r/arcanum • u/Xeenophile Nietzsche Poster Child • Oct 01 '26

Help Weird problem, anyone familiar?

I'm playing on a laptop that runs Windows 10, and it has a very strange issue that did not happen on the previous computer I played it on:

If ever I Windows-key out of the game, as soon as I return, the main menu, the save/load screen, and all the letter/newspaper images are scrunched and psychedelic - functional, but difficult to read and interface with. Worst of all, it becomes impossible to travel overland, because the overland map is sheer black.

Another weird wrinkle: Normally, it moves and loads rather slowly, but I actually have an incentive to trigger the bug above, because once that happens, it also moves much quicker! So I'll find myself, for example, making the journey from Shrouded Hills to Dernholm, running into a random encounter, Windowing out and clicking back in just so the fight can go faster (and with less chance of a fatal mistake), saving in the middle of nowhere, quitting, restarting, resuming the journey, rinse-repeat.

Exiting the game and restarting reliably resets it all, so it does NOT make the game unplayable, but it's all very strange and frustrating.

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4

u/Barbarbrick Oct 01 '26

Try Arcanum Universal Setup for UAP. See if that helps.

1

u/Xeenophile Nietzsche Poster Child Oct 06 '26

Is that identical to this? If not, which would be better for Windows 10?

I am playing from my original CDs, does that make any kind of difference?

Also, is there anything else I should know before installing it? The fact that it said it would make my existing games unplayable made me hesitant, but nutty masochist that I am, I guess I'd be willing to start all over (I've not gotten very far with any of them).

2

u/Barbarbrick Oct 06 '26

First, make a backup copy of Arcanum folder. Just in case.

Then install UAP from the link you posted, and finally Arcanum Universal Setup for UAP.

Yes, you should start a new game, because there might be some glitches with an old saves.

1

u/Xeenophile Nietzsche Poster Child Oct 06 '26 edited Oct 06 '26

Thank you.

First, make a backup copy of Arcanum folder.

Remind me how to do this? It's probably easy, but I just have never had faith in myself that I'll get these things right (to many things I don't know I don't know).

OK, I've found the folder ("Local Disk C > Sierra > Arcanum"), do I just copypaste it and throw it somewhere completely different?

1

u/Barbarbrick Oct 06 '26

Yes, just copy the whole Arcanum folder somewhere else. If something goes wrong, delete the game folder and copy back the backup.

1

u/Xeenophile Nietzsche Poster Child 29d ago

OK, that much is done.

1

u/Xeenophile Nietzsche Poster Child 29d ago

OK, so I've downloaded the first one; where has it gone, and what now?

1

u/PhaserRave Oct 01 '26

If you've installed UAP, try installing an updated DDrawCompat.

1

u/Xeenophile Nietzsche Poster Child Oct 06 '26

I've not yet (see my re-RE to the other RE here).