Sierra Installation Help

New DOSBox Installers

NEW: I have created new installers for Sierra's DOS games. They will install and automatically setup the games to run in DOSBox or ScummVM (for Sierra's AGI games) from a standard Windows shortcut. They give the option to download and install DOSBox, ScummVM or VDMSound for you. You will need the original media (CD or floppies) that the game came on when you run the installer.

Using the Original Installers

You may encounter trouble trying to install Sierra's old games on today's machines. Speed bugs plague Sierra's installer, as well as the games themselves. A few of the installers have problems with Windows 2000 \ XP. This page is to help you with these issues.

Let the games install themselves into their default directory. Not all the Setup and Install programs were smart enough to install just anywhere.

IMPORTANT: Remember, if you are going to run a CD game in DOSBox, install it from DOSBox, too. Depending on how you mount your drives in DOSBox, it may see paths differently than Windows does. This will avoid path errors in any config files. Also some commands used in older batch files do not work in XP, but will in DOSBox. See this guide for more information and help.

The System Test

Skip the system test -
Many of the Sierra installers tell you that it needs to test your system to see if it meets the minimum requirements for the game. SKIP THIS TEST!! This test is speed dependent and will crash the installer. This has been a problem since the original pentium days. A new machine far exceeds these requirements, anyway. You will be given the opportunity to install the game anyway.

DOS Installer Problems

Copy the game files to the hard drive -
DOS batch files may not work right with Windows 2000/XP. If you copy all of the files to your hard drive, you can run the install from the hard drive to set up the game's options, such as choosing your audio hardware.

Floppy installer won't work

Boot to pure DOS to install game -
Some of the floppy versions of the games (particularly the Dynamix games) will not install under Windows or DOSBox. This is copy protection that does not work right in anything other than PURE DOS. If you have a 9x machine, or XP with a dual boot setup with 98, just boot to DOS mode to install the game. You will then be able to play the game from Windows. If you don't have 9x to boot to DOS mode, you can use a DOS boot diskette. You will need a FAT 32 partition to install the game to, though. If you don't have a FAT 32 partition, you will need to find another machine with DOS or a FAT or FAT 32 hard drive to install the game to. You can then copy the installed game to the computer that you want to run it on.

Sierra Collection Installer Problems

Run the individual installers for each game -
Some of the installers of the Sierra collections will not work right on Windows 2000/XP. This can fixed by merely navigating to each game's folder on the collection CD and running the individual installers for each game. With DOS games you can usually just copy each game's folder to the hard drive and run "INSTALL" to setup the hardware.

Hidden Setup

Use the Sierra Setup Utility for hidden setup -
There is a bug in some Sierra setup programs when you run it under Windows XP. The music will be heard, but the setup window can't can't be seen. Here are three way to overcome this quirk in XP.

The easiest way is to right click on the Taskbar button for the installer and choose "Move" -- then just hold the left or right cursor key until the setup window appears. The setup program will then start.
Some have suggested that you turn off the Windows XP themes (use classic Windows) to install the game. After which you can turn themes back on. This method seems to be unreliable.
A freeware program developed by a Leisure Suit Larry fan to unhide unseen windows. The Sierra Setup Utility will show the setup window.

You can help keep The Sierra Help Pages alive by helping to defray some of the costs of hosting this site. If it has been of help to you, please consider contributing to help keep it online.

Thank you.

Top