Running Terra Nova on a modern machine

[garethhinds]

Service Pack 1. I hear too many bad things about 2.

Well, I probably won't be able to play through under these conditions, but I can at least tool around a bit for old times' sake, and show the game to my friends. Thanks!


G

[Drat]

Edit: Never mind, I just saw in another topic a reference to such a problem. The solution appears to be the Vesafix thing.

Edit: Did the trick, well and truly.

I'm trying to run the demo on my windows 98/DOS machine. In 98 the whole system freezes up, and in DOS, the game exits after a few seconds with a page fault.

It can't have anything to do with audio as it does it even with sound and music disabled. Any ideas? If you need the readout, you'll have to wait, as I am posting on the same machine right now, and it won't be offline for quite some time.

[TheGreatGodPan]

I can't even install it. It says it won't run in Win 95 (even though it's XP) and that it will go to DOS, but my XP computer doesn't have DOS so it does nothing. I've tried running it from command, but it won't work there either. I put it on my old Win 95 computer, but it did the same thing from Windows, and when I tried installing it from DOS it said it doesn't work from DOS! I tried going to that website with VDMSound or whatever, but the mirror I tried wouldn't work, I think I'll try another though.
Edit: I downloaded & installed VDMSound & nolfb, but when I right click on stuff, I don't get the option, so nothing has changed.

[Sensen]

I've seen all this stuff you've all written, and I gotta say, I'm an idiot. Most of it doesn't make sense to me, and some of it is out of date. The page that Fitgerald linked to is down, and that seems to be the way that was most often successful.

As it is, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about running Dos games in DosBox. I've had success getting Xcom: Enemy Unknown running very well. I simply installed Dosbox and D-fend, and they run hand in hand to get my Xcom working very very nice.
Anyone know how to get TN running with these?

[Dayrth]

You can get VDMSound from Here, and yes DosBox will run Terra Nova.

[Shadowcat]

Most of it doesn't make sense to me, and some of it is out of date.

For the latter, I'd argue that it's hard to be out of date when the game in question is older still. Unless you mean that there's not enough data for current systems, which may possibly be true, but I can't help there unless people with modern systems (which does not include myself) have success and tell us about it.

For the former... well it would help if you described your problem. Obviously you can't get the game to run, but if we're to have a shot at helping we need to know your Windows version and hardware specs (CPU, RAM, Video card & drivers, Sound card and drivers), along with the error messages or events that are happening when you try to run the game.

The page that Fitzgerald linked to is down

From earlier in this thread? It's working for me right now (both the link to another TTLG thread, and the subsequent link and file download from another site).

As it is, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about running Dos games in DosBox. I've had success getting Xcom: Enemy Unknown running very well. [...] Anyone know how to get TN running with these?

So what actually happened when you tried this? Again, you need to give information if you wish to get help.

[okayman]

Dear Guys, I love Terra Nova so much. I bought an old Pentium II-366 last week just for this game.

Yes, it doesn't work straight away in modern machines and I've tried the following, hope to give you guys some info.

Terra Nova works under Windows XP without any extra drivers, not even DOS drivers, VDMSound, VESA fix stuff. None.

- I installed Windows XP with SP2 and installing TN and just worked, no extras needed, with sound and no slow down of videos.

I used FAT32 (32GB!!) and NTFS, but they all seemed to work.

So in this process, I know that it's not the operating system that is interfereing TN from working, it's totally about the hardware.

From the past, I experience "CPU too fast", "Video drivers not supporting 16-bit apps" and "Harddisk too large to handle (which give a negative size, you might have experienced", etc.

I can't conclude, but I suspect that it may be 2 things:

1. CPU too fast (or maybe Pentium 4 architecture / instruction codes are different...)
2. If you sound card and video cards in the "System Properties" showing "Legacy Audio Device" / "Legacy Video Capture Device", this is one of the elements that make it work.
3. Hardware-wise, the video card and sound card does not support 16 bit apps, without the help of 3rd party drivers such as VDM Sound, etc.

