Z: Steel Soldiers Forum

The game installs fine, but on running it or the config utility, it promptly crashes. :(

John wrote:

The game installs fine, but on running it or the config utility, it
promptly crashes. :(

What a coincidence, today I also tested this game and I was just preparing to write about my experience :)

Anyway, try this: install in the game bottle, the Visual C++ 6 redistributables. You can find them if in the CrossOver install wizard you check that option "show all service packs" or similar. Then try the game again.

Stefan G wrote:

John wrote:

The game installs fine, but on running it or the config
utility, it promptly crashes. :(

What a coincidence, today I also tested this game and I was just
preparing to write about my experience :)

Anyway, try this: install in the game bottle, the Visual C++ 6
redistributables. You can find them if in the CrossOver install
wizard you check that option "show all service packs" or similar.
Then try the game again.

Hah! That is pretty funny. I was planning on trying to sort this out further at some point, glad you saved me the trouble. ;)

I don't seem to have that option in Crossover on Mac. I'm trying to located the download myself now. I'll post back once I've tried your tips.

This is weird, it must be there. So if you open up Configuration, click on the Z 2 bottle, then Install software, then Show all service packs and dependencies, then you should be able to see Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable.

Stefan G wrote:

This is weird, it must be there. So if you open up Configuration,
click on the Z 2 bottle, then Install software, then Show all
service packs and dependencies, then you should be able to see
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable.

Nope... I'm afraid there is no such option to "Show all service packs...". That's odd that it exists in the Linux version and not the Mac. No matter... I installed the Visual C++ 2005 redistributable, and later the 2008 version after failing to get results with the 2005 pack. Neither the game nor the Profilers will stay launched.

Whoa... back up! I had an idea and copied in MFC42.dll to the system32 directory. Profiler just launched. Stay tuned!

Alright, good idea! Let's see what you get. See my other thread I made here, let's see if you have the same problems.

Maybe someone with more CrossOver experience can explain how come John doesn't have that option in the installer wizard on Mac? I don't imagine a reason for that...

Stefan G wrote:

Alright, good idea! Let's see what you get. See my other thread I
made here, let's see if you have the same problems.

Maybe someone with more CrossOver experience can explain how come
John doesn't have that option in the installer wizard on Mac? I
don't imagine a reason for that...

The game launches fine and shows all the intro videos. I get to the menu, and all seems well there. I try to start a game, and I just get a black screen. I've tried a few things, no luck yet. I'm going to scratch the whole bottle and start over when I get a chance and see if I can work something out.

So your intro FMV doesn't have the lower half totally black? Wow that's good.

When you start a new game, there's another FMV clip. Maybe that's what's crashing your game. Try to start a Skirmish game from the main menu, see if that works. Then we can know for sure if it's the FMVs.

By the way my bottle is Windows 98 but I didn't mention it because I thought it makes no difference. If you restart the installation, maybe you can try this.

Nope, the intro doesn't have any problems displaying at all... fullscreen or in a virtual desktop.

I reinstalled the game using a Win98 bottle this time (last time Win2K) and added in the MFC42 and pidgen dll files. As it turns out, I had no need to install the Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable... it is showing up as an installed application in Crossover. I guess the game auto-installs it, or perhaps it's included with Directx 8a (I went ahead and told the installer to add that this time around). (EDIT: Aha! It was the MFC42.dll file that triggered the notice that Visual C++ was installed)

Anywho... still no luck. It locks up with a black screen as soon as I tell it to run a single player map or a skirmish. I'm lost for ideas on how to proceed. One peculiarity I did experience was that, immediately after installing the game, the launcher popped up and gave me access to all the options (Install game, play game, etc). I closed it to complete the install process, but on re-running launch.exe, it only offers to install the game. The Play Game option isn't available. That seems highly peculiar. I suspect this may have something to do with the problems I'm having.

NOW we're getting somewhere! I downloaded the correct Visual C++ 6.0 installer (I had the totally wrong installers before) and the game finally loads, and so far seems to play well. There are other difficulties though. I can't skip past any of the intro videos or cut scenes. With the cutscenes that play in advance of a game level, the video is... odd. Pixellated, seemingly in 4 colors maybe... very odd. But the actual game looks and plays fine so far. One other anomaly... the in-game menus don't work. If I hit the ESC key to get the menu for exiting the game and such, I lose all cursor control and cannot select any options. I have the same problem from the main menu... it works fine until I tell it to exit. I lose all cursor control on the exit dialogue menu.

I'm also finding the cursor control to be highly erratic when using any resolution above 1024x768.

Correct download location of the Visual C++ 6.0 is:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259403

EDIT: I just re-read your posting regarding the Linux install, and it looks like we are having an identical experience.

Phew! You had a bit of a more difficult time but you made it :)

I didn't have that issue with the launcher, after installing and every single time after, I had the play game correctly available. After the last C++ redist. installation, do you still have the launcher issue?

Time for me to try with a lower resolution to see if the mouse movement is erratic.

And yes, while it's bad to find the issues, at least it's comfortable to know they're the same and reproduceable.

Stefan G wrote:

Phew! You had a bit of a more difficult time but you made it :)

I didn't have that issue with the launcher, after installing and
every single time after, I had the play game correctly available.
After the last C++ redist. installation, do you still have the
launcher issue?

Time for me to try with a lower resolution to see if the mouse
movement is erratic.

And yes, while it's bad to find the issues, at least it's
comfortable to know they're the same and reproduceable.

It continued to not work despite installing VC++ correctly. I did a second install in a new bottle and found that the launcher now had the options enabled. Darned if I know why. I guess it was the new order in the steps I took to install everything. Anywho... when trying to Play the Game via the Launcher, it protested that there was a debugger running and said to close it first.

