23 replies to this topic

[bha19]

Has anybody tried to run Pro Pinball in Vista, either timeshock, big race or fantastic journey and did it work

bha19

[GRONI]

Has anybody tried to run Pro Pinball in Vista, either timeshock, big race or fantastic journey and did it work

bha19

I have new versions of Big Race USA, Timeshock & Fantastic Journey, they run without problems on XP & Vista

GRONI

Here are the links

http://www.gog.com/e...ll_big_race_usa

http://www.gog.com/e...nball_timeshock

http://www.gog.com/e...ntastic_journey

[Wahreez McDermot]

Fantastic Groni! Thank you so much for the links.

The new versions include music in them am I correct? Also do they perhaps have some sort of solution for running in the proper aspect ratio on a 16:10 monitor?
I'll have to buy em ASAP especially if I can finally run the games in a proper aspect ratio.

[Mr. Pacman]

Has anybody tried to run Pro Pinball in Vista, either timeshock, big race or fantastic journey and did it work

bha19

I have new versions of Big Race USA, Timeshock & Fantastic Journey, they run without problems on XP & Vista

GRONI

Here are the links

http://www.gog.com/e...ll_big_race_usa

http://www.gog.com/e...nball_timeshock

http://www.gog.com/e...ntastic_journey

I just can't understand why someone has to buy (even with a small cost) , a game which isn't produced anymore, and its company has died... Where does the money go? Have they paid for the rights to sell it nowadays, or anyone with a server can sell these old games online?

P.S. I still think that Pro Pinball feels like the most realistic pinball simulator...It might had some faults with shooting, but the "feel" was there 100% IMO. I had to quit playing with it, because after each game when i wanted to play a VP table, felt like a lot less realistic..and i'm talking about how the ball responded generally..it's amazing that even with the advanced VP9 i still can't feel the same with Pro Pinball...they were doing science (well..not exactly...they were paid to do "perfectly" something they really liked!!!)..and unfortunately this still isn't the case with VP9 because it isn't a specific commercialized product...

Edited by Mr. Pacman, 22 August 2009 - 01:48 PM.

[bha19]

Has anybody tried to run Pro Pinball in Vista, either timeshock, big race or fantastic journey and did it work

bha19

I have new versions of Big Race USA, Timeshock & Fantastic Journey, they run without problems on XP & Vista

GRONI

Here are the links

http://www.gog.com/e...ll_big_race_usa

http://www.gog.com/e...nball_timeshock

http://www.gog.com/e...ntastic_journey

I got out my old cd's and they work great except that Fantastic Journey and The Web somehow got stained and I can't seem to get them recognized by vista installer. I tried to clean them as well but no luck. Do you know if GOG versions are the same as the disks. I have bought from them before and in my opinion they are a great group of guys. I bought a game that says it should work on my graphics card (Pure Pinball) and it did not so they gave me a coupon for a free game no questions asked.

[Phoenixx1771]

Caution with 'budget versions' - some of them are not the full product!

For instance i have a Timeshock! version that was included with a ComputerMagazine CD. The highest resolution selectable in this version is 1280x1024, which is a lot lower than the 1600x1200 the full version allows for. It also has no music.

The version they are selling there seems to be even worse. That is unless he typed the wrong resolution, in which case it is probably the same one that i have.

One of the User-Comments:

this game is great but you should be aware that the version you'll get is the DOS version, it runs just fine on XP but you're limited to a 1024x768 resolution (the Windows version supports up to 1600x1200).

So make sure you check the size of the file first. The full version CD is about 240MB whereas the LoRes version is only about 90MB,...

[bha19]

Caution with 'budget versions' - some of them are not the full product!

For instance i have a Timeshock! version that was included with a ComputerMagazine CD. The highest resolution selectable in this version is 1280x1024, which is a lot lower than the 1600x1200 the full version allows for. It also has no music.

The version they are selling there seems to be even worse. That is unless he typed the wrong resolution, in which case it is probably the same one that i have.

One of the User-Comments:

this game is great but you should be aware that the version you'll get is the DOS version, it runs just fine on XP but you're limited to a 1024x768 resolution (the Windows version supports up to 1600x1200).

So make sure you check the size of the file first. The full version CD is about 240MB whereas the LoRes version is only about 90MB,...

On the website it says Download version 420 MB

bha19

[Phoenixx1771]

Actually it says 534MB (didnt see it earlier) but that seems way too large for Timeshock!. Like i said, the full version CD image i have here is exactly 240 MB (251.893.760 Bytes) and that already includes the music tracks plus patches and a NoCD executable. So something seems odd here. Especially since the guy said it is the LoRes DOS version, which should be rather small simply due to the fact that the program is from a time when most harddrives were still in the low two-digits range.

The only plausible explanation i cant think of is that they decompressed the installer to insert patches and failed to recompress it afterwards. Or there is an even fuller version than my full version, although this seems unlikely since the guy explicitely said its the LoRes DOS version and not the Win version.

