Playing Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father in OS X - Short Version

Here are the steps I took to play Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father on my Mac. This tutorial is specifically for running the version of the game from GoodOldGames.com, NOT for the original CD or for other versions obtained via the net.

Step 1: Get the game
Purchase and download Gabriel Knight from GOG.com. Install the game onto a PC. As far as I know, this can't be done using a Mac without emulating Windows on the Mac. Find the directory called "Gabriel Knight" containing all of the game files and transfer them to your Mac, probably via a portable hard drive. Make a new directory in your "/home" (or "/username") folder and name it something like "dosgames". Save the "Gabriel Knight" folder to "/home/dosgames".

Step 2: Get DOSBox
Download DOSBox for OSX to your Mac and save the application in your Applications folder.

Step #3: Configure hardware settings
Open DOSBox and enter the following commands one at a time:

mount c ~/dosgames
c:
cd gabrie~1
install

This will bring you to Gabriel Knight's hardware configuration screen. The best options for me were "VGA or IBM PS2 - 256 Colors" for graphics, "Sound Blaster Pro" for Music, and "ThunderBoard" for audio, but different options may work better for you. Just make sure to select options that have check marks next to them.

Step 4: Optimize DOSBox for the game
Open "/home/Library/Preferences/DOSBox 0.74 Preferences" with TextEdit. At the very end of the document, beneath where it says "# You can put your MOUNT lines here." write:

mount c ~/dosgames
imgmount d ~/dosgames/gabriel_knight/GK1.gog -t iso
c:
cd gabrie~1
sierra

Save the document and exit. Now when you open DOSBox, it will automatically start Gabriel Knight. If you don't want it to start automatically, delete "sierra" from the "DOSBox 0.74 Preferences" document.

This is what worked for me; hopefully it's of help to you!

Playing Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father in OS X - Long Version

The concept was simple enough: purchase Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father from GoodOldGames.com and play it though the Mac OSX version of DOSBox. Unfortunately, the process was filled with setbacks. Below is the documentation of my trials.

Firstly, here are my computer's specs:

Mac OS X 10.5.7
PowerPC G4

Problem #1: setup_gabriel_knight.exe
The download from GOG.com is a executable (.exe) file called "setup_gabriel_knight.exe" that can only be run on Windows. It automatically installs the game on the user's Windows OS and can't be run on Mac OSX.
Solution:
I downloaded and installed the game to a serparate PC, then went to the directory it installed to (in this case, C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com) and copied the "Gabriel Knight" folder and all of its contents to a thumb drive. Then I transfered the files from the drive to my Mac.

Problem #2: Learning to use DOSBox
In order to access a DOS game to run it, you must enter a series of commands into the DOSBox interface (after opening DOSBox, of course). The first step is to tell DOSBox where the game is -- that is, which directory (aka folder) the game is located. This is done using the "mount" command, which designates a directory as a C drive for DOSBox.
Solution:
Following instructions I found online, I made a new directory called "DOSGames" in my home folder (the one with my user name, in this case "localadmin"). I then used this command line in DOSBox:

mount c ~/dosgames

The "~" represents the home folder, "localadmin". Also note that while the directory slashes on Windows are backslashes, "\", on Mac OSX they're forwardslashes, "/". Finally, note that CAPS don't matter.

So, "mount c ~/dosgames" identified my DOSGames directory as the C drive. I then told it to take me to that directory using this simple command:

c:

Which caused the "Z:\>" to become "C:\>". Then I typed

cd gabrie~1

"cd" means Change Directory, and "gabrie~1" is the abbreviated version of the directory "Gabriel Knight" (which I renamed "Gabriel_Knight"). So this brought DOSBox to the "Gabriel_Knight" folder, where the game is stored. Finally, I could tell DOSBox to play the game using:

sierra.exe

...which is the executable that starts the game. (The .exe doesn't need to be included.)

Problem #3: That takes way too long
Typing all that code is a pain.
Solution:
There is a way to manually set your own options for DOSBox, but it's oddly placed.

Open "/home/Library/Preferences/DOSBox 0.74 Preferences" with TextEdit ("home" being "localadmin" for me). This is essentially DOSBox's options screen. At the very bottom of the document, beneath where it says "# You can put your MOUNT lines here." write:

mount c ~/dosgames
c:
cd gabrie~1
sierra

...which is all the code that had to be written by hand into DOSBox. Upon starting up DOSBox now, all that will automatically happen, and it should automatically start the game. HOWEVER, I had to add something to this code, which is detailed in Problem #5...

