John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon

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John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/20/2014 6:20:44 PM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

I have a Vista 64-bit laptop with 4GB memory, and I DL'd and installed both the BGCW & BGN bundles. Install went smoothly, and it successfully installed that Vista Help thingie.

I can run the launcher, and it lets me pick a scenario.

Then I get a black screen with my mouse cursor changed into a loading icon (hourglass in my case as I turned themes off).

But that is it. 5 minutes later that is still all I got. The program doesn't reach a "not responding" state per the Task Manager - it just never advances to the actual game.

I loved the BG series (especially the CW variants) and was going to buy the BGEF & BGWF as well, but if it don't work it don't work... :(

Any ideas?

Post #: 1

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/20/2014 9:40:37 PM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

I DL'd Empire at Arms and installed that game. It also required Vista-64 bit help. It runs fine, however I get no intro video. Is there a way to turn off the opening video? Maybe that is the problem with BGCW & BGN?

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 2

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/21/2014 11:21:25 AM

VPaulus

Posts: 3630
Joined: 6/23/2011
From: Portugal
Status: offline

Try to run in as administrator:

Open the folder where you've installed the game. Locate and select a file named "autorun.exe". Press the right mouse button and select "Properties". Click on the "Compatibility" tab. Tick the option "Run this program as an administrator". Click on "Apply" and "Ok". Double click on "autorun.exe" for running the game.

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 3

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/21/2014 4:20:10 PM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

Not necessary. I disabled all UAC features.

(in reply to VPaulus)

Post #: 4

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/21/2014 9:28:17 PM

VPaulus

Posts: 3630
Joined: 6/23/2011
From: Portugal
Status: offline

Please attach a DxDiag report file.

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 5

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/23/2014 5:26:37 PM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

Here ya go.

Attachment (1)

(in reply to VPaulus)

Post #: 6

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/24/2014 11:48:27 AM

VPaulus

Posts: 3630
Joined: 6/23/2011
From: Portugal
Status: offline

Regarding Empire in Arms, have you updated the game with the last patch? If not please download it from the link below:
ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/EmpiresInArms/EmpiresinArms-Update-v10807.zip
Unzip the download file and run the extracted file to update the game.
Open the folder where the game is installed and locate a file named MatrixGamesLogo.avi and copy it to Graphics\videos game folder.
It's the same video only encoded with a different video codec. Maybe your Vista will be able to play it.

Regarding JT Battlegoround, please try the following:
Open the folder where you've installed the game. Locate and select a file named "autorun.exe". Press the right mouse button and select "Properties". Click on the "Compatibility" tab. Tick the options "Disable visual themes", "Disable desktop composition" and "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings�. Click on "Apply" and "Ok". Double click on "autorun.exe" for running the game.
If this fails do the same as above but also tick the option "Run this program on compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)" in the "Compatibility" tab.

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 7

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/24/2014 10:04:05 PM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

Thank you for the assistance. :)

@EIA: Naw, my vista hates the video. But I don't really care about that. The game runs and that is my priority; I'm very content with EIA in as far as functionality goes (the dumb AI & the occasional incident where my fleet attacks my own fleet while being blockaded and trying to break out are side-issues; but maybe the patch fixed some of the CPU's silliness).

@BGCW & BGN: Unfortunately neither solution worked. If I try and run the game in any kind of compatibility mode it doesn't start at all (though it does generate an "autorun.exe" process in the task manager that I have to manually stop). I already have Vista's themes disabled by default in the Services, but I clicked it anyway. No apparent effect.

I have been mucking about trying to turn some services I disabled off to see if I disabled something that Vista needs to runt he game; but since EIA runs fine (sans intro video)then I think the Vista Help is working as intended.

I searched around to see if anyone else had a similar problem, but no dice. A very annoying situation this one is.

(in reply to VPaulus)

Post #: 8

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/26/2014 1:03:41 PM

VPaulus

Posts: 3630
Joined: 6/23/2011
From: Portugal
Status: offline

I have made a search on Matrix helpdesk and indeed there are a couple of tickets reporting a similar issue with the Battleground series.
All have in common, Windows Vista. Unfortunately we were never able to troubleshoot successfully this issue.
I have also found a post but also with no solution:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2633602

< Message edited by VPaulus -- 10/26/2014 2:04:33 PM >

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 9

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/26/2014 7:30:02 PM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

Hmmm...

Okay, well, I am going to save all my important things to my terra-drive and then restore my laptop to it's factory settings.... GAH! That will be 4-6 hours of updates just for windows I am sure... <grumble>....

