M1 Tank Platoon 2 is back and on Windows 7!

Hi, i mentioned this in another thread but it may be missed as that thread was referring to vmware. Well that isnt necessary now as m1tp2 can play in glorious glide graphics.and doesnt crash to desktop after completing a mission. How? Well the good man behind zeussoftware's nglide wrapper has made an experimental patch for both te 1.1 and 1.2 versions and they do seem to work well - these can found in the forum thread at the nglide site that i made in the problems section. i will attach it here soon though too.

I am not sure if anyone else is excited about this, but i am keen to play this a bit more between all the other sims i am resurrecting in my scant free time. No doubt this will be lost again with windows 8

Regards

oh sorry i dont know how to attach a zip - i guess just go the nglide forums and its there on page 4 of my m1tp2 thread posted by zeus

but i can post an image from the game in glide mode with nglide!

ohhhhh man...let me get that patch

heeeee hawwwww just applied the experimental patch to my 1.2 version game,in win7 machine(no virtualization) with ATI 7950 corei5 3570K and 32 GBs of ram, and this baby is up n running, just finished all the tutorials and started the campaign, no CTD as yet (fingers crossed) Will post more later

sounds great - indeed even if the game has an occasional ctd thats fine by me - knowing that one can generally now complete missions without it happening every time

Humm this sounds interesting and I do have a copy of M1TP2, how exactly do you install the experimental patch?

Okay figured it out and it looks just like I remembered it I have only messed with the static gunnery mission because I get a CTD right after the mission ends. I am using the M1TP2 1.2 patch in Win7 (no virtualization) 8gb of RAM and a Geforce GTX650 2gb, any suggestions?

Well, first time using nglide. M1TP2 ran but with the usual completely corrupted main menu. My old trick of hitting "alt f" repeatedly apparently still works - or else just passage of time and moving the mouse - to clear the corruption and get a clear menu. Using Glide mode, the missions look terrific. No problems with the layout of the map screen. Even the "Quit" button is present and working, back on the main menu.

Sadly, same old CTD at the end of missions. Just as with dgVoodoo. But I do believe the rendering of the sim world and menus is superior with nglide and the nglide Patch 2 version of the M1TP2 executable. But to not much avail, since no campaigning is possible and no debriefs, etc given the usual end of mission CTD.

I am also trying the bat file posted over on the nglide forum that was supposed to clear the menu corruption. Essentially, closing explorer.exe, presumably as the cause of the corruption. Not the case for me, unfortunately.

Note, I am using Win XP SP3, not Win7.

Although Steel Beasts Pro is my habitual and longtime sim of choice for modern armor sim, it would be fun to be able to break out M1TP2 from time to time. Perhaps something further will develop?

Eugene

Hmmm, i was hoping this fix would work across the board - damn!

With the experimental patch just simply rename the original exe in the game folder and put it there in its place. i also have the game in compatibility mode as xp service pack 2

I never had any success running dgvoodoo for m1tp2, i only use nglide.

i will play some more and see if i get any crashes.

Some people have used the app compatibility toolkit to tweak it - i have not had much success with that but others have.

well still no crashes a few missions on

i guess, make sure the graphics are set to 3DFX mode if you have nglide installed. I had nglide set to 1366x768

Also i am only playing the 1.1 version - its just so much better, air support is feral - to the point that if you are too close to an a10s area of attack it will line you up too by mistake, but once it comes in close enough it breaks off and looks for different targets - i like this friendly fire aspect it just means all the more that one needs to check where air support is attacking

You should be congratulated on your efforts Agathosdaimon with these old games.
I have to say that I was a HUGE fan of the original M1 Tank Platoon.
I lost count of the number of campaigns I completed in that one.
M1 Tank Platoon 2 left me cold for some reason and I never played it much at all.

As regards your near blue on blue incident,yes that does make it far more realistic and it is something I did encounter in the original game.
One of my tanks was destroyed by a friendly TOW missile,it was a complete WTF moment.

its funny that its those little details which make a game atmosphere great, i also liked the other things like noticing how enemy tanks would move to hide themselves behind other destroyed tanks. the only thing i did though wish was that other tanks in my platoon were a little more careful when backing into position - a good tactic would be to just ensure to slow down the set speed for the final waypoint.

oh indeed the first M1 Tank Platoon is also really good - i only got acquainted with it a few years ago through dosbox but was surprised with what it did entail.

