Shadowcat on 29/6/2005 at 22:41
Quote Posted by Sensen
Most of it doesn't make sense to me, and some of it is out of date.
For the latter, I'd argue that it's hard to be out of date when the game in question is older still. Unless you mean that there's not enough data for current systems, which may possibly be true, but I can't help there unless people with modern systems (which does not include myself) have success and tell us about it.
For the former... well it would help if you described your problem. Obviously you can't get the game to run, but if we're to have a shot at helping we need to know your Windows version and hardware specs (CPU, RAM, Video card & drivers, Sound card and drivers), along with the error messages or events that are happening when you try to run the game.
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The page that Fitzgerald linked to is down
From earlier in this thread? It's working for me right now (both the link to another TTLG thread, and the subsequent link and file download from another site).
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As it is, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about running Dos games in DosBox. I've had success getting Xcom: Enemy Unknown running very well. [...] Anyone know how to get TN running with these?
So what actually happened when you tried this? Again, you need to give information if you wish to get help.
okayman on 10/7/2005 at 03:39
Dear Guys, I love Terra Nova so much. I bought an old Pentium II-366 last week just for this game.
Yes, it doesn't work straight away in modern machines and I've tried the following, hope to give you guys some info.
Terra Nova works under Windows XP without any extra drivers, not even DOS drivers, VDMSound, VESA fix stuff. None.
- I installed Windows XP with SP2 and installing TN and just worked, no extras needed, with sound and no slow down of videos.
I used FAT32 (32GB!!) and NTFS, but they all seemed to work.
So in this process, I know that it's not the operating system that is interfereing TN from working, it's totally about the hardware.
From the past, I experience "CPU too fast", "Video drivers not supporting 16-bit apps" and "Harddisk too large to handle (which give a negative size, you might have experienced", etc.
I can't conclude, but I suspect that it may be 2 things:
1. CPU too fast (or maybe Pentium 4 architecture / instruction codes are different...)
2. If you sound card and video cards in the "System Properties" showing "Legacy Audio Device" / "Legacy Video Capture Device", this is one of the elements that make it work.
3. Hardware-wise, the video card and sound card does not support 16 bit apps, without the help of 3rd party drivers such as VDM Sound, etc.
I'll try more but it's quite time consuming. But I'll try and let you know.
Cya.
Shadowcat on 10/7/2005 at 13:13
Thanks muchly for the information, okayman... interesting indeed. People certainly do seem to have a variety of experiences with WinXP!
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So in this process, I know that it's not the operating system that is interfereing TN from working, it's totally about the hardware.
I'd love to hear from anyone else who has tried such a set-up. I suspect very few people ever install WinXP on such an old system.
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I'll try more but it's quite time consuming. But I'll try and let you know.
Well many thanks for this and any further information you are able to offer. It's greatly appreciated.
Incidentally, you sound like the sort of dedicated Centauri Clansman who ought to read (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7430) this thread :)
okayman on 12/7/2005 at 11:26
Yes, I am. I have actually wrote to Looking Glass Technologies (before they went down) about the idea of having a multiplayer Terra Nova because my friend and I had a very good experience when playing the only single player version 8 years ago on Pentium 166 machines. Was so cool.
But they had mentioned that sales were not good and discontinued the line. It's also bad that later I heard them broke.
Anyway, my father-in-law is using Pentium 2-333MHz with XP on. He's almost 60 years old now and he doesn't care much about speed. So, XP on old machine is ok and it worked.
Ironically, it is much difficult to install Windows 98 SE on new machines as it is much harder to find the relevant Sound and Video drivers. Also new chipset drivers are difficult to make Windows 98 SE work properly.
Well, I'll keep trying. But doesn't seem good because I tried to disable Sound in Terra Nova setup and when it starts, it goes blank.
I'm now trying to set up a proper Windows 98 SE and then use MoSlo or similar CPU slow down utilities. Se if it's because CPU floating point too high and fast that creates an overflow, at least I suspect this is the main problem as I have mentioned previously. I'll make a controlled test, like we used to do it the science labs.
Will keep you guys posted.
okayman on 17/7/2005 at 08:05
Summary of tests (all with English version OS and Video and Sound drivers are correctly installed, all with DirectX 9.0c installed):
1. FAILED - On my desktop Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 1Gb RAM, Windows XP SP2. I got nothing. No errors, just blank like nothing has started and back to DOS prompt. Tried Mo'Slo to slow down to 10% speed (appox 280MHz) still get the same result.