I'll try more but it's quite time consuming. But I'll try and let you know.

Cya.

[Shadowcat]

Thanks muchly for the information, okayman... interesting indeed. People certainly do seem to have a variety of experiences with WinXP!

So in this process, I know that it's not the operating system that is interfereing TN from working, it's totally about the hardware.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who has tried such a set-up. I suspect very few people ever install WinXP on such an old system.

I'll try more but it's quite time consuming. But I'll try and let you know.

Well many thanks for this and any further information you are able to offer. It's greatly appreciated.

Incidentally, you sound like the sort of dedicated Centauri Clansman who ought to read this thread :)

[okayman]

Yes, I am. I have actually wrote to Looking Glass Technologies (before they went down) about the idea of having a multiplayer Terra Nova because my friend and I had a very good experience when playing the only single player version 8 years ago on Pentium 166 machines. Was so cool.

But they had mentioned that sales were not good and discontinued the line. It's also bad that later I heard them broke.

Anyway, my father-in-law is using Pentium 2-333MHz with XP on. He's almost 60 years old now and he doesn't care much about speed. So, XP on old machine is ok and it worked.

Ironically, it is much difficult to install Windows 98 SE on new machines as it is much harder to find the relevant Sound and Video drivers. Also new chipset drivers are difficult to make Windows 98 SE work properly.

Well, I'll keep trying. But doesn't seem good because I tried to disable Sound in Terra Nova setup and when it starts, it goes blank.

I'm now trying to set up a proper Windows 98 SE and then use MoSlo or similar CPU slow down utilities. Se if it's because CPU floating point too high and fast that creates an overflow, at least I suspect this is the main problem as I have mentioned previously. I'll make a controlled test, like we used to do it the science labs.

Will keep you guys posted.

[okayman]

Summary of tests (all with English version OS and Video and Sound drivers are correctly installed, all with DirectX 9.0c installed):

1. FAILED - On my desktop Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 1Gb RAM, Windows XP SP2. I got nothing. No errors, just blank like nothing has started and back to DOS prompt. Tried Mo'Slo to slow down to 10% speed (appox 280MHz) still get the same result.

2. FAILED - On my desktop Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 1Gb RAM, Windows 98 SE. I got a "Page Fault" and a crash code "429........" a long number. Tried Mo'Slo to slow down to 10% speed (appox 280MHz) still get the same result.

3. FAILED - On my wife's notebook Panasonic Pentium M 1.2GHz, 512Mb RAM, Windows XP SP2. I got a "Divide Overflow" but no crash code.

4. FAILED - On my old notebook IBM T40 Pentium III 650MHz, 384Mb RAM, Windows XP SP1. I got a "Page Fault" and a crash code "429......."

5. FAILED - On my old notebook IBM T40 Pentium III 650MHz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE. I got a "Page Fault" and a crash code "429......"

6. SUCCESS - On my very old notebook IBM TP600E Pentium II 366MHz, 128Mb RAM, Windows XP SP2. No flaws, no slow down, with proper Sound and Video. No problem.

7. SUCCESS - On IBM TP600E Pentium II 366MHz, 128Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE. No flaws, no slow down, with proper Sound and Video. No problem.

What I suspect is really the CPU architecture and speed. Terra Nova was built during the Pentium 66 period and as far as I know, Pentium II is built on the base of the original Pentium PRO. There is no problem with MMX being added. But then Pentium III added MMX and SSE. Pentium 4 is almost a different architecture with has MMX, SSE and SSE2, which handles differently the floating point instructions.

So I suspect it's the architecture that made TN work or not.

Of course, if you use emulators, they emulate mainly the "processors" and environments.... then TN will work.

These are all my input, I think I have an idea of what will work and what will not now. I'll keep on trying but I really have run out of computer configs. And it takes a lot of time to set up.

Felix

[Shadowcat]

Awesome work, Felix. Thank you again for your efforts!

