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DeathKeep

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
DeathKeep
DeathKeep cover
Developers
Lion Entertainment Inc.
Publishers
Retail Strategic Simulations Inc.
Digital SNEG
Release dates
Windows May 27, 1996
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Genres RPG
Themes Fantasy
Series Dungeons & Dragons
DeathKeep on MobyGames
DeathKeep on Wikipedia
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Dungeon Hack 1993
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Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse 1994
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DeathKeep 1996
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DeathKeep is a singleplayer first-person RPG game in the Dungeons & Dragons series.

The retail version requires a workaround to install and play on modern systems. See Installing on modern versions of Windows (retail).

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Pre-packaged with cnc-ddraw.
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
Pre-packaged with cnc-ddraw.
Windows
GOG and Steam versions have been patched to fix bugs and to run properly on modern machines. [1]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Keys.sav[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/2350540/pfx/[Note 2]
All settings other than key bindings are stored in each save file rather than being shared.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\DkSave**.sav[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/2350540/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

General settings.
General settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
No frame rate cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Input settings.
Input settings.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, SoundFX.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DirectDraw
Digital re-releases use cnc-ddraw 5.0.0.0.
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Cutscenes Smacker video

Issues fixed

Installing on modern versions of Windows (retail)

Copy necessary files[2]
  1. Make a new folder. This will be the installation folder.
  2. Go into the DK folder on the CD.
  3. Copy DK.exe into <path-to-game>.
  4. Go into the SYS folder on the CD.
  5. Copy SMACKW32.DLL <path-to-game>.
  6. Download dgVoodoo 2.
  7. Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe and contents of the \MS\x86 subfolder into <path-to-game>.
  8. Run the game with DK.exe.

"There has been an unhandled exception" error on launch

Full error message: "There has been an unhandled exception, so this application must close. Code: c0000005 Flags: 0 Address: 409f35 EAX: 0 EBX: 42ad10 EDX: 220" (or similar)
Use dgVoodoo 2[2]
  1. Download dgVoodoo 2.
  2. Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe and contents of the \MS\x86 subfolder into <path-to-game>.
  3. Run the game normally.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) 80486
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) DirectX 3 compatible


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/2350540/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (2350540) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Twitter - __Silent_ - last accessed on 2023-03-27
    "My latest project is now out on Steam and @GOGcom! I have been contracted to get the game running out of the box (once again using an excellent CnC-ddraw) better than the community scripts do, and patch several original bugs."
  2. 2.0 2.1 Verified by User:Garrett on May 11, 2017