At my wits end

[RefinedBulbasir]

So I am not technical AT ALL.

I have tried following fix after fix and I'm so frustrated that I can't get the game to install!

I just recently bought the game off a vintage games dealer and the disc is in perfect condition. I have gotten myself so upset im crying, ive tried all day and most of the night trying everything I can to get it to start the download. but it wont work and now ive gotten myself into hysterics

I got Universal Exstracter and got the 445 patch on my Windows 10 pc and tried the fix someone else on here suggested by attempting to UE the data1.cab but nothing is going right. admitedly the instructions were bare bones for someone who doesn't know what the heck their doing.

Im so desperate id let one of yall remote access my pc please help me

if youre gonna give a suggestion please write it like youre talking to a 3yr old cause though i understand some things about pc tricks, so far the fixes ive seen on here look like advanced alien speak to me

[Arokhs Twin]

Hi there, does the game start to install from the CD? It should go through the install (make sure you install both single player and multi player parts when prompted) however the game won't run until the 445 patch is installed. After this is installed see if it runs OK.

Basically the steps are:-

1) Install game from CD selecting both multiplayer and single player
2) Install 445 patch
3) Test game to see if it works. If it crashes try starting in developer mode by holding shift whilst starting the game. Select ruined village from the list of levels.
4) Install latest All-in-One patch which is recommended

Let us know what error messages you get (if any)

Also let us know what your PC specs are if you can especially what graphics card it has.

[Mechanist]

Here's a simple, step by step solution:

First you should uninstall Drakan, although in my experience it isn't strictly required; just renaming the folder to something else is sufficient.
However, to be safe and to keep it simple, just perform a complete uninstall.

Then go to this page, and download the "Drakan Gold Pack Enhanced", courtesy of UCyborg. The download link is in the first post.
This is a ready-to-run repack of Drakan with the latest patch already applied. It also contains all of the available mods (but they are disabled by default), and all the player-created levels.

Unpack it to a location of your choice.
In the unpacked folder, there should be a folder named "AiO patch". Open it, and right-click the file "Disable_Drakan_Compat_Shims.reg", selecting "Merge" from the context menu.

That's it, Drakan should work now. Start it by double-clicking Drakan.exe.
To open the configuration screen ("Riot Engine Options"), hold SHIFT while double-clicking Drakan.exe, or create a shortcut with the -setup parameter added.

To run in developer mode, hold SHIFT while double-clicking Drakan.exe, and in the Developer tab, select "Enable Developer Mode".
Be warned that this causes the intro to not show. Also, to select difficulty in developer mode, hold CTRL when clicking on "New game".

I know that there can be other problems when running Drakan on Win10, but sadly I can't help you with that - I'm running XP/Win7, and avoid 8/10 like the plague.

[Arokhs Twin]

One other thing; Drakan runs on Windows 10 but will not save the preferences such as sound / video settings etc. That may just be my PC but I have to set it every time I play otherwise it seems fine.

[Mechanist]

Hmm, that sounds like a problem with Drakan.exe lacking write privileges for the folder in question.

Have you tried running it as admin, and/or setting PerUserConfigAndSaves=0 in Arokh.ini?

[Arokhs Twin]

Yeah tried as Admin, I'll try the ini file modification, thanks

[Mechanist]

You're welcome.

Keep in mind that there are 2 copies of Arokh.ini, though - one in the main OOTF directory, and another one in your user profile (ie. Documents\My games\Drakan).
I have no idea which one of them is used to determine this particular setting - so try changing it in both of them, just to be sure.

Ah, and be sure to move your savegames to the OOTF folder if you change that setting, otherwise they won't be accessible from the game.

[Arokhs Twin]

Yeah, fixed it. Didn't need the file modifying, I installed the latest AIO patch over the top and works fine now.

[RefinedBulbasir]

I click on install and my computer asks if I want to allow it I click yes and then nothing happens at all

PC is an ASUS Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210 CPU @ 1.70GHz 2.40 GHz 64 bit OS
dont know what graphics card (its unmodded) product ID is 00326-10000-00000-AA762

[RefinedBulbasir]

I do all of that and it does the exact same thing I click on install and my computer asks if I want to allow action and I say yes and nothing happens

[RefinedBulbasir]

UPDATE: OK I got it to install, I have the AiO patch w/Drakan Gold Enhanced I did the Merge w/ Disable_Drakan_Compat_Shims and clicked on Drakan.exe it brings it up to the menu but when I click new game and select difficulty it crashes. What do I do now?

[Mechanist]

Ah yes, the famous "difficulty selection crash".

Odd, because the AiO patch should have fixed that. Are you sure you have the newest version?
Have you installed/uninstalled anything Drakan-related after unpacking the Gold Repack? Because you shouldn't have - it already contains everything that's required.
EDIT: If you have, by any chance, reinstalled Drakan from the game disc over the Gold Repack, then that would have broken everything quite badly.