Problem #4: No voices, the text is unreadably fast, and the Intro video doesn't work
Upon starting the game, I delighted in seeing the Sierra logo accompanied by a midi tune, followed by the game's menu screen. I clicked "Intro" ... and, after a few seconds of music, the game crashed.

I started it up again and this time hit Play from the menu. The opening scene worked fine ... until the characters began talking. Not only did the voice acting not play, but the speech text flew by too quickly to read.
Solution:
A quick fix for the fast text is to go to Options in-game and turn off voices. When the text flies by, the game is keeping the text up only as long as the voice files play, but the game can't find the voice files, so it just skips them AND the text. Turning off voices lets the text operate on its own time. BUT, this game has MARK HAMILL, TIM CURRY, and MICHAEL DORN in it, so screw that solution! I want my goddamn voices!

Problem #5: That last solution isn't good enough
The REAL problem is that the game can't find the voice file (or the Intro video), so I had to find them for it. After a ton of research and dead ends, I discovered that these files are stored on the game's .ISO file, BUT the files I downloaded from GOG.com didn't have such a thing! ... or DID it? Turns out that the file, "GK1.gog" (in the "Gabriel_Knight" directory) is the missing ISO. GOG had set up their own modification to the DOSBox preferences, which makes the game recognize "GK1.gog" as the ISO, but these preferences are designed for PCs and I was running DOSBox on a Mac. So I had to make my own preferences.
Solution:
After many, many dead ends, I found that the solution is actually pretty easy. In DOSBox, at the "Z:\>" prompt, I typed:

imgmount d ~/dosgames/gabriel_knight/GK1.gog -t iso

...which made DOSBox and the game recognize "GK1.gog" as the missing ISO. This makes the Intro video, voices, and text speed all work perfectly (and you can customize the latter two in the in-game Options menu as normal).

Of course, that command line can be written into the DOSBox preferences document mentioned in Problem #3 so you don't have to type it all in each time you play. With it included, the amendment to the "DOSBox 0.74 Preferences" document should look like:

mount c ~/dosgames
imgmount d ~/dosgames/gabriel_knight/GK1.gog -t iso
c:
cd gabrie~1
sierra

Problem #6: Graphic and sound quality
Even after finding the ISO, there were some annoying problems with both the graphics and sound quality when playing the game.
Solution:
From the "C:\>GABRIE~1>" prompt, instead of typing "sierra", type "install". This takes you to the game's install screen, where you can customize your hardware options. I found the best choices to be "VGA or IBM PS2 - 256 Colors" for graphics, "Sound Blaster Pro" for Music, and "ThunderBoard" for audio. Easy!

More like vague-deo games.

Tim Rogers' articles on Kotaku are rants. You click the link to open the article and you're faced with 20 pages or so of text. It's intimidating, but for them brave enough to read through there is usually a gem or two of game philosophy that Rogers has worked from every angle, polishing and polishing the thought until it shines like a star. Of course, you might not agree with his point, but I've always found the articles entertaining and rewarding. Still, I haven't bothered to seek out his other works, so yeah.

Anyway, this most recent article is, I think, brilliant. In it, Rogers has attempted something that I haven't heard of anyone else trying to do. Whenever I talk about a game, it can be difficult to describe the more abstract parts of it. I think everyone has this problem. It's like, you know, how Luigi kind of skids a little bit more when you stop than Mario does. It's like when the action slows down in Arkham Asylum and the camera changes angle when you do a really cool move. It's like how the old Sonic games are awesome, but the GBA games suck.

What Rogers has done is defined those abstract concepts. The buzzword he's made up is friction and he's made a dictionary of video game friction: A Frictionary.

This is important! If everybody used these terms when describing a video game, entire sentences, paragraphs, ESSAYS could be avoided in attempting to explain what until this point have been vaguely terms "game mechanics." Finally, we can start using solid, dependable words, instead of floaty descriptors like "the gameplay is good." We can use this Frictionary to make a better world!

Let's do, everyone. Together.

Those crazy rocos.

Loco Roco 2 is one of the best platformers I've played in a while and my favorite game on the PSP. Now a sequel, Midnight Carnival, is being released. Here is shit what needs buying.



Why couldn't they just call it Loco Roco 3, though? Why do so many series insist on using silly subtitles?

Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum is the game I was talking about a few posts back, when I was going on about how we were due for a good Batman game... and then this game was almost immediately announced. I was skeptical at first, as I always am of titles that handle popular IP. Then Rocksteady started touting their all-star crew: Mark Hamill as the Joker, Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Paul Dini writing. As they began saturating gaming sites with videos, it became hard to ignore their deft handling of the material and the promise of great stealth-action gameplay. But I was determined to remain unbiased as I awaited the arrival of the game.

