Matrix Games Forums

Just got WIR, installed on Win2000, can only read about half of every word in the game, the rest is displayed as unreadable characters. Anyone have any ideas?

Originally posted by ratman:
Just got WIR, installed on Win2000, can only read about half of every word in the game, the rest is displayed as unreadable characters. Anyone have any ideas?

You wouldn't happen to have a Compaq of some kind would you. It seems like Compaqs have a fairly consistent problem with PacWar similar to this, but I haven't heard of anyone with a problem in WIR. Sorry don't have any ideas on this one.


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Rick Bancroft
Semper Fi

Yes, I've got a Compaq Armada notebook. I wonder what it is that Compaq does that consistently causes the messed-up characters?

Originally posted by ratman:
Yes, I've got a Compaq Armada notebook. I wonder what it is that Compaq does that consistently causes the messed-up characters?

I don't know - they used to produce their own OEM versions of Microsoft OSs, but don't know if they still do. Your problem could also be related to WIN2000, but I don't think so. Nobody with a Compaq having this problem has solved it, unfortunately, that I have heard of.


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Rick Bancroft
Semper Fi

I have a Compaq and Win2000 and WIR and PACWAR run flawlessly on it. The same cannot be said for my Win98 system (non-Compaq) however. WIR runs, PACWAR doesn't unless it is clean DOS boot.

I have a Compaq Presario desktop and I just got the game I have this problem. I makes it hard to play because I have trouble knowing whats going on.

Originally posted by Stug:
I have a Compaq Presario desktop and I just got the game I have this problem. I makes it hard to play because I have trouble knowing whats going on.

Unfortunately still no answer on this font problem. If there was someone in the Denver, CO area having this problem, I could take a look at a system having the problem and try to solve it. I am a tester at work and we have a Compaq for testing our stuff on. I tried both WIR and PacWar on it and neither had problems, so I still don't have a start point for trying to solve the issue.

Sorry all.


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Rick Bancroft
Semper Fi

Be happy your monitors work. Mine fades to black after two minutes with brightness on full. I had it repaired they worked on it for 2 weeks, I brought it home worked for 2 hours then went black, I shut down the computer tried again after a few hours then it faded after a few minutes again.

I got a HP Omnibook 800 laptop with win 95 and a lot of memory, and are experineces the same problem. Had to shift to the old workhorse but after a couple of turns the game chrashed due to unsufficient memory. Any new findings on the subject? Really want to test this.

Originally posted by Eric PJ:
I got a HP Omnibook 800 laptop with win 95 and a lot of memory, and are experineces the same problem. Had to shift to the old workhorse but after a couple of turns the game chrashed due to unsufficient memory. Any new findings on the subject? Really want to test this.

Keep in mind that WIR and PAC are DOS games, so how much memory you have in the machine isn't important. What is important is how much low memory (the first 640k of memory) is available in a DOS box under Windows. Optimizing your available DOS, low, memory means putting as much programs and drivers that you use into "high" memory to free up low memory. Unfortunately, this kind of optimization can't be easily explained since it depends on the hardware you have. Some consider it an artform.

Try showing us your config.sys and autoexec.bat files for your "workhorse". What amount of free ram do you have at the DOS prompt now in your workhorse machine?

If you use dos version, and boot disk from old game will that work? because I have old
boot disk for microprose Task force 1942. It
configs the system to run only the mouse and
shuts out everything else. This is also how
I use second front which I got back in 1989.

Yep, I've posted before on this, and ahve not succeeded with a boot disk, either( see Pac war forum) My dad has a Presario Compaq and he gets the same garbled fonts discussed here on Wir, Pacwar and Disovery Games' War in Europe. The games being rendered visually unplayable does not seem to be a memory problem, but something to do with the graphics interface, I theorize. Any solutions would help. I'm talking about win98 SE. my non Compaq win98 computer runs flawlessly.

And Compaq's tech support said they'd charge me tech support money to allow my old man to play on his computer, as DOS was being "phased out". what jerks.

solutions? so far , none have worked

thanks, Sergio