ALIEN CROSSFIRE NOT WORKING ON WINDOWS 10 - PLEASE HELP

[RetroGamer85]

Hello,
Can somebody please help me? Here is my story and current problem -
Alpha Centauri is my favourit game of all time. I still have my original disk of the Windows 98 game.
I played it on my Windows 98 computer for years, until recently when after 20 years that computer finally stopped working. I have spent literally thousands of hours playing Alpha Centuari.
However i never got to experience the Alien Crossfire update. It wasn't released in my region, we didnh't have the internet and my finance's have always been limited.


Ok, so i bought a new desktop computer. Windows 10, Dell optiplex 780. And i now have amazon account. So, i wanted to experience the Alien Crossfire expansion pack for my favourite game, i've been waiting 20 years to play this expansion pack!

So i go looking to buy it - and it's nowhere to be found. Eventually i find a "Complete" version of Alpha Centauri featuring the Alien Crossfire expansion pack for sale on Amazon, i buy it and it finally arrives today.

Now, when installed Alpha Centauri using my Windows 98 copy onto my new Windows 10 pc - it worked.
However, the only available copy of Alien Crossfire i could buy was the Windows Vista version.
I installed it and it won't work. It won't play. The autoplay opens, and it comes to the screen about choosing Classic or Alien Crossfire.
I select Alien Crossfire, the programme never starts, just goes to my desktop.

I run it in compatibility mode... still nothing. I troubleshoot, read all the forum questions i can, try everything... nothing works, it won't initialise.

I am absolutely gutted. I've been waiting to play this expansion pack for 20 years. I don't have a lot of money and never have. So i am still playing the old games that I did when i was a kid.

I am kind of computer savvy, to a degree, but when it comes to talking about patches and updates and .ini files and directx drivers and graphics cards - i'm out of my element. I would need clear and precise instructions and or links to the specific files and exact instructions on what to do.


I figure this is a shot in the dark, a help cry into the void of endless space. The Windows 10 computer i bought probably isn't top quality, but it's all i could afford. I had my last pc since 1998, never had any mods done to it or had internet for it. So i just wanna be able to play Alien Crossfire on my new computer and it won't work for me.


I have a copy of disks of Alpha Centauri (Windows 98), Alpha Centauri (Vista), Alien Crossfire (Vista). And my computer i a desktop with Windows 10. I've spent the last 3 or 4 hours looking through forums, trying to download patches and updates and trying to figure this out but i just can't get anything to work.


Please, any help would be incredibly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Buster's Uncle]

?

Can you try this:
Run the installer (I'm assuming it's named Setup.exe) as Administrator in XP Compatibility Mode (mine is in SP2).
Run the game directly from terranx.exe as Administrator, also in XP Compatibility Mode.

[RetroGamer85]

Tried both of those. Read through as much advice and suggestions on this and other forums before I posted this.
All ends with the same thing - the screen where it asks to play Classic or Alien Crossfire.
I select Crossfire and it crashes, goes to my desktop homescreen and that's it.
I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, doing everything I can think of and trying to follow all the advice from other threads, none of it is working for me.
I've been trying for about 5 hours now.

[Buster's Uncle]

All ends with the same thing - the screen where it asks to play Classic or Alien Crossfire.

That's describing still using the autorun.  Go to the folder where it's installed and click on terranx.exe.

[RetroGamer85]

I've tried that too. Same result.
I read over all the advice I could and tried everything, nothing seems to be working.

[Buster's Uncle]

PM Petek attn: this thread.  He's the king of troubleshooters.

[RetroGamer85]

PM Petek attn: this thread.  He's the king of troubleshooters.

ok thank you for your advice!

[bvanevery]

I have been using the version available on Good Old Games on Windows 10, 2 different laptops, without any problems.  It costs $6.  Whatever they did to patch, works.  I do not run with any kind of special Administrator privileges.  Doesn't look like any special Compatibility Modes are activated.  Perhaps if you imitate whatever official patches they applied, yours will finally work?

