Another Civ3 Vanilla nooby question

[Thorburgh]

So i am trying to play civilization 3 vanilla I have the steam version and got the no CD patch and put it in my Civ3 Complete folder and named it Civilization3 No CD but when i click on the exe it says no civ3 installation detected am i doing this wrong or is it even possible to get the steam version to play vanilla?

 

[tjs282]

So i am trying to play civilization 3 vanilla I have the steam version and got the no CD patch and put it in my Civ3 Complete folder and named it Civilization3 No CD but when i click on the exe it says no civ3 installation detected am i doing this wrong or is it even possible to get the steam version to play vanilla?

The Vanilla .exe would usually go in the root-folder for the game, so it sounds like you did that right. But if you already have the Steam-version, you shouldn't need to rename the Vanilla .exe, because (AFAIK) Steam never provided one of those in the first place! That said (and admittedly as someone who has only the vaguest understanding of how computers work!), renaming the file is unlikely to have caused the problem you describe.

It sounds like the NoCD .exe might be looking for a registry-entry that doesn't exist — possibly because Steam installed the game into (and created registry-entries for) "Civilization 3 Complete", rather than "Sid Meier's Civilization 3" (which was the default install-folder name for the original Vanilla-version) — which in turn might be a function of the age/legality of the (hacked?) file that you're using.

The Vanilla 1.29f NoCD patch from the German PCGames "Patchpaket", is the only Firaxis-issued (i.e. legal) NoCD version that I know of, and was designed to be added to an existing Civ3 vanilla or Civ3Conquests installation*. If you got your patch from anywhere else, then you might want to try this one instead:

https://www.pcgames.de/Civilization...-Civ-3-Vollversion-Hier-gibts-Abhilfe-401682/

*

Spoiler Backstory :

The magazine had originally offered a copy of Civ3 on a 'giveaway' cover-CD, but the later Conquests-expansion and/or the patches for all three versions which were issued online, turned out to be incompatible with it. So when the readers tried to update their Civ3 using those new files, it now failed the copy-protection checks, and refused to boot up altogether. Being German, naturally the readers complained so Firaxis provided PCGames with NoCD.exe files for the final patch-versions (Vanilla 1.29, PtW 1.27 and C3C 1.22).

 

[Thorburgh]

That was the No CD patch I got but I cant get it to work with the steam version

 

[tjs282]

That was the No CD patch I got but I cant get it to work with the steam version

OK, then perhaps this is a "Virtual Store"-related problem?

IIRC, the Steam games-folder is installed by default into a subdirectory of the (very important) C:/ProgramFiles system-directory, but (if I have understood correctly) modern versions of Windows (since Vista) don't allow 'unauthorised' programs to write to — or, more importantly, be run from — that directory. Instead, Windows places only a virtual image of any such file in that directory, while actually quietly storing the file itself in a mirror-location, elsewhere on your HDD.

That is, while it might look as though the NoCD .exe is in your Civ3 folder, it's not really there (since it was not installed by the authorised Steam-client) — which might be why it now can't find your Civ3Complete installation. If this is the problem, though, I'm not 100% sure how you'd get around it.

For example, you would almost certainly need to have Admin rights on your machine in order to properly write the NoCD .exe into ProgramFiles/.../[SteamGames]/ to begin with, and you might also have to set the file itself to "Run as Admin" — but I'm not sure whether e.g. Win10-11 will allow you to do either of those things.

(I know I can do both those things on Win8.1, but I also deliberately installed Civ3 outside ProgramFiles in the first place).

Setting the NoCD file's compatibility to WinXP SP2 (or SP3) may also be needed.

 

[Thorburgh]

Yeah I am thinking it must be the issue of not actually being in my game folder if anyone knows a way around this or you have something i might try that would be awesome if not you have been very helpful anyway and thank you for all the info

 

[Lanzelot]

The easiest way to avoid these problems is probably as tjs282 said, to make sure to install the game(s) outside of "C:\Program Files".

Under "Steam --> Settings --> Downloads --> STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS" you can define an additional game folder and tell Steam to move/install its games there. In my example, you can see that I created another folder on my E: drive, but something like C:\Games would do just as well.

 

[TheShoot]

My sincerest gratitude for the reply and help from tjs 282 so far on another thread ....

My story :

Bought the Key Online. Downloaded the whole Steam thing. Registered the Key. Installed the Game
It auto installed it under
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete
Inside there was 7 files (Art / civ3PTW / Conquests / Redist / Scenarios / Sound / Text ) and a bunch of dll. files, logs and readme's

Then went to German site and downloaded the Zip Patches
I presume this was the correct one to unzip ....Civilization 3 PC Games Patch mit Conquest v1.29f (d)

A Civilization3 application .exe file unzipped
If understanding correctly I had to copy and insert that into the directory above somewhere yes ?
Tried many diff places but non worked

Uninstalled game as I saw that under program files it might be problem
Wanted to download game to a new folder C:Games
The new Steam however does not allow you to create a diff folder to copy games to on the same drive ....

Changed steam download location to an external drive.E:
Game works 100% if I launch from Steam desktop Icon or clicking on Civ3Conquests.exe in the Conquests folder.

