Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Developers
	Oddworld Inhabitants
Windows	Digital Dialect
Publishers
	GT Interactive
Engines
	A.L.I.V.E.
Release dates
DOS	November 11, 1997
Windows	November 11, 1997
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Side view
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Stealth, Puzzle, Platform
Art styles	Pre-rendered graphics
Themes	Sci-fi, Space, Industrial Age, Comedy
Series	Oddworld

Oddworld
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee	1997
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus	1998
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee	2010
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath	2010
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD	2012
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!	2015
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee (2016)	2016
Oddworld: Soulstorm Enhanced Edition	2021

Key points

As game only runs on 640x480 resolution, it may cause problems with modern systems. See Widescreen resolution or R.E.L.I.V.E. Source Port how to run the game with monitors native resolution.

General information

Oddworld Wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
GOG.com		Bonus content also includes manual and soundtrack.
Humble Store
Steam		No longer DRM-free, requires Steam client to launch Previously DRM-free as of 2016 build
ZOOM Platform		Since ZOOM Version 1.4, comes bundled with wrappers to support modern systems.

Essential improvements

R.E.L.I.V.E. Source Port

Open source new engine created via reverse engineering, that seeks to replace the original tools too.

Provides Native Resolution and Windowed mode support and bugfixes.

Supports Windows 10, MacOS, and Linux.

Skip intro videos

Move, delete or rename the intro-videos
Go to <path-to-game>. Move, delete or rename the following files: gtddlogo.ddv and logoint.ddv.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS
Windows	<path-to-game>\abe.ini
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/15700/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS
Windows	<path-to-game>\*.sav
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/15700/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		640x480 only. See Widescreen resolution or the source port for displaying properly on Widescreen monitors.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		See R.E.L.I.V.E. Source Port.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See R.E.L.I.V.E. Source Port.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at ~30 FPS.

Widescreen resolution

Game is always 640x480, which may cause problems with modern systems.

This method will only raise output resolution to match desktop's one, game will still render at 640x480.

Installing DDhack
Download the DirectDraw hack. Extract it into the installation folder. Launch the game and it should run at your current desktop resolution. Notes This fix only works from Windows Vista onwards. This fix does not resolve graphical issues (like screen flicker) on the steam release. Consider using dgvoodoo2 instead.

Input

Keyboard settings.

Controller settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Mouse not used in game.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		DirectInput only. D-pad not used.
Full controller support		Controller has to be selected from settings before use. Advisable to rebind buttons.
Controller remapping		Movement can't be rebound, Speak 1 and Speak 2 are tied into run and sneak, menu naviagations can't be rebound (button 2 to confirm, button 9 to go back). Reference of original PlayStation controls to help with rebinding.
Controller sensitivity		Digital movement.
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Button prompts		Instead of numbers, game uses letters. 1 → A, 2 → B, 3 → C, 4 → C, etc.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Retail and Steam only.
German				Retail and Steam only; download for GOG.com version
Italian				Retail and Steam only.
Japanese				Retail and Steam only.
Spanish				Retail and Steam only.

Issues fixed

Crashes on launch

Error message titled "E:\Abe\POS\MYDDRAW.C" with messages "Can't set mode trying 640x480x8", "Can't set mode trying 640x480x16" and "SetMode failed err=-2147467263".

See Widescreen resolution for possible solution for fullscreen or use R.E.L.I.V.E. Source Port.

Running the game on 64-bit Windows

Only affects original retail version. Not needed for currently digitally distributed versions.

Manually install the game[citation needed]

Manually copy ALL the *.DDV and *.LVL files from CD, along with the AbeWin.exe, to a new folder, 126 files in total. For program compatibility options, select "Windows 2000", then run the executable. Windows will prompt you for the CD, which you can skip, and the game will work as it should. Notes You don't need the CD to run the game, as the EXE has all the files it needs in its folder, eliminating the slower loading times from the CD.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6
DOS video modes	VGA	Possible only on versions with ABEDOS.EXE (retail)

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
Linux			Requires the R.E.L.I.V.E. source port.

System requirements

DOS

Windows

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95 2000, XP only (Steam)
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 166 MHz	Intel Pentium 200 MHz
System memory (RAM)	16 MB	32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	630 MB 700 MB (Steam)
Video card (GPU)	SVGA 1 MB of VRAM DirectX 6 compatible
Sound (audio device)	100% Soundblaster compatible