Greetings all,

I am not gonna lie or try to hide it...I am pissed.  I played Adventure on a mainframe at my Dad's work around 1976, and since Myst came out around 1993, I have been a loyal member of the AdGame community, usually playing games with my wife, bro, and (in the last 10 years), with my neices.  Somehow I missed Zork Grand Inquisitor (loved Nemesis though, when I played it about 15 years ago), so...desperate for a game to play this summer...I ordered the enhanced DVD version.  I started to try to load it, and was overwhelmed by sorrow, frustration, and the familiar stench of cyber failure, so I dumped it off on my bro to try to load.  He assures me he diligently tried to load it and got no farther than I did.

What is the deal?  Seriously, can the enhanced DVD even play on any Windows 7 machines?  What about XP?  I quit pretty early in the troubleshooting process becuz I could see the writing on the wall, but my bro (who apparently has more time to waste than I do)  found some site that suggested loading files from the disk onto the computer, making a new folder, moving files to the new folder, changing the contents of some files by opening them in notepad...and no dice.  What a collossal waste of time.

The hardest puzzle I have encountered in any game is easier and more rewarding than the debilitating sadness of trying to troubleshoot these games.

Anyway, seeking advice if you have any,

Otherchuck

I'm sorry to read of your troubles. :/

First of all, I fear that this sort of issue is not entirely uncommon with older games.  Indeed, for the future let me forewarn you: buying an older game (barring releases explicitly advertised, reworked or emulated to run on newer operating systems) is somewhat of a gamble, especially (from what I've heard) those that carry heavy DRM (I confess that I do not know whether Zork: Grand Inquisitor is one such).

I'm afraid that I don't know offhand how you might get your version running, but I do believe that Good Old Games has a version that does work on modern machines: I have and have successfully played through their version, I believe.  I don't recall having any significant problems with it (although it's entirely possible that I'm forgetting something), and would have been running it on Windows XP at least, more likely Windows 7 (I forget which it was, I'm afraid ^^; ).

I think that it's currently going for $5.99.

I hope that you manage to get the game running, whether your version or another.  Good luck! ^_^

Thanks for the advice.  I usually like to own the actual DVD rather than get a digital version, but in this case the DVD didn't work at all, and the downloaded version works fine (one or two glitches, but nothing fatal).  I am about halfway (I assume) thru the game now and am loving it.  I play it with my wife, my brother, his two teen daughters, and...for the first time last night...his preteen son.  They come over to our house at night and we project it on our domed ceiling.  Great game for a great family-time experience.

Otherchuck

Aaaw, that sounds wonderful, and the projecting onto a dome sounds like a good idea.

I'm glad to read that the game is working, and that you're enjoying it thus far! ^_^

[edit] Oh, and since you (I presume) got it from Good Old Games, I think that I'm correct in saying that backing up to disc should be acceptable, so, while not a professionally pressed and printed disc, you should at least be able to keep an installation hard-copy.