Windows XP Problems WITH Solutions

[Linklinker]

Well what exactly is your problem with it.

[Woulfe]

Anyone know anything about BASIC that could help me fix my version of Super Star Trek ?

- Problems -
1. ship navigates strangely....


4.3.2
..\|/
5-0-1
../|\
6.7.8


It's suposted to navigate like that but for some reason it doesn't, which is odd, as I didn't alter the orginal code from the 1970's version of Super Star Trek that much.....

I managed to fix other problema I was haveing like my sheilds not getting any power to them, but for some reason I can't seem to get the navigation problem solved.....

I looked through the code several times now and i'm just stumped as can be, I used Q-BASIC to edit it so i'd not be as hard as to have to edit in regular BASIC....

http://www.Furnation.com/Woulfe/StarTrek/TREKGAME.BAS

There's the file in question if anyone can help me out
with it i'd be greatful indeed may even put your name in the game credits as official debugger....

Woulfe
* BASIC programer with a verry rusty memory *

[Tallguy]

Director Player 5.0 tells me I need at least 3MB of free virtual memory to run. I've read about people not being able to run it on XP, but no one has given a solution.

Actually, if I could just extract the QT files that would be swell too...

[Cary L. Brown]

Tallguy said:Does anyone have any ideas on how to get Captain's Chair up and running on Windows XP? (I'm amazed at how little info there is on this title!)

All of the Simon and Schuster titles... every last one of 'em it seems... used Quicktime as a major component.

The problem with Quicktime is that there are a series of totally incompatible versions out there. It just generally sucks. And that's pretty much entirely Apple's fault.

The GOOD thing about Quicktime, in any version, is that it's entirely non-3D-accelerated. Which means that it will run perfectly from within a "VirtualPC" environment.

So, to run any of these old S&S Trek titles... Captain's chair, the Encyclopedia (any version), the TNG Tech Manual... you need to install VirtualPC, set up a virtual Win9x machine, and install the Trek programs into that virtual environment.

Usually, I've found that VirtualPC isn't the best option... in cases where any direct hardware access is part of the program. But these programs are IDEAL for virtualization.

I'm going to assume you have an old Win98SE disk laying around someplace. That's what I've done, so that's all I can address.

You need to get VirtualPC from the Microsoft website. There are other "virtual pc" type programs out there, as well... VMWare, for instance... but this is the one I'm using. Heres' the link to get the program. It's free...

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...c/default.mspx

Install it. Create a "virtual drive" to use (it'll look like a single huge file from within your REAL operating system). The program does this quite easily, so don't get intimidated.

What you have is a software program which is a complete virtual computer INSIDE of your REAL computer. It thinks it has certain pieces of hardware installed (even though these don't actually physically exist). It will run more slowly than your REAL machine does... but since the programs are old, this should not be a problem.

So, once you have a "virtual machine" created (through a wizard, most likely), you'll "boot up" that virtual machine and, using the NORMAL procedure, "install" Windows 98SE onto that virtual machine (realizing that this is not happening on your REAL machine..).

So you have a nice clean "virtual computer" running Windows 98 now, with no other software installed. Go into that virtual machine and install, IN THERE, the Simon and Schuster programs. They will install the appropriate versions of Quicktime and everything will work perfectly.

This will work for most all of your older programs which do not require direct hardware access (for instance, anything involving 3d acceleration WILL NOT WORK).

Now, realize that many programs can be run more easily using DOSBox, or using VDMSound, directly from within WinXP. But anything involving Quicktime in the "older" versions will need to be on a separate machine... or a separate VIRTUAL machine, in this case. Also note that some programs... say, Captain's Chair... may install a newer version of Quicktime that may interfere with the older versions in, say, the Tech Manual (I'm not 100% sure that this can't be resolved!). If this turns out to be unresolvable... you can create a complete "virtual machine" for each program if you want (and if you have the hard drive space!)

Hope this helps!

[Tallguy]

Thanks Cary. It would, if I had a copy of Win98 lying around. Alas. I know that these aps used QT, but I can't find the QT files on the CD.

[Cary L. Brown]

Oh, that's easy... the QT files generally are all labeled with a *.MOV suffix. The movies, the "VR" files... anything that consists of multiple frames or which can be navigated. I've browsed through most of the QT files directly at one time or another. Unless Captain's Chair is different (I can't recall for certain right now, though I'm messing with those now... my new machine is an NForce machine, so I can't have it dual-boot into 98... meaning that I'm doing all the VirtualPC stuff myself right now... but as I was saying, unless they used a "hiding" trick on that specific CD that they used on nothing else, it should be easy to check out the MOV files.

