SMACX installation problem

[Calvin Vu]

I've just got yet another copy of SMACX (actually I ordered two copies at roughly the same time and that made them my 4th and 5th copies). The game didn't work for a long time for me (probably around the time I switched to XP) so I'm very glad that it works now.

However, there is a little glitch. When I installed SMACX, the installation completed but then reported some error (no description in the error report unfortunately) and said that the installation might not work correctly.

I'm using Vista64 so I suspect that maybe some file could not be replaced because of the permission (I did log in as an admin though). When I try to run the game from the hard drive, I only get the regular SMAC and I can only run SMACX from the CD.

Assuming a successful installation, what executable will be run when I run SMACX ? Is it the same terran.exe (sp ?) as SMAC ? Should I try to rename that file to something else and try the installation again to work around the file permission problem ?

Thanks for any pointer.

BTW, I can't install the SMACX patch either. I guess because the patch program doesn't even see the SMACX executable on my system. The save directory for SMACX was set up correctly though and I can access separate save files for SMAC and SMACX depending on which game I play.

[Petek]

Hi!

The Alien Crossfire executable is terranx.exe. When you say

When I try to run the game from the hard drive, I only get the regular SMAC and I can only run SMACX from the CD.

do you mean that that SMACX CD has to be in the drive to play the game? If so, that's normal. The most recent patch for SMAC removed this requirement, but it's still required for SMACX (but check your PMs for more information on this topic).

I don't know why your SMACX patch is failing. I suggest that you uninstall/reinstall everything. When reinstalling, you might try running setup.exe as the administrator (even though you're logged in as the admin). But check your PMs first.

Petek

[Calvin Vu]

When I execute terranx from the hard drive, the SMACX greenish image of a green spaceship comes up but then it doesn't give me a choice of playing SMAC or SMACX and jumps straight into SMAC.

I have to run setup.exe from the CD and elect the PLAY option from the setup menu. Only then I get to pick to play SMACX. It works but loading from the CD is much slower than loading the executable from the hard drive (minutes instead of seconds).

BTW, my terranx.exe on the hard drive looks identical to the terran.exe. Same size (276KB) and same date (9/20/1999). Well, I checked the files on the CD and they have the same dates also so that should be OK. I don't know what the problem is then. The installation seems OK but it doesn't work.

[Petek]

OK, I understand what you mean about running the game from the CD now. I still suggest that you uninstall/reinstall and apply patches, as outlined in my PM to you.

Petek

[Calvin Vu]

Uninstalling and then reinstalling in the right order: SMAC, SMACX, SMACX patch, SMAC patch and then the unofficial patch worked. Thanks for the help.