Parkan The imperial Chronicles

Going to clean up the DL area for Parkan and trying to make one package for the english version and I think I have it all running fine on Win7 x64

Very good idea! 🙂

When I first start the game it has a black screen and I hear sounds. Once I hit something on the keyboard I then see the HUD, is this expected or is this a graphics issue with my machine or did I miss something.

At my Win7 64bit there isn't black screen at the start. There is an intro displayed (in Russian language, but it is), after this there is a HUD displayed and the rest of the game looks to be English. Possible reasons:

- enable Win9x compatibility, 640x480, etc.

- hardware acceleration disable: edit CTRL_E.SET file by SETUP.EXE, or manualy ( http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/2334-parkan-the-imperial-chronicles/?p=34194 )

- maybe reconfigure something in video driver?

I downloaded and using the fixed version and I have added Jam's fix installed. I edited the .reg files and made a uninstall .reg for the package. Just want to make sure I have it right before uploading or if there is any other tweaks I should apply or talk about in the readme?

I made my own version of the game with some fixes applied, and created a little readme file with install notes. When I back to home (now I'm outside) I'll check and try to recall what I did when I made my version. I remember that I created two reg files: one for older and one for newer Windows. Creating my version I used infos and sugestions from this thread, and used only files from SSC DL.

I'll try to find some free time, check above and write here some words tomorrow about it.  🙂

Only thing I would like to solve is the ability to run the game without mounting a image?

It's not a good idea, I think, because the game has got (if I good remember) music as CD-Audio tracks. But the best way is to make the game with possibility to playing with music (image mounting required) and without mounting anything (no music).

Install for winVista and below (...) Install for Win7+

Info about which *.reg header is for which Win is here: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/310516/en

Thanks for the feedback Kloqus.

First off the code snippet isn't part of the regfile I made it was just to show the difference between the two. The reg files I made work good and I saw what you saw in the intro, so I think I have it as close as I can get it to working good and I zipped it and uploaded it yesterday to the download area. I will probably download the german one and do the same as I did to the english one (i don't know german) but I can at least add the files and create one download out of it.

I did find a NOCD crack and and some other stuff online for Parkan but it didn't work well with the game so I didn't include it. I tried to get this thing to work with no CD and wouldn't work reliably, so back to mounting the image, which works well.

I zipped it and uploaded it

OK, I downloaded it and I'll try to find some time and check it on the weekend. Be patient. 🙂

My comments to !Instructions_README.txt and others:

4. Parkan.reg (for WindowsOS below windows 7)

It's not true that it is for WindowsOS below windows 7. It's probably for any Windows (that's true that especial for older Windows). It works fine at my Win7 64bit but

Parkan_win7.reg (for Windows7 and above)

doesn't. This last file looks to be for any (and only) Win 64bit (Vista/XP 64bit too, but not for Win7 32bit).

At my Win7 64bit applying Parkan_win7.reg file it creates Wow6432Node inside Wow6432Node. Full created path is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeWow6432NodeNikitaPARKAN Release

and SETUP.EXE has "Game Options" disabled.

But applying [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareNikitaPARKAN Release] it adds NikitaPARKAN Release inside Wow6432Node (full path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeNikitaPARKAN Release) and "Game Options" button is enabled. Windows places NikitaPARKAN Release automatically in Wow6432Node. Here You are why.

My sugestion is to add to .reg files both
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareNikitaPARKAN Release]

and
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeNikitaPARKAN Release]

entries with @="C:PARKAN" for better compatibility.

made a uninstall .reg

There isn't uninstall .reg file with REGEDIT4 header, for older Windows.

I think entries
"DisplayName"="PARKAN Release"

"UninstallString"="C:PARKANuninst.exe"

aren't used by the game. They only add an entry in "Add/Remove programs" list.

