Blank Screen

[KGB]

The "bug" I have looks like the bug described by micah (sticky post on the top)

Right now I use my old loptop which uses LCD (surprise surprise). When I load some of my saved files I see a black screen and the cursor in the top left corner, but the music and all the sounds are present. According to Micah's post it`s the refresh rate. Wel I did that he sad by changing the rate to 60 ....nothing i went as high as 63 but then the game just crushes (probably cuz the the scerr is 4 years old) going lower then 60 doen`t fix anything. Is there someone that had the same problem and fixed it ...... or am I doomed :o ?

[j'ordos]

Refresh rate of 63?

But with a LCD screen I'm afraid I'll have to bring you dire news: only a few lucky people have got it to work on that

[KGB]

Alright.....

 

It's really odd, I can't load it if I save it, but I can play normaly if I don't. (The reason I saved is cuz I open the door and see 5 nasty looking aliens looking at me so just to be sure I won't do anything stupid I save )

 

P.S.

One more thing do I have to reboot everytime i change dxdiag?

 

P.S.S.

J'ordos do you know some in particular who was able to fix it?

[KGB]

I just copied game1-10 and missdat folders on my PC just to check if it will work on it and it does NOT. So the problem isn't LCD here.

 

Now taking new suggestions :crying:

[j'ordos]

ah, misunderstood your problem here :Blush: . Well, you don't have to reboot after changing dxdiag, but I doubt that's the problem here. Where did you get your version of xcom? It might be damaged... And is it the original dos version, or the CE?

[Robo Dojo 58]

I've had a similar problem with my game. I would play X-COM for hours on end. After 5 or 6 battles, my game would get messed up. The next time the battlescape loaded, the screen went black, with the cursor in the upper left corner. The music would play, but the battlescape would not load. I've found some ways to overcome this problem. Here are a few tips:

 

1. Save after every battle.

2. Save when there are no craft/UFOs in the air. I've heard of a bug with the craft.dat file. Saving with craft in the air increases your chances of corrupting the game.

3. Don't play X-COM for hours on end. If you are going to, restart X-COM every few battles. After four or five battles, save and restart X-COM. You should have less trouble with X-COM crashing.

 

That won't help you too much, though. Your game sounds like it's already corrupted. Here's a guide on how to fix it.

 

1. Find a save slot that you don't care about. Delete everything in that directory.

2. Start up X-COM.

3. Find a game that you can load (geoscape is a good bet), and save in the empty slot.

4. Restart X-COM.

5. Load the new game.

6. If it's still corrupted, return all craft to your base, get rid of all ufo's, and repeat.

 

As a general rule, have some save slots only for the Geoscape, and some only for the battlescape. That'll reduce your chance of corruption.

I hope you get your game working again, or you'll never enjoy MC'ing a battleship full of Ethereals. :wink:

[KGB]

Thx for the response. Sounds simple, I'll try that.

 

P.S.

Are you MAD? Don't play X-COM for hours on end?

All I do is play 20 hours a day .

 

Well maybe not 20 but still alot

[KGB]

j'ordos : it's the dos version I got from your link to that french site Edited December 14, 2003 by j'ordos

[j'ordos]

Then get dosbox, or the CE version. Should solve that problem

[X-Clu-Zif]

Solving the problem goes as follows...

 

1) don't make a back-up, back-ups are for people that don't know what they are doing!!!

 

2) make sure that no files in your x-com directory are write protected, as x-com writes a cache in the missdata directory, if any files are write protected it cannot delete the files and therefor crashes when reaching a certain size (I think it's 4 mb), if you have had write protected files you have to delete all files in the missdata directory. Problem is when you delete the files in missdata, then you can't load any saved games on missions)

 

3) install VDMSound (and if you have XP, the VDMSound Loader so you can just right click on the file to start it with VDMSound)

 

4) run X-Com Dos or CE version (depending on which version you like best) with VDMSound... (remember that the standard sound settings for VDMSound is: Soundblaster 16 - IRQ:7 - DMA: 3 I think )

 

5) If you have an LCD screen make sure you either run the newest patched version of X-Com Dos or X-Com CE, and make sure that your screen is set to stretch the resolution instead of changing into that resolution, this may result in worse graphics, but if you can't get it to work on an LCD otherwise, this is your best bet.

 

6) If you still have problems feel free to post them here, write me an email or a PM.

 

P.S. I'm one of the people that have gotten it to work on both laptops and normal LCD screens...

[KGB]

Thx for all your posts!

1)j'ordos : I do use dosbox

2)X-Clu-Zif : thx but I got fed up with it and started and new game. So far no problems what so ever. But if I'll have the same problem again I'll try your way.

[KGB]

Unfortunatly the black screen of death is back

It happens every time I enter an alien base (when I have to arm my guys)

 

What is VDMSound and where can I get/download it?

Non of the files are write protected and the whole MISSDAT folder is less then 1.5megs

 

I'm not using my loptop right now just a regular monitor.

 

P.S.

I didn't download any patches but I think it's 1.2

P.S.S.

j'ordos what is the version of the dos game from your site?

[j'ordos]

Don't know the version, but I suppose it's version 1.2? VDMSound is available here, but since you're using dosbox, that won't help.

I guess you could try downloading it from somewhere else. You said you got it from the french site? Try the link in the sticky topic (where to download CE&DOS version) instead, for example

Edited December 17, 2003 by j'ordos

[KGB]

#1)can my alien base files be corrupt if so can someone send me his(for a dos version)?

 

#2) I never had any sound effects in my game (like an alien dying)

Not just durring the black screen of death.

 

#3)Is CE better then DOS version?

#4)can I transfer my saved files from a DOS version to a CE version?

[Puasonen]

#1)can my alien base files be corrupt if so can someone send me his(for a dos version)?

 

#2) I never had any sound effects in my game (like an alien dying)

Not just durring the black screen of death.

 

#3)Is CE better then DOS version?

#4)can I transfer my saved files from a DOS version to a CE version?

1. Yes, that is possible.. I don't know what are those files named like so I can't help you with that..

 

2. Do you have a soundcard? It can be forced to work with VDMsound which you can find in upper post by j'ordos

 

3. How do you define "better"? I think it's better because I got it to work more easily and in my opinion, it doesn't corrupt saved games so easily if at all.. No graphical improvments though. Sounds are even worse than in Dos version but if you don't have sound anyway, it won't bother you..

 

4. Yes you can.. Your saved games are in folders named game_1, game_2.. and so on. Just pick the folder which has the number of your saveslot and copy it to new X-com folder and you're set.

[KGB]

I use soundblaster live 5.0 so I SHOULD have sound

How can I force VDMsound to work?

 

I downloaded XCOM ufo defence gold. GOLD = CE?

Edited December 17, 2003 by j'ordos

[j'ordos]

yes, gold version IS the CE.

regarding sound, Robo Dojo wrote some helpful posts about getting it to work with dosbox : http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2989

 

Installation instructions & how to use VDMSound are provided on the homepage.

Edited December 17, 2003 by j'ordos

[KGB]

Can someone send me his CE version of UFO. The one I downloaded doesn't work. :crying:

[j'ordos]

http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2329

alternatively, what's the problem??