Shannara

[Chris]

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and download (if available) (http://abandonia.com/en/games/25046/Shannara.html)

[rabadi]

I suppose this is the CD-Ripped version? Sorry if it is already mentioned in the review (too lazy to check). If I remember correctly (again, too lazy to check :whistling: ), the ISO version is in the ISO Cellar. Regardless of which version it is, I highly recommend this game :clap:

[Chris]

You're right, it's a CD rip. The full version was a bit too large to put it on site. But it is complete except for the speech, so you can enjoy the full game without it (or make your way to senior member status for the complete ISO...).

[Miczek]

wow!!
Thanks a lot for one of my beloved games :clap:

[_r.u.s.s.]

the game looks really nice

[Capo]

Wow, that looks awesome, i have to play this game!

[Simoneer]

:o

Gotta try this one out.

[Frodo]

It's good to see this on site. I had such a great time reviewing it. :clap:

Wonderful game. I can highly recommend it. :)

[Japo]

I got the full CD image, it's looking great so far. :)

[Geezer]

Just uploaded the manual although it isn't that substantial. About half trouble shooting guide. Sorry, Frodo, I forgot I told you I would do that a couple weeks ago.

[Frodo]

Thanks Geezer. It's good to have the whole package for Shannara :)

[SoothSayer]

when i try to run the game it says unable to allocate memory for the voice directory.. how do i solve this problem?

[_r.u.s.s.]

you ran the setup and set your sound to sound blaster ... don't do that. run sound setup again and disable sound blaster, because the sound is ripped

[Frodo]

Alternatively, download the game, and don't change any settings. Don't run setup. The game works fine as it is. :)

[SoothSayer]

Thnx A lot :D

[SoothSayer]

i finished it.. i took about 11 hours.. Very nice game i don't know about the books but the game was great!!! Nice Upload

[Frodo]

So did you destroy Brona? :bleh:

I think Davio and Leah are my favourite character. But Brendal was brilliant as well. :3:

[SoothSayer]

i certainly did (with a little help for the final attack if you catch me ;) )
i would go for Brendal and Leah although Brendal was a little less talkative throuhout the game...
Now its time for Gabriel Knight 1 :)

[Salmoneaus]

Hello all,

Great game, I played it years ago, and am glad to find it here, albeit without voice. I got Shannara.exe to run through Dosbox, but it alerts me that it cannot find restart.dat, and I cannot save.

Alternatively, if I run the install file, I get a warning that I cannot install it to the same drive as the CD. Anyone with any clue how to configure this game so I can save it?

Thanks everyone!

[dosraider]

As you can read in the previous posts the game is pre-configured to run in dosbox (and it does run fine, really).

So the problem will probably be in your mountings/ the way you run the game / your Virtual C mounting / whatever or whatnot......

Without you giving detailed info it's kinda hard to figure out where it goes wrong.

In other words: details please. THX.

[Salmoneaus]

Thanks for your willingness to help!

Here goes:

I unzip the .rar, leaving me with a Shannara folder. I've tried to run it in two ways.

Way #1:
Place Shannara in a C:\Games\Shannara folder.
Open DosBox
"Mount C C:\Games\Shannara"
Switch to the C: directory
Run "Shannara"

I get the music, I get to the main Shannara title screen, and then a black screen with a gray box says: "Can't find .\Restart.dat"

Then the game opens to the first outdoors panorama, and all the functionality is there. But when I try to save, it says: "Can't find .\Shannara000.sav". I don't play any further, even though I could, as the prospect of not saving doesn't appeal to me.


Way #2 (This actually works, once, when you do it, but then it stops working on the second trial)
Mount D C:\Games\Shannara (mount Shannara as a disc drive)
Mount C C:\Dosbox\
Switch to D: directory
Run "Install"
Install Shannara to the C: drive (which is really C:\Dosbox, another folder I made)
Switch to C: directory
Run "Shannara"
everything works fine. Even was able to save.

But after closing dosbox, and reopening, and even mounting the C:\Games\Shannara to D, and the C:\Dosbox\Shannara to C, and then running Shannara from C: or D:, I get the same error message:

"Cannot find .\restart.dat". If I run from the Virtual C, it then crashes. If I run from the Virtual D, I'm allowed into the game, but again with the "Can't find Shannara000.sav" if I try to save.

There you have it. Could you please tell me your mount method that worked?

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any input sir!

[Frodo]

Download Shannara to your desktop, and unzip it.
Drag & Drop Shannara.exe onto the DosBox icon. It should run fine. :)

[dosraider]

There you have it. Could you please tell me your mount method that worked?
I've tested the game under XP and Vista, no problems.

If you want my mount lines, there you go:
Under XP:
mount c e:\games\
c:
cd shannara
shannara


Under Vista(32-64):
mount c "c:\users\my name\oldgames\
c:
cd shannara
shannara


And also the drag/drop method mentioned by Frodo.

No problems.

To repeat what has been said already many times:
Do not run install, simply unzip the WHOLE shannara folder and run shannara.exe.