Summarising: there should be four .reg files.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareNikitaPARKAN Release]
@="C:PARKAN"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeNikitaPARKAN Release]
@="C:PARKAN"

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareNikitaPARKAN Release]
@="C:PARKAN"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeNikitaPARKAN Release]
@="C:PARKAN"

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareNikitaPARKAN Release]
@=-

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeNikitaPARKAN Release]
@=-

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareNikitaPARKAN Release]
@=-

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWow6432NodeNikitaPARKAN Release]
@=-

7. Maybe You should add info that SETUP.EXE is at virtual CD-ROM; or maybe add/copy SETUP.EXE (and COPYLIST.TXT) to folder with installed Parkan? This adds possibility to run SETUP.EXE from both locations. At the topic there was suggestion to disable an "Acceleration hardware". Maybe You should add this info too to prevent check "Acceleration hardware" option via SETUP.EXE?

8. The same is in 2nd point. Doubled.

9. I don't know what is .lnk file for? 🙂 It corresponds to C:PARKANPARKAN.EXE which is in the same folder. Starting the game from PARKAN.EXE is the same easy like from .lnk file. And what about if user placed the game to different folder? For example to D:GamesPARKAN ? .lnk will corresponds to non-exist file, but starting D:GamesPARKANPARKAN.EXE starts the game. .lnk file is not needed, I think.

P.S. There aren't settings about compatibility with Win95 stored in .lnk files. These settings are stored in Windows registry database, so...

...there aren't info to make Win95 compatibility for PARKAN.EXE (but should be). At my Win7 64bit without Win95 compatibility set at start of the game there are:

black screen with audio at the background (with Win95 compatibility enabled I see an animated Nikita's logo and title of the game),

intro as static screens with cyrilic texts, and with audio (should be animation with spaceships, stars etc.).

In Your folder with installed game there are some files that was created by the running game and shouldn't be in initial/install package or folder because they may have different content at different computers. I mean files: set.par and starsec0.dbn. They aren't in COPYLIST.TXT and at the CD too. The game creates them if needed.

Hey Everyone

 

Going to clean up the DL area for Parkan and trying to make one package for the english version and I think I have it all running fine on Win7 x64 and have a question.

 

When I first start the game it has a black screen and I hear sounds. Once I hit something on the keyboard I then see the HUD, is this expected or is this a graphics issue with my machine or did I miss something. I would have expected a into or splash screen. Never have loaded this up so trying to get a baseline for what I should expect.

 

I downloaded and using the fixed version and I have added Jam's fix installed. I edited the .reg files and made a uninstall .reg for the package. Just want to make sure I have it right before uploading or if there is any other tweaks I should apply or talk about in the readme?

 

Only thing I would like to solve is the ability to run the game without mounting a image? I opened the .ccd in daemontools and copied all the contents out. Could this be solved with a registry key we can add? or did I miss something and it can be ran without mounting the image?

 

-snip-

 

Thanks for the help on this, once done I will upload it and remove all the other crap in the DL area. I will do the same for the German version, Fadrad any thoughts on this? Same concept as the english one that I am doing?

Hi DarkOne, I tried sending you a PM regarding this but was somehow unable to, so what follows is my original PM-text:

Hi!

Sorry for not replying sooner but I only sporadically visit SSC every now and then.

You wanting to try and clean up the DL-area finally gave me the kick in the butt I needed to finish looking into disabling the CD-check on the English and German versions.

You see, I tried doing this some time ago but stopped, since the switch of the Russian version is at a different Hex-address in both the English and the German version. Today I did a string search based on the Russian release and was finally able to find the correct addresses for both switches and disable the CD-check!

I have uploaded both exe files as well as a textfile that contains the offsets the switches are located at, in case you are interested, here:

http://www52.zippyshare.com/v/38287497/file.html

One caveat, however: The German version has CD-Audio, meaning that it needs a CD in the drive in order to play music correctly (without it will only play one song over and over - the same one the English version plays, which is actually a bonus track). With the cd-check disabled it will never actually attempt to access the cd, even if cdrom.cfg points to the correct drive. Additionally cdrom.cfg should point directly to the Parkan folder on your HDD or the intro won't play correctly.

So for the cleaned up German version, I'd recommend you include the nocd-files as well as the CD-image for completion's sake. Since the English CD doesn't even have an audio track, I would distribute that one with nocd and without CD-image by default.