And now that I have finished the story mode, I am allowed to gush. I simply can't communicate how well-designed this game is. This is more than the fulfillment of the prophecy I made, it's the game I've been waiting to play since Sonic Adventure 2: my new favorite action game.

One small step

I am mighty tired of space-based side-scrolling shooters, but Retro/Grade looks really fun.

I also turned 21 todaaaayesterday.

Jimmy Fallon is a tool

When relaxing in my own home at 12:40am, getting blindsided by the words "Madden," "greatest game ever," and "everyone at GameStop" makes me upset. Meanwhile, his show just sucks anyway, which, to be fair, is equally the fault of NBC as much as his.

Bethesda was like "New Fallout"

And I was like
WHOA.

Then they were like
"It's in Vegas"
and I was like
DOUBLE WHOA.

And then they were like
"Obsidian Entertainment"
and I was like
OH.

Too bad the new Fallout game's gonna suck!

http://kotaku.com/5219584/new-fallout-announced

Like, a dragon.

I've begun playing Ryu ga Gotoko 2, aka Yakuza 2, for the past two days and very much enjoying it. I think I'll be upset if the third game doesn't make it to North America.

The story is your typical mafia genre yarn, but there really isn't anything wrong with that; it's just plain fun. That fun is reflected in the combat, which is that wonderful blend of easy-to-use but difficult to master. The combat is topped off with brutal specials that satisfy that masculine part of me that loved 300. Just -- so great.

So far as I've played, the game largely takes place in Osaka. This is the part of Japan that I've frequented on my occasional visits, so it's thrilling to see the area rendered with such detail and accuracy.

Also:

For those who platform

When I read the description for Trine on Kotaku it didn't sound so fascinating, but I guess there must have been something attractive about it since I gave the trailer a chance. And I'm so very glad I did.

There's just something entirely enchanting about it. I guess that it's that Lost Vikings element of switching between characters on the fly to figure out puzzles. There's a wonderful balance of creation, destruction, and movement that the three characters compose that has intrigued me.

The game selection on the PSN has been somewhat disappointing. Sure, there are the flOws and the Echochromes, but it seems like the market is dominated by shooter titles that don't look like they've developed past Raiden or R-Type or whatever. Then there are the bizarre games that look like they were ... created as a joke? Do... do people really play Pain and, uh, Age of Booty?

I'm hoping that with the advent of LittleBigPlanet (which you really ought to be playing) platformers will regain popularity on the PS3. There are a few already: I'd hesitate to call PixelJunk Eden a platformer, but the PoP and Bionic Commando remakes can definitely be counted. Oh, and Mega Man 9 naturally. Honestly, I haven't play any of these yet! I should probably get on that! The problem is that these aren't original IPs and I really want to see some more original, more creative stuff. Trine seems like it might be the first to appeal this palate of mine.

So I wanted to do this, like, really thoughtful piece on, like, how platformers are changing in this age of 3D HD graphics physics engines. But, uh, I'm not so good at conveying my thoughtfulness without sounding preachy, I guess. So I'll just try to wrap it up quickly... there really isn't much to it as long as you can comprehend it.

Basically, I have this theory that platformers have already adapted to 3D, next-gen environments ... just not in the way you think. The way that Mario, Sonic, and Crash have been approaching it (oh, and LBP doesn't count since it's still a side-scroller)is really backwards, actually, because they've been trying to apply 2D mechanisms to a 3D environment, which 9 out of 10 times doesn't work. You may argue this point, but please remember that jumping -- JUMPING, the most important action in ANY platformer -- is still really hard to do in 3D. Even after a decade, it has continued to be a clumsy, inefficient element of gameplay that has never worked with any type of 3D camera, whether first, second, or third. Sonic has skirted around the problem of jumping by introducing the homing attack, and even Mario, probably the best example of the 3D platformer, had to introduce an attack button because it's nearly impossible to bop a Goomba on the head on your first try.

Okay, I think I've made my point about "traditional" 3D platformers. What I'm trying to get at is that the real next-gen (or current-gen -- whatever we're calling it now) platformers are games like Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed, Shadow of the Colossus, and Mirror's Edge. Yeah, not the mascot games about jumping on badniks, but the realistic games that ground the player with gravity, weight, and scale.

