So I'm in D'ni with the "hidden" page, Atrus asks me to give it to him and as soon as I give him the game crashes. In the event viewer I can see that realMYST.exe has crashed with the following error:
faulting module binkw32.dll, version 3.0.0.0, fault address 0x00003e90.

I checked the Page2ndHalf.bik from the CD which should be played at that moment, no errors on my CD and I can play the file just fine with the RADTools.

My realMYST is patched to version 1.1.1 (I tried with the original 1.0) but it crashes always at the same spot.

Also tried with compatibility mode 95,98 and 2000.

I've also tried to replaces the binkw32.dll to older and newer versions but it always crashes.

Any idea?

My specs: Pentium 4 2.26 Ghz, 512 megs of RAM, Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (64 megs) with Nvidia 61.77 drivers and Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Well, it's just an idea, but you might try disabling AGP Fast Write and setting the Graphics Aperture size to 64 or 32 MB within the BIOS. If you're running your memory at faster than normal timings, bring them back down to normal first and see if it still crashes before adjusting AGP Fast Write or Graphics Aperture.

I've tried with 32 and 64 MB of aperture as well as disabling Fast Write, nothing helps and I don't overclock my CPU nor my GFX card so it can't be that. Really strange.

The ghost(s) of Sirrus or Achenar in the machine?

Is anything else running in the background that might be looking for the same memory space?

Damn those two brothers!!

Tried to run the game with the absolute minimum but it still crashes, funny thing is when I get the error if I ALT-TAB back into the game I can hear the rest of Atrus speech up until he links to Myst.

This fix is not indicated by your info, but it's cheap and try it anyway: clean your the bottom of your CD with isopropyl alcohol and a cotton swab. Every failure I've read of with "bink" in it has been the result of the CD laser not reading the file at that point. Just a WAG.

Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to SUFFERING! - Yoda

I'll try that but I kinda doubt it'll help as I have tried the full install so the file is on the hard disk now.
Just for "fun", I have renamed Page1stHalf.bik and Page2ndHalf.bik to each other names and the second file if renamed to first plays just fine. I think the problem lies on the bink switching between the two.

LordCrew,

I remember the first time I installed realMYST on Windows XP - it wouldn't run. It would try to start but the CTD. I tried all combinations of compatability mode but to no avail. Then by chance I finally got an error message that mentioned the bink player, so I played with that and got a message about the Indeo codec. Soooo, when I can't find it because XP doesn't have it, I download/install it and presto (no pun intended) realMYST works. Okay, so Bink uses Indeo - we know that now.

In a different but related experience, something I was trying to play required the Indeo codec that at the time was not installed, and when I "cancelled" the option to play, the sequence played anyway but with no video, just sound (kinda familiar, yes?).

So now I'm thinking that your problem may actually be caused by the Indeo codec you have installed, not the Bink player. You might try downloading and installing the Indeo 5.11 from http://www.moviecodec.com/download/codecs.shtml - it works with XP just fine.

Well speaking of indeo codecs I have the 3.2 installed (by default with XP) and the Ligos 5.2. I've uninstalled it and used the 5.11 but it doesn't change a thing. I can play the .avi from realMYST just fine with the windows media player though.
Just as a general information the indeo avi and bink files don't have sounds in realMYST, the sounds must be located into those big .dni files. I've realized this when I switched the names of 2 .bik files. I had the animation where Atrus put the last page into his Myst linking book while having the speech from the first animation, that didn't prevent the game from crashing though

I have reinstalled a fresh version of XP a few days ago and installed realMYST just after that, RadTools only purpose was trying to see if there was anything wrong with the movie file after I discovered my problem.

I'll try the game on another PC and maybe finally discover the Rime age.

hmmm, i also have the same problem. I want to go RIME .

Btw i tried on 2 computers

If your game crashes when you give Atrus the Myst page, install Bink Player, go to your RM directory, then to the \Scn\Maps, do a backup of Pageloop.bik,convert it to .avi and then back to .bik with RadTools. The player will fix the corrupted .bik

Hope that'll help.It worked fine for me

P.S.: This fix is taken for eskagfj's thread.Thank you eskagfj!

eskagfj's thread is realMYST XP Problem (binkw32.dll error).

The RAD Video Tools ("RadTools") and other Bink downloads are available here from RAD Game Tools.
How-to-use help for RAD Video Tools is available here.

Heimdall
Semper ubi sub ubi.