XP Mode was introduced in Windows 7 as a way to help businesses migrate without losing the ability to run some of their applications. A pre-made XP virtual machine was created by Microsoft and could be installed with Virtual PC to run it on Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. Unfortunately, XP Mode required that the PCs CPU supported hardware virtualization. Microsoft recently decided to drop this requirement and issued a new patch that is installed after XP Mode and Virtual PC are installed on a computer. Go to the Download Windows XP Mode page for more information. (I had some trouble seeing the download buttons under FireFox 3.5 because the page said I was missing plug-ins, but IE worked just fine of course).
Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer Not Working
I had a weird problem to fix today with my son’s Vista PC. He installed COD 4 and was able to play single player, but when he tried multiplayer it would start to load but then kick him back to the desktop with a Windows crash error. I updated the game to the latest version (1.7) but multiplayer still would not work. So off to Plan B again: Google for help. I found a solution that worked here. Someone listed having the same problem and found the solution was to have a microphone plugged in. Very strange solution – I have been playing PC games for 20 years and have never seen a situation where a microphone was required to play. I am sure the manual or readme file spells this out somewhere, but it seems like a dumb requirement. Or, if you are going to have this requirement, could the game makers be nice enough to add some code to the program to check for a microphone before starting game and actually tell you that the game will not start until you plug in a microphone?
MechCommander / MechCommander 2 Free
I read an article in PC Gamer about the MechCommander series being free for download. Apparently Microsoft released the games for free so there’s nothing shady about this. Go to mechcommander.org and click Downloads from the left hand menu. The original MechCommander is only available via torrent, but Gold and 2 are available as iso downloads. I already had MechCommander 2, so I downloaded the iso for MechCommander Gold. I mounted the iso image with Virtual Drive and ran the installer. I had to set the installer for compatibility mode as Windows 2000 for it to install on Windows 7 (I also had to set the shortcut to Windows 2000 for the game to run). The game calls itself MechCommander Desperate Measures (Desperate Measures is an add-on campaign for the original so when you install Gold you can choose to play the original campaign or the add-on from the in game menu).
It’s always nice when companies release older games for free, so get these games while they are available.
***Update***
mechcommander.org is no longer a good site. MechCommander and MechCommander 2, however, are available in ISO form from GameStand.net – thanks Alex for the information. Also according to Alex there’s “some more compatibility solutions on http://www.thegameengine.org/mcg.php“
Playing Age of Mythology on VMware
Recently I virtualized a physical Windows XP computer with great success on to VMware Fusion 3.0. I had Age of Mythology installed and wanted to see if it would work. When I tried to start the game, I received the error – “Video Card 0: vmx_fb.dll VMware SVGA II Vendor(0x15AD) Device(0x405)” not a supported video card or something like that. After doing a little searching, I found a post about making AOM work on Parallels (bleh) by creating a text config file for the video card and copying it to ..\Age of Mythology\gfxconfig and ..\Age of Mythology\gfxconfig2. Further searching turned up a similar post on VMware’s community forums. Someone named ocozette was nice enough to post the contents of the text config file:
In this this file you must put the following lines:
[config]
Vendor=VMware
defaultdevice=CyberBladeXP.gfx
[knownGoodDriver]
Month=9
Day=21
Year=2009
Product=0
Version=0
SubVersion=0
Build=0
[device]
0x405=CyberBladeXP,CyberBladeXP.gfx
I created the text file and saved it as 0x15AD_vmware.gfx as instructed and copied it to both the gfxconfig and gfxconfig2 subfolders. AOM worked like a charm after this.
Northwest of Earth
I bought this book from the Science Fiction Book Club recently. It is a collection of stories about a futuristic outlaw/mercenary named Northwest Smith. The stories were written in the 1930’s by C.L. Moore. While I really liked the character of Northwest Smith and his Venusian partner, and I could even suspend disbelief at the descriptions of Mars and Venus, the stories dealt too much with fantasy themes instead of science fiction ones. Of the 13 stories, I enjoyed 2-3 of them; the others dragged on with great descriptions but very little conversation or action. These stories I did not like were about mythological beasts or vampire-like creatures. I was looking for some good sci-fi writing. Of the stories I liked, one was a good time travel paradox story, one was a decent exploration story, and one, while it dealt with fantasy and magic, had some good characters to make you look past this setting.
After reading this collection, I just wish the author would have taken her characters to some better places; she was certainly a good writer, I just did not enjoy her style of long, drawn out prose instead of more character interaction and conversation. I am sorry to say this was another Sci-Fi Book Club disappointment for me.
