New Microsoft platforms always have some limits to their reachback. Thus programmes that ran in W95 do not run in XP and so on.
Some new games need new drivers which could cause problems. After running all 3 CS programmes for some time in XP I loaded a 1.05 gig wargame by Montecristo. This corrupted my East Front 11 games because it needed the installation of Direct X 9. Microsoft themselves have admitted that Direct X 9 and later versions can cause problems with Campaign Series Programmes!!
Thus there may be serious problems when running traditional CS gaames in Vista. Even if they run OK for a while they may crash later following the installation of Direct X9, (or future verions) or other new drivers.
Fortunately Jason and the Matrix crew have made the Matrix disc work in Vista but what about the old CS scenarios? There are over 1,000 of them and many of us will have special favourites.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Hard drives are now huge and cheap. I partitioned my hard drive into XP and W98. XP runs all the latest programmes while the W98 partition runs all the old favourites.
When I get the Matrix disc I will run it on XP so life will be simple and I won't have any conflicts.
I'm avoiding vista.........which makes life real simple :-)
Pip Roberts Wrote:Fortunately Jason and the Matrix crew have made the Matrix disc work in Vista but what about the old CS scenarios? There are over 1,000 of them and many of us will have special favourites.
Most, if not all, of the old CS scenarios should still run on Matrix Campaign Series.
There are few glitches, in particular with the AI running an amphibious scenario - my Operation Sealion scenario for example of the AI is playing as Germans (This is scenario is intended for H2H play, but there are still those that play it against the machine). It seems to crash on Turn 6 for some reason or another as the AI is thinking after moving a large number of landing craft and boats.
Jason Petho
I would like say two things:
a) Direct X 9 does not harm CS games. I have it installed since long time becouse my video card needs it, and have no problems in running WF 1.05 and EF2 1.02.
b) I play CS games on XP OP, that works better than W 98 SE or ME. However, to continue enjoying older games I currently have three HDs on extractable drawers: 98 SE, 98 ME and XP.
Not very expensive and less risky than a partition on a single HD.
Gio
Thanks for replying HvF. Direct X 9 definitely corrupted my East Front 1.03 which also had PB#1 and Fall of the Reich installed. Microsoft published a message stating that Direct X 9 could corrupt Campaign Series programmes and published a patch for repairing the damage. It was too scary for me to use so I chose to run all my CS games on a W98 partition and the 1.05 Gig Montecristo Game "Mockba to Berlin" which uses DirectX on my XP partition.
What do you mean by extractable drawers? Sounds interesting.
The principle I stated at the start still stands. As there are limits to reachback and installing older games onto Vista will expose them to potentially dangerous new drivers I prefer my safe and simple approach.
Because the CS series is so important to me (and some other stuff too)
I back up everything onto a separate Hard Drive. I have had the experience of partitioning a disc and backing up the C drive onto the D partition and thinking it was safe. Corruption of the C drive leapt over the partition and crrupted the D drive too hence my extra drive for backups.
I would welcome any other comments on this potentially important subject as Vista takes over and expands in the future
Sorry, maybe my dictionary is too old....I wanted to say that I have three separate H.D.s closed in three plastic boxes, one with W98 SE OP one with 98 ME, and one with XP. You can connect one H.D. to the PC and use that software for a game. If you want to play older games you can turn off the PC and change the HD using a little iron key. Some old games work only windowed in newer OPs, or don't work at all, and that's no good, so you can have the best OP for every kind of game, and along with OP you have the best suited drivers of the time for that game.
Some people told me that sometimes HD partitions can give problems, so to have more than one HD maybe a safe solution.
I hope to have been more clear.....
H.v.F.
H.v.F.,
Thats a great idea and very easy and cost effective. I have a external HD i use strickly for backup and photos. I think i am going to get another one and aset it up like yours now. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks HvF and Krec. Thats what I do too. Partitioning can run all of the great old CS games on W98 while XP (or vista if you like it) can run on another partition. As you said Hard drives are cheap and it's easy and totally safe to run separate drives for CS and the newer platforms.
Those who already have the 1000 CS scenarios loaded will find it easier to add a hard drive for Vista than to save , partition then reload.
I only run one hard drive online as it's very easy to transfer files to the offline Drive which is safe from all viruses and sundry malfeasances,
For utter safety I also have a Hard drive available for backing up. I may seem overcautious but I was shocked when my sacred CS files were corrupted and had to be reloaded together with all the extra scenarios by developers