Is there a way to get the demo for Doom 3 to work on Win 7?

So, I've recently gotten my cousin into the doom series and after finishing doom 1 and 2, he's looking to play doom 3. Of course, he wants to play a demo before buying it to see if it's worth the money, and I've lent the disc for the full version to my friend and he seems to have screwed me over by not giving it back (I assume he broke it) thing is, my cousin, like most of us, uses windows 7 and AFAIK it's not possible to make the demo work on windows 7. Is there a way?

Simple answer.

NO.

Same with Windows Vista. You'd have to use Windows XP, or just keep trying and get Lucky.

The Doom 3 shareware doesn't work on Windows 7? o_o

Also, someone who breaks a Doom copy is not a friend. Fortunately you can keep playing Doom 3 without the CD if you update it to a later version.

printz said:

The Doom 3 shareware doesn't work on Windows 7? o_o

Nope. If you try to run it, the process will run for about ten seconds and then it terminates itself.

Try running it in compatibility mode?

I must admit that it sounds like an issue specific to the demo. A couple of friends of mine run the retail version of Doom 3 on their Win7 boxes just fine.

Indeed. Any modern game should work perfectly on Windows 7...

DoomUK said:

Try running it in compatibility mode?

I must admit that it sounds like an issue specific to the demo. A couple of friends of mine run the retail version of Doom 3 on their Win7 boxes just fine.

Yah, the *Retail* version. The Demo is incampatible for Vista or 7. Don't ask why.

DoomUK said:

Try running it in compatibility mode?

I must admit that it sounds like an issue specific to the demo. A couple of friends of mine run the retail version of Doom 3 on their Win7 boxes just fine.

Yeah it's specific to the demo. Isn't the demo based off of an old version of the code or something?

The 1.3.1 patch was released to fix issues with Vista (which carry over to Windows 7 as well). The demo version was never updated and you probably don't have a chance to run it (an idea comes to me if you can run the demo pk4 files on 1.3.1 ... no idea if it will work though).

It's $20US on Steam. Seems a bit much for a 7 year old game, but it isn't too bad a price. That seems unfortunately to be the only way to go about it, what with the demo being broken.
(Unless ebay offers a better price without being bid up to ridiculous heights like most things.)

Here's how I got the Doom 3 Demo to run on Windows 7. First, install the demo, then install the 1.3.1 patch to the demo folder. Open up "game03.pk4" in your favourite zip editor and extract "gamex86.dll" to the demos main folder. Move the "demo00.pk4" from demo to base folder. If you run the demo now it will ask for a CD key so apply a fix. Open up "demo00.pk4" in your zip editor. All files and folders that begins with "demo_" need to have that part removed. If I haven't forgotten anything in those instructions the demo should function now. :)

All that for a Demo? I think someone would rather just buy the game instead.

Now why don't we focus on something else, like getting the Wolf 2009 Demo to work on Vista :P

Hello Cire, I did all you wrote but it is still asking for key. What else to do?

Hello roboticmehdi, how are you? Yes, it probably does. I forgot to say there's a very simple way to skip the key check though, and that is simply accessing the console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Standard Console Key (which is probably located directly between esc and tab on most keyboards incase you don't know). From there you can just write commands, preferable 'map' is useful for you. Just do 'map' followed by the path to the map you wanna start up, which probably is the first demo map. Not exactly sure what the path to it is atm but you can easyli check out by yourself by opening demo00.pk4 in your favorite zip editor and note the path for first map. the command should be similar to 'map game/sp/mars_city' or something. Don't hesitate to ask if you need more help with it, i'll try my best to help!

Hello Cire. I have problem with doom 3 alpha (leaked on 2002), maybe you have any idea how to solve that too?

 Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  Application Name:    doom.exe
  Application Version:    1.0.0.1
  Application Timestamp:    3d3d9d09
  Fault Module Name:    StackHash_39b3
....

I downloaded it from http://www.theisozone.com/downloads/pc/windows-games/doom-iii-alpha-002-e3-demo/

Well, it was a while since I tried that one out on Windows 7, but iirc, there was a patch included which after installed made it work for me. Can't guarantee it does for you, but maybe Worth a try if you haven't already installed it, since I remember I also had a similar crash without the patch, but after installing it it worked fine. Hope it helps

Hello Cire. The doom 3 alpha I downloaded comes with a patch, and it doesn't work despite that patch. Although I don't know if it is the same patch that you are talking about. Do you still have that patch ?

I wonder if it is possible to build a working alpha by copying it's files to a working doom 3 demo folder, kinda like modding. I am no modder or game maker so I wasn't successful in doing that today. But I think that might be possible. Demo uses .pk4 compressed file, when I expand it the game launches but maps don't load at all. But the alpha uses uncompressed individual files, so I guess files must somehow be trasferred to the demo's .pk4. I need more knowledge of id tech 4's working principles. It might take long time for me to figure everything out, also depends on how bad I want to make the alpha work on my computer. What do you guys think? Any suggestions, ideas?

I have the disc for Doom 3, I tried installing it onto my Win10 laptop and it didn't work. So then I just pirated it by typing 'Doom 3 free download crack' into Google, and of course, that worked perfectly.

I don't think it's that bad because I do own the game...

...right?

1 hour ago, Grimosaur said:

I have the disc for Doom 3, I tried installing it onto my Win10 laptop and it didn't work. So then I just pirated it by typing 'Doom 3 free download crack' into Google, and of course, that worked perfectly.

I don't think it's that bad because I do own the game...

 

...right?

Maybe because the disc you have only brings the Doom 3 without the 1.3.1. patch (MAYBE, i'm not 100% sure)

What even is this post

I don't have a cousin that I've gotten into the Doom series, nor did I lend a Doom 3 disc to any of my friends, and I would have had no reason to try and get the Doom 3 demo working on Windows 7 because I already had the full version of the game by that point.

Obviously 14-year old me was trying to lie about *something* in a roundabout way, but what the hell was I lying about? And why would I go to such an elaborate effort to lie about it?

LOL the last three posts (no counting mine), what are you guys even talking about  :D

I'm guessing Marn = Marnetmar.

There is steam refund as an option. They seem pretty lenient until you reach the 2 hours mark.

Buy and download the game and determine if it's for you before 2 hours. I did something like this once. I really wish it was an option when Postal 3 was released.

On 4/16/2018 at 4:13 AM, Chezza said:

There is steam refund as an option. They seem pretty lenient until you reach the 2 hours mark.

 

Buy and download the game and determine if it's for you before 2 hours. I did something like this once. I really wish it was an option when Postal 3 was released.

I haven't done refunding in years. Is it no longer possible?

2 hours ago, TFK said:

I haven't done refunding in years. Is it no longer possible?

I'm not sure. If Steam stopped refunding I'm sure all the game news sites would have written about it.

Check out Steam for further details, but I suspect the refund option is still available.