Think about it. Why did the video game industry start using 3D environments in the first place? To make them more realistic, of course. The 2D platformer is contrary to that notion in every way, which is why a 2D Sonic game will always be better than a 3D Sonic game. But this new breed of platformer was born and raised in the realism of 3D and HD graphics and physics engines. It's why we love these games and their characters and why we have become more attached to them than we have Super Mario Galaxy and any of the crappy Sonic games that have been released over the past few years. I still haven't met the person who has played SotC and doesn't include it in his top ten games.

So what's the next step? Mix it up, of course! Add more to it than just climbing and jumping. Maybe steal some ideas from Mario or whatever. Can you imagine playing PoP and having Bullet Bills flying around? Of course, SotC has already done a lot of this, but we're constantly seeing new things crop up. Mirror's Edge ... doesn't seem fully realized, but hell if it isn't something new! I'm very hopeful that more new, creative platformers will begin to crop up. And oh man I can't freaking wait for Team Ico's next game.

Okay. So. Fallout 3.

This is an excellent game. It is my favorite game this year. And I cannot ever play it again.

Well, maybe I can in a few years time, when I've nearly forgotten the game altogether. I've been experiencing this same problem with Morrowind. When I originally played the game, I became totally immersed in it, like I was living another life. I approached Morrowind as I think I would if I was really there, really talking to the people and really exploring the island.

Er, I mean, of course, if I had the skills to fight hoards of enemies and run for miles carrying 200lbs of equipment without tiring.

Then I stopped playing. I had explored most of the island (though not nearly all of it) and gone through most of the main quest and I was just in the mood for something else. Shortly after, my mother uninstalled the game and deleted all the info for it in one of her crazy spring cleaning runs she does on the family PC. That's... that's a whole other story.

Anyway, I eventually ended up with an Xbox and enough money to buy the Game of the Year Edition for the console. Not as preferable as the PC version with the user mods, but by this time I'm at college and I don't have a PC anymore. I'm really looking forward to getting back into Vvardenfell and trying to play as a different class from my original character.

So I step off the boat that brings you into the island. Choose dark elf as my race and do a little custom class to mix up some weapon and spell usage. I play for a bit, begin to do some missions in Balmora. Soon enough, I take a break, and I never come back.

The problem was that I was already familiar with all the missions and characters. Sure, this time I joined the Fighters' Guild inside of the Thieves', choose the Long Blade instead of the Sneak skill, but the locations and the faces and dialogue was stuff that I already knew. A quest that had previously taken an hour of exploring to finish only took a few minutes, because I knew where everything was. A supplementary problem is that by spending less time exploring and fighting monsters, I wasn't getting any leveling done and was stuck without any cool abilities or strengths. Ultimately, I began to wish I could just pick up my old PC save file and start playing the expansion packs from there.

It's only natural that I'm having the same problem with Fallout 3, since both games are Bethesda. I'm having a more interesting problem this time, though. See, Fallout is great because there are literally thousands of different decisions you can make in the game, some minute, like giving a thirsty bum some water, and some grand, like blowing up an entire city. Whenever I go back to start a new game, however, I can only make the same decisions I made before!

This is really bizarre to me! It's also kind of pathetic. Do I take this fantasy world so seriously that I can't cap some guy in the brain without feeling bad about it?

Right now, I'm trying to play with a particular personality in mind. I'm a female character, and I wanted to play like this mercenary seductress, so naturally with the Black Widow perk enabled and only accepting missions that pay well. My problem is that as soon as I begin to play like this, Fallout 3 becomes just a game. There is no longer any motivation for me, because I, in reality, am not motivated by greed, nor am I a seductress. I become detached from the world, an outsider looking in, a kid with a toy -- rather than what I want to be: a character in the story.

I have this problem with all open-world games, really. KOTOR, Fable, etc. These are games that I have to extract every once of enjoyment out of the first time through because, unless I forget everything about the games, I'll never be able to play them the way I want to again.

I'm not gonna let this go.

GamesRadar has a cool (and old) article up on fixing failing video game franchises and Batman rounds the list off. The writers and the editors of this video put it much better than I did, but I insist that they must have read my post back in July. Jerks.

Why a Batman game should be like Splinter Cell, CSI, and Crackdown.

WHY THE HELL DOESN'T THIS GAME EXIST.

Though that Arkham Asylum game looks like it might be good. I'm not particularly fond of the Jim Lee stylings of it and I wasn't a huge fan of Escape From Butcher Bay. Still, the game definitely looks like a step in the right direction as long as the combat is less mano a mano and more Splinter Cell.

