MM9 loads up in 2 seconds, loads a game in 2 seconds, but takes like 30-60 seconds to quicksave, open the inventory, open map, open options menu, etc. A lot of people are having this issue and there is no fix I can find stated anywhere. How do we get GOG to fix this. The game is unplayable as it is now.

Am I at least eligible for a refund since this is not playable now?

Windows 7.

I fully agree. There was unofficial fix somewhere out there, but it was breaking some other in-game things :(

I was able to get the game at a point where everything loads nice and fast. The only thing left for me to fix is that when it becomes night time the screen becomes completely black, forcing me to rest throughout the night and continue on the next day.

In the very end of this thread there is altered dll - you should use it to replace original game's dll. Ther emight be some minor side effects.

Just in case, I attached it here, change "jpg" to "zip" and extract file to game directory (replacing original file. i didn't test myself (MM 9 is way too far on my replay list).

That worked; thank you very, very much. The only issue is it doesn't seem to work with saved games, but oh well. I'll waste a lot less time starting over than waiting a minute to open a menu all the time.

Thanks again.


EDIT: It does work with old saves but I needed to put it in vista compatibility mode

Do you guys have a bar running across the wop of your screen when you play the game? It's nothing major but it would be nice if it could be removed.

If I understood you right, I had similar thing in other game. What helped me was to install old DIrectX versions - it won't hurt your actual DirectX installation at all.

Changing the cshell file still doesn't fix the black screen at night time. If i start a game and then wait until night everything works fine, but once I leave the starting island I get the complete black screen.

What I have to do every time besides starting a new game is this.

Load a save game or if transitioning areas wait for the load, wait about 5 seconds as you hear environmental sounds, hit esc to pause the game, hit ctrl-alt-delete, the game window re-pops back up and I see the options menu.

Alt-tabbing just gives me a full black screen. Only ctrl-alt-delete without going to a different window words for me. And only in vista compatibility mode.

It sounds like a pain but it only takes a second.


EDIT: I just wanted to add that I think GOG should really put some more effort into making the games they sell work correctly without us jumping through hoops and finding our own workarounds. That is supposed to be why we pay them money.

Hitting ctrl-alt-delete doesn't fix anything for me. I have put it in vista compatibility mode but half of the time when I ctrl-alt-delete the game just completely crashes and the times where it doesn't crash, nothing changes.

Holy crap....I have been trying to fix this game for over a YEAR and though I can't verify anything outside of my normal tests in town and the first road out towards the dock, everything finally worked. I didn't have a black screen with music, I didn't go into super-speed in combat, the game didn't lock up when the beholder in the glass cage started attacking the mage. Most importantly, the menu worked. Unreal. It's truly amazing what is lurking in the vast recesses of the internet. A 8-year old fix that barely anyone knew existed. Endless thanks for directing me to it.

Edit: Sadly....the game, as stated, goes to a black screen at night, for which there doesn't seem to be a workaround. I suppose given everything this isn't the end of the world, you just rest til dawn and move on I guess?? There doesn't seem to be a food mechanic that I see or remember, so it's really more an annoyance considering the game was totally broken before I found this fix.

Since I've been obsessed with getting this game to work for over a year, I did some research, and as far as I can tell, there are only two things this nighttime/underwater glitch is going to affect. One is the early dungeon Beet Hoven, in which you do have to dive under the water slightly twice and come right back up. It's annoying but very doable with timing. I tested it today.

The other one is more major. It involves the promotion quest from fighter to mercenary, in which you HAVE to be at a certain dock at a certain time of night, and wait to be attacked by a group of six bandits. Since my merry band is only level two, I can't beat them, but I was able to stand on the docks and use the typical means to get them to show up. I would assume once they start attacking if you just spam the crap out of melee attacks and some aoe spells or scrolls you can get them down at a higher level and complete the damn thing. I read somewhere you have to kill them by 6am. If that's the case you just have to spam skills in the dark. I read elsewhere that it's closer to 7am, in which case all would be fine, since the sun comes out at six. I've read through most of the quest solutions briefly that I could find online, and these SEEM to be the only two instances where this problem absolutely affects the game. Otherwise, I suggest just RPing in your head that the screen goes black because your characters can't swim and that they have bad night vision and combat skills. Since there is not food mechanic the worst you're gonna have to do by cycling the rest menu is pay out some extra gold to mercs.

I tried the fix listed at the top. Of course, after replacing the cshell file, the game will boot up, but freezes and crashes in the load screen. So my options are either: play the game with >1-2 minute wait times to open up any menu (map, quest screen, inventory, etc), or try to fix the issue and not be able to play the game at all.

Any updates on this issue in the past year+?