Dark Fall II
Lights Out
Setup Walkthrough

by Inferno

 

Minimum Requirements:

OS: Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
CPU: Pentium® III 450 MHz or Better Processor
RAM: 128 MB RAM (256 MB Recommended)
CD-ROM: 24x CD-ROM Drive (or PC DVD Drive)
Video: SVGA Graphics Card or better with 32-Bit Color (32-Bit Color at 800x600)
Sound: DirectX® 9 Compatible Sound Card

 

Many of you know how I feel about Johnathan Boakes' marvelous talent for the art of visual storytelling. In this, his third attempt as a "GameMaster" (boy, am I dating myself or what?? Ah me! No matter...) and second professional offering has been met with  certain triumph. Once again his penchant for the understated shines or might I say, creeps through as he weaves this haunting tale of time travel and plausible "given" for that which goes "bump in the night" .  Johnathan's artistic eye brings forth such an ingenious composition once again by utilizing a legend based in truth, a twist on who the gamer plays, intelligently logical puzzles, superbly rendered backdrops,  menacing lighting and fog and subtle sound effects with just the right punch for the "startle factor"  This adventure was a "MPTG" (..Must Play This Game) for me, I highly recommend it. 

 

 

The General Drill    

                        General Drill Full
 Printable Version

First let's take a look at the "General Drill"

Whenever I start a new game, especially an "older one"; I have always made it a habit to make sure my system is clean. (So let's clean house) Our cleaning products?? No, I'm not talking about special Orange Sprays or Pine smelly disinfectants! I'm referring to the "3 Musketeers" of WINTEL Systems. They are: "Disk Clean Up", Check Disc (the old Scan Disc in pre XP Windows based systems) and Defrag. 

First, Let's do a Disk Clean Up (Don't know how?) GO to-->Start-->All Programs--> Accessories-->System Tools-->Disk Clean Up. Empty out what you don't need ( you'll be surprised at what you can accumulate!) Shut down all extra programs. (for those of you who know how to do this part...just skip onto the next area of the "Setup".) For those of you who don't, the easiest way to terminate your TSRs (terminated but staying resident programs, also known as background applications") is to right click on each of the little icons in the lower right portion of your "Tool Bar" (located near your clock), As you right click on each of them you will get the option to either "exit", "close" or "unload". Do this for each of them. Then, if you have a Screensaver go ahead and disable it. 

If you haven't done the "Ole' Scan Disk"...(in XP it's called "Check Disk") and Defragged recently here is a good time to do it. Go to-->My Computer-->Local Disc "C" ("C" is mine but your Local Disc maybe assigned another letter)-->Right Click-->Properties-->Tools-->"Check Now..." ->Make sure that both boxes are checked--> 1.)Automatically fix file system errors and 2.)Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.-->Click Start. You can follow this same path to locate your Defrag program as well or use Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->Defrag Hard Drive. 

Check your system by doing a "Ctrl, Alt & Delete", this will bring up "The Task Manager", If you have closed out all Windows Programs, the field under "Applications" will be blank. 

(Leave the field marked "Processes" alone. Yep, I know there are lots of interesting files in there...but your really better off not touching anything in there unless you really know just what you are doing.)


You might want to check on your Video and Audio Acceleration at this time, mine were set at Full Performance (all the way to the right for this game... keep in mind that may not work for you.  (I find that this is the best setting for this adventure on MY system. Yours may be different, but this is always a good place to start and you can increase or lower them as you see fit after the game is installed.) 

You also might want to set your Display and resolution to 800x600/32bit/100Hz. Right Click anywhere on your Desktop-->Properties-->Settings-->Advanced-->Adapters-->List all Modes -->Then choose your preference from the cascade menu. Click -->OK-->OK-->Apply-->OK. 

I know this seems like a bother, but if you take the time to make sure your system is sparkling on the inside, you'll have less headaches later. Remember a healthy XP is a happy one. 

 

 

The Setup:

So, let's get busy...

 

I found that Dark Fall II Lights Out was fairly simple to install. Place the CD in your CDROM Drive and either let the "Auto Run" do it's thing ... but if you have XP you might want to do as I do and disable your "Auto-Run" then :

 Go To-->Start-->My Computer-->CDROM Drive "D" (or whatever yours might be)-->and just Double Click.

During the install, the game will create it's own folder. "C:\Program Files\|The Adventure Company\Dark Fall II"  Keep in mind that once you begin to "save" (which by the way is unlimited) your "saved files" are ".txt" files which most probably will be found in "My Documents under "DFII" 

Before you begin play you'll want to go into you Program files, So that would be:

• Go To-->Start-->My Computer-->Local Disk C:\Program Files\|The Adventure Company\Dark Fall II

• Locate the .exe which will look like this :

• Right Click --> Properties--> Compatiblity:

Compatibility-->	Compatibility mode-->	windows98/me
	Display Settings-->	check-->disable visual themes
	input settings-->	check-->turn off advanced text services for this program

• Click Apply Click OK.

• Close out of all Windows Programs

• You may start your adventure from either Start-->All Programs-->The Adventure Company--> 
  or Your Desk Top. 

 

 

Saving Your Games:

• Remember that Many Games utilize the folder: "My Documents"
  Dark Fall II Lights Out  is one of them. It isn't necessary to create a special folder for this. The program does it automatically. In My Documents you should have a folder "DFII" and then a subfolder called "saves".

• When you open the program -->Click on "Load" a window will pop up with your saved files in it.
  If you have your file extensions established for viewing you would then see something like this:

DFIIsave.txt
FetchRock.txt

or what ever you decided to name your particular save. Simply highlight the save you wish to use and then either double click on it or click on open and your gaming session will begin.

 

Some extra notes:  

• The Dark Fall II Lights  Out CD needn't be in the CD ROM to play the game.

• On some systems the installation may seem to "hang" or "lag" keep in mind this is a large game file  almost 1Gig of Hard Drive space. and some of the files are indeed quite large. You night even see an error message "Not Responding" ... just leave it alone and let it "cook"           So you know what I say,
  Try installing it just before midnight during a full moon ... pop it in... and then while it's taking its time installing; run down to your kitchen for  and whip up a batch of...........MIDNIGHT MARGARITAS!. with Barbados Lime "it's just the thing!!!!

• Make sure that all Anti virus/ spyware /firewalls have been turned off. 

• To avoid the error message:
   Director Player Error - This application requires an Xtra (distort effect) that either does not exist or failed to initialize properly. Please make sure the appropriate Xtras are in the Xtras folder(s).
  Either Use Windows98 Compatibility and/or  Go to Macromedia then download/install the newest version of Shockwave Player.
  

 
...Inferno

 

 

Back to XP Game List A-E & 1-9 

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Please write to: INFERNO
Copyright©2/2005 INFERNO