DosFreak

The error you post in your first post does mean that those files are corrupted. If you perform what Wilhelmus said then the specific error that you received up above will go away. As far as other problems you may encounter you'll just have to post back. There are no "free" copies of Windows 95 and 98. Windows 95 and 98 are not freeware nor will they ever be.

I constantly see remarks that Nintendo is trying to "catch up". They aren't. The console market from 1995-2001 has been very succefull for both Nintendo and Sony. With the introduction of the XBOX in 2001 it's shown that there is also another market for another yet another console. Each console serves a particular section of the gaming public. If we lose Nintendo we lose alot of easy to play, less serious games. If we lose Sony we lose ALOT of variety in games. If we lose XBOX we lose FPS/Racing/former PC owners who went to console. Each console currently has a massive amount of users (yes even Nintendo). Even if the PS3 doesn't pick up as many users as the XBOX 360 did on lauch (it will surpass the XBOX 360 launch by far but let's just pretend), that doesn't matter because the PS2 has a MASSIVE installed base and will be supported for quite some time into the future. Compare that to XBOX1 support which is steadily dwindling. Which console will still be used by alot of the populace 5 years from now? XBOX 1 or PS2? Why the PS2 of course. Hopefully by that time Nintendo will have carved out more of the market but it's doubtfull and not necessary.

Quote: What would prefer as a gaming console? The PC isn't a console and hopefully never will be. Each console has it's strong points and different markets XBOX (18-30 testosterone filled boys) FPS/Racing XBOX1/XBOX360 compatibility PS2 (Real gamers who like gameplay (japanese) probably a greater variety of game players than XBOX) More games and more variety of games PS1/PS2 compatibility It's not made by Microsoft....but it is made by Sony....hmmmm....which is worse....what to choose? Well...Sony isn't killing their console prematurely like MS is with the XBOX so as far as the Console market goes MS is the greater evil Gamecube/Revolution (Demographic is younger) Entire history of Nintendo gaming. Less "serious" games but still fun. I haven't personally owned a console since SNES days but I've played all of the ones that have come out since. If I were to buy a console it would be the PS2 since I'm not a multiplayer fan (unless multiplayer game has nothing to do with competition or if the plot figures mainly in the game). I prefer my FPS's on the PC thank you very much and I don't like racing games. The PS2 has the greatest variety of games and will most likely (strangely) be the console that will be emulated on the PC before the XBOX. As for Nintendo. I already have all of my GB/NES/SNES/Gameboy/N64 games on the PC with excellent graphics filters that the Revolution will not provide.....and I don't invite friends over to play games. The only Mario games I like are the old ones or possibly the new 2D ones but I'm not gonna buy a handheld just to play those. The 3D Mario's are lame. So it's PC for me. Suprise Suprise.

I don't have the game but I've heard that somehow the LASERLOK copy protection may be hardcoded into the DOS4GW memory manager. If you use the DOS4GW from another game it should run fine. If you don't have a DOS4GW from another game handy then you can download DOS4GW from the "Deep Thought" thread @ http://vogons.zetafleet.com (Official DosBox Forum) (You have to register to download) or you can search for it on www.filemirrors.com. If that doesn't work then you'll need to download a CD C-R-A-C-K. A CD C-R-A-C-K removes the copy protection from the game so you don't have to have the CD in the drive. It looks like the version of DosBox that you are using doesn't support the copy protection that the game uses. I can't really help you find a crack since NTCompatible doesn't like to talk about such things but if you use the great search engine called google and you use some creative words you should be able to find what you need.

Quote: Is there any way to improve the performance of the VIA graphics card or some other way to tell which one might be the problem? Yes, put a real graphics card in there. Complaining that your Via/S3 integrated graphics card does not perform well is like complaining that your black and white TV doesn't show color.

Download memtest86+ to test your memory. Monitor your processor's temperature using Motherboard monitor or SpeedFan. Freezing problems with games are almost always caused by the above two issues.

Game has always worked fine for me in Windows 98/2000/XP/2003. There are patches for the game. Check Patches Scrolls but I've never found them necessary to play the game.

The installer in FC3 should allow you to use the free space from your existing partition to create new Linux partitions. This is something that I personally wouldn't attempt unless I had a backup, even then I don't like 3rd trusting repartitioning utilities on my systems. I start from scratch on all computers I maintain/build.

