Thank you that got me into the game in XP at least. It still crashes when running the original dvd from my physcial optical drive in the flight level. About the same place as when I tried to use the crack.
Fix for Windows XP VM, the file should be inside the folder for you particular VM.
- HIDE: ON
- You need to reply to this topic before you can view the hidden message
Will see if I can get the game to boot with my image next. Yeah, got it to boot when mounted to my physcial drive. So I can confirm that even legit customers got
fudge over. Don't bother wasting time on this game
Maybe I should check the cd version next, now that I can actually run the game in a VM with the starforce protection active.
I have attached the serial if anyone else wants to waste their time, the actual pressed copy of the game is fubar. As for what image emulation software and third party tools is needed to beat the protection on a real XP machine i'm not sure. The 3CD release is asking for a serial which I dont have, didnt see any provided either, instructions make no mention of a serial. Maybe the fact that I installed the DVD version first screwed with something.
(EDIT: This bug will only happen if you install the DVD version first) Yeah, if you install the DVD version first it will screw up your OS/game install, and you wont be able to run the CD version
Startforce really is a piece of shit protection. Well it is doing its job I guess. Just played that cursed Flight level in Windows XP VMWARE using the v1.0 CD version and image emulation, and I actually finished the whole level without a crash
Used the skip level cheat to get to it, incase the actual savefiles were corrupt in some way.
So if you want to play the game to completion, use a real XP machine, image emulation and the 3CD release v1.0 of the game. Dont install the DVD version first as that will screw with the game install/starforce protection. So someone needs to make a crack for modern OS out of the 3CD release and hope that any of the official patches don't break the game again. Ideally you would make a crack from scratch with the lastet patch which I believe is 1.04 for the CD release. The 1.05 release seems to be exclusive to the DVD version.
Image emulation also works with the 1.04 patch in Windows XP. The performance seems to have taken a hit though, but I'm playing in a VM so the performance is a little bit shit anyway. Played trough the same flight level again.
Update:
What the hell is happening. In a clean Windows 10 VM installing the 3CD version, the 1.04 patch and the Russian crack, the game no longer crashes in the flight level. Used the savefiles from my XP VM. Installing the patch may not be nescarry, as I believe the files are already included in the crack. I think I'm going insane from this game.
Save files:
https://gofile.io/d/tWRkXc