Daikatana (demo)

Ion Storm / Eidos, 2000, Quake II engine. Fixture: test/binaries/win98-games-a-d/Daikatana-demo-OpenGL-SW.exe, a WinZip SFX around an InstallShield 5 Disk1 (107 MB).

Install (works, headless)

unzip the SFX; 16-bit IS5 Setup.exe with --vfs-include='*' --tick-ms-per-batch=5 --capture-launch=cap -> _ins5576._mp; run it from the capture (frozen --control): Next x4, "Confirm New Folder" Yes, Next, step to "Setup Complete". C:\Program Files\Eidos Interactive\Daikatana Demo (456 files, 127 MB) is kept at Daikatana demo-SW/installed. Only ref_gl.dll ships (no ref_soft), so the CLI needs --gl-renderer=software; the game, physics, weapons and world DLLs load from dlls\.

Registry entry used for the runs (not committed, it is not playable yet): exe daikatana.exe, dlls [mss32.dll], workingDirectory/exeGuestPath under the install dir, manifest generator entry with that vfsRoot.

Where it stops

Boots to the main menu (Single Player -> Select Difficulty is already shown, renders correctly in software GL). Choosing a difficulty, or starting with +map e1m1a, shows the dark-red loading plaque forever. +set logfile 2 writes data/dk_console.log: sound and renderer init fine, server initializes, the map loads ("Registration time"), then "Starting Music" is the last line, also with +set s_music 0. The frame loop keeps running (8 frames of 2D quads + wglSwapBuffers per 200 batches; polls ./kick.dat), nothing else is read from pak1.pak. Next: what follows S_StartMusic / CL begin (spawn handshake over the in-process loopback?) -- break after the "Starting Music" print and follow the client state.

Status 2026-10-06: parked (claude:d10ba697); TODOS NEW-GAME-DAIKATANA-DEMO-20261006.

Un-parked: in-world (claude:202b4b39, 2026-10-06)

Two causes, neither in the music code the console log pointed at:

• The DLL table was 32 slots. Miles (mss32.dll) enumerates and LoadLibrarys ~30 providers from the install directory (*.flt, *.m3d, mp3dec.asi) at sound init, so the game's own dlls\physics.dll was the 33rd and failed ("DLL table capacity 32 exhausted"). Fixed on main 4cf9420e (64 slots). Without it, +map falls back to the Select Difficulty menu.
• The headless clock. At the default 200 ms/batch, registration takes ~3495 guest seconds ("Registration time" in dk_console.log) and the level stays on its loading plaque. --tick-ms-per-batch=5 reaches the level (registration ~107 guest s). The console log simply stops being flushed after "Starting Music"; it is not where the game stops.
• Route: node test/run.js --app=daikatana_demo --gl-renderer=software --tick-ms-per-batch=5 --args='+map e1m1a' --max-batches=112000 is in the e1m1a swamp by ~95,000 batches; holding VK_UP walks forward and picks up a weapon (scratch/runs/20261006T1830Z-daikatana-demo-gameplay).
• --save-vfs=DIR --save-vfs-suffix=.log exports data/dk_console.log; +set logfile 2 writes it.
• Main is busy in physics.dll and in an exe name-list walk (0x45ed52, a strcmp over a linked list) once in-world: ~20M API calls per 112k batches. FPS and the browser are separate.