Welcome to the LBA1 & LBA2 Tech Support Page!

The purpose of this web page is to help you run LBA1 Relentless and LBA2 Twinsen's Odyssey in Windows XP. I'll do this by drawing from my own experience and experiments, and from the most pertinent information that I've been able to find from other sites. I really love both games and I hope that this info will help as many people as possible. If the download links aren't working it is because I've exceed my hourly download limit. If anyone has problems running either game, feel free to contact me through the blog link to the left.

One last thing, if you are into Pine Wood Derby Cars and would like to learn how to make them the fastest, and at the same time learn the physics behind it all, please take the time to visit http://www.pinewoodphysics.com. This is a friend's website and I just want to support him. I get nothing in return. Thanks!

First, and foremost, there is a program called LbaWin that allows you to play LBA1: Relentless in Windows XP. I believe this is the BEST way to play LBA1. The newest version just came out on March 19, 2006. Head on over to http://lbawin.akoonet.com/ to find it. You must register as an official beta-tester to download LbaWin, but since the download link is broken on that page, you can download LbaWin here. There are good instructions on that website that are self explanatory, but if you run into problems, just email me and I'll gladly help you. Download it, install it, follow the directions. By the way, you MUST own a legal CD copy of LBA1 for LbaWin to function.

A second option is Funny Frog's LBA1 patch which should not be confused with LbaWin. It can be confusing because this patch creates a patched file called LBAWIN.EXE. The patch can be downloaded here. It comes with a text file that explains how to use it really well. This patch should be used in conjunction with VDMSound. It is a Sound Blaster emulator for Windows XP. If you are interested in VDMSound for any other reason than LBA1 you can download it here.

There is also a great guide to help you out. It contains some other tips that might help and can be found here.

If for some odd and peculiar reason LbaWin does not work for you, there is a last resort: DOSBOX. There is a great guide that can help you run LBA1 using DOSBOX here.

Now on to getting LBA2 Twinsen's Odyssey working in Windows XP. Usually the following steps work for most people.

1. Install the game either from the Splash screen that appears after inserting the CD or by directing yourself to the Win 95 directory on the CD and double clicking on the install file. If during the install process it asks you to install DirectX 3.0, ignore that step and skip it. I suggest installing the large install so that the game runs more smoothly. This will place the voice and music files on the hard drive and should take up approximately 145 megabytes. Once the installation is complete, direct yourself to your installation directory, right click on twinsen.exe and choose properties. Click the compatibility tab and choose either Win 95 or Win 98. You should try either of these options if one or the other doesn't work. Remember to always start the game by double-clicking the twinsen.exe file in the installation directory, this way you will bypass the DirectX 3.0 detection and the game will automatically use the current version installed on you computer.

2. Most people have graphical problems that can be solved by a very simple solution. The solution is to download Funny Frog's Patch for LBA2 that fixes the graphics problem for MOST people. You can download it here. Unzip the contents into your installation directory and run patch.exe to patch twinsen.exe. If you absolutely can't get the above step to work, then you can download the already patched lba.exe or twinsen.exe files here. Make sure you make a backup of your originial .exe file, then unzip the corresponding .exe file that you have into your install directory. I've also found that using VDMSound with LBA2 seems to work if you are having sound problems. Once you've installed VDMSound you need to right click on setsound.bat in the Twinsen Odyssey's install directory and a menu will show, then LEFT click on "Run with VDMS." The DOS screen should then come up and try to detect the sound automatically. If you get garble sound just select NO. You will know that you have the correct settings when you hear the Twinsen's Magic Ball bouncing. Then select YES. Now you will right click on twinsen.exe and choose "Run with VDMS" from the menu and the sound should work fine. If you are still having some sound problems, click on the LBA Tech Blog on the menu to the left. I have posted some instructions that might help you out.

3. If for some other reason you have a different error, I have found that by copying the entire Twinsen's Odyssey CD to your hard drive into a directory of your choice, then applying Funny Frog's patch, solves a lot of these problems.