Post by cmdrsaman on Sept 16, 2010 9:27:14 GMT -5
I had a go at installing the game under Windows 7 64-bit. It wasn't exactly problem-free, but in the end, I managed to get it running, so I thought I'd share a little guide with you all.
Also, kudos to janksjaer for some very useful tips!
I'm not sure how much of this applies to Vista, but I'm almost certain that it applies to 32-bit Windows 7 as well. From my experience, if something will run on 64-bit Win7, it will run under 32-bit too, but not necessarily the other way around.
So, let's begin. The first problem comes when you try to install either the demo, or the full game, and it fails by saying that there's not enough disk space even when there's more than enough. My guess is that this comes from the overall size of the harddisk, or maybe an error in the way the installer checks for the free space: in any case, there are two workarounds for this.
First off, the better method: setting the compatibility of Setup.exe to Windows 2000. To do this, right click on it, and select Properties. Under the Compatibility tab, check "Run this game in compatibility mode for:", and choose "Windows 2000". In case this doesn't work for you, you could try "Windows 98 / Windows Me" too.
If you're installing from the CD, this might not work. In that case, download the demo, and install it using the method above: once it's done, running the setup for the original game will upgrade it to the full version for you.
There's a second method, which probably will cause more errors, but it will work if you for some reason still can't get the installer to work. You'll need a pendrive for it, and it's quite easy: you're going to install the game on a pendrive. By default, the installer will only display disk drives as possible destinations, but you can specify your pendrive as the destination manually, and the game will install without any further problems.
Keep in mind that in the future, you will have to use the same drive letter for the pendrive if you want to play! For example, I installed it on H:\Hardwar. (Hehe.) If you don't plug any other external storage in, it should be fine though.
Next is trying to actually run the game. I recommend that you don't patch it just yet. Why? Because if the unpatched game will run, then the patched one will run too, and there are fewer options to tweak.
First off, though, make sure to set the game to Windows 98 compatibility mode. Doing so can fix a number of errors that would cause the game to hang up otherwise - at least, it did for me.
Look up HardwarW.exe and Hardman.exe, and set them to that, or Windows 2000, whichever works for you. (See above on how to do this.)
Okay, on to some more pitfalls. You might get an error about initialising force feedback when using keyboard controls. This is fixed in the UIM patches, but for now, switching to mouse controls will solve the issue.
Something else to watch out for is that resolutions over 1280x1024 will hang the game after Stage 15. The UIM patches no longer seem to offer you this option, but the unpatched game does: take care not to set it over that resolution then.
There can also be some graphics issues that depend on what video card and drivers you're using. All I can say about this is that you should update your device drivers: you're probably using either an ATI or an nVidia card, so grab the latest update from their respective sites.
Okay, by now, you hopefully managed to get the unpatched game running, so it's time to patch it. If you installed it on a pendrive, check if the current drive letter of your pendrive matches the original install location!
After the patch is installed, to get multiplayer working, you'll need to copy DirectX 5's dplay.dll to the installation folder. The original game's disc contains this in the "directx" folder: the demo, however, does not, so you'll have to get it from elsewhere. I've uploaded it to MU, so you can get it here.
Once this is done, enabling any further graphics options that were introduced in the UIM patches shouldn't cause any problems. There is one thing to watch out for, though: don't enable any logging if you've installed the game on a pendrive! They aren't good with lots of small transactions in small amounts of time, and will slow the start-up of the game to a crawl. Also, because of this, when you start a new game and it asks for you about where to save the savegame, use your harddrive to store the savegame. The game will be able to handle this without any problems - it's just that logs are saved by default to the install location, and as far as I know, you have no way to override this.
Also, one more thing: if you have a 16:9 monitor, playing in widescreen is possible, but only in 720p (1280x720 resolution) and not 1080p (which would be 1920x1080). Personally, I'd recommend using the game in 1280x1024, and setting your monitor to keep the aspect ratio and not stretch the game to cover the entire screen: refer to your screen's manual about how to do this, it varies from screen to screen.
