Elvesbane

Literally. Whoa.

Another game that I really really loved way way back is…

Outcast

You wouldn’t believe how much trouble I had to go through to get it to work on my current system (properly). Actually, I still don’t know whether all of it works properly (I do now, check end of article) since I just made sure that some of the show-stopper bugs have been eliminated (Once again, check EOA).

Anyway, as a record of what I’ve achieved today, here goes:

PC Specs: Core 2 Duo E6300 + 2Gig RAM + 950Gig HDD (total) + 17″ LCD (1280×1024)

Operating System: Windows Vista 64bit (x64) Ultimate

What I did

After a lot of research and testing, I found out that doing the following will fix a bunch of issues that Outcast faces in today’s computers.

1. Install Outcast - Duh, yeah, but you’ll most probably need Patch 1 to do that. Download it from the link.

2. Further patch it with Patch 2 (the same link as above, really), to remove some glitches.

I’m not sure about what Patch 3 does, but it seems like that one can be used to install the game too. Maybe it’s some kind of combined Patch 1 + 2 thingy. Who cares, I haven’t had to use it yet.

3. Get CPU Killer. Install it (I used CPUKiller v2.05).

Yeah, the old version listed there (or not, who knows what you’ll find when you look there). The why, later on.

4. Start CPU Killer in Administrator Mode, and set the bar to around 6%, and start.

This 6% value will, of course, depend on the kind of system you have. Experiment.

5. Open up the Windows Task Manager, set the process affinity of CPUKiller to CPU 0, or 1 (my computer’s only got two processors at the moment. ^_^) , whichever you prefer.

6. Set the compatibility mode of OC1.EXE, OC2.EXE, OC3.EXE to Windows 98 / ME (or equivalent, actually I’m not entirely sure this is needed, but bleh).

7. Fire up Outcast (use the default link) in Admin Mode. Even though I was using images of my really old and now useless Outcast CDs, mounted using Daemon Tools (Really. I’d bought the game. Seriously.), it worked just fine. I guess Patch 2 acts as a no-cd, or something.

8. Alt-Tab out once inside the game, and using the Windows Task Manager, set the affinity of OC3.EXE, the process that’s active when the game is running, to CPU 0, or 1, or N, whichever you selected earlier, that is.

9. Alt-Tab back in.

10. Play.

There you go. Outcast in 10 relatively easy steps. Now you require explanations.

Q1. Why slow down the computer with CPU Killer?

You don’t actually have to use CPU Killer. You can use any CPU slowing program you want. CPU Killer worked for me.

Q2. What I meant was, why slow down at all?!

Certain rather annoying bugs like Mr. Slade (the hero) slowing down to a CRAWL when walking through the paddy fields (in Shamazaar) or the fact that the damned Twon-Ha won’t move can be fixed by lowering CPU Speed. Seems like poor old Outcast can’t handle our super duper fast computers.

Q3. Does CPU Killer version matter?

It didn’t for me. The higher version (CPUKiller3 v1.0.5, right now) was useless since I had to use the older CPUKiller2 algorithm (selectable in configuration) to make the CPU slow down properly (with slider at 2%), so the old version of the program worked for me (albeit with the slider at 6%). In fact, performance with the older version was BETTER for me, since it allowed me to set all the settings to high (in the Outcast loader) and get decent framerates (16-24, according to FRAPS).

None of these slowing down programs work as they should, because even these programs are too old for the new hardware, and their approximation of CPU use is rubbish… which would explain the 2 and the 6% reduction.

Q4. Anything else?

Outcast is a wonderful game. Play it if you can.

See ya!

UPDATE:

1) I’ve finished the game! Everything worked fine, well, except at one point in the game.

Minor Spoiler Alert! In Okasankaar, Cutter is required to accept the assistance of a talan to push two buttons simultaneously in order to open the door to a sunken temple. I was able to bypass this requirement by pushing one button then running to the other and doing it myself. This was before I even had the quest requiring me to enter the temple. However, it worked out fine since it turned out that I didn’t have to complete the mini-quest to satisfy the main quest’s requirements.

2) I actually got a page hit from someone searching for ‘Outcast Patch 2 -jedi’. Haha! I knew there’d be some use to including all those tags! I suppose whoever it was got helped since he / she clicked the link to the download page at planet-adelpha where all the patches reside. Me happy! Oh, and I also changed the title. Duh reason. ^_^

I’m happy. For no particular reason. Well, maybe not. Methinks it might be the happy feeling I encounter every once in a while when there’s nothing going on (or about to happen) that’s bothering me or there isn’t any work pending.

Free.

There, that’s more expressive. It almost makes me want to go to sleep. At 10! Imagine that!

I didn’t post that bit of insight and it’s been lying there for forever. Maybe I was so happy that it didn’t matter. Unfortunately those things pass pretty quick.

Anyway, what was I going to say??

Shit, I forgot.

First of many. Exams draw near so expect a lot more of these. I tend to grab on to any excuse to escape the books. Before this, I was attempting (and failing) to read something from my Operating Systems text - Virtual Memory Management, if I remember correctly.

I had an accident a few days ago. It wasn’t pretty, I suppose, but I got out of it without any real damage. I was wearing the helmet (like always) and that saved me from looking like a complete idiot as I flew through the air (only for a little while). The absence of skin on the back of my wrist is particularly irritating. The black thingy that acts as a stand in stretches painfully, and that is… uh… irritating. Haven’t I already said that?

Ah, this particular resurrection seems to be short lived.