Please, help me getting Hoyle Casino Empire working in w8!!!
Window hooker to run fullscreen programs in window and much more...
Status: Beta
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Hi, I'm trying to get this great game running again. It worked fine in vista/7, but in w8 it just appears on the left side of the screen and with glitchy green and purple colors.
I tried ALL the possible compatibility combinations, tried killing explorer process, etc. Maybe this program can help me getting this running in window and this way maybe it doesn't have the glitch, but I'm totally noob with it.
When I load the game with the default settings, it loads the first intro and then freezes and the "casino empire started working" message appears.
Any hint will be immensely appreciated, I really love this game.
Thanks!!!
*sorry, the message says "casino empire STOPPED working", not started lol :P
I just released a new dxwnd version that should make it simpler to configure a game. Will you try it?
More, you could set the log flags (first four from top to bottom are usually enough...), get the dxwnd.log file and send it to me.
In the meanwhile, I'll see what I can do anyway...
Sure, will try that, thanks :))
/sorry, what are the log flags? as I said I have no clue how to use this.
/nvm, it crashes too :(((((
I uploaded a copy of my game files to mediafire and PMed the link to you in case you want to mess with it. I would understand if you don't want to lose time with that tho, since this is a fairly old and underplayed game.
Thanks anyways!
Last edit: obippo 2014-11-23
I managed somehow to run the game by myself (let's not dig deeper on the subject...) and I replicated the problem on my Win7 pc.
Apparently, the game does weird things, maybe because the intro movie is played by the bink library. In effect, the log doesn't show the type of things I would have expected.
I think I'll find this an interesting challenge.
The only problem is that it's not easy to tell when I'll find a solution. Let's hope to have some luck....
Last edit: gho 2014-11-23
OK, meanwhile I will be trying random combinations of options. Will let you know if some one works!
Having seen the logs, I would be the first one to be surprised if it did!
I had no luck yesterday... Could your program run the game in any way?
Do you know any kind of program/tweak to get the game running? I tried dosbox, didn't work aswell. I'm desperate.
Last edit: obippo 2014-11-24
The game seems to use ddraw in a very peculiar way: it opens a ddraw session, but then uses GDI functions to access the screen...? Maybe I'm wrong, but the schema resemples the one of a "revamped" game that was designed to run in GDI and then was quickly migrated to ddraw.
I must not be desperate: I think I will manage it sooner or later, but later is more libely than sooner....
There is no rush, thank you very much. You will become my hero if you manage to run it :P
Hi mate, any news on this?
Sorry, not yet ....
I can't hide the fact that I was quite busy with Breath of Fire 4, but so far results are poor on both sides.
But I had very little time to dedicate to both.
Oh, no problem. Excuse me if I'm annoying, you can't imagine how frustrated I am after wasting money on a OS where my favourite childhood game doesn't work, hehe.
Good news, at least partially: it seems I doomes Breath of Fire IV, so now I can dedicate more time on your game!
Oh yeah! Ty very much dude. I'll keep fingers crossed.
Some more serious improvement: I'm starting to understand a few peculiarities of this game that were not handled properly by DxWnd, such as creating a ddraw7 surface without any of the other older interfaces.
I still don't understand what's wrong with the windowizing process, but at least now I can run the game in fullscreen emulated mode on my Win7 pc. It would be interesting to know if this holds also for your Win8, since the desktop offending operations should be intercepted.
Then, if you're not interested at all to the game working in a window context, chances are that you may be perfectly happy with this resease, isn't it?
Please, use the attached DxWnd release (it's a debug version, so possibly slower than necessary) and import the included exported file, then let me know ....
p.s. if you check the "Run in Window" flag, you can see the intro movie, then the game shows a black screen.
Last edit: gho 2014-11-28
It worked, thank you very much!!!
I always preferred to play it fullscreened. Finally resigned and tried to get it windowed with the hope it would work this way, so your fix is PERFECT for me.
You really don't know how many hours I spent searching help to fix this shitty game and how many forums I posted on and got ignored. Thanks thanks thanks thanks. You made my day, sir.
Please, let me know if you allow some kind of donation via paypal and where is the link.
Last edit: obippo 2014-11-28
Your happyness is my best reward.
Actually, these are the best words that came to my mind to hide the disappointment of being so lazy that I didn't set a paypal up so far. How silly of me!
But stay tuned for a working windowized version: even if you're happy with this partial result, I wish to complete the task.
;)
Last edit: gho 2014-11-28
For me, it's more than complete. Thanks again friend.
The investigation has produced some result.
It seems that this game don't proceed unless it is within a maximized window. Likely it has some inside check to hold the brakes until it gets maximized.
There are two ways to override the problem:
o first one, you can set the Video "Prevent Win Maximize" option, then click on the mawimize button of the game window: the window size can't grow, but the game starts!
o second one, is to do this programmatically, using this patched dxwnd.dll on top of last v2.03.01 release.
Hopefully, this knowledge may help in properly handling some further game. Thank you.
Last edit: gho 2014-11-29
Good morning,
I just tried the windowed version (in my w8) and this one works like a charm too. Will keep both of them, thanks! :)))
Hello, gho and obippo. I also have the same issue that was written above (green and purple display with it squished to the left side of the screen). However, my issue remains even after trying the DXWND program with the above exports. I was wondering if anyone had any tips/advice/steps that I might be missing. Thanks!
Please, set he logging flags as in the picture, run a short game session and post here the logfile.
Hey guys,
Jen, I just sent you the file with the dxwnd I'm currently using; with this one the game runs fine on my 8.1 w machine.
If it doesn't work I'm sure gho will manage it, he fixed the game for me in a matter of hours.
Bye!
Thank you, gho and obippo for responding so quickly! I hope I did it right so you can see the logs.