I had an article on the 99% error around here somewhere. The fix action is on the installshield site too. Just type in installshield + 99% in google.

Errr... .VXD's are only for Windows 9x. NT4 doesn't require motherboard AGP drivers because NT4 doesn't support AGP. AGP graphics cards are essentially handled as PCI cards. I'm not sure exactly what problem your experiencing but these are the facts. 1. Geforce 4 cards work in NT4. 2. They don't care if it's an Intel\Via motherboard. The cards will work regardless (Unless the motherboard\video card has a compatibility problem that needs to be fixed with an updated bios).

1. I do have NT4 9700 drivers and I have used them before (mabye about a year ago when doing some compatibility testing). The following is from the .INF packaged with the drivers. Quote: ;----------------------------------------------- ; ATI Display Information file : ATIINTAG.INF ; Installation INF for ATI display driver. ; Copyright© 1998-2002 ATI Technologies Inc. ; Windows NT 4.0 ; Base INF Last Updated on 2002/08/01 [Version] Signature="$Windows NT$" Provider=%ATI% ClassGUID={4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Class=Display DriverVer=08/15/2002, 4.3.4034 [DestinationDirs] DefaultDestDir = 11 ati2mtag.Miniport = 12 ; drivers ati2mtag.Display = 11 ; system32 ati2mtag.Desktop = 11 ; system32 ; ; Driver information ; [Manufacturer] %ATI% = ATI.Mfg [ATI.Mfg] "Radeon FSC" = ati2mtag_0x00005159 "Radeon FSC " = ati2mtag_0x00005159 "Radeon FSC " = ati2mtag_0x00005159 "Radeon FSC " = ati2mtag_0x00005159 "Radeon 8500 / 8500LE" = ati2mtag_0x0000514C "RADEON 9000 Series -Primary" = ati2mtag_0x00004966 "RADEON 9000 Series -Secondary" = ati2mtag_0x0000496E "RADEON 9500" = ati2mtag_0x00004144 "RADEON 9500 SECONDARY" = ati2mtag_0x00004164 "Radeon 9700" = ati2mtag_0x00004E44 "Radeon 9700 " = ati2mtag_0x00004E64 "Radeon FSC " = ati2mtag_0x00005159 2. The last intel chipset I used for home use was back when I was running a single proc P3 back in 2000-1??? I haven't used an intel chipset since then for home use. My next system after that I think I built in late 2001-2002 which was a dual proc VP6. I kept that system for quite some time and remember Geforce cards working in NT4 just fine with it (Can't really say if I tried a Geforce 4 in it tho). I did have a Geforce 4MX in my parent's K63-400 (Via MVP3 chipset) with Windows XP recently and it ran fine (well except for the occasionally blue screens due to terrible Nvidia/MVP3 compatibility. Video card drivers don't care about the chipset. That's too lower level and has nothing to do with video card support.

There's a page on the MS site that lists the differences....I'll see if I can dig the link up but hopefully someone else will post it first. If your just a home user then XP Home will work fine. Of course if your $90 covers the cost of XP Pro then you should of course get the better version.

Games are compiled to use specific versions of mss32.dll (Miles Sound System). For instance if the game used ver 1.5a of mss32.dll then you can only get away with using v1.5x of mss32.dll NOT v1.6, v1.6, v1.x whatever. I'll have to check what ver of mss32.dll HOMM3 uses and since you downloaded one of the best games ever instead of actually buying it then I guess I won't be checking.

I'm guessing that you have a P4 processor with HyperThreading? C&C is a 16bit program so when you execute it, it runs NTVDM (16bit emulator). NTVDM is probably what is chewing up all your processor time. Check "Task Manager" and search for the NTVDM process. Can't really help much with those symptoms tho. If your running the Windows ver of C&C, I believe it uses DirectDraw/GDI so there isn't that much you can do except to disable DirectDraw acceleration in "DXDIAG" and see if that helps. Nowadays I run the Windows ver of C&C in Qemu which runs the game nicely. I run the DOS ver in DosBox which works great as well.

You said you installed the latest graphics driver? Did you download it from Nvidia? Sometimes the newest graphics drivers don't always work out and you may have better luck using the drivers that came on the CD with the graphics card. If you don't have the original graphics card CD then try earlier Nvidia drivers.

