Zombie's Ultimate X-COM Collection

[Zombie]

Hi all! As many of you already know I do plenty of testing in X-COM (mostly it's in Enemy Unknown, but I do mess with TFTD too). One of the problems I encounter is trying to adapt a test result to every game version. So long ago I started to amass a "library" of all the versions I could find (cheaply and in original condition if possible). Well, I was fortunate to snag a copy of X-COM UFO Defense for the PC over the weekend. It's in mint condition and has the outer sleeve, inner cardboard box, manual, technical supplement, registration card, a MicroProse game pamphlet, and 3 original DOS floppies. Needless to say, it's impressive.

 

So there I was. I set up my floppy drive on my laptop, installed the game and took a look around. Normally I need to change some settings on my computer to get old games like this to run, so I hesitated on running it. Boy was I surprised when it loaded up without any problems and didn't crash once! Nice. I may have to change some video settings to make the game run in a full-page at some point, but at least it's stable.

 

In a few days I'll also have an original copy of X-COM Interceptor. (It's in the mail right now). If any of you are interested, this is what my collection is looking like right now:

1. UFO: EU - Amiga1200
   
2. UFO: EU - DOS CD-ROM
   
3. X-COM: UFO Defense - DOS floppies
   
4. X-COM: UFO Defense - PSX (NTSC version)
   
5. X-COM: Enemy Unknown - PSX (PAL version)
   
6. TFTD - DOS CD-ROM
   
7. TFTD - DOS floppies
   
8. TFTD - PSX (PAL version)
   
9. Apoc - DOS CD-ROM
   
10. Email X-COM - Original CD-ROM
    
11. X-COM: Interceptor - Original CD-ROM (English)
    
12. X-COM: Interceptor - Original CD-ROM (German)
    
13. X-COM Collector's Edition (goes without saying)
    
14. X-COM: Enforcer - Original CD-ROM
    
15. UFO: EU - DOS floppies
    
16. UFO: EU - PSX (Japanese version)
    
17. X-COM Collection
    
18. Unknown Terror
    

Versions I still need yet:

1. UFO: EU - Amiga500 :select versions
   
2. UFO: EU - Amiga CD32 :select versions
   

So it's looking pretty good right now. I'll probably be forking over some serious $$$ for the PSX versions but at least I'm limiting the cost to below $30 USD if possible. (Heh, I still need to eat). If any of you know of any versions I didn't list, let me know.

 

It just goes to show what you can get off of eBay these days. (And even with a limited budget). I'd like to warn that not everything on eBay is 100% legit so you'll need to watch those item listings closely if you want to collect like I do. (I haven't been screwed yet, but I do my research before bidding). Case in point: See here. UFO 2000 bundled with EU and TFTD is not something released by MicroProse and anybody selling it for profit should be ignored.

 

So don't come here complaining you can't find the game or had to resort to illegally downloading a copy off the net. It can all be found legally (and very cheaply I might add). It just takes a bit of luck and some patience.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

XCommand claims a Japanese PSX version of X-COM: UFO Defense. Worth a try for the collector?

 

And there were actually three different UFO:EU versions for Amiga... one for A1200 (AGA), one for A500 (OCS/ECS) and one on CD for the CD32. The CD32 version reputedly had interesting restrictions like max 3 bases, instead of 8. And due to 1k save game space... you lost a lot of info when saving. (Somewhat interesting doing a search for "ufo cd32" on google groups and reading discussions from 1995)

 

So the A1200 version looks like the best one of those

 

Probably a few more obscure versions floating around. Italian ufo:eu/tftd versions and such.

 

Semi-boggle: UFO:EU DOS cdrom version? Does it have any interesting goodies, like I remember the TFTD DOS cdrom version had?

[Zombie]

XCommand claims a Japanese PSX version of X-COM: UFO Defense. Worth a try for the collector?

Oh yeah, almost forgot about the Japanese version. It's incredibly rare though so I don't know if I can even find it. I'll give it a shot.

 

Semi-boggle: UFO:EU DOS cdrom version? Does it have any interesting goodies, like I remember the TFTD DOS cdrom version had?

What kind of goodies are you talking about? My DOS CD-ROM copies are basically bare-bones.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Semi-boggle: UFO:EU DOS cdrom version? Does it have any interesting goodies, like I remember the TFTD DOS cdrom version had?

