Squirt the Cat Installer – Phantasmagoria 2

Phantasmagoria 2 – A Puzzle of Flesh

Other Games

Modified for Windows XP/Vista

  • XP/Vista installer.
  • XP/Vista windows executable.
  • Scales to use entire screen (Direct3D bilinear interpolation).
  • Eliminates black lines in cut-scenes.
  • Per-user save games (Vista friendly).
  • Fixes exceptions and script errors under XP/Vista.

Requirements

  • Windows XP or Vista.
  • DirectX 9c (Direct3D).
  • Phantasmagoria 2 CD set (not included):
    • English
    • French
    • German

Download

Changes to the original game

XP/Vista Installer

  • New installer created to be XP/Vista friendly.
  • The installer will install the files normally included by a Sierra minimum install.
  • The Sierra P2FIX update files are included and installed (English version only).

XP/Vista Executable

  • Modified version of the original Sierra Windows 95 executable.
  • Fixes SP alignment bugs causing script errors under XP/Vista.
  • Eliminate black lines in cut-scenes.
  • Use hardware support for mouse cursor.
  • Upscale to full screen resolution while maintaining aspect ratio.
    • Dirext3D hardware accelerated bilinear interpolation.
    • On a widescreen monitor black bars are added left/right to maintain correct aspect ratio.
  • Store save games per user to work under Vista. Default APPDATA locations:
    • XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Sierra\Phantasmagoria 2
    • Vista: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Sierra\Phantasmagoria 2

Common problems

Error: “Could not find 999.pal resource”: The game cannot find the CD – either the wrong CD has been inserted or the CDROM drive location in RESOURCE.WIN is incorrect. Edit RESOURCE.WIN or reinstall and select the correct CDROM drive location.

Mouse cursor is a large black box:
1) Download and install the latest Windows drivers for the video card.
2) Check that the color-depth is set to 32-bit in the Windows display settings.

Crashes during gameplay: If you find a repeatable crash, pleaspost on the SquirtTheCat forum and include the steps to reproduce.

Change log

Release 20080916:

  • Optimize video rendering.
  • French release.

Release 20080706:

  • German release.

Release 20080704:

  • Fix bug in hardware cursor support causing corrupt cursor and/or crash.

Release 20080628:

  • Use hardware support for mouse cursor.

Release 20080624:

  • Fix 100% CPU problem on menus.

Release 20080622:

  • Fix glitches in cutscenes on some machines.
  • Cleanup dead code paths.

Release 20080619:

  • Fix interactive animation timing.
  • Fix 100% CPU load during normal gameplay.

Release 20080611:

  • Render mouse cursor as seperate Direct3D object to improve mouse performance.
  • Improve Direct3D handling.

Release 20080605:

  • Fix Direct3D error message when Ctrl-Alt-Del is pressed.

Release 20080602:

  • Fix not-enough-memory error under 64-bit Vista with >= 4GB RAM.
  • Improve error messages.

Release 20080601:

  • Show error message if Direct3D initialization fails.

Release 20080530b:

  • Fix incorrect manifest causing 0xC0150002 error on some systems.

Release 20080530:

  • Fix Direct3D multithreading crash.
  • Fix handling of paths containing spaces.

Release 20080529:

  • Eliminate DOS window shown in background.
  • Move start menu location to “Sierra/Phantasmagoria 2”.

Release 20080527b:

  • Move video rendering to a seperate thread to prevent audio glitches.

Release 20080527:

  • Use Direct3D for video rendering.
  • Use bilinear interpolation for upscaling.
  • Fix black screen glitches.
  • Fix privileged instruction crash.

Release 20080526:

  • Initial XP/Vista release.
  • XP/Vista installer.
  • Fix SP alignment bugs causing script errors under XP/Vista.
  • Eliminate black lines in cut-scenes.
  • Upscale video to use entire screen.
  • Store save games in user-specific APPDATA directory to work under Vista.