Installing Creatures 3 on Windows Vista
Written onSince Creatures 2 will not work on Windows Vista, I sadly have to skip over it until a further date. C2 was my favorite Creatures games, and I really would have loved to have played it prior to Creatures 3. Alas, technology problems prevail! I’ll eventually get my hands on a version from GOG.com where all of the Creatures games can be purchased online.
Most Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 users are encouraged to purchase Creatures Exodus from GOG.com!
My Creatures 3 installation was a success! I’m spending a bit of time testing it out and making sure there are no glaring issues: I won’t label it as stable until tomorrow or the day after. I did the same thing with Creatures 1, just to be sure I wasn’t going to lose all of my Norns. I’m sure it’s pretty obvious that I get quite attached to my Norns! I never was able to bond as well with some of the Creatures in C3 for some reason, but I think my plans to share their lives will help out. I might even write some stories at one point!
For anyone who has an original disc and would like to install Creatures 3 on Windows Vista, follow these steps:
1. Insert the CD, but do not click anything on the auto-run screen.
2. Navigate to the Install folder on the Creatures 3 CD.
3. Right-click on the Setup.exe file and choose Properties.
4. Click on the Compatibility tab and click the check-box to run the program in compatibility mode.
5. Choose Windows 2000 from the compatibility mode drop-down menu.
6. Apply the settings and close the Setup.exe properties.
7. Right-click on the Setup.exe file and choose Run as administrator
8. Proceed through the installation and enjoy Creatures 3!
This process worked for me, but may not work correctly for everyone. And, of course, this is only a process for those of us who are using the original discs. Enjoy Creatures 3!
So will you be doing posts on both C3 and C1, then? And how will you be setting it up? For example, would you do posts on each on the same day or designate certain days for one of the games (i.e. Mon., Wed., Fri. = C3, Tues., Thurs., Sat. = C1)?
I personally think posting on consecutive days would be easier to follow (Mon., Tues., Wed. = C3, Thurs., Fri., Sat. = C1) and then maybe when you transition back to the other game you could do like they do on TV shows and say “Previously in C1…” (haha, that sounds lame) and then remind us what happened since it will have been a few days…
Just my two cents. Of course you can set it up however you see fit! I’ll still read no matter what, though.
Unbelievable. Followed your directions and I’ve finally managed to get Creatures 3 to install on my Vista machine :D
I think I’d been skipping the ‘run as administrator’ step.
Now for the fun part of redoing all the updates and getting Docking Station reattached.
Thanks for that. No more having to boot up the old computer to play.
QuackAttack, I can definitely try out your suggestion for updates involving the different games! I usually only have enough time to play either C1 or C3 on a given day. I’ll probably devote the first few days of the week to Creatures 1, then switch over to Creatures 3, and finally leave the weekend for updates on either game. Thanks for the idea on how to manage the two!
I’m glad that the installation process worked for you, Arch! This was a lot easier than the C1 installation… I’m pretty sure I remember the majority of the steps, but I’d want to test it out before saying that it definitely works. At least Creatures 3 didn’t require too much fiddling around! I hope you enjoy playing it!
Tercerois2cool.
Now all ya need is to install DS! Hehe. My Creatures 2 doesn’t work either. I even bought it from GOG.com. That was my favorite one of all time.
Oh, did ya want my version of the games? I have them all bought from GOG.com :D
Any idea why your version of Creatures 2 doesn’t work? I haven’t heard of any issues with the GOG downloads, but I would be curious to see if it would be possible to figure out why it’s not working for you. C2 is amazing!
Thank you for the very kind offer, but I’ve gotten C1 and C3 to work, and have plans to get C2 for myself in the near future. I do appreciate your generosity, though! Hopefully Creatures 2 will end up working for you very soon!
My C2 won’t work on my Windows 7 either, or as it seems (I installed it but still haven’t run it)! 7 is exactly like Vista, but faster and possibly more annoying.
I followed your instructions to install C3 but, as usual, all it’s doing is: nothing. I told it to run Setup after completing all previous steps. It worked for a moment and is now ignoring me.
This happened with C2, though. I told C2 to run setup and nothing happened. Then, about four or five hours later, the ten boxes of setup I get from clicking over and over appear and install!
Same thing : install on Windows 7 runs pointlessly then ignores me.
I tried your instructions and it still doesn’t work. Setup doesn’t open (no error message, it just does nothing).
I encourage anyone to purchase Creatures Exodus from GOG.com: These instructions were written several years ago, and were never a foolproof method guaranteed to work for everyone. It’s a shame older games have such trouble running on newer operating systems! The GOG.com version is usually $5.99, although it occasionally goes on sale. Not a bad price to pay for such a great game. Good luck!
I followed your steps, and I also used the compatibility wizard to get things running. I clicked install and followed the steps and whilst it was installing, I got to 3% of installation and I received
“an error occurred during the move data process: -117
Component: Program Files
File Group: File:E:INSTALLinstallBackgroundsaqua2.6.blk”
please help?
This post was written several years ago, when it was possible to get Creatures Exodus to work. I haven’t heard of anyone having much success lately, unfortunately. I highly recommend checking out Creatures Exodus at GOG.com: The price is reasonable, and I haven’t had any problems with getting the game to work in Windows 7! Hopefully you get things up and running soon, if you haven’t already. Good luck!
Hi, I just bought Exodus on GOG but when I try to launch DS I’ve got a problem…
I did a screen cap’: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19/captureoqj.jpg/
Someone could help me please?
Thanks.
Looks like the file didn’t completely download or unpack (I don’t think it should have .partial at the end of the filename). The setup file should be 168MB – is it all there?
Ack! Sorry Jessica, have just realised this is a really old comment thread! *facepalm*
No worries, Nutter! This is actually one of the most popular posts here: Might update it to make it more clear that the GOG.com version of C3/DS is likely the best bet for newer systems. I was excited when this worked for me, though, so maybe it still has some usefulness for players on slightly older systems!