Sierra Planet - King's Quest 7 Game Problems

Sierra's King's Quest 7 can have a number of technical glitches depending on which game version and operating system you have. The PC game has two versions. The first version was released before Windows 95, and when Windows 95 was released, Sierra came out with version 2.0 of the game that fixed a lot of glitches that version 1.0 - 1.51 had. Therefore, if you have Windows 95 or 98, it is best that you buy version 2.0 of the game. It is the one with the large, eerie, green castle on the box cover instead of Malicia and Rosella in a funnel. However, I have both versions of the game, and the original version works just as well as the second version, so it depends greatly on your system. Sierra does have support for both PC versions as well as the Macintosh version. Sierra has two online technical documents and one patch for this game.

KING'S QUEST 7 INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS

PC PROCESSOR: 386 SX (486DX recommended)
PC RAM MEMORY: 8 MB or more
PC CDROM: required (2X speed recommended)
PC HARD DISK SPACE: 1 MB for small install
PC OS: MS-DOS 5.0 or higher
PC WINDOWS: Windows 3.1 or higher
PC VIDEO CARD: 256 colors VGA
PC OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Mouse, Soundcard with DAC

MAC PROCESSOR: 68040 Processor
MAC RAM MEMORY: 8 MB
MAC CDROM: required (2X speed recommended)
MAC HARD DISK SPACE: 1 MB for small install (20 MB recommended)
MAC OS: System 7.01 or above
MAC DISPLAY: 13" monitor (256 color or greyscale)
MAC MOUSE: required

KING'S QUEST 7 INSTALLATION PROCEDURES

DOS INSTALLATION:

Exit Windows completely. You need to be in DOS mode. Place the CD in the drive. Assuming you have sufficient space, type D: and press to switch to the CD-ROM drive. If your CD-ROM drive is another letter, use that letter instead of D. Then type INSTALL and press the ENTER key to begin installation. Follow the on-screen prompts, making sure to verify that all hardware selections are correct for your system.

WINDOWS 3.1 INSTALLATION:

From Program Manager, select the "File" menu and then the "Run" option. At the prompt, type D:\SETUP and press OK. If your CD-ROM drive is another letter, use that letter instead of D. Follow the on-screen prompts.

WINDOWS 95/98 INSTALLATION:

Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive. After a few seconds, a window will automatically appear on your desktop and ask you if you would like to install King's Quest VII. Choose "install" and follow the on-screen instructions. If the window does not appear automatically, then go to the Start button and select the "Run" option. At the prompt, type D:\SETUP and press OK. If your CD-ROM drive is another letter, use that letter instead of D. To play King's Quest VII in Windows 95 after installation, insert the CD in your CD-ROM drive and follow the on-screen instructions

MACINTOSH SMALL INSTALL:

Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive. After your Macintosh mounts the CD onto your desktop you will see several files in a window named KQ7 CD. Before you play the game, you must install Sound Manager 3.0 and QuickTime™ on your Macintosh. Open the folder "IMPORTANT System Files" and drag the four items from this folder to the System Folder on your hard drive. As the items copy to the hard drive you will receive the message "These items need to be stored in special places inside the System Folder in order to be available to the Macintosh. Put them where they belong?". Choose OK for each item. After doing this, you will need to restart your Macintosh, so that the new items you copied to your System Folder will take effect. Choose Restart from the Special pull down menu. To start the game, double click on the "King's Quest VII" application.

MACINTOSH LARGE INSTALLATION:

Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive. After your Macintosh mounts the CD onto your desktop you will see several files in a windows named KQ7 CD. Before you play the game, you must install Sound Manager 3.0 and QuickTime™ on your Macintosh. Open the folder "IMPORTANT System Files" and drag the four items to the System Folder on your hard drive. As the items copy to the hard drive you will receive the message "These items need to be stored in special places inside the System Folder in order to be available to the Macintosh. Put them where they belong?" Choose OK for each item, and then drag the folder "King's Quest VII HD" to your hard drive. After doing this, you will need to restart your Macintosh, so that the new items you copied to your System Folder will take effect. Choose Restart from the Special pull down menu. After your Macintosh has restarted you will be able to play the game from your hard drive. (You will still need to have the CD in your CD-ROM drive.) Move to your hard drive and double click on the "King's Quest VII HD" folder. To start the game, double click on the "King's Quest VII HD" icon.

KING'S QUEST 7 GAME PATCHES

Sierra has one patch that fixes lock-ups when Rosella walks through forest, lock-ups when taking the wooden nickel from mockingbird, stuttering mockingbird, looping at the hummingbird/spiderweb scene, wooden nickel not highlighting in Faux Shop. It is only for Windows versions 1.4 - 1.51. If you have version 2.0 of the game, do not use this patch.

