Myst on WinOS2

Subject: [5-3-1] OS/2 Date: 06/21/1996

There is a World Wide Web site which contains a lot of information about running diskette and CD-ROM games under OS/2, mainly from feedback of OS/2 users. The particular page you should be interested in is:



When I was playing Myst, I used to Dual Boot or use Boot Manager to boot to pure DOS. Even though I miss out on the multitasking advantage of OS/2, I had no problems running the game. If you insist on playing Myst under OS/2, there seems to be a general procedure. Please refer to the comment article (1) below.

Here are some settings you might like to try in the Settings notebook:

WIN_RUN_MODE           ENHANCED AUDIO_ADAPTER_SHARING  REQUIRED DPMI_DOS_API           ENABLED DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT      64 EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT       4096 HW_TIMER               ON IDLE_SECONDS            60 IDLE_SENSITIVITY       100 INT_DURING_IO          ON VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP  OFF VIDEO_RETRACE_EMULATION OFF XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT       4096

Here are some comments from other people:

(1) (Edited) Article: 16396 of comp.os.os2.games From: jhstagem@unmc.edu (James Stageman III) Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.games Subject: Myst/QuickTime Update Date: 21 Dec 1995 05:54:15 GMT

"These are the changes you need to make to get Myst to work well in Win-OS/2:


 * 1) Install QuickTime 2.0 or newer;
 * 2) Get the file timer.drv from OS/2 2.11;
 * 3) Change TimerMax286Res value to 20 in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI file;
 * 4) In the QTW.INI file, change the "optimize=" line to:
 * Hardware is the default driver smooths things a little (2 sec before freeze)
 * BMP (about the same as driver)
 * RAW (about 3 sec before freeze)
 * DIB (goes 30 sec or so; but in 16 colors)

I have mine set to "optimize=RAW". This list is taken from a QuickTime readme file.

I believe the problem lies with QuickTime itself. Now I can get the first "blue" video to play all the way through with some mouse movement (as stated in previous posts). If anybody else has other ideas on improving Myst, post it or e-mail me."

(2) (Edited) Article: 25366 of comp.os.os2.games From: bryanw@inland.net (Bryan Whitehead) Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.games Subject: Re: MYST and Error 10200 under OS/2 Date: 19 Jun 1996 16:28:00 GMT

"OS/2 writes a Readme file to your root directory. Depending on the file system (HPFS or FAT) it's called OS!2 Readme-. It has a detailed description of getting Myst working under OS/2. Here it is:

Do the following:
 * Myst and The Making of Myst

1. Edit the SYSTEM.INI file located in the \OS2\MDOS\WINOS2 directory and change the following statements from: SET TIMERMax386Res=10 SET TIMERMax286Res=10 to: SET TIMERMax386Res=x SET TIMERMax286Res=x x is a variable between 8 and 20 depending on your hardware platform.

2. Save the file. Then shut down and restart your system.

3. Get Quicktime 2.0, which is located on CompuServe, as follows (refer to the section "Where can I get a newer version of QuickTime?"):
 * a. Log on to CompuServe.
 * b. Type GO QUICKTIME.
 * c. Follow the instructions menu to download Quicktime 2.0.

If you have a partition with native Windows, you will need to take out references in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to the Windows directories on other drives. For example, D:WINDOWS;D:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. After you install Quicktime** 2.0, you can put the statements back in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

4. Install Quicktime 2.0 for Myst and the Making of Myst.

To enable sound for Myst and The Making of Myst, you must enable the Windows sound drivers. For more information, see "Adding Windows Audio Support" in the Multimedia online book, which is located in the Information folder on your OS/2 Desktop.

To ensure The Making of Myst will work correctly under OS/2, do the following:

1. Set up a WIN-OS/2 session with the same settings as Myst.

2. Run The Making of Myst in a WIN-OS/2 full-screen session."