Desert Fox 1941

[Rhodan]

Yes yes Yes I am a tad slow I know!

Finally got to download it and I run into problems as described here:

http://www.matrixgames.com/default.asp? ... orumid%3D9

As you can see the solutions offered there did not work for most , the problem seems to kick in right at the time the installer software is trying to mess around with the registry. Did any of you guys had similar problem and managed to work their way around it? If so I would very very much like to hear how you did it.

Don't start with that search thing..I did and frankly the list that popped up only discouraged me more *L*

Here's hoping...

Rho out.

[Wild Bill]

With more details, I might be able to help, Rhodan. We'll start with some basics.

Inside your SPWAW Folder there should be a "Megacam" folder.

As pertains to Desert Fox, you should see in there...

Megacam\The Desert Fox-41 (A folder that contains all DF files)
Megacam\The Desert Fox-41.cfg (this is the file that shows the campaign and kicks it off)
Megacam\Mainsplash.lbm
Megacam\Save (another folder where your save files go)

Is this what you have in your megacam folder? Do you have all of these?

Tell me what you see when you look inside your megacam folder?

WB

[Rhodan]

Thanks for taking the time and effort Wild Bill

Allright, I am running on Windows XP Pro in case that makes a difference. I downloaded the installer called Desertfox1941downloadonlySerialNumbers which is approx 30.4 Mb in size . That was my first alarmbell...30.4 mb? I thought these things came shipped SPWAW? Anyway, an educated guess tells me that I can download SPwaw seperately so why put it in DesertFox, right...or did I do something wrong?

Allright, now for your helfpul questions:

I installed in E:\Matrix Games\Steel Panthers World At War\MegaCam Simply because my C and D drive are full so I REALLY hope I am not stuck with having to follow the default path ( e.g. Having to install SPWaW on my C drive) ...

Inside that Megacam folder I do notice the following:

- 1 folder named The Desert-Fox 41
- 1 folder named save
- but NO The Desert Fox-41.cfg

which prolly also explain why the whole campaign does not show up in the list?

Once again, thanks for taking the time WB , highly appreciated

[Wild Bill]

That is precisely your problem, Rhodan. Here is what you should do.

1. First look inside the Megacam\Desert Fox folder and see if the file, "The Desert Fox-41.cfg" is there. If so, move it from there to the Megacam directory. That is the file that starts the game for you.

2. If you don't have it, here is how to make one.

3. Open your notepad in Windows.

4. Type in exactly as here, "The Desert Fox-41." It must be exactly the same name as the Desert Fox folder.

5. Save as "The Desert Fox-41.cfg." Type all of that including the extension, into the save as box. Then save it in the Megacam directory. If you don't do this, the notepad will save it with a .txt extension and if won't work.

Once you have done that, see if you now see the game in the Megacam directory.

If you have a problem with this, write me an e-mail and I'll zip up a cfg file and send it to you so you can load it into the megacam directory.

Let me know...WB

[Wild Bill]

Better still, here is the cfg file zipped up for you. You can download from here, unzip it and place it into your megacam directory. This should make it all work.
WB

[Rhodan]

Allright, that at least put the game up in the list, now I seem to face the second part of the problem as mentioned in that other thread: a large series of " Unable to load oob data "

[Wild Bill]

Then that means that the Megacam exe cannot find the scenarios. Usually that indicates that you don't have your folders set up properly or the scenarios are nested in a directory that Megacam cannot find.

SO...

Look at your SPWAW directory.

It should look something like this:

C:\Matrix Games\SPWAW\Megacam\The Desert Fox-41

Now INSIDE, I repeat, INSIDE "The Desert Fox-41" folder there should be NO directories or folders.

Look inside your Desert Fox folder. Are there folders inside? If so, you will have to go into those folders and move those files out to the main "The Desert Fox-41" folder.

I am sure that is your problem...WB

[STEELER13]

Yo Wild Bill,
I have also had problems loading MCNA and MCLV when I received them over the Summer--BTW, Thank you Matrix for re-selling these greats!
Being a little computer savvy I was able to figure out which files and folders went where, but I still got stuck until I saw in an old post about renaming the "Matrix Games" folder to "MatrixGames" no space!
Guess my point is please advise powers that be to look into the install feature of the game to make it "user-friendly" for the newbies getting into SPWAW and the FANTASTIC MegaCampaigns.

Thank you!