KQ7PATCH.EXE - 90.6 KB

Download the patch you need onto a floppy disk. Note that all the patch files are password protected to help prevent direct linking. Please click here for the current username and password needed to download the patch.

Once it is downloaded, run the program like any other installation program. For this patch, unzip all the files to the same folder as your King's Quest 7 game. Then read the README.TXT or README.BAT file and follow the instructions. Once the patch is installed, restart the computer and play the game normally. You no longer need the patch program, so just delete it off your floppy disk.

KING'S QUEST 7 TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS

Sierra has composed two online technical troubleshooting documents for King's Quest 7 -- one for Macintoshes and one for PC computers. In these documents, you can find information concerning the following problems plus installation and soundcard help and other technical tips:

When game starts, it displays a black screen or throws you out to DOS. This can also happen randomly during the game.
When you double-click on the KQ7 icon, the game displays the error "The application is not a Windows NT executable". (Windows 3.1)
"General Protection Fault caused by GROWSTUB in POINTER.DLL" when game starts. (Windows 3.1)
When starting the game you get a "DOS Error 21" error message.
Error 105 at the bottom of the well, or graphics distortion in the scorpion's lair.
You receive a "DOS 4/GW Professional" error when starting the game, even when using a boot disk. (DOS version)
"AVI Open Failed" error when trying to play introduction. (Windows 95)
"General Protection Fault in Module ... " The module name will vary. (Windows 3.1)
While running King's Quest VII in Windows 95, you receive a message saying "This program has performed an Illegal Instruction or an Illegal Operation...".
"EMM386 Error 06 ... " The error number may vary. (Windows 3.1)
"Application Error: C:\SIERRAWS.EXE ..." When attempting to run the game. (Windows 3.1)
"The instruction at (memory address) referenced memory at (memory address). The memory could not be read from". (Windows 3.1)
You get an "Error reading Drive D" (drive letter will vary depending on your CD drive letter). The error may occur at the beginning of the game or randomly throughout the program. (All platforms)
Error message "Panic. Error 76 - invalid handle 45" at game's title screen. (Windows 3.1)
When starting the game, you get "EMM386 Error 6 - No XMS memory". (Windows 3.1)
When starting the game, you get an error message "Cannot load Win32 because paging is not enabled". (Windows 3.1 and Windows 95)
Game will not start and displays an error message indicating improper WIN32S installation. (Windows 3.1 and Windows 95)
You experience random lockups during the game, or your computer reboots during the middle of game play. Sometimes you receive memory errors or other problems when playing King's Quest VII. (Windows 3.1)
"Windows title not found" error when starting game, followed by "Cannot find SIERRA.ERR". (Windows 3.1 and Windows 95)
During the game you get "Error 99: Cannot find file10.wav". (File name may vary.) (Windows 3.1 and Windows 95)
You cannot save your games.
King's Quest VII runs slowly on your computer.
"Error 111" in Chapter 1 when clicking the turquoise piece several times on the stone head.
"Error 108" in Chapter 3 when using the comb on the statuette.
"Panic! Error 47 not an object " in Chapter 4. (Versions 1.1 and 1.4 only in Windows 3.1 or Windows 95)
"955.snd not found" error message. (Windows 3.1)
When Valanice takes the bone from the mummy in Chapter 5, the crown cursor appears and the game locks up. (Windows 3.1)
You can't hear the dragonettes sing in Etheria in Chapter 5. (Windows 3.1)
"Error 105: Attempt to load wrong type" or "Error 99: Error loading resource 10005". Error numbers may vary.
When clicking on one of the numbers to choose a chapter to begin a new game, you hear a click sound but nothing happens. (MAC)
When clicking on one of the options after your character expires, you get a click sound but nothing happens. (MAC)
When trying to watch the introduction you receive a "Bus error..." message. (MAC)
When trying to watch the introduction you receive a message, "QuickTime has not been installed in this system. You will not be able to view movies but you can continue with the game. To install QuickTime, drag the QT init into your System folder and reboot." (MAC)
"Unimplemented Trap" error message, using System 7.5.3. (MAC)

Click here to view the TECHNICAL DOCUMENT for Macintoshes
Click here to view the TECHNICAL DOCUMENT for PC computers.

Note that these technical documents are rather outdated, and Sierra is no longer updating them. In fact, Sierra Planet was lucky enough to save a copy of the document before Sierra deleted all of them. If your problem is not listed there or not resolved, check out Sierra's technical support knowledge base for more updated information.

OTHER CONTACT INFORMATION

If you need more technical support, then try posting your problem over on Sierra's King's Quest Forums or on the Sierra Planet Forums. More experienced players might be able to help you out relatively quickly.

The Roberta Williams Anthology and the King's Quest Collection Series both contain version 2.0 of King's Quest 7. You can only find the original version of the game as a single CD-ROM game. Sierra never released a floppy diskette version for this game.