Disney's Magic Artist Deluxe — modern Windows display fix

GameVaultMagicDisplay is an unofficial, local compatibility layer for Disney's Magic Artist Deluxe. It prevents the application from repeatedly switching Windows to 800×600, removes the associated flashes and black-screen failures after Alt+Tab, and presents the original 4:3 interface in a centered borderless view. Version 1.1.1 introduced reconstruction of the full edition's gallery/canvas slide at the enlarged size instead of exposing the broken native-pixel transition seen on modern Windows. Version 1.1.2 reduces silent IAT interposition and adds automated, content-free build checks without changing the validated display behaviour.

Runtime validation scope: Windows 10 x64, 1920×1080, 125% display scaling, primary display. Windows 11, mixed-DPI and multi-monitor configurations are not yet formally validated.

This project contains no Disney executable, artwork, audio, disc image, QuickTime component or copy-protection bypass. You need your own legitimate installation or disc.

Install

1. Close Magic Artist.
2. Download GameVaultMagicDisplay_1.1.2.zip from the latest release. Use the named ZIP asset, not GitHub's automatically generated source archive.
3. Identify your executable as described in the compatibility list.
4. Copy one version.dll beside DMA4.exe or DMA4Demo.exe:
   • core/version.dll is the default graphical fix;
   • plus/version.dll adds suppression of the obsolete QuickTime 5 movie export notice.
5. Start the original executable normally.

No original file is overwritten. To uninstall the fix, close the application and remove the local version.dll.

Identify your build

From PowerShell in the game directory:

Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\DMA4.exe
(Get-Item .\DMA4.exe).VersionInfo | Select-Object FileVersion, ProductVersion

For the preview, replace DMA4.exe with DMA4Demo.exe. You can also drag the EXE onto tools/Identify Magic Artist build.cmd; it prints the hash, version and file size without changing anything. Match the executable SHA-256, not the ISO hash: two disc images can contain the same executable while having different container hashes.

Core and Plus

Core changes only the display/windowing path. Plus contains the same fix and also acknowledges the single-button notice whose text contains QuickTime 5.0. It does not install or emulate QuickTime and does not make movie export work. All other message boxes pass to the application unchanged. The animation-by-frames editor and its internal playback do not require QuickTime; the missing component affects only optional MOV export.

Copy-protected editions

The original English and Brazilian executables found during research contain a SecuROM wrapper. This project does not remove or work around it. The user must first satisfy the original disc authentication by legitimate means. The display fix is expected to apply after authentication because the wrapped builds expose the same graphics imports, but those paths remain explicitly marked as statically compatible rather than runtime validated. Static matching does not validate runtime behaviours such as the 1.1.1 gallery transition.

See COMPATIBILITY.md for exact hashes and statuses and VALIDATION.md for the evidence behind each claim. The preservation catalogues and technical references consulted are listed in SOURCES.md.

Unsupported builds and bug reports

Do not upload an executable or disc image. Open an issue with only:

• executable filename, byte size, SHA-256, file version and language;
• Windows version, resolution and display scaling;
• whether Core or Plus was used;
• a description of the failure and, if applicable, the diagnostic log.

Unknown hashes are not automatically unsafe, but they have not been tested.

Known visual limitation

The MMFW startup intro retains image, animation and sound, but its composition is offset toward the lower-right of the 4:3 presentation. Correcting it would require reconstructing the intro's partial dirty rectangles into complete frames. That higher-risk path is intentionally not part of 1.1.2 because the canvas, Alt+Tab recovery and gallery transition are stable. Press Esc to skip the intro.

Disclaimer

This is an independent preservation and compatibility project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Disney, Macromedia, SecuROM or Apple. All third-party names and assets belong to their respective owners.

License

The original compatibility code and scripts are available under the MIT License. That licence does not apply to the original game or any third-party component.