The GOG version of Riven is running smoothly on my computer but I have two performance questions, if I may. Firstly, if I remember correctly, the origional version of the game offered the option of smoother transitions where it would fade from one frame to the next rather than simply slide-show transitioning. There appears to be the same sort of option here but no matter what I select for speed it jumps at the same wild rate. It's not a deal breaker but I find it does slightly mess with the imersiveness of it all.
Secondly, I wonder how I might have more than one save file. When I tell the game to save, it appears to open up a search window rather than a save window, thus there is nowehre for me to imput a save game name. It looks as though I can click on the file marked Savegame and save over it but I have no clue how to save otherwise. This is less pressing than the gradual transitions but still a bit of a concern.

The transitions, they're only there when you turn around it seems. 'None' will get you from one frame to the next instantly while 'Best' will make a slow 'turning around' transition. I honestly can't remember if this should also affect forward movement in any way or not, i'm leaning towards 'not', but when turning around the differences between transition modes are noticeable.
The saves, you should indeed get a dialogue box where you can input a name for your savegame. Check the att. pic. Is that not the dialogue box you're getting ? If it is just delete the current save name (the blue text in my pic) and input whatever name you wish for that particular save.
That's with the 'Save as...' option btw.

Odd. I thought that at least with the old CD version of Riven, they had fade transitions in between clicks. Perhaps I'm remembering Myst III instead.
Below is a picture of the window I get when it gives me the chance to save. The red rectangle indicates where a text box SHOULD be but it's really blank space. It's not a visibility issue, either, as clicking on the space where a text box should be doesn't result in anything.
Also, I found another wierd bug. It seems that when I press a button in front of another animation, for example the tram car in the other picture below or the rotating chamber on the first island, the background animation that the button causes appears, but the button itself does not appear to animate whatsoever; I just get the sound effect of the button depressing.

The transitions, i just checked on my install of Riven's DVD version and the transitions are the same, meaning they're only relevant while turning around, so it's possible you're thinking about Exile.
The animations, yes the tower rotating button and the buttons to call the tram are indeed not displaying their animations. The files are there, it's just that they don't display somehow. I think the consensus on this one was 'It's a quirk we can live with" ;)
The saves, i really don't understand why that's happening at your end. Some explorer option maybe ?
You could try creating some dummy save files from that one save. Duplicate that file 4 or 5 times and then name them save1.rvn, save2.rvn, etc. That way you'll have more choices when it comes to overwriting a save.

Yeah, the animation thingy isn't a real big problem, just something wierd I noticed that I thought I'd mention in case any one had any ideas. Since the animations the buttons trigger happen fine, though, it doesn't break the game by any means.
Good idea on the save file solution. I'll try that option out. Thanks

You're welcome. Hope it works.

NOTE: I have the 2003 "Anniversary Edition"; I didnn't buy it here so this info may not be true in this case, although it probably is.
The forward transitions seem to be affected by computer speed. my win98 machine has the smooth fading effects but my winxp makes them go really fast. I have not been able to fix this.
The Animation issue seems to be a quicktime issue. can I ask what version you are using?
The "no save as button or imput box" is a common Riven glitch when being run in Vista. Can I ask what compatability settings you have riven set on?

Riven is running in compatability mode for Windows 98 with 640x480 screen resolution, Disabled visual themes, Disabled desktop composition, Disabled display scaling on high DPI settings and running as an administrator.
Shoot. That sucks that I can't run it on a faster machine. That was what I was afraid of. Too bad there's no way to temporarily slow it down.
I would gladly check my Quicktime version to report it back as I believe it's currently out of date, but how exactly do I go about finding out which version I have?
I've also been experiencing a big sound bug that I'm going to talk about in another thread in case people are having similar problems.

Open up quicktime and then click something like "help" and "about quicktime". it should say what version it is.

Quicktime wasn't installed on my machine until just today. I am currently running version 7. This seems like it fixed the sound problems (see that thread for details) but I'm keeping an eye on it. The foreground button animations, though, still won't play.

when you installed quicktime did you install everything or just the "quicktime essentials"?
and do the animations freeze up or do they just show a black box?

Whatever the version of Quicktime is that is downloadable from Apple.com for free (not the professional version) is what I have.
The animations simply don't play as apposed to freezing or just crashing, although I suppose freezing would be more accurate since they might be freezing on the first frame. As you probably already know, whenever something animates in Riven it starts out as a static object, then you click it and a quicktime movie appears over or in palce of it and then the movie dissapears. In this case, the object remains completely static even when clicked on, but the sound plays to indicate it has been triggered, so the action itself is registering perfectly.

hmm. I had this problem with quicktime 7. I had to install Quicktime 6 to get it to work on my computers.Every computer uses a different setup to get it to work so I have to give you a couple options.
1. I'd wait and see if GOG.com responds to your question. This is the safest and easiest thing to do.
2. If you're able to play it on another computer without quicktime installed (preferably one that is running 98 or XP) then It is much easier to solve problems. see option 4.
3. uninstall Quicktime 7 and install Quicktime 6. (6.3 and 6.5.2 seem to work for my DVD vertsion.) This is long, complicated, and a pain, and if done wrong can mess up the registry's quicktime keys, making the process even more tedious. I don't recommend this unless you are very computer knowledgeble and totally sent on getting riven to work. I can't vouch for this because I don't know if GOG put something in their versions that is different as well.
4. If you install quicktime 6 on a new machine and it doesn't work, (if you don't mind spending some more money) you can buy the Myst 10th Anniversary DVD edition set. (the version I have.) It includes the DVD versions of Myst Masterpiece, Riven, and Myst III Exile. At least with that version I know for sure how it's put together.
Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but without precise knowledge of how the GOG version works I don't think I can recommend an easy, totally safe way to fix these issues :(