Whats up with Steel Panthers 3 and 2..Why dont they work anymore?

Chief Wiggum · Post by **Chief Wiggum** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 9:16 am

Hello all!,

Sorry I havent been around lately to post and questions, but I have been extrememly busy! <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> Anyways, I have a serious problem on my hands.

Before I ever installed Steel Panthers World At War, I played Steel Panthers 3 and 2 all the time. I deinstalled them once I got SPWAW.

Now, I have tried to reinstall SP3 and SP2. What I get is a garbled, nasty looking screen thats TEENY! <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> This has never happened before, and only happened when I installed SPWAW.

I have tried deinstalling everything, rebooting clean and have tried reinstalling Steel Panthers 2 and 3 (Without SPWAW). The same problems happen.

I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem, and if so...what can I do to alleviate it. I am starting to have SP3 withdrawl! <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

I hope this is not just a problem that I am having and someone else knows how to solve this most fustrating problem!

Thanks in advance for all those that can help!

Sincerely,
Mike Sansone
AKA: Chief Wiggum

HI Wildbill you old dog you! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> You don't think I would forget you, do you? <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

AmmoSgt · Post by **AmmoSgt** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 9:45 am

I currently have SPWAW 4.5 , 5.3 w/ MC , 6.1 ,and a unoffical tiger team proto 7.0 OOB version, SP1, SP2, SP3, SP3 Moderna (the old one,) SPWW2 (the current one) SP1 v1.4 (unoffical upgrade with color pics ) and SP/SL v 1.0 on my machine and they all run nicely thank you ...Still have room for 7.x ( Hows that coming???) Compaq Presario 533 Mhz windows 98 192 meg stock sound card

[ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: AmmoSgt ]</p>

Chief Wiggum · Post by **Chief Wiggum** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 9:49 am

Ugh..Glad they are working for you

Warhorse · Post by **Warhorse** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 4:16 pm

Chief, what system you running??? Could you give a little more detail, not a programmer or anything, but might have some ideas with some more info!! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 · Post by **Les_the_Sarge_9_1** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 4:20 pm

Yo Chief

At the risk of sounding smarter than I am about this problem of yours. It is possible your computers settings have evolved. Or it is possible your computers OS (Windows version has evolved to a more advanced version).

In both cases it is possible you have made your SP2 and 3 unwanted guests as a result. I have experienced this hassle with SP3 as well as with other wargames at least.

Windows 95 98 ME etc, they are all unfriendly to DOS games. That and when you consider that it might be settings on the system as well, it might be a simple fix, but a hard one to locate. It could be that your computers drivers have been altered in some way.
A lot of games "alter" the system as they install. Really annoying process too I dont mind saying.

So while you might have been able to run them before, you might have trouble re installing under current setup of your hardware of system settings.

As we speak I am expecting to visit a more knowledgeable friend to do just this. Re install several wargames and resolve some hardware setting confusion. About all I can suggest, is seek the help of a geek friend (assuming you know one) that knows a lot of setting savvy for installing games.

Any game can be made to run, but it requires the user realise that often the process has gotten trickier since last install. Once upon a time I needed a really fancy convoluted program be written just to load up early Steel Panthers. Thankfully the newest versions of Steel WAW are made to operate more windows friendly. People might even be tempted to forget that SPWaW is still after all a DOS game.

john g · Post by **john g** » Mon Sep 24, 2001 4:43 pm

Originally posted by Chief Wiggum:
Hello all!,

Sorry I havent been around lately to post and questions, but I have been extrememly busy! <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> Anyways, I have a serious problem on my hands.

Before I ever installed Steel Panthers World At War, I played Steel Panthers 3 and 2 all the time. I deinstalled them once I got SPWAW.

Now, I have tried to reinstall SP3 and SP2. What I get is a garbled, nasty looking screen thats TEENY! <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> This has never happened before, and only happened when I installed SPWAW.

If you have a display that is all the way across the top of the screen but only about 1 in high, then you need to try vinstall that is included with SPII and III.

I have a voodoo 3 3000 that doesn't autodetect as vesa compatible, but after running vinstall, and having it show an error that the card isn't supported, then SPII, Age of Rifles or SP will run just fine. I don't have SPIII yet but it should work just as well.

I haven't figured out why vinstall can error out but still fix the video problem.
thanks, John.

hmusto · Post by **hmusto** » Tue Sep 25, 2001 3:01 pm

I had somewhat similar screen problems with SP1, but it worked fine (too fast though) after I ran the game from DOS prompt.

Chief Wiggum · Post by **Chief Wiggum** » Tue Sep 25, 2001 3:28 pm

Wow..thanks for the great tips everyone. For everyones FYI, I am running ME, which I understand runs SP series icky! <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> Thanks for all the great tips everyone!

Sincerely and best wishes,
Mike
AKA: Chief Wiggum

Warhorse · Post by **Warhorse** » Tue Sep 25, 2001 5:02 pm

Mike, just a thought, I have Windows ME also, and while I installed the SP series, and some other DOS games with no problem, Star General would not work! I finally installed it through the
DOS prompt, and it worked fine, maybe try that, if you didn't already?! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

O de B · Post by **O de B** » Thu Oct 04, 2001 9:05 pm

Hey SP1 1.4 ?
That's incredible i only ever found 1.2 ???
Where did you find this patch please?
I'd really like to see it on the game <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
Could you help me ?

Grimm · Post by **Grimm** » Thu Oct 04, 2001 9:13 pm

I have run SP3 on a Win 98 machine but had to run it through a DOS window. On my system I had problems with both the video and sound cards not being supported by SP3. It can run - you just have to fiddle with it a bit. I found SP3 runs far too fast to be playable on my P500. Even on all slow settings, everything just warps across the map.

Good luck! <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[ October 04, 2001: Message edited by: Grimm ]</p>

Nikademus · Post by **Nikademus** » Thu Oct 04, 2001 10:12 pm

Originally posted by Chief Wiggum:
Hello all!,

Sorry I havent been around lately to post and questions, but I have been extrememly busy! <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> Anyways, I have a serious problem on my hands.

Before I ever installed Steel Panthers World At War, I played Steel Panthers 3 and 2 all the time. I deinstalled them once I got SPWAW.

Now, I have tried to reinstall SP3 and SP2. What I get is a garbled, nasty looking screen thats TEENY! <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> This has never happened before, and only happened when I installed SPWAW.

I have tried deinstalling everything, rebooting clean and have tried reinstalling Steel Panthers 2 and 3 (Without SPWAW). The same problems happen.

I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem, and if so...what can I do to alleviate it. I am starting to have SP3 withdrawl! <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

I hope this is not just a problem that I am having and someone else knows how to solve this most fustrating problem!

Thanks in advance for all those that can help!

Sincerely,
Mike Sansone
AKA: Chief Wiggum

HI Wildbill you old dog you! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> You don't think I would forget you, do you? <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

I know the problem you are reffering to and i apoligize in advance for not having detailed steps as its been a long time since i've loaded SP-2.

its a graphics card issue. Being DOS based programs the combination of Windows and newer graphics cards can cause screen distortion and shrink effect.

You have to run an alternate batch file located in the same directory as the main SP2.exe exectuable in order to run the 'alternate' 4w/DOS program to boot up the program. Double click on that .bat file and it should run ok for you.