What kind of goodies are you talking about? My copies DOS CD-ROM copies are basically bare-bones.

Only difference I can remember was that TFTD dos cdrom had intro/extro movies, while the diskette version had static slideshows. Was there any similar gimmick on the UFO:EU cdrom?

[NKF]

They never did that with UFO. UFO's only cinematic sequence was 2 megs in size and was included in the original installation diskettes. I think you even had an option to install it without the cinematic. At least, that's what I seem to remember.

 

The real gimmick at the time was the CD version would install a partial copy of the game onto the hard drive, and keep all the data files on the disc. It was something like 3 megs vs. 16 megs, see? This saved precious hard drive space! Seriously, HD space for your bog standard home computer was a premium back when this game first came out. I mean, a lot further back, it was so bad that if you had a 20 meg hard drive, your IBM/Compatible PC was king!

 

Today, we're spoilt. Before long, 1 Terabyte hard drives will be considered small. This gimmick the CD dos versions had is now rather counter-productive.

 

 

 

---

 

I fully understand this obsession with collecting all the variants. I've actually started something similar with one of my other hobbies (which involves collecting a much repainted model in the Transformers line of toys), and it's depressingly difficult to do so unless you've got buckets of money or you get lucky and get a reasonable offer.

 

It's completing the whole collection that you really look forward to.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

They never did that with UFO. UFO's only cinematic sequence was 2 megs in size and was included in the original installation diskettes. I think you even had an option to install it without the cinematic. At least, that's what I seem to remember.

The only option I ever get is the ability to choose if you want to install the pdf manual on the CD-ROM DOS version. There isn't an electronic manual in the floppy DOS version so there isn't an option for installing that. I have yet to figure out how to properly install the CD-ROM DOS version yet. It says to type CDSETUP at the command prompt followed by the drive letter of your CD-ROM, eg: CDSETUP D:. All I get is an unexpected goto error. Perhaps I need to install under DOSBox? That's about the only thing I haven't tried yet.

 

Yesterday I received my copy of X-COM Interceptor in the mail. I installed it right away and it played great without many gripes. My only problem is the mouse pointer seemed to leave "ghost" pointer images along the trail. It's not a big deal, and I'm tolerant of such a slight problem. Gee, where has this game been my whole life? Seriously, it's a great mix of normal X-COM strategy and dogfighting. Nice stuff. Once I figure out what all the controls are, I could see playing it quite often.

 

- Zombie

[Gimli]

About the Dos version: I'm not sure how familiar you are with dos, so I'll assume you aren't. What I would do is type the following:

 

d: *enter*

cdsetup *enter*

[Zombie]

No dice. I had some minor success with running cdsetup.bat through DOSBox though. It brought up the sound settings screen and I was able to select some choices. However, after looking at folder in my C drive where I did the initial install, I still had the original set of files in there: game_1 to game_10 (in lowercase), the MISSDAT folder, the SOUND folder, a ufointro folder, CDSETUP.bat, DOS4GW.exe, INTRO.exe, SETUP.exe, ufo.bat, UFOC.D, UFOCD.bat and var. I'm assuming here that the DOS CD-ROM doesn't require the cd to run, correct? If it doesn't require the cd, then the rest of those files on the disc should get installed... somehow.

 

Here, I took a screencap of the initial install screen if it'll help any:

 

Suppose I can manually copy all the files from the CD and paste them into a folder on my C drive, but I have no idea which files are supposed to be present on a normal DOS install.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Was this off the copy I sent you? Could you post me a listing of the root directory of the cd-rom just to refresh my memory. There was a trick to that, and I think it wasn't cdsetup that you're meant to run despite what you're told to do.

 

It'll install the partial install version, and requires the CD to play. However, a simple copy of all the files off the cd into their correct directories on the hard drive copy, and modifying the batch file to not point the game to the cd-rom will convert it into a full install. (no, actually, deleting the batch file and then renaming the batch file to the same name as the file you deleted - that's the ticket. Or am I confusing you? Just open up the batch file and see what it says - you'll understand what I'm getting at.)

 

But get the copy installed first.

 

I'm sure I wrote all these instructions down and stuck them in the cd-cover for my own copy somewhere... or maybe I never got round to it. Oh well.

