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[Ohma]

No go on the Pro2 with IRQ 5, and the only non.exe/.conf/.txt files in the folder are .lbx files.

[bruisehound]

Thanks for posting this game, I have played and loved MOO2, and I hear that the original kicks even more butt.

I am downloading the zip file onto my Mac, and then CDR-ing it over to my clunky Windows XP Dell that I use for gaming. I am having a weird problem with installing the game on the Dell, though. Please help if you can.


When I doubleclick the install.exe icon, I get the install screen. No problem. However, it soon asks me to install the first floppy into the drive, which, of course, I cannot do.

How do I get around this?

Any help would be much appreciated.

~bruisehound

[Spartan Pride]

I loved Masted of Orion III. Calling it a poor attempt to revive the game is an understatement.

[gwhunter]

I no longer own a dos gaming system. As I went from system to system over the years, having started out with a comador, graduating to 8086, 186, 286, 386, 486, p200, p400, p450, p2 800, p3 1.8, and now this new quad core duel video sli I have encounter and solved many issues with running over a thousand dos based games. But now on this new ms operating system, not sure what to do. It does not allow a "real" dos mode boot. Vista can not and will not boot in true dos mode, just the windowed cmd version of dos. I can not edit and boot under any autoexec.bat's or config.bat's, I can not assign any .bat's to the files, can not choose any dos compatabilities modes, nothing. From what I can tell, I can not run a dos based program on this operating system, let alone overcome the most common 2 errors when running this particular game, which are memory and sound card recognition.

When I run the install.exe, vista just pops up a window that says "This system can not support full screen mode. Click here to close."

When I manually set up the files to run, and execute the orion.exe, I get the ms-dos error most common to this game, "1024 memory not available" Which comes back to why I have always hated Bill Gates operating systems. Even with 3gig of ram, I am stuck dealing with a 1024 byte boot cernal, and now with vista, no way to boot without windows eating it all up and not allowing a clean dos boot configurable by me. Atleast with 98 and xp, I could tell windows to run dos games in dos mode and assign bat files with which to run them and in a window mode. Looks like a whole new ball game with vista. Anyone out there know how to fake out vista and make it run dos programs? I don't have the patience or time to do all the research myself. At some point, some one needs to code a program to run all the old dos games through that interfaces all the old dos code to windows. Something global. Either that, or someone need to re-write the original code to be windows compatible and not need dos at all. Many of the old dos games, such as Ultima or Privateer for instance, base the in-game time passage on the cpu speed of a 386. Any system which runs the game on a faster cpu makes the game unplayable. Like in Ultima, 5 sec after the game is started, you're lying on the ground dead from starvation... or in Privateer, 2 sec after leaving a base, 20 enemy ships blast you out of space before you even know they are in the sector with you. Atleast MOO is turn based, and immune to this problem, but is still noticed in the space combat window where everything happens so fast there is no way to know who shot what as it happened to fast to see. But I have never ever gotten the sound in MOO to work on a system that boots with windows, running the game in windows or through windows sound drivers. If anyone knows a fix to running these old dos games on a modern system please let me know. I don't want to have to go to ebay and buy an old 386 or 486 and set up an old dos system custom for all this. I still own over 1,000 of the original install 5" and 3.5" floppy disks, as well as many of the later cd install's, cd required in drive to play crap. If there really is no fix out there to play these games on a modern system, then what is the point of even being able to download the old games if they can not be ran? Why is someone not re-coding them to run on windows, not dos, then offering that code for download?

[dosraider]

Originally Posted by gwhunter

If there really is no fix out there to play these games on a modern system, then what is the point of even being able to download the old games if they can not be ran? Why is someone not re-coding them to run on windows, not dos, then offering that code for download?

Instead of putting all that energy in an useless rant, put your energy in learning to work with dosbox and eventually VPC-MSDos6.22.
Runs perfect on ALL Vistas.

And if you really would like to play those ol'gems directly in Vista, why don't YOU recode them games?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by gwhunter

At some point, some one needs to code a program to run all the old dos games through that interfaces all the old dos code to windows. Something global.

It's already here. It's name is DOSBox.

Either that, or someone need to re-write the original code to be windows compatible and not need dos at all. (...)
Why is someone not re-coding them to run on windows, not dos, then offering that code for download?

That would be an interesting idea, but the person doing that would need to have in-depth knowledge of the game engine and access to the original source code.
Easy to do with Wolfenstein 3D, Doom or Quake, where the developers have released the SC a couple years after they published the game. Without it, making a functional port is very difficult.

Many of the old dos games, such as Ultima or Privateer for instance, base the in-game time passage on the cpu speed of a 386. Any system which runs the game on a faster cpu makes the game unplayable. Like in Ultima, 5 sec after the game is started, you're lying on the ground dead from starvation... or in Privateer, 2 sec after leaving a base, 20 enemy ships blast you out of space before you even know they are in the sector with you.

This is far from being a new development. Been there when I tried running Mechwarrior, Space Crusade and Robocop 3 on my 486DX4/100.

If anyone knows a fix to running these old dos games on a modern system please let me know.

http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=14406
And if you have any questions... go ahead and ask.

[_r.u.s.s.]

you sound like a skilled man, gwhunter, i think you don't need a "beginner's" guide, just download dosbox and read the documentation, it's not really difficult

the 'newbie' guide is for real 'newbies' who have a hard time installing something from cd

[OBMiT]

Master of Orion.. What a game.. For some reason I liked the first one the best.. Wish it was longer though, bigger map, etc... I could play games like that forever..

[Robsie]

Despite i have Master of Orion 2 and enjoy it, i continue to keep coming back to Master of Orion more often.

I believe the simplicity of the gameplay that in fact lead to a deeper game that one would think is always unmatched in the 4x genre.

The only problem of MoO1 is that it does not feature a multiplayer option.
But on board like the Master of Orion dedicaced forum on civfanatics.com, you can always find people playing challenges or succession games that are very nice to play to compare with how other people are faring in those.

The AI in MoO1 is very challenging, and the incredible thing with it is that it succeeds in challenging you without even cheating.
Diplomacy is a valid option thanks to that (and making your enemies fight with each other by bribe, framing them etc... is a very interesting way to secure your borders)

[galdred]

For me too, Master of Orion is much superior to any other empire strategy game ever made, because it is the only one where you don't end up being bogged in a micromanagement nightmare.
The macro orientation of the title makes it really enjoyable during the whole game, and allow you to focus on the big picture. Too bad there is no multi (I'm not so sure about the AI not cheating though: it seems to get some tech bonus in impossible).