Also be sure to follow general advice of using latest greatest graphics drivers for your machine.  Latest firmware too.  It may not actually be SMAC's fault it doesn't run.  It may be exposing a bug in your computer setup, that newer drivers and firmware fix.  Graphics manufacturers don't do any testing of old graphics protocols that few applications use anymore, so bugs can creep in. 

[RetroGamer85]

Ok so I've made some progress but still have problems.
I installed itzi's 3.5d patch. I then used the alphax text file and alphacentauriini file from - http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=346

Now the game starts when I run the terranx file as an admin in compatibility mode.
However - the video files don't work now, they are extremely laggy.
And after about 50 turns the game just crashes and I am back on my desktop home screen.
Any further help or advice is very much appreciated!!

[RetroGamer85]

I have been using the version available on Good Old Games on Windows 10, 2 different laptops, without any problems.  It costs $6.  Whatever they did to patch, works.  I do not run with any kind of special Administrator privileges.  Doesn't look like any special Compatibility Modes are activated.  Perhaps if you imitate whatever official patches they applied, yours will finally work?

Also be sure to follow general advice of using latest greatest graphics drivers for your machine.  Latest firmware too.  It may not actually be SMAC's fault it doesn't run.  It may be exposing a bug in your computer setup, that newer drivers and firmware fix.  Graphics manufacturers don't do any testing of old graphics protocols that few applications use anymore, so bugs can creep in.

Ok, so i'm going to give it a go and take your advice and just purchase the game from GOG and download it and see if it works. It cost me about £5 from GOG, I spent about £7 on the cd versions that didn't work, hopefully the GOG version will work. Fingers crossed!
As for my pc's graphics cards/drivers etc - I only bought the pc 2 weeks ago and I've ran updates to check for all the most recent drivers and updates to all the system components every day to keep it up to date. So hopefully there isn't some kind of issue with the pc.
All my other favourite old games work fine - i.e. Age of Empires 3 and Knights of Honor. So the pc seems to be ok so far. It's not a high tec super gaming desktop but it is a decent model and good make.

Hopefully the GOG version works without any problems! I will post here to let you know the outcome!

[RetroGamer85]

I have been using the version available on Good Old Games on Windows 10, 2 different laptops, without any problems.  It costs $6.  Whatever they did to patch, works.  I do not run with any kind of special Administrator privileges.  Doesn't look like any special Compatibility Modes are activated.  Perhaps if you imitate whatever official patches they applied, yours will finally work?

Also be sure to follow general advice of using latest greatest graphics drivers for your machine.  Latest firmware too.  It may not actually be SMAC's fault it doesn't run.  It may be exposing a bug in your computer setup, that newer drivers and firmware fix.  Graphics manufacturers don't do any testing of old graphics protocols that few applications use anymore, so bugs can creep in.

Bought it from GOG, downloaded it, installed it, spent a couple of hours playing it - It works perfectly with no compatibility or admin modes needed. Thank you for the recommendation! Much appreciated!

Thanks to everyone who offered advice and suggestions to me. I appreciate everyone's help and advice very much!!

I am a happy man enjoying the Alien Crossfire expansion for the first time after playing Alpha Centauri since 1999!

[bvanevery]

$6 kung fu lol.  Wonder how theirs is patched differently from other things?

[Vidsek]

  Correctly? 

 Also, RetroGamer85: I saw your post in the Chiron News Network section before this and gave my suggestions there, but I see bvanevery beat me to the GOG suggestion .   
 Very glad you've got it working now!

[Dewbacca]

Is there anyway to compare the two programs short of me buying both?

It took me several hours to get SMAX running on Win10, and it's just patched with official patches.

GoG has a good thing going with their team, they have several games up and running that are well past their expiration.

[bvanevery]

I notice that the GoG version has something called patch_sid_meiers_alpha_centauri_2.0.2.23.exe in it.  A forensically minded person could perhaps try to take it apart to see how exactly it's patching things.  I'm not even sure what it's used for.  Does it run during installation?  Or is it just there in case someone wants to apply it to a "straight" copy of SMAC?