Emperor's Tomb hints and tech help

help

gear guardian said:

I'm not saying I'm an expert, but if you need help with it I could maybe help.
By the way... this game is awsome.

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i cant find all the artifacts and i dont no which levels to do over?!!?!

Here's a guide that lists all the artifacts in the game.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/561303/39105

You can see the artifact's picture in the load screen when you browse to a level that has an artifact hidden in it.

IkoJones said:

Finn, I have to thank you, reduction of computing power helped. I had to download the CPU Clock Utility, which allowed me to do so.
Again, many thanks.

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Not quite sure that processing power has much to do with this as much as the game code itself. I haven't heard of two many modern games that "played too fast" as they usually put in code to compensate for varying degrees of processing powerI bet you would find much better performance with system driver updates. You can find out if you need updates by printing out a DXDIAG.txt file and looking at the driver dates for graphics, sound and motherboard. I am a Tech mod on another game forum and we see this kind of problem in older graphics drivers or with certain motherboards. Shouldn't be a need to underclock your processor.

Rob67 said:

Shouldn't be a need to underclock your processor.

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Since 'twas a laptop, I figured this would the surest (and safest) bet. Of course, it's not a rule, but I've seen some strange things happening with these flat ones if somebody goes and messes around with their drivers. But, I repeat, this is by no means something that happens all the time.

But oh well, all is well and when the game's off the system, I guess one can waste three minutes and put the CPU back to its normal speed by entering BIOS.

Indiana Jones and the Emperors Tomb + New Computer

Hi folks,

I recently got a brand new super-hot Alienware laptop (It's an Area 51 M7950, with a dual core 2.16 Ghz processor and the video cards are dual GeForce 7950's in SLI mode).

I've gotten all of my classic games to run, with the following exceptions:

Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
The Curse of Monkey Island
Indiana Jones and the Emperors Tomb.

All three of these games experience a "fast-forward" effect - cutscenes skip through far too fast, as though you were watching a movie at multiple times its normal speed.

I've tried a few CPU slowdown programs, but they don't seem to have any effect.

Does anybody have a suggestion?

I could *probably* live without playing Mysteries of the Sith again, but Curse of Monkey Island and Emperors Tomb are hard to live without - particularly if their older counterparts are running fine.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.


Lorn

CMI is easy. There's an emulating platform software specifically designed for running old LucasArts games in newer rigs. It's called ScummVM. Having it run Curse of MI should take away any problems you have with that game.

It doesn't solve the problem with those two other games, however. But no worries - dual core you say? Try running those games in single core mode. That overt speeding is solely a processor problem, so making the program run on single core only is a well-known solution. Another method for more experienced users is to turn down the clock speeds from BIOS, but it's definitely not recommended unless you absolutely know what you're doing.

If you have no idea how this is done, please tell us something you left out: is your laptop running on XP or Vista. I can then give you the directions in detail, if necessary.

Also, a little OT, but... I got curious when you mentioned "older counterparts". Now, what are you meaning in the case of Emperor's Tomb? Atlantis or Infernal Machine? If it's FoA, then nothing, but it's extremely rare for a person to run IM without any problems at all on newer setups.

Some googling revealed that it comes with Vista. Deselecting the other processor in Windows Task Manager returned Emperor's Tomb to normal speed in my XP Pro. My processor is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+.

Thanks for the replies -

I am running XP - didn't want to run into hassles with Vista.

Finn:

I've actually already got ScummVM up and running - I just didn't think to run CMI under it - guess that should've been the first thing I tried.

Also, I have both FoA and Infernal Machine running. A couple of years back, somebody posted on mixnmojo a fix which seems to have worked for me under XP.

It still requires that you install the (somewhat buggy patch), but after you do that, if you open a copy of Windows Media Player and keep it minimized in the taskbar before you launch Infernal Machine, it seems to clear up most of the problems while playing.

It's still a good idea to save frequently as the ocassional camera problem does occur...but it's at least playable.

One side note - I've found that it won't work on the default resolution after you initially install the game. You'll still get some camera wackiness after the introduction to Canyonlands, which will prevent you from doing anything. I found that upping the resolution and color depth under the video settings fixed this problem.

I've heard this solution doesn't work for everybody...but it's worked for me, so maybe it'll work for you!

Incidentally, I wouldn't be too nervous about deselecting one of the cores or adjusting BIOS settings - I'm actually a network administrator and part owner of an ISP, so I work with computers day in and day out - this is just my first mutli-core processor, so I'm not quite sure where to make the adjustments.

