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64-Bit Stars!? Tue, 21 October 2008 07:13 Go to next message
Sumo_Sniper is currently offline Sumo_Sniper

 
Crewman 3rd Class

Messages: 6
Registered: January 2004
Location: Western Australia

 Hey all.

Just returned to this old game after a long Hiatus (1.5 years or so) and discovered that I'd lost all my old Stars! stuff in a transfer (except, thankfully, my serial). So I download it again, only to find that my shiny new 64bit Vista SP1 computer refuses to run Stars 2.6JRC4, telling me that as a a 32bit application, it's not compatible. I tried 2.7JRC3, and still, no luck.

I find this odd, because WOW64 is meant to dynamically handle such problems, and in this case it didn't. A few searches failed to bring up any conclusive answer, but most of the partial answers seemed to be along the lines of "too bad", or "it works better if you install the game in the OS first".

So, I come you for help. The only solutions I can think of at the moment are either some alternative 32bit emulator, somehow convincing windows to recognise that it should be properly emulating the program, or some sort of patch. Does anyone who's mucked around with the Stars! program know what could be causing this? Some 32bit-only API, perhaps? Has anyone encountered and somehow solved this problem?

It's not a terrible tragedy if there is no solution available, as I have a 32bit XP laptop that can run it just fine, but this isn't just a concern for myself as it is for the who Stars! community, as the industry-wide transition to 64-bit may mean that some day it will be very difficult to play or get into Stars! for new players. Is there some way to future-proof it?

- The Overstuffed Sharpshooter

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Tue, 21 October 2008 12:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
swp1 is currently offline swp1

 
Petty Officer 1st Class

Messages: 68
Registered: February 2008
Location: outside Philadelphia, PA
 have you tried running in XP compatible mode?

right click on the stars icon,
select properties,
go to the compatibility tab,
check the box that says "Run this program in compatibility
mode for:"
select XP from the pulldown.

otherwise, yeah I agree with the others that you are hosed.

here's hoping,
swp

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Wed, 22 October 2008 02:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
iztok is currently offline iztok

 
Commander

Messages: 1206
Registered: April 2003
Location: Slovenia, Europe
 Hi!
Quote:

run Stars 2.6JRC4, telling me that as a a 32bit application,

Stars! is a 16-bit application. It already runs in XP in "compatibility" mode. AFAIK Vista by default excludes support for 16-bit applications (or maybe just the 64-bit Vista), but IIRC some players reported running Stars in Vista within the dosbox (emulator of DOS machine for Windows without proper support for DOS games). Check sourceforge for it, and please report of you succeed.

BR, Iztok

[Updated on: Wed, 22 October 2008 02:21]

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Wed, 22 October 2008 07:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
m.a@stars is currently offline m.a@stars

 
Commander

Messages: 2765
Registered: October 2004
Location: Third star to the left
 You could also setup a virtual machine (with something like VMware) to run a virtual XP box on your Vista machine. Teleport

Upgrading your Vista to XP, or waiting for Windows 7 would be other, more long-term options. Twisted Evil

So many Stars, so few Missiles!

In space no one can hear you scheme! Deal

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Wed, 22 October 2008 15:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
neilhoward

 
Commander

Messages: 1112
Registered: April 2008
Location: SW3 & 10023
 I had no trouble running Stars! in vista. I didn't use an emulator or dos box. My only trouble was user permission for m files kept getting reset. Ugh. If I wanted leopard I wouldn't have spilled scotch on my mac book. I rolled back to xp.

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Wed, 22 October 2008 16:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gible

 
Commander

Messages: 1343
Registered: November 2002
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
neilhoward wrote on Thu, 23 October 2008 08:13

I had no trouble running Stars! in vista. I didn't use an emulator or dos box. My only trouble was user permission for m files kept getting reset. Ugh.

Was it Vista 64 or Vista 32 tho?

neilhoward wrote on Thu, 23 October 2008 08:13

If I wanted leopard I wouldn't have spilled scotch on my mac book. I rolled back to xp.

