The Deal of the Week, part two!

[baloo7777]

Thanks for checking. I'll check the forum tomorrow night. If all is good, than I will be signing up for one or both (see, having your kids grow up and leave the house CAN be a good thing...more time and $ for gaming)!!! BTW, I think this Deal of the week was a great idea and hope it continues for some time to come.[:D]

[junk2drive]

I have Windows 8 on a modest desktop. I installed the Watchtower Mega Campaign and the orginal 7.1 version of SPWAW that came with it. I have no problems with graphics other than some stange pixels in the splash screens but I don't care. With the windows key and prt scn I took a shot of the game. It saves it as a png. Unfortunately it saves it as 800x600 but my desktop is 1440x900. I had to open the shot in Paint.net and resize it to 1440x900 to show you what it looks like. This shot is NOT as clear as the actual game on my screen. To me it is almost as good as the original on a 4:3 ratio CRT, but the text is stretched a bit for my wide screen LED.

Edit I do not use the work arounds with W8

[Dragoon.]

ORIGINAL: Max 86

Thanks for the answers. I guess I will pass on this sale. Don't want to spend $30 on a 'maybe it will work if you do some tricks' type of game. Hopefully Matrix will put games on sale that work with current operating systems instead of these old XP compatible games.

You should give them a chance. Both these games were for many people here their first contact with Matrix Games or war gaming. Many got hocked up and stayed because of them including me. By all means this week deals are all time classics and Hall of Famers of War Gaming.

Take a look at this thread "What Brought You to Matrix Games" to see how much impact both these games had here on gamers.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
The entire idea behind this though was to test some sales on our back catalog.

Then at least try it with something decent! [8|] This is totally.. well I won't say as you guys guys allegedly know so much more about the market than anybody else... ahem.

Sorry, but what new customers are going to be tempted by a decade old game that was made obsolete by WitP, or an expanded edition of a game that looks two decades old, needs 'tweaking' to run on modern OSs and that you give away for free anyway?! Sure, there are reasons for grogs to buy both and the Generals Edition in particular might tempt a few buys, but beyond that - a total waste of time that 'tests' nothing.

Try it for a week with Field of Glory. Or the 'Commander' games. Or Decisive Battles. Or particularly anything with an upcoming expansion pack (you know, like everyone else does - thus also increasing sales of the expansion pack.) Games like Endless Space and StarDrive are currently introducing many new players to the space '4X' genre - who are NOT buying Distant Worlds partly because they don't know about it but mostly because it's so expensive in comparison to everything else (including 'Armada' bought anywhere else) and not superior or unique enough to justify it.

[Ranger33]

I for one was really excited to see SPWAW GE for that price. I know I can get most of the game for free (and I've toyed around with the game before) but the mega campaigns have always sounded really exciting and I can't wait to try them out. I just was never, ever, going to spend $70 for them, but $30 is pretty reasonable for the amount of content. This is exactly the sort of the thing I was hoping for with these sales, older games at prices more suited to older games.

I wouldn't put Endless Space up against Distant Worlds at all, it's not even close to the same experience. StarDrive I have not played so I won't comment, but I will say that among the half-dozen space 4x games I've picked up over the last few years, only DW keeps me coming back for more. I think some kind of bundle deal is certainly in order at this point though. No one in their right mind is going to fork over $100+ to get everything, especially with no demo.

[budd]

Just a thought but matrix should post the descriptions of the mega campaigns that were there when they were being sold by themselves. I only played the desert fox one( I believe that was name) but it was unique and well done. Just so people understand more about them.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: Ranger33

I wouldn't put Endless Space up against Distant Worlds at all, it's not even close to the same experience.

Agreed, but you have to play them both to know, hence..

I think some kind of bundle deal is certainly in order at this point though. No one in their right mind is going to fork over $100+ to get everything, especially with no demo.

Exactly. One thing '4X' peeps are used to is more of 'the game' being released in subsequent chunks, and those expansions being necessary for the 'full experience'. New buyers therefore want the lot from the off with an 'old' game (as they get with GalCiv, SotS, Sins, etc) rather than even consider 'base game first then expansions later if I like it'. And they won't pay that for it.

[Max 86]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi Max 86,

ORIGINAL: Max 86
Thanks for the answers. I guess I will pass on this sale. Don't want to spend $30 on a 'maybe it will work if you do some tricks' type of game. Hopefully Matrix will put games on sale that work with current operating systems instead of these old XP compatible games.

We already did put other games on sale and there are more deals of the week on the way. The entire idea behind this though was to test some sales on our back catalog. These are great games and in fact this one does work with Windows 7 but we can't advertise it as such because it does not work perfectly out of the box. The work-around exists (instead of an official update) only because it is no longer in active development and was originally released in 2000, though updated for many years thereafter.

In any case, I understand your decision, but it's not "maybe" it will work, it will work but just not out of the box. The work-around works fine.

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks for your response Erik. Let me apologize if my comments seemed harsh or overly critical. There does seem to be some players that can not get it to work but the evidence suggests they are in the minority. I guess its a PC by PC basis.

I want to thank you for the game sales recently and Matrix will end up getting my money one way or another but probably not with this one. Probably Battle Academy or more Ageod titles, not sure yet.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,

Mike

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Hertston,

ORIGINAL: Hertston
Then at least try it with something decent! [8|] This is totally.. well I won't say as you guys guys allegedly know so much more about the market than anybody else... ahem.

