Sound Files Missing?

[Highrad]

I have bought and have been using CIV3 for over a year now.

Just bought and installed Conquest. Installation went well....at least I thought so. Everytime I start to play, I get a MISSING FILE error and the game then shuts down. It is allways a sound file missing. I looked into the sound folders and I do not have any sound files in 3 of the folders??

I checked the Conquest CD and it has big CAB files (500 MB+) that I cannot open to find these files??

I have reinstalled CIV3, Conquest, install patches, etc. several times but I still have the same problem. I actually have this same problem on another computer too??

Anybody have this problem and know a fix? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Mercade]

Have you installed the Patch 1.29F for the original Civilization III game? This patch can be downloaded from the CivFanatics Patch Download page.

You can install this patch after installation of Civ III Conquests. If you have installed that latest patch of the original game, and it still complains about missing sound files, please let us know which sound files it complains about.

When making a bug report, please be as specific as possible, giving the exact message received (or a screen shot of the error window).

 

[Highrad]

Thanks for posting Mercade.

I installed the patch then reinstalled CIV III Conquests and I still have NO SOUND FILES in the following folders:

C:\Civilization 3\Sounds\build\IndModern

C:\Civilization 3\Sounds\build\Middle Ages

C:\Civilization 3\Sounds\Diplomusic

C:\Civilization 3\Sounds\Menu

The variuos Missing Sound file errors point to those locations.

I have been working on this for days. This is the strangest thing I have ever seen. Could someone ZIP their sound files (if you have Civ III Conquests) and email them to me at civ@nuclearstreet.com?

I do not know what to do next? I still waiting on Atari's response to my email requesting help.

 

[Mercade]

Thank you for elaborating, Highrad. The directories you mention are all part of Civ III. They are not modified by the Conquests installation at all. The four directories you mention contain only .MP3 files. In the sounds\build\ancient\ directory there are a heap of .WAV files and also five .MP3 files, that I guess are missing from your system, too.

In total, the .MP3 files are 75 MB in size, so while I would be happy to e-mail them to you, I am not so sure your mailbox would be able to hold them.

There is a partial solution by copying the Sounds directory straight from the original Civ III CD onto your system, because the Sounds directory on the CD does contain the Sounds\menu and Sounds\build subdirectories (but not the other two).

There may be another solution that I am unable to test myself without un-installing Civ (and I am not going to do that). In the installation procedure of Civ III, please check whether there is an option check-box that says something like "Full Install" or "Copy music to PC". Or perhaps there is an option between "Typical Install" and "Custom / Complete Install".

If there is such a choice, then I think you may have picked the smaller of the installation methods, which leaves out the .MP3's (but plays them from the CD when you play Civ III). Of course since with Conquests you have the Conquests CD in the drive, so it cannot find those .MP3's from the Civ III CD.

 

[Highrad]

Mercade you have been a great help!

I was able to take the files off of the CIV3 disk and put them in the correct directories. Like you said, I think this had something to do with the method they were installed on my computer, possibly a minimal installation. This would explain why the game has worked well for over a year and the need for the CD for playing the game.

I also appreciate you trying to email them to me! Thanks again for your help!

 

[Mercade]

You're welcome. Looking in the Instruction Manual for Civilization III, I indeed see that there is a Standard method and a Minimal installation method, that leaves those sound files on the CD-ROM. Since Conquests requires all those files to be present, it is rather unfortunate that the the Conquests Instruction booklet does not make any reference to the requirement of Civ III itself being installed in the Standard mode. Also, the Conquests installation procedure should check whether those files are present, and otherwise instruct the user to make a Standard installation of Civ III before installing Conquests. Something they should have thought of, and something that certainly should be taken into consideration for a next expansion pack, if such a thing ever comes.

Bamspeedy, while not something that could be fixed in a patch, I think it's a new problem that deserves being noted in your summary thread as problem with the installation procedure.