2. FAILED - On my desktop Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 1Gb RAM, Windows 98 SE. I got a "Page Fault" and a crash code "429........" a long number. Tried Mo'Slo to slow down to 10% speed (appox 280MHz) still get the same result.
3. FAILED - On my wife's notebook Panasonic Pentium M 1.2GHz, 512Mb RAM, Windows XP SP2. I got a "Divide Overflow" but no crash code.
4. FAILED - On my old notebook IBM T40 Pentium III 650MHz, 384Mb RAM, Windows XP SP1. I got a "Page Fault" and a crash code "429......."
5. FAILED - On my old notebook IBM T40 Pentium III 650MHz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE. I got a "Page Fault" and a crash code "429......"
6. SUCCESS - On my very old notebook IBM TP600E Pentium II 366MHz, 128Mb RAM, Windows XP SP2. No flaws, no slow down, with proper Sound and Video. No problem.
7. SUCCESS - On IBM TP600E Pentium II 366MHz, 128Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE. No flaws, no slow down, with proper Sound and Video. No problem.
What I suspect is really the CPU architecture and speed. Terra Nova was built during the Pentium 66 period and as far as I know, Pentium II is built on the base of the original Pentium PRO. There is no problem with MMX being added. But then Pentium III added MMX and SSE. Pentium 4 is almost a different architecture with has MMX, SSE and SSE2, which handles differently the floating point instructions.
So I suspect it's the architecture that made TN work or not.
Of course, if you use emulators, they emulate mainly the "processors" and environments.... then TN will work.
These are all my input, I think I have an idea of what will work and what will not now. I'll keep on trying but I really have run out of computer configs. And it takes a lot of time to set up.
Felix
Shadowcat on 17/7/2005 at 12:38
Awesome work, Felix. Thank you again for your efforts!
As Gareth said previously in this thread, "I was at LG at the time and I have an idea how much hackery went into it, so I'm surprised it works at all" :)
Comp_Lex on 13/8/2005 at 12:47
ey,
I'm new here, I'm from Holland and my English isn't very good (so don't be harsh on me, please), but I hope that you guys can help me out.
Ok, this is my hardware and OS:
Processor: Pentium II-MMX 266 MHz.
Memory: 128 MB
Soundcard: AWE-32
graphicscard: Geforce 2 MX 100/200
Operating System: Win 98 Second Edition (I had 1st edition but I don't have it anymore)
I haven't play TN for a while, but I found the CD back and I thought maybe it still runs, but it didn't. I do remember that it worked with Win98 1st edition, but I bought SE, because it was more compatible with stuff, but TN doesn't work anymore.
The things I did:
The first time I installed TN it said: "Can't find movies" (or something like that). I realised that there was a problem with CD-ROM drivers. I still have a floppy that contains DOS IDE drivers. So I installed that and I came across another problem: "Page fault". But when I run the game from DOS it said: "Mouse not found!Crash error...) So I installed MS mousedrivers and now I'm stuck with the following problem: I only see a bunch of "dots". No intro movie, no sound... nothing. Do you guys know how to fix this? Is there a problem with my graphicscard?
Maybe I haven't looked good enough, but I only see solutions for XP.
Shadowcat on 14/8/2005 at 00:51
Terra Nova runs successfully under Win98SE, so that is unlikely to be your problem. You can in fact copy the CD contents to a directory on your hard drive, and install the game from there to avoid booting to DOS (you may also have to edit the .pif files to prevent the machine rebooting to DOS automatically, although in fact I found this to be a necessary step during installation only with my old video card... I think your GF2 should be fine, however). Failing everything else, you can also create a DOS boot disk (see the start of this thread).
I suggest NOT letting it build a UniVBE driver when it asks, as this caused problems for me under Windows.
The +BADLINMODES option might help, as could the Vesafix program (and again, see the start of this thread for more details on those).
heinz_3 on 24/11/2005 at 12:53
The 1 mission Demo worked on XP with VDM Sound. Full game works with nolfb.com and vdm sound.
Had to edit the cfg file for the CD Rom path.
But ingame the turning speed is very slow. It takes 10 second to turn 360 degrees. Any solution for this?
Shadowcat on 25/11/2005 at 02:24
Yeah, that sounds a bit on the slow side.
Aside from knowing that (a) Ultima Underworld also suffers some odd issues with movement on modern machines, and (b) Terra Nova contains a lot of crazy hacks, I couldn't tell you why that's happening, nor what you might do about it :/