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Great game. I've been playing it for almost 10 yrs on and off on just my local network. I'm running 26J and I have a couple of codes to share. I hope I'm not offending anyone. I think its safe to say the game is abandonware at this point. Be warned - although these codes allow me to start the game with 2 human players, I think the cheat protection kicks in at some point and I start experiencing "random" occurrences. Like whole worlds being reduced to about 5% of their population!! I just mark it up to the plague and continue on

[Code snip]

Please don't post codes for this game it seems the codes are still for sale. (or at least you donate some money to get them)

[Eagle of Fire]

Hi. Nice to see someone who play STARS! too.

The reason why you have those "random occurrences" is indeed because of the cheat protection. It is actually called "the Emperor Bug" and is triggered by the fact that you produce those two players turns on the same computer. STARS! is able to make the difference between two different computers and if it realize that two players have the same "signature" then the Emperor Bug is triggered.

This is of course to prevent a single player controlling several races in the same (multiplayer) game.

[DarthHelmet86]

EoF can you explain to me a bit about these code things, what do they do in the game? And who is "selling" them? I just want to clear this up so I fully understand what is going on with this game.

[Eagle of Fire]

Check your inbox.

[Eagle of Fire]

Guh... I'm shocked. I was browsing the site and I just realized that STARS! is listed under "Action"?!?!?

It is a 4X, hardcore strategy game for Christ sake! What's wrong with this site?

[The Fifth Horseman]

We've seen an occasional glitch where a game changes to the wrong category for no apparent reason.

[Eagle of Fire]

This is quite the bug... Any news on if it's going to get fixed?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Right now we haven't seen enough incidents to confirm this is a bug rather than an unnoticed operator error (read: someone could have misclicked into the field when editing the game entry)

[Eagle of Fire]

A STARS! player pointed me to the fact that many links in the readme.txt file included in our archive of this game to be broken. In fact, most of them are either now completely outdated or have been broken somehow when the file have been saved.

Here is the original copy of Readme.txt:

Important: With Stars! being a very old commercial game, you will need to find and use serial codes to be able to use the full functionality of the game. Included in the stars26i.rar archive you will find a text file named code.txt listing 16 serial codes compatible with this version of Stars!. You will then be able to, using those serial numbers, host and play games with your friends.

Please note that version 26i is not the latest version of Stars!. The latest version is 26JRC4 or 27JRC4. While it is possible for you to download the available patches to upgrade to the latest version, please note again that the serial codes provided in the text file are codes which were leaked on the internet and thus blacklisted in the J patch and up. Those codes are provided to you solely to be used with the matching stars26i.rar archive.

It is possible for you to visit http://starsautohost.org/sahforum and ask that a new serial number be generated for you, for a minimal donation fee.

http://starsautohost.org/sahforum/in...30dd#msg_num_2

If you wish to join the AutoHost site and take part in the games hosted with their automated host then you will require a valid and unique JRC4 serial number.

More information about different versions and patches for Stars! can be found here:

http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/Patches_and_versions

-=-

Because Stars! was designed to run on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, you may experience problems running version 2.7 on later Windows versions. In particular, version 2.7 requires wavemix.dll, which is no longer supplied with Windows. To install it, simply copy it into your [c:\windows] directory (or wherever you installed Windows.)

You will find wavemix.rar supplied in this archive.

-=-

For those who will want to play and host a game without having access to the internet and the Wiki, you will find a text file named "How_to_Host_a_Game_v2.0_by_Omonubi.txt" in the archive. While it is an old version, most/all of the relevant parts for hosting games are still accurate today.