As Gareth said previously in this thread, "I was at LG at the time and I have an idea how much hackery went into it, so I'm surprised it works at all" :)

[Comp_Lex]

ey,

I'm new here, I'm from Holland and my English isn't very good (so don't be harsh on me, please), but I hope that you guys can help me out.

Ok, this is my hardware and OS:

Processor: Pentium II-MMX 266 MHz.
Memory: 128 MB
Soundcard: AWE-32
graphicscard: Geforce 2 MX 100/200
Operating System: Win 98 Second Edition (I had 1st edition but I don't have it anymore)

I haven't play TN for a while, but I found the CD back and I thought maybe it still runs, but it didn't. I do remember that it worked with Win98 1st edition, but I bought SE, because it was more compatible with stuff, but TN doesn't work anymore.

The things I did:

The first time I installed TN it said: "Can't find movies" (or something like that). I realised that there was a problem with CD-ROM drivers. I still have a floppy that contains DOS IDE drivers. So I installed that and I came across another problem: "Page fault". But when I run the game from DOS it said: "Mouse not found!Crash error...) So I installed MS mousedrivers and now I'm stuck with the following problem: I only see a bunch of "dots". No intro movie, no sound... nothing. Do you guys know how to fix this? Is there a problem with my graphicscard?

Maybe I haven't looked good enough, but I only see solutions for XP.

[Shadowcat]

Terra Nova runs successfully under Win98SE, so that is unlikely to be your problem. You can in fact copy the CD contents to a directory on your hard drive, and install the game from there to avoid booting to DOS (you may also have to edit the .pif files to prevent the machine rebooting to DOS automatically, although in fact I found this to be a necessary step during installation only with my old video card... I think your GF2 should be fine, however). Failing everything else, you can also create a DOS boot disk (see the start of this thread).

I suggest NOT letting it build a UniVBE driver when it asks, as this caused problems for me under Windows.

The +BADLINMODES option might help, as could the Vesafix program (and again, see the start of this thread for more details on those).

[heinz_3]

The 1 mission Demo worked on XP with VDM Sound. Full game works with nolfb.com and vdm sound.
Had to edit the cfg file for the CD Rom path.

But ingame the turning speed is very slow. It takes 10 second to turn 360 degrees. Any solution for this?

[Shadowcat]

Yeah, that sounds a bit on the slow side.

Aside from knowing that (a) Ultima Underworld also suffers some odd issues with movement on modern machines, and (b) Terra Nova contains a lot of crazy hacks, I couldn't tell you why that's happening, nor what you might do about it :/

[gregor]

First my specs:
OS: Win 98 Processor: Used to be P2 400Mhz now it's Celeron 1300 Mhz (couldn't run it on either of them)
Graphics card: Used to be ATI Rage 16MB now it's ATI Radeon 9200 128MB
Memory: Used to be 64 MB now it's upgraded to 320 MB
Sound: Sound blaster pro

More than enough disk space with FAT32 file system and also enough speed on CD.

I tried everything and i just can't make it start in Dos or Win. i treid with boot disks, with special mouse drivers that take up only fraction of memory... while tha game seemed to work perfectly on my old 486/80Mhz it doesn't on this new computer from the very begginning.

So i decided to send an email to looking glass technoligies (note that i had the old config back then). and i still have their reply saved:

-----Original Message-----
From: Gregor Gorjan [mailto:Gregor.Gorjan@kiss.uni-lj.si]
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 7:39 AM
To: Customer Support
Subject: I can not run Terra nova


Dear Looking Glass,

When i tried to run Terra Nova, the computer gave me the following
message:

Error: Terra Nova has ran out of memory trying to alocate 0 bites
Crash code: 4294967295

I do not uderstand which memory does the computer want. I have 7 GB of
free disk space and
64 MB of RAM. I also gave him 624 kB of free conventional memory. I do
use FAT32 and Windows 98.
I have a Pentium2 - 400MHz

I have allready played your game on a slower system and i had no
problems then. I hope that you can help me to play this realy good game.

