Another Xp Problem

[Yoni]

I'm not sure if this has been handled in the threads yet. I've read through most of them and thus I got Apocalyps to work... or so I thought. I've read some things about crashes here and there but nothing like mine. My apocalyps crashes on completely random occasions. It can be anywhere in the game. The lengthiest and shortest playtimes I've had so far in between starting and chrashing the game are between 10 seconds and 10 minutes. When it crashes, the program locks up completely. Sometimes the screen deforms in a weird way, sometimes it just locks up and sometimes the screen scrambles completely.

 

So far I've had a fake-cd thingie, a sound emulator an altered config.sys, windows95 compatibility mode with 256 colours. For the mouse I just maxed it's speed in windows and that made it's speed tolerable ingame.

 

I am running windows xp on a pentium 4

2.3 ghz

640 mb ram

Nvidia Geforce 2 mx mx

 

I have the collectors edition. Luckily the first two xcom's work. Well there's random crashes there too but they're rare

 

Thankies in advance

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

My general rule of thumb with making old DOS based games is: the more/bigger programs you use in order to make them work, the more crashes you will have.

 

I am currently running X-Com Apoc using VDM Sound only, I don't even use the mouse program. What do I do with the lazy mouse problem? I just live with it. It's not near dead speed, and the game has a pause feature, which makes it half real time half turn based, so no problems there.

 

Still, my game gets to crash here and there. I've found that there is a small chance of the game crashing if I abort a tactical mission (so I try not to abort tactical missions, I just reload ). I get the all purple does crazy typing when this happens.

 

My suggestion is trying to less programs, or isolate using them one by one and see if it changes anything. I know it sounds ABSOLUTELY silly, and it actually IS absolutely silly, but trying to make DOS games work is wondering around the line of sanity (and usually stepping to the other side).

 

I still think DOS Box should be a " I can't do anything else" kinda solution, because the program is not finished and has a big chance to screw things up.

[Yoni]

Ok, thanks I'll try that. Although I'm using only one program other than the sound emulator and that's the fake-cd thingie. But I don't remember what it does exactly so who knows, maybe I don't need it. I hope so, cause otherwise the game is unplayable.

Does anyone have a good old 4.86 for sale?

[Yoni]

Now it's getting really lame. I still haven't been able to let xcom3 run properly. So I got down my old pc wich still runs on windows 98. I know I've been able to play it on that machine years ago but now the game won't install on that one. When I try to install it sais: "can't create xcom3.ico disk may be write protected" But ofcourse my harddrive isn't write protected. When I just copy all the files from the cdrom it doesn't find certain files it only creates during install.

So my game will install but won't play properly on my xp computer and it does the oposite on my older computer. (P2 333)

 

My xcom 1 game is nearing it's end on superhuman ironman so I'm going to need something to do!

 

Maybe I'll install transport tycoon deluxe again now that I dusted off my old machine... :s

[j'ordos]

probably the disk is abit damaged. You could try to download from then net (xcomdl.com)

Or maybe you can install, and then copy the missing files? . You could even copy the installed one on your XP computer, put it on a CD-RW and copy that to the '95 machine...

 

TTD runs fine on XP too if you use TTDpatch : http://www.ttdpatch.net/

 

edit : however, if it installs fine on XP, it isn't damaged... Have you copied ALL files? (there are some files in the SETUP directory too which you need to copy to the main xcom3 folder IIRC)

Edited April 18, 2004 by j'ordos

[Yoni]

The disk isn't damaged. It installs fine on xp but runs with the usual problems there. At the moment it runs perfectly on xp except for completely random crashes. They occur at an average of 5 minutes playtime wich is far too low to be playable. It also shouldn't be that my cd reader is bad, because when I copy the file where the install messes up manually, there's no problem. But I guess it is possible what you say, to copy the missing files from my xp install to the other pc. If I can find out exactly wich ones are missing. I know the config file for sure.

But now that you mentioned the ttd patch I'll prolly try that first. After many months of installing I'm getting fed up with trying to get xcom3 to work.

 

The funny thing is, before, I got xcom 3 to work on both computers. (not simultaneously )

 

The funniest is that the first and oldest xcoms work with the least problems (virtually none) compared to the most recent (and crappiest) xcoms.

[j'ordos]

yes, xcom3 is a strange one . Anyway, check the edited post, the config is in the SETUP directory of the cd, I believe.

[Guest Magic Pink]

I'm having this exact problem. It seems to happen a lot more often on the Bases screen then anywhere else and only happened maybe once or twice in actual battle mode.

 

Any ideas?

[Guest just a guy]

I'm having this exact problem. It seems to happen a lot more often on the Bases screen then anywhere else and only happened maybe once or twice in actual battle mode.

 

Any ideas?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

k this is what i did to try and get xcom to work, i went around looking for an OLD like 1gb 8mb ram computer, and i found one and xcom works...other then the problem i dont have enough allocated memory to run the game...so now i just have to find some loose ram floating about...save your self some trouble and go to a pawn shop and pick up an old computer....

[Robo Dojo 58]

Do you remember that part during installation where you had a yellow parameter? You probably don't, but it said that you need 20 files and 20 buffers to run. You probably had 40 files and 0 buffers. Don't ask me what it means, Apoc just needs it to run properly. You need have a new DOS config file so that Apoc can run.

 

I have attached a .zip with two files:

"XCONFIG.txt" is the new config file. It should have the correct settings to run Apoc. Just put it in your XCOMA folder. It also has directions to make a new shortcut file, if you need it.

"XCOMAPOC.pif" is the shortcut file. Just place it in your XCOMA folder, and copy over the old shortcut if you have one. This is set up to work with the default XCOM installation.

 

 

That's it! Here's hoping it works.

XCONFIG.zip

[mijbril]

k this is what i did to try and get xcom to work, i went around looking for an OLD like 1gb 8mb ram computer, and i found one and xcom works...other then the problem i dont have enough allocated memory to run the game...so now i just have to find some loose ram floating about...save your self some trouble and go to a pawn shop and pick up an old computer....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think that is what I am going to have to do as well. I've lost track of all the different things I've tried to get Apocalypse to work on XP (with sound). Most recent was that the game simply freezes about 15 to 20 seconds after starting, so I am stuck in a base & going nowhere.

 

I'll try a partition first though. With the size of drives these days, I'm sure I can dedicate a small amount of space to something other than XP

 

Failing that, I figure looking about in the "For Sale" of the paper & a few bucks will set me on the path to playing Apoc again

[dan2]

The video card might be the problem, can you check if it's working fine with an old (PCI) videocard?