Where to get Tips on Functionality?

[12th Corridor]

My game breaks down most of the time, generelly while loading. I have the 1.01 Patch installed and I'm running it in Win2000 Compatability mode (operative system is XP). Did this change since it seemed to work better - for one evening!

I could give you more technical information on my computer but I'll spare you that. What I'd like to ask is whether anyone knows about discussions on problems getting Startopia to run properly. As I've come to know, there have always been problems with this game since release in 2001.

Also, what tricks do you have to make it function on your platforms?

Would be great to know, because the game is real fun (when it works!).

[Mucky Foot]

StarTopia should work just fine in native Windows XP mode (running it like that myself for years), especially after installing the 1.01b patch.

The major source of woe on most computers is the graphics card and the sound card. Graphics cards have actually stopped being quite such a problem, simply because they all just get much better with time. Sound cards... not so much. They seem to be just as bad today as they were in 2001 when StarTopia was released. Ironically, it's the cheap motherboard-mounted sound chips that seem to be most reliable, and the fancy add-in cards that suck.

Here's a passage I got from the old Muckyfoot website (thanks to the Wayback Machine):

<<<
-Sound card problems. There are plenty of older sound cards that have "interesting" drivers. As well as changing the AGP driving value (see above), you can also try slowly decreasing the amount of hardware accelleration that is done on the sound card - this may work around some driver problems.

Follow this sequence:
-Start button
-Settings
-Control Panel
-Win98/95: "Multimedia" or Win2000: "Sounds and Multimedia"
-Audio tab
-The button labelled "Advanced" in the "Sound Playback" box (NOT the one in the "Sound Recording" box)
-Performance tab
-The "hardware accelleration" slider.

If you slowly move that slider backwards a notch at a time, trying StarTopia each time until everything works, you can work around some problematic drivers. Bear in mind that this will decrease sound quality slightly, so if this does not cure the problem, remember to return the slider to the original setting before trying something else.
>>>

I think things have moved around a bit for Windows XP. As ever, be very careful when messing with your settings! But from your description I have no idea if this is actually the problem or not.

TomF - ex-MF coder.

[12th Corridor]

Thanks for the reply, and sorry for not having the time to respond earlier!

I've got Creative Labs Soundblaster Live! Value CT 4670 sound card. Pretty mainstream I thought. Could this card cause problems for StarTopia?

My graphics card is a Geforce FX 5900 XT.

Actually, I have meddled with the sound card hardware acceleration already. It didn't change anything, but I haven't checked each setting one at a time.

Currently, I'm leaning towards there might be heat problems with my computer, but I'm not sure. Going to look up a friend who is great with technical stuff.

[Spero]

Sort' of reminds me of the elusive Securom issue they had with Disciples 2; damn near obscure method of fixing it too!

For the most part, we're all gonna' rely on the guys with muddy feet; but I'll take a whop at it. Though I know nothing of sound-cards, if it was build/installed during or after 2001, I don't think it should cause a problem. For the fifteen years I've had computers, not one of them ever needed their sound-card replaced during its lifespan. The video card shouldn't be much of an issue either; I've ran StarTopia on a variety of different computers with and without the patch and without problems. Though games like Return to Zork Dungeon Keeper ran well without all this fancy stuff . . .

"Behold your dungeon heart!"