Alien Crossfire problem

[Enigma_Nova]

Sorry we couldn't be of more help, Laplace.

[Petek]

Originally posted by Laplace
Yes, I DO distinctly remember installing some MS-XP upgrades (Critical updates) after installing the then working patch of SMACX, and then sometime afterwards, the terranx.exe error.

It could be mere coincidence that the crash occured after the upgrades, but now I am less inclined to think so.

Laplace,

I can tell you from personal experience that MS Critical Updates can break existing programs. These updates are issued without extensive testing. If you wish to pursue this line of thought, you should be able to uninstall the updates one-by-one (from Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs) and then see whether one of the updates broke SMACX. You may wish to disconnect from the Internet while doing so.

If you find a specific update that caused the problem, check Microsoft.com to see if the patch was updated (MS has updated some patches that caused problems). If there is no update, you have to decide whether to risk not installing the patch.

Good Luck!

[Enigma_Nova]

Originally posted by Petek
If you find a specific update that caused the problem, check Microsoft.com to see if the patch was updated (MS has updated some patches that caused problems).

So it's the Patch that patches the patch which patched the patch.

[Warmax1955]

Wow! I had no idea that this thread I started would become so large!

Thanks for everyone's replies and maybe someday we will get this thing licked!

Just bums me out that their is no patch to fix this problem.

Keep the faith everyone!

[smacksim]

O.k., another unlikely suggestion:

Create a shortcut to the application and then launch that. Or create a batchfile to the shortcut to the application and run that. It's quite strange, but I discovered that batch files can't run terranx.exe without a shortcut with the "Start In:" field filled out exactly. Like: "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" if it's in the default folder. If this is anything else than the game directory, the game will try to launch and then crash back to the desktop.

-S

[knighterrant]

I've gotten SmacX to work on all of my Windows XP computers. However, the solution is not entirely ethical even if official support for the program no longer exists.

So, a solution does exist.

[Chaos Theory]

It's pretty common that you can't run an executable unless your working directory is its directory. After all, unless its directory is in the PATH, how would you expect it to find its files?