. CD may have deteriorated to the point that it can't be read or something's wrong with your optical drive. You could try and see if it works on another computer, if possible.

Regarding patches, these come after installing the game. Official 445 Patch comes first, then the AiO Patch. Drakan 10th Anniversary Mod is optional and is only needed if you fancy extra post-processing effects.

It might be the easiest to get a copy of already setup game as Arokh's Twin suggested, the extract and play way, plus it ensures the game files aren't damaged and the game is properly patched to the latest version. I have it on my Google Drive. If you can't open the file, you need to download and install 7-Zip. Then you can just extract Drakan folder and play.

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:20 pm
by De Profundis
I've noticed that the Autorun doesn't work on my PC (which uses Windows 7 x64 also), but manually searching the disc for the setup executable works just fine.

Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 12:39 am
by Peregrynn
:D Thank you for your replies! I will try to sort it out with these suggestions. It was the setup file from an old disk that is probably corrupted due to wear and tear. I was hoping the compabibility fix would work and that it doesn't need a hardware update. It also might be my machine; needs to be brought to the shop. Well, if I can get the game working again it'll be worth all the hassle!
Thanks again
Peregrynn

Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 6:42 am
by Peregrynn
UCCyborg,
I tried downloading the link to your version of the game, that you kindly allowed. Well unfortunately, when I clicked on the link in Google, I got a message that said the file was too large for Google to scan for viruses. I tried the suggestion to download anyway. I finally got a winzip screen and used the wizard function to extract the Drakan folder. It went to the desktop, and I got a list of files and folders from the game including some player made levels...This all looked fine to me. But the different folders didn't seem to have anything in them, and I still am stuck. Could you help? Maybe it didn't download completely??? I'm also not sure if you meant that if I were able to download and run this game, then I would not need to do any additional patches?
Also, I took the suggestion posted about running scannow. I also disabled my antivirus program and tried installing again after that. I've also tried the compatibility fix when trying to install the program with the version I have on disk, to no avail.

As always, I appreciate any help!
Peregrynn

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:06 pm
by Peregrynn
Anyone know what the error message "The program cannot update the installed version of Drakan: Order of the Flame because of the following reason: C:\Program Files (x86)\Psygnosis\Drakan\Dragon.rfl: unknown version." means? It's what I saw when trying to apply the 445 ++ update patch.
Thanks,
Peregrynn

Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 2:27 am
by Peregrynn
Problem solved, game reinstalled. Glad to have this classic game back up and running.
Thanks all,
Peregrynn

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 9:22 pm
by UCyborg
The copy I have on Google Drive is already patched with the AiO Patch, contains majority of player created levels and the editing tools, it is packed correctly so unless you did something wrong, you should end up with the Drakan folder from which you can simply run Drakan.exe to start the game.

445++ Patch is superseded by AiO Patch so if you managed to install from CD, you just need the official 445 Patch and the unofficial AiO Patch. Regarding my AiO Patch and the game I have on Google Drive, some anti-virus software flags some of the files as malicious. Perhaps some techniques I used for patching set them off or something, I don't know. Either way, they're all false positives.

Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:57 am
by Peregrynn
Could be. The Google file folder downloaded fine, but it was installing it where I got some error messages...I went ahead and installed the vanilla version of the game using a disk that is in better condition. It is up and running pretty well; only has crashed to windows once. I used the 444, then 445 patches, but am having some trouble following the instructions for the AiO patch.
Peregrynn

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 2:46 pm
by UCyborg
Which step are you having problems with regarding AiO Patch? Most things should work correctly if you open the ZIP file, go into Drakan folder, then copy everything from it to your own Drakan folder (wherever you installed it) and answer yes when it asks you if you want to overwrite certain files.

Disable_Drakan_Compat_Fixes.reg file can be run to prevent Windows from blocking the Alt-Tab combination when in game, the only catch is that sometimes it doesn't take effect immediately.

Running InstallSDB.bat is only mandatory so the Level Editor remembers recent files properly, though it also blocks the game from calling OutputDebugString function, which may improve loading times by a very small amount.

Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:38 am
by Peregrynn
The trouble was the InstallSDB.bat file. I thought it was mandatory for everyone. I'm a little rusty with installation using winzip also and I'm not sure it came out right. For some reason, I ended up with files in the wrong folders, so after that I had to uninstall everything and try again with the CD. Hopefully this will hold up for now, but I'll try again with the AiO patch. :)
Peregrynn

Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 10:40 am
by Peregrynn
I applied the AiO patch and afterward, I tried to run Drakan again and I got this message: "C:\Program Files (86) \Psygnosis\Drakan\Drakan.exe is not a valid Win32 application". I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it stopped the game from working again,
Peregrynn

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 12:08 pm
by UCyborg
Maybe it didn't download correctly? I've checked all download locations and can verify that the ZIP file was uploaded correctly. It could also be that it fails to extract properly for some reason. I haven't dealt with WinZIP in years, Windows itself handles ZIP files just fine. This is something that a lot people aren't on the look-out for, but hardware failures are always a possibility, either bad sectors on the hard disk or faulty RAM.

Try re-downloading the patch again and temporarily remove WinZIP so the file can be opened in Windows Explorer. Then just copy-paste the Drakan folder to C:\Program Files (x86) \Psygnosis and confirm everything. Unless something's seriously wrong on your end, that should work. Can't really think of anything that you could be doing wrong.

Regarding InstallSDB.bat, for it to work, both InstallSDB.bat and Drakan.sdb must be in the same folder. Drakan.sdb is the file that actually gets installed. It's also possible to install it with Compatibility Administrator. Its Install command does the same thing under the hood as the bat file, the practical difference is that this program is used to create such files, so you can see what's inside.

Re: Reinstalling Drakan on Windows 7

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 12:53 pm
by UCyborg
I just realized the InstallSDB.bat has an issue. I should've put:

sdbinst "%~dp0Drakan.sdb"

Instead of:

sdbinst %CD%\Drakan.sdb

I'll upload the fixed version later today. The latter version will fail if path has spaces in it and if user did something that caused current directory to be something else instead of the one where the BAT file is located...