New Solution for Windows XP (SP2) Users

[MisterAdo]

Hello,

After installing the Planetary Pack for Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire, I quickly discovered that the suggested fix found at Fraxis did not work. Well, it does but there's one extra step involved. Right click all of your executable for the game and go to properties. Once in properties, select the compatibility tab; leave everything alone (you don't have to switch the tab to 98/me, 95, or any other compatibility mode). Instead, uncheck the 'turn advance text settings on;' or opposite to what it's set at. Click 'ok' and play!

 

[5cats]

Cool, I wish I'd know that, to try earlier. I got it to run eventually. Also, I don't have the Planet Pack Well, I think I might, but it refused to work, so I ended up with SMAC and AlienX, working)

 

[wassname]

It didn't work for me But I've tryed so many things.

Can you tell me your other settings in your "alpha centauri.ini" file, in the main directory?

And if you have disabled graphic acceleration in contol panel -> display -> settings -> advanced -> troubleshooting

Thanks

 

[ozymandyus]

I've had no luck at even getting it to install myself. Although there are many threads devoted to it, I've yet to find one that offered any instructions on how to do so. They all just say something to the effect of "I got it running".

 

[Percy]

Same here... when i click "install" (or when i manually launch setup.exe), it does nothing. There's the hourglass briefly, and then it disappear.
In the processes list, there is "wowexec" (which is used to run programs from older windows versions, i believe) and setup.exe, but both are using no ressources. I don't know what to do, i've tried changing the compatibility options on setup.exe, but it didn't work, as expected.
Any help from you guys? This is really frustrating =/

EDIT: btw, i'm using XP Pro SP2.

 

[Petek]

If setup.exe doesn't run, try the following. These tips are longshots, but have actually helped some folks.

* Run setup.exe from a command prompt.
* Do you have the file autoexec.nt in your C:\WINDOWS\System32 folder? If not, it might be in C:\WINDOWS\REPAIR. Copy it to the System32 folder.
* Look at this link. If you already tried various compatibility options, this link probably won't help.
* If all this fails, then I suspect a DirectX problem.

 

[Percy]

ok, thanks for the help =)
unfortunately, nothing worked.
- when i run setup.exe from a command line, i get the same result as described in my first post.
- i do have this file. to make sure it wasn't corrupted somehow, i did replace it by the version in Repair, but they were exactly the same anyway (size, date).
- i've tried doing the compatibility options by hand, trying with Win95 and Win98, only checking the option relative to XP Themes (i don't think the setup needs 256 colours and/or 640x480 resolution).
- DirectX is the most recent version, could that be the problem?

Again, thanks for your help =)

 

[Petek]

You could try reinstalling DirectX (found here).

Other suggestions:

* Disable anti-virus programs and any unnecessary running processes.
* Clean the CD.
* Copy the CD to your hard drive and try running setup from there.
* Update sound and video drivers, if not already current.

Since the game installs without problems on most XP systems, your system must have some incompatibility. If none of the above suggestions help, please post your DXDIAG file (Start, Run, dxdiag. Wait until program finishes, then select Save All Information.) and I'll be glad to take a look.

 

[Petek]

Two other thoughts:

* Do the Event Viewer logs show any errors when you run setup.exe? (Start, Run, eventvwr)

* Same question for the Doctor Watson log. You can find the location of this log with Start, Run, drwtsn32. It's a text file that can be opened in Notepad.

 

[Percy]

Thanks for your interest in my problem, it's much appreciated =)

To answer your suggestions point by point:
- I didn't reinstall DirectX from this link because it requires Windows Genuine Something, and i don't want to send ANY personal info to Microsoft (yeah right, they say they won't use it, like i believe them ^^). I might get it from another game or something. My current version is 9.0c, so it should be ok, but maybe it isn't. Result of DxDiag is attached. Doing all the various tests in DxDiag resulted in no error at all.
- CD is clean, i've tried copying, and i've tried making an image and installing from there: no result.
- Video and sound drivers are at most from a month ago, so as far as AC is concerned, it should be alright ^^
- The Event Viewer and Doctor Watson show nothing related to AC, a setup.exe file, or anything.

My system is: XP SP2, Athlon XP 1800+, 512 MB RAM, GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB, using Kerio Sunbelt Firewall and avast! Anti-Virus. The latter had been deactivated (and later shut down) when i tested the installation.
I'm an experienced user, but i must admit i'm at a loss with this problem, i simply don't get it. I'll try to install it in Safe Mode, you never know... I'll edit in the results later.

