X-Com on XP?

[Rasicar]

Okay, I am running on a 1.7 ghz system with XP on it. Is there any patch or anything for the DOS version of UFO and (I think) TFTD as well? I can't get either to work.

 

As far as the Fodder patch is concerned, how do I install it? I have yet to find any reference to this on the net and i couldn't find any instructions on his/her site.

 

If anyone could help me that would be most appreciated. I haven't played the original two in about two years... .needless to say, I'm jonesing for my X-com fix.

[Pete]

A WORD OF WARNING:

 

Really? Abandon ware? Illegal?? Are you serious?! Oh...I didn't think you were. You were just messing with me huh? Well, you almost got me with that one.

 

BTW, people selling software, ie. an individual, and companies selling software, ie. the guys with the rights to it, are two totally different things.

 

Software is considered abandonware when people like microprose stop providing support for the product, plus they stop selling it themselves either over the net, in stores, or in small wooden stands on street corners. The last time I saw X-Com 2 in any of the afore mentioned places has to have been about 5 years ago. Possibly 8, I'm really not sure. Oh, except that bookrack place on Academy Blvd...but they only sell second hand merchandise...

 

Quoting Mr McKrakken's previous posts about the legalities of 'ripping software off the internet' above... it's NOT LEGAL.

 

Perhaps a definition of Abandonware would help clear up this issue that people like to keep sidestepping? Here we go then:

 

Software that is no longer being sold or supported by its publisher. Most abandonware is still considered illegal unless the publisher has re-released the software as freeware.

 

U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date the software was first published. So the current availability of a product is irrelevant to its copyrighted status. Unlike trademarks, copyrights are not considered abandoned if they are no longer enforced. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available.

 

That's from https://www.webopedia.com/ for all you folks who are interested. Now, last I checked (and I'd probably know before MOST people) nobody released the games as Freeware. Indeed, there is no longer a Microsoft presence to do so, nor is there a Hasbro for the later games. Since Firaxis owns everything, it's up to Sid whether the old games get released as Freeware.

 

When that day comes, I will be the first to offer them as downloads on the site right here, but until that day, ANYONE who comes here preaching about Abandonware, ESPECIALLY without checking what the hell that means is gonna get a kick in the proverbial nuts, and possibly banned along the lines of the forum rules and regulations as mentioned in the Announcements forum.

 

Consider yourselves warned in a friendly way.

 

Anyway, back to the topic in hand, if you would like to look back a few posts in this thread, you'll find how to set up the Fodder path properly.

 

Thanks for your time

[Gruesome696]

How do you get the game to run in a high rez mode? I can only get it to run in the normal rez. Thanks

 

Gruesome

[The Veteran]

Right. Well I'm getting a new pc on saturday and it's going to be XP like so many other lost souls have in here. I started reading the thread but there's too much here! What is the ultimate way to get these games all running?

[DragonHawk]

heh, there's a pseudo solution for Apoc...

 

Good luck Veteran. Hope you are not X-Com-less for the rest of your life.

 

And Gruesome, I'm not familiar with XP, what is high and normal res? If you're talking about in-game, there is no option of that sort... for XP, I have no idea.

[tasothmiester]

I am here to save the day for all you lost souls with Xp, [sigh], you shouild all have command prompt so use it type in the file directory for X-com eg.

C/:X-com.exe ( Note this is an example I don't know you're actually drives for it) If it doesn't work either post here or post me.

[Spyder]

I also am having problems getting X-Com to start up.

 

I have sound disabled (another problem for later ) and the intro runs fine. I get to the "Select a Base" screen and when I click a spot and it crashes with this error:

 

The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction

CS:0000 IP:0077 OP:f0 37 05 0e 02

 

I have set every .exe file I could find to run as Windows 95 compatible. It seems to be running 3 different .exe files: black.exe, geoscape.exe & tactical.exe. I believe it's crashing on geoscape.exe, but, I can't really tell.

 

My system is An Athlon XP 1800+ with 500mb memory, Geforce 4 mmx 64mb.

 

Some of the pointers mentioned in this thread sound like they might work, but, I'm not that clear on exactly what they're saying. I've forgotten all my DOS knowledge and I'm just a user when it comes to Windows.

 

I'll prob need a slow-down utility and that's not a problem, but I need to get it to run first

 

Spyder

Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

pmason4@kc.rr.com

pmason@cerner.com

[Spyder]

Ok, I downloaded the Fodder patch. But, everytime I execute either of the ldr_xcom?.exe files, I get a "Couldn't CreateProcess" error.

