Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy Tips

This Nancy Drew game plays very well on Linux using Crossover.  In fact, I like playing it on Linux better than on Windows for several reason that I will not go into now.

Installing the game is a little tricky because you will find that the regular installer quits prematurely resulting in a failed install.  Here is how to install the game successfully.  

First off, I am using Xubuntu 14.04, 64 bit, and Crossover 16.02, the latest build.  Here we go.

1.  Start Crossover, Click on Bottle in the top menu, Select New Bottle.  Name the Bottle "Nancy Drew", or whatever you like.  Leave it the recommended Windows XP type.  Click on Create and wait for the bottle to be created.

2.  Put your Nancy Drew program disk into your disk drive, but do not do anything.  If anything pops up for you to do, cancel it.  Just put the disk in the drive.

3.  In the left column of Crossover, highlight your new bottle, then in the the top menu, click on Bottle, then on "Open C: Drive".  A file manager program will open showing the contents of the Bottle in the main window, and all your Linux drives in the left column. (At least that's how mine looks.)

4.  Double click "Program Files", then RIGHT click the open white space and create a new folder called "Her Interactive"

5.  In the left column you need to find your Nancy Drew disk.  It may have a simple name like SPY, depending on what ND game you are installing.  It may have a CD icon next to it.  Anyway... RIGHT click on the CD and open it in a new tab or new window.  That way, you will not have a hard time locating the folder you created in the previous step.  It will still be visible in the first window.

6.  Among other things, you should see a folder called "files", open it. Now you should see a folder call "game".  Highlight it, then RIGHT click and select COPY.  Nothing will seem to happen

7.  Now, open the previous window where you will see the folder that you created in step 4.  "Her Interactive"  Highlight that folder, RIGHT click and select "Paste into folder".  The game will be copied into that folder and it may take a long time.  Just wait for it.  You should see a progress bar.  (TIP - If you lost the folder, go to your Crossover window, select Bottle and Open C: Drive, then proceed from there.)

8.  Open the "Her Interactive" folder and you should see the new folder called "game", that you just pasted.  RIGHT click on it and rename it to the actual name of the game.  In this case, "The Silent Spy".  This step is actually optional, BUT if you have other Nancy Drew games, you can install them all into the same bottle each time renaming the "game" folder to the actual name of the game.  Close everything out except for Crossover.

OK... now lets make an Icon for the game on the screen or in your Crossover menu.

1.  In the Crossover program, highlight your ND bottle in the left column, then in the Right panel, double click "Run a Command".  A Box will open

2.  Click on Browse to see the contents of Drive C:.  Click on "Program files", then "Her Interactive", then the name of the game (The Silent Spy).  You should now see a list of folders and the .EXE file for the game.
Highlight and open the .exe file.  You will be returned to the original box but the path to the .exe file will now show in the slot.  DO NOT RUN IT!!!

3.  Click on "Create Launcher", Select Start Menu, then click on "Create".
This puts an icon for the game into your Crossover Bottle menu.

4.  If you want an icon on your desktop, repeat step 3 and select desktop.

5.  CANCEL out of the small box.  Find the icon that you just made in the crossover program or on your desktop and double click it to start the game.

Piece of Cake!