The Digital Rights Management (DRM) software in this program
prevents it from running in CrossOver. If you are in a legal jurisdiction
which allows removal of such software, you may have luck running this
program. Unfortunately, CodeWeavers, because they are subject to the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, will be unable to support you.

So... here's my install steps for Mac OS X:

1: Create a Win98 bottle
2: Get ahold of pidgen.dll and copy it to the bottle's C:\Windows\System32 folder.
3: Download and install the MS Visual Basic C++ 6.0 package, available here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259403
It's Win98 only, thus the need for a Win98 bottle. I imagine there is a Win2k version, but I haven't investigated into that yet.
4: Running that file will extract the actual installer to a folder of your choice. Once extracted, run THAT file to install the Visual C++ files (yes, it is ass-backwards)
5: Quit Crossover. On re-opening Crossover, the bottle should now show Visual C++ 6.0 as an installed application.
6: Install the game.

The Digital Rights Management (DRM) software in this program
prevents it from running in CrossOver. If you are in a legal jurisdiction
which allows removal of such software, you may have luck running this
program. Unfortunately, CodeWeavers, because they are subject to the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, will be unable to support you.

Still ongoing are the previously mentioned bugs with the cutscenes, erratic cursor movements at higher resolutions, and non-responsiveness of the cursor at the Exit Game confirmation menu.

Just curious....does the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable package
target builtin to crossover-games (in cxinstallwizard=>show all service packs
and dependencies) not work?...ie; did anyone try that yet?

As far as other bottle profiles go (winxp/win2000), there are two other visual
c++ dependency packages supported by crossover-games, as exposed by selecting
the 'show all service packs and dependencies' options in cxinstallwizard;

Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable

Which one would actually work correctly with this title in a winxp/win2000
bottle, will be a matter of trial and error...

One more note here, I know of a least a couple of game titles that require
-both- Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 & Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
runtime packages to be installed into the same bottle before things work as
expected....(just something to be aware of ;)

Cheers!

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Just curious....does the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable
package
target builtin to crossover-games (in cxinstallwizard=>show all
service packs
and dependencies) not work?...ie; did anyone try that yet?

As far as other bottle profiles go (winxp/win2000), there are two
other visual
c++ dependency packages supported by crossover-games, as exposed by
selecting
the 'show all service packs and dependencies' options in
cxinstallwizard;

Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable

Which one would actually work correctly with this title in a
winxp/win2000
bottle, will be a matter of trial and error...

One more note here, I know of a least a couple of game titles that
require
-both- Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 & Microsoft Visual C++ 2005
Redistributable
runtime packages to be installed into the same bottle before things
work as
expected....(just something to be aware of ;)

Cheers!

I just tried it with the 2005 C++... no difference. As far as your question about MS Visual C++ "target builtin"... I'm drawing a blank on what you mean here. Is this a Linux thing? I have no cxinstallwizard on OS X. Apparently there are some marked differences in the interface between Cx for Linux and for OS X.

Oh yes, the Mac version is slightly different, however it
still provides the same builtin target facility...see;

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/docs/crossover-games-mac/mac-preferences-installer

With all the targets displayed, you should see what I mean
(the installer will download the dependency chosen and then
install it for you automagically ;)

Cheers!

John wrote:

when trying to Play the Game via the Launcher, it protested that
there was a debugger running and said to close it first.

The Digital Rights Management (DRM) software in this program
prevents it from running in CrossOver. If you are in a legal
jurisdiction
which allows removal of such software, you may have luck running
this
program. Unfortunately, CodeWeavers, because they are subject to
the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, will be unable to support you.

Same sh*t here!

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Just curious....does the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable
package
target builtin to crossover-games (in cxinstallwizard=>show all
service packs
and dependencies) not work?...ie; did anyone try that yet?

For me (on Linux) it works (as I reported on my other thred here).

And, like John said, VC 2005 redist. installed doesn't help. Maybe because the game was released in 2001 :P

Ahh...that's good to know ; FWIW a lot of games that circa require
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (which should install into either win98,
winxp and win2000 bottles)...however, what's good to know here
is that it works in linux -- looking at this lot again, I can see
the Mac users are fighting with DRM (CD/copy-protection check).
When changing bottle types, what you are seeing is the difference
between how the win98 bottle_profile handles this failure, and how
the winxp/win2000 bottle_profiles handles the same failing thing.

On the advocate's forum the other day, one of the codeweavers devs
posted the following insight, regarding how/when DRM handling might
expect to get fixed in crossover/wine ; "its still a long way to go.
We have to write a replacement driver for all CD/DVD drives in macs
to make that really work." That is probably why it is working in
linux but problematic on Macs - the current (known) limitation of
the Mac drivers are causing the DRM/CD check to fail.

Cheers!

O ho! So THAT'S how you get those installers to show up. whew

I redid it all again for kicks, and again to a Win2k bottle too. No change. :(

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

what's good to know here is that it works in linux -- looking at
this lot again, I can see the Mac users are fighting with DRM
(CD/copy-protection check).

Sorry for not being constructive with my messages, but now I'm confused as to what you just discovered... I thought we were talking about installing VC++ 6 redist. using COG's wizard -- which works for me on Linux, but John said it doesn't on Mac, and now with his final message, it seems it works too on Mac.

The DRM negatively affects me and John both identically by giving the above-mentioned error with the debugger.

But thanks for giving the update on the DRM progress, it's good to know and I hope they'll improve on Linux too.

Apologies for the edits.