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Dungeon Keeper

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Dungeon Keeper
Dungeon Keeper cover
Developers
Bullfrog Productions
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
Magic Carpet
Release dates
DOS June 26, 1997
Windows June 26, 1997
Windows (DOSBox) June 2, 2011
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) October 18, 2012
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack, Subscription gaming service
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view, First-person
Controls Multiple select, Point and select
Genres Building, RTS
Art styles Cartoon
Themes Fantasy
Series Dungeon Keeper
Dungeon Keeper on HowLongToBeat
Dungeon Keeper on MobyGames
Dungeon Keeper on Wikipedia
Dungeon Keeper
Dungeon Keeper 1997
Dungeon Keeper 2 1999

Dungeon Keeper is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and first-person building and RTS game in the Dungeon Keeper series.

The game received the Deeper Dungeons expansion pack in November 1997, and official patches that improved the AI in the DOS version and introduced Direct3D support in the Windows version.

Most players currently play the game via KeeperFX for its quality-of-life improvements.

General information

Dungeon Keeper Wiki
Keeper Klan - A fansite for the series
Official KeeperFX website
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
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)
The DOS version requires files that remain on the CD, the path of which is indicated in KEEPER.CFG.
DOS
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Gold edition. DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[1]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Origin
Included exclusively with Xbox Game Pass for PC as part of its version of EA Play.
Windows
Origin
Origin
Included with EA Play. DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[2]
DRM can be bypassed by replacing <path-to-game>\DATA\DOSBox\DOSBox.exe with the official DOSBox executable, but the client will no longer recognize the game.[3]
Manual link for EA App purchase.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Gold edition. DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox. Included with EA Play (Steam).
Windows
A free demo version is available from Keeper Klan.

Version differences

The Gold Edition comes with the base game, The Deeper Dungeons expansion, the Direct3D patch for Windows and DOS patch, official level editor, and exclusive desktop theme pack.
The GOG.com version is a cut-down version of the pack which only includes pre-configured DOS versions of the base game and The Deeper Dungeons expansion. All other extras are not present.

Monetization

Type Notes
Expansion pack The expansion pack includes new single- and multiplayer levels along with improvements to the creature AI.
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service Available via EA Play.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
The Deeper Dungeons
DOS
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest patch for the DOS version fixes the AI, creature balance and creature activity algorithms. It can be downloaded from Keeper Klan.
The Direct3D patch for the Windows version can be found on Keeper Klan (incompatible with the GOG.com release).
An IPX multiplayer patch is also available].

KeeperFX

An open-source reimplementation of Dungeon Keeper that allows for modern OS support and extended functionality over the original release.
KeeperFX was forked into a project called "KeeperFX Unofficial", It included numerous new fixes and features over the original. That fork has now gone onto becoming the official version and thus is now called simply "KeeperFX". This maintained version can be downloaded from the Keeper Klan Forum and GitHub.
A full copy of the game (either retail or digital release) is required.

Game data

In-game options menu.
In-game options menu.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\KEEPER.CFG
Windows <path-to-game>\KEEPER.CFG[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 2]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1996630/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVE
Windows <path-to-game>\SAVE[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 2]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1996630/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

In-game video settings. From left to right, top row first: Shadows, View Distance, View Type, Wall Height, Gamma Correction
In-game video settings. From left to right, top row first: Shadows, View Distance, View Type, Wall Height, Gamma Correction

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use Alt+R to toggle High Resolution mode. The game crops the top and the bottom of the screen, resulting in a smaller view of the game world.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
SFX, Music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Most in-game messages and alerts still receive a highly visible notification. Enemy banter and level select narration receives no subtitles.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Polish
Russian
Unofficial localization by «Творческая группа "Дядюшка Рисёч»
Spanish
Swedish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
4 Versus
Online play

Connection types

Issues unresolved

Original Windows executables do not run/function

The following fix will allow the 3D accelerated executables to launch successfully. However, the main menu and cursor are unusable. The opening cutscene is also choppy
The fix was tested with the GOG.com release
Even with this partial fix, the software rendered executables (keeper95.exe and deeper95.exe) will not run at all.
Add partial compatibility (GOG.com release)[4]
  1. Download and setup dgVoodoo 2.
  2. Once the initial setup is done, go to the MS\x86 subfolder and copy the D3DImm.dll and DDraw.dll files into <path-to-game>.
  3. Afterwards, download the Direct3D Patch (alternate download) and extract its contents to <path-to-game>.
  4. Next, open KEEPER.CFG with a text editor.
  5. Change the value of INSTALL_PATH from C:\ to <path-to-game>.
    • When the DOS version wants to be used again, revert INSTALL_PATH back to C:\ to avoid issues.
  6. Save the changes.
  7. Run either keepd3d.exe (base game) or deepd3d.exe (The Deeper Dungeons expansion).

Reversed audio (DOS version)

Some users reported reversed audio.[5]

Issues fixed

Installing under modern Windows

The game installer is 16-bit only, making it impossible to install the game without a 3rd party solution.
Use KeeperFX

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 5 Windows version only, requires an official patch.
Software renderer
DOS video modes VGA, SVGA
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System
Cutscenes Smacker

Playing the retail DOS version without CD

Copy over data from CD and change INSTALL_PATH[citation needed]
  1. Install the game normally.
  2. Copy data, ldata and levels folders from the CD's/Keeper path into <path-to-game>, overwriting files when prompted to.
  3. From inside the copied data, move DD1TEXT.DAT and TEXT.DAT from their language folder according to desired game's language into the main <path-to-game>\data folder.
  4. Change the INSTALL_PATH line in <path-to-game>\KEEPER.CFG to point to <path-to-game>.

Playing the Deeper Dungeons expansion without CD

Use DOSBox to mount an empty folder with the MOUNT command using the suffix -t cdrom -label KDDISK1[citation needed]

System requirements

DOS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 6.2
Processor (CPU) Intel 486
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) VGA, SVGA
1 MB of VRAM
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 150 MHz
System memory (RAM) 16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 5 MB
Video card (GPU) 4 MB of VRAM
DirectX 3.0 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.8
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 2 GHz+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 200 MB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM


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 the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).
  3. 3.0 3.1 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>/1996630/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1996630) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. List of GOG games using DOSBox, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
  2. Verified by User:ThatOneReaper on November 19, 2016
  3. Verified by User:Plok on 2023-05-19
  4. Verified by User:ThatOneReaper on November 19, 2016
  5. DK Gold Stereo Reversed - GOG.com forums