 

I move both the ldr_xcom1.exe & the ldr_xcom2.exe files into the d:\mps\ufo directory along with the accompanying .dll file and neither seem to do anything except generate the above error.

 

There aren't any real instructions in the Read.me on how to set this up. I assumed that you take one or the other set of files (xcom1 or xcom2) and put them in the game directory and try to run them. This is what I've done, but, no luck

[Spyder]

Anyone have any help to offer? Am I using the Fodder patch correctly?

 

I have a boot disk which I made using Windows 95 dos. I can't even get this to run when I boot up under dos using this diskette.

 

Spyder

[DragonHawk]

I'm going to ask the uber-stupid question, but it must be asked. Have you tried reinstalling the game? If the patch isn't working, is it possible that you either have a defective game or defective patch?

[Spyder]

Well, yes, I've tried that

 

But, I'll try again over lunch (here in a few mins when I head home) to be sure that this isn't the problem.

 

The biggest question I have at the moment is "Am I using the Fodder patch correctly?"

 

The patch came with three subdirectories, Xcom1, Xcom2 and source. I extracted all, then copied the contents of xcom1 over to my UFO dir, clicked the ldr_xcom1.exe and got the results mentioned above. I then copied the contents of xcom2 over to my UFO dir...same thing. I then copied the contents in the root dir of the zip file to my UFO dir and still the same error.

 

So, anyway are we having fun yet?

 

Heading home for lunch, will post from there in a few.

 

Spyder

[Spyder]

Ok, I've re-reinstalled it. I got the same crash error noted above. I unloaded the Fodder patch and am getting the same results.

 

I'm still not confident that I'm using that patch correctly, though.

[DragonHawk]

Someone help this person out!

 

Spyder, maybe it would help to start a new topic on the fodder patch, or whatever.

[Spyder]

Back at work now....

 

Well, doggone it....

 

Do you think its an Athlon bug?

 

Something else that occured to me....my sound card, SBLive (yes, sound is disabled, but it may make a difference anyway), is set at IRQ 12. The config program will only go up to 9. I was thinking that, even if its disabled, it may still check IRQ 5 and cause an exception when it hits whatever currently owns that interrupt (don't know, didn't think to check).

 

Spyder

[DragonHawk]

I've got an Athlon K7 700, but it runs ok (for the most part). Similar for the sound card - SB Live Value.

 

Maybe it's something else. What do you have for video card?

[Spyder]

Graphics card is geforce 4 mx with 64mb of memory. I wouldn't think that is what the problem is because it seems to go through the intro ok....

 

Spyder

[DragonHawk]

What other factors might influence this? I'm running out of ideas - someone jump in here now!

 

Do you have an older computer that you can try the game on? Maybe your version is corrupt.

[Spyder]

Well, unfortunately, I don't. I do rollling family upgrades about once a year and everyone is at least an athlon 950. we've got one 950mhz, one 1.2ghz and two 1800+ (which is actually 1.5ghz), all using ddr memory except the 950 who has almost 1gb of pc133 memory and she runs nearly as well as I do with the 1800+ with 512mb of ddr

 

We'll probably upgrade again next summer when Horizons (www.artifact-entertainment.com/horizons) goes live.

 

Spyder

[DragonHawk]

lol, you sick b******! That's a great setup, I'm so envious... heheh.

 

Actually, I'm feeling old. It's too easy to be comforted by the games that I already have, so I don't feel an uber-need to get new ones. Better on the bank account.

 

With respect to your problem... did you try a slowdown utility? I realize this is probably stupid, but I don't recall you mentioning that. I'm not familiar with the fodder patch, so I don't know what it is that this is contributing (or not contributing) to your system.

[Spyder]

Well, I was under the impression that the slowdown utility didn't have anything to do with it running or not, just in how fast some things happened in the game. I could try it, I guess...I'll give it a go tonight.

 

That reminds me of a funny story (the CPU speed thing)....

 

Back when my XT overclocked at 12mhz was blazingly fast and everyone was envious, especially those AT folks who were running at 8mhz I had purchased a game that had little ships crossing the screen and you had to shoot them with a stationary gun. The tiny little PT boats were fast and the bigger ships were slow and they cris-crossed the screen as you shot them. Well, the newest AT came out running at an unbelievable 25 mhz, I took this cute little game over to a friend's house who had bought this blazingly fast PC, and he loaded it....

