Game Starfleet Academy - CD to DVD Patch?

[Dominus]

I recently bought the GOG Version of Starfleet Academy (sadly only the CD Version is available).

Is there an upgrade Patch available from CD->DVD (for the better videos of the DVD Version)?
Does anybody know where to get the DVD Version (or at least an ISO to swap the videos, which shouldn´t be too hard ... like with Wing Commander IV)?

Thanks!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I have the DVD version of this game but i have never been able to get it to work because it seems to require some kind of specific video card to play back the movies on, some weird video codec that does not seem to work without said card, possibly why only the CD rom version was done by GOG as even they might not be able to get it to run.

 

[Dominus]

Hi Haggies, thanks for the reply.

There is a patch to run the DVD-Version under Windows XP. The patch seems to be working under Windows 7 x64. I tried to configure it unter Windows 10 #2004 a moment ago - after some experimenting, I got everything prepared for you to test it (updated the readme):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LwHDeaEUmFflizT4X-JO9-tFdVqKA8GI/view

I cannot test it myself, hence I am missing the DVD Version. If you could somehow get me an ISO of your version I could try the patch and also put some time into creating an CD->DVD Movie upgrade pack.

Original Patch ist from gulikoza (GPL):
http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/

Were I got most of my information:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12543&hilit=starfleet+academy

 

[Dominus]

Just to clarify: You won´t need the specific hardware anymore to play the movies/the game (and AFAIK there was also an identical DVD-Version not bundled with any specific DVD-ROM+MPEG2 Card from Creative but bundled with Gateway PCs) but I am not 100% sure if that version was ever sold seperately. Information on the internet varies.
For example:
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Starfleet-Academy-DVD-ROM-PC/dp/B00001SHN4

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Unfortunatly i don't have a DVD player in my PC, but if anyone could have got these to work without the hardware then it would have been GOG, so no doubt why GOG only released the CD-rom version, because if they can't get the DVD version to run without the hardware then i doubt anyone could, which would explain why there has never been any rip of the movies from the DVD version anywhere from anyone.

 

[Dominus]

The patch is for the hardware-bundled versions of SFA and there are several reports, that the patch succesfully works for SFA under Windows XP/7. The dxmci-patch was originally created for Wing Commander IV DVD - which was also exclusively bundled to specific Creative hardware and which I own myself -> so I know the patch works, at least for WC IV).

My best guess is, that GOG has a license issue. They also didn´t release the addon Checkov´s Lost Missions. There are some wild guesses in the GOG-Forums

 

[NCC-73515]

SFA is on Steam, IIRC, maybe they have the best version

 

[Dominus]

SFA is on Steam, IIRC, maybe they have the best version

Unfortunately not. It´s the same version as released on GOG (CD-Version without the addon, but patched to V1.15).
https://steamcommunity.com/app/364810/discussions/0/352788917756930341/

 

[Haggis and tatties]

And never buy the steam versions of these old game as they are usually just sold as is, with all the issues of getting them to run on a modern OS, whereas GOG spend time making sure they work perfectly on modern systems.