Infernal Machine

Montana Smith

Active member
Stoo said:
I'm with you. After all these years...I recently played the demo for "Infernal Machine" and enjoyed every minute of it. Can't believe I've been missing out for so long. Consider me hooked and it's DEFINITELY on my want list!:whip:

(Would love to score a pristine, boxed copy like Montana Smith recently did!(y))

There's a downside, though, Stoo. It wasn't designed for XP and as such it's incredibly buggy. At any moment you never know if it's going to freeze, or worse go to a black screen that that you can't Alt-Ctrl-Del out of. The only escape was to restart the computer, after which Windows politely tells you that that it's recovered from a serious error. The restart that Windows was doing was a restore to an earlier point, which was apparent as I'd recently deleted my cookies and had been typing my passwords into various sites. After the restarts these sites were still asking for my password.

The bug got so frequent that I un-installed the game. Some of the simple freezes could be overcome by using a cheat, but not the black screen ones.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Falcon said:
I recently played it on my Windows 7 computer and it ran just fine. It's a fun game. My old computer ran Windows XP and I had no problems with it. I used the instructions on the following web site to create a new installation CD so it would install on the newer operating system.

http://www.markusegger.at/Software/Jones3D/Instructions.html

Loading the game didn't seem to be a problem, it was just the unpredictable stability during play. The simple freezes or locked viewpoints could be overcome by simply typing in the cheat code (fixme ?)

The black screen freezes were very frustrating. I downloaded the v1.2 patch, so may re-install the game with this update to see if it improves.

I'd reached the point in the game in the Tibetan temple with the three rising and falling pistons when the bug really kicked in badly, and I gave up on it.

As far as games go it isn't really that enthralling. There's a lot of overly simple puzzles that require you to go through repetitious motions. I used to be a big fan of the Tomb Raider series, and would probably have enjoyed The Infernal Machine much more back in those days.

Nowadays I'd much rather play Indy as a first person shooter!
 

Gabeed

New member
Running Windows Media Player in the background inexplicably solves many of the crashing problems.
 

RaideroftheArk

New member
Just got my copy of IM for N64 in the mail yesterday. I got a pretty nice copy off of ebay. It's practically brand new. The seller even shrink wrapped it for me.

To say the least, I can't put it down. A big part of me wishes I had picked this up 10 years ago.

Usually with older games, I find the controls are the most frustrating aspect to get used to. However, I find IM a 1000x's easier to control than any of those old Tomb Raider games from the same time.

I love the voice acting...it has that old school gaming feel to it.

The graphics were probably phenomenal looking back when it first came out. I can almost picture the games of the time and I know this would have stood out for me if I played it back then.

Sound effects are pretty great, especially the whip. I also like how you use the whip in this game...it's more of a tool as oppose to a weapon like in the future Indy titles.

I really can't wait to get further into it...so far, I'm really happy with this title.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Wish you guys would stop praising this game! ;)

Despite my better judgement I'm re-installing it, but this time I'm applying the v1.2 patch, and going to keep Windows Media Player open.

If I get one black screen, I'll give up on it for the last time!
 

RaideroftheArk

New member
The Tingler said:
I hate you. ;)

You hate me for buying this game? :confused: lol



Well folks...I'm on the last level. So far this has been quite an experience. I'll sum it up once I'm completely finished.

How many of you go treasure hunting in this game? For the most part I try to run around and explore as much as possible. I found that some levels just give the treasures away while others really hide them well. At average, I'd say I collect 6 or 7 of the treasures without putting much effort into looking. I believe I have only found all the treasures in 1 of the levels.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
RaideroftheArk said:
You hate me for buying this game? :confused: lol



Well folks...I'm on the last level. So far this has been quite an experience. I'll sum it up once I'm completely finished.

How many of you go treasure hunting in this game? For the most part I try to run around and explore as much as possible. I found that some levels just give the treasures away while others really hide them well. At average, I'd say I collect 6 or 7 of the treasures without putting much effort into looking. I believe I have only found all the treasures in 1 of the levels.

Since I've re-installed the game and picked up from where I left off with the saved games (which I didn't delete), the game hasn't gone to the fatal black screen. However, it still does crash. In some areas, such as in the Russian ship chapter (which is where I am at the moment) the crashes are frequent. Sometimes it's firing a particular weapon that will cause it, other times I don't know what it is.

I save frequently as a precaution, and have Windows Media Player running in the background. I've made it a challenge to get to the end of the game, though I'm not really enjoying it that much. I'm just not into this genre as much as I was back in the early Tomb Raider days.

Consequently I'm not bothering with searching for all the treasure, if I'm getting low on health I just type in the health cheat (me bad!)
 

RaideroftheArk

New member
I am sort of stuck on the last level...I think there is a glitch with my N64 game. At first I thought I was doing something wrong or missing something...but something that is suppose to be there is totally not there.

