Star Trek Birth of the Federation WinXP -FIX

[J_DarkElf 0]

The game ST:BOTF is listed as not compatible with WinXP on the main site.

This is not fully correct: it works on my system, when setting it to use Win2000 compatibility mode.

 

Also, some modders have created a patch which does make BOTF work on XP: http://www.members.aon.at/zelli/ is the site, direct download for the patch is ftp://zelli.homedns.org:5367/botf/xpe-102.exe , or http://www.dtdn.com/botf/xpe-102.exe

Prerequirements are official patch 1.02 has to be installed first.

 

The patch works on all three of my systems (Intell and AMD boards), and others have also reported success.

 

Check the site (subsection downloads - others) for the German patch, and several mods (I recommend the Direct3D mod -- makes BOTF's batlles run a lot smoother). It is also one of the few remaining sites to hold the official 1.02 Patch.

[DosFreak 2]

Submit a compatibility report to NTCompatible. Link is on the front page.

[JP- 0]

There are loads of games that are listed as not compatible but they actually work perfectly

 

I was actually playing it yesterday, all i did was install it, patch it then go to www.gamecopyworld.com and get the 'fixed exe', and played it.

 

Still requires the CD but installs and runs fine.

[DosFreak 2]

Yep, that's one of the things I hate about the submissions. People will usually just insert the CD and try to play. If it doesn't work then they will list it as not working. It would be nice to have in BIG HUGE LETTERS. "DID YOU DO THIS FIRST?" Questions on the submissions link.

[JP- 0]

Well the list definatly needs sorting, i dunno how but ill just leave that to you guys

[J_DarkElf 0]

Posted the report. It's a shame there is no "comments" thing linked to the submissions, so you can offer solutions, or correct them.

 

Browsing through the list, I find a lot more games I can easily get to work -- for example, just about all DOS games (only exceptions are Wing Commander III and IV) work on XP or 2K with full sound, as long as you get VDMSound (ntvdm.cjb.net/). This applies to all the Lucasarts and Sierra games I have

[DosFreak 2]

Yep, I believe a third party category or a different color needs to be added for those programs that can only work in NT by using said programs.

 

We also need an "Officially Supported" category.

[Maestro_7 0]

ST:BOTF does work with the fan-made v1.2 "XP" patch, and it is true that the no-cd crack doesn't continue to work once the patch is applied.

 

I wrote up this guide to playing BOTF with the XP patch and with no CD in the drive, just a mini-image :-

 

 

 

Star Trek: Birth of the Federation

Create a mini-image on a virtual drive, to play without CD

 

Requires :-

 

Birth of the Federation Original CD;

Alcohol 120%, with a virtual drive set up.

 

Steps :-

 

1) Insert BOTF CD into Drive

2) Start Alcohol 120% (v1.9.2 Build 1705 [OR HIGHER])

3) Select "Image Making Wizard" in the left pane

4) Select the drive that you have placed the CD in

5) Select the "Read Speed" as 1X (150kB/sec)

6) Make sure that out off all the boxes at the bottom, only "Skip Reading errors" is checked

7) Choose where you want the image file to be created, e.g. Desktop, C: Drive etc.

8) You can also choose to rename the image file at the bottom, leave the type of image as *.mds unless you use any other applications to mount image files

9) Select Start

10) In the new window, there will be a scroll pane. Wait until a series (about three or four) of Read errors with exclamation marks beside them appear.

11) Press Cancel at the bottom of the window

12) When asked if you want to cancel the copying, select Yes

13) Wait, and then you will be asked if you wish to delete the files. Select No!

14) Click Finish

15) Locate where you chose the image file to be created, there should be two files there, an MDS and a MDF. Keep these together.

16) Then go to the directory where you originally installed BOTF, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Microprose\ST Birth of the Federation"

17) Open the file "disc.id" with Notepad

18) Select All, delete and save

19) Then open the file "stbof.ini" with Notepad

20) At the top, change the CD path to your virtual drive letter, e.g. "CDPATH=F:\", and save

21) Start Alcohol 120% again

22) Select both image files (MDS and MDF) that were created and drag them simultaneously into the main window pane

23) Right-click the file that appears, go to "Mount on Device" and select your virtual drive

24) You can now play BOTF without the CD and just the mini-image in your virtual drive

 

- Guide written by Maestro_7