The only way to be sure is probably to buy it and check it out. If somebody does, let us know what it is.

[Wizards_Hat]

So something seems odd here. Especially since the guy said it is the LoRes DOS version, which should be rather small simply due to the fact that the program is from a time when most harddrives were still in the low two-digits range.

or even the low 1-digit range (if you're talking Gb)...I worked for an IT supplies company around that time, & I remember having an 8Gb hdd that my friends thought was just pointless ("you'll never fill that!"...yerr right!).

Dan.

[Phoenixx1771]

or even the low 1-digit range (if you're talking Gb)

Thats right. DOS was pre-95 so even two-digit range HDDs werent really common yet.

(I still have an old Maxtor 4,7GB which should be from around that time.)

[Phoenixx1771]

Post got added to wrong thread.

Sorry.

Edited by Phoenixx1771, 22 August 2009 - 08:25 PM.

[slam23]

Hi guys,

Well, it seems that I have the honor to report on GoG's version of Timeshock. The news is fairly good: it is the full version of the game and if I correctly remember, there was a fix/patch to the original game that allowed for higher resolutions. GoG's version seems to be that version. I wouldn't have expected less from them because they genuinely care how to bring those old games back. This release however could have been a tad more customer friendly. Now comes the tricky part: to "unlock" those hi-res settings up to a max of 1600x1200 (it defaults to a max res of 1024*768 with the higher res modes grayed out as earlier mentioned), you have to download a mod build of dosbox and change some lines in Timeshock's dosbox config file. It's not real hard IMO and there is an excellent post on GoG's forums with dead-on instructions. You can find those here http://www.gog.com/e..._hires_settings
My specs are: Acer laptop 8930 full HD 18,4 inch with Vista Home Premium, 4GB internal memory, Core Duo T6400 at 2,0 GHz with Geforce 9700M GT. It runs quite well I must say, haven't tested any multiball or other CPU heavy mode yet though. And you can play around with CPU cycle settings in DosBox. I have them at max. I'll play around with it some more but for now all seems well,
Greetings Slam23

[GRONI]

The GOG Versions are simply Links that i have collected.

I buyed the Games one Month ago in a german electro Store.

Fantastic Journey comes from the Lable GAME NOW

BigRaceUSA / Timeshock ( 2 in 1 ) comes from SOLID GAMES.

They all work with XP and VISTA, and also in 1600 Resolution

[Phoenixx1771]

Now comes the tricky part: to "unlock" those hi-res settings up to a max of 1600x1200 (it defaults to a max res of 1024*768 with the higher res modes grayed out as earlier mentioned), you have to download a mod build of dosbox and change some lines in Timeshock's dosbox config file.

Now this is interesting. I wonder if giving the program some commandline parameters on startup would achieve the same under native Windows?

Or perhaps NoLFB?

Too bad i dont have that version,...i love such challenges,...

[Mr. Pacman]

I want to ask this again...is it legal for these "companies" to sell this old and officially unsupported software?

[Phoenixx1771]

As long as they have a license from the IP holder, why not?

[slam23]

Now comes the tricky part: to "unlock" those hi-res settings up to a max of 1600x1200 (it defaults to a max res of 1024*768 with the higher res modes grayed out as earlier mentioned), you have to download a mod build of dosbox and change some lines in Timeshock's dosbox config file.

Now this is interesting. I wonder if giving the program some commandline parameters on startup would achieve the same under native Windows?

Or perhaps NoLFB?

Too bad i dont have that version,...i love such challenges,...

Hi Phoenixx1771,

That would be interesting indeed! But there's bound to be a good reason they run it under DosBox. I have the same affinity for trying to solve those things (rather than getting to play as usual), it's a lot of trial-and-error for me though, especially under Vista. Boy, is that a tough-ass secretive OS or not? That NoLFB suggestion is intriguing though, have to check that out,
Greetings SLam23

[Hazzard]

I love the pro pinball series :-)

Check out my pro pinball Arcade!

[pharaoh]

Has anybody tried to run Pro Pinball in Vista, either timeshock, big race or fantastic journey and did it work

bha19

i just installed fantastic journey last week on vista 64 - runs great - no problems

[Thilus]

Has anybody tried to run Pro Pinball in Vista, either timeshock, big race or fantastic journey and did it work

bha19

i just installed fantastic journey last week on vista 64 - runs great - no problems

I love these games, but I have a consistent problem with them... for some reason I can't enable 1600x1200 resolution! I've made sure that I have the full, "real" copies of these games (collectors edition), and I've configured them to work just fine with no particular patches or compatibility modes. no amount of screwing around will let me enable 1600x1200, though, it just stays blacked out. On my desktop this isn't a big deal, but we actually love to play these in the living room on a 52-inch display, so that extra resolution would be really nice... and I also just can't stand to let an old game get the better of me. Has anyone had this problem or have any ideas?

edit: oh yeah, Windows 7 x64, though I get the same behavior in Vista.

Edited by Thilus, 15 May 2010 - 02:45 PM.