It's the 2nd battle with Marduck when he's just flying around shooting at you as you collect the 3 Solomon gems...I got the final gem and I'm suppose to "swim" down to the ground floor...but the area where I'm suppose to "swim" down is just nothing to "swim" down...it's just a free fall.

I've been reading all the guides online and they all lead me to this one area and it seems that I'm doing everything right, but I'm completely stuck. I'm wondering if I should start the entire level over again? I would have been done with this last night if it weren't for this part.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
RaideroftheArk said:
I am sort of stuck on the last level...I think there is a glitch with my N64 game. At first I thought I was doing something wrong or missing something...but something that is suppose to be there is totally not there.

It's the 2nd battle with Marduck when he's just flying around shooting at you as you collect the 3 Solomon gems...I got the final gem and I'm suppose to "swim" down to the ground floor...but the area where I'm suppose to "swim" down is just nothing to "swim" down...it's just a free fall.

I've been reading all the guides online and they all lead me to this one area and it seems that I'm doing everything right, but I'm completely stuck. I'm wondering if I should start the entire level over again? I would have been done with this last night if it weren't for this part.

There was an odd problem when I installed patch 1.2 and picked up the saved game where I'd left off. There was a key in the Tibetan temple that was there, but Indy just wouldn't pick it up. I Googled for an answer and found out I had to complete the last chapter again, so that patch 1.2 could take effect. Maybe something similar is happening to you.
 

RaideroftheArk

New member
Montana Smith said:
There was an odd problem when I installed patch 1.2 and picked up the saved game where I'd left off. There was a key in the Tibetan temple that was there, but Indy just wouldn't pick it up. I Googled for an answer and found out I had to complete the last chapter again, so that patch 1.2 could take effect. Maybe something similar is happening to you.


Yeah this is for the N64 game. I will try to play the level over to see if it fixes itself, but so far, I haven't found anybody with a similar problem. And since it isn't on the PC, I can't patch it.

I can't believe I hit this snag so late into the game.
 

Junior Jones

New member
RaideroftheArk said:
It's the 2nd battle with Marduck when he's just flying around shooting at you as you collect the 3 Solomon gems...I got the final gem and I'm suppose to "swim" down to the ground floor...but the area where I'm suppose to "swim" down is just nothing to "swim" down...it's just a free fall.

Oh, I remember this part. :mad: I had the exact same problem. The only way I could get past it is to start the level over. (n)
 

RaideroftheArk

New member
Junior Jones said:
Oh, I remember this part. :mad: I had the exact same problem. The only way I could get past it is to start the level over. (n)

Thanks! I'm going to try that. It's so bizarre and annoying since it's at the end of the game basically.
 

ROB98374

Active member
Montana Smith said:
There's a downside, though, Stoo. It wasn't designed for XP and as such it's incredibly buggy. At any moment you never know if it's going to freeze, or worse go to a black screen that that you can't Alt-Ctrl-Del out of. The only escape was to restart the computer, after which Windows politely tells you that that it's recovered from a serious error. The restart that Windows was doing was a restore to an earlier point, which was apparent as I'd recently deleted my cookies and had been typing my passwords into various sites. After the restarts these sites were still asking for my password.

The bug got so frequent that I un-installed the game. Some of the simple freezes could be overcome by using a cheat, but not the black screen ones.

When it first came out, I believe I played it on Windows 98. Later I "think" I played it on my Windows XP Pro machine using the "compatibility mode".
I remember that when I installed the patch, it said you couldn't use your old save files from the unpatched version.
You might need to start over.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
ROB98374 said:
When it first came out, I believe I played it on Windows 98. Later I "think" I played it on my Windows XP Pro machine using the "compatibility mode".
I remember that when I installed the patch, it said you couldn't use your old save files from the unpatched version.
You might need to start over.

With me, after the install I only needed to complete the previous level. That was simple as I'd been making new saves at regular intervals, and could just go back to near the end of the last chapter and walk to the end.

After that the only problems were crashes that could be escaped from with ALT-CTRL-DEL. Before the patch the crashes were impossible to recover from without restarting the PC. I've left the game with Indy on the deck of the Russian ship, as I'm still finding the frustration greater than the enjoyment!

I didn't notice a "compatibility mode" in the options.
 

The Tingler

New member
RaideroftheArk said:
You hate me for buying this game? :confused: lol

No, I hate you for being able to buy and play this game!

I didn't notice a "compatibility mode" in the options.

Right click the game's icon or program .exe, then click Properties, then click on the Compatibility tab.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
The Tingler said:
Right click the game's icon or program .exe, then click Properties, then click on the Compatibility tab.

Thanks, for that. I remember seeing that tab now, but have never had cause to click on it before.

Any help with smoothing out the annoying glitches is more than welcome. The main frustration is not knowing how long you'll be playing before the game crashes and you have to start again from your last save.

:hat:
 
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