Copied Civilization 3 PC Games Patch "mit Conquest v1.29f (d)" that unzipped as Civilization3.exe to
E:\Games\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete
Trying to launch it says "No Civilization III installation detected"

Any suggestions ?

Many Thx again ... I may be close !

 

[Civinator]

TheShoot, so this is your 4th post at CFC, but as it not currently happened: Welcome at CFC!

There is no more need for the PC Games German download to play C3C without CD, as there is something much better available: The Flintlock mod, that you can find here.

This mod works with the GOG version of Civ 3 and it should work with the steam version, too (I write "should" as I don´t have the steam version with its stupid bug in the labels text file, playing havoc with the texts of nearly all C3C creations done by modders).

It seems the PC Games German download bic is no longer working with Civ 3 Vanilla and the GOG version of Civ 3 Complete (cannot say anything here about the steam version), but it is still working with the Civ 3 Vanilla version of the Civ Chronicles compilation. I have not tested, if the PC Games German download biq is still working with the GOG version of C3C, as there is no need to use this any longer due to the Flintlock mod, but I wouldn´t be surprised if it doesn´t work any longer for the same reasons as it happened to Civ 3 Vanilla.

 

[tjs282]

TheShoot wants to play vanilla, not conquests/complete...

 

[TheShoot]

Hi Guys
Thank you for the replies.
Not great news that the German patch will not work anymore.
It essentially means unless I can find a original disk somewhere I cannot play Vanilla ever again.

True. I find the changes and upgrades in Complete/Conquests etc not to my liking.
Human nature prob. No-one likes change. Found something that I really liked all those years ago
Just want that back ... lol
Also does not help I am not that young anymore and struggle with the tech stuff

Thank you very much for taking the time. Much Much appreciated
There some great people on these forums !

 

[TheShoot]

I also found this on GOG forum ..it might help someone else ...

Playing Civilization III vanilla & Play the World, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

Download the best games on Windows & Mac. A vast selection of titles, DRM-free, with free goodies, and lots of pure customer love.

www.gog.com

My Infogrames Interactive Civilization III has :

Default at (value not set) and
Install Path at (E:\Games\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization Complete\)

There is no CD path and I do not know how to create or modify

Cheers

 

[Civinator]

TheShoot wants to play vanilla, not conquests/complete...

As posted, therefore you would need the Civ 3 Vanilla CD of the Civ Chronicles Compilation (in that case it would run on win 7-11 pcs with the CD of that compilation as this CD doesn´t hold the securom protection any longer and also with the PC Games German download bic when the CD is not used) or a pc with a very old version of windows before the Win 7-update where securom still was supported by microsoft and a Civ 3 Vanilla CD for the installation where the game after installation also can be started by the PC Games patched bic.

I myself have working versions of the Civ Chronicles compilation of Civ 3 Vanilla and C3C installed on my pc and therefore know, that they are still working started with the PC games no-cd patch (but the GOG version of Civ 3 Vanilla, even with the PC Games patch, is not working).

 

[tjs282]

the GOG version of Civ 3 Vanilla, even with the PC Games patch, is not working

Putting my money where my mouth was, earlier today I tested the vanilla civilization3.exe that I currently have in my GOG-installation of C3C on my Win8.1 machine

I'm pretty sure (>99%?) that this .exe file came from the Patchpaket, rather than GOG -- it's ~1.82 MB, the same (predicted post-extraction) size as the civilization3.exe file in the "Civilization 3 PC Games Patch mit Conquest v1.29f (d)" archive-folder -- and it (still) runs without any problems. I just checked the .exe file properties, and no Compatibility-setting is currently set (e.g. for WinXP SP2 or SP3).

@TheShoot: Just FYI, my installation has a 350 kB binkw32.dll file in the D:/Games/GoG/Civilization III Complete/ folder, and the same file (? same size, anyway!) in the ../Civilization III Complete/civ3PTW/ and ../Civilization III Complete/Conquests/ subfolders -- although admittedly I can't remember whether all 3 copies were put there by the installer, or whether I copied the file from one (sub)folder to the other(s) after getting an error-message.

The only minor oddity was that CivAssist apparently couldn't see Vanilla running, so would not auto-update -- even though the .exe filename is correct, as far as I can tell.

 

[Civinator]

I'm pretty sure (>99%?) that this .exe file came from the Patchpaket, rather than GOG -- it's ~1.82 MB, the same (predicted post-extraction) size as the civilization3.exe file in the "Civilization 3 PC Games Patch mit Conquest v1.29f (d)" archive-folder -- and it (still) runs without any problems.

I made an actual test with a many years old upload of the PC Games patch bic for Civ 3 Vanilla, win 10 and the GOG version and the epic game can not be started and a try to open the Civ 3 Vanilla scenario files was blocked with the message that the file is corrupted. As can be seen on the screenshot, that old biq is a little bigger than 1,82 MB. On the other side when trying to start Civ 3 Vanilla with the Civ 3 Chronicles version and that bic, this bic was no longer able to open the epic game either but it could start all scenarios. I will do a new upload of the PC Games Patch and try it again. May be in the pass of the many years something became corrupted in that bic.

Edit: For a new download I would have to accept the PC Games spionage cookies and I don´t want to activate them. On the other side, when tjs282 has checked this with a current download and all worked well with the GOG version, this is the best news possible.