Unfortunately I cannot help you regarding those registry entries - the German version, as well as the English rip (the one without videos), have always worked for me without any registry tweaks, which is why I never really looked into the more finicky English CD-version. Music+splash screen on startup is what the German version does but the English version shouldn't have this, just the original russian intro - are you sure you didn't accidentally try the English version with the German CD-image or vice versa?

Please let me know if the files work and/or in case you have any further questions (though I am by no means a Parkan expert - merely a big fan ;)).

Kindest regards,

fadrad

Hello , i have some little problem with CD_ROM_CFG, can u show me here exactly how this file should looks like?

When i create it and fill with ´D:´ for example game will starts but  it shows error in INTRO0,1,2.NAV and Text0,1,2.NAV and then game crash.

When i try something "some sort of magic" after some time i got MCICD Error.

Can u help me with it somehow?.

Thx u.

Hi Oharam!

Cd_rom.cfg should contain only the drive letter, followed by a colon and a backslash. So in your case that should be 'D:' (without the quotation marks).

If that doesn't help, you can always try the nocd executables, in which case you'll miss out on the awesome dynamic soundtrack, however.

This is a hell of a necro, I know, but I'm hoping someone can help me out here...

Just this week, Parkan: The Imperial Chronicles has been released on GOG.com.

I've been trying to run the game in WINE, but I've run into the MCICD error noted above by Oharam. It looks like it's a CD detection error related to the game not finding the soundtrack folder in WINE. I'm thinking fiddling around with drive letter assignments in winecfg might help but I can't say for sure right now.

Also, is there a place where I could download the packaged English version of the game mentioned earlier, or the nocd executables? The download links seem to be dead.

If I good remember I've got a noCDcheck exec for English languge version. I'll try to find it at weekend. Another solution is to try to create/fill a file Cd_rom.cfg with

.

and with all files from the CD copied to the game folder at a HDD. But maybe it works with noCDcheck.

P. S. Remember that most of (old) games play CD-Audio soundtracks from the first CD. So, it is recommended to put the CD to the first CD-ROM drive.

Just to let everyone know, the download for Parkan: The Imperial Chronicles will be disabled on SSC. I recently received this in my email and was also mentioned above:

 

Hello colleagues!

 

I’m really far from being adept at proper pitching, but please let me have a try with this news.

 

NIKITA ONLINE and GOG.com digital distribution platform are proud to announce «PARKAN: The Imperial Chronicles» — a legendary fantastic universe born in the 90-s. For the first time it is distributed digitally and officially supports English language.

 

Back in 1997 Parkan was an important milestone for the nascent gaming industry in Russia and CIS. This space simulator was ahead of its time: in the end of last Millennium it already had a huge open world, procedurally generated star systems and hybrid gameplay, where intense battles in open space were interleaved with first person shooting. During the first six months after launch the game took the first place in the sales charts in Russia.

 

More information about the game you can find in the release.

You can find the game for sale here on GOG:  https://www.gog.com/game/parkan_the_imperial_chronicles?pp=95e815d1541bf6f358cfffbe66ab3af0d0c09d09

So SSC will host any help files/mods for this game still just cannot turn on the game download because we could get in trouble since its for sale again. Sorry!

That's fair enough Darkone :queen:

Do not worry!!! Another game saved by GoG!!!! :preved:

Thanks to the information I've gleaned from past posts on this forum, as well as other very kind and knowledgable souls on the GOG forums, I've finally gotten Parkan to work in WINE in OS X, with hardware acceleration and movies all fully working (AFAIK!). Also many thanks go to the people who messaged me offering their help on this forum, too. While I use a Mac, I'm almost certain these steps can apply to WINE on Linux too.

The requisite post with the steps/info for running the game in WINE can be found here: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_judas_does_this_run_in_wine_thread/post762

I hope others find it useful!

Hello.

Is there any difference between Parkan 1 from SSC and GOG version (different music, for example)?

Hello.

Is there any difference between Parkan 1 from SSC and GOG version (different music, for example)?

Don't know but the GOG one should work on modern systems.