 

---

 

By the way, the original CD version never came with a PDF manual, if I'm not mistaken. It's only since we've had the Collectors Edition released that the re-releases of the Dos version seem to have had a PDF manual included.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Was this off the copy I sent you? Could you post me a listing of the root directory of the cd-rom just to refresh my memory. There was a trick to that, and I think it wasn't cdsetup that you're meant to run despite what you're told to do.

Yup, it's the one and only "Ye budgete copy o' Ufoe" from Big Bytes/Red Ant software you sent me way back in April. (Thanks again for that, it really comes in handy)! I had it running at one time, but it was a cut 'n paste job from the CD with some minor tweaking - not a legit install. Makes sense that it requires the CD to run since there are only a sprinkling of files in the installed game folder.

 

Here is the file listing from the CD-ROM - it's a png screenie as I don't have the time to write out a list right now.

 

 

Don't know if this will help to refresh your memory.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Hmm, if memory serves me correctly, what you want to be running is that batch file called INSTALL. Give that a fiddle and see if that helps. I'll see if I can find my copy and double check this.

 

- NKF

[Gimli]

Hmm, not sure here as I don't have the CD here, but I'd run them in this order:

 

Directly from Windows: "install" file, if that fails then "setup95" file, lastly "setup". Though I assume the 2nd and 3rd are just for setting up the sound etc. and not for installation. If that fails try the same thing in Command Prompt (although there should be no difference, but you never know). To do it there simply type D: *enter*, and once you're positioned in D:\ type the name of the file. If one doesn't work, maybe the others will.

 

Failing that leaves you with DosBox, the procedure is similar to Command Prompt, I suppose you know how to mount CD drives (it's not the same as mounting hard drives).

 

Or you can do what NKF suggested.

 

EDIT: Bah, NKF beat me to it.

[NKF]

All right, here's how it goes.

 

First run Install, and pass the directory that you want it to install to. say, you want c:\games\ufo, so you run it with:

 

install c:\games\ufo

 

This installs the partial install. Now, you can choose to run the cdsetup program and proceed as normal, but if you want to convert this to a full install, copy all the files that were left out over. Then rename the ufocd.bat file to ufo.bat, or whatever you like to use to run the game.

 

See, if we did it the normal way, running cdsetup will copy whatever you pass as your cd-rom directory into a file called VAR, and then run the sound setup. It then renames the file ufoc.d to ufo.bat and inside it, it puts the line ufocd and the same drive letter you passed to it. This makes a shortcut to run the ufocd.bat file with the cd-rom drive letter, where it can find all the data files.

 

But with a full install, you don't need to do all that. Just copy all the remaining files overs, rename ufocd.bat to ufo.bat (or whatever you prefer) and run the sound setup file and you're all set.

 

It's sad but this copy of UFO is truly littered with unnecessary files. Oh well.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

??? ???

 

Ok, I'm not sure what exactly what I need to do. Where do I type the install line? Even if I could get this to work, shouldn't I just double click on the "setup95" icon for the partial install? But then this brings me back to square 1 again.

 

So I spent some countless hours mucking around with this today. Ended up doing the "copy everything from the D: drive and dump it in the directory of my choice" thing I normally do. Ran the sound setup utility with 0 success as I don't know what my sound card settings are and wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to look. Best to pick no sound as I would probably mess it up by guessing. Renamed ufocd.bat to ufo.bat via a command prompt. Then I ran ufo.bat. Works... sort of. I get to the intro and try to mouse click to move past it. No luck. A key stroke works though. Ok, now I choose "English", "New Game" and finally "Beginner" for the difficulty level. Time to place a base on the map. As soon as I click anywhere on the globe, the game bails to the desktop and coughs up this error message:

 

 

This is what my ufo.bat file looks like (if it even helps):

 

@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

Obviously, the game is getting as far as the %1ufoexe\geoscape "0" %1 line, bypasses the error level 2 line and heads straight to the end. Any ideas what is going wrong?

 

Edit: I just edited the ufo.bat file to exclude the intro and sound. No error messages anymore, but the game still dumps to the desktop when you try and click for the first base.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

You just use the command prompt, go to your cd-rom than from the command prompt, type

 

install c:\wherever\gamedir

 

That does the initial partial install for you.

