So I was reading this thread, and thought I would reminisce a little with some Syndicate Wars. So I installed it, configured sound (all went smoothly, I might add) and then foolishly ran the game exe without even thinking about possible horrors that might lie ahead...

But everything went okay. The game loaded, sound was crackly but understandable, and everything looked the way it should. However, when I got into the first level, everything was moving extremely fast. I'd say at least 30x the rate it was supposed to be running at. But, I've seen this problem in many a DOS game running under XP before, so off to set compatibility and tweak the needed options. A task that did not go well..

I set Windows 95 compatibility, run in 256 colors, etc. And loaded the game again. It loaded fine, just like before, but still everything was moving exceedingly fast. So I closed it, and went back to tweaking.

This time, I decided to set Win98 compatibility, and change a few other options. Oh, what a mistake that was. On trying to load it again, it just stopped dead on a blank screen. Not good. Any keyboard shortcut I tried failed to work. After about 2-3 minutes of button mashing, the desktop suddenly appeared. I could see everything, all looked fine, however I could move the mouse cursor, but I couldn't click on anything. Actually, only a few buttons on the keyboard had any effect. I managed to get Syndicate to close, and decided to try tweaking the options again, and give it another go... Also a bad idea. I got a prompt that said my virtual memory was low, and windows was now going to increase my virtual memory size. I don't quite understand that a 6 year old game could possibly be using almost 1.5GB of virtual memory, but stranger things have happened. Anyways, after the bit with the virtual memory issue, I got a prompt saying that cmd.exe could not be accessed, and the main.exe was trying to access a file that was missing or corrupted. I clicked Close, and of course, everything went black and funky looking. Yay. Restart time. I tried it again. Same deal. Virtual memory and main.exe error. I restarted again, but I thought I'd try something new. So I uninstalled, reinstalled, reconfigured, and loaded up the game. This time the screen resolution in Windows changed to 320x240, which was absolutely horrific to look at, and all the colors went funky. Syndicate then loaded a few seconds later, and of course, didn't get passed a black screen. Then I got the virtual memory thing again, the game closed, and instead of the black funkyness, the screen just stayed in 320x240 with the funky colors. Eww. So I slapped the restart button, and prepared to try again. Well, I did, with a few minor tweaks to the settings, and, well, exactly the same thing happened. 320x240 with funky colors. This time, I just switched the resolution back, but the colors didn't change. Well, all I had to do was reload a pre-saved desktop setup. Well.. that wasn't as easy as I thought. I reloaded the desktop setup, and all the menus, taskbar, and windows went black. Slapped the restar button once more, and that seemed to fix everything. I did a bit of searching and found a link to a page that apparently had specific info for getting Syndicate Wars to run under XP, however it was a 404.

So, now I'm sitting here, a little pissed off, a tad confused, and generally at a loss as to why any of that crap happened. Windows can do some REALLY crazy things sometimes. Yikes.

------------------
"When all else fails, eat pie."
-¬thoughts from beyond observance

[This message has been edited by Jin (edited December 30, 2003).]

XP + DOS games/programs = slow (for me)

------------------
Snail racing: (500 posts per line)
----@%

XP + GTA2 = 2 seconds to get from one end of the city to the other end.. on foot.

------------------
Map-Review | Digital Core | The Matrix: Unplugged

Farewell, MaDaVentor. In our hearts, you'll always live on.

Takes me liek 2 hours with XP for me




------------------
Happy "Diseased" dud: You said I'd be like this guy. Boycotting everything..
Happy "Diseased" dud: ted kazcnisky. That's who it was.
Happy "Diseased" dud: Wait, That's the unibomer.
Happy "Diseased" dud: Wrong guy.

It has been done.

I allways have allot of fun getting the origional System shock running in Windows 2k, ive done it a fiew times, but i allways forget what I do to get it running...

------------------
"Well, if I am not drunk, I am mad, but I trust I can behave like a gentleman in either
condition."... G. K. Chesterton

Look on SourceForge for a program called DosBox.

It's ran every DOS game I've tried with it so far(though I've only tried like 5).

Wow. You REALLY wanted to play a DOS game. I would have given up.

------------------
"The Oracle told me I would die with my boots on. I've worn tennis shoes ever since." - Axis

Maybe this could help you.

Info about it is here

------------------
"Hass, alkoss, gyarapíts: s a haza fényre derûl!"

-Kölcsey Ferenc

[This message has been edited by Terra111 (edited December 30, 2003).]

DOSBox is fine for small DOS games, but for the more complex ones its not that great. Since it must emulate DOS, its rather slow. I haven't tried it on my new computer though, so it might be different.

------------------
Massassian since: March 12, 2001

[=-"The hardest thing is to forgive, but God does;
Even if you murdered or robbed, years wrong, but God loves;
Take one step toward him, he takes two toward you;
Even when all else fail, God supports you." - Nas-=]

[This message has been edited by Sol (edited December 30, 2003).]

Kill Bill!!! (Gates)

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

On my 3 GHz P4, it's been able to easily handle STTNG: A Final Unity(although the game crashes at one point for some unknown reason), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Castles 2, LOTR Vol 1, and a few others I've tried.

I'd try Tie Fighter but I have no idea where my disks are and I don't feel like hunting for it anywhere, heh.

[This message has been edited by Darth (edited December 30, 2003).]