EDIT: okay, it's installing right now, in Safe Mode. I guess that, considering i had shut down other running tasks in my previous attempts, it clearly indicates that the responsible is a running service. I'll have to use trial and error to determine which one ^^ I hope the game will RUN now =D Thanks a lot for your help, and if you have any idea what the service could be, please let me know, thank you =)

 

[Petek]

It's great to hear that you got the setup program to run

I didn't think about using Safe Mode. That's a good tip to remember.

I thought that the dxdiag file would show running processes/services, but it apparently does not.

Did you ever try switching your system to a lower resolution and fewer colors (as opposed to making the change in compatibility mode) and then running setup? It works fine on my system running 1280x1024 and 32-bit colors, but you have a different video card. Might be worth a try to see if that was the problem.

If the resolution/colors setting are not the problem, and if you still want to ID the problem, post your services in a text file (run the Microsoft System Info tool) and I'll take a look.

Hope that the game nows runs for you after all that work!

 

[Percy]

Okay, after i've seriously tackled this, i've found what was the process responsible: it was not my Anti-Virus, but my FIREWALL (yeah, because we all know that firewalls should meddle with applications... NOT).
I'm using the free version of Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall, and am gonna post on their support forums shortly about this problem.

Well, now i'm off to enjoy Alpha Centauri =) Thanks a heap Petek, your help and tips were very helpful. I hope this will help others too! Cheers!

 

[ozymandyus]

Okay, after i've seriously tackled this, i've found what was the process responsible: it was not my Anti-Virus, but my FIREWALL (yeah, because we all know that firewalls should meddle with applications... NOT).
I'm using the free version of Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall, and am gonna post on their support forums shortly about this problem.

Interestingly enough, I use the full (paid) version of Kerio firewall, and after reading this decided to give one last try at installing Alpha Centauri on my XP machine. Using your suggestion I first disabled the Kerio firewall. Lo and behold, the install worked like a champ. Applied the voxel config line and XP patch, and all was running fine. I found that once the game was actually installed, it was ok to turn the firewall back on...it was just the installation apparently that was jacked up by Kerio.

What was truly odd about this is that Kerio never popped up an error message, never said it was blocking anything...no indication at all. But there's no denying that SOMEthing was being blocked. Weird stuff.

Anyway, if you start a support thread with them about it, drop a link to it here. I'll post my two cents' worth as well to support your issue.

 

[Percy]

I'm glad it helped you =)
I've noticed that the FW only blocked _some_ 16-bit applications, not all. I've tried installing 2 different 16-bit applications, including AC, and both setup.exe were blocked. But i could still run MS's "sysedit" program without problem.
Unfortunately, i have not been able to post anything about this, because they simply don't appear to have a support forum. The support i could find was "download the documentation", period. Maybe i didn't look well enough, if you find such a forum, please let me know =)

 

[redfirebird87]

I apologize in advance for bumping an old thread, but as i see in my search there are plenty of threads about the issue with Alien crossfire and new machines, i didn't want to add clutter to you guys' board.

i have a problem that i haven't seen repeated here, and I’m hoping someone can help. I've installed the compatibility update, i have the updates for Alpha Centuari and Alien Crossfire as well as the .ini tweak.

I can GET THE GAME TO RUN.. it runs fine if i hit quick start. But, if i try to customize the rules, or planet, or do anything aside from hit quick start, i get the terrane.icd has generated an error. Is this a common issue, and if so, can one of you all explain to me what the fix is?

Any serious response is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[YNCS]

When I got my new Dell a couple of months ago, I tried to install SMAC and SMAX. I could get to the first menu and then I'd get a CTD with mystery message off to Microsoft. I'll try the quick start.

 

[robert-ns]

Disable windows firewall before you reinstall the game, only thing that worked for me when i had to reinstall both SMAC & SMACX.

 

[tsuyoshikentsu]

I can GET THE GAME TO RUN.. it runs fine if i hit quick start. But, if i try to customize the rules, or planet, or do anything aside from hit quick start, i get the terrane.icd has generated an error. Is this a common issue, and if so, can one of you all explain to me what the fix is?

I know that this is a terribly old thread, but the solution to this problem isn't listed on these boards (that I could find) and it's always better to post in an existing, etc.

Try uninstalling the XP compatibility pack (just the pack, not the game), killing Windows Firewall, and reinstalling the pack. Had the same problem, and it worked for me.

 

[Bllasae]

Maybe you should download SP3, too.