Any tips?

Thanks for the replies, guys...


Lorn

By the way, launching CMI through ScummVM worked fine, but now I have problems with streaming audio off the CD.

I seem to remember this problem from years ago, but I don't remember what the fix was. If you have any further insights for this problem, that would be helpful as well!


Lorn

Launch Emperor's Tomb --> Minimize --> Task Manager --> Processes --> The ET process (Indy.exe or something like that) --> Right click --> Set Affinity --> Deselect CPU 1, leave CPU 0 --> Return to game

You can probably fix the CMI problem by copying the files onto your HD and playing it without the CD's.

Thanks very much for the tip. I'll give it a shot and let you know how it turns out!


Lorn

VP, I could kiss you!

Deselecting the second core fixed the problem beautifully.

Do you know of a way to make the change for that program permanent, or do I have to manually make the change in the task manager each time?


Lorn

lornconner said:

Do you know of a way to make the change for that program permanent, or do I have to manually make the change in the task manager each time?

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I don't know if it's possible but somebody else might.

Yes, in fact I do.

I wouldn't consider setting the processor affinity by hand each time that much of a hassle, but if you're really up for tweaking a little...

First, download this executable. Place it in your windows/system32 folder. (It's perfectly safe to do so.) Then, create a quick launch file pointing to this thing you just grabbed and add parameter -u c:\path\to\emperorstomb\indy.exe (meaning that after -u you insert whatever folder path you have ET installed in) and... ta.

Every time you click on the quick launch icon imagecfg.exe comes up, and immediately after launches Emperor's Tomb in a single core mode.

I'd still recommend settling with setting the affinity manually each time you wish to play, though.

Thanks once again, Finn!

The instructions you gave didn't quite work for my application, but I managed to work a fix after some quick google searching.

In case anybody else is interested in setting an application to permanently use a single core in a multicore processor system, this is what I had to do -

I installed the imagecfg.exe utility in the c:\windows\system32 folder as instructed, but then had to use imagecfg to set which processor to use by default.

Creating a quicklaunch icon using the -u switch didn't work for me.

The command I used for Emperors Tomb specifically (in the default install directory) was:

c:\windows\system32\imagecfg.exe -a 0x1 "C:\progra~1\lucasa~1\indian~1\gamedata\bin\indy.exe"

The -a switch permanently sets the attribution, and the 0x1 argument sets the program to use the "0" core instead of both 0 and 1.

Thanks for all your help guys...with your guidance, I've now succesfully got every piece of software running on my new computer!

Incidentally - did the Infernal Machine trick I mentioned above help anybody? While playing today I did notice a few areas in the game where I couldn't pick up critical objects. (This was due to the buggy patch). I was able to uninstall the game (keeping my saved games), reinstall without the patch, pick up the critical object, and keep playing.

This may be too much of a hassle for some folks, but I enjoy the game so much that I figure it's worth it to keep playing.



Lorn

lornconner said:

c:\windows\system32\imagecfg.exe -a 0x1 "C:\progra~1\lucasa~1\indian~1\gamedata\bin\indy.exe"

The -a switch permanently sets the attribution, and the 0x1 argument sets the program to use the "0" core instead of both 0 and 1.

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Yeah, I know. Quick launch parameters can be a little quirky... nice to hear you were able to figure it out by yourself, though. Glad to be of assistance anyway!

lornconner said:

Incidentally - did the Infernal Machine trick I mentioned above help anybody?

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Actually, nothing you mentioned was exactly new to us. It's simply the same as everybody else - the game works, it's still bug-ridden, but playable. I figured if you'd somehow found a way to play it with no hitches at all, it'd be nice to know, but never mind now.

Ok you will have to forgive my bad memory, but I haaven't played this game in quite a few years...here is why...

I got to a level that I believe is in Germany (or some place in Europe anyway), the level with the truck on the bridge...ring a bell anyone? You are fighting Nazis anyway. I am stuck at the point where you go down below the bridge and have to swing across. I have attempted it about a million times and finally gave up. Any tips would be great!

Yeah you mean the first level of Prague. You beat up the Gestapos, gather everything you find and then go under the bridge. Jump to the pipe, shimmy right, drop to ledge, swing to chain, lower yourself a bit and jump to the other side. Get the Luger ammo from the left and exit the level to the right.

I have a problem in a certain part of the game. I think its after that kraken monster and im starting the next level then when im shooting with machine gun some error appears and i have to quit the game Anyone know how can i fix that?