Windows XP Upgrade to Windows 7
Just went through my first XP to 7 upgrade for a customer and it was pretty painless. The Windows 7 upgrade package comes with a list of instructions for upgrading from XP since you cannot do an in place upgrade but basically do a complete reinstall. The recommended options include running the Windows 7 upgrade advisor to check hardware and software for compatibility and using the Windows Easy Transfer program to transfer files and settings to Windows 7. I skipped these steps since the laptop was new and rated for Vista and I had already checked the hardware specs; I decided to backup user files myself because I did not know what the transfer program might backup and what it might miss.
The next step was to insert the Windows 7 DVD while in Windows and run the install choosing custom install (not upgrade). I was told when I selected what partition to install Windows to that if there was an existing version of Windows, it would be backed up to Windows.old. The installer ran on its own until the end where you have to give some basic information about location, time, and enter the product key.
It appears all of the user files were left on there either in there own original folders under the C drive or moved under Windows.old if they were in the user folder.
So the nice thing I learned about this process was that you do not have to reformat and then put back all of the data files, even though it is still a good idea to backup beforehand just in case. Also, XP to 7 may be a lengthier process because of application reinstalls, but at least the process is laid out very well for the average user.
HP Laserjet 2035N and 2055N
We needed a new printer at one of the offices because the Dell 1700 we had been using for 3-4 years was having lots of paper jams. I found the HP 2055N on sale at Office Depot so I bought it. It had 128 MB RAM (expandable to 384MB), built-in networking and duplexing, support for an additional paper tray, and an LCD display. It also had many good reviews. Unfortunately, the unit I received jammed on the first print and I could not clear the jam error from the printer so I had to return it. Since Office Depot was not setup to make an exchange and the printer was no longer on sale, I bought the lower model (2035N) from Staples since it was on sale. The 2035N did not have as good of reviews as the 2055N, but I had already bought toner for the 2055N and I needed a printer asap so I went with the 2035N.
The 2035N only has 16MB RAM which I do not think is expandable. It does not have duplexing or an LCD display, but it does have built-in networking. Since it didn’t have the display, I had to use the HP software to find the printer an give it a static IP address. That was pretty simple. With the IP address set, I bypassed the HP software setup and went through Windows to setup IP printing using the IP address I had given to the printer. When asked for the driver, I pointed the wizard to the printer inf file in the root of the CD and the printer was setup successfully.
The 2035N has been working good for us for the last few weeks. The employees like it better than the Dell printer and we have not had any problems with it. I think I received a bum 2055N unit, so I would recommend either of these printers to small businesses looking for a decent black and white laser printer. If you want more features and expandability, go with the 2055; otherwise, save some money and try the 2035.
Fallout 3 complete and Fallout: New Vegas
After too few posts lately, I’m hitting a roll so I’ll go on. I finished Fallout 3 a while back and I would say it is definitely in my top 5 games of all time. With the game of the year edition out now, there is no reason not to try it. The main game is excellent, but the 5 DLCs are a mixed bag that are all worth playing. The first DLC, Operation Anchorage is fairly short and heavy on the combat. Some people did not like the lack of role-playing elements, but I thought it was fun nonetheless. The next DLC, The Pitt, had some role-playing though it was very linear. There was a lot of combat and some decent weapons. The best of the DLCs was the 3rd: Broken Steel. This was a continuation of the main quest and raised the level cap to 30 with new perks to boot. The second best DLC in my opinion was the 4th, Point Lookout. Like The Pitt, you went to another new location in the game, but the quests were non-linear and there was plenty of exploring and fun like the original game. The last DLC, Mothership Zeta, was an attempt to let you finally meet the aliens that crashed in the main game in a random area on the main DC map. The story here was linear like The Pitt (you were on a spaceship with very few options on where to go), but they had some cool ideas like NPCs that followed and could help you like in Op Anchorage, and some cool areas like the dump where the aliens suck things up from Earth. You can find plenty of items and weapons from the game on the ship, but most of the alien weapons are sub-par compared to the original alien blaster (and there was very little ammo for it on the ship for some reason). The ending is a little different, but again like all of the DLCs it is worth playing.
Fallout: New Vegas is the new Fallout game to be excited about in 2010. It is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment (which contains many of the folks from Black Isle whop developed the original Fallout games). Bethesda just released a cool teaser trailer on the Fallout site. Watch for more info and the release this fall.
Forbidden Planets
I just finished reading this book, which I purchased from the Science Fiction Book Club. It contains several short stories using forbidden planets as a theme. After reading the first story, “Mid-Death”, I was really excited about this book. It was probably the first graphic Sci-Fi horror story that I have read, but it was very well written with a lot of tension and surprises along the way. The rest of the book, with the exception of the story “Kaminsky at War” was pretty forgettable. The other stories were either bad or too weird for my tastes. My recommendation would be to either borrow the book or buy it used for the two stories I mentioned.