How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Anyone knowledgeable,
I have recently bought a new laptop with win 7 os. I installed winspmbt and can't find the save or pbem folders. I have the cd version. The game runs fine windowed. Can someone show me how to run a pbem game in win 7 step by step? Excuse me for being "techie" challenged. I was used to running winspmbt on an xp machine. I also have NO win vista experience. Any and all helpful advice will be appreciated.:doh:

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Not having Windows 7 myself, I can only suggest what has been discussed in the various Vista and Windows 7 threads. (Windows 7 is just Vista with a new name, really).

My guess is that since you cannot find any of the game sub-folders, your vista/7 install has done the strange thing that vista/7 seems to do by squirrelling folders away in strange places decided by itself on a seeming whim.

Apparently the cure to this is to install the game outside any of the Vista/Windows 7 'managed' folders, ie Programme Files or whatever Microsoft renamed these to after XP. (This applies to other XP programmes too, not just our game).

Uninstall Windows 7/Vista's failed attempt to install the game. (If the auto uninstall does not work, you may have to do this manually?).

Now try installing your game in its own folder under C: in a new folder you create yourself (call it C:\mygames\spmbt say). Then install all the patches there too - you will have to tell each patch installer where your game is, as they expect the regular \Program Files\Shrapnel Games\... etc.

IF that is the cure then you should now have the proper directory structure in your new folder, and vista/7 should not mess with it then.

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers
Andy

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

This is mentioned in the last patches information screen. Some versions of Vista, and now apparently Win7 do NOT install the game into the program files folder properly so you need to re-install outside of it.

We used to install the DOS versions into C: but Shrapnel wanted us to set up the windows versions under Program files/ Shrapnel games and it has been a headache for some

Don

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Andy and Don,
Thanks for your advice. I'll follow your instructions and get back with you on my results. Have a merry Xmas guys!

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Have both WW2 and MBT installed in a "games" folder on my other disk. Seems that both saves and PBEM files are being located correctly by my Win7.

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Andy or Don,
I followed your instructions. I did the same for the patches BUT the game is NOT being updated. I mean after the patches are extracted to the spmbt folder the game is still showing version 1.012. Do I have to extract them to a certain folder INSIDE the game itself like game data or other? Any remedy for this new complication? :confused:

Lets assume you installed the game to a folder you made called games, each patch now has to install to the same path using the browse button on the instaler follow this path once you have highlighted the MBT folder thats the correct path.

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Did you change each patch installer's path to point to your new folder as I said above?:

i.e. in the screen where the installer says "will be installed in the following directory" use the navigator widget to set the target to your new folder, and not the default.

Andy

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Thanks everybody,
I was forgetting to unpack the files before extracting them to the game. I tried to extract them straight to the game. I had to laugh at my own boneheadedness...lol. Everything is okay now. Game fully patched up to (4.5).

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Another Issue,
The game was running fine until I extracted pbem files to it. Now when I try to start the game it only shows the splash screen BUT will not start. Can a conflict be caused if both people are not using the same os? I have win7 but they have Xp.

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

Never heard of this happening to anyone in 10+ years of development. Any problems with a PBEM file would normally be seen as the game barfing on attempting to load the turn.

First - turn off the splash screen in the game options Main tab (Show Introduction : No)

If that lets your game proceed, then you have the same problem with DirectPlay that some folk have noted, happens after one of the latest Microsoft XP updates, may affect Vista/7. It can be intermittent on some machines apparently. It seems to be a video codec problem and may be fixed by now. (Try going to the Microsoft update site, if you do not have automatic updates turned on.). That is the only "freeze on splash screen" error we have had reported. In any case, turning off the splash screen saves a few seconds in game loading (default on my machine is off).

Second - try deleting those suspect PBEM files. If the game now starts OK then there might be a problem wih your files there, though as I said - it is highly unlikely that this would stop the game itself.

If the second option makes the game run - I'll assume bad file problems.

Possibilities:

A) User error
- Have you unzipped the files or unRARed them to the correct place?. (Hopefully your opponent has not simply sent the files as raw uncompressed attachments - mail programmes and anti-virus can nuke dat files).

- Are you getting RAR files from your opponent - if so then make sure you have the exact same RAR programme as he does. Different RAR programmes can have problems with each other, it seems. Best to use ZIP compression, it is reliable.

- Is your opponent playing the same game as you?. Some end users do get confused and try to send WinSPWW2 files to a WinSPMBT player or vice-versa. Also - some folk seem to think SP:WaW is our game and exchange PBEM files (or apply our patches to that game - the same happened in the old DOS days, when folk tried applying our patches to SSI's products)

B) Computer problems
You may have disk problems. How long since you have de-fragmented your hard drive?. Try that with "automatically fix problems" or however Windows 7 phrases it. If it has been a long while, then do a sector scan of the HD surface for bad sectors (an overnight job).

Once that is done, extract the files once again, especially if you got bad clusters or dead hard disk sectors reported.

Andy

Re: How to run a pbem in Win 7
 

All pbeming running fine here. Games are manually installed in c:\winspmbt and c:\winspww2 directories
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Happy Holydays from a former SP-Camo Beta Guy

cheers

Helge