[Help On] X-COM incompatible with Vista!

Doronron

Alright, I am attempting to get a copy of the Win95/98/XP version for X-COM to run under Windows Vista Home Basic.

Now, I've never had a problem getting it to run on my WinXP desktop, so I've never had to do any troubleshooting for this game before.

The laptop I'm trying this on is running Windows Vista Basic, and so far I've tried to run X-COM straight, under Win95 compatibility, Win98 compatiblity, WinXP compatibility. In each case I have also attempted 640x480 resolution and reduce to 256 color depth.

In all cases the result is the same. The opening MIDI music with no graphics followed by black screen and no sound at all.

Has anyone else had any success in getting X-COM to run in Vista? Formatting the machine and installing XP is not an option at this time as the laptop's recovery file is on the HD.

Synthetic Orange

Google-fu says that uninstalling your card's video driver and using Vista's default graphics driver helps, but that sounds like the worst solution imaginable.

edit:jesus fuck this looks like the worst gaming forum ever. http://forum.curse-x.com/general/22359-ce-windows-vista.html

Doronron

SO:

Yeah, the driver thing is probably not an option. X-Com isn't the only piece of software I've got going. I would reformat and go to XP but I don't know what critical drivers I'd be losing for the laptop.

My google-fu says the DOS version will run via DOSBox. Problem is I do not have the DOS version...

Phoenix-D

The other option is to get Virtual PC or a variant and run X-Com in a Windows XP virtual machine. If you don't have an XP disc this can be problematic, though.

You could also create a hardware profile if Vista has those, and switch between the two profiles. That'd require a reboot each time you wanted to play..

randombattle

Try using D3DWindower to run it.

Doronron

Let me take a look at the D3DWindower thing. Hold on...

Doronron

The D3DWindower app did not work, unfortunately. DOSBox does, though...

Would rather be running the Gold version, but it works.

VeritasVR

Doronron wrote: »

The D3DWindower app did not work, unfortunately. DOSBox does, though...

Would rather be running the Gold version, but it works.

There's a difference in versions? DOSBox always works for games like this though.

randombattle

Theres 2 versions I think. The DOS version and the Windows version. D3DWindower only works with the Windows versions of games like Fallout and X-Com. It's a good program for running those old fullscreen games back from before they had video options.

Doronron

There are two versions for X-Com. The newer one was part of a UFO/TFTD/Apoc compilation that was later put on a PC Gamer CD. This version I never had any troubles running under XP. The older version was released prior to Win95, and needs the x86 emulation DOSBox provides to run at all. It plays in windowed mode on Vista. However, it suffers from the same problem I've found others games stumble into on Vista -- the animation is choppy as hell.

Dr_Keenbean

Also, TFTD on Steam does not work under Vista. For that matter, I haven't gotten it to work on XP either.

Cap'n

anyone ever get apocalypse to run on XP?

Magic Pink

Cap'n wrote: »

anyone ever get apocalypse to run on XP?

Never perfectly. It randomly crashed but that was really the only way to get it to work at all.

MuddBudd

What about the gametap version?

ACSIS

This game started causing trouble since winxp. You could run it with some tweakin or the use of dosbox tho. Still the "better way" is getting hold of some modified executables somebody put together after buying the compilation discovering the games (X-com and TFTD) won't run properly under XP. Extremely rare and i am not sure if those work on Vista (possibility is high tho considering DX backwards compatibility). I could point you to it, unfortunately that would violate forum rules. But the fact that modified executables EXIST is worth something, ain't it? Happy hunting.