windows xp

timmy_otoole · March 24, 2003, 00:45

I have installed SMAX, the latest patch, and the windows 2000/xp and I stilll can not play the game with my windows XP system. I continue to get the "CPU is not supported message". I have tried using the preferences in the forums for the alpha centauri.ini file to no avail. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Tim

Static Universe · March 24, 2003, 01:36

Welcome timmy_otoole!

When you say "the preferences in the forums for the alpha centauri.ini", do you mean that you changed the value of ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm to 1?

Read the following thread if this makes no sense to you:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=74934

Archaic · March 24, 2003, 03:22

Even if you get the CPU not supported message, you can still play the game so long as you've got all the latest patches, etc.

timmy_otoole · March 24, 2003, 12:04

Static Universe, yes I have tried changing changed the value of ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm to 1.

Archaic , I have applied all the latest patches. Both the culmative smacxpv2.exe and the Windows 2000/XP compatibility patch. In that order. This was after doing a fresh complete install.

Googlie · March 24, 2003, 17:24

Silly question, but can't you just select "OK" and continue anyway when you get the CPU unsupported message?

That's what I do, (for over a year now with win XP) with nary a problem

G.

Verrucosus · March 25, 2003, 09:18

I was able to run SMAC on my WinXP system after changing the VoxelAlgorithm line. The CPU-message still appeared, but after clicking OK the game worked as normal. Nothing changed in that regard when I added the compatibility patch last weekend.

I've got a question about the patch, though. I applied it to my classic SMAC game (v4), but the readme.file now includes references to SMAX. I did not check in detail, but from a short test game (50 turns or so) I get the impression that maintenance costs now are what they should be on Transcend level. I was rather surprised at that, because Firaxis advised against applying the patch unless there were problems with WinXP. Has anyone here checked yet?

Also, can the patch be applied to the Planetary Pack (which I have also installed, but rarely use, because I like the classic version better)?

Regards,
Verrucosus

Archaic · March 25, 2003, 10:59

Quote:

Originally posted by timmy_otoole
Archaic , I have applied all the latest patches. Both the culmative smacxpv2.exe and the Windows 2000/XP compatibility patch. In that order. This was after doing a fresh complete install.

Yes, I know. I was referring to what Flubber just mentioned.

And yes Verrucosus, the patch can be applied to the PP (That's what I did). All the PP is is just SMAC v4 with SMAX v2 all in the same box.

Rubin · March 26, 2003, 21:03

Oh my! If what you tell is true, Verrucosus, that the maintenance costs are fixed on transcend.... ooh my!

That would indeed be fortune looking my way!

If it's confirmed I'll switch to WinXP just to play a less buggy SMAC...

Frankychan · March 26, 2003, 21:52

hmmm, I'm running SMAC on WinXP with my notebook and I get a message that's all garbled. I just pick the button on the left and it lets me play the game just fine.

So long as the game works I'm o.k.

Static Universe · March 27, 2003, 03:57

Quote:

Originally posted by Rubin
Oh my! If what you tell is true, Verrucosus, that the maintenance costs are fixed on transcend.... ooh my!

What's all this about maintenance costs and the XP patch?

Rubin · March 27, 2003, 06:59

Well, Static, if the XP patch fixes the maintenace bug on thinker and transcend levels in SMAC, you could consider the patch to be a hidden SMACv5-patch!!!

As I learned when I first visited apolyton: maintenance costs on these levels are 2/3 and 1/3 the normal costs, hence the F3 screen calculations are terribly wrong... (and besides, these difficulties are not as difficult, at all!) I guess you already know about this.

But if Verrucosus' experiences with the XP patch are confirmed, well... it seems that this maintenance bug is fixed in the XP patch!!! Now, how about that!?!

Hope my 'all jumpy' comment makes sense now...

Verrucosus · March 27, 2003, 07:21

I must say I'm pretty excited about this myself. Last night I tested it again. I started a game on Transcend level under classic SMAC v4. In MY 2160, I had 120 energy credits. The F3 screen revealed a faction-wide budget surplus of +4 credits. I'm sorry I didn't make records about the exact maintenance costs. After saving the game and ending the turn, I started MY 2161 with 126 energy credits. No build orders were finished and no population growth occured in that turn and the F3 screen still revealed a budget surplus of +4. I then quit and started the SMAC version of the Planetary Pack to which I had applied the compatibility patch. I loaded the MY 2160 file that I had saved under classic SMAC. After checking that the F3 screen still showed the budget surplus at +4 credits, I just ended the turn and at the beginning of MY 2161 I had 124 energy credits as I was supposed to. To me, this seems pretty conclusive, but knowing how easy it is to overlook little details, I'd really appreciate it, if someone else could check as well.

On a sidenote, after applying the compatibility patch to the Planetary Pack, the "show version" entry in the help menu shows "Version 5.0" for SMAC, but still "Version 2.0" for SMAX.

