Quest for Glory 5 Guide

This is the final game in the Quest for Glory series. By now the Hero has been through numerous challenges, is a hero of 4 lands and is quite experienced. This is also the only Quest for Glory game using a 3D environment, and the adventure aspects are have taken a step back for more rpg elements. The same wonderful humor of the previous games is still present.

This guide will explain how to install the digital edition of the game, available on GOG.com

Tips & Specs

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux explained

Arch Linux 64-bit
PlayOnLinux 4.2.2
Wine 1.4.1

Downloading from GOG

GOG games can be downloaded on Linux by using a web browser, just make sure the "GOG.com Downloader mode" is OFF

Note that at the time of writing, there is a "Universal update" version 1.0.1 available on the GOG website. This only applies to older versions of the installer, so if download the new installer now, you will not need the update.

Or you can use the lgogdownloader, which is my personal preferred choice. It is a very useful program for downloading GOG games. There is no graphical interface for it, but it is very fast and provides error free downloads.

For some Linux distros it may be found in community repositories or similar community provided packages. Installation and usage instructions are located here: lgogdownloader

On first use, you must log in by opening a terminal and using the command:

lgogdownloader --login

You will be prompted for your gog.com account email and password, which you must type in correctly before you can use lgogdownloader to download games.

To list all games you own, type:

lgogdownloader --list

If you only want to see specific games you own, for example any games with 'glory' in the name, then type:

lgogdownloader --list | grep glory

To download the Quest for Glory pack with no extras and no cover artwork, just the actual installer:

lgogdownloader --download --game quest_for_glory --no-extras --no-cover --directory /path/to/folder

Setup PlayOnLinux

Launch PlayOnLinux and select 'Tools' and 'Manage Wine versions'

In the new window that appears, scroll through the 'Available Wine versions' box to find '1.4.1' and click on the right pointing arrow to install it, now it will be visible under 'Installed Wine versions' on the right side
If you have a 64-bits system, make sure you have selected the 'Wine versions (x86)' tab above

Just close the window. Back at the main PlayOnLinux window, select 'Install'

Click on 'Install a non-listed program'

Select 'Install a program in a new virtual drive' and click next

Name the the virtual drive "QFG5" and click next

Select "Use another version of Wine", "Configure Wine" and "Install some libraries" before you click next

On the wine selection window, select 1.4.1 and click next. Make sure you select '32-bits window installation' if you are on a 64-bit system

When the wine configuration window appear, select the 'Graphics' tab, and click the checkbox for the lower three options. You don't have to capture the mouse within the game window for this game since there is no mouse look. The resolution you set for the virtual desktop is also not very important as it will switch to the game resolution on start.

Note: Even though the language is Norwegian in my screenshot, the layout will look the same for you

When you come to the selection of libraries to install, select: POL_Install_gdiplus
This will let the GOG installer display correctly

Then click 'Next'

When you are asked for the install file to run, navigate to the GOG installer and select it. Then click 'Next'

Installing the Game

Click on 'Options', and click to accept the UELA, then make sure you de-select every other game on the list. The other games are Dos games and as such should be set up directly with DosBox, which is explained in another guide here. Just make sure Quest for Glory 5 is selected, then click 'Install'

When the installation is complete, 'Exit' the installer

When you are asked to create a shortcut, select "QfG5.exe", you can let it keep the default name. Then select 'I don't want to make another shortcut'

That is all you have to do in order to play the game. Since this game is very old, there is no need to set any higher video memory, or any other settings for that matter. The game will run as it is now.

Note on resolution

This game runs in 640x480 resolution, so obviously the game window will appear very small on most modern screens. You can try to go into wine configuration and disable the virtual desktop. However this might prevent the game from properly launching on some setups.

Certain distros have a default desktop environment that let you zoom in, so that is certainly an option. Another easy method is simply to reduce your desktop resolution when you play the game. Some window managers have the option to let a window take fullscreen status, meaning it will draw over everything else without window borders. If you window manager allows this you could set desktop resolution to 640x480, and then set the game window to fullscreen.

Screenshots

 

It appears most of the game is rendered in 3D... is this correct?
That last screenshot look like fighting... I thought this was a point-n-click adventure...

 

All the Quest for Glory games involve rpg elements and combat, while still primarily being point and click adventure. Well except for the first two games that use a text parser, meaning you type in what you wish to do. I think the coolest thing about these games is how you can keep importing your character through all the games, so if you spend extra time improving your skills in each game, you start out a little better than a newly created character would for each game.

This last game in the series use 3D models on a 2D background, as was common for many games at the time. There is still a lot of focus on puzzle solving in this game, but it feels much more like an rpg than an adventure game.

 

What a cool feature, importing your character from the previous game!
I really like the backgrounds because they are rendered in 3D and look very nice even though its really a 2D image. They did a good job.
Kinda like Alone in the Dark series

 

Hey... does anyone have a problem with Frostbite in QFG5? I have the GoG version, installed through the PoL script provided and the method above, and I get very little or no snow animation when casting the spell. This means there's barely any damage. Any thoughts? I've tweaked all the graphics settings I can think of.

 

I never played through this game as a magic user on Linux so I can't say if I'll experience this issue or not.

Wine has come a long way since I wrote this guide, and some simple things you can test it to use a newer wine version. You can try wine version 1.6.2, or one of the newer 1.7.xx versions to see if it works better.

If you could make your save file available (if you PM me I can give you my email address) then I can test this easily myself since I would not have to play until I learn the spell.

 

Hmm... I don't have permission to view your profile. Interesting. The Wizard/magic user character starts with this spell, if you don't mind starting up a new game with it. I've tried a couple other versions of Wine, but I will try some more. Thanks!

 

that is strange...
Maybe a few more posts and you will have permissions.
There is a minimum of posts before you can upload files and edit your previous posts

 

It's been a very long time since I played this game through so I forgot what spells I started with. I will test this either later today and tomorrow and see what my results are. Hopefully this can be fixed by using a newer wine version.

 

I've been testing quite a lot, and I've not been able to get the Frostbite effect working so far. The newest wine versions refuse to even run the game so I've been focusing most of my testing on 1.6.2 but no luck so far.

It may be that a patched version of wine could help, so I am going to do some more testing during the weekend, hoping that I can find a solution to this problem. I did some googling as well, but could not find any other information on this issue.