Yeah, Opera is great. I never understood the IE love tho. I'm visiting my parent's. They've bought a new computer so they have this P4 3.0ghz HT machine loaded down with tons of crap.....and of course they use AOL & IE. So I'm currently surfing the net with IE (ughh) because I swore to never touch their machines again (So I'm not going to install anything). (They always blame me for the slowness of their machines.....even tho they buy the cheapest computers they can find). Anyways I'm surfing with IE after not using it for years... Impressions: (Default IE settings vs Default Firefox/Opera settings). IE doesn't seem to cache as much as Firefox/Opera.....which is terrible on this 56k modem operating at 28800 baud..... Page loads are ALOT slower (mostly due to IE not caching as aggresively). Download manager sucks. It sucks in Firefox too....but not as bad. Opera is better than both. Can't really judge the popup situation since this machine is loaded with tons of IE toolsbars...so it wouldn't be fair, but we all know that by default IE is worse than Firefox/Opera. Sites that use transparent images still look as crappy as ever in IE...... I can't use tabs! Medieval POS browser.... (Again...default config). IE eating up tons of memory. (Again machine is loaded down with crap and only has 512mb of memory with 461 being used....yeah....I only have AOL and 2 IE browsers open right now....the rest is services). Probably all of those toolbars chewing up IE memory. IE crashing usually crashes explorer too. Yeppeeee!!! Saving web pages is a hell of alot slower. (Again...probably cache). and finally..... I just feel unprotected and well "dirty" using a browser that MS has refused to do anything with except security fixes for the past 6 years (okay...I'll give 'em 5).....and only decided to update because other browsers were starting to erode their market....and to make it look like Vista offers something new.....plus the fact that MS isn't going to offer IE for 9x/2K.....and the fact that they'll probably not develop IE after Vista is released........ I like supporting projects that are developed constantly....not left in limbo for years and only developed when MS decides to just make $$$ and not good will among their customers.....

The drivers with the card should work. I've used NT4 with a Geforce 4 and a Radeon 9700 with the drivers that came on the CD for them. The last Nvidia dets I remember installing were the 40x series.

Man, I hate old threads......new people read this old information and get wrong ideas. Sigh.

No it wouldn't. The only reason they would possibly buy out Opera would be to shut it down to get rid of a competitor. That's it. IE is constantly being written into every piece of Windows. It would require a massive rewrite to include Opera code and for what point? MS knows what they are doing and what they want....there's nothing that Opera has that MS couldn't do themselves so there would be absolutely positvely no reason to buy it except for the reason I mentioned above. It's not like this is an antivirus product or an emulator...something which MS has always used 3rd parties for (until they bought them out). MS has been developing IE for the past decade (well....developing gives them too much credit....let's just say maintaining security fixes)

heh. I can see people dumping Firefox....for say Opera but IE? Do you people have a computer death wish? heh.

Any card from Nvidia/ATI [censored] all the way back to the TNT1 should work fine with RR. The Geforce 4 cards have the issue where you'll need to use vgafix for resolutions higher than 640x480 tho. Not sure if that's been fixed in newer Geforce cards or not.

Set the game to 320x200 resolution and see if that works. If it does work then try 640x480. 640x480 should work just fine. If you cannot use a resolution higher than 640x480 then your probably using a Geforce card which will require a 3rd party fix called vgafix. (It patches 2k/XP's vga.sys to allow the program to access the video card).

Weird....Okay For the DOS ver: I gave up on playing DOS games with Windows XP because it's a pain so for quite awhile I have been using the DosBox emulator: Read this page and download the latest version: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=9306 Be sure to read the documentation! As for the Windows versions: For single-player all I've ever had to do was install the game and use the updated IPX dll. If I want to play multiplayer supposedly there are ways to accomplish this to run the game natively in Windows XP but I haven't bothered to hack together a solution. I simply use either Microsoft Virtual PC or Qemu. The latest version of Qemu runs C&C and C&C Red Alert quite well so I have moved from VPC to a completely free and cross-platform Qemu. (So I can play C&C in any OS supported by Qemu now).

www.scummvm.org

I only have Heroes 3 and that works fine for me. Can't help with the expansions but just try installing Heroes 3 by itself and see if that works.