I recently downloaded Mask of Eternity. I am running Windows XP Pro with all of the necessary specs; however, I am unable to play the game. I can load, save and play just fine for short periods of time until I am dumped out of the game.
I have tried adjusting the NGlide settings as well as compatibility to both Windows 95 and 98 and changing the screen size to 640 x 480. None of these options have worked.

I'm looking for any help anyone can offer as I would really like to play this game.

Thanks.

Give the dgVoodoo wrapper a try. I actually prefer this one as KQ8 runs smoother with it on my pc.
http://dege.freeweb.hu

Only try dgVoodoo and not dgVoodoo 2 as the latter needs DirectX11 which doesn't run on your Windows XP system.

If that doesn't work Zeckensecks works well on XP, if your hardware is reasonable. It's was one of the more compatible options with all bells and whistle turned on, at least one earliest methods.

nglide has a lot of issues.

You could even go crazy and buy a real 3dfx Voodoo 2 to use in your Windows XP machine if you have a free pci slot. They go for pretty cheap these days, and if you get the model made by Creative Labs (model CT6670, or CT6671) you can sometimes get lucky and find it on Ebay from a seller who doesn't know what it is for an even cheaper price.

But yeah, Nglide is way too buggy for this game. Your best bet is to use zeckensack's glide wrapper for Windows XP and below with a video card around the Nvidia Geforce FX series, and dgvoodoo 2 for Vista SP2 and above with a DirectX 11 card. You don't even need a powerful machine for dgvoodoo 2 either, my laptop can run the game full speed with dynamic lighting turned on and that has an AMD E-350 1.6 GHz (combined CPU and GPU one chip).

You could also try setting the processor affinity to use the first CPU (I forget the name of the program that does this temporarily, but you can also do it permanently with ImageCfg.exe from Microsoft).

In my opinion the copy of Mask.exe GOG is using is a hacked up mess that doesn't remove all the copy protection. There's actually a better executable to work from on the v1.0.0.3 English and the Brazilian Portuguese CD-ROMS but GOG has ignored my emails and won't fix the TalkComplete script bug that causes the game to hang at random scenes and occasionally causes experience points not to be awarded, so whatever.

I personally use Win7 32 bit with a NVidia GeForce 9800 GT. I use the zeckensack's glide wrapper and the game runs flawless for me, even with dynamic lighting turned on. I will say, however, that I'm not using GOG's version because I didn't like all the buggy problems. I was able to find my old copy of the game that I thought had been lost. Then installed it using the installer from the sierrahelp website. It made a world of difference and added the benefit of the game not having to delete and reload the different levels all the time. As well as fix a lot of the constant in game freezing in different spots. I have heard that GOG updated the installer, so maybe some of the problems have been addressed. But if not, I'd recommend just buying the game off ebay or amazon and using the sierrahelp installer. The game usually goes for under $10.00. Heck, Amazon even has used copies of it for as low as $0.29! Shows how popular the game was :P

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00004U1Y1/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1391639912&sr=8-1&keywords=king%27s+quest+8&condition=used

It actually sold more than previous games initially. However, I think they overprinted them, Vivendi was trying to sell copies for years after the game's release. So many copies still out there. There are still stores dispatching new (unsold stock) copies as well, through normal online main channels (for example Amazon still sells them from their main store front through an affiliate). Not counting secondary market of people who did try to get rid of copies for whatever reasons.

Actually pretty much all the cd based games are cheap now, so many on used markert, and CDs last a long time (unlike) old floppies which are much rarer. I found KQ6 for a cent on amazon!

Now with GoG there is probably even less demand for physical copies.

The new installer btw apparently uses NGlide which as mentioned was a terrible choice.

I worked at Target when Mask of Eternity came out and remember the price falling quickly. I worked in electronics at the time and know we sold a good amount of copies, but there were always more that would arrive on the truck. I ended up buying the game for $15 only about 4 months after it came out - and that wasn't with an employee discount.

It actually was the #2 selling game in the department around Christmas time, with Ocarina of Time on the N64 being the champ. We just had way to many of them. A shame, really, because there was a market.

MoE wasn't exactly a traditional adventure game, but it's a lot easier to make money on a smaller market nowadays thanks to digital distribution. Running a business where you have to try to figure out how much media to press, trying to thread the needle so you don't have shortages but you don't have much excess is difficult. With Steam, GOG, and the stores run by MS, Apple, Google, and Amazon, it is a very different environment. I'd love to see a revival on modern tablet devices.

Sierra was also offering a pretty cool bundle at the time, where if you bought the game from them, you got the previous games for almost free. Which actually was a pretty good deal.

I think it essentially saved someone half the cost, and let people a chance to play the entire series if they hadn't.

I'm glad you're enjoying the new installer, Collector was kind enough to include my fixes and post them on the SierraHelp website a while back as part of the installer he wrote. You have GOG's lackluster email support to thank for those fixes and the shorter loading times, without them I wouldn't have been bitter enough to prove them wrong about "not being able to do anything" to get the game running on a laptop with no CD/-ROM drive. The script patches to get past the most common lockups are really just nasty workarounds to base the cues on game ticks rather than completed lines of dialog. The bug can really affect any part of the game thanks to an obscure issue with "TalkComplete". It took hours for each scene to tweak the numbers so they play close enough to the original.

And no, GOG's installer hasn't been updated past adding a missing file, updating their version of Inno Setup, and doing some completely brain dead application compatibility database "fixes". I suspect the only reason they haven't stolen my modified executable from Collector's installer is because it will cause the game to crash spectacularly if you just drop it in the directory and try and run it.


Edit: btw zeckensack's glide wrapper assumes hardware support for 256 color textures, the GeForce FX series was the last to include this legacy feature.

Arablizzard, any possibility of including your own installer that could detect an installation of GOG version of the game, and upgrade it?

Or maybe a way of unpacking the GOG version, and using it to detect the files? Can the iso be extracted from GOG's installer? I don't think I've been using Zeckensack's on a FX or older line of cards for ages.... What are the issues that happens if you are running it on a more modern video card?

I don't think I've noticed any compatibility issues, or graphical glitches.