Alien Crossfire crashes to desktop

[Resolve]

Hiyas,

SMAC runs fine, but the expansion doesn't. After selecting to start a game, SMACX just crashes to the desktop.

I've installed the XP patch, edited the Alpha Centauri .ini file, and tried running it in compatibility mode but nothing has helped so far.

Any ideas?

 

[Wilhelm Kaleva]

It used to do that to me after I had installed the no-cd patch. So nowadays I'll just swallow my pride and put the cd in. Is this the case?

 

[Swikke]

I'm having the exact same problem, it only crashes to the desktop after selecting a map, ruleset and difficulty have been chosen. Might be that a movie has to start or something. Just as the OP, alpha centauri runs fine, tried everything else suggested in these forums and I'm not running a no-cd patch.
(which I tried to see the difference: there is none )

On a side note, when I select 'QUICK GAME' I can start playing with no problems, presumably skipping the faction selection process or that one movie it can't play... (it has no problem with the intro movie).

 

[Wilhelm Kaleva]

I have the same exact problem! Its really annoying and I havent been able to find a solution to it either...

Suggestions anyone?

 

[Petek]

Right-click on the SMAX shortcut and select the Compatibility tab. If you've already tried running in Windows 2000 (or some other) compatibility mode, then try some or all of the other options.

 

[Cmcastl]

I am by no means an expert but I suspect the XP compatibility patch only covers SMAC not Alien Crossfire. Also, in the past, I have had a boundary on Alien Crossfire which I cannot cross apparently because AC cannot handle the larger maps and more numerous units that bigger computers appear to offer, even when using the MS OS (that is XP) compatibility option.

If anyone can correct me or enlighten me I would be most grateful! I am fairly happy with the Civ IV Planetfall but still prefer the atmosphere of the original game and would still prefer to play the original game if I could.

Live long and prosper.

 

[Petek]

I am by no means an expert but I suspect the XP compatibility patch only covers SMAC not Alien Crossfire.

That is correct.

Also, in the past, I have had a boundary on Alien Crossfire which I cannot cross apparently because AC cannot handle the larger maps and more numerous units that bigger computers appear to offer, even when using the MS OS (that is XP) compatibility option.

If anyone can correct me or enlighten me I would be most grateful! I am fairly happy with the Civ IV Planetfall but still prefer the atmosphere of the original game and would still prefer to play the original game if I could.

Live long and prosper.

Could you please describe your problem in more detail? Is SMAX not working at all? Or is the problem just with large maps? Thanks.

Petek

 

[Guardian_PL]

Hm, I recall similar problems several years ago, but I've recently purchased re-released version of SMAC/X, no patches, everything works so far.

The only other thing I've found on my latest installation is that few times it actually started SMAC, and when I wanted to load new game I got crash to desktop. From then instead of going through start menu etc I'm double-clicking "terranx" icon in game's directory and the rest is pure poetry.
Don't know, reinstall it? Provide us with more data? I wish I could be more helpful... :/

 

[Cmcastl]

If you are still there, Petek, the crash seems to emerge after the SMAC-X reaches a certain size. I seem to remember reading that SMAC or SMAC-X was never designed to handle the bigger games that were opened up by increasing computer power.

Live long and prosper.

 

[Petek]

If you are still there, Petek, the crash seems to emerge after the SMAC-X reaches a certain size. I seem to remember reading that SMAC or SMAC-X was never designed to handle the bigger games that were opened up by increasing computer power.

Live long and prosper.

I replied to you on Apolyton, in the thread named Fixing SMACX Bugs.

Petek

 

[civictor]

Hiyas,

SMAC runs fine, but the expansion doesn't. After selecting to start a game, SMACX just crashes to the desktop.

I've installed the XP patch, edited the Alpha Centauri .ini file, and tried running it in compatibility mode but nothing has helped so far.

Any ideas?

Do everything people have suggested. Now create a desktop short cut to run terranx.exe directly and set all the compatibility, color palette emulation, etc. for this icon and run it directly from the desktop.

If you get the autorun start up when inserting the disc, exit from it and never use that method--start the game using the desktop icon instead.

