76 replies to this topic

[monkeyspearfish]

Even with the patch, turbo and affinity settings, it's still running too fast - I'm not sure if turbo is actually working

[Kwo]

Okay, well I feel like a knob for having to ask any of this, since everyone seems to really know what they're talking about, but my love of classic games out-weighs my shame. I haven't beaten this black screen with sound at startup yet. Those of you who DID get it working on Vista, was it through DoxBox or something of the like, or just the exe icon straight off vista? I'm using 32-bit vista, if it matters.
When I ran Blade's Patch I got this...

C:\Windows\system32>mkdir c:\temp2

C:\Windows\system32>copy /y X-Com-Vista.sdb c:\temp2\X-Com-Vista.sbd
The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\Windows\system32>sdbinst.exe -q c:\temp2\X-Com-Vista.sdb

C:\Windows\system32>del c:\temp2\X-com-Vista.sdb
Could not find c:\temp2\X-Com-Vista.sdb

C:\Windows\system32>rmdir c:\temp2

C:\Windows\system32>pause
Press any key to continue...

Funny thing is that I can make the game work when I run Vista in safe mode, but there's no sound and the scrolling and game speed makes it relatively unplayable. I've read the other threads but what eludes me is where people got the game running to begin with...

[Kwo]

whoop! nevermind, I'm a knob. I got it working. YOu guys rock, I'm so happy I can play it again I wanna cry

[monkeyspearfish]

whoop! nevermind, I'm a knob. I got it working. YOu guys rock, I'm so happy I can play it again I wanna cry

Did you manage to get it running at normal speed? Are you using turbo?

[Outlawstar15a2]

do a search I already posted how to get xcom apoc working with vista 64 any other game should work with it too

http://www.xcomufo.c...topic=242027667

No, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's IMPOSSIBLE to run the CE (Collector's Edition, aka Windows version) in dosbox. Maybe my driver hint finding will help him, but dosbox, for sure, won't help (because it's running with DirectDraw).
Hey... maybe another idea would be to install the directx version X-COM uses...

But thanks for the thread (your solution), it will come in handy for me...

Wanna bet? Because I just finished installing and configuring X-Com Apocalypse using DOSbox. You need to use DOSbox to play X-Com Apoc as well. TFTD AND UFO Can be installed easily with Vista since it uses Windows Installshield, however, after you install it DO NOT run it in compatibility mode. Just run it virgin you might need Fodder's load fixes but I didn't I got it to run. I have no idead how but I did. Had to uninstall it and then reinstall it.

[Michael Risley]

This is the fix with a basic installer.
It only works if the file naming matches that of the X-Com Collectors Edition that I have (Terror From The Deep.exe and UFO Defense.exe)
It also requires Admin rights to install but will not work if you right click and say run as admin. you have to let UAC do it's job (assuming you have not turned it off)

Xcomutil is not the least bit compatible with this patch nor does it play well with vista's file virtualization. So I'm working on that next. It will be included in future versions of Xcomutil, assuming that it works as well for others as it does for me


-Blade FireLight

This patch really does work. Thanks a million BladeFireLight!

[trexx1990]

does Turbo actually even work for this game outside of the intercept screen? battlescape commanding is still completely jumpy even with turbo set to 1%.

anyone find a solution to this besides turbo and running it in Dosbox?

[Zombie]

I don't think that any of the conventional slowdown programs like Turbo or Mo-Slo will do anything other than take up space. At least, that's what I've noticed.

- Zombie

[EtherImp]

I'd be inclined to agree with Zombie.

[koldcal]

This is the fix with a basic installer.
It only works if the file naming matches that of the X-Com Collectors Edition that I have (Terror From The Deep.exe and UFO Defense.exe)
It also requires Admin rights to install but will not work if you right click and say run as admin. you have to let UAC do it's job (assuming you have not turned it off)

Xcomutil is not the least bit compatible with this patch nor does it play well with vista's file virtualization. So I'm working on that next. It will be included in future versions of Xcomutil, assuming that it works as well for others as it does for me


-Blade FireLight

brilliant! thank you very much

[xcomformatt]

This is the fix with a basic installer.....[remainder edited]

-Blade FireLight

This patch really does work. Thanks a million BladeFireLight!

Dittos on that quote. THANKS! Decided to try to fire up the this old favorite using the UFOGold version I'd had on my XP machine. (Somewhere buried in my office I know I have a DOS version that can be Dos-Box'd, heaven knows where). Got intro music and black screen. Google, here, and minutes later fired up and working with Blade's patch. Scrolling on tactical battle screens was pretty unmanageable but adding Turbo and following the suggestions here about setting it and XCOM to only work on CPU0 of my quad core seem to have taken care of that. Thanks to all you guys for finding ways to keep the old beast alive, and props to Blade for the Vista compatibility!

[Sektoid]

Bladefirelight thank you thank you thank you it works perfect been wanting to play my old x-coms for quite a while

[pr23pr]

Vistafix works nicely on win7 build 7100

[BladeFireLight]

I have an updated version that triggers UAC automatically and sets the processor affinity to CPU0.

-Blade FireLight

[TheBeege]

Hey all,

First off, awesome that everyone's putting so much work into this. Amazing game, amazing people.

Thing is, I'm having issues. Worked fine awhile back with WinXP SP2 and my GeForce vid card. Since then, I've had to replace the vid card with an ATI Radeon and upgraded to Vista 32-bit.

First issue was the apparently common black screen with game still running. Saw something that said to turn down the hardware acceleration for DirectX, but the Catalyst drivers for my card disable access to change the hardware acceleration. Haven't figured out a way past that.
So I tried some patches here and there with little or no luck. I finally arrived at the patch BladeFireLight here just released. Works beautifully with one exception that I encountered with another patch: aerial encounters with UFO's are just skipped. I'm sure this has been fixed plenty of times by other already, but I haven't seen the solution.

