Running Pitfall PC with CD audio on modern systems
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Running Pitfall PC with CD audio on modern systems
Updated 9 months ago by Svipur

Preparing the Pitfall files.

  1. Copy the contents of the Pitfall CD to a folder on your hard drive. E.g. C:\Games\Pitfall.

  2. Copy (not move) all the .PH files from the Assets folder to the base Pitfall folder. Be sure to include the Init.ph file. The base folder should look like this:

https://i.imgur.com/aYZmpjD.png

  1. Rip the CD audio tracks and convert them to FLAC, OGG, or MP3. IMPORTANT: file names should start with Track02, Track03, and onwards. I.e. there must be 23 audio files with the first one named Track02 and the last one named Track24.

You may now remove the CD, we won't need it any more.

  1. Create a new folder inside the Assets folder, name it Music.

  2. Put the ripped tracks inside the Music folder.

  3. Also create an empty TXT file named mcihack.txt inside the Music folder. The resulting folder will look like this:

https://i.imgur.com/MYv3Iz3.png

Required downloads

  1. Download the Wail32.dll file from this post on Vogons.

  2. Download the latest version of DxWnd from https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/files/Latest%20build/

Setting up the game

  1. Replace the Wail32.dll file inside the Assets folder with the dowloaded one. The Assets folder will look like this:

https://i.imgur.com/qSAqhhs.png

  1. Run DxWnd.

  2. Right-click on the empty area, pick Import.

  3. Import this config: Pitfall Mayan Adventure.dxw - from the DxWnd -> Exports folder.

  4. Enable Expert mode in DxWnd.

https://i.imgur.com/0McrYVI.png

  1. Right-click on the Pitfall entry, select Modify.

  2. On the Notes tab, copy the 5 lines starting with [msf] and paste those into the mcihack.txt file in the Music folder.

https://i.imgur.com/vhLvgmF.png

  1. On the Main tab, fix the path to the Pitfall.exe file inside the Assets folder.

https://i.imgur.com/PIoSIdD.png

  1. On the I/O tab, uncheck the Set CD audio path checkbox, or the game will crash on launch. Also uncheck the Fake CD checkbox as we won't be needing it.

https://i.imgur.com/XE7frpO.png

  1. On the CDAudio tab, uncheck both the Emulate CD Mixer and Emulate CD Aux checkboxes to reduce the loading times.

https://i.imgur.com/2jJqAIY.png

  1. On the Registry tab, uncheck both the Emulate and Override Registry checkboxes (otherwise the game won't save your settings, like controls, audio volume, etc.). The game will create a registry entry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Activision\Pitfall to save your settings. You can export that entry after you're done with the settings, copy its contents to this DxWnd tab afterwards, and re-enable these checkboxes.

https://i.imgur.com/caelcmp.png

You can now play the game.

Fixing the random crashes

  1. On the Sound tab, check both the Bypass WaveOutGetPosition and Playsound Fix checkboxes.

https://i.imgur.com/lCOemwK.png

  1. On the Compat tab, check the first 7 checkboxes in the Tweaks category as well as the Reserve Legacy Memory Segments checkbox. Also, change the Fake Version setting from Windows 95 to Windows 98.

https://i.imgur.com/MyCJ2LA.png

Make the window bigger

  1. Launch Registry Editor (press Win+R -> enter Regedit). Find Pitfall's settings under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Activision\Pitfall. Or go to DxWnd's Registry tab if you're using those settings.

  2. Look for the Window_SizeX and Window_SizeY variables.

https://i.imgur.com/2lVZiJJ.png

  1. Edit both, but be sure to switch to Decimal values. For DxWnd's Registry tab, use the hex values.

https://i.imgur.com/9s0fACh.png

The game's original resolution is 320x224, so to maintain the aspect ratio use the following resolutions: 2x - 640x448 (hex: 280 x 1c0) 3x - 960x672 (hex: 3c0 x 2a0) 4x - 1280x896 (hex: 500 x 380)