The fix is to uncompress the town video files using a free utility called: Virtualdub.
Go to the following site:
http://www186.pair.com/vdub/
Once you're there, download Virtualdub,
[go to the left side panel and click on "Download" then click on "Virtualdub at SourceForge", click on the Version 1.4.7 "HTTP primary" link, and save the file to your C:\ drive.
If you don't have an unzipper program then you can download and install WinZip from this link:
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10097-100-1757502.html?tag=st.dl.10001-1 03-1.lst-7-1.1757502
Use Windows Explorer to navigate to your C:\ drive, and double-left-click on the VirtualDub-1_4_7.zip file to unzip it (extract all files into a new folder called "C:\vdub")
Run the program by navigating to your new folder called C:\vdub and double-clicking on "Virtualdub.exe" and then load the file "townmsk1.avi" from the "Townavi" directory in your Wizards & Warriors folder into Virtualdub (by default this folder is C:\Program Files\Activision\Wizardswarriors\townavi). To load the file from Virtualdub, choose "File" and then "Open video file" and navigate to the above named folder and click "Open". Though there is no message the file is now loaded into memory.
Save it with the "Save old-format AVI" option with a new file name (such as mask1.avi). You should see some strange graphics appear; you will get back a large 32MB file. Now exit Virtualdub and then in Windows Explorer rename the new file from mask1.avi to townmsk1.avi (over the old file - say Yes to the "Do you want to replace" dialog box). Do the same procedure to the other two town mask files (townmsk2.avi and townmsk3.avi) changing the initial save names as appropriate.
Xignal
[ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: Xignal ]