I do not have a network version of the game, but i would like to know if
it can be transformed into one (with some add-ons or something like
that).

Thank you for your time.


gregor

-------------

We've noticed that Windows 98 is even less tolerant of DOS applications
than Windows 95 was. If you are already restarting your computer in
MS-DOS mode and are getting that message, then I recommend trying a Boot
disk. The other option is to try making a custom shortcut. Instructions
on how to do so follow.

LGS Customer Support


Hi,

I would recommend making a custom configuration for Terra Nova, this will
allow it to run in MS-DOS mode while removing some
of the programs (such as EMM386 and SMARTDRV) which might be causing
problems with Terra Nova.

This document assumes that you got Terra Nova to install properly.

If you are still having problems or any further questions please contact
us.

Customer Support
LGT


Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
Custom Configuration for Windows 95


Click = Click the left mouse button
Right Click = Click with the right mouse button

Click on the Start button
Go to "Programs"
Click on "Windows Explorer"
Click on the "games" folder in the left side of Explorer
Click on the "tnova" folder in the left side of Explorer
Right click on the Tn.bat file under the Contents of tnova side of
Explorer. This might only show up as "Tn"
Click on "Create shortcut"
Right click on "Shortcut to Tn"
Click on "Properties"
Click on the "Programs" tab
Click on "Advanced"
Click on "MS-Dos mode"
Click on "Specify new MS-Dos configuration"
Right click in the "Config.sys" white box
Click on "Select All"
Press the "Delete" key
The text in the white box should disappear.
Right click in the "Autoexec.bat" white box
Right click on "Select All"
Press the "Delete" key
The text in the white box should disappear.

Click on the "Start" button
Go to "Programs"
Go to "Accessories"
Click on "Notepad"
Click on "File" in Notepad
Click on "Open"
Click on the down arrow to the right of the "Look in" white box
Use the scrollbar to find your "C" drive
Click on your "C" drive
Click in "File name"
Type "Config.sys"
Make sure that the "*.txt" is no longer in the white box as well.
Click on "Open"
This should open the file in notepad
Look for the line with "EMM386" in it (usually looks like
"DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE")
If you find it, type "rem" and a space in front of the entire line (this
should be in front of the D in DEVICE)

Note: Not all machines are configured exactly this way. Your machine*s
configuration may not look exactly like this.



Make sure "files" are "=50"
Make sure "buffers" are "=30"
Click on "edit"
Click on "select all"
Click on "edit"
Click on "copy"

Minimize notepad (in the upper right hand corner click on the underline
button)

Go back to the "Advanced Program Settings" box
Right click in the config.sys white box
Click on "paste"

This should fill the white box with the information you edited
On your taskbar you should see "Notepad"
Click on "Notepad" on your taskbar
This should bring notepad back up on the screen
Click on "file"
Click on "open"

NOTE: If at any time you are prompted to save this modified version of
your config.sys or autoexec.bat you should answer
"no". You do not want to save them. You want the original versions to
remain.

Make sure that you are still looking in the "c" drive.
Click on file name
Type autoexec.bat
Make sure that the "*.txt" is no longer in the white box as well.
Click on "open"
Look for a line that has "C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE" in it.
Type "rem" and a space in front of the entire Smartdrive line
Look for a line that has "SHARE" in it
If you find it, type "rem" in front of the entire "Share" line.
Click on "edit"
Click on "select all"
Click on "edit"
Click on "copy"

Minimize notepad (in the upper right hand corner click on the underline
button)

Go back to the Advanced Program properties box
Right click in the autoexec.bat white box
Click on "paste"

This should fill the white box with the information you edited

Click on "ok"

You should now only have Windows Explorer on the screen
In explorer you should see the "Shortcut to "Tn"
If you like you can move this onto your desktop
Right click on "Shortcut to Tn" and drag it to your desk top.
Click on "Move here"
Close "Windows Explorer"
Move "Shortcut to Tn" to a place you like on your desktop



Make sure that the Terra Nova CD is in the CDROM drive and double click
on the "shortcut to Tn" icon to start the game.

