Wing Commander Games and Windows XP - A Summary

baphomet_irl said:
well i think with wc4 i didnt do much really jus used the wc495 patch from KS and thats about it, maybe changed sound acceleration - thats it i think


I meant your secret to WC3...

MY WC4 works phenominally well.
 
ok thanks for the tip with the shift key, but as far as the cd thing, it should get me past the "please insert" screen? I mean it should load up that screen no matter what you do right?
 
oh and also how exactly do I make daemon tools fool my computer into thinking it is running the software off the cd instead of the hard drive?
 
orangefen said:
oh and also how exactly do I make daemon tools fool my computer into thinking it is running the software off the cd instead of the hard drive?

daemon tools will make a fake 'generic DVD/CD drive' which can be seen in windows explorer.

Basically what you do is download cloneCD or somesuch program, put the original CD in do a 'read image', save as .ccd filetype (daemon reads that), then start daemon tools, left click the icon by your clock and click the bottom option, then point the program to wherever that .ccd file is
 
Well I never had any problems with the game once i set it to run in low-level mscdex mode or such. It fixed it and i believe i set it to cap dos... option with VDMS program as well. To get to these options you have to custom setup VDMS program with the game. TO do that right-click the games original icon then look for the appropriate VDMS choice and run with it. E-mail me questions (for instant reply) or post them (may take a long time or only a day) if you still need help.
 
ok now I dunno, I created a virtual drive with daemon tools, and I made the ccd file with cloneCD and then put it in the virtual drive with daemon tools and tried to run it that way which still didn't fix the problem, then went so far as to go in and change the letter of the virtual drive so it would have the letter that my real cd drive originally had , and that didn;t work either, so now I'm lost, the only thing I think I might do is just go buy an old computer off ebay cheap and install win95 on it so I can just run all my old games on it, but if anybody has any suggestions please let me know
 
Okay, now for my status:

I just shut down all my other programs, set WC3 KS to Realtime priority... and wound up back to where I was earlier this week! Not even past the Origin intro!

Alright, and the original Vanilla WC3 has better results right?

Because if not... I'd rather rip the movies off of WC3, and use either the WCU engine or somesuch and recreate the game... I dunno...
 
Unregistered said:
Because if not... I'd rather rip the movies off of WC3, and use either the WCU engine or somesuch and recreate the game... I dunno...

That'd be horrible. Also, it'd be easier to track your issues through the threads if you registered or used a unique name.

orangefen said:
ok now I dunno, I created a virtual drive with daemon tools, and I made the ccd file with cloneCD and then put it in the virtual drive with daemon tools and tried to run it that way which still didn't fix the problem, then went so far as to go in and change the letter of the virtual drive so it would have the letter that my real cd drive originally had , and that didn;t work either, so now I'm lost, the only thing I think I might do is just go buy an old computer off ebay cheap and install win95 on it so I can just run all my old games on it, but if anybody has any suggestions please let me know

It'd be cheaper and easier to get the DOS versions of WC1, 2 and 3 and play them through DOSBox.
 
ChrisReid said:
That'd be horrible. Also, it'd be easier to track your issues through the threads if you registered or used a unique name.

Very well.

And what I'm looking for is a stable WC3 to play from. I really don't understand how WC4 can run so well, but the KS version of WC3 is plagued with such errors.
 
Same with my copies of WC3 the original...

I mean, I have the original box and documents... but I can't find a single CD.

And my KS is getting even more touchy.
 
wait hold on a sec, is it possible to run the original dos WC3 in dos box? cuz that's what I have, maybe I should try it out
 
GunforHire said:
Same with my copies of WC3 the original...

I mean, I have the original box and documents... but I can't find a single CD.

And my KS is getting even more touchy.

i hope that 'back in the day' I didnt go to one of my mates 'ah yeh you can have that, sure I have the KS version now...' :s

i dont think i did though - hopefully itll turn up
 
I'm thinking, if WC4 can run so well in XP, vanilla WC3 might just do the same...

I have a USB joystick though....
 
orangefen said:
I thought that you couldn't run wc3 with dosbox

Yes, just recently we've had success running WC3 in DOSBox with the dynamic CPU core option enabled.

GunforHire said:
I'm thinking, if WC4 can run so well in XP, vanilla WC3 might just do the same...

I have a USB joystick though....

We're talking about the WC4 with the Windows 95 patch applied.

GunforHire said:
And what I'm looking for is a stable WC3 to play from. I really don't understand how WC4 can run so well, but the KS version of WC3 is plagued with such errors.

They were both upgraded for Windows differently at a time when Windows was very new and not as many standards for compatibility were established. There's not a definitely way to optimize KS play in XP, but it works for some people if they extensively play with their sound card settings or compatibility modes. The exact method to tune it varies from computer to computer.
 
So this new DosBOX with the dynamic core... is it available at the regular DosBOX website?

And does it allow USB Joystick support?
 
GunforHire said:
So this new DosBOX with the dynamic core... is it available at the regular DosBOX website?

And does it allow USB Joystick support?

DosBox does ONLY support USB sticks.
As for the dynamic core - I am not sure if it is in the standard, default package. In any case you have to enable it by modifying the config file (by hand).
 
Thank you. That is rather good news.

My current machine has a 1.6 ghz P4 processor, should be plenty for this usage of DosBOX... and if USB joystick support is there, then everything will be just fine.

My vanilla version of WC3 is in the mail.

We shall see the results.
 
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