[Rhodan]

Allright Wild Bill, that seemed to do the trick, it would seem the program created a nesting folder within the main folder. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk me through this. I plan to enjoy MCDF now

- slap on the fingers of Matrix for not fixing this install bug that showed up on the boards some time ago. This was downright sloppy, sorry guys.

- another slap for not taking the time to reply to my email last tuesday(wednesday?), letting me at least know it was received and my concerns looked into.

- last but not least, I do not know who to look at for this , but I really dont appreciate any kind of software being installed on my computer , be it spyware, adware or whatever, by either Matrixgames or it's distribituor. Both installing SPWaW7.1 and MCDF my firewall went beserk, telling me a program called SUF60runtime had tried to access the Net. This puppy seems to be linked to somethign called irsetup.exe , which in turn resides int he temp folder while installing takes place. If this program serves a useful purpose such as checking for newer versions etc then, ofcourse, I will withdraw this complaints immediately.

I am really not the kind of guy that complains easily about software, and I can live with bugs within the code, but sheesh... this was something that could have been dealt with some time ago.

WB, once again, thanks for taking the time to help me through, I owe you one

[Wild Bill]

Thanks gentlemen!

Glad I could be of help. THe problem is in the path set up by the program when installing. Each person who installs should read carefully the final path setup when it appears in the box.

Remember, it is set up to add "The Desert Fox-41" or whatever the name of the MC might be.

When installing and having the choice to decide where it goes, each purchaser of MCs should review that path carefully and be sure that the installation program does not "add" to your chosen path.

That should be corrected. I agree. It should have been corrected. I am sorry that it has not been. That one is beyond the scope of my efforts.

I think if enough folks let Matrix know about this, it might be changed.

When MC-SE is submitted, I will remind them too.

As to replies from the Matrix office, here again I cannot explain or reply. I will apologize even though I am not responsible for the lack of response.

If I can be of any further help, let me know, my friends. I want you to enjoy the game. That was why I and these great MC teams have prepared them.

Wild Bill

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

I always meddle with the install path of everything eh.

After having worked on MC-SE, I think I can now install MCs and all the patches etc etc with my eyes closed heheh.

It's all in those mindlessly small details guys, look carefully at the install strings when ever you load anything Steel Panthers. That includes decompressing files.

[gmenfan3]

You guys missed the most obvious of them all. Here is a posting from my former self, outlining the problems with the D/L installs.

The default path C:\Matrix Games\Steel Panthers World At War\MegaCam\(MegaCampaign name here) is wrong!!!!!!! Install it to the path suggested below. This is the correct path C:\MatrixGames\Steel Panthers World at War Delete the space between MatrixGames and everthing after War. You can install it to the path with the space between Matrix Games but this will only work if this is where your original core installation of SPWAW went.

And yes it's who you think it is, I was really bored at work. :sleep:

[jkania5]

following the guidelines in this thread, I got desert fox installed.

I got rid of the sub folder megacam/desert fox-41 and copied the files into the correct folder.

I downloaded and put the .cfg file in the right place.

3 questions:

I still have 5 sub folders: enc, ibm, pic, shp, & snd. Should the files in them be moved to the main folder as I read above?

I reinstalled desert fox again on top of itself and it still gives the same errors at the end:
could not move file(s) #3, line 3
could not copy file(s) #3, line 6
could not copy file(s)#3, line 9

I can open desert fox and get into the 1st battle. Far as I went.

what effect does those error msgs have on the game?

thanks,

Joe

[Wild Bill]

Read again what should be inside the Megacam directory, Joe. Those other directories you mentioned, enc, lbm, snd, etc, should be in the main SPWAW directory.

The error messages, if you have made all the corrections listed in this thread, should not affect the game for you.

Once all files and directories are where they should be, you should be able to play through the Mega Campaign.

Wild Bill

[Wild Bill]

I re-read your post again, Rhodan.

I have no idea what kind of program would be inside this installation file that would try to open your computer to the net. I too have a firewall installed in my computer but never got any such warnings or activities. But then I installed mine some time ago.

It might be something that you should mention directly to Matrix and see what the response is. I don't blame you. That would concern me too.

Wild Bill

[jkania5]

Thank you Wild Bill.

I copied the files in those 5 directories into the same folders in the main SPWAW directory. Each had 1 or 2 files in them.

Again, Thanks,

Joe

[Wild Bill]

My pleasure! I hope it works well for you.

WB

[KGrob]

Punt to the top for reference.

[KGrob]

bump to the top for tech issue