I’ve started playing Dungeon Keeper II again. I looked into it, and you don’t have to run it on a DOS emulator anymore (yay), because GOG Games apparently buys up old abandonware and keeps it current so it can run on modern systems. I recall that before, even from GOG Games, DKII would crash constantly and was absolutely unplayable. Plus they had a patch to update it to the “latest” version of the game, which also happened to prevent Dark Angels from spawning. Ugh. So I had given up on that for a while.
For whatever reason, I looked into it again this weekend, and found that from GOG Games it is now only $2.39 to buy DKII; plus, I saw in the comments that the game supposedly was updated to run on Windows 7 and Windows 8. At that price, I figured, what the heck. I’ll buy it and see if what they say is true. I wouldn’t mind being out $2.39 if it was still completely unplayable.
So I bought it, and it took a minor bit of tweaking around to get it running on Windows 10 (which nobody claimed it could run on, so this is not surprising), but it wasn’t too bad. Pretty much all I had to do was enable DirectPlay on Windows 10, which you do in Programs and Features by enabling “Legacy Components” in the list of Windows Features to turn on/off, and then enabling “DirectPlay” in the drop-down menu under “Legacy Components.” Et voila!
I got it up and running, and – no crashes! Everything was smooth and perfect. I played it for approximately 1,000,000 hours and it never crashed or lagged once.
But, after approximately 1,000,001 hours of gameplay, I finally discovered that one of the old problems were still there to haunt me. No Dark Angels. Dun-dun-duuuuuhhhnn. Serves me right for doing the campaign first, even though all I wanted to do all along was My Pet Dungeon. If I had started with MPD, I would have noticed this right away.
It didn’t matter if my whole dungeon was nothing but temples, I wouldn’t get a Dark Angel. I might not have noticed, if not for the fact that suddenly a Maiden (dryder) entered my dungeon. I have a deep-seated association with Maidens and the glitches associated with the patch, since they were first introduced in the anti-Angel patch. UGH. I almost quit and stopped playing right then and there. What is there left to aspire to, if you cannot even get Dark Angels?
Fortunately, I did a bit of Googling, and found this site that outlines how to correct the problem caused by the patch, and even provides the necessary files (from the old, non-patched version) to do so. Phew!
As you can see in the above screenshot, after replacing those files, you can now have a dungeon in which Maidens and Dark Angels coexist.
And yes, Warlocks are my favorites forever and ever, which is why I always must have a gillion of them.
I’m so jelly that I don’t have a copy of this game I could play on my Mac or iPad. I’d even settle for a clone that didn’t suck. I love watching you play it.
Alas, DKII came out in the bad old days when nothing came out for Macs, and certainly not any games. I used to play it on a DOS emulator, after it no longer worked on the newer Windows operating systems, and it wasn’t bad running it on an emulator. I wonder if DOSBox has a version of its emulator for Macs? That could work.
You’ll want to check out Boxer: http://boxerapp.com
Ah-hah! I knew there had to be one out there.
I love this article. It has bags of personality.
I liked the Dark Angels for a while, but the Warlocks are game winners.
Thanks!
I agree about the Dark Angels. They’re good as a novelty creature, but Warlocks are truly indispensable.
Of course, I usually go so overboard with the Warlocks, and end up with so many that when they decide to pray during their time off, there are so many of them praying all at once that one or two get crushed by the press and forced into the Dark Temple water and thereby “sacrificed” :/
I suggest the following for any sequels.
1. Imp control: 2 kinds of imps. Passive: only dig where directed and not explore or fight. They tend to rush into enemy territory and get killed. Active: dig, explore and fight as normal.
2. Bank: all gold is brought directly here first so that creatures do not have to seek it out.
3. Market. All chickens are brought here so that creatures do not have to seek far away hatcheries.
The advantage is that you do not have to keep watch on creatures to prevent them sulking or quitting. Bile Demons are the worst.
Battle Orders: Assign orders to each class of creature. Active: as normal. Passive: to keep closest to the Heart and only fight to defend it. Otherwise avoid combat.
These orders are particularly necessary for Fireflies and Fairies who rush all over the place and put themselves in danger.
Make water impassable.
Include Gem mines in all maps. That allows longer games and less room taken up by Gold Seams.
Permit Vampires to train in Combat Pit without dying.
I certainly agree on all those counts! It sucks having to always micromanage your critters so they don’t get mad because they couldn’t find their bed, etc. I pretty much just throw back all bile demons because they’re too fussy about food, and all fireflies because all they do is fly immediately into a combat situation! Rogues can also get themselves into trouble, but I still keep them around because they’re funny.
If you haven’t already, you might want to check out War for the Overworld, an unofficial clone/sequel to DKII and I thiiiiink they got the original Advisor-Guy voice! It is very indie, and not without its faults, but they actually implement many of your suggestions, namely:
You can set boundaries for your imps so they don’t go claiming/digging hostile territory without your say-so
You can assign critters to a “Peace-Band” that means they do not heed calls-to-arms and instead stay back in the dungeon and do their usual, not-fighting jobs (like for the Warlock equivalent it would be researching, for example, or other creatures can keep building things in their version of the workshop) which is CRUCIAL for your dungeon to keep ticking along and not grind to a halt when everybody goes off on the warpath
You can assign critters to a “War-Band” which you can selectively call only those guys into battle
And there’s a few other nice details, such as a differentiation between beasts and intelligent creatures, and beasts do not collect salaries or require the same amenities as intelligent creatures, etc.
All-in-all, worth checking out! Especially since, after EA bought Bullfrog, it really isn’t looking like they’ll ever be releasing any official sequals :/
I suspect the Voice of the Game to be the same guy who introduces the Duckula TV series. He has a most subtle voice for sarcasm. In particular, I like his “You have too many Mistresses: there’s a word for people like you”.
It’s a pity God Games are dying out. In addition to the other Bullfrog games, I also recommend “Settlers 2”.
In it, farmers have to grow corn to make beer to pay the military. Too much corn and the military grows short. You have to balance the budget. So I would recommend any public body that controls others to obtain similar software to “Settlers” An example is Social Services. One body will seek to cut a penny from its own budget which then costs many dollars to another to combat it. For example, cutting a Service may result in an expensive court hearing. A case of penny-wise, pound foolish. Such a computer would spot this.
I also suggest a super national computer that monitors all bank transactions. Suppose, for example, a back street shop is turning over millions of bucks. That would spike on the computer and suggest drug trafficking or some other crime.
In addition, it may spot political corruption and tax avoidance. Of course, like in “Person of Interest” TV series, the bad guys will want control. To prevent this, no change is made to the computer without the unaminous vote of say 20 people.
It would be hard for the baddies to put pressure on all 20. To be sure, before voting, each member will undertake a stress test and, if his kid has been kidnapped, it will show up and the motion halted.