This much helped me to run the game in single player under Windows 7 64-bit. Hope it helps others solve any issues that they come across as well.
Also, kudos to janksjaer for some very useful tips!
I'm not sure how much of this applies to Vista, but I'm almost certain that it applies to 32-bit Windows 7 as well. From my experience, if something will run on 64-bit Win7, it will run under 32-bit too, but not necessarily the other way around.
So, let's begin. The first problem comes when you try to install either the demo, or the full game, and it fails by saying that there's not enough disk space even when there's more than enough. My guess is that this comes from the overall size of the harddisk, or maybe an error in the way the installer checks for the free space: in any case, there are two workarounds for this.
First off, the better method: setting the compatibility of Setup.exe to Windows 2000. To do this, right click on it, and select Properties. Under the Compatibility tab, check "Run this game in compatibility mode for:", and choose "Windows 2000". In case this doesn't work for you, you could try "Windows 98 / Windows Me" too.
If you're installing from the CD, this might not work. In that case, download the demo, and install it using the method above: once it's done, running the setup for the original game will upgrade it to the full version for you.
There's a second method, which probably will cause more errors, but it will work if you for some reason still can't get the installer to work. You'll need a pendrive for it, and it's quite easy: you're going to install the game on a pendrive. By default, the installer will only display disk drives as possible destinations, but you can specify your pendrive as the destination manually, and the game will install without any further problems.
Keep in mind that in the future, you will have to use the same drive letter for the pendrive if you want to play! For example, I installed it on H:\Hardwar. (Hehe.) If you don't plug any other external storage in, it should be fine though.
Next is trying to actually run the game. I recommend that you don't patch it just yet. Why? Because if the unpatched game will run, then the patched one will run too, and there are fewer options to tweak.
First off, though, make sure to set the game to Windows 98 compatibility mode. Doing so can fix a number of errors that would cause the game to hang up otherwise - at least, it did for me.
Look up HardwarW.exe and Hardman.exe, and set them to that, or Windows 2000, whichever works for you. (See above on how to do this.)
Okay, on to some more pitfalls. You might get an error about initialising force feedback when using keyboard controls. This is fixed in the UIM patches, but for now, switching to mouse controls will solve the issue.
Something else to watch out for is that resolutions over 1280x1024 will hang the game after Stage 15. The UIM patches no longer seem to offer you this option, but the unpatched game does: take care not to set it over that resolution then.
There can also be some graphics issues that depend on what video card and drivers you're using. All I can say about this is that you should update your device drivers: you're probably using either an ATI or an nVidia card, so grab the latest update from their respective sites.
Okay, by now, you hopefully managed to get the unpatched game running, so it's time to patch it. If you installed it on a pendrive, check if the current drive letter of your pendrive matches the original install location!
After the patch is installed, to get multiplayer working, you'll need to copy DirectX 5's dplay.dll to the installation folder. The original game's disc contains this in the "directx" folder: the demo, however, does not, so you'll have to get it from elsewhere. I've uploaded it to MU, so you can get it here.
Once this is done, enabling any further graphics options that were introduced in the UIM patches shouldn't cause any problems. There is one thing to watch out for, though: don't enable any logging if you've installed the game on a pendrive! They aren't good with lots of small transactions in small amounts of time, and will slow the start-up of the game to a crawl. Also, because of this, when you start a new game and it asks for you about where to save the savegame, use your harddrive to store the savegame. The game will be able to handle this without any problems - it's just that logs are saved by default to the install location, and as far as I know, you have no way to override this.
Also, one more thing: if you have a 16:9 monitor, playing in widescreen is possible, but only in 720p (1280x720 resolution) and not 1080p (which would be 1920x1080). Personally, I'd recommend using the game in 1280x1024, and setting your monitor to keep the aspect ratio and not stretch the game to cover the entire screen: refer to your screen's manual about how to do this, it varies from screen to screen.
This much helped me to run the game in single player under Windows 7 64-bit. Hope it helps others solve any issues that they come across as well.