 

Well, the speed of the ships was keyed to clock cycles....You couldn't even see the pt boats and could barely see the other ships...don't even talk about hitting them :lol It was very funny....back in the day

[DragonHawk]

It's true, the slowdown utility shouldn't factor in, but I'm assuming there's some limit. Will X-Com run on my computer if it was 10000 GHz? Who knows. heh, of course, by then, I'm hoping a new X-Com game will be out... or the guys who are revamping the interface finish.

 

Anyway, if it doesn't work, I think I'm not going to be of much use.

[Pete]

Back on teh f0dder patch probems, I'm only flicking through these before I go to bed so don;t moan if I'm repeating something, but I noticed that the instructions given with the f0dder patch are a bit pants.

 

You've got to make sure you have the musfix.dll file and the loader for the appropriate game actually IN the folder the game resides in. I'm running it on Win98SE on my AMD Athlon 1900 machine with 512MB RAM using the Collector's Edition and it runs fine

[Spyder]

Ok, my directory tree looks something like this (using periods because the boards compress all whitespace):

 

D:\MPS\UFO\

....dos4gw.exe

....install.exe

....intro.exe

....mpscopy.exe

....setup.exe

....install.dat

....install.gif

....pkunzjr.com

....ufo.bat (this is the game startup dos batch file)

....readme.txt

....\runexe

........run.exe

....\ufo2exe

........tactical.exe

....\ufoexe

........black.exe

........geoscape.exe

....\game_1 (and 9 other save game dirs)

....\geodata (some .dat files in here)

....\geograph (graphics files in here)

....\maps (some .map files in here)

....\missdat

........dum.bin

....\routes (some .rmp files in here)

....\sound (some .cat files and....)

........sndend.exe

........sndstart.exe

........sound.cfg

........music.com

........sound.com

........soundrv.com

........vector.com

....\terrain (some graphics files)

....\ufograph (some more graphics files)

....\ufointro (some .lbm & .fli files)

....\units (some graphics files)

 

Ok, Before applying the patch, when I click the ufo.bat file, the intro plays through, the geoscape window opens and prompts for my first base. When I click to place the base, the program crashes with an error:

 

The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction:

CS:0000 IP:0077 OP:f0 37 05 oe 02

 

After I extract the fodder patch to my D:\mps\ufo directory, I get three more directories and two more files:

 

....ldr_xcom1.exe

....musfix.dll

....\source (source code)

....\xcom1

........ldr_xcom1.exe

........musfix.dll

....\xcom2

........ldr_xcom2.exe

........musfix.dll

 

 

After applying the patch, when I click on the ldr_xcom1.exe that appears in the upper directory, I get a "cannot CreateProcess" error in a tiny window. I get the same error when I move the other two ldr_xcom.exe files from their directories to the main directory (D:\mps\ufo) and then click them.

 

In case you're interested, here is what is in the UFO.BAT file:

 

@echo off
cls
%1ufoexe\black
%1sound\sndstart
%1intro                %1
%1ufoexe\black
%1ufoexe\geoscape  "0" %1
if errorlevel 2 goto begin
goto end
:begin
%1ufoexe\black
%1ufo2exe\tactical "1" %1
:geo
%1ufoexe\black
%1ufoexe\geoscape  "1" %1
if errorlevel 2 goto begin
:end
%1sound\sndend

 

I appreciate any help anyone can offer

 

Spyder

[NKF]

Excuse me, but from your directory structure, it looks like you're using the plain old dos version (i.e the batch file and the separate exe files and the cat files). The f0dder patch, if I'm not mistaken, only works with the collectors edition.

 

A slowdown utility is probably your best bet. By the way, if whatever slowdown utility you're using refuses to work with the program since it uses a .bat file, you know, you could run the slowdown utility on your command shell. I don't know what it's called in XP, but I presume since it's based off NT it's something like 'cmd'? You could just open the properties for your shortcut to the command prompt and refer to it from there.

 

Anyway, run it on the shell before launching your game. It's a lot more elegant than editing each line in your batch file.

 

Only problem I can forsee is that you would have to type exit twice to exit from the command prompt.

 

On a less related note: does anyone realise that the main game loop is run off that tiny little batch file? Heh. Same goes for TFTD, only they converted the batch file into a .com file. Wonder if UFO'd run if I substituted ufo.bat with tftd.com? Hmm... nah. I'd rather not suddenly cause a nuclear holocaust...

 

- NKF

[Spyder]

NKF, thanks for the response. Let me try and clarify what you want me to do....

 

Download the slowdown uitility.

 

Open a DOS window (RUN> 'cmd').

 

Execute the slowdown utility (I assume it runs TSR)

 

Then execute the ufo.bat file.

 

Right?