 

You're crashing while running Geoscape.exe. It seems like the executable is failing for one reason or other - perhaps your OS doesn't like it? You want to run the game through dosbox and see if that makes or breaks it some more.

 

By the way, have you made sure that all the proper directories exist and that all the files that get changed aren't set to read-only?

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Everything exists, nothing is read-only. DOSBox crashes with this error when running ufo.bat:

 

Exit to error (a bunch of characters) illegal call

 

I guess it's not run-able on my system then. I wonder if computer games have a format like PAL and NTSC. That might explain the problems as the game copy I have is European while my computer is American built. Those two formats do not mix. Still, if the game can run up till the first base, then format wouldn't explain it either. Something is wrong. What I do not know.

 

- Zombie

[Gimli]

"if errorlevel 2 goto begin"

 

Well this errorlevel 2 isn't set in the .bat file when the game goes through the code for the first time so I would guess that's where the problem is. Try seeing if there is an outer file that is supposed to set it to 2. Either that, or you could perhaps manually set it to 2. Be sure to backup the ufo.bat first.

As for sound - go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information. This is where you can find the information, although I am not sure what to look for exactly anymore. I can only guess, so you'll have to go with the trial and error method. There should be no damage if you miss, except the game probably won't run, but that's only until you find the correct settings or choose No Sound.

Now I don't know what the setup screen looks like, but usually it is separated into the sound/music categories. A screen would help though.

You will be asked for several settings, some in music and some in sound, I don't know which is where, so I'll write them all down.

Soundcard name: this *should* be Soundblaster, unfortunately there's usually more than one type of Sblaster to select from, so you'll have to try each.

 

IRQ: this you can find in System Information -> Hardware Resources -> IRQ. Just find the device name that refers to your soundcard, and look up the IRQ number left of it. Multiple choices may be possible. Usually this number is 5, 7 or 9, so you can also try those.

IRQ (Interrupt Request) number in reality is something that assembler programs use. Basically, when the soundcard requests data, the normal assembler program is interrupted and will jump to a subroutine at the address specified by the IRQ number, serve the soundcard, and then return to the program.

 

DMA: again, System Information -> Hardware Resources -> DMA. I'm not sure, but logic tells me you should be looking at the one that says: Direct memory access controller (or something like that). Again, read the number left of it. Usually this number is 1 or 3, though in my case it's 4.

In reality DMA is an assembly(?) that is used for quick data transfers between the I/O units, between memory, or between memory and I/O units.

It may ask you for channels, I'm not sure if that refers to DMA or something else, try it out and see what happens, I usually leave it at 1.

 

Lastly there is the Base Port. I can't find anything conclusive here for the life of me. Base Port should refer to the PCI slot, so that's what you're looking for. I would try to look in System Information -> Hardware Resources -> I/O. Here try to find text that says something like: PCI System Management. Now here's the trick, the PCI seems to use a 32-bit communication system, meaning there are 32 electric lines going out of PCI into... probably the processor. Also note that there are two hex numbers written on the left side in the format -. This marks the first and last of the mentioned 32 lines. Now as far as I can see, the lower 2 digits are used for this. Since this is in hex format, each digit represents 4 bits, meaning 2 digits -- 8 bits (aka 1 byte). If my assumption is correct, then the lower two digits of the first number will be 00 and 1F (31) for the second number. Now the next two digits are what you actually need. In the first number, read them and convert them to decimal via the calculator. In my case it was DC which is 220 in decimal. Usual Base Port numbers are 220 and 240.

 

Of course, if you run DosBox, it should give you all of this in the starting screen, though it may not work.

 

Anyway, screenshots are more than welcome.

[Bomb Bloke]

Gah, all this confusion. I'm moved to throw my two cents in.

 

You should all know about the base placement glitch. It happens whenever you try to use the DOS version of the game under Windows 2000/XP, and has done ever since those OS's first existed. The error message varies, but the basic effects do not. I've yet to see a fix for it other then DosBox. Hence why I recommend the CE version of the game whenever I can.

 

The GeoScape is supposed to set that error level to 2 when you try to start a Tactical map. In this case, the GeoScape crashes, so that doesn't happen. Hence the game simply ends (much the same as if you'd quit).