One thing i got into also years ago was the m1edit program which not only made making new missions easy - making games with dozens of challengers, m1a2s and leopard going headon with scores of soviet columns was great fun , but also the mod let one modify the landscape and i was able to use it to increase the size and density of the towns and cities that the normal game only represents with a few buidings.

sorry, i think this is just a bit of initial excitement. I have just always wanted to get some old games working but left it as impossbile however through things like nglide, vmware, ACT and dosbox one has been able to get them working again.

@Agathosdaimon,

congrats on making one of the best tank sims work under a new environment. I got my copy to run under Vista but never tried nglide; I shall try that sometime later this week. Did you manage to get multiplayer going as well? I made several attempts using an IPX wrapper under Vista, but no luck so far

heya, thanks but thanks go also to Zeus over at Zeus software, i guess perhaps i had some insistence on it getting fixed as i knew it was possible but zeus knew what to do, i am not sure what he did but it saves the game.

I never tried multiplayer, never had a chance to ever do it with anyone though i wish i could have - back in the nineties, internet/modems were beyond the scope of our household and so i just never got to try that out. It must be do-able somehow.perhaps in virtual xp environment - nglide works just as well in vmware player i have found - though again the menus are a but screwed up but one can get around that

Is this title available as a download anywhere? I know M1TP original is available, but cannot find this one, aside from Ebay and Amazon.

Agathosdaimon, thanks for bringing this classic back to life. I had forgotten all about her.

I'm pretty sure that M1 Tank Platoon 2 is not abandonware (like M1 TP1) and that you won't find it,at least nowhere legal.

Amazon have it really cheap here in the UK,new @ £2.75 used @ £1.29.
It's a bit more for you I see @ $10.00.

Yeah, found torrents, but would prefer to find it on Steam or similar. I was hoping Best Buy or Fry's might have it available in the jewel case special. I'll look this week while xmas shopping and if all else fails, will order off Amazon. Thanks Chucky.

My bad Agathosdaimon I installed the experimental patch incorrectly . After renaming the original M1TP2.exe I tried to move the new M1TP2.exe from the experimental patch into the game folder. It kept wanting to make it a short cut So today with a fresh mind I figured maybe I need to move BOTH the new M1TP2.exe and the new game.cfg into the game folder (there was already a game.cfg in there from a previous try I think ) low and behold it went right in there, played all the tutorial missions and no CTD after any of the tutorial mission. I'm ready to try a campaign

Well I'm envious! Glad you guys were able to get through missions complete and no CTD at debrief. I tried several different ones, all getting the same CTD once I hit Y(es) to end mission. Otherwise runs fine.

Would you success-mongers list your driver versions? Might get something that could help from them.

Thanks!

Hey, godzilla, you said you had to move the "new" game.cfg file into the M1TP2 main directory (along with the experimental exe file). Before that, you were getting CTD's after a mission, like I am. But now that is fixed for you.

I am confused about the game.cfg file. I don't see a new one packaged with the experimental patch. Mine is generated in the sim's main directory, apart from any replacement(experimental)exe. I get a new one when I change my configuration within the sim's options. Can you clarify this for me? No moving of that game.cfg involved. Maybe this is why I still get the CTD's after a mission.

OK, so having just purchased off of Amazon, are there still supported mods for this? I checked out tracksim.com, and all their links were dead. I really liked this and the original and look forward to some nostalgic playing time. Thanks again for re-surrecting a game I thought long gone into the sunset.

Heya - thats great - i have two cd copies of m1tp2 myself - an english and a german version - both which i had bought to see whether there was any difference. The game usually goes cheap because most people would not be able or be interested in trying to get it to work anymore. Its always been a dear game - perhaps a comfort as trip down memory lane in all its cliched expression-iness! its worthwhile getting a boxed version as it had a good manual and also a nifty keycard reference - i unfortunately had to dispose of my recently though as one of our cats had relieved themself on it!

I am not familiar with moving the cfg file about - i never had to do this at all. all i have done is installed the game - i had done that with the setup file set to winxp sp2 compatibility but i dont know if that matters at all.
Eugene, is it the zip file "experimental patch" which you got from the nglide site? The only reason i ask is because there is another exe posted by the user gamecollector a few posts later.
I am not savvy enough perhaps with computers to create a driver list - how do i collate these?

