Creatures Caves

So I figured this out this morning when I decided I wanted to be able to play C3 and Docking Station on my Windows 7 install. (This is using the Exodus versions, by the way.) Of course this needs the color depth to be changed, but I didn't want to leave it in 16-bit all the time, or go through the hassle of swapping manually every time I ran Creatures. So, after a little searching, I found this method to do it automatically, and decided to share.

First, make sure your install shows you filename extensions, as you'll need to make batch files. (How to do this on Windows Vista/7)

Next you'll need to download Display Changer from the 12noon site and install it - it's a very small download and quick install.

Finally, make a couple of batch files (ie, text files renamed to have the extension .bat on the end instead of .txt) on your desktop or wherever you want to launch the game from with suitably descriptive names (Docking Station, Creatures 3, whatever.) This is the code I used - note that C3 starts in fullscreen mode for me with this and I had to use shift-alt-enter to change it back. I think there's a commandline option, but I'm not aware of it and I couldn't find it (hint, hint...)

Anyway, you'll want to put this in your batch files - Notepad works fine for something this simple. Just copy and paste (assuming you installed Exodus and Display Changer in the default locations, and are on a 64-bit system):

To launch Creatures 3:

"C:/Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=16
"C:/Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Creatures Exodus\Creatures 3\engine.exe" --autokill Creatures 3
"C:/Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=max

To launch Docking Station:

"C:/Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=16
"C:/Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Creatures Exodus\Docking Station\engine.exe" --autokill Docking Station
"C:/Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=max

To launch Creatures 3 on a 32-bit system:

"C:/Program Files\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=16
"C:/Program Files\GOG.com\Creatures Exodus\Creatures 3\engine.exe" --autokill Creatures 3
"C:/Program Files\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=max

To launch Docking Station on a 32-bit system:

"C:/Program Files\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=16
"C:/Program Files\GOG.com\Creatures Exodus\Docking Station\engine.exe" --autokill Docking Station
"C:/Program Files\12noon Display Changer\dc" -depth=max

If in doubt which to pick, try 32-bit first and if it doesn't do anything (flashes a black window momentarily), try 64-bit. Or learn the difference and find out which you have - it'll be useful if you do much computer work.