DarkSeed
Setup Walkthrough

Requirements:
IBM PC & Compatibles
20MHz 286 or Higher
640K RAM
VGA Graphics 
Hard Drive
CD ROM Drive
DOS 3.X or 5.0 or Higher
Supports Mouse, Joystick
Adlib or SoundBlaster

DarkSeed by HR Giger, I found to be an interesting game. It reminded 
me a lot of GK1 in it's presentation. The Setup really isn't all that 
difficult. So, let's get to it.

The General Drill

updated 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, make sure you set the video at the 3rd notch from the right --> and audio should be set to the 2nd notch from the right as well (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.) 

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 fewer headaches later. Remember a healthy XP is a happy one. 


Because this games does require "Vesa" and SoundBlaster support in order to run effectively; make sure that you have VDMSound/ +VDMS Launchpad installed. Keep in mind that when running this particular utility, it will lend a certain amount of "Vesa" support to NTVDM (XP's 
own Virtual DOS Machine). If you don't have a "Vesa" driver, check the Utilities section of "My XP Compatibility Page" and further  information can be found in "The Library".

You also might want to set your Display and resolution to  800x600 16bit/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. Before you start the Install.

 

The Setup

• Place the CD in your Default CD ROM DRIVER (for our purposes, we'll call it "D"). Right Click Drive "D"-->Explore-->Locate the file: 
  Install.exe. Right Click-->Properties-->You should see 7 tabs:
  Screen, Misc, Compatibility, General, Font, Program and Memory. It is from these popups that we will create our Pif files to make the install for Darkseed work on XP.
  

• Use the chart below in Table1 to set the various checks and variables:
  
  

  Table1

  Program-->	Run-->	Maximized
  	Close on Exit-->	Uncheck Box
  Memory-->	Conventional Memory-> (check box: protected) ems memory--> xms memory--> (Leave box checked) dpmi memory-->	total = 640 initial envrnmnt = 4096 16384 16384 16384
  Screen-->	Check-->	Full Screen
  	mouse-->	check exclusive mode
  Compatibility-->	Compatibility mode-->
  	Display Settings-->	check-->256 colors check-->640x480 check-->disable visual themes
  	input settings-->	check-->turn off advanced text services for this program
  MISC-->	foreground-->	uncheck "allow screensaver

  
  

• Click Apply. Click OK. 
  

• Double Click on the file Install.exe-->Press "y" on your keyboard 
  -->Select the Drive where you wish to install the program (I chose "C").-->And follow the prompts. Eventually you will com to the DOS screen where it will tell you "to play Darkseed type DS" It will also say "press any key" Go ahead and press any key.
  

•  Use the arrow keys to select the drive and press "Enter". Press enter again (Darkseed will install to "C:\Darkseed" as a default)->Once it's done installing it will show you a black screen which says "Press a key to return to the installer" --> Press a key...any key. From here you can either choose the "up arrow" or the "Back button to get to your Local Drive. 
  

• Locate "C:\Darkseed" folder and open it. 
  

• Locate 4 files here--> Start.exe, Binmod.exe, Tos.exe and DS.bat. For the first three, Right Click-->Properties--> follow the table below for each one in it's turn. 
  
  
  

  Table2

  Program-->	Run-->	Maximized
  	Close on Exit-->	Uncheck Box
  Memory-->	Conventional Memory-> (check box: protected) ems memory--> xms memory--> (Leave box checked) dpmi memory-->	total = 640 initial envrnmnt = 4096 16384 16384 16384
  Screen-->	Check-->	Full Screen
  	mouse-->	check exclusive mode
  Compatibility-->	Compatibility mode-->	Windows NT
  	Display Settings-->	check-->256 colors check-->640x480 check-->disable visual themes
  	input settings-->	check-->turn off advanced text services for this program
  MISC-->	foreground-->	uncheck "allow screensaver

• Click Apply Click OK
  

• For the DS.bat file-->Right Click-->Send to-->Desktop. Close out of all Windows.
  

•  At the Desktop locate-->DS.Bat-->Right Click-->Shortcut -->Run-->Maximized. Click on the Properties Tab-->
  follow the table below.
  
  

  Table3

  Shortcut-->	Run-->	Maximized
  options-->	Display options-->	Full Screen
  	edit options-->	insert mode
  Compatibility-->	Compatibility mode-->	Windows NT
  	Display Settings-->	check-->256 colors check-->640x480 check-->disable visual themes
  	input settings-->	check-->turn off advanced text services for this program

• Click Apply Click OK. 
  
  
  That's it....enjoy!

...Inferno

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