The Foretelling

I was just struck by another vision regarding MGS5. Two visions, in fact. Ever in motion is the future and either of this possibilities may come to pass. MGS5 may move through the river of time in one of two ways:

The future: 

A century after the events of MGS4, long after the death of Solid Snake, a new clone of Big Boss appears. This new operative's codename is "Space Snake." The game is a sneaking mission that takes place on a futuristic star cruiser. Advanced technology provides new, more difficult obstacles for infiltration agents, but Space Snake also has his own high-tech arsenal. 

The past:

The game stars The Boss and the Cobra Unit during their glory days in WWII. The game may chronicle the formation of the Cobras; hopefully it will not have to do with The Boss and The Sorrow's fateful last mission.

So when either of these events come to pass, just remember: I called it.

(Space Snake, mofo.)

What I is

Is a cyber-seer. I foresaw the Sonic RPG. I imagined the free running game. I prophesied the next Batman game. 

I promise to only use this power for Good.

For my next act, I will predict the circumstances of Metal Gear Solid 5. Hideo Kojima will return as director.

BEHOLD MY POWERS!

I bought a PS3

Don't tell my mom. She'd have a cow.

More like Mortal Dumbat vs. Dumb-Cee Universe

So I just glanced at the pre-E3 stuff on Gamespot and behold: in-game footage from Mortal Kombat vs. DC. I don't know how this thing ever got the green light. I'll grant that I've never liked Mortal Kombat in the first place, but this in particular simply doesn't look appealing.

Actually, has there been a DC game since the 8-bit days that was any good? It's upsetting that nothing comes to mind. A couple of months ago I got the notion of a free-roaming Batman game and was pleased to see in an interview in the May issue of Game Informer that someone in the industry, Todd Howard -- project leader of Morrowind, no less -- has the same idea. I'd only gone as far as imagining a completely free-roaming Gotham and crime-solving gameplay, however; Howard has even more gameplay features in mind, like a "vigilante" rating that determines how much the police force trusts you. One can only hope such an awesome concept should actually come into being; unfortunately, the best we can hope for is LEGO Batman.

Another game concept I had envisioned (like some kind of cyber seer) was the free-running simulator. I'd actually imagined it as a racing game that friends could compete in, but DICE's Mirror's Edge will do. First person acrobatics are something to be wary of (see "first person jumping puzzles" under the third commandment) and I think what I really want is a evolved spin-off of Prince of Persia's gameplay, but this game is too intriguing to go unnoticed. I'd initially been turned off to the first images I saw of the game, which rely too much on a futuristic style that comes off as being oddly bland. The feeling is emphasized by the story trailer they released recently which looks like an ugly Esurance reject. I stand by my opinion that the game's style (though certainly not the graphics) is ugly, especially the character design, but when I watched the gameplay footage, I realized that the blandness of the environment serves an important purpose: objects that are brightly colored -- red waterworks pipes, blue sky roofs, orange paint -- stand out against the overwhelming white sterility of the rest of the world and direct you on a subconscious level through each "level." And this has forced me to acknowledge that this is a fully-realized project, one that isn't only about the superficiality of action and generic sci-fi yarns, but one that has themes that reside in not only the story element but the gameplay too. It's surprising to see such a thing spawned from a developer that has produced naught but licensed games and an apparently endless stream of Battlefield sequels, but it's just as encouraging as surprising and I hope the game turns out great.

MGS4

Why did I just buy a game for a console I don't own?

You get points.

GamePolitics.com is always good for a laugh, but this article in particular is just classic. The original article, found here hosts some more great quotes, like:

Are you a gamer at all? Do you play any games these days?
“I enjoy video games.”
What do you play?
“I have a lot of fun. I play all sorts of games. I actually have a Wii.

I Heart Sega

Sega Superstars Tennis is looking really cool. I have little to no interest in sports games, but I am very impressed and excited with the look of these tennis courts. As if it wasn't cool enough seeing Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, and Outrun courts, some of the Sonic levels are the best I've seen out of any of the recent Sega games!

THIS is what Mario and Sonic at the Olympics should have been. Awesome, interactive backgrounds and unique special moves for each character with tons of obscure references to the games. Essentially, Smash Bros.: Olympics Edition.

Incidentally, I really, really want to see a Jet Set Radio game on the Wii.

I Called It: Part 2

So Sonic RPG is now officially "Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood". No joke!

It looks like it might be really good. Probably standard, fun RPG fare along the lines of Chrono Trigger or Golden Sun. Bioware ... as you may recall ... is making it ... for the DS ... and they appear to be taking it pretty much exactly where I expected (but not hoped) in terms of gameplay. On the positive side, this watercolor-like feel to the visuals is very pleasing, but I'm very disappointed to see that it applies only to backgrounds and not to HUDs, menus, or character art or models.