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Hello,
I have trouble getting the videos to run. The problem applies to all *.avi files included in the game (wonders, intro, council, heralds). It occurs both when I leave those files on the CD and when I copy them to the hard drive. The files themselves are intact. I can play all of them with the Windows Media Player.
I have tried out a few things recommended here, but so far I had little success. Since I still don't know where exactly the problem is, I'll give you as much information as possible. It may get a bit long-winded, but please bear with me.
In January, I bought a new computer with Windows XP preinstalled. The first programme I installed was my favourite game, Civ2, Version 1.09 (including WinG and VfW). I was delighted to find out that it basically worked. The moves were a little slower than on my old computer and the computer would not play music from the CD. The videos played perfectly.
When I installed my other games (see below for list), I noticed that the music problem occured with the Imperialism games, as well. Eventually, I posted here for help. Edward The King advised me to use drive d: rather than drive e: and this solved the music problem. (Thanks again!)
However, when I tried to play Civ2 again (first time since my initial tests), I encountered a different problem. The game would not start at all, because the files "commctrl.dll" and "dciman.dll" were missing from the c:\windows\system directory. I reinstalled the game completely, but during the VfW segment of the installation and error message about these two files appeared and the setup programme was ended automatically. The game still refused to start giving the same error message as before, so I copied the two files from the c:\windows\system directory of my old Win95 laptop (which I can still run in protected mode) into the same directory of the new computer.
Now, the game itself would run, but whenever it would have to show a video, it would crash quoting an error in the file "ir41.dll". I learned from postings on this forum that this file is the video driver for the civ2-movies and that renaming it to "ir41._ll" prevents the crash from occuring. This I did. As a result, I don't get the error message anymore and the game continues to run. However, it does not show me the videos. Instead, there is just a black screen when the intro should play. Similarly, the wonder movie box is dark and on the council and diplomacy screens there are black boxes where my advisors and the foreign heralds should be.
Following advice from earlier posts here, I installed both the 2.42 patch and the upgraded 5.11 Indeo Video drivers. This did not solve the problem. Interestingly, the readme-file for the v5.11 Indeo drivers says that the setup programme (iv5setup.exe) will only install the 32-bit drivers, but is obscure as to where to find 16-bit drivers.
I tried changing my display options (800x600, 1024x768), colours (16-bit, 32-bit). I also ran the game in all compatibility modes. None of this solved the video problem. (When running the game in 256 colours, the computer would even re-boot automatically after I quit the game.)
Since the video problems came up only after I had installed my other games, I uninstalled all of them, but this did not help either. Just in case that one of the games makes changes to the system that have to be reverted manually here is a list: Railroad Tycoon I, Civilization I, Colonization, Imperialism I, Age of Empires, Gettysburg, Anno 1602, Wall Street Trader 99, Railroad Tycoon II, Caesar III, SimCity 3000, Alpha Centauri (Planetary Pack), RollerCoaster Tycoon (+AddOn), Imperialism II, Birth of the Federation, Fritz 6, Pharao, Zeus, Diplomacy, Tropico (+AddOn) and Civilization III.
Typing these down makes me really frustrated. Of all the games in all the world, this must happen to Civilization II!
Ahh, sorry for that outbreak. I know it's only a game and that I should be lucky to be able to play it at all on a new computer, but when it comes to games, I'm just a little child that wants to see his wonder movies - and that's probably as it should be.
Thanks to anyone who is still here after all these boring technicalities. If I have failed to give important bits of information, or to present it clearly enough, it is either because I don't know too much about how computers really work or because I'm German (oops - that was perhaps an important bit I failed to give so far: my system itself is German, but all of the games other than Anno 1602, Fritz 6, Pharao and Tropico are in English).
Anyway, if anyone of you has an idea of what else I could try to see those movies again, please share it. I do not have internet access at home, so it may take a while for me to respond, but any help will be appreciated.
