Vampire Diaries
 Setup Walkthrough

by inferno

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
* IBM or compatible P60
* Windows 95
* 12Mb of RAM
* DirectX compatible PCI video card 
* Stereo sound card, Sound Blaster Pro or better
* Mouse 

 

 

This particular setup is dedicated to my "JA buddies" Krkdnose and Randy. Although this game by today's standards truly shows its age... It's also one that you just can't help replaying; even if it is only to wax nostalgic for a while. The scratchy voice overs, the truly cheesy FMVs (ya' know it sort of reminds me of my soap opera days...) and wacky underscore; all play their parts to perfection in letting some of us more mature gamers (oh, alright!!! Older Gamers...there, I said it. Happy now?) relive the glory of adventure gaming that was the mid 90's, before shooters...before the dark times, before... oh, never mind! 

note* Display should be set to 800X600 16bit Color
Config.nt files=100 (you must restart you system to have this take effect) 

This game is memory hungry you must shut down everything for it to play smoothly. 


The General Drill                                                             updated printable General Drill


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 Smelly Pine disinfectants! I'm referring to the "Three Musketeers" of WINTEL Systems. They are: "Disk Clean Up," “Check Disc” (the old Scan Disc in pre XP Windows based systems) and Defrag. Now some people do this in "safe mode" ... and I have to admit that I am one of them...probably because I tend to be rather lazy and like the fact that I don't have to close down so many programs for these 3 utilities to work correctly.  I'm also one of those wacky gamers who has a tendency to visit my "Aunties" ('cos I know they love me... Shall I introduce you??? May I present: Auntie Virus, Auntie Spyware, Auntie Adware and Auntie Hijack. Sorry, couldn't resist, but I religiously do use these wonderful programs each time I come off the internet... I DETEST BUGS & CREEPY CRAWLIES of any kind in my System!!!

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 don't know how to accomplish this read on: 

The easiest way to terminate your TSRs or Terminated but Staying Resident programs which are also known as background applications, is to right click on each of the little icons in the lower right portion of your Tool Bar. These are 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. The reason behind this is so these three utilities can run unencumbered. They'll do their tasks much more efficiently if you give them this environment to work in.  
If you haven't done the Ole Scan Disk in a while... In XP it's called Check Disk and Defragged recently. Here is a good time to do it. 
"C" is mine but your Local Disc maybe assigned another letter-->Right Click--> Properties--> Tools-->Check Now... Make sure that both boxes are checked. Automatically fix file system errors Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors Click Start. You can follow this same path to locate your program as well. Or use Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->Defrag Hard Drive.  
The nice thing about Windows XP is that if it isn't necessary to perform a Defrag of your Hard Drive unless you have to. Windows XP will simply tell you this if you need to...and you can skip this step if the answer is no. 
You might want to check on your Video and Audio Acceleration at this time, make sure you set the Video at the 2nd notch from the right. The Audio should be set to the 2nd notch from the right as well (I find that this is the best setting for many older adventures as a general rule for 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.) 
Restart your System. 
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 you’re really better off not touching anything in there unless you really know just what you are doing) 

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.

note* It's also helpful to either be logged in as either The Administrator, Owner or Power User make sure that your personal log in has full Administrator rights.

 

Let's install The Vampire Diaries:

• Place CD #1 into your default CDROM Drive 

 

• Go to--> Start--> My Computer--> Locate the CDROM Drive that you placed your Vampire Diaries CD1 in (mine was "D").
  
  
  
  
• Locate the file SETUP.EXE--> Right Click --> Properties--> Compatibility-->
  Follow the table below:

  
  

  Compatibility Mode	Check	Windows95
  Display Settings	Check	Disable Visual Themes
  Input Settings	Check	Turn off advanced text services for this program

• Click Apply. Click OK.

 

• Double Click and away we go. 
  

 

• When the program asks if you want the Minimum or Recommended Install -->
  Choose the Recommended Install (72Mb)

 

• Take the time to read the ReadMe file as well. (you never know what you may learn!)

 

• This program utilizes Direct Draw--> and it will ask if you want it installed --> (Keep in mind if you have the latest DirectX already installed on your system, you already have Direct Draw.)

 

• Just go ahead and Click "OK" (It will not reinstall DirectX if you already have it. A small window will pop up showing you which files you already have. Click "OK" to get out of this screen (do not "reinstall DirectX).
  
  
  

Now, here's where it gets sticky... 

 

• Let's have a look at your Game folder.  Start-->My Computer-->Local Disk "C"--> Games-->Vampire (This is your game folder for Vampire Diaries) or "C:\Games\Vampire"  .

 

• Locate the two .exe files. They are Game.exe and Vampire.exe
  
  
  

• Right click on each of them in their turn and choose Properties -->make sure
   that everything is checked and your compatibility mode is Windows 95.

Compatibility Mode	Check	Windows95
		Run in 256 Colors 640X480 Screen Resolution Disable Visual Themes
Display Settings	Check
Input Settings	Check	Turn off advanced text services for this program

 

• Click Apply. Click OK.

 

• Game.exe is the file you use to play the game itself
  Vampire.exe will either play the game or the intro 

(only just go ahead and click on "play the introduction"... If your system is anything like mine is ... the intro won't play from here... there's a conflict somewhere... maybe krkdnose can figure it out, huh? Hey, krkdnose .......can ya' help a poor girl out??? hmmmm? )

So until we hear from him .......

•  Keep your Game Folder Open.

 

• Go to Start-->My Computer--> CDROM Drive which has Vampire Diaries CD1 in it -->Right Click -->Explore-->and locate the "VAMPINTR.AVI".

 

•  Right Click -->Select Copy-->Close out of this window.
  
  

• Pull up your Game Folder-->Right Click anywhere on a blank space inside the "Vampire" Folder -->Right Click again and this time Choose Paste. 
  

• You'll have to Double Click on this file to view the video. 
  
  

• After you have viewed the intro to your heart's content. It's time to take a bite and play the game (er...uh...sorry). 

 

• Do one last thing before you close your game folder.
  
  
  

• Right Click on the Game.exe file-->Choose Send to-->Desk Top (create shortcut)
  
  
  

• Close out of all windows back to your Desk Top.

 

•  Locate the Game.exe Icon (it's a black owl with yellow and red trim)-->Right Click --> Properties--> Under the Shortcut Tab choose -->Run --> Maximized. Under the Compatibility Tab-->make sure that all boxes are checked and Windows 95 is selected for Compatibility mode.
  
  
  
  

• Your done. 

 

 

 

Now sit back and prepare for a very "campy horror story" just jam packed of those cheesy FMVs that we all know and love. 


...inferno

 

Back to XP Game List U-Z 

Back to Inferno's XP Compatibility List

This document may not be distributed without express
written permission of the author and the content may not be altered
in any way.
For Questions or Comments
Please write to: INFERNO
Copyright©3/2005 INFERNO