Civ4 & Windows Me

[thomascolthurst]

Has anyone gotten to Civ4 to work with Windows Me? (Even a "No, I've tried
and it didn't work" response would be appreciated).

I've tried running it on two different computers, both running on Windows Me.
On both, I had no problems installing, and both computers were able to play
the 2K games and Firaxis startup animations, albeit with choppy sound.
On the first computer, the text was missing from all windows and almost all
of the world graphics were missing once the game actually started (but I could
see most of the icons, get descriptions of the tiles I moused over, call up
the Civilipedia, etc.) I should add that this first computer also had a below
minimum requirements video card (a NVIDIA RIVA TNT 64).

The second computer had a compatible video card and everything ran fine
right up to end of world initialization/Leonard Nimoy "The world began ..."
animation, at which point it consistently crashed.

The combination of these two experiences leads me perhaps unreasonably
to hope that with a little tinkering, Civ4 could be made to work under Windows
Me. Perhaps a nice Firaxis employee might shed some insight on this
possibility?

Many thanks in advance,
-Thomas C

 

[Lucky The Fox]

I think I remember someone telling that it works perfectly under his ME. Which is kind of hard to believe, considering the way ME handles memory.

 

[maartena]

The minimum system requirements are telling me Windows 2000 or Windows XP. However, since DirectX 9.0c is also available for Windows 98 and Me, I don't see it being impossible to get the game to work, provided you have all the right hardware - especially on the Video Card side.

Personally though, I hate Windows 98 and Me. Any 9x OS cannot address memory above 512 Mb for instance so if you have more its a waste. There is a "fix" that prevents Win9x from crashing when you have more then 512 Mb, but all that fix really does is set the hard limit for adressing memory so it doesn't use anything above 512 and therefore it doesn't crash anymore.

If you can upgrade to Windows XP I would recommend it. Also, the Riva TNT does not support hardware T&L so I wouldn't keep my hopes up of getting it to run on that hardware.

 

[Lucky The Fox]

The minimum system requirements are telling me Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Not quite. It only says that they're supported.

 

[maartena]

Not quite. It only says that they're supported.

I haven't got the box handy since I am work now, but the requirements on the site are:

Minimum System Requirements

Operating System: Windows? 2000/XP
Processor: 1.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
Memory: 256 MB RAM (Windows 2000) / 512 MB RAM (Windows XP)
Hard Disk Space: 1.7 GB Free
CD-ROM Drive : 4X Speed
Video: DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB video card with Hardware T&L support ( GeForce 2/Radeon 7500 or better)
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher


It says "required" not "supported".

I have no idea what the question mark is doing there though.... maybe they aren't too sure about it yet.

 

[Lucky The Fox]

Oh, I see. But at least the European box lists 2k and XP under 'supported operating systems'. There's no word of Windows in requirements, minimum or recommended.

 

[Monty Zoomer]

Yes it does run under Windows ME. Very sluggishly, but its stable - at least for me. More detail here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135971&page=2