BTW, the saves are stored in 3 files apparently:

restart.dat
journal.00x
shan00x.sav

Those 3 are the created files on current date/time.

Things that could go wrong with your game:

Uncompatible unarchiver?-( Unlikely, but....)- Try 7zip.
http://www.7-zip.org/
Be sure to select the whole shannara folder in the archive to extract.
Your OS? Write restrictions? Vista?
Dosbox version? I've tested the game under 0.72 and the new released 0.73.

[Edit]
.... I unzip the .rar ....
Slip of the tongue? The AB archive is not a RAR file but a ZIP file.

[Salmoneaus]

Thanks for all your help guys. I'll try a few more things thanks to your input after work today:

1. Redownload the game, in case what I downloaded was corrupted.

2. The simple drag and drop method, shannara.exe onto dosbox

3. The time/date thing you said - that perked my ears. Where I work there is a pretty insidious virus that goes from OS to USB memory sticks that changes the system time to 2020 upon every restart (thereby screwing with the autoupdate of a lot of programs, including AVG). It disguises itself as msmgner.exe (trying to look like some kind of legit program), but Malwarebits blasts it. I'm our default "tech guy" at work (in the social services, and there is no techie for our 4 computers, so I run all the installs, virus protection, updates, and reinstalls if necessary, because I'm the most computer savvy - whether you believe that or not ;0 ). It is incredibly hard to "stop" this virus as it immediately goes from USB thumb drive when they are opened to OS, and from OS to USB thumb drive. With 20 employees or so, many using USB thumb drives and never all there at the same time, the virus spreads back around pretty quickly. Needless, it hasn't affected my vista machine to my knowledge, but I'll have to take a closer look, if those save files have anything to do with system date....

Anyhow, thanks for your help. I'll post the results of my efforts after I conduct them.

Cheers!

[Chris]

3. The time/date thing you said - that perked my ears. Where I work there is a pretty insidious virus that goes from OS to USB memory sticks that changes the system time to 2020 upon every restart (thereby screwing with the autoupdate of a lot of programs, including AVG). It disguises itself as msmgner.exe (trying to look like some kind of legit program), but Malwarebits blasts it. I'm our default "tech guy" at work (in the social services, and there is no techie for our 4 computers, so I run all the installs, virus protection, updates, and reinstalls if necessary, because I'm the most computer savvy - whether you believe that or not ;0 ). It is incredibly hard to "stop" this virus as it immediately goes from USB thumb drive when they are opened to OS, and from OS to USB thumb drive. With 20 employees or so, many using USB thumb drives and never all there at the same time, the virus spreads back around pretty quickly. Needless, it hasn't affected my vista machine to my knowledge, but I'll have to take a closer look, if those save files have anything to do with system date....

Anyhow, thanks for your help. I'll post the results of my efforts after I conduct them.

Cheers!

All this has not to do a single bit with Shannara. Just try the hints given above. :max:

[Japo]

Nice, but my favourite game from Legend is still Gateway 2 by far. :P

[ChibiKitsuneWarrior]

Oh, this is so awesome! As a fan of the book series, I'm really looking forward to playing this. <3 I wish that I'd found it earlier. XD

Isn't there another Shannara game that's text-based or something? >>
I thought I found one on here, but now I can't find it. D; Help, please?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Far as I can determine, this one is the only one there is.

[ChibiKitsuneWarrior]

Ah, I see. I must've been mistaken then. ^-^;;
Thanks for letting me know. ^-^

[bluestarultor]

I've come across what appears to be a full CD image. If someone could confirm this, I'd be happy to provide it.

[zombiejesus1987]

I got this game from a computer magazine (I'm pretty sure it was PC Gaming...but I'm not quite sure) when it came out in the 90s..the cd contained all sorts of demo's (Yoda Stories and Tigershark are the only ones that come in mind), and the full version of Shannara.
I agree with everything said in the review, although it's a shame you didn't have the voice acting working. The voice acting was amazing, especially for a game from the mid 90s. If anyone can find a copy of the game, get it! It's well worth it.

[_r.u.s.s.]

if you have the version with voice acting, could you create an image for us?

we put full images hosted on external hosts in the iso cellar

[Japo]

This is already in the Cellar:

http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=14232

[_r.u.s.s.]

sorry should've checked

[Wicky]

I happen to have an image of Shannara which is 782mb in size (450mb compressed at maximum settings)

The cd in the Iso cellar is only 269mb. So I wondered if you want to replace it with mine. Though I don't remember if it's german or english.

[_r.u.s.s.]

the more images the better!

[Japo]

Yes maybe it can be added instead of replace the existing one. I played that and it has speech, AFAIK it's not a rip--otherwise it shouldn't be in the cellar. I don't know the differences between both images, perhaps yours is multi-lingual? :/ But I don't think the one we have is incomplete.

[dosraider]

Confirmation: it is the full CD image in the ISO cellar, approx 700 MB BIN/CUE uncompressed.

[Edit]
715.026.432 bytes on HD ....:ph34r:

[Capo]

Finished today: Great game, a little bit sad. I suggest the cd version since the voice acting is excellent.