Added compatibility for a 16 bit game on a 32 bit XP

Added compatibility for a 16 bit game on a 32 bit XP the game is 11 years old

#1 Surma

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Posted 04 January 2010 - 04:31 PM

I have this game called Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It usually works just fine.
Recently i found a bunch of patches for it, including a patch for added XP compatibility. The only problem with that patch is that once installed, the game wont run any more. I get a popup saying "Your cpu is not supported. You may attempt to play the game anyway; however, crashes are possible". I get this anyway, even before all the patches (although i couldnt se the actual text, just two buttons). One of the bigger patches requires you to run a different exe to start the program. That one doesnt work at all.

So i guess the real question here is if it is somehow possible to emulate another processor which the game is built for, because even though its 11 years old i consider it to be better than several modern turn-based strategy games, including Civilisation 3 and 4.

---My computer---
Manufacturer:HP Pavilion 061 CPU:Intel Pentium 4 640, 3200 MHz (16 x 200) RAM: 1024MB Motherboard:Asus PTGD1-LA Chipset:Intel Grantsdale i915P HDD:Main256GB Ext512GB Video:Radeon X600 Series Internet:DSL 2mb/s OS:Windows XP Home Edition SP3 Firefox+IExplorer AVG Internet Security

#2 BlackSpyder

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Posted 04 January 2010 - 04:59 PM

Alpha Centuari was a good game. Possibly DOSBox would work (though i can't remember the system requirements of the game). If it did you'd have to reinstall the game inside of DOSBox along with all the patches.

#3 ReviverSoft

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Posted 04 January 2010 - 07:56 PM

Quote

Hey Colin
Try the following, on your C drive open Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid
Meiers' Alpha Cetauri.
Open the Alpha Centauri.ini File contained in this folder and change
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0 to
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 (in the preferences section)
Save the change you have made and then try running the game.

Hope that helps you

--
Mark Salloway
Windows MVP

Does this help?

ReviverSoft - Happy to help!

#4 Surma

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Posted 05 January 2010 - 06:11 AM

BlackSpyder: I presume i should find it through google
Edit: This program can't be run in DOS mode

RevierSoft: Nope, already tried that.

Unpatched, the game works perfectly, but if i:
A: Installs the XP patch the game wont function, likely because of cpu incompatibility, which was not a problem before.
B: Attempt to use the big patch which adds game features like an alien race, abilities and more, which is used by running a different program, substantially smaller than the original (original is 2,79 MB, add on is 243 KB). What happens then is that it cant detect the CD through the expansion exe (i have done a complete install and i have tried having the disc in).

I can point out that the game is installed under Programs, but the expansion was unzipped to program files. I copied the contents of the C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games folder to C:\Program\Firaxis Games folder as well as the other way around (the first mentioned task was done first so that any patched or replaced files were the updated version in both folders).

Anyway, il try DOSBox.

This post has been edited by Surma: 05 January 2010 - 06:54 AM