Thanks.

EDIT::

Nevermind. Fixed! Should have listened to my elementary school teachers. Reading is good for you.

Dual core was the issue.

If anyone else encounters similar problems, the following works:
1) Get BladeFireLight's patch
2) Open Task Manager (right click Start toolbar or Ctrl Alt Delete) after opening X-COM, right click X-COM and set affinity for only CPU 0
3) If the affinity doesn't quite do it, grab Turbo.

Happy alien hunting! ^.^

Edited by TheBeege, 29 October 2009 - 02:51 AM.

[lordgregor]

This is the fix with a basic installer.
It only works if the file naming matches that of the X-Com Collectors Edition that I have (Terror From The Deep.exe and UFO Defense.exe)
It also requires Admin rights to install but will not work if you right click and say run as admin. you have to let UAC do it's job (assuming you have not turned it off)

Xcomutil is not the least bit compatible with this patch nor does it play well with vista's file virtualization. So I'm working on that next. It will be included in future versions of Xcomutil, assuming that it works as well for others as it does for me


-Blade FireLight

Dude, I don't normally reply on these things. But consider yourself a brilliant person.
I have been searching for a fix to this for a long time and this simple install made it work perfect.
Thank you.

[Uta Heinsch]

I have an updated version that triggers UAC automatically and sets the processor affinity to CPU0.

-Blade FireLight

This version works perfectly at correcting the graphics corruption I was getting with Win7 (x64). If only I could use UFO Extender with this, I'd be all set.

[bgordon70]

All I get is a black screen and accelerated intro music.

Has Any one goten Xcom CE working on Vista?

-Blade FireLight

I had the same problem, Vista 32, downloaded all the patches mentioned, etc, no luck whatsoever!! Finally paid my hard-earned money to Steam ($5) and it works perfectly!! Only 2 down sides: You have to be online to get the game going, and the tank/cannon always says "not enough rounds to equip tank" when you try to put it on the Skyranger. Even if you have 100 HWP Cannon rounds purchased and in stores. (I know, I wasted my money and did it!) Tank/Launcher works fine, though.

[Ripper]

Hey guys,

i just installed Windows 7 x64 on my computer and have an issue with the Gold Edition of Ufo Defense.
I get the game started with the fix of Blade FireLight but the colours are kind of weird (the colours are inverted or something like this...). Does anyone get the same issue or maybe a solution of this?

Edit: Now it works, had an old version of the patch installed, deactivate it and applied the new one.
Works perfect and in a good speed, thanks for this great patch!!!

Edited by Ripper, 28 December 2009 - 03:17 PM.

[Ledeas]

ok,

First I get lost reading half the tech talk here, so mock me and move on If you can help I am grateful..

Second I downloaded the first patch and got

C:\Windows\system32>mkdir c:\temp2

C:\Windows\system32>copy /y X-Com-Vista.sdb c:\temp2\X-Com-Vista.sbd
The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\Windows\system32>sdbinst.exe -q c:\temp2\X-Com-Vista.sdb

C:\Windows\system32>del c:\temp2\X-com-Vista.sdb
Could not find c:\temp2\X-Com-Vista.sdb

C:\Windows\system32>rmdir c:\temp2

C:\Windows\system32>pause
Press any key to continue...


Third I used 2nd patch, got "this is for Vista and windows 7"

I am useing a) Vista 32 bit operating system pentium® 4 cpu 3.2 ghz

Fourth: DosBox was useless as far as I could tell.

I did read this thread and the other one, either I totally misunderstood something or failed (I accept both)

again, any help available would be gratefully.

I have the disk with the two XCom games (the computer calls it Gold) Sometimes old systems are best...

Later days

[BladeFireLight]

a quick work arround would be to extract the files using winrar. then run the command
sdbinst.exe -q X-Com-Vista.sdb
from the command prompt in the folder you extracted the files to.

I will look at the installer script and see if it's doing anything odd with the OS detection.

[Chaoticag]

sbinstal.exe doesn't come with the files in the Patch fix. It comes with an sdump.exe though. Also, which parts of the included batchfile need to be removed to skip the OS detection?

So far, X-Com has worked for me, but the mouse slows down and acts choppy, so I want to get this installed so I can get with the fun.

Edit:
Okay, figured this quick fix for now.

First, extract the fix. Next, right click the vistapatch.bat file and click edit. Notepad should open up.

In the third block of text, change the bit that says "not7orV" to "visOK". (Caps are sensative?)

Finally, save and double click the .bat file. (I think this only fixes Vista, but then again, I'm bad with bat files.)

Also, I have no idea why, but this seems to have worked a bit better despite BladeFireLight's command prompt trick not working at all. I have no idea where this mysterious sbinstall program is, or what the sdump program is supposed to do.

Edited by Chaoticag, 11 January 2010 - 03:00 PM.

[FelixP]

Any way to get this running with XCOMUTIL?

[BladeFireLight]

Any way to get this running with XCOMUTIL?

I'm hoping to have the Beta of 9.7 available to the public next week.

it will now include a split EXE compatible version of the Vista/win7 patch.

[BladeFireLight]

sbinstal.exe doesn't come with the files in the Patch fix.

sbinstal.exe is part of Windows XP, Vista and Win7. it's a program to load Shims into the Registry.

[maikemaike]

where can I download the patch for running xcom on vista/win7 ?

[BladeFireLight]

My vista/7 patch is now part of XcomUtil 9.7.. dont worry 9.7 will not force you to use anything like 9.6 did.