I own the actual game on disc, and when I play that (which amazingly still works) the game runs in a window.

When I play the GoG version, it makes it full screen and makes my screen resolution fit the game (rather than the other way around). Which makes checking the Wiki pretty much impossible. lol

Is there any way to run this in a window?

From what I recall, you should be able to add the -w to the shortcut, and you should also uncheck the "Run in 640x480" in the compatibility tab.

You mean like this? ;-)

How come when I add -w to it and it didn't have the 640 by whatever checked, the window it comes up in is much bigger then the game screen and you can't make it fit around the game screen?

That's because the windowed mode of KoDP is a pretty sad joke. I had to figure out the right sequence of Win32 API calls and write a script to get that screenshot. Honestly, I don't know why the A Sharp guys couldn't have don't that themselves, it's not that difficult and it's nothing Windows 98 couldn't have done back in 1999.

I can give you the script but it requires an installation of Python and the PyWin extension. Or people with some programming skills could use it as template to translate it into another language.

The script: http://pastebin.com/zDckSK8H

Thanks for the offer. That's just a little too much for me to worry about lol.

1) We weren’t using Windows directly, we were using mTropolis, which had been discontinued in 1998. Any control we had was through a 3rd party plugin.
2) We ran a poll among our beta testers, and went with their preferred behavior. Apparently they were not able to imagine what the game would be like on computers made 15 years later.

Fair enough, but that makes me wonder why you added the -w switch. With its window-in-window and non-functional menu it looks terrible and having a resizable window is just pointless when the content doesn't react to window size changes at all. Did any of your beta testers actually like and use this?

But presentation problems 15 years later notwithstanding, very nice game! The content is still top notch.

I have no idea what the -w switch is. If it is specific to KoDP, it was added by GOG somehow.

In 1999, KoDP was full-screen. And screens were smaller.

Jerfa I would like to thank you for this much needed script ! It's great

It should be added that the script should be run in administrator mode, otherwise it will fail to create the window and the game will be unscaled and centered, but still fullscreen with black borders around

Another (unrelated) tip : if you don't want the game to hog 100% of one cpu core, set the maximal cpu state to 50% (for instance) in the Power Options in Window's Control Panel

Gee, I haven't had any luck trying to get it to run windowed using the -w switch on the shortcut target.

But, once I switched to "Windows 98/ME" compatibliity mode in the compatiblity properties, it ran fullscreen fine, but it had to be with 640x480 checked. Also everything below that had to be checked also (gog install already did that).
I was very relieved that this worked, at least thru the beginning of the game itself there was nothing cut off.

For various reasons I did not want to install python.
Some people found that windowed worked after they changed Windows font size to small. But I wouldn't do that because my older eyes need a medium to large font to avoid eyestraining.

the KODP CD is rare to find as a purchase, sadly.

Yes, mTropolis output does not have configurable controls (as, for example, some installers and dosbox offer).
I was able to get it to run fine using fullscreen mode and 640x480, and win98 compatibility.

But at the time this game was developed, mTropolis was an intelligent choice. I read in various interesting google hits that in 1997 mTropolis by mFactory was the cutting edge of multimedia authoring tools, used in educational software as well as the in gaming world. You can find mTropolis experience in a number of people on linkedin who had worked with it. Obsidian, the adventure game (which is on gog's wishlist), was also authored using mTropolis. The competing market gorilla Adobe had a technically inferior multimedia authoriting product at the time. The mTropolis editor ran on Macs (which all graphical people and many software gurus at the time preferred for technical and performance reasons), but it could publish to both Macs and Windows. What was amazing at the time was it very effectively implemented visually-based object oriented software - reusable elements, libraries, behaviors, the whole shebang - plus, it was browser-enabled and internet capable. No one else had a true drag-and-drop object and behaviors implementation that worked, this was radically new to actually implement well in those days. mTropolis also had a tight and collaborative, supportive relationships with its customers. mFactory's assets got acquired by Quark (they were into desktop publishing) in 1997, but only 10 months later in 1998 Quark canned it because the customer base was not huge and Adobe was a gorilla in terms of customer base and deep pockets (i.e., Quark had not done good homework on the multimedia authoring industry products and market, before they pushed buying it! they didn't know the customer base numbered about 4000). So everyone who was using mTropolis, who were largely people who knew their cutting edge stuff, were taken by surprise. There was a loud outcry over this, and mTropolis' existing customers who were all in the midst of development projects banded together and tried to purchase mTropolis (which was practically unheard of), but the attempt failed.

Mr. Dunham in 2011 explained some of the KODP architecture and what would be involved in porting:
http://kingofdragonpass.blogspot.com/2011/02/architecture-overview.html

If I had a dollar for every time a superior product was killed by the buyer, as opposed to used for good, I would have at least 10 bucks. Force Feedback. Aureal 3D, mTropolis, etc