After several years of being "grounded", I came across my two versions of EAW which I had not played since way back in my Win98 days, and decided to load one up to see if I still had what it takes.

To my surprise, neither one will work and I would keep getting the Win32 error when trying to launch the game after a install. I have both the Microprose/Infogrames versions.

I have searched SimHQ for several days and found this link that looked promising however, after loading the downloads, I can now get the game to start up without any error however, the front page game menu is pretty much unreadable and I can not click on anything. [url=http://www.users.on.net/~pam_biddell/1.28E_Install/128eInstallPR.htm][/url]

(This is the 1st time I've ever attempted to load any type of mod to EAW)

I'm running WinXp and have a AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.0 GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT.

If I have read and understand the forums correctly, it is my video card that is my problem.

Does anyone happen to have any suggestions as to what I can do to get this game up and running?

Thanks

The Win32 error usually is from trying to use an exe other than EAW.exe to start the sim. So open the EAW folder and make sure that the start command is EAW.exe.

Hi CR,

well the quickest fix (avoiding changing drivers and stuff) is probably to load the d3dwindower program and play the game through that, it is a very simple little freeware proggie that seems to cure a lot of Nvidia card problems.

get it here :

http://www.brothersoft.com/d3dwindower-238977.html

after installing just drag and drop youre eaw.exe into the box and then under 'settings you can set the window size to the size of your screen, bearing in mind the width and height boxes are inverted !! so height of screen goes in the 'width' box etc.... if you have any problems setting it here is my setup :

open the d3dwindower and select an eaw.exe, then click on the 'settings' tab...

under the 'common' tab I have

height : 1024

width : 750 ( not 768 so it stays on screen in the window)

and 'use windowed mode' ticked

under the 'window mode' tab
all 3 DirectX modes along the top row ticked
and :
Ddrawcolour emulator
Ddraw colour converter
and Ddraw primary bit ticked

all the boxes under 'foreground control' and 'direct input' are left blank

that setup works for my machine but you may need to tweak it a bit.


cheers,


Pobs

Hi,

For Win32 error please check also there:

WIN32 error solution



OFF

I would only get the Win32 error if I tried to do a fresh install of EAW and then attempt to start the game. Since downloading and installing the 128e patch I do not get the Win32 error, or any other error. The only thing that happens when I start the game is that it shows the 1st screen/main menu screen however, there is a lot of distortion in the screen and it does not show anything that I can click on and I can not get out of that screen unless I do a CTRL--ALT--DEL and then select End Task. Every time I produce the End Task Screen after hitting CTRL--ALT--DEL, it always shows that the game as not responding.

I did as you suggested and opened the EAW folder and changed eaw to EAW. I do not have any game files in that folder that actually show a .exe suffix. The only way I can tell it is a .exe file is that for description it says "Application". After doing the change, the game still acts as I stated in the paragraph above.

Thanks

Hello Compass_Rose.

Have you tried the Windower program, which Pobs suggested?

It does help in some situations.

Hey Guys,

Sorry, I am still trying to get use to this forum layout and earlier when I responded, I had only thought I had one response. It is amazing what you can see if you scroll down!!

Yes, Pobs suggestions worked!!! I thank you for the detailed instructions otherwise I would have never been able to figure it out.

I was really worried that I'd never be able to play this game anymore!

Thanks Again,

CR

I just came across this add-on web page:

[url=http://www.users.on.net/~pam_biddell/1.28E_Install/128EAddons.htm][/url]

Is there anything special I need to do to add these to my game or to I just unzip them into my master EAW game folder?

Thanks

No- just run them in your 1.28e folder

Hi CR,

glad it helped.

If you can't see the extensions on the files in folders i.e. .exe .ini etc... then just open any folder and click on the 'tools' menu.... open the 'view' tab..... and make sure the box that says 'hide extentions for known file types' is unticked... then you will see the full names of all the files on your computer, in XP it is ticked by default and hides all the extensions, which is a real nuisance if you are modding files....


cheers,


Pobs