[Tallguy]

Right. This looks like they're all CXT and DXR files. The only MOV files are the SS logos.

[Cary L. Brown]

Yep... MOV files (and some audio AIF files) are all there, unencrypted. If you have any media player (ideally Quicktime) set up to play those formats, you're good.

[Cary L. Brown]

Tallguy said:
Right. This looks like they're all CXT and DXR files. The only MOV files are the SS logos.

Search the whole disk... trust me, there are a LOT of MOV files throughout the disk.

If you can't see 'em... two possibilities. Either you have a bogus disk, or you've somehow got QT-type files marked as "hidden" in your OS?

I, by default, make sure that nothing is "hidden" and that all file suffixes are visible. I don't like my OS hiding things from me.

The only other option is that you're just not looking closely enough? Did you do a search on the disk for all files with the *.MOV suffix? Or the *.AIF suffix?

Trust me, I just went through my own disk and it's just FULL of these, and I looked through several. In fact, I discovered (much to my surprise) that there seems to be a "secret" on the disk... a Klingon bridge as well as the Starfleet ones we know about!

[Tallguy]

Found 'em - they were in a hidden directory. Thanks for the help!

[Tomalak]

Anyone having trouble with A FInal Unity on XP should follow these instructions. DosBox didn't work for me, but this was a doddle. After a decade, I can finally remember how good this game is!

[CaptainHawk1]

My quest for several months now is to build a computer (or acquire an old one) that I can use exclusively to play Trek Games from the mid-90's to the end of the decade. I've been able to procure 2 good candidates: An HP w/a Celeron 1.8 and a Compaq w/a PIII.

The PIII came w/Win2000 already installed and the last user didn't understand the concept of spyware/virus protection so the box was a mess an no matter what I did to repair it, I was left with an IE problem that I couldn't fix no matter what. Cutting to the chase, I'm blowing out the hard drive on this thing and I was going to reinstall Win2000.

From what I've been reading it would appear that installing Win98 for old trek games is the way to go, is that correct.

Second, do I ant to keep the file system as FAT or can I maike it NTFS?

Third, if it is better for me to have Win98 how the crap am I going to get updates for it as MS is no longer supporting? Since I'm only using it for the games is it necessary that I get updates?

And, does that QT problem affest Win98 computers?

-Shawn

[Woulfe]

DosBox does Windows 3.1 now, just so folks here know.....

Of course you must have the original Win 3.1 disks in order to install Win 3.1 under DosBox, if you don't have your 3.1 disks, well, why did you toss them away ?

I still have mine after all.

Having Win 3.1 under DosBox will make it easier to run things like Star Trek Klingon and other old Windows games that tend to not like XP and refuse to run under compatibility mode no matter what you do.

If you have any questions about certain games and if they'll run under Win 3.1 under DosBox ask me, if I have the game I'll install it myself and see if said game runs at all.

I can also give folks a step by step guide for installing Win 3.1 under DosBox without screwing up your current Windows settings and stuff like that there.

One can also just go to the DosBox forums for this info as well if they don't feel like waiting for me to post the steps here

- W -
* Win 3.1 Guy *

[ET1_Southy]

I have tried this method and it works...sorta. The install file would freeze up in Win98. Had to boot the computer with Win98 disc to enable CD-ROM support in DOS. Then I installed the game through DOS. Went back to Windows and did all the right click stuff for the STTNG.exe file. The game loaded, however would not play video scenes or sounds.

I do have a different question regarding this game. I have it working nearly perfectly in separate DOS system...but there is no sound. I know my sound drivers are working b/c I verified sound with a diagnostic program in DOS. Final Unity sound card setup menu will not auto-detect my sound card. Sound daig program tells me that my Soundblaster 16 PnP ISA card has the following characteristics:

Base I/O Address 220
MIDI Port Address 330
IRQ 5
Low DMA Setting 1
High DMA Setting 5

I have tried this setup scheme in the game's sound card setup menu (tried both DMA at 1 and 5 since there is only one DMA setting) to no avail. Any ideas?

[KaBlooie]

I am experiencing a HUGE problem with installing Klingon Academy on XP. The game wont initiate setup, not when autoplay runs and I click on the appropriate button, or when I go into the disk and double-click setup.

When I go into Task Manager to see if the process is even there, I do find it, setup.exe. Sometimes if I've tried many things there are more than one setup.exe processes running.

Does ANYONE have a solution, please