I gotta cover this quick or I'll be late for work
1). Downloaded and installed nGlide 1.0
2). Downloaded the experimental patch from Agathosdaimons link in his "M1TP2 working well in vmware with nglide" unzipped to my desktop using WinRaR. This should create a new folder with the new M1TP2.exe and a game.cfg file in it.
3). Patched the original M1TP2.exe to v1.2 (not sure if this step is required).
4). Renamed the original M1TP2.exe in game folder.
5). Selected the new M1TP2.exe and game.cfg files from the folder on my desktop and moved it into the main M1TP2 folder (allow it to overwrite if it wantd too)
6). Play
Also a side note, I did not install M1TP2 to Programs Files (x86) which is where it wants to default install to because of the UAC so make your own folder in C:\ like Microprose\M1TP2 or something like that.

I have UAC now switched off on my computer and have the game install in the c:/ program files x86 folder


The experimental patch file will have two folders in it one is for the 1.1 game - which is what i prefer and also the 1.2 version of the game which may have fixed some other things but made i felt, the air support more impotent and timid.

I never found any game.cfg file in the folders and i just check it now and still no cfg, just the two exes
the exe file simply just needs to replace the existing m1tp2 exe after the game has been patched to either the 1.1 or 1.2 version.

Incidentally, i have found that IMagics iM1A2 works super stable in windows 7 if you just doing an install that gets around the 16bit installshield exe - get a hold of a newer version of an installshield 32bit exe and replace the exe in the game folder (copy contents of game cd/iso to a folder on the hdd and replace the set up file there and just then run the newer setup file with compat mode selected to win 95. Although iM1a2 had #%&*$# landscape textures it had a really intuitive setup and a GUI in game which made giving orders to the company really easy and also alot of good digitized speech.

Anyhoo thats a side note, gotta complete m1tps campaigns again now!

Well into the hard campaign in poland and shame on me for taking the AI for granted. I lost two tanks and all but one bradley and infantryman. After a string of successes i presumed the russians would cave in and the missions would be a cakewalk taking out some shambolic static russians on the defensive, but i was surprised, as two platoons came up on my units form either side of a forest block - they knew where i was after 2 frogfoots were flying over and causing a mess - thats why i thought i was good to stop and hug the treeline and wait to take them out with the m2 if they fly over low again. but i couldnt wait after the tanks attacked the position - after all this i thought it was safe to move around the edge of the map away from the lower ground in the middle,

but even this proved dangerous as there were so many groups of mechanized infantry on the reverse slope that i didnt even see until i came over the hill with the 3 functioning but damaged m1a2s i still had- damaged by heavy artillery. Hit on the sides by infantry rockets, i found my only option was to back up the tanks as quick as possible. And still after eventually getting through this mess, once i reached the Line there was another t-90 platoon waiting there.
Although in the 1.1 patch enemy tanks wont fire their main guns unless they can hit you on the side or are within 1000 metres, they will fire everything they have if they get even just a hint of side or rear exposed./
The mission was accomplished but with such heavy losses i now have to face a reinforced mech battalion in the next mission - i like this aspect too - the russians are somewhat bolstered by their success in the damage caused.



you can just see the OPFOR tank coming up in front of the soldiers - my mistake! Best thing to do is to get the infantry out right away as the bradleys will be destroyed too easily. The infantry are quick to respond and one even launched a rocket and destroyed a tank not a moment too soon.


In answer to whether there are any mods, custom missions and such for the game - well, there were. There used to be a few sites that had some sound mods and also a range of custom missions - some done as a fixed campaign played through the single missions.
I actually have kept these on my computer all these years, - they have migrated from hard drive to hard drive
I even have a campaign where you can play as the russians - its tough, as you are weaker than the US forces but you have far superior numbers.
I have it all in a rar file - its less than 3mb and i can email it - just pm me - i am not familiar with sharing files on websites, bu if someone knows how to do this, then please do

cheers

Very cool! Great sim. I may have to give thios a go. Great work!

fwiw, Recluse located a lot of Spoon's old M1TP2 site on the Wayback Machine. Quite a treasure trove:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2517639/2.html

I also found I had the M1TP2 1.2 patch on my site too, for some reason if anyone needs it:
http://www.simwarrior.com/gunship/utilities/m1tp2v12.exe

I recently posted a lot of my old development files from Gunship, btw. Folks intrested in trying M1TP2 might find some of it useful:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3691140/Gunship_Helipad_is_back_And_mo.html#Post3691140

Especially:
http://www.simwarrior.com/gunship/dev/mps_1.zip

~350MB, but perhaps worth it...

