How to get King's Quest VI
to run in Windows 2000 or XP
by Collector

• King's Quest VI Updates/Patches

To get King's Quest VI to run in Windows 2000 or XP you can install the DOS version (INSTALL.EXE not the Windows SETUP.EXE) and run it DOSBox or with VDMSound. You will also need to apply the GOSiERRA digital audio driver patch. This should work flawlessly, however you will not get the hi-res dialog portraits that you get with the Windows version and you will have larger, cruder cursors. (Note that floppy version has no voice track and is DOS only.)
 

Windows version

NOTICE: The following information is now dated. Since Windows 3x can now be installed in the current version or a CVS of DOSBox, the Windows version can now be played in Windows 3x in DOSBox. This solution may be no longer be necessary and will avoid the cursor bug encountered by my VDMS method found below.

Normally if you try to run KQ6 in a version of Win NT (both Windows 2000 and XP) the Windows 16 bit launcher, "WOWEXEC.EXE" starts up and then will get locked up in memory before KQ6 can even launch. Even though VDMSound is for DOS applications, I have found a way to use it to get around this problem.

The only problem is that there is a bug with the cursor in the game. When you change the function of the cursor (WALK to TALK for example,) it appears that it did not change its function when in fact it did. This is only a minor problem which can be worked around by moving the cursor out of the game window and back in. If you do it quickly, I found that it doesn't interfere too much with the game play. If you can live with this bug, then here is how to get the Windows version going in 2000/XP:

1. First install the game. For the King's Quest VI CD and The Sierra Fifteenth Anniversary Collector's Edition (first KQ collection), open the Windows Explorer to your CD and run the Windows "SETUP.EXE", not the DOS "INSTALL.EXE". For the 1st collection, after running the collection installer, you will need to go to the Sierra Program Group in your Start Menu and run "KQ Games Install"
   
   
2. You can safely ignore the first two warnings about a 256 color driver.
   
   
3. Select "Install to the hard drive"
   

4. Choose the path where you want to install the game. Be sure to remember the path. The default for the KQ6 stand alone CD and the 1st collection is:

   C:\SIERRA\KQ6CD

   The default for the 2nd collection is:

   C:\SIERRA\KQC\KQ6CD

   and for the Roberta Williams Anthology:

   C:\SIERRA\RWANTH\KQ6W

5. The install program will ask if you want to install MS Video For Windows. You can safely skip this step as 2K and XP does not need it. The installer will now copy the game files to your hard drive.
   
   
6. The installer will then ask you about MIDI support. Choose Extended. The installation will then finish up.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Now you need to copy the large audio resource file, "RESOURCE.AUD" from the CD to your game's folder.
   
   

8. Go to your game folder and open up the "WIN" sub-folder and double click on the "SIERRA.INI" file. It should open up in Notepad:
   

9. Change the paths from your CD to your game's folder. If you installed in the default location, you would change it to:
    

[info] title=King's Quest VI cursorview=TRUE minhunk=204K minhires=375K audioBuffs=2 synthtype=highsynth genmidi=true audpath=C:\SIERRA\KQ6CD audio=C:\SIERRA\KQ6CD sync=C:\SIERRA\KQ6CD



10. Just be sure to change it reflect the correct location of your installed game. If this is where you installed the game, you can simply replace it with this sierra.ini file by unzipping it to your KQ6CD\WIN folder, overwriting the old one.
    
    
11. Now you need to create a batch file. For the King's Quest VI CD and the first collection - The King's Quest Collector's Edition (on two discs with KQ1-6 and a demo of KQ7) versions, the SIERRA.INI file is in the WIN sub-folder of your game's folder (normally C:\SIERRA\KQ6CD\) on your hard drive. Launch Notepad If you installed the King's Quest VI CD or the first collection type:
    
    

    Sciwv.exe win\sierra.ini

    Note: Some versions of the game don't place the sierra.ini file in a WIN subfolder. For the second collection - The King's Quest Collection Series (on three discs with KQ1-7, both Laura Bows, some old Apple games and the making of KQ Mask of Eternity) the SIERRA.INI file is in your game's folder. The default installed location is C:\SIERRA\KQC\KQ6CD\ on your hard drive.

    For the Roberta Williams' Anthology the SIERRA.INI file is in your game's folder with a default installed location of "C:\SIERRA\RWANTH\KQ6W\". If you installed The Roberta Williams' Anthology in its default location, the BAT file in this case the batch file should be:
    
    

    Sciwv.exe sierra.ini

    NOTE: If you can't find any .ini files, you probably have explorer set to hide the extensions of registered file types. You can change this by opening up the Windows Explorer and go to Tools-> Folder Options...-> and go to the view tab and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types."

    Save this batch file in your game's folder as " King's Quest VI.bat ". The exact name does not matter, but be sure it ends with the ".bat" extension. Or you can UnZIP this batch file to your game folder.
    
    

12. Set the game executable, "SCIWV.EXE" to Compatibility mode and check the "Run in 256 colors" box. You do not need to check the "Run in 640x480 screen resolution" box for the game to run, but checking it will make the window fill the screen (this will make refreshing the cursor harder since the only place to take the cursor out of the window will be on the window title bar at the very top). Click the "OK" button. Note: if Compatibility mode doesn't change your display, you may need to change you display manually.
    
    
13. Install VDMSound on your system.
    
    
14. All you need to do now is right click on the bat file you made and choose " Run with VDMS" Just follow the wizard, accepting all of the defaults and it will create a VDMS shortcut for you & launch the game.
     
    
    

In the game folder you will now find a VDMS shortcut like the one to the left. If you right click on it and go to the properties, you can change some settings such as "Close DOS window on exit" and in the advanced settings you can even change the icon to the King's Quest VI icon. You can copy it to the desktop or where ever you want it (even in your start menu if you want). You can launch the game now by just double clicking this shortcut.

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