 

[Cmcastl]

Do everything people have suggested. Now create a desktop short cut to run terranx.exe directly and set all the compatibility, color palette emulation, etc. for this icon and run it directly from the desktop.

If you get the autorun start up when inserting the disc, exit from it and never use that method--start the game using the desktop icon instead.

Many thanks for replying, Civictor.

Problem is, as I have written in other threads, that whatever I do SMAC crashes around the 300 turn. I have read that this may be because the game is just not designed to handle more power OSs and CPUs. So I am having to make do with Planetfall.

Live long and prosper.

 

[chuft]

Oddly, this has now started happening to me with smacx. If I start a new game, after picking all the parameters, the game often crashes to desktop instead of showing my escape pod landing.

Also it does not always alt-tab out gracefully to mIRC. I played it day and night in December with no problems. The problems just started this week! And for no apparent reason. Peculiar.

Using the unofficial patch 1.0.

 

[chuft]

I have found some weird conflicts going on. One time I got a message Acrobat Distiller had crashed. I have found terminating the Distiller or acrotray process seems to help SMACX run normally. Also have had some weird loads where the game map looks corrupted, but if I kill Firefox and restart the game, the game loads fine. Not sure what is going on, I think something corrupted the save file along the way, but terminating other processes does seem to help me play normally. Very strange to play a game this much and suddenly start having serious bugs.

 

[Petek]

chuft,

If you haven't already done so, I recommend a complete uninstall/reinstall. Everything you reported points to something having gone south with the game.

Petek

 

[Raideur]

I have the exact same problem with a fresh copy of SMAC+ SMACX. It simply crashes to desktop after you select a version to load from the screen. It doesnt ever load the game. After installing the patch from Firaxis, the regular SMAC will load and then immediately crash. Everything is running in compadibility mode including for all users, etc.

It simply doesnt work. No ideas

 

[Petek]

Welcome to CFC and the Alpha Centauri forum.

What's your operating system? Also, just to make sure I understand, did you install the SMAC Windows 2000/XP update, which for example may be found here?

 

[thegeneral435]

Greetings to the CFC SMAC community.

I noticed that my flavor of the CTD issues matches those of some of the other people who posted in this thread. To be specific, whenever I attempt to start a SMAX game via non-Quick Start, the application crashes after I pick my difficulty. This error does not occur when I follow the same procedure in SMAC.

I'm running the program through terranx.exe on a W7 64-bit machine. I've applied the SMAC 4.0, SMAX 2.0, and XP/2000 compatibility patches. I've also attempted to rectify to the problem with the more common solutions including the ForceOldPixel/directdraw .ini tweaks and running with compatibility tweaks.

 

[Petek]

Greetings to the CFC SMAC community.

I noticed that my flavor of the CTD issues matches those of some of the other people who posted in this thread. To be specific, whenever I attempt to start a SMAX game via non-Quick Start, the application crashes after I pick my difficulty. This error does not occur when I follow the same procedure in SMAC.

I'm running the program through terranx.exe on a W7 64-bit machine. I've applied the SMAC 4.0, SMAX 2.0, and XP/2000 compatibility patches. I've also attempted to rectify to the problem with the more common solutions including the ForceOldPixel/directdraw .ini tweaks and running with compatibility tweaks.

Hi thegeneral435,

Welcome to CFC and the Alpha Centauri forum!

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble. I suggest, if you haven't already tried it, a complete uninstall/reinstall of both games. Detailed installation instructions may be found here (ignore the stuff about Hamachi). This isn't just a generic troubleshooting tip. Reinstalling has solved your exact problem in the past.

Please post again if this doesn't help.

Petek

 

[thegeneral435]

Attempted a clean reinstall including deleting any remnants in the SMAC directory prior to the install process. Installation of SMAC, then SMAX, then SMAX 2.0 patch proceeded smoothly. Unfortunately, I came across a problem when installing the compatibility patch. I get the following error: "Error: -1612 The installation source for this product is not available. Verify that the source exists and that you can access it."

I should mention that uninstalling the compatibility patch from the previous installation--as it was a separate entry in the programs listing--didn't work properly and Windows uninstaller crashed mid load. I ended up using Revo Uninstaller to try to remove it. I imagine that this may be relevant, especially if Revo didn't remove all the registry entries.