Pandora's Box
Setup Walkthrough
(not the Demo version)
System Requirements
Multimedia personal computer with a Pentium 100 or higher processor.
Microsoft Windows 95 or later, or Windows NT 4.0 Workstation with Service Pack 3 or later.
16 megabytes (MB) of RAM (32 MB recommended).
32 MB of RAM on Windows NT (64 MB recommended).
100 MB of available hard disk space.
50 MB of available hard disk space for swap file.
4X CD-ROM drive.
Super VGA video display with 1 MB of VRAM.
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device.
Sound card and speakers or headphones (recommended to hear audio).
While it isn't necessary to disable auto start (which requires a
restart) to run this game, you may want to consider disabling
" Auto detect" for those of you who have
it.
As always let's start with a "clean" install. Take a
look at the General Drill.
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 all the
way to the right (after all
it IS Billy Gates game)--> and audio should be set to 1 notch to the left
(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 less headaches later. Remember a healthy XP is a happy one.
*Now it's time for the patch. Yep... without this patch from
Microsoft, this baby ain't runnin' anywhere on XP.
Download Pandora10a.exe Patch
to a folder you'll remember (I keep a special folder for all my game patches in:
"My Downloads/My_Game_Patches", it just makes things easier.)
Your now finished with your "Prep" work. Let's install Pandora's
Box.
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Place your CD in whatever your default CDROM DRIVE is. But do not run the install program just yet. Go to -->My Computer--> "The drive that you have the CD in --> Right Click on this Drive--> Explore.
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Locate 2 files here. Setup.exe and Pandora.exe
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Right Click --> Properties--> Compatibility--> Set the Compatibility mode to: WindowsNT4.0 with service pack5) and Diplay should have 640x480 Checked.
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Click Apply. Click OK.
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Close out of that window screen. You should still have the "My Computer Window" up. Double Click on the CDROM Drive which has The Pandora's Box CD in it. Start the installation.
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Select a full install. But do not install DirectX6.
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Now go to the folder where you have downloaded the "Pandora10a.exe Patch". Right
click-->Properties-->Compatibility--> Apply the same compatibility and display settings as you did to the other files. (in case you've forgotten: WindowsNT 4.0 With Service Pack5 and 640X480" screen resolution) Click Apply. Click OK.
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Double Click on the patch
(it will automatically install the updates to the correct file.)
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Now (don't worry, almost done) Go to --> My Computer--> Local Disc "C"--> Program Files--> Microsoft Games-->Pandora's Box.
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Locate the three .exe files: "clokspl.exe" , Setup.exe , Pandora.exe
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Right Click on each of them in their turn-->Properties-->Compatibility--> and set them as WindowsNT4.0 with service pack 5 and 640X480 Screen resolution. Click Apply. Click OK. Close out of this window.
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You should be now back at your Desk Top.
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Go to --> Start --> All Programs--> Microsoft Games--> Pandora's Box--> Pandora's Box Icon and Right Click--> Properties--> Compatibility-->
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Make sure that WindowsNT4.0 is checked along with Display--> 640X480 Screen resolution and Disable Visual Themes and for Input settings, make sure that the box for "turn off all text services is checked. Click Apply. Click OK.
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Once this is completed, left click on the Icon and enjoy this surprisingly terrific game.