Still lots of possibilities in that old girl:

(Don't ask me how I did that. I no longer have any idea.)

I later used the M1TP2 armor skins and the Saudi Arabia map in desert versions of Gunship:
http://www.simwarrior.com/gunship/GSTOS.html

Humm now thats interesting Agathosdaimon Like I said I was in a hurry this morning typing my reply and your correct, when you D/L the experimental patch you get both M1TP2 1.1 and M1TP2 1.2 folders. But when I open each of these folder there is the experimental M1TP2.exe and a file called game.cfg. I can say when I tried just moving the experimental M1TP2.exe by itself into the M1TP2 game folder Win7 kept wanting to change the experimental .exe to a shortcut, even if I renamed the original M1TP2.exe. But as soon as I moved both the experimental M1TP2.exe and that game.cfg file into the M1TP2 game folder after renaming the original M1TP2.exe it went right in (Win7 did not try to change the experimental .exe to a shortcut this time). I really don't know why I have this extra file and you don't but in the end it dosen't really matter for myself because I now can now play M1TP2 without it CTD after I finish a mission so it's all good

Cool stuff fng2k will check out the links and thanks for sharing them

Hmmm. There is a game config, iirc, along with the exe and some other files in the stock patch from Microprose. But no files other than the experimental patched exe file in any of the downloads from the links I found for either the experimental 1.1 or 1.2 downloads. I re-downloaded a later version of the 1.1 - it also has only the exe file. No game.cfg.

If someone is looking to buy a copy here is one on ebay.

Thank you for this post I got it running..With messed up menu screens but I can deal with that...I've been trying to get this or Steel Beasts running in Win7 64 bit..Still no luck on steel beasts I can afford the steel beasts pro so at least now I've got a post WW2 tank sim and I have the ringed manual and all I'm not a serious tank simmer but enjoy the heck out of messing around...Thank You

its good fun, still, i hope Eugene can get it going - with the official 1.1 patch - yes that information just needs to all replace the files in the m1tp2 folder of course. The game cfg file - whihc is really just a simple note with the words host and player in it, is not certainly something that i feel plays any real role in the game working.

It may help also to make sure all your windows 7 microsoft updates have been done as - in particualr sometimes the automatic updates dont include things microsoft may view as optional - and some of this optionaly ones were for improved compatibility with old programs- i noticed that after attempting to get some older games working that would only CTD, the request from microsoft to send a report came up - i did that and then interestingly a few hours later some recommended updates came to my computer from the microsoft automatic updates and these included updates for improved compatibility. - this may or may not play a role, but it may help with this or other games perhaps.
cheers

Thanks guys. So far no luck, but I may try putting in a Patch 1.1 version and seeing if that makes any difference - but I doubt it. The problem of end of mission CTD in Glide has been with the sim for ages. I would think that any fix for it in this experimental exe for use with NGlide would solve a fundamental graphics issue, not something tied up with the game's mechanics addressed in these original patches. But what the heck - nothing to lose!

Also, I am using Win XP, not 7. It's all up to date so far as I know. Will check on any "Optional" updates at Win Update.

The graphics sure looked decent considering the age of M1TP2.

installing the 1.1 version may be a possibility, definitely give that a go

with win xp you should definitely be able to play it without the crash to desktop i would think - in fact i had it going in winxp with this before the experimental patches, but winxp is not on my laptop so its less convenient to get to and use. - Hmmm there must be some way this can be fixed for you! perhaps it depends on the graphics cards or some other hardware issue?

Do you know whether the 1.1 original patch is available anywhere?
The 1.2 patch has a variety of files in addition to its new .exe. Did the 1.1 patch have many files also? Or was it just a new .exe? If so, I could just drop the experimental 1.1 exe in.

Nobody here in the past has been able to get past the end of a mission in Glide without the CTD, on XP rather than Win 98. I am surprised your machine did it. Might be related to an older graphics driver?

