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Grim Fandango

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Revision as of 23:16, 21 February 2012 by Oboewan42 (talk | contribs) (Created article)
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Grim Fandango is a 1998 adventure game released by LucasArts.

Installing the game

bgbennyboy's unofficial installer

The standard Grim Fandango installer has problems with some modern systems, especially 64-bit systems. If your installer doesn't work, use bgbennyboy's unofficial installer.

This installer performs a full install of the game, copying all files from both discs; this requires 1.2GB of disk space, but allows you to take advantage of the hidden ability to run the game without the discs inserted. It also installs bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher; use this launcher to launch the game. (Currently, there is no way to perform a minimal installation on a 64-bit system.)

Manually copying files

Alternatively, you can copy the entire contents of both discs to a folder on your hard drive. (Skip any duplicate files.) Then, enable developer mode (see the section below) and launch the game using GrimFandango.EXE. Note that if you do this, bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher may not function; running GrimFandango.EXE at least once may or may not resolve this. Also note that the aforementioned launcher is currently the only way to install the official 1.01 patch on 64-bit systems.

Using bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher

This unofficial launcher replaces the game's built-in launcher (GRIM.EXE). Though it is not necessarily required (unless you are on a 64-bit machine), it does provide easy access to many hidden or undocumented features of the game, including the ability to run the game from the hard drive without inserting the discs, the ability to run the game in a window, the option to automatically load the last saved game, and several debug keys.

If you used bgbennyboy's unofficial installer, the launcher should be installed automatically. Otherwise, download it, and extract it to your Grim Fandango install directory. Then, launch the game using "Grim Fandango Launcher.EXE".

Enabling developer mode

Some of the features in this guide require "developer mode" to be enabled. This is a registry key setting that enables several hidden features, such as the ability to run the game from the hard drive and/or in windowed mode.

If you are using bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher, it should automatically enable developer mode for you. If not, you will have to enable it manually.

(WARNING! Back up your registry before making any changes!)

  1. Open Registry Editor: press Windows+R to open the "Run" dialog box, then type regedit and press Enter.
  2. Navigate to your Grim Fandango registry path. On 32-bit systems, this should be 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC/Grim Fandango/v1.0
    On 64-bit systems, this should be 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Wow6432Node/LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC/Grim Fandango/v1.0
  3. Add a new string value, with name good_times and value trUE.

Installing the official patch

LucasArts released one patch for Grim Fandango. It fixed several crashing bugs, as well as a bug where a certain puzzle would be unsolvable on faster machines. In addition, it added subtitles to cutscenes (just like normal dialog subtitles, they can be toggled by pressing Control+T).

If you are using bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher, it should automatically download and install the patch. Because the official patch installer is a 16-bit application, if you have a 64-bit machine, this is the only way to install the patch.

If you have a 32-bit machine and are not using the unofficial launcher, you can download the patch here and install it.

"Grim Fandango is already up to date" error

If you are installing the patch using the unofficial launcher and receive an error message saying "Grim Fandango is already up to date", ensure that you are using the latest version of the launcher.

(WARNING! Back up your registry before making any changes.)

If the error persists, navigate to your Grim Fandango registry path (see the section on enabling developer mode) and delete the key named "MAGIC".

Automatically load last saved game

Running GrimFandango.EXE with the -s command-line parameter will automatically load the most recent saved game.

bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher includes this as a toggleable option.

Running the game without the discs

Enabling developer mode allows the game to be run without the discs inserted.

If you used bgbennyboy's unofficial installer, or installed the game by copying the contents of both discs to a folder on your hard drive, this is already set up. You can either launch the game using bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher, or manually enable developer mode and launch the game using GrimFandango.EXE.

If you installed the game using the official installer, and are using bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher, then open the launcher and click "Options" - "Run Grim from Hard Drive". This will copy the files for you. From there, you can launch the game either using the unofficial launcher or GrimFandango.EXE.

If you installed the game using the official installer, but are not using bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher, you will need to copy the entire contents of both discs to your Grim Fandango install directory (skip any duplicate files). Then, enable developer mode and launch the game using GrimFandango.EXE.

Windowed mode

If you have developer mode enabled, you can run the game in windowed mode. bgbennyboy's unofficial launcher includes a button to launch the game in windowed mode. Alternatively, there are two ways to manually run the game in windowed mode: either run GrimFandango.EXE with the -w command-line parameter, or open the in-game options menu with F1 and select "DIBSection Windowed Display" under "3D Hardware Options".

Miscellaneous fixes

Setting GrimFandango.EXE to run in Windows 98 compatibility mode may improve stability. In addition, on Windows Vista and 7, setting it to run as administrator may help.

Saved game location

Grim Fandango saved games are stored in the game's install directory and have a .gsv extension.