[C3C] Vanilla executable for C3C?

[DigitalWizard]

So, my copy of the game (physical copy, mind you) has no executable for Vanilla Civ 3. I'm sure this has been solved before, but can anyone tell me of a way to remedy this?

 

[Synobun]

That seems questionable. For Conquests to be installed there must be a vanilla executable. Are you 100% positive there is no executable in your Civ3 folder?

 

[DigitalWizard]

Absolutely positive. Apparently, it's a common problem with the Steam copy of C3C as well- the only executable that exists is the one for Conquests alone. I'm also gonna mention that I have tried downloading patch 1.29 for Vanilla Civ in an attempt to acquire a vanilla .exe file, but I either need more than just the executable or it doesn't work.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

That seems questionable. For Conquests to be installed there must be a vanilla executable.

It should exist, but chances are it may not work. Steam, Gamersgate, and some other digital versions only had working executables for C3C/Complete. The Vanilla .exe only seemed to work for some people and the PTW .exe never worked for anyone if it was included.

@DigitalWizard
As I said above, you should have the .exe files for PTW & Vanilla (Found in the civ3PTW & Civilization III Complete folders respectively.), but chances are they won't work. Look here under the spoiler text towards the end for info on d/l'ing the official Vanilla .exe No-CD patch from the German PC Games website.

 

[DigitalWizard]

Apparently, my copy is different. Bought it off of Amazon as "Civilization 3 and 4 Complete", so maybe it had some stuff missing? Under Civ 3 Complete, no file exists. Neither on PTW. But I will try the No-CD patch when I can and see if it works.

EDIT: The link you sent also has dead links regarding the German No-CD patch. Do you still have a link?

 

[Laurana Kanan]

Sorry, there weren't any links in that post, just instructions. Here's the link to the website.

There really should be an .exe named "Civilization3" in the Civilization III Complete folder though. However, there may or may not be one named "Civilization3X" in the civ3PTW folder. Although, now that I think about it, I've not heard of a disc copy not having .exe's for Vanilla and the two expansions. It's really only been the digital copies where they're missing/not working. In any event, the Vanilla No-CD patch should work for you.

 

[DigitalWizard]

Well, there wasn't one in the civPTW folder either, but the No-CD patch worked out great. I've been looking for a way to a. find my save files and b. play vanilla civ for about 6 months now, and they were both answered within days of seeing somebody say, "Hey, the CivFanatics forum is still really active". Thank you guys so much.

 

[Synobun]

It should exist, but chances are it may not work. Steam, Gamersgate, and some other digital versions only had working executables for C3C/Complete. The Vanilla .exe only seemed to work for some people and the PTW .exe never worked for anyone if it was included.

I doubted this because I distinctly remember playing/testing vanilla Civ3 with my Steam installation years ago but decided to reinstall it and find out directly.

It turns out that... you are right. The Steam installation either never came with the vanilla executable or doesn't now. How very strange. What's stranger is that all the necessary files are there; only the executable itself seems to be missing. I could find no documentation from either Valve or Firaxis about this either.

I'm surprised that the more recent discs also come with this issue. I suppose the developers believe that nobody would want to play the vanilla version since Conquests is available.

 

[DigitalWizard]

Maybe...

But anyway, I had one final question before I leave you be- where will the Civ Save files for the No-CD fix be? I just recently put my conquests saves in C3C/Conquests/Saves, so will that screw anything up?

 

[Synobun]

Since the no-CD executable isn't a standalone .exe and uses your actual installation (it just makes it so you don't need your CD confirmation), in theory it should just create a folder in the base folder called Saves (so for me it'd be "Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete > Saves". However it seems like on more modern operating systems that this can be muddied if the game wasn't installed with Administrator rights.

You can always find the exact directory your save files are in by going through the load prompt in-game. You are be able to navigate through folders and get the file path you're looking for by double-clicking on the folder icon with an up-arrow on it and sussing out where it's putting you. This may be a bit trial-and-error-y if your saves are located in one of the User/Local folders.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

But anyway, I had one final question before I leave you be- where will the Civ Save files for the No-CD fix be? I just recently put my conquests saves in C3C/Conquests/Saves, so will that screw anything up?

The Saves folder will be in the same location regardless of the .exe used. The Vanilla game will place it's own saves under ...\Civilization III Complete\Saves, which is a different location than C3C or PTW. Irc, you'll need to start a game first and let the program create an auto-save, or create a save yourself, before the actually folder shows up in the file directory.

 

[Lanzelot]

However it seems like on more modern operating systems that this can be muddied if the game wasn't installed with Administrator rights.

Especially if you install the game in the "C:\Program Files" directory. Starting with Vista, Windows doesn't allow ordinary programs (like Civilization3.exe) to create files under that directory and instead "re-directs" these files into:

C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Infogrames\CivilizationIII\Saves
(And similar for PtW and Conquests sub-directories.)

Installing under "C:\Program Files" also leads to other problems, e.g. when trying to install and run Scenarios. So my advice: don't install the game under "C:\Program Files"... Choose some other directory.

 

[timerover51]

That is odd about the Amazon disc, as I bought a dozen a couple of years ago for a summer class I was running, and the Civ3 Complete discs had all of the versions and ran them. We were running them under Windows XP.