First of all, I'd love to thank gog for releasing this game again, I kind of hoped they would but it seemed like title is too obscure. I'm so happy to be proven wrong.

Now one thing that is a bit upsetting though, I remember that last time I played Wizardry 8 (and I can't remember which windows I used back then, could be win7 even) I played it in window. Back then my old copy worked fine (later it stopped for some reason) and ctrl+f12 would force game into window without much problem. Shortcut works for gog version as well, but it crashes game.

I feel like I know the answer already, but I still would like to know, if there is a way to make windowed mode work? I have huge monitor, and text gets way too blurry for my eyes (I have bad eyesight so it's straining) and I prefer to play old games in window. So yes, is it possible to do at all?

Thanks.

Bump, because I would like to play windowed also. Right now everything is stretched and the crabs are flat frisbees.

Thanks

theghostwheel there are threads explaining how to get Wizardry 8 not to stretch and run in 4:3 mode. Those about the resolution.

You simply run the nglide_config.exe file from the game's folder, select your native resolution, then select the game's proper aspect ratio which is 4:3 rather than the aspect ratio of your monitor. That way the game itself adds black bars to the sides instead of stretch.

You may also force your graphics card to do this automatically rather than expect each game to (since many older titles don't) by choosing either to letterbox (use centered timings) for lower resolution full screen applications (Miau this is the setting that will help with your text blurring issue as well, the game will run exactly like it would in windowed mode in terms of size and resolution, but you won't have your desktop around it, instead just black void) or to still upscale (still enlarge and blur) but maintain the proper aspect ratio (I prefer the former usually, but some titles might be way too low resolution and result in a tiny window in the center of the monitor, with text etc too small).

For ATI you might have to use this work around to set it if you use Windows 7 like me, for NVIDIA it should be simpler.

In fact you may do the GPU override fix for this game also, since I believe the in game fix may not apply to the cut scene videos.

Sorry, I don't know about a windowed mode for these games, I too usually prefer it for certain titles over the above GPU solution.

I found the solution for windowed, with some issues, before you get excited over it:

As you said, you press CTRL+F12 to enable it. You will need to do it every time you start the game, it doesn't save.

However, as it doesn't seem to work when using glide, you will first have to change to DirectX7 or similar.

Actually it doesn't apply when in glide full resolution, with glide lower resolution it tries, but crashes.

You can use 3DSetup.exe to switch between different rendering methods, or just edit the CFG.

Also, for me, movement is buggy when in windowed mode, so I reverted to glide fullscreen.

If it works right for you, you can resize the window like any other window, it won't stretch.

Due to the issues for me the solutions I posted above are still the better way to play.

How would I get this to work on mac OSX?

Maybe I'm not addressing your issue properly but maybe this would work for you.

I run a few older games from time to time on a 32" LED TV.

For Wizardry VI, wizards & warriors, etc. I usually pick 4:3 {it's native is 16:9} from my TV's menu options, then change resolution to 1024x768 by the right click on windows desktop...
{when I run the PC to the LED via Dsub max res. is 1366x768, so I keep the 768 as a maximum....}

Looks okay, but then again I'm not too picky.

We're not talking advanced graphics anyways.

If toggling windowed mode with Ctrl+F12 doesn't work try changing the renderer to DirectX7 using 3DSetup.exe (or by editing 3DVideo.CFG). Use the Wizardry 8 Extender for Widescreen Support to play in widescreen resolutions with the correct aspect for 3D elements.

If text isn't clear go to Options, Video and enable Correct for Blurred Text.

adding "/window" without quotes to the end of the wizardry 8 shortcut's "target" will launch the game in windowed mode upon startup, sort of. For me, it loads to a normal window, then flashes MOSTLY full screen with a border, for the logo, then goes back to the window. No need for CTRL+F12(which only works after loading a game for me)

You can skip the intro video by deleting sirtech.BIK in the Data\Flics\Intro folder.

Sadly, I found that every video in the game pops you back into full screen mode for the duration of the video. Deleting the intro won't do anything to prevent the rest of them so there's no real point to deleting it.

You will not get the correct aspect ratio this way; without the mod the output is stretched from 4:3.

You're right...I only meant that in this particular game I'm pressed to see the difference @1920x1200. Stuff appears fairly "normal" to me even at 8:5. I've noticed it a lot more with other games, certainly.