Since much of the v1.2 patch is made up of files from the v1.1 patch apart from the newer exe, I substituted the experimental 1.1 in and gave it a try. Couldn't get past the garbled main screen. Went back to the experimental 1.2, and could get missions, but they CTD when completed.

Not sure what to try next.

are u running it in compatibility mode? Even in XP I remember running it in Win98 comp mode! Try that.

Yes - tried all various modes. But will double check - worth it!

Thanks.

Success! Thanks to all for the help and suggestions, Agathosdaimon for way extra effort. Stock, fresh 1.1 patched install can do the usual complete a mission, but CTD when y/n leave battle option is used to finish the mission. But no matter what I do - including compatibility changes, I cannot get the experimental 1.1 version to get past the corrupted Main Menu graphics.

However, Doggie's suggestion to change the experimental 1.2 patched executable file from either Win 95 or no compat option - to WIN 98 worked! Assuming success continues in clearing the Main Menu corruption after about of Alt F and clicking, I will try regular missions and Campaign to see whether they will complete without CTD, as the Training missions have.

Thanks again for the help and inspiration.

Eugene

PS Note for Steel Beasts Pro players - I play SBP online every Monday. It is certainly a superior sim for realism, MP, continual upgrading, community, etc etc etc. This effort with M1TP2 is just an example of why ice cream stores have more than one flavor. Sometimes, a person is just in the mood for a change of pace and scenery.

With the 1.1 menu problem were you finding that the cursor at the menu would not move? - does your computer have a secondary intel graphics card as my laptop does - i find that i have to use this for older games.


However if you have the game going in he 1.2 version now hats bloody great!

Cursor moves normally with the corrupted Menu graphics. With 1.1, the menu never clears using the experimental patched exe that is. With the stock v 1.1 and both 1.2 and experimental 1.2 exe's, the corruption clears after a bit - having pressed "alt-F" a number of times.

Hadn't thought of removing my video card!! The onboard chip for this motherboard is one generation back from the latest, which means bad - compared to poor. :-) But as you say, if the 1.2 version success holds up, woo hoo!

Menu corruption is caused by explorer on at least win 7.

I solved it by make start.bat with this content



and running game via that bat file. Menu corruption is very rare now.

WONDERFUL! thank you i will try this out!

could this be applied to other games possibly that have corrupted colours?

I use this to start M1TP2, but it has no effect on my Win XP installation. Perhaps it is effective only for Win 7?

I can't believe it but I found a my M1TP2 original disk (but no manual). So I have a Win 7 computer and I have read a number of posts on the problems of getting it to run. would someone please prepare a simple checklist of the latest method to get it to run and what to download. thanks.

+1 for the above statement. I just received my copy today and am installing in regular Program Files. I can't wait.....!

oh yes

Well lets see,

Go to the website for NGlide (made by zeus software) and install nglide
then..

install the game - i think i selected the setup.exe on the disk to be in winxp sp2 mode, but i dont know if that will matter too much - perhaps it does -

once its installed, apply the 1.1 patch, or the 1.1 then 1.2 patch (actually i dont know if both need to be applied for 1.2 patch)

then get the experimental patch from teh NGlide forums - its in a post i have there regarding m1tp2 - on about the 4th page. the patch will have 2 folders in it - one for 1.1 version game, which i prefer personally or the 1.2 version.

Depending on which version you have installed, simply change the name of the original game exe (or just let it be overwritten - i doesnt matter too much) and put the patch in the m1tp2 folder where the game exe was. The experimental patch is a replacement game exe and so then just run the game from it or the game shortcut as normal.

once in the game you should be able to go to the configuration option and select glide as the graphics option.

The menus may have corrupted colours but that wont affect the gameplay as the battles will play looking in their lovely normal textures.

- this should be enough to get you into the game - but let me know if you need more info

Anyone have a cite to patch 1.1. I have 1.2 but would like to also have 1.1
thanks

i have the 1.1 patch and can send it to you along with the other things i retained from the m1tp2 mission making sites all those years ago - a heap of custom missions, sound mods and additions like distance markers in the commmanders binoculars

just send me a PM with your email and i will send it to you

Quick question, can the resolution be changed at all? It would be fantastic to get an even higher resolution than out of the box.

if you play the game with the glide option and with nglide install - of course that is pretty much the only way to play with glide and it will give the best graphics, you can set the nglide game resolution through its configurator tool - it should be in nglides start menu folder
I have used it and it is playing the game at a much higher resolution -its great, i can use if on other 3dfx games like LB2 and play at higher res also

so, I made a text document and labeled it as a start.bat and pasted your text inside. I then placed the start.bat into the main game folder and then just click on my desktop shortcut to get her to run?