Well, hope I did not mess up somewhere, so I look forward to hearing from others about this. I still worry that if this were really the transfer of the SMAX fixes to SMAC that many here had hoped and begged for, you'd think Firaxis would probably have advertised their good deed a little bit more. Of course, so far, we've only discussed maintenance costs. Can you imagine a reliable Morganite Golden Age boom under SMAC?

Regards,
Verrucosus (keeping his fingers crossed)

timmy_otoole · April 2, 2003, 11:18

Googlie, I have tried clicking yes to the, "do you want to play anyway?", but SMAX just quits to the desktop.

Here is something more odd. I can get SMAC to run if I *don't* apply any patches or updates at all. As soon as I apply any patches or updates, I get the "don't support this CPU" message. Though SMAC is fun, I would prefer to get SMAX to run correctly.

Verrucosus · April 3, 2003, 08:48

That's weird, timmy_o'toole. I don't have the original SMAX expansion, but the Planetary Pack. There was a startup screen where I could choose between SMAC and SMAX, and the game would quit (even before the CPU-message) whenever I chose SMAX. Eventually I evaded that problem by linking my desktop icon directly to the terranx.exe file. Could you try something similar?

I have no idea if this can help in your case, but it was the only thing I could think of. By the way, I just realised I temporarily hijacked your thread with my question about the XP-patch. Sorry about that.

Regards,
Verrucosus

timmy_otoole · April 9, 2003, 00:09

No worries, Verrucosus. I appreciate your suggestions. If you can think of anything else to try, please let me know.

Sikander · April 9, 2003, 02:57

Quote:

Originally posted by timmy_otoole
Googlie, I have tried clicking yes to the, "do you want to play anyway?", but SMAX just quits to the desktop.

Here is something more odd. I can get SMAC to run if I *don't* apply any patches or updates at all. As soon as I apply any patches or updates, I get the "don't support this CPU" message. Though SMAC is fun, I would prefer to get SMAX to run correctly.

This is what worked for me. I loaded both games, and then applied only the SMACX patch, with no SMAC or XP patches. It worked. This was of course after trying like hell to get the game to work with both the SMAC and SMACX patches. I don't play much plain SMAC, so I can live with this. I haven't tried the XP patch at all, it wasn't out when I got this machine, and it isn't recommended unless you are having problems.

jhous · April 9, 2003, 08:41

I had the same problem (new system, new pentium P4, WinXP). I applied all the patches including the "ini" file fix and it didn't help.

What worked for me was applying the "no CD" crack (the one that allows you to play the game [Alien Crossfire] without a CD in the drive.

You still get the CPU error message but now you can say "okay" and it will proceed with the game (before it just dumped me back to the desktop).

Alien Crossfire has the "Safedisc" protection on it (that's what requires you to have the CD in the player). Get one of the safedisc remover programs (I used "Safedisc Annihilator.....it's free, readily available and easy to use....do a "Google" search for it).

Good luck.

JoeK · May 23, 2003, 22:33

I just purchased an Alienware notebook computer (Pentium4 2.5GHz, 512MB, WinXP Pro) and upon installing Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire, I too am getting this CPU error. I too press "OK" but the game still aborts.

Is this no CD crack the only way to get it to work?

Thanks,
Joe.

JoeK · May 23, 2003, 23:11

Never mind. I solved it using the tips from this thread plus an extra Google search finding this site: http://galileo.spaceports.com/~dreifels/stuff01.html

* I installed the Alien Crossfire patch.
* I uninstalled the WinXP Compatability (I had installed it prior to reading this thread).
* I set ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 in the Alpha Centauri.ini file.
* I opened Alien Crossfire from the terranx.exe (rather than the shortcut installed in the Start Menu).
* I said "OK" to the CPU error message.

This combination worked for me, and hopefully they will work for anyone else with this problem.

Joe.

Archaic · June 17, 2003, 12:08

And here I am with a similar problem now. I could play the game fine earlier today, but for some reason I can't fathom, it won't work now. I'm going through the following and hoping it'll work.

1) Uninstall XP Patch
2) Uninstall Planetary Pack
3) Check C:\windows\ for any file still remaining there (SMAC*.*, Alpha*.*, Firax*.*, etc), and delete
4) Kill all SMAC and SMAX related entries in the registry
5) Reboot, run Registry Cleaner from j16 Power Tools, and run other system cleaning related programs to try and get the best possible base to install from
6) Reboot again, and install of CD
7) Reboot, and install XP patch
8) Set .ini file for ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
9) Try and run the games from their executable files.

Archaic · June 17, 2003, 13:03

Didn't work. =/

Got errors trying to run both SMAC and SMAX before and after the Compatability Patch / No CD Patch, with ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 already set. I'm assuming I need to edit something else in my ini, but what? And if not in the ini.....in the registry? =/

Before
AppName: terran.icd AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: ff50f045

AppName: terranx.icd AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: ff50f045

After
AppName: terran.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: ff50f045

AppName: terranx.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: ff50f045

Archaic · June 18, 2003, 03:20

Fix found. I had Advanced Text Services turned on globally to allow me to type in Japanese in certain programs that wouldn't normally support Unicode. I had to manually disable that for these two programs. Once that was done, everything worked again.