NOTE: If at any time you are prompted to save this modified version of
your config.sys or autoexec.bat you should answer
"no". You do not want to save them. You want the original versions to
remain.


If you have any difficulties you can contact us at:
(617) 576-3310
or email us at: cs@lglass.com
Internet: http://www.lglass.com
Fax: (617)441-3946

Sorry for a bit long quote.... anyway the point is none of the modifications worked. i keep getting that memorry message over and over again. I anyone knows a solution to it please let me know...

[Shadowcat]

Try Vesa Fix. This will often solve this error. Check the beginning of this thread for all the details on using it.

(And ignore any comments about it being for 3Dfx/Voodoo cards -- it's actually hardware independent.)

[Homiker]

Greetings, I can run TerraNova fine with good speed and sound accuracy. I am able to play all the way to Mission 4 but then several seconds after an enemy spots me and comes to attack me, the game just closes.

Running TerraNova V1.08 with DosBOX along with D-Fend v2 (a frontend for DosBOX) Already tried updating to 1.09 and turning scaler off to no success. NolfB also doesn't fix it, I don't understand why. I would like to restate that all the other missions before work fine.

[Achernar]

I remember getting a problem like that when running Terra Nova on my old AMD K6 350mhz machine. It sometimes "crashed" in the middle of the game for no reason (i.e. it just terminated and you're on the desktop again, no error), I just kept playing the stage until I passed it trying to minimise what I shot at or got spotted by and it didn't bother me after I finished that stage (I think), aint played the game in years. Hope this helps!

[Shadowcat]

Always pays to check whether it's a sound issue. Try disabling sound and music and playing through the mission. If it still crashes, it's something else.

[stdjxf15]

I just joinnning TN thed the group. I Had some problems running it but after running TN through the emulations of VDMsound and the Notlf(?) it ran fine, except of coursee the speed issues. A few days later after turning my computer on My computer just went to a blank screen and stated NTDLR missing press Ctrl alt Delt to restart. I heard that it was a memory or OS issue I was wondering if the emulations could of causedthis to happen to my machine, or was it some sort of Virus I had, or something otherwise? Just curious because my computer is being repaired and I stand impatiently idle waiting to play Terra Nova again.

Its funny, I have all these newer games, But I always return to this one, heck I bought one brand spaking new and still in its oversized box from an amazon dealer. anyways, if anyone knows anything I sure would apreciate it.

[Matthew]

Did you recently connect a USB drive, or have a floppy in the disk drive on startup?

[Shadowcat]

I was wondering if the emulations could have caused this to happen to my machine

I don't know anything about that problem that you won't find for yourself by searching, but as it seems to be part of the boot process, I'd say it's pretty much impossible that those programs haad anything to do with it.

[stdjxf15]

I'm back and running terra nova like never before! Now I have the Patch file for terra nova ver.1.09 and was wondering if anybody knows how to install it using cmd.exe. I'm quite ignorant on a lot of things and am having difficult time installing it, any words of wisdom?

[Shadowcat]

Let's say you grabbed the zip file from here:
http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/gam...nv109.zip.html

Unzip the contents directly into your game directory (which for the sake of argument I'll assume is "C:\games\tnova")

Then at the command prompt (msdos, cmd, whatever) type:

c:\
cd \games\tnova
fixtn

If you downloaded the patch as tnv109.exe rather than a zip file, then you want to copy that file into the game directory, and the commands would be:

c:\
cd \games\tnova
tnv109
fixtn

If the path to your game directory contains directory names longer than 8 characters, you might conceivably encounter problems (then again, it might be fine). You may simply need to quote the path (e.g. > cd "\program files\tnova"), or use a dos version of the name (e.g. > cd \progra~1\tnova ), or maybe just reinstall the game to a different place (such as c:\games\tnova ) if none of that makes sense.