Problem to start the Dos Version of MoO2 under XP...

[FidelSmith]

... in general, and MoO2 1.40b2.1 at special.

Hi! After Playing my favorite Game for years alone against the computer and after some very disapointing LAN Parties with a extreemly unstable MoO2 Win version, i was very happy to see, that it has become possible to play it on the Net. (And that there are still some other hardcore MoO2 fans on this planet...) Unfortunatly, the fakt that the Dos version of MoO2 is used in the internet has become a problem for me. All actions in order to get the DOS MoO2 running have all failed. Hopefully that that someone here has an Idea what else i could try, i'm going to post some relevant system parameters an all actions i still have taken.

System:
P4-2.6
512MB Ram
Radeon 9600 TX
Win XP Sp 2.

Whats already happen...
1. i tried to install the Dos Version by using the Install exe from the MoO2 CD. (As it was supposed to happen in several Forums...) The main problem occurs even there.
The Problem itself is, that starting the Orion Install.Exe or any other Dos related File from MoO2 leads to an black Screan. fortunatly in this situation i'm still abel to end the Task but sometimes some strange Graphik effekts happens after ending the Tasks, making a reboot necesary.

2. Using the Dos Emulator "Dosbox" enabeled me to install MoO2 by the Dos Install routine. However MoO2 runs smoth and nice in "Dosbox" (after some tuning). Obviosly, knowing the Fact, that the "Dosbox" has no opportunity to use any Internet or Lan protocols, a emulated Dos MoO2 has no value for my quest to an Multiplayer able MoO2.

3. After installig the 1.31 and 1.40b21 Patch, i tried to start MoO2 and it does not work. (Black Screen). I (and a friend of mine) Hoped that disableing the 3d components of the graficcard could solve the Problem. Unfortunatly this helped not the slightest bit.

4. Next i tried some compatibily Modes of Win XP. Neither the Win95 nor the Win 98/me mode worked.

5. Finding in the Internet - where my problem seams to be a singularity and where is often written that using MoO2 under XP is no problem - a other old Dos Programm creating simulary failures. Duke Nukem 3d. On the HP of one of its developers the Programm Nolfb.exe whitch fixes this Problem for D3D... unfortunatly for MoO2 it doesn't...

6. In an Act of despair we decided, that perhaps updating my old XP Sp1 to XP sp 2 could fix this problem. After 3 Hours updating SP 2 has fixed some other minor problems but not the major Problem, starting a MoO2 related Dos file creates a black Screen.

So, you are my last Hope! And the Last hope of Billions of Klackons i used to command, motivated to conquer the Galaxy...

[Cabman]

http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2004 ... 9255475969
This link should help you. (i'm not sure if copy and paste the link will work . but first of all you should install Kali. If you do that join the MOO2 server (138 actually). And you'll be supported online

[siron]

Hi Fidel!

(Cabman, we should be happy that he uses this forum here )

In fact, your problem is not completely unknown. (f.e. here)

IMHO it is not related to your XP but to your video card.

(I remember 5-6 players who had same problem with your or similar ATI Radeon card.)

Also LB refers to this problem in his instructions:

http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/01/ ... 40-on.html

If your video does not appear to be functioning at this point, you will not be able to play the DOS version of the game (unless you can find compatable video drivers).

So, try the latest drivers.

But sadly this rarely helps.....

Dunno if LB has some further hint in the meanwhile....

....but it looks like.....try different video card....or mebbe vpc (see link above).

[ALEX|D]

black screen

Black Screen with blinking cursor in top left ? or without blinking cursor ?

[Lord Brazen]

Many people with the ATI video cards experience problems with DOS mode games unfortunately.

System:
P4-2.6
512MB Ram
Radeon 9600 TX
Win XP Sp 2.

I personally have a ATI Radeon 7000 Series video card. I had some problems at first with ATI's video drivers in XP. Everything worked fine in Windows 98 but not XP. It took them about a year to release a driver that seemed to work for me. I had all sorts of problems with Moo2 ranging from scrambled video to completely blank screen.

Currently I am using this driver (display driver properties). I cant remember which specific version of catalyst I downloaded...

Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
Driver Date: 2/22/2005
Driver Version: 6.14.10.6517

As I recall, I had to uninstall / reinstall each version of the catalyst drivers until I found one that worked for me. It took hours.

Unfortunately DOSBox does not support the method Moo2 uses to access the IPX stack. You wont be able to play LAN games with DOSBox.

As an alternative, you can play Moo2 LAN games through MS VirtualPC. It works fine on XP even if your video driver is not up to snuff. You just need to install win98 or DOS/IPX as a guest OS. I'll probably post an article on my blog in the near future about LAN and Kali games via VirtualPC. I was using this method for over a year and have had good experiences with it.