On second thought, I might just buy a new computer. The Talonsoft games say they work with Windows 7 so I will try to get one of those machines. I hates Windows 8 (but will spare you the rant). Gonna need a new CPU eventually, anyway.

Thanks for your assistance.

(in reply to VPaulus)

Post #: 10

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/27/2014 12:21:54 AM

VPaulus

Posts: 3630
Joined: 6/23/2011
From: Portugal
Status: offline

IMO Windows 8 is better than Vista.
After so many years, I still have nightmares with Vista. :)

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 11

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/27/2014 1:33:48 AM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

Vista isn't so bad when you get rid of the UAC controls.

Windows 8 just totally takes away my ability to do, well, anything with my machine. My dad got it and it is terrible. All kinds of 3rd party crap on there that is a pain to get rid of, the fact they moved options that used to be in the control panel to, well, all over the place, and the fact that I honestly hate windows in general (after 3.11 for work groups) kinda turned me off 8 altogether.

However, XP was certainly better than Vista. I will upgrade to 7 - but I'll switch to Linux before I get 8.

Haven't seen 9 yet, but not hopeful.

(in reply to VPaulus)

Post #: 12

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 10/27/2014 1:47:22 AM

DeimosRuhk

Posts: 12
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline

Actually, just read an article on 9. It's crap, not gonna bother.

The trouble is, Microsoft Windows is getting farther and farther away from my needs. I don't need, or even care for UAC, Themes, charms & widgets, and whatever other gawd-awful crap they like to throw at me. I certainly don't appreciate them limiting/removing my ability to tweak my machine and altering the location of vital system control functions seemingly at random.

I don't need any of that. I use Open Office for all my documents and spreadsheets, DOSBOX covers most of my older games, and the ones it don't were covered by XP. I don't need a massive gaming machine because I prefer turn-based old-school games to the modern over-hyped junk that clogs the gaming market. I still play PBEM, tabletop, and DOS games for crying out loud.

Gah!

Should have seen me trying to figure out how to play amateur tech support for Windows 8 with my Chinese roommates. They have all their stuff in Chinese, which I don't read - and they don't speak good English. Now, i know there is a setting for changing how the languages are displayed, but good luck finding it.

Sorry, this is a big rant for me. Only about two games away from switching to Linux as is. Only thing holding me back is the fact I am getting to old to be learning new operating systems. Just discouraging and too time intensive. But Microsoft is really pushing it after Windows 8.

Okay... I went totally off-topic. I am done. :)

I'll let you know if restoring my system or switching to Windows 7 fixes the problem. On the other hand, I have an old 1 GB decktop that runs XP in my closet... that should be able to run BGCW & BGN.... hmmm...

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 13

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 11/3/2014 1:46:54 PM

HappyHedonist

Posts: 36
Joined: 6/16/2010
Status: offline

Ubuntu is easy to use. The only thing you'd have to really learn is the bash shell. It installs easier than Windows and once you've spent some time with it, everything just makes sense. Nothing is hidden under the hood. It's the most intuitive OS I've used. I just switched recently on my main desktop and it's absolutely fantastic. I haven't messed with wine much but I'm assuming it would be easy to set up games like JTS, WITE, and several other matrix games. I too am about 3-4 games from switching to linux full time. At the moment I use windows as a run time environment for my wargames

If you have the time and interest in switching, Learning the shell is a great place to start. The author also has a book which is a great.

The desktop that Ubuntu defaults to is great. If you've even used a mac you'll probably adapt quickly. As a long time Windows user, it took me a day to adjust. Also, your never too old! :) Maybe strapped for time, but never too old. I'm just getting into amateur radio and I'm not a young guy myself.

I for one would love to see some linux versions of more Matrix games. I really wish the WITW devs would plan one.

< Message edited by Happy Hedonist -- 11/3/2014 3:12:25 PM >

(in reply to DeimosRuhk)

Post #: 14

RE: John Tiller's Civil War & Napoleon - 11/8/2014 7:23:09 AM

zakblood

Posts: 22687
Joined: 10/4/2012
Status: offline

no such thing as 9 anyway, it's windows 10, and it will be windows 8.1 with some added bits on, and windows 8.1 so far for gaming is rock steady and have as much support for gamers as any other o/s today, and i loved win xp sp3 tbh....

so either join the bandwagon on win8.1 or not, but win 10 will be better, beta's out for all those who wish to try it, i did, and love it...