Baldur's Gate on XP

[Setra]

I have the original Baldur's Gate, but it refuses to work on my computer. The last time I played it was when I had Win98, so I figure it must be the fact I now have Windows XP.

If this is the problem, does anyone know how to fix it? As I'd love to play it.

[Om]

Did you try setting the compatibility to an earlier version of Windows? Go into the file properties and that should be an option somewhere.

If you have BG2 then an alternative would be to find the mod that allows you to play the original game using the BG2 engine. That should run in XP

[Setra]

I'll try that (after I get back from having my glasses fixed, ragh)

[Shikton]

Works perfectly for me. Got all the patches?

[Setra]

Works perfectly for me. Got all the patches?

No, I have no clue as to where to get them, honestly. Though if I did a Google Search, I could probably find them...

I will try that too (upon returning from the "Glasses Store"). At the moment my eyesight is rather poor, so I'd rather not do much, ironically I am perfectly content to post on the forum, despite bad vision. Maybe I'm lazy.

[Zaggab]

I have never had any problems with running baldur's gate on xp.

As for patches, go to http://www.bioware.com, click games, click whatever game you want, and choose support -> patches from the sidebar.

[Lilivati]

I had a problem with the game randomly freezing in XP, until I patched it. The BG tech support forum on the bioware site has a thread with the patches. Let me dig it up quick...

http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic....15697&forum=10

I think that's it. That forum can also provide some things to try if patching doesn't fix it.

[Lothorus]

There is a mod that plays the original BG on the BG2 engine? I'd love to learn more about that, if someone has the time.

[Lilivati]

I believe it's called tutu, though I'm not entirely sure. (My friend likes to play modded to the max, whereas I prefer vanilla, and keeps trying to convert me. :P )

[Lothorus]

I myself usually don't try many mods, kinda detracts from the flavor of the original game. But one thing a really don't enjoy is how limited the original BG engine is, especially after having played the second one (Like many people, I somehow ended up buying and playing BG2 first).

Edit: Oh, and thanks for the help. I'll see if "tutu" turns up anything.

[Om]

There is a mod that plays the original BG on the BG2 engine? I'd love to learn more about that, if someone has the time.

I think its called Tutu. I've never used it myself so the best that I can do is point you at this link

[Archonic Energy]

*cue 10000000 pictures of ladies in tutus*

yeah it's called BGTutu i had it at home sorry i cant point out the link but... well if you've already done the surch i'm sure that you'll find it.

now i need a mod to bring Torment into the NWN engine....

[Lothorus]

Ah, thanks for the link, Om. From the looks of things, this is right up my alley. No more tiny inventories or 20 arrow quivers. To be honest, I don't really care about the lack of kits and such in BG1. It's just the little things that irk me. But this will (hopefully) solve all that.

Thanks again!

[Lord of the Helms]

Planescape Torment really is totally fine graphically. Detailed models and backgrounds, and my god those animations are brilliant, especially for 2000 (or was it even '99?).

Setra: I've had the same problem after recently acquiring the complete BG saga (2 CDs, 2 DVDs. I now have BG2+ToB twice, but BG1 alone was worth the 15 €. Plus I'll sell BG2 to my brother's girlfriend once she has finished all her exams.). To install it and have it actually work properly, open the CD/DVD, right click on "setup.exe", go to "Properties" and switch to Windows 95 or 98 compatibility mode. Then, right click on setup.exe, execute as system administrator. Best do a complete install (see below). Do the same with TotSC. Ta da, it should work now

I'm currently playing BGTutu, it's very easy to install using EasyTutu.exe. All you need are complete installs of BG1 and BG2, best including TotSC and ToB (but not required I believe). A nice side effect was that it switched the text language to English, which means I do not have to suffer through the horrid German translation anymore (though sadly still the synchronization, urgh ).

Oh yeah, and if you do have Tutu, by all means go for the NPC mod, it is godly

[Lothorus]

Welp, the installation of BG Tutu was very simple with the EasyTutu.exe program. Just a plain ol' installation wizard deal, very clean and easy.

The game its self ran fine, although I was disappointed to find that the ammunition stack limit hadn't been raised, so I'm still stuck with 20 arrows in each of my quiver slots. The other stuff (easier interface, more intuitive hotkeys, bigger inventory) was still there, though, so I'm happy. All the little cut-scenes and chapter introductions worked fine. Really had a blast until I ran into a black bear in the first area outside Candlekeep and died in one hit.

It got a critical, go figure.

Still, all things considered, I'm very happy with the whole deal. When I have more time for a dedicated game run, I'll be looking forward to a fun experience.

[Om]

I'm surprised it went so easy Lothorus, in my experience getting mods to run can be a real struggle. Glad I could help in any small way.

Planescape Torment really is totally fine graphically. Detailed models and backgrounds, and my god those animations are brilliant, especially for 2000 (or was it even '99?).

Planescape still looks better than some 3D games released today but its engine has dated somewhat. In particular the resolution is a major hindrance once you've gotten used to BG2.

Does this Tutu work for Planescape and other IE games?

[Lothorus]

It isn't a general mod like that, I fear. It was specifically made for transitioning BG to the BG2 engine. Of course, the folks over at PocketPlane might very well be making one for Planescape, so who knows?

And I agree, the tiny resolution of that particular game can be irksome.

As for it being so easy, you're right about the mod being super complicated. From the looks of it, the original way for modding it was a very very troubling experience before they went and made the streamlined EasyTutu. In fact, if the original Tutu were the only option available, I doubt I'd have had the resolve to give it a go.

[Lord of the Helms]

Welp, the installation of BG Tutu was very simple with the EasyTutu.exe program. Just a plain ol' installation wizard deal, very clean and easy.