Verrucosus
I have trouble getting the videos to run. The problem applies to all *.avi files included in the game (wonders, intro, council, heralds). It occurs both when I leave those files on the CD and when I copy them to the hard drive. The files themselves are intact. I can play all of them with the Windows Media Player.
I have tried out a few things recommended here, but so far I had little success. Since I still don't know where exactly the problem is, I'll give you as much information as possible. It may get a bit long-winded, but please bear with me.
In January, I bought a new computer with Windows XP preinstalled. The first programme I installed was my favourite game, Civ2, Version 1.09 (including WinG and VfW). I was delighted to find out that it basically worked. The moves were a little slower than on my old computer and the computer would not play music from the CD. The videos played perfectly.
When I installed my other games (see below for list), I noticed that the music problem occured with the Imperialism games, as well. Eventually, I posted here for help. Edward The King advised me to use drive d: rather than drive e: and this solved the music problem. (Thanks again!)
However, when I tried to play Civ2 again (first time since my initial tests), I encountered a different problem. The game would not start at all, because the files "commctrl.dll" and "dciman.dll" were missing from the c:\windows\system directory. I reinstalled the game completely, but during the VfW segment of the installation and error message about these two files appeared and the setup programme was ended automatically. The game still refused to start giving the same error message as before, so I copied the two files from the c:\windows\system directory of my old Win95 laptop (which I can still run in protected mode) into the same directory of the new computer.
Now, the game itself would run, but whenever it would have to show a video, it would crash quoting an error in the file "ir41.dll". I learned from postings on this forum that this file is the video driver for the civ2-movies and that renaming it to "ir41._ll" prevents the crash from occuring. This I did. As a result, I don't get the error message anymore and the game continues to run. However, it does not show me the videos. Instead, there is just a black screen when the intro should play. Similarly, the wonder movie box is dark and on the council and diplomacy screens there are black boxes where my advisors and the foreign heralds should be.
Following advice from earlier posts here, I installed both the 2.42 patch and the upgraded 5.11 Indeo Video drivers. This did not solve the problem. Interestingly, the readme-file for the v5.11 Indeo drivers says that the setup programme (iv5setup.exe) will only install the 32-bit drivers, but is obscure as to where to find 16-bit drivers.
I tried changing my display options (800x600, 1024x768), colours (16-bit, 32-bit). I also ran the game in all compatibility modes. None of this solved the video problem. (When running the game in 256 colours, the computer would even re-boot automatically after I quit the game.)
Since the video problems came up only after I had installed my other games, I uninstalled all of them, but this did not help either. Just in case that one of the games makes changes to the system that have to be reverted manually here is a list: Railroad Tycoon I, Civilization I, Colonization, Imperialism I, Age of Empires, Gettysburg, Anno 1602, Wall Street Trader 99, Railroad Tycoon II, Caesar III, SimCity 3000, Alpha Centauri (Planetary Pack), RollerCoaster Tycoon (+AddOn), Imperialism II, Birth of the Federation, Fritz 6, Pharao, Zeus, Diplomacy, Tropico (+AddOn) and Civilization III.
Typing these down makes me really frustrated. Of all the games in all the world, this must happen to Civilization II!
Ahh, sorry for that outbreak. I know it's only a game and that I should be lucky to be able to play it at all on a new computer, but when it comes to games, I'm just a little child that wants to see his wonder movies - and that's probably as it should be.
Thanks to anyone who is still here after all these boring technicalities. If I have failed to give important bits of information, or to present it clearly enough, it is either because I don't know too much about how computers really work or because I'm German (oops - that was perhaps an important bit I failed to give so far: my system itself is German, but all of the games other than Anno 1602, Fritz 6, Pharao and Tropico are in English).
Anyway, if anyone of you has an idea of what else I could try to see those movies again, please share it. I do not have internet access at home, so it may take a while for me to respond, but any help will be appreciated.
Verrucosus
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