Also, you could install a second OS on you machine. Maybe just a plain Free DOS partition with DOS IPX installed. I'm sure you could play via LAN in this mode without any problems. Moo2 would have direct access to the video card and then things would work without trouble.

There are many ways to get this to work. The problem is the ATI video drivers for XP....

[PK]

There is a hope for you if all drivers, tweaks and dosboxes will fail. Hope is called VIRTUAL PC and you can download a 45 day trial from microsoft or other companies in internet. VPC created independent PC in your local lan. On my VPC I insttalled windows98. Dont worry with radeon there - it wont be even detected - just some other default card for VPC use. Copy moo2 there and run good old game like never before! From window mode you can switch it to full screen and it works GREAT! I did it, so can you! If you got more questions just write here or mail me czysciciel@op.pl

Good luck to Klackons!

[OzzyKP]

I"m having issues too. The game used to work great for me, but for the last year or so I haven't been able to get it to work.

I tried the 1.31 patch, and I tried the 1.4 patch. They helped, but the game still doesn't work.

THe win version just shows a black screen, and the dos plays the intro movie and then crashes, and if i hit a key when its playing it crashes then too.

I don't care about MP (yet), I just want to get the singleplayer game working. And I don't want to have to do something drastic like install a new opperating system or video card or something.

[PK]

"And I don't want to have to do something drastic like install a new opperating system or video card or something."

You can install virtaul PC and on this pc a win98 controlled station. Game will work find. Otherwise changing a video drivers or a system or maybe game cos of corrupted files may be nessesary!

[BlackThunder]

The install.exe nor the orion2.exe (or 1.4) run. they both start a dos window then closes instantlly.
I changed the default so the window won't close, and they are blank.
I have no real problem running other dos games or installs (of course there are sound glitches/etc but nothing like what I'm experiencing with moo2)

I have a 1.9G AMD, 512 RAM, On board Nvidia graphics card
win XP Pro with Hebrew support (but it's in English) SP1

hope you can help...

[TerminatorII]

Get sp2 for XP It makes dos emulation more stablr also try running it through DosBox

A note I can run MOOII fine under XP as long as I do not minimize the game. If I minimize it, the next time I close it it locks up my comp.

[ALEX|D]

Get sp2 for XP It makes dos emulation more stablr also try running it through DosBox

I tested MoO2 via dosbox
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

It runs very slow and I couldnt play online via dosbox !

A note I can run MOOII fine under XP as long as I do not minimize the game. If I minimize it, the next time I close it it locks up my comp.

Hmm u run MoO2, u alt-tab out, and the u go back to orion process and then u need to reboot ? Or just the moo2 process is gone ?

I´m able to minimize the game, but only sometimes in 5% of cases it freeze. I have no clue, why it sometimes freeze and why not ... !


@BLACKTHUNDER

I changed the default so the window won't close, and they are blank.

I had the same problem.

viewtopic.php?t=181

I have the following solution for u :

1) Save ur data and install Win XP new.
2) After install progress is finished, install moo2, if it runs fine go to win "help and support" and set a system-recovery-point (I translatet it, from german it is "system" + "wiederherstellung" systemwiederherstellung).
http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?la ... dlink=self
3) Then install the drivers, look after every driver u install if moo2 runs. So u will know what moo2 deranges. If u found it, reinstall the driver. If the reinstallation fails, go again to "help and support" and load the system-recovery-point. Dont install the deranging driver again !

4) If moo2 doesnt run fine after step 1) I would download another moo2 version. I´ll give u a link via PM. If it runs with the new other version goto step 3)

5) If step 4) fails, I would look for another videocard, if that fails, I would guess u have incompatible moo2-dos-version hardware ! Go and look for another mainboard or change the whole PC ... !

[TerminatorII]

Actually alt tab does nothing so I just use the windoes button on my keyboard. the first time everything works great, but If the game minimizes, or closes after that I see my desktop with no Icons and then after 2 minuets or so It reboots the comp. I think it is kinda wierd, also I never had this problem until I applied the 1.3 patch from your Blog.

[Brent15]

Fortunately, I have seen absolutely no adverse affects of using my Windows button to minimize the game. Not even a single crash. Works great if I need to message somebody to see if they crashed, but most of the other players can't respond without closing MOO.

[TerminatorII]

Now if only we all were able to do that....

[Grig de Griz]

Use Virtual Machines - "Virtual PC" or "VMware Workstation", you will not have any problems under any operating system or hardware.

Because thus you works in natural DOS. It is possible even to play in a window mode in Windows.

Links:
Virtual PC - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc
VMware Workstation - http://www.vmware.com