Thanks for the info, so there is a game resolution that maxes out and nglide just adjusts the game to fit your desktop, not really change the resolution, correct?

i am not sure - i had played it with nglides res setting up to that 1300x768 or so and the game looked crisper than i remember but perhaps thats just 3dfx at any nominated resolution with this game. In other games it will definitely up the in game resolution - i definitely get higher res out of Longbow 2.

On another note, i have gone into play M1tp2 tonight through windows 7 and it has started crashing during the mission - this is the first i have ever seen the game do this - usually it is super stable during the battles. I had updated my nvidia drivers yesterday and so that may be the culprit - although i run m1tp2 with the intel graphics card selected instead as the nividia card doesnt play the game normally so i am not sure what the problem is that i am having with it at the moment.

let me know if any body else is having this problem or not

thanks

okay i think i found the cause - it appears that the game is less stable with the nglide resolution all the way up - it was markedly finer with the higher 1366x768 res but putting it back to the default 640x480 still looks nice and makes for a smoother game!

I am not sure if you mean original shortcut for game or you made new shortcut for start.bat on your desktop. Sure you must run game via that start.bat click directly on it or make shortcut for it. Otherwise it will have no effect. It will probably works on Vista/win 7. People reported this method dosent help with UI corruption on XP systems.

I am going to try and get this going on my machine...the file for the NGlide. Is it called nGlide 1.00 Glide wrapper?

Just wondering if this is the right one.

If so, and I install it, can it adversely affect any current graphic files that run with the more modern games, like DCS or ROF.

actually once the bat file is made, i thought one starts the game by double clicking the bat file - you put a short cut on the desktop to the bat file. The bat wont run if you just still click on the shortcut to the game exe.

FOr the Nglide resolutions, the configurator will definitely up the in game 3dfx resolution, but this was starting to cause some crashing for me, so playing at the default resolution is perhaps best - though maybe up it a little might be okay?

so far as i can tell there is no trouble on my system now running both the m1 tank platoon 2 and newer games like DCS - i was having graphic problems with DCS before but i found that was caused by the intel integrated secondary card on my mboard running instead. If you have an onboard intel card as well as a separate graphics card, M1TP2 will prob run best with the intel card - at least thats what i found.

Okay update for anyone following, the nglide resolutions are not the culprit. I have gotten crashes it seems through trying to play the game with the bat file running to close Explorer. So i dont know whether though this is due to other problems being causednby explorer being closed while playing the game from the ISO i made of my copy, through magiciso - whether this can work without explorer i dont know. I might try instead with the cd in the drive.

But this may be a crash caused by other actors too such as the events in the battle may be - in particular occasions where enemy units are moving through the forest blocks - this can occur in some maps with forest and with a few enemies starting in the forest. They normally trundle themselves out but maybe this is causing a problem with the nglide glide wrapper?

Hello everyone,

Meanwhile, I got M1TP2 to work with nGlide on two machines: One under Vista and the other under XP. Thanks to Agathosdaimon and Zeus this was easy as pie and I see no glitches at 1024x768 with 16 bit color depth. However, I have given up trying to make mutiplayer work and shifted my attention on Panzer Elite instead. The setup does unfortunately take some more steps but multiplayer does not present any problems at all.

So, M1TP2 is now back in its old glory, but for MP it'll be PE.

Merry Christmas and have a happy new year.

Cheers, Jörg

Thats great!!

Yes, i wish MP was possible for M1TP2 - that was something i never got to try out ever. Attempted to do it over lan about 10 years ago but we couldnt work out the settings at all. Perhaps the technology for multiplayer has moved too far beyond what can be offered by M1tp2. Nevermind for the Singleplayer the game is worth it.

Yes i have it running in 1300x768 res in nglide - my only crashes seem to come with trying to close explorer while playing i believe either that or Nglide has problems with some battles. but i get through it nevertheless and a crash mid campaign wont lose the mission for me, i