8.2 still failing to load...new info-HELP

[Jamminji]

I was lucky enough to have a friend send me a zipped version of 8.2 because I could not get it to download. My problem is that it fails in the EXACT same way (see my other posts) when I try to unzip it... VERY ODD. It will copy to my hard drive (7gig free), but when I uzip it, it gets about 3/4 the way through and then BANG, the blue screen of death. I must reboot, and during re-bbot it scans my drives and finds a corupted file of about 400meg, with the option to save as a txt file or delete. I just delete it. This is the same thing it did when I tried to download it also. I would hit, download and save file, and it would download close to the end then fail the same way, blue screen of death. I am 99% sure it is not my computer because I have an old exe of 8.0 (430meg) and it copies to the HD and starts to install just fine. I thought maybe it was something with my zip software (although it works fine for everything else), so I got the newest winzip 9 (very nice btw) and it still fails when I try to unzip. I could be a coincidence and it is a corupted zip but since I do not have the exe I can not determine that.

my system...

win98se
p3 500mhz
768mb memory
200gig storage about 60gig open
tnt2 nvida graphics card
sound blaster pci 128 sound card

Everything works GREAT EXCEPT for 8.2!!

Any help would be most appreciated...

jam

[plloyd]

Send me a beer and your address, and I will send you a real copy.

[Jamminji]

Thanks for the offer... I was able to install it but it again failed just before the end. It looks like I got the majority installed but...

Could someone email me the mech.exe file (only about 3mb)?

Also, if that does not work maybe if I can get a count or verify of how many (objects)there are in each directory (just the ones under the root). I could see which ones I am missing and get just those. I am grasping at straws here but I may be playing 8.2! with some assistance. I will get a list together and post it

thanks
jam
jamminji@surewest.net

[Jamminji]

Well New info... First off thank you yo those that sent the mech.exe... NO LUCK!

I gave the ZIP CD to a friend and it loads and runs fine! Sooooo I guess it is that 1% chance that my system will not run 8.2... I give up I will not wipe my disks and reload windows and reinstall every program I have just to find out 8.2 still does not work.

LOL... A friend of mine got Pinnacle video editing software and I installed it for him... GUESS WHAT... it did not work. Well I asked for help and all I got from tech support was it is your machine(His) and that I needed to reinstall or reload windows or, or or, etc. Well guess what I found one post on their forums that if you install it to another drive it screws up, and it gave a patch to fix the pointers.... Well GUESS WHAT... lol it works great now! My friend was amazed that I was able to get it working. What a simple fix! Can you imagine the feeling if we would have reinstalled (no luck) then reinstalled windows (no luck)...geeez.

I know that it is something simple with my machine too... I just do not know what. The error I get says something about an error in vcache. Anyone know anything about that program in MS? I went to window control and set the virtual memory from 0 min/ no max back to auto. But that did not help.

jam

[PeteBull]

nt

[Hexed Gamer]

Have you tried asking for a dvd (not cd) of the game burned to dvd exactly as it exists installed?

Most don't think of this I suspect, but as the game is a complete install when it does, it doesn't matter where the files come from as long as they are intact.

So a person could install the game, then burn the entire game folder to a dvd (I say dvd, because the game with MCs can eventually expand to a 1.47 gig folder size).

This will seem unusual as most games don't actually install EVERYTHING to the hard drive. This is the case with Steel Panthers though.

[Darrell]

Jamminji - If you do solve your problem, let me know how you did it. I'm having the same problem. I download from a mirror site, but it downloads as an Adobe pdf file and will not open > it says corrupted or missing files. One response said to change the file extension from pdf to .exe > I tried, but no luck. I'm still intersted in getting SP W@W v.8.2, but I can't screw over my whole system to do it. Best! Darrell

[Voriax]

Darrel, it should download as .zip file which has nothing to do with adobe acrobat. If your system associates .zip files with Acrobat then I'd say you system is already screwed up. You should use power archiver or equivalent compressing software to open the zip file. Inside the zip file is one large .exe file. Doubleclicking this file should start the installer. I just tried couple mirror sites and the downloads started just fine. If you change extensions change from pdf to zip and try uncompressing.

Voriax

[Jamminji]

Hexed Gamer... I think that is a great idea! But I do not have a DVD player. Do you know what the minimum istalled size would be for 8.2? I could then get the senarios/campaigns separatly. I fact maybe this technigue would even work by splitting up the installed directories on multiple cds. I have a friend that installed the cd I was given (thanks VikingNo1), and he has a cd burner. I will try that and let you all know.

jam

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: Hexed Gamer

Have you tried asking for a dvd (not cd) of the game burned to dvd exactly as it exists installed?

Most don't think of this I suspect, but as the game is a complete install when it does, it doesn't matter where the files come from as long as they are intact.

So a person could install the game, then burn the entire game folder to a dvd (I say dvd, because the game with MCs can eventually expand to a 1.47 gig folder size).

This will seem unusual as most games don't actually install EVERYTHING to the hard drive. This is the case with Steel Panthers though.

And what about the registry entries [;)] , hmm

[Hexed Gamer]

As Marc mentioned, if you install through the install process, it loads all that "stuff" when a program normally "installs".

Simply dumping a game on the hard drive means no start menu set up etc etc etc.

But, I do know this much, the game does work if just dumped on the system. I do it all the time, or rather I have shoved Steel Panthers around my computer in all manner of fashions in the past.

Regarding zip. Gamershell offers the game as a zipped file (I didn't recall that). They do this so they can pack a web link and a notepade file, plus it reduces over all file size from 429 down to 425 megs). The file inside though (the game file), is still a .exe file (or was the last time I looked myself). Not sure if other mirrors are set up that way (I have only ever used Worthplaying and Gamershell).

Not having a dvd drive is a nuisance I guess (they seem common around here, but that is around here too I suppose).