Won't Run on Laptop

[King Rude]

I just get the Civ III picture when I try and start the game, then it just goes back to Windows as if nothing had happened.

Dell Latitude, P3, Win2000, latest drivers, blah, blah, blah ...

Is this a copy protection thing? I actually did buy the game ...

Most annoying.

 

[BusterBunny]

Runs fine on my IBM P3-800.... maybe something about the video card...

 

[ouzzo]

have you tried these tips in the readme file that came with the game:
Troubleshooting:

* Civilization III requires OpenGL support. If you experience problems, make sure to download and install the latest drivers for your videocard and any service pack updates to your operating system.

* If you experience movie performance problems on Windows 2000, replace the binkw32.dll in the folder you installed Civilization III into with the binkw32.dll located on the CD in the \Bink\Win2k folder.

* Under Windows XP, you need to restart the game if you switch users accounts.

* Make sure your video card's hardware acceleration is set to maximum. The game requires DirectX 8.0a to run, and if this setting is less that full many DX8 features are disabled. To can access this setting from the Display control panel.

* Enabling Smoothed Screen Fonts: To enable Font Smoothing, open the Display Control panel, select the Effects tab, and check 'Smooth edges of screen fonts'.

* First edition versions Windows 95 did not include OpenGL, which Civilization III requires. A program named 'opengl95.exe' can be found in the root of the game's CD, which will install the required drivers. NOTE: This is only for first edition versions of Windows 95 that have trouble running Civilization III. If you don't have a first edition version of Windows 95 or you are not having difficulty starting the game, do not install these drivers!

* On Windows 2000, if you experience any problems with fonts or text, make sure to download and install the latest service pack available for this operating system. You can find the latest service pack at www.microsoft.com.


I recommend enabling the font smothing thing.

 

[King Rude]

Thanks for the reply.

The problem turned out to be faulty copy protection that seems to affect certain CD ROM drives. I got it to work by downloading a "cracked" civ3 executable. Not sure how it all works, but I'm glad it does.

Unfortunate problem, but at least I found a way around it.

Thanks again.

 

[PinkyGen]

I think I'm having the same problem. You wouldn't know where I could get a copy of the cracked file.

(P.S. You think they would have noticed this, appears to be a big porblem.)

 

[King Rude]

FYI -

Inforgrames has made a fix available for people experiencing safedisc problems. You just need to go to their tech support site and submit some information about your PC configuration and they will e-mail you a fixed .exe file.

I did that and it works just fine for me now without having to dig around for a "cracked" .exe file.

KR

 

[PinkyGen]

I have done so, but so far they haven't replied yet. *grumbles*
I guess I'll give them a little longer.

 

[Corkmaster]

Like you two guys I bought this game and it will not run.
I to have a Dell Laptop (Inspiron 7500) with much more than the minimum requirements as per the civ3 box; latest drivers I can find at Dell etc.

Tried everything; disabling CD copy software; even swithched the CD burner for a DVD drive.

Just dont get past the opening still; no movie; no error message just back to Windows (98).
Tried disabling the movie; tried the Firaxis update; tried playing civ2; even tried talking to people about other things but this problem keeps nagging at me!

Mailed Firaxis UK for the copy protect patch just before Christmas but have yet to get response.

Really annoying thing is I bought a second laptop the day before I first tried civ3 and if I had known about this problem I actually would have got a desktop instead.