Staff Message Dialogue Box

[ajcantwell]

Following a troublefree installation, I started a scenario (Gauntlet from the GIUK Battleset) to refresh my memory on the controls. Everything was working normally until the staff message dialogue box popped up. The picture of the staffer appears normal on the left, and there is about a one inch gap between the picture and the text box. Some of the text is missing - off the screen to the right and the box cannot be enlarged. Additional messages were the same, and some of the control features were missing as well. I tried several additional scenarios in the GIUK battleset, and at least one scenario in each of the other battlesets, all with the same result. Tried different screen resolutions which did not correct problem.This renders the game unplayable.

In addition, when the game is paused no further action can be taken until the game is resumed. Maybe it's just my failing memory, but has this always been a feature? In ANW I can pause the game and ready aircraft, edit formations, etc.

Specs:

Dell Inspiron E1505 Laptop
T2400 processor @ 1.83 GHz
1 GB RAM
Windows XP SP2 Media Center Edition
1680X1050 Resolution

[TonyE]

Well, you certainly have a nice, hight screen resolution, making what you are seeing rather strange.

Did you by any chance run beta versions of HCE?

Anyway, please try the Windows\Reset menu and see if that helps, if it doesn't, hope is not lost...

[jacm]

Hi Tony

I am having same problem with dialogue boxes and the Windows/Reset didn't work. Any other suggestions?

[mack2]

There is probably a registry hack you could do.

[wombat1417]

This is a corrupt registry problem that has occurred before with earlier versions of Harpoon going back to Harpoon 2002. I wasn't really surprised to have it happen again, but strangely it only occurred on my XP machine and not the Vista.
To fix: 1) From the Start button, select Run and type the word regedit.
          2) Find the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder and expand it through Software/Matrix Games/HCE/Options.
          3) Delete the Options folder.
          4) Run Harpoon again, which will reset all those erased pointers with fresh ones, and all should be well.
 
Note: There is also a Matrix Games folder within the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder.  Do not tamper with this folder.  Among other things, it contains the Serial Number pointer, and erasing will cause the program to crash with an invalid serial number message. You then need to uninstall/reinstall, as i discovered.

[wombat1417]

"Pause" has always brought all proceedings to a dead stop in all versions of Harpoon back to Harpoon DOS.

[TonyE]

Wombat has indeed been there, done that...

For those of you who aren't so regedit inclined I threw together a small utility that clears out the HCE game engine and scenario editor settings. Find it at: http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.ph ... owfile=228

A small technical note, there is no registry corruption, just settings that for one reason or another at one time seemed to make sense for your resolution no longer do. In my case, switching from dual monitors at work to single monitor at home causes me grief, HCE doesn't do proper checks on actual screen resolution, it just works from the previous window positions.

[ajcantwell]

Thanks Wombat. Worked as advertised.

[ajcantwell]

Thanks Tony. The reset did not work but Wombat's registry edit fix did.

[jacm]

Hi Tony

The utility fixed the problem.

Thanks

[DonG]

Thanks Folks,I had the same problem many years ago and it was the main reason to quit playing Harpoon,and since some time now i have the same problem with the HCE version..now after this post the problem is no more..

thanks for the solution guys,...

[Nirab]

Thanks man, you saved the game.