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This is SO frustrating. First maybe I should explain my hardware.. I have two PCs. One a plain old "vanilla" W98SE box w/era hardware; PIII 1GB, 512Mb PC133 RAM, SBLive, 2 Voodoo 2s in SLI and a AGP nVidia 5500FX. My DVD drive is a Hitachi GF-1000 IDE DVD-RAM drive. Yeah.. I guess you could say it's maxed for a w9X box.. but still.
My XP machine I built last year: Pentium D (3.20 X 2), 3Gb of 666 Crucial Ballistix, onboard Realtek sound, and 2 XFX F4t4lity 7600 GTs in SLI. I have two Samsung DVD rewitables for optical drives.
I have the DVD version of Wing Commander IV. I can get the game to install jst fine on BOTH machines. I let it install to the default dir on both C: drives. I followed the directions here on the site on how to install correctly.. however the ONLY thing I DON'T see is the end of installation "Run WCIV now" option.. so I don't get to configure or test anything. Although I had the Klite Codec packs installed on both machines and let ffdShow handle mPEG2.. video playback was very choppy on my w98SE box. So I went ahead and installed AC3 on both machines.
Here's my problems (after applying ALL of the recommended patches, fixes and dll overwrites for both OS'es):
W98SE:
Game starts fine. Origin and Dolby splash videos play smoothly. All beginning videos play fine. Intro scene in the council plays fine. Hamill walks into the bar and encounters first conversation option (help the guy/straighten him out).. video pauses.. I pick either choice.. screen goes black and a dialog pops up saying it can't find the next vob file.. EVEN though the "path" described is correct! And yes.. I can go to Windows Explorer and see the file on the disc myself! Also.. Klite installs Media Player Classic (my default media player on W9X is still 6.4.. I don't upgrade) and I can go into the disc and play the missing videos just fine. Thereafter.. if I simply acknowledge the alleged "missing" video prompt by hitting "OK" I'm simply taken to the next dialog choice with no videos but Hamill DOES talk and repeat what you choose him to say. If you acknowledge and fumble your way through long enough you end up at the gameplay screen where Maniac taunts you. that seems to be OK.. although I can't really say yet for sure as I can't seem to get my joystick or keyboard to work (both are USB).. but I'll leave that for another day. Actually.. I just checked it again.. my spce bar will fire and the only other keys working seem to be Q & W to roll.. I can't manuever beyond that. End of game..
XP:
I simply can't get the game to start.. at all.. it comes up with the same "black screen" apparently looking for the "splash" videos. Have tried the various compatibility modes and the XP patch/fixes. If I "acknowledge" the first missing video.. I'm simply taken to the first dialog choice with a black screen.
I don't know why this isn't working, hardware's fine.. game install fine and yet on BOTH systems (even though the 98 box let's me a bit further into the game) the underlying problem seems to be the same.. supposedly missing movie files whose paths are correctly described and are clearly present on the DVD. If I could get past this problem.. I might have it made.
Also.. if/when I do actually see this up and running (I'm thinking my best.. most logical bet will be on my W98 machine) will this game support USB sticks? I use a USB MS Sidewinder on my 98 machine and a Logitech Freedom cordless (also USB) on my XP one. I could plug my old C&H Flghtstick Pro into the 98 machine.. but my XP doesn't have a gameport.
Also.. once I get the game up and running.. is there a place where I CAN access options (such as controls, video & sound) in-game? Because like I said.. I'm not getting that option on install and I've even looked in the install directory and all I see is the game's main executable.
I'm VERY open to suggestions. Thanks to all for your time & attention. I'm guessing I should have just gotten the 3DO version of IV.. like I've had for III for years.
My XP machine I built last year: Pentium D (3.20 X 2), 3Gb of 666 Crucial Ballistix, onboard Realtek sound, and 2 XFX F4t4lity 7600 GTs in SLI. I have two Samsung DVD rewitables for optical drives.
I have the DVD version of Wing Commander IV. I can get the game to install jst fine on BOTH machines. I let it install to the default dir on both C: drives. I followed the directions here on the site on how to install correctly.. however the ONLY thing I DON'T see is the end of installation "Run WCIV now" option.. so I don't get to configure or test anything. Although I had the Klite Codec packs installed on both machines and let ffdShow handle mPEG2.. video playback was very choppy on my w98SE box. So I went ahead and installed AC3 on both machines.
Here's my problems (after applying ALL of the recommended patches, fixes and dll overwrites for both OS'es):
W98SE:
Game starts fine. Origin and Dolby splash videos play smoothly. All beginning videos play fine. Intro scene in the council plays fine. Hamill walks into the bar and encounters first conversation option (help the guy/straighten him out).. video pauses.. I pick either choice.. screen goes black and a dialog pops up saying it can't find the next vob file.. EVEN though the "path" described is correct! And yes.. I can go to Windows Explorer and see the file on the disc myself! Also.. Klite installs Media Player Classic (my default media player on W9X is still 6.4.. I don't upgrade) and I can go into the disc and play the missing videos just fine. Thereafter.. if I simply acknowledge the alleged "missing" video prompt by hitting "OK" I'm simply taken to the next dialog choice with no videos but Hamill DOES talk and repeat what you choose him to say. If you acknowledge and fumble your way through long enough you end up at the gameplay screen where Maniac taunts you. that seems to be OK.. although I can't really say yet for sure as I can't seem to get my joystick or keyboard to work (both are USB).. but I'll leave that for another day. Actually.. I just checked it again.. my spce bar will fire and the only other keys working seem to be Q & W to roll.. I can't manuever beyond that. End of game..
XP:
I simply can't get the game to start.. at all.. it comes up with the same "black screen" apparently looking for the "splash" videos. Have tried the various compatibility modes and the XP patch/fixes. If I "acknowledge" the first missing video.. I'm simply taken to the first dialog choice with a black screen.
I don't know why this isn't working, hardware's fine.. game install fine and yet on BOTH systems (even though the 98 box let's me a bit further into the game) the underlying problem seems to be the same.. supposedly missing movie files whose paths are correctly described and are clearly present on the DVD. If I could get past this problem.. I might have it made.
Also.. if/when I do actually see this up and running (I'm thinking my best.. most logical bet will be on my W98 machine) will this game support USB sticks? I use a USB MS Sidewinder on my 98 machine and a Logitech Freedom cordless (also USB) on my XP one. I could plug my old C&H Flghtstick Pro into the 98 machine.. but my XP doesn't have a gameport.
Also.. once I get the game up and running.. is there a place where I CAN access options (such as controls, video & sound) in-game? Because like I said.. I'm not getting that option on install and I've even looked in the install directory and all I see is the game's main executable.
I'm VERY open to suggestions. Thanks to all for your time & attention. I'm guessing I should have just gotten the 3DO version of IV.. like I've had for III for years.