I read somewhere on/via slashdot recently that they're having significantly less trouble with Vista being pirated - Pirates prefer XP too Laughing

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Wed, 22 October 2008 18:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
neilhoward

 
Commander

Messages: 1112
Registered: April 2008
Location: SW3 & 10023
gible wrote on Wed, 22 October 2008 21:57


Was it Vista 64 or Vista 32 tho?



lol idk. bsd vista? Smirk

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Thu, 02 April 2009 20:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ThiefLord is currently offline ThiefLord

 
Crewman 1st Class

Messages: 39
Registered: April 2008
So question:
I have a new shiny laptop too, and it came with Vista 64.
Am I in trouble, or has anyone been able to make this work yet?

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Thu, 02 April 2009 20:50 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gible

 
Commander

Messages: 1343
Registered: November 2002
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
ThiefLord wrote on Fri, 03 April 2009 12:05

So question:
I have a new shiny laptop too, and it came with Vista 64.
Am I in trouble, or has anyone been able to make this work yet?

AFAIK you're going to have to take the indirect route and use Virtual PC or DOSBox etc

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Thu, 02 April 2009 21:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gible

 
Commander

Messages: 1343
Registered: November 2002
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
ThiefLord wrote on Fri, 03 April 2009 12:05

So question:
I have a new shiny laptop too, and it came with Vista 64.
Am I in trouble, or has anyone been able to make this work yet?

>AFAIK you're going to have to take the indirect route and use Virtual PC or DOSBox etc

<snip>
nevermind

[Updated on: Thu, 02 April 2009 21:39]

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Thu, 02 April 2009 21:50 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slimdrag00n is currently offline slimdrag00n

 
Lieutenant
Helped track down one or more Stars bugs

Messages: 630
Registered: January 2009
Location: new york -5

i remember that 64 bit stuff on my other computer.. suppose to be faster.. better... i took it off with in a week.
good luck.

......
Ranked games: 8-1
Recently won the game Knife Fight.
Looking for a practice duel.
.......

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Fri, 03 April 2009 09:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
scottrick49 is currently offline scottrick49

 
Master Chief Petty Officer

Messages: 98
Registered: August 2003
Location: Minneapolis, MN
 Stars! will not run on Vista64. The only solution is to either dual boot, or run a virtual PC.


I am using VirtualPC and it works fantastic. It took about 2 hours to setup though.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=04D 26402-3199-48A3-AFA2-2DC0B40A73B6&displaylang=en

Here's what I did.

1) Installed VPC 2007.
2) Created a virtual computer with 512 ram.
3) Grabbed my old XP disc and installed. I ran into graphics problems which prevented me from being at a high resolution, however. The solution was to update my XP (virtual) installation to service pack 3. Once this was done, it worked fine.
4) Played stars on the virtual computer.

If you have a new PC with Vista64, you probably have a fairly good computer and this should run fine. As long as you have an old disc of XP you should be up and running in an hour or two. Most of the install time was just waiting for XP to get all the way updated to service pack 3, to fix the graphical issues I was seeing.

scottrick

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Fri, 03 April 2009 20:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gible

 
Commander

Messages: 1343
Registered: November 2002
Location: Wellington, New Zealand

 FWIW I built a win3.11/dosbox with jrc4. Window size is 1024x768 here

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Sat, 04 April 2009 00:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Eagle of Fire

 
Lt. Commander

Messages: 809
Registered: December 2008
Location: GMT -5
 I can't beleive how slow it plays out on my PC... But it works fine!

Could I steal this for my review at Abandonia? Smile

STARS! Wiki
STARS! Wiki Français
I am on a hot streak... Literally.

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Re: 64-Bit Stars!? Sun, 05 April 2009 19:33 Go to previous message
ThiefLord is currently offline ThiefLord

 
Crewman 1st Class

Messages: 39
Registered: April 2008
Yup - this works ok. - Thanks!

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