Trying Azrael Tear and Bad Mojo for the first time

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Any official or unofficial patches i should be aware of? Do they run on dosbox well?
I wonder if they work on wine.

Azrael tear installer at least does not, pure dos, but it can be installed from dosbox.

Humm, the version of Azrael tear i aquired is in french.
Shit.

Humm. Ok after much fighting a managed to install a full cd version of azrael tear that works without the cd. I am posting for posterity for some poor quixotic fool that follows the same path.

1) get the english cd.
2) install it on dosbox somewhere
3) go to the dir and edit Resource ini so that the rest of the lines point current root dir like the first
4) copy the things from the cd that were being pointed to to the game dir (corresponding to the altered lines)
5) try to run AZRAEL.bat in dosbox, it won't run, but should show ok on all checks except on the cd check.
5) open AZRAEL.bat and replace all of it by this, that deletes the cd error check:

Now it will run without the cd and you can delete the useless iso.

6) {optional} you can bind dos32a. This will double the speed of the game turning it actually playable in dosbox. I highly advise it.

Code:

1) get this : http://download.narechk.net/dos32a-912-bin.zip
2) extract dos32a.exe and sb.exe and ss.exe to the game dir
3) open dosbox in the game dir. If you don't know how to do this read the dosbox read me. It's just mounting on the game dir.
4) check if R.exe has a extender by : sb.exe R.exe (it says if it has)
5) (if it has a extender) sb.exe /R R.exe
6) check if TM.exe has a extender by : sb.exe TM.exe (it says if it has)
7) (if it has a extender) sb.exe /R TM.exe
8) delete dos4gw.exe
9) rename dos32a.exe to dos4gw.exe
10) ss.exe TM.exe
11) F1
12) find the menu part about selectors, it should say 256, navigate with arrows to it, enter, type 512 instead, enter save config (it's a command there).
13) delete ss.exe and sb.exe

If the sound is crackling in dosbox, make sure that your dosbox mixer rate setting is the same value as the emulated sound card rate.

Bad Mojo, hah... That game does make an impression. My girlfriend was disgusted by it without ever seeing it, merely from my tall tales.

Managed to fix the sound with some fiddling on the dosbox mixer and soundblaster opl rate.

Now to explore crazed templar caves.

There's an updated version of Bad Mojo, get that if you don't have it already. It's called Bad Mojo Redux.

Made it run on modern systems without an ancient version of quicktime, also made the art and FMVs truecolor instead of 256 color (ew).

Ok i played Azrael's Tear (with a walkthrough - i just wanted to see the story).
The place is full of horrible death traps and obtuse (well, not really, but they are unforgiving) puzzles as expected. I saw many ways to fuck up too - block rooms having to backtrack.
It's one of the weirdest narratives i ever saw (definitely in top 5 weird endings)

Good art directions, hampered by horrible 16 bit graphics even in the best (software) resolution - the rich tones of the caves didn't mix well with the pixelization - system shock looks better now, especially after it's resolution patch.

Did you play through the other endings at least once, to find the identities of spider/fly? Not that they aren't overly obvious.

It's not a game that suits a walkthrough - the deathtraps and difficulty are a large part of the charm and challenge.

It also ruins one of the neater twists I've come across in an adventure game: the part where you get the grailstone by falling to your death (no real indication that this is what to do - you basically just have to go 'well, the stone is supposed to heal folks, here goes'), the ending/death sequence starts up and just as it would normally segway back into the 'main menu' screen the 'new lifesigns detected...health increasing...' message comes up on the display.

The religiousity of the plot didn't faze me, even as an atheist - holy grail is a fairly stock fantasy setting, and I thought the grailstones were a nice take on it (basically, the setting is that the grail's powers come from an artifical minieral created by an old civilisation found in a deep excavation - as well as invulnerability, the minerall also can be used for genetic manipulation and mutation). I'd also like the 'adventure game with very limited FP shooting' mechanic to be used more widely - it had potential beyond that story, even if that game itself didn't make the most of it.

My take on the genetics: contrary to Mass Effect, 150 people would be a sub-optimum but nonetheless possible breeding population. It would mean you'd eventually get some serious birth defects and mutations, and you MIGHT end up with a sterilty problem, but you'd still have a decent shot. Evolution works when you have an isolated gene pocket and changing environment - sometimes the mutations just work out the right way and you don't get mass sterility (c/f modern housecats are estimated to have had an original genetic base of as few as 7 self-domesticating wild ccats).

They also aren't the only pocket of humanity left - there's the other escapee with a stone out there, presumably building forces.

Art-wise it's undeniably ugly. Early 3D, and it shows.

I wouldn't recommend it to folks picking up games now, certainly not if they're not adventure game fans and are going to skip the puzzles/deathtraps (which ARE the game, after all). But it was an interesting direction that I'd like to see attempted again.

The rat in Bad Mojo is the only gaming instance I remember where I really had to look away from the screen, I couldn't stand that...

That was pretty horrible. Creepy game overall.

Thanks for the instructions, SCO, I'll give it a go, never really finished Azrael's Tear.

So what do you think of the game? Don't look at the discussion above.

I loved Bad Mojo, the other one I haven't played it yet.