 

Concerning hardware resource info, you can also use the Device Manager, via the Computer Management panel. Right click your taskbar, hit Properties. Select the Start Menu tab, then the Customise button. You'll see a checkbox stating "Display Administrative Tools", check that, then hit Ok to everything.

 

On your Start Menu you'll now find the new folder. There's a variety of handy stuff in here (such as the Event Viewer, which shows logs of what your system has been up to lately), but more importantly there's the Computer Management panel (which happens to include the aforementioned Event Viewer). I recommend copying this to your Quick Launch bar, as I use it all the time. You can then remove the admin tools from your Start Menu if you feel they're in the way.

 

Opening Computer Management shows you the guts of your computer at a glance: It's easy enough to find your sound card under the Device Manager. Double click the entry, then select the Resources tab. IRQ, DMA, and port are all listed (if not: Then they don't exist for that device. Things have changed a bit since the SB16 was mainstream).

 

All this stuff aside, the "safest" configuration method is to just disable sound, because the chances of UFO supporting your modern sound card are slim and Windows tends to spit out errors if you try it (depending on how many patches you've installed on your OS - Would you believe they've actually messed with the DOS VM over the years?! Service Pack 2 actually fixes some games which are unrunnable under earlier versions of XP, though later patches seem to cause sound related issues).

 

Installing VDMSound is the best alternative as you can set that with whatever card settings you like, then just configure UFO to match. Easy. Not that anything you do will stop the base bug from crashing your game, mind, so it doesn't matter in the slightest what settings your sound card is using: You have to use DosBox under 2000/XP.

 

So! Here's my recommendations:

 

You don't have to do anything fancy to install this game, just copy it somewhere on your drive. Your current install should be fine. Run "setup.exe" to mess with your sound configuration, and tell it you've got a Sound Blaster 16. IRQ is 7, DMA is 1, port is 220, and you're using 8 channels. For the music settings, again, tell it you've got a Sound Blaster of some sort.

 

These settings are to match the DosBox defaults. With that done, start the VM, and give "ufo.bat" another shot.

 

Note that DosBox is a VM, that is, a Virtual Machine. Your computers setup shouldn't affect DosBox in the slightest, because it attempts to emulate another computer. If DosBox works for one person, it should work for everyone.

 

PAL and NTSC are signal types used by TVs. The closest computers have to such things are different character sets (such as ASCII and Unicode), but these more often produce cosmetic glitches then serious crashes (and even then, only due to sloppy programming). That is to say, region encoding doesn't really exist in the programming world.

 

If DosBox still gives you glitches, give more detail on the error message, and make sure you're using an up to date version (though I reckon it'd be hard to find one so old as it couldn't run UFO).

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Just to note, the PSX EU is reasonably cheap off eBay, but TFTD cost me an absolute bomb a few years back (£30 IIRC), plus its poo in comparison.

[Zombie]

LOL, I'm really not too worried about gameplay since PAL PSX games will not even work on my NTSC machine. (At least not without adding a mod card which is strictly illegal - damn you Sony)!

 

I have been making the mistake of trying to find the European releases on the American eBay. In fact, the other eBays are a better choice since the cost is less. Only problem is that some sellers will not ship to the United States. Most are quite accomodating though.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Hehe. So do you get the japanese x-com on whatever the japanese equivalent of ebay is?

[Zombie]

Yup, that's the theory at least. Except, I don't think there is a Japanese eBay yet. This site is similar, but isn't affiliated with eBay. Suppose I could try there, but my knowledge of the Japanese language is 0.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Suspect freight charges are going to be a killer. I have memories of enquiring about the price of a computer, and being quoted something like +40% in freight

 

https://www.okshon.com/v.cgi?YYurl=https://p...ction/b72174555

 

 

Oo, look what I found:

 

https://cgi.ebay.de/Amiga-Spiel-CD32-UFO-En...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

(CD32 UFO!)

[Zombie]

Can't believe this topic is over a year old. But like I mentioned at xcomufo, I just received Enforcer today. Can I hear a "Hoo-rah!" from everyone? Now all the games in the X-COM series are represented. I almost won a PAL PSX version of EU a while back but someone outbid me at the last moment. Bummer.

 

- Zombie

[Azrael Strife]

That's nice, Zombie where did you buy Enforcer?