Sorry, but what new customers are going to be tempted by a decade old game that was made obsolete by WitP, or an expanded edition of a game that looks two decades old, needs 'tweaking' to run on modern OSs and that you give away for free anyway?! Sure, there are reasons for grogs to buy both and the Generals Edition in particular might tempt a few buys, but beyond that - a total waste of time that 'tests' nothing.

Give it some time, we're not planning on stopping this week. You know, some of the games we've put on sale the last two weeks are exactly the ones that have been suggested by others in the past as well. I guess this falls in the realm of you can't make everyone happy.

Games like Endless Space and StarDrive are currently introducing many new players to the space '4X' genre - who are NOT buying Distant Worlds partly because they don't know about it but mostly because it's so expensive in comparison to everything else (including 'Armada' bought anywhere else) and not superior or unique enough to justify it.

As far as the quality of Distant Worlds, I'd have to disagree, but I understand the concerns on pricing. We're actually planning a significant discount bundle for the Distant Worlds series when the new Shadows expansion releases later this month.

Regards,

- Erik

[VPaulus]

ORIGINAL: **budd**

Just a thought but matrix should post the descriptions of the mega campaigns that were there when they were being sold by themselves. I only played the desert fox one( I believe that was name) but it was unique and well done. Just so people understand more about them.

Screaming Eagles:
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/290 ... ing.Eagles

Lost Victories:
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/289 ... .Victories

Watchtower 1942
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/291 ... tower.1942

Desert Fox 1941:
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/288 ... t.Fox.1941

[Alan Sharif]

Want to add my voice to those thanking you for the 'deals of the week'. Whilst these current titles are not of interest I brought 'Forge of Freedom' last week and already have my eye on a couple of other titles should/when they become available.

[tcarusil]

Tried the Steel Panthers fix for Windows 7, but no go. I unzip in the main SP file, the screen flashed, a dos window appeared momentarily, then nothing. I posted for suggestions in the SP forum, but no answers.

TomC

[Dragoon.]

Try one of these tool I uploaded to my mediafire account.
http://www.mediafire.com/?j75bym3nffykb

I used them originally to fix the problems with Starcraft but they should work for all games that compatibility issues with DirectDraw.

Here my original post at the Windows 7 Forums.
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/2981- ... post883615

[parusski]

ORIGINAL: Max 86

Thanks for the answers. I guess I will pass on this sale. Don't want to spend $30 on a 'maybe it will work if you do some tricks' type of game. Hopefully Matrix will put games on sale that work with current operating systems instead of these old XP compatible games.

No, don't pass it up. The fix DOES work and it is really easy.

[baloo7777]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

As far as I know, UV works fine on Windows 8. I can double check that tomorrow. Yes, the Windows 7 work-around should work fine with Windows 8. I can also double-check that.

As far as I know, UV works fine on Windows 8. I can double check that tomorrow.

Did you find out if UV works on WIN 8? Anyways, I saw enough posts to make me want the SPWAW-GE for my laptop w/win 8 (coming from XP its a drag)! The price is right, and SP first brought me to Matrix Games!

[Qwixt]

So I downloaded the SPWaW from the links in the forum. I applied the affinity fix so that it uses only one core, and it did not work properly until I set some compatibility options. Namely, set it to

x Run in 256 colors
x Disable Visual themes
x Disable desktop composition

I think the key is "Run in 256 colors". Possibly the affinity helped too, not sure.

I did this for mech.exe and spwaw.exe. It seems to work fine now. The only problem I have is that window scrolls way too fast. I need to use the minimap to scroll the window.

[mbar]

ORIGINAL: parusski

ORIGINAL: Max 86

Thanks for the answers. I guess I will pass on this sale. Don't want to spend $30 on a 'maybe it will work if you do some tricks' type of game. Hopefully Matrix will put games on sale that work with current operating systems instead of these old XP compatible games.

No, don't pass it up. The fix DOES work and it is really easy.

No, don't pass it up. The fix DOES work and it is really easy.

With respect to all. IF this is so easy to fix why isn't this integrated with the installer?

[Ranger33]

In the preferences screen there is a scroll delay option. Setting it to 2 seems best for me. I wish there was a 2.5 though.

ORIGINAL:
I did this for mech.exe and spwaw.exe. It seems to work fine now. The only problem I have is that window scrolls way too fast. I need to use the minimap to scroll the window.

Having a blast with SPWAW so far. I usually play CMx2 for tactical stuff, but have found it a bit too tedious to play lately. SPWAW is so much easier to just get right in and start playing. No triple checking LOS so your MG's position isn't off by one inch, yadda yadda. Plus being able to fight in every single theater is so exciting. So many options, I don't know where to go first!

[baloo7777]

Got and downloaded SPWAW-GE to my new WIN 8 laptop and it is working great right away without any work-arounds! Even the artillery (fighter bombers at least) is working without needing to hold the shift key down, which I have to do on my old WIN XP desktop with the free version!

[Greyshaft]

I have three of the four games offered so far - that's not a complaint, merely an observation.
I'm sure there will be other deals that I do take up so please keep the deals coming.