-=-

Here are some very useful links which will help you play, learn, and perfect your Stars! skills:

Stars! AutoHost forum. Forum of the very popular AutoHost tool, still used today to automatically host and manage Stars! games. A lot of old veteran and elite players still visit this forum. A great place to read old posts and ask specific questions to old players.
http://starsautohost.org/sahforum

Stars! Wiki. The best place to look for information about Stars!. Compiled by Gible, this site is a carbon copy of several sources compiled in one place for your browsing pleasure.
http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/Main_Page

Here is a quick list of links on the Wiki to get you started, compiled again by Gible:
http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/Stars!_FAQ
http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/Abbreviations
http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/Fled...ist_-_Mar_2007
http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/%22R..._199 7_v2.6/7
http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/Mong..._February_2000
http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/How_...h_January_1999

Here is a final link which could greatly spoil a specific part of the game if you wish to learn everything by yourself. It is, however, something that you should know if you wish to play competitive games against other human opponents. (Spoiler Alert) http://wiki.gible.net/index.php/Mystery_Trader (Spoiler Alert)

Here is a new version which should replace or update the file in question:

Important: With Stars! being a very old commercial game, you will need to find and use serial codes to be able to use the full functionality of the game. Included in the stars26i.rar archive you will find a text file named code.txt listing 16 serial codes compatible with this version of Stars!. You will then be able to, using those serial numbers, host and play games with your friends.

Please note that version 26i is not the latest version of Stars!. The latest version is 26JRC4 or 27JRC4. While it is possible for you to download the available patches to upgrade to the latest version, please note again that the serial codes provided in the text file are codes which were leaked on the internet and thus blacklisted in the J patch and up. Those codes are provided to you solely to be used with the matching stars26i.rar archive.

It is possible for you to visit http://starsautohost.org/sahforum2/ and ask that a new serial number be generated for you, for a minimal donation fee.

==> http://starsautohost.org/sahforum2/index.php?t=msg&th=1158&start=0&rid=1264

If you wish to join the AutoHost site and take part in the games hosted with their automated host then you will require a valid and unique JRC4 serial number.

More information about different versions and patches for Stars! can be found here:

http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Patches_and_versions

-=-

Because Stars! was designed to run on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, you may experience problems running version 2.7 on later Windows versions. In particular, version 2.7 requires wavemix.dll, which is no longer supplied with Windows. To install it, simply copy it into your [c:\windows] directory (or wherever you installed Windows.)

You will find wavemix.rar supplied in this archive.

-=-

For those who will want to play and host a game without having access to the internet and the Wiki, you will find a text file named "How_to_Host_a_Game_v2.0_by_Omonubi.txt" in the archive. While it is an old version, most/all of the relevant parts for hosting games are still accurate today.

-=-

Here are some very useful links which will help you play, learn, and perfect your Stars! skills:

Stars! AutoHost forum. Forum of the very popular AutoHost tool, still used today to automatically host and manage Stars! games. A lot of old veteran and elite players still visit this forum. A great place to read old posts and ask specific questions to old players.
http://starsautohost.org/sahforum2/

Stars! Wiki. The best place to look for information about Stars!. Compiled by Gible, this site is a carbon copy of several sources compiled in one place for your browsing pleasure.
http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Main_Page

Here is a quick list of links on the Wiki to get you started, compiled again by Gible:
http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Stars!_FAQ
http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Abbreviations
http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Fledging_Admirals_Hints_%26_Tips_by_Altruist_-_Mar_2007
http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/%22Remote_Mining%22_by_Jason_Cawley_1997_v2.6/7
http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Mongols_-_sample_easy_start_WM_HG_by_Jason_Cawley_-_7th_February_2000
http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/How_to_Get_Over_25,000_Resources_by_2450_by_Jason_Cawley_-_16th_January_1999

Here is a final link which could greatly spoil a specific part of the game if you wish to learn everything by yourself. It is, however, something that you should know if you wish to play competitive games against other human opponents. (Spoiler Alert) http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Mystery_Trader (Spoiler Alert)

Hopefully using the code command won't break up the long links again this time.

-EoF

[Japo]

I need clarification--please give me the short story. Where did that readme come from? Is it fan-made and not part of the original game, as it looks to me on first sight? If so, I think it should be removed from the archive, and the new one can be added as an extra--which would also make it easier to replace if that's ever again necessary.