Does anyone know how to get MOO1 to work on Windows XP?

I don't think you can. Why not partition your drive and put Win95 on it?

do you get a 1024K Expanded memory error message? Cause that can be fixed...

also, isn't there that function that XP has that you can make WinXP emulate earlier forms of itself? (like Win9x - 2k)... actually, i know its there, i just can never remember where it is. I'd assume somewhere in Control Panel...

there should be a dos emulator for winxp

try searching over at the moo3 forums for Winxp and moo, in the "pre-release forums" I've seen it,

/Flemming

~SDC~

Here's how. Neil Cerutti made this, I guess, but I've added something that tripped me up:

HOWTO get Master of Orion to work (with sound) in Windows XP:

1. Copy autoexec.nt to your moo directory. It lives in Windows\\System32.

2. Edit autoexec.nt in your moo directory:

REM out all the programs loaded in autoexec.nt (the lines which start with lh). If you do not do this, there will not be enough conventional memory left to run moo with XP's Soundblaster emulation. The only line you really need is the set BLASTER line. Do not change the BLASTER settings. They do not need to be correct for you current sound card.

If you run moo with the CD, you may need to leave in the CDROM extensions. I don't know about this, because I do not run moo with the CD. If a you use the CD, and get it to work with or without the CDROM extensions, please update this paragraph.

3. Create shortcuts for moo\\install.exe and moo\\orion.exe

4. Edit the properties of the install.exe shortcut:

a) Go to the Compatibility tab, and set it to run in Windows 95 compatibility mode.

Go to the Memory tab and set Expanded Memory (XMS) to 1024.

Note: Expanded memory is EMS, not XMS.

c) Go to the Program tab and click Advanced.

i. In the window for selecting an autoexec.nt, type in the full path to the modified autoexec.nt in your moo directory.

Note: Don't touch the config.nt path. It's ok.

5. Make the same modifications in step 4 to the orion.exe shortcut.

6. Run install.exe using the shortcut you created. Select "Change hardware settings." Set the soundcard to Soundblaster for music and speech. The settings are:

Address: 220 IRQ: 5 DMA: 1

7. Play moo using the shortcut to orion.exe.

This HOWTO is placed in the Public Domain, by its original author. Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft. Soundblaster is a trademark of Creative Labs.

-- Neil Cerutti

I run it full-screen with 1024K EMS memory. Seems to work fine for me.

GalCiv has some big shoes to fill, even 10 years later.

I still play MOO on XP a few times a week. Full screen with 1024K EMS memory. No problems at all, but I usually don't bother with sound.

Paul.

Why in the hell use XP in the first place ?
W98 has 99% of functionality, gobs much less HD space, CPU and RAM, and with it everything works (MOO, MoM, whatever, even 80s'CGA games...) from my desktop, I can even AltTab them

I agree. just use 98. Or, better yet, go find a cheap, ancient computer, say 133 or something, and MOO will run fine. ")>

This solution is intriguing. If I copied the autoexec.nt to the directory of other DOS games [MoM, Steel Panthers, etc.] and made the same changes, would I be able to run them with XP also?

Are you kidding? I would never willingly go back to 98. The crashes! The resource limitations! The general cruftiness! Sure, it could run on far less than XP, but only for a few hours at a time.

Besides, I can just startup VMWare and get a 98 machine in a window (and/or Linux). Works a treat.

MOO1 was to date the best TBS game I've ever played! I never even thought MOO2 was as good from a gameplay perspective. Did anyone else feel this way?

yes, MOO1 easily had superior gameplay over MOO2.

However, MOO2 did have custom races.

3 things:

Soulfire:

Yes, I've always agreed. Even now I still prefer to play MOO1 more than 2.


GreenReaper:

Can I get VMWare at Tucows or Download? I guess I need to click on the "System" or "Operating System" section once I get there.

Anyway, ever since I got XP Pro, some of my Win98 apps do not work "quite" right in various ways. Some don't work at all. Yes, I know about the "compatibility" tab. But in most cases, it doesn't change anything.

Mr Ed:

Before I read your post above I couldn't get MOO1 to work. Now it works. Thanks, except this: sound effects work OK but music does not work at all. I played around with all the settings in the properties tabs and still no luck. I'm running XP *Pro*. Is there anything more that might stop my music?

I found a DOS emulator for Windows.

http://www.shouldexist.org/story/2000/6/26/22925/4031

I also found the VMware site at google. Its expensive. Are there any similar shareware options?

GreenReaper,
Crashes under W98 ?? Waddaya speaking about ?? I sometimes have buggy programs that crash, but very rarely 98 itself... Maybe because I have tons of utilities/control progs ...

~SDC~

What is "MoM" and where do I get it?

MoM stands for "Master Of Magic", the other classic from Simtex/Microprose. It's a sort of Fantasy Civ, where you play a Sorceror bound to dominate the world !
I still enjoy it now ..
You can get it (not so legally) at abandonware sites (pm me for details)

~SDC~

I agree. 98 has never crashed on me. The games have crashed, but never 98. On the other hand, XP crashed on me 2000 times in the first three weeks of having bought a new computer. I say, 98 is better because it is more stable than the others, has DOS, and runs just about anything. End of story.

Power to Win98SE users!

~SDC~

I've been able to get MOO running on XP Pro, but MOO seems to truncate the CONFIG.MOO file to 0 bytes when exiting. I restore it from a copy, but I can't ever load any save games - perhaps because of the config file issue. I can continue, and I guess I could copy any of my save games to SAV7.GAM. Any ideas?

I used Win98 SE for many years. Considering that it is not, and never was, a *true* operating system, but merely a GUI running on top of DOS, it ran better than I expected. Actually, "Novel DOS 7," which was the first to apply a decent multitasking GUI to DOS, was more stable. Novel just didn't have the recources and exposure of Microsoft.

However, as to WIN 9X stability? I'm still surprised that anyone could say that it is stable. It crashed on me too many times and caused more problems for me that I want to remember.

I've used XP PRO for 3 months now. Although I had some trouble getting it installed, it has no doubt been much more stable than WIN98, especially if you're multitasking on the Internet.

Some of my older WIN98 apps don't run quite right with XP, but that's a different issue. A couple of those apps, I have been able to get to run OK now.

The other app that I'm having a little trouble with is Corel WordPerfect 9. I had no problem with it after it loads, however, while it is loading, I get a couple of messages that it "can't find a feature".

This is more than likely Microsoft's way of persuading me to buy their software, creating a deliberate appearance of incompatibility.

Again, WIN98 never was a true operating system, but merely a GUI running on top of DOS. Thus it should be no surprise that it had so many problems.

As to XP having problems? You can't really compare it with WIN98. XP is by far more sophisticated and is massive in its code compared to 98. So it shouldn't be a surprise that it would have some problems. I expect most of those to be worked out.

And for those old vets, you may remember that techies often would even say, "DOS itself is not a true operating system." Remember?

The thing that has frustrated me for so many years, is that Microsoft **decided** to **put off** making a full blown true operating system (XP) for **home** use for about ~~13 years.

For so reasons, my pet metaphore for Microsoft (MS), for all these years has been "PMS".

Now a word about Novel. Novel later sued PMS for PMS's claiming that Windows was "an operating system", while it was clearly NOT! Guess who won? Novel won! After a few months of litigation, PMS could plainly see, as it already knew, that Windows was NOT an operating system and never was. So they agreed to pay off a settlement to Novel of many, many millions which PMS agreed to pay them willingly.