Wing Commander Games and Windows XP - A Summary

Edfilho

Edfilho

Cry some more!
I'm opening this thread to collect my experiences in running the WC games in Win XP Pro.

In no occasion I resorted to FAT partitions or boot disks, my goal is playing the games in WinXP or using DosBox.

I plan on getting my p233mmx with a Voodoo 3 to work again, so I can play some of these games and others like Heavy Gear and Iwar 1.

I have not tested all WC games, so please feel free to add your own experiences.

-WC1 - Not tested by me, reported to be working fine with dosbox

-WC1 KS - Ok, no changes or tricks necessary - It is a good idea to reinstall DirectX after installing KS interface, though.

-WC2 - Not tested by me, reported to be working fine with dosbox

-WC2 KS - Runs ok, no changes or tricks necessary

-Priv - Runs perfectly in dosbox (sound, voice, graphics, joystick all fine) but is too slow on anything under 2ghz and 512ram. Supposedly it will run a lot faster on dosbox 0.62

-Academy - Not tested by me, should run fine on dosbox, though.

-WC3 - Does not work on WinXP, should run on Dosbox - IF you have a cluster of 4GHz machines...

-WC3 KS - Runs fine - IMPORTANT: I need to alt-tab out of the intro movies and set the game to NORMAL priority in the task manager, otherwise it freezes. Some people still have other problems, but it works really well for me this way.

-WC4 CD - Runs fine as long as you apply the Win95 patch. I can't remember now if I had to do some other trick, but it is running ok.

-WC4 DVD - I'm still waiting for my copy, but it needs the file thingy in the other thread

-Priv2 - Original THP's files work very well. I'm playing it perfectly with a digital joystick.

-WCP - I still need to test it. Should run in most machines with sound accell turned off. non 3DFx owners (i.e., 95% of people) should get the D3D patch in the CIC to enable lens flare.

-WCSO - Runs ok, better with the hi-res patch =)

Again, please fell free to contribute.
 
Ok, I'll add my 2cents to the list (very short, don't worry ;) )

-WC1 works with DOSBox 0.61 for most users, only one odd version flying arround with soundprobs, but that also appears udner pure DOS, it seems.
-WC1 KS - For the secret missions you need to use Windows 95 compatibility
-WC2 works with dosbox 0.61, you need to add "loadfix" in your conf-file
-WC2 KS - for SO you also need the comp.-mode, if I remember correct.
-WC3 works under Windows XP with VDMS, but some (including me) have got bad sound - and maybe it works faster with DOSBox 0.62 ;)
-WC3 KS, like said, it doesn't run for everyone, but for most. Still no general fix for the crashes found :(
-WCP you can also use HCl's Video patch if the sound accel. thingy doesn't work (there are more out there for whom it didn't work, than most think ;) But nobody knows the real %. )
-WC P and WC SO: You can also try out the glide wrapper mentioned in some Threads to get 640x480 res in 1280x960 quality - only works well enough for modern PCs, though
 
WC3 runs under Windows XP, without any other utility (such as DosBox or VDMS).
But, like THE_WUQCKED, I experience bad sound (cuts).
 
Heck I forgot to mention Armada:
Runs in DosBox with EMS=False and Loadfix. I still got calibration problems and it is not fast enough. But it runs...
 
When is DOSBox 0.62 being released?

Edfilho said:
-WC4 CD - Runs fine as long as you apply the Win95 patch.
Click to expand...
I managed to run without the patch as well. Setting Win95 compatibility can't hurt either.

Edfilho said:
-WCP - I still need to test it. Should run in most machines with sound accell turned off.
Click to expand...
Runs absolutely beautiful with HCl's high-res patch + FMV fix. :)
 
When is DOSBox 0.62 being released?
Click to expand...
No-one knows that :( Even the authors have no idea when it's ready. But in the meantime you could try out the CVS-DOSBox versions. They are already faster than 0.61. Only downside is, you have to compile it yourself - no idea how to do that myself :(

WC3 runs under Windows XP, without any other utility (such as DosBox or VDMS).
But, like THE_WUQCKED, I experience bad sound (cuts).
Click to expand...
Have you tried out VDMS yet? It only emulates the soundcard (+some other minor dos-fixes), and maybe you are lucky and get good sound that way ;) If I don't use VDMS, I can only hear midi, but no digital sound, but guess that also depends on your soundcard ;)
 
Ah, depends on the game, I'd say. But for wc3, yes you are right ;) - it already starts with having to only make a desktop cut and not save the settings, cause it wants to save to the cd :confused: ;)
 
BTW, I wanted to add some command line parameters to my Priv 2 shortcut (things like -nointerlace) in WinXP but no luck.... I tried adding it to the shortcut and other places... Any help?
 
Could a Mod or Admin make this sticky? I think this thread might be useful because it gather info that's all over the threads.
 
There is a command line option that does the trick. but I can make command line options to work with winxp
 
I couldn't get through to the link you gave, so I found the program on sourceforge and it had a packaged installer. It's been mirrored here for anyone who wishes to download it.

Personally, I'm still working on how to use it... optimizing the CPU usage and whatnot to try to beg the movies not to skip and so on, but that's working out only fairly well.
 
Only problem with that link is, you have to register and post at least 2 posts, which I'm currently too lazy to do ;) - But maybe I'll do that in the near future :)
Btw, have you tested it yet? Did you try out WC3, too? Maybe it runs playable with it :)
 
It's not that hard to compile cvs version yourself...or I can do it for you if you are persistent enough ;)
 
I know that it shouldn't be that hard. I already wanted to do so myself. But then I noticed that I had to download some stuff to do so, which was too much for my little modem :( - And so I gave it up again. Anyway, it's not that I need it at once. I'm only interested whether it speeds up wc3 or not and whether it has better joystick support for armada or not (Btw Armada: I noticed that the Joystick setup tool runs way better in normal Windows Dos than in DOSBox - so good chances that it might inproved in newer DOSBox versions...)
 
I can say this latest (05-30-2004) is a HELL lot faster for funning Priv! ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE LAME COMPUTERS (like mine) SHOULD GET THIS.

Heck, everyone needs to get this, it has SB16 emulation! And Dynamic Core (whatever that may be) that makes things FASTER (tm).

And, C'mon, WUQKED (whatever THAT may be ;)) is it so hard for you to post twice? :D
 
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