Cant Get Anything Working

[Guest Otterboy]

I spent ages trying to get this game to work because i love the game but for some reason neevr got round to finishing it.

So after all my attmepts i come across this site and think my prayers are answered.

 

After trying everything you have suggested i am actually worse off than when i started

 

Not quite sure how it happened.

 

First off, my cd is scratched so bad i dont think it will ever work (came in a cardboard sleve which has wron through with major game use )

 

So i install the crack and activate, then i find that the graphics are shagged, major blurring and duplication of the menu so i cant even see what i am doing.

 

So i install this SVGA thing but it has no effect at all on the graphics, then i download the mouse thing because the mouse was slow over the really bad graphics and then when i try to run the game it tells me that it cant find the cd anymore.

 

So now i am really stuck and cant get anywhere with the game, it just tells me that there is no cd and so it cant run.

 

On the plus side whilst trying to get it to run myself before this site i found that running windows in safe mode restored the graphics to a playable state (but doing this inactivates the mouse in the game for some reason)

 

Does anyone know what part of windows i need to inactivate to get this effect on graphics without having to run windows in safe mode?

 

This is a last ditch attempt and i have the feeling i wont get it working

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Hmm...Lets see.

 

*Disclaimer: I am just guessing here, talk to NKF or J'ordos. They have alot more experience with this sort of thing.*

 

The graphical problem could be caused by a number of things. I believe it may be due to an incompatible resolution. IIRC windows safemode runs in 640x480. Perhaps setting your display to that resolution may fix the problem.

 

Or it may be due to your graphics card, I reccommend you update the drivers. It couldn't hurt.

 

As for the not recognizing CD problem, you may want to get the nocd crack.

Or clean your CD with one of those CD cleaners if possible. Although water and a kleenex will do.

 

Edit: Unfourtnately, not many people can get apoc to work on a modern system.

Apoc CE doesn't work at all from what I'm told, and the dos version is buggy. I use VDMsound to try and combat that bugginess until they perfect dosbox and get it to play apoc.

Edited March 10, 2004 by Cpl. Facehugger

[Otterboy]

That is just it i got the nocd crack, in fact i have tried 2 that i have found, one from here and one that i found elsewhere.

 

I think i must be doing something wrong with them because, after following all the instructions, the game still says that there is no cd.

 

Granted there is no cd But i thought cracks were meant to get around that problem

 

As for resolution i have tried all the resolutions that i can and none of them make a difference i still get the blurring and duplication of the graphics so i pretty sure that it is some driver conflict or something similar because running in safe mode allows the graphics to be shown properly.

 

To this end i tried turing off my hardware acceleration and turing off directdraw and neither of these had any effect on the graphics of XCOM (some other games of course didnt like it when i forgot to put them back )

 

I am more than willing to play without sound, i hear that most people have problems with it (i play music of my own anyway) and the mouse thing i can handle i just need to get the graphics working like they do in safe mode and of course to get the cd crack working as it should

 

Course that is much easier said than done and is beyond what my computer skills can handle

[Puasonen]

Have you tried DosBox? Latest version supports x-com apoc. Here's the post with explanations:

 

http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3645

[Otterboy]

I have got dosBOX and all seemed well with it, then i found that as the game progressed the gema also slowed to the point where it was unplayable.

 

I am talking about the screen not moving for several minutes

 

Highly annoying as it only happens when the maps are busy such as large alien threats or the alien craft where the concentration of aliens is quite high.

 

And dont even think about making smoke or fire that just kills it, often locks if too much smoke or fire is about

[Puasonen]

:o What the heck?

Can't you choose the speed from dosbox options?

[j'ordos]

Have you tried to apply the crack (available here) AFTER applying the SVGA fix. The crack alters the UFOEXE's, but the SVGA fix overwrites them again (and doesn't include the crack )

[Robo Dojo 58]

What is the speed of your DosBox game? If you run it in a window (alt-enter) you can see it.

 

What speed of your CPU? DosBox V.61 should be able to run at a decent speed on 1Ghz athlon or better. You have to tweak the settings to get it to work properly.

 

Ctrl-F7 will decrease the Frameskip, for smoother motion

Ctrl-F8 will increase the Frameskip, to help out slower computers

Ctrl-F9 will exit

Ctrl-F11 will decrease the emulation rate

Ctrl-F12 will increase the emulation rate

 

DosBox is an emulator. JusIf the game freezes, it's because you're pushing your computer too hard. Slow DosBox down and it'll run again.

 

dosbox.conf has all the defaults. Open it from the start menu, and set the default speeds* after you've found a good setting. Back the file up, Just in case.

 

My P4 1.5Ghz can get a speed of 8000, with a frameskip of 2. That's enough to run my game, but it does slow down a bit on battleships.

 

*Change the numbers in the 'frameskip=' and 'cycles=' lines to the ones on your DosBox window.

[Otterboy]

As for the crack i have tried rerunning it many time, and it says that it doesnt repatch the file becase it is already patched or the exe file is different than the form it can patch.

 

Maybe the SVGA afterwards has altered the exe so it cant run with the crack and the patcher wont patch an altered exe file?

 

Dont know but running both cracks again has no effect on the game and it still says that their is no CD

 

To make things worse i canno reinstall the game from CD as, i have already pointed out the CD is now completely shagged and is effectively unsuable.

 

So i am going to download a version of APOC and try puttting the crack and SVGA on that one, crack first and then SVGA.

 

Hopefully that will work

[Otterboy]

Oh and for dosBOX i have a athlon 1800 but the emulator runs like crap, i have tried many combinations of cpu cycles and frame skips and whilst having a minor effect on the smaller maps the game is still unplayable on anything approaching a larger map.

 

VEry annoying as i thought i had it for about 4 hours

[Robo Dojo 58]

When you get into a fight, there's also an options menu. From there, you can change the speeds that the game uses. Set the scroll to '5' and shot speed to '6', and you should do fine.

 

If you go faster than your CPU can handle, the game will slow down. If you go slower, it'll be slow. Try to find a good balance.

 

 

DosBox V.61 is much faster than V.60. Make sure you have the latest version of DosBox, and try having 11000 Cycles, Frameskip 2.