The game its self ran fine, although I was disappointed to find that the ammunition stack limit hadn't been raised, so I'm still stuck with 20 arrows in each of my quiver slots. The other stuff (easier interface, more intuitive hotkeys, bigger inventory) was still there, though, so I'm happy. All the little cut-scenes and chapter introductions worked fine. Really had a blast until I ran into a black bear in the first area outside Candlekeep and died in one hit.

It got a critical, go figure.

Still, all things considered, I'm very happy with the whole deal. When I have more time for a dedicated game run, I'll be looking forward to a fun experience.

The stack limit is the same in BG2 as in BG1. Also, a Black Bear at level one is deadly for most characters, often even without a crit. Here's a little advice: Take him down at a distance. He's way slower than you, so you can just keep going with the "run away, fire, run away, fire" tactic even at level one (provided you have patience and plenty of arrows)

[kaairn]

recently reinstalled baldur's gate myself with the tutu mod... and agreed, the easytutu does make it incredibly easy to install

I remember playing this game the first time through and managing to turn the air blue because of how unforgiving the game could be in the first few levels. the amount of times I was one hit killed by bears, ogres etc was rather frustrating... however, I loved every minute of it Even when a one hit kill from a lightning trap destroyed 2-3 hours work, I loved it.

Coming back to the game after playing things like oblivion or NWN 2 was a massive culture shock, I honestly doubt that any game company has the balls anymore to make a game as unforgiving as baldur's gate could be, even on it's easiest difficulty. *sigh* those were the days.

[Mauril Everleaf]

Lothorus, beware that there is one bug with Tutu. I havent gotten there yet, but make sure to save before you go into Beregost. Then when you leave, save under a different filename. Then try and load that file. If it works, then you are fine. If it doesn't, open up the pre-Beregost save and try again. You may have to do this a couple times. If you don't do this, you may not be able to open any game saved after leaving Beregost.

Also, using the 3D accelleration makes the water green. There is a patch for that though.

@^: Agreed. There is just something about having characters that sorta suck. You gotta rely on skill, tactics, and some luck to make it to those high levels. That's why I started playing BG1 again. That and I'm working on a campaign and I needed a refresher on what would be considered "acceptable" low level encounters. I play a 1.x version of AD&D, and too much BG2 makes for way too powerful encounters.

[Arang]

Also, using the 3D accelleration makes the water green. There is a patch for that though.

I couldn't even figure out what 3D accelleration did. At least I couldn't see any change when I turned off (aside from blue water, of course).

[Mauril Everleaf]

Yeah, I couldn't either. I just thought I'd toss out the warnings they gave.

Also, for some unknown reason, whenever I play in fullscreen mode, it inverts my game. The entire screen is turned 180 degrees. It works fine in windowed mode, just not full screen.

[Lord of the Helms]

Coming back to the game after playing things like oblivion or NWN 2 was a massive culture shock, I honestly doubt that any game company has the balls anymore to make a game as unforgiving as baldur's gate could be, even on it's easiest difficulty. *sigh* those were the days.

Gothic I and II were way more unforgiving. If you took a wrong turn at early levels and happened to run into a warg or minecrawler, let alone bandits or orcs, you were pretty much finished. Same with picking fights with most people in or around town.


I don't know if Gothic III is quite so unforgiving as I haven't played it yet.

Oh yeah, and Earth 2160, one of the most unforgiving games ever. Rush your tanks into the enemy base? Whoops, one of their buildings is armed with an electrocannon that makes toast out of a dozen or so tanks in a manner of seconds. Leave your aircraft flying around unprotected? Whoopee, anti-aircraft units of the enemy, kiss those two dozen rocket bombers goodbye.

Extremely frustrating, yet extremely good :)

[Lothorus]

Re: Lord of the Helms
Regarding the black bear thing, I know. I was playing an archer at the time, but I guess I let the bear get a little too close. I was just messing around, anyhow, just to see if there were any obvious problems with the game.

Re: Mauril
Thanks for the warning, but I made sure to read all the info the Tutu website had. And as for the green water thing, they made a temporary fix that was pretty easy to install. The water fountains in Candlekeep seemed perfectly blue after using it.

Ah, but the inverted screen thing isn't a Tutu bug. I used to get the same thing with Baldur's Gate 2 until I changed my video card. Do you happen to have an Intel brand integrated video chip? I forget the actual version I had, but I know that I was using an Intel video card when Baldur's Gate messed up on me.

[Mauril Everleaf]

Yeah, I do. But I didn't have this problem until after I installed Tutu. Anyways, the picture is clearer in windowed mode anyway.

[Lothorus]

Well, the first time it happened to me was when I tried to switch from one mode to the other while the game was still running. Still don't know what went wrong, though.

[Om]

Also, for some unknown reason, whenever I play in fullscreen mode, it inverts my game. The entire screen is turned 180 degrees. It works fine in windowed mode, just not full screen.

I've had that problem before. I can't quite remember how I dealt with it though. Its definitely not Tutu, seeing as I've never used that.

Try messing around with the graphics settings. Perhaps it was the 3D acceleration that screwed my copy up. Any way, I did something to the settings to fix it.

[Mauril Everleaf]

Yeah, I think I've gotten it fixed. For now at least. Thanks.

[General_Ghoul]

Lots of help, hints, mods, etc here.

Really helped me through the game.

[Mauril Everleaf]

I have a staunch policy of no modding or cheating until I have beaten the whole game. It took me forever to get through it all (half-orc barbarian) but its more satisfying to me that I know I did it without cheating. I then mod and cheat to the hilt to make it more fun. When you are running throught the game your 7th time, its just not fun to have to mess with goblins when you are 9th level, just put the debug mode on and use ctrl+y, then heal up instead of using magic or potions using ctrl+r.