You can try the following steps, preferably in this order:

• Before doing anything else, try running the game in compatibility mode. Select "Windows 2000" or "Windows XP". Also try running it as an administrator. This alone might prove to be sufficient.
• If it still crashes, start the game in developer mode (the instructions on how to do that are in one of my previous posts in this thread) and hold CTRL while clicking on "New game", this will bring up the difficulty selection screen. Select the difficulty, and then select "Ruined Village" from the list that opens. Sometimes this doesn't cause a crash in developer mode, even if it crashes on difficulty selection in normal mode.
• If it also crashes when doing the above, try the same but without holding CTRL. This won't bring up the difficulty selection at all, instead starting the game in Normal difficulty without asking.
• If that also didn't work, or you prefer a higher difficulty, go here and download the "Too hard difficulty save game". If you're using the AiO patch, your savedata folder is in "Documents\My games\Drakan\Saves"; that's where the savefile contained in the package needs to go.
  Note that by modern standards, the difficulty levels should have been renamed as follows: "Easy" to "Casual", "Normal" to "Very Easy", "Hard" to "Easy", and "Too Hard" to "Normal".

[RefinedBulbasir]

I had to download the Gold Pack before Drakan would even offer to install so I don't know if that counts as F-ing it up

None of the below steps worked (My notes marked by emoji) :

"You can try the following steps, preferably in this order:

• Before doing anything else, try running the game in compatibility mode. Select "Windows 2000" or "Windows XP". Also try running it as an administrator. This alone might prove to be sufficient." Don't know how to do "compatibility mode", and I get the same result running as administrator
• If it still crashes, start the game in developer mode (the instructions on how to do that are in one of my previous posts in this thread) and hold CTRL while clicking on "New game", this will bring up the difficulty selection screen. Select the difficulty, and then select "Ruined Village" from the list that opens. Sometimes this doesn't cause a crash in developer mode, even if it crashes on difficulty selection in normal mode." Still crashes doing this and theres no list that pops up
• If it also crashes when doing the above, try the same but without holding CTRL. This won't bring up the difficulty selection at all, instead starting the game in Normal difficulty without asking." Sadly this didn't help either but again I honestly don't know wtf Im doing so I may just be doing ALL of this incorrectly
• If that also didn't work, or you prefer a higher difficulty, go here and download the "Too hard difficulty save game". If you're using the AiO patch, your savedata folder is in "Documents\My games\Drakan\Saves"; that's where the savefile contained in the package needs to go." I went to My Games and Drakan doesn't show up there so if I downloaded the save I would't have a place to put it, unless it shows up after I download the save?
  
  Am I just being a complete moron? I can't help but feel so frustrated and sad...

[Mechanist]

had to download the Gold Pack before Drakan would even offer to install

That sounds like trouble already. Major trouble!

I went to My Games and Drakan doesn't show up there

A sure sign that the AiO patch is missing or broken on your install.
Yes, that would certainly explain the reason for the difficulty selection crash, and most of the other problems.

It also means that you must've messed up the Gold Repack somehow, since it comes with the AiO patch already preinstalled.

First of all, note that the Gold Repack is ready-to-run - with the small exception of that one "Merge" operation, which you say you've already done.
Nothing else Drakan-related needs to be installed for it to work - and nothing should be, for that matter.

Once more, from the beginning, please:
1. Uninstall Drakan from your system, using the uninstall option in the control panel. (I don't have a computer with Win10 around, so can't supply any details on that; sorry).
1a. If you can't uninstall it for some reason - just leave it alone, or delete the Drakan folder by hand if it bothers you. Of course the existing shortcuts still won't work, but that's a minor issue.
2. Unpack the Gold Repack into a location of your choice. For example, C:\Games\Drakan. Make sure that you're unpacking to an empty folder, and NOT overwriting the existing installation!
3. Do not install anything else! Especially nothing from the original game disc; that would ruin everything now!
4. Optionally, create a shortcut to Drakan.exe on your desktop. Just right-click-and-drag the file from the game folder to the desktop, and select "create shortcut here" from the menu which pops up.
5. Double click the shortcut (or Drakan.exe directly) to launch the game. To change the settings, hold SHIFT while double-clicking on the file/shortcut, that opens the options window first.

If after doing the above exactly as described you are still having trouble, enable compatibility mode with these steps:

• Right-click Drakan.exe in the game folder, and select "Properties" from the menu.
• In the window which opens, click the "Compatibility" tab.
• Select "Run this program in compatibility mode for:", this will enable the drop-down list below.
• Select "Windows XP" from the drop-down list, and confirm the changes with "OK".

You can also try "Windows 98/Windows Me" instead of XP. But it shouldn't even be needed in the first place if you've completed the above steps correctly.

If you still can't get it to work, download TeamViewer QS, start it on your computer, and send me a Private Message with the ID and password that shows up when you run it; then I can help you remotely.
Note that the QS window needs to stay open at all times, since that's what actually receives the remote connection.

[Mechanist]

For future reference, I've already fixed this problem by remote control.

It appears that the crashing issue had been caused by somehow installing Drakan from the game disc on top of UCyborg's repack, which resulted in overwriting many critical files - effectively wiping out the AiO patch.
After I had freshly unpacked the repack to an empty folder, it worked on the first try. Although I did first enable XP compatibility mode, just to be safe.

NB: I could see the game's video output through TeamViewer perfectly fine; but the mouse support was totally wonky, with the sensitivity at least 10x too high, making it very hard to click any buttons.
It's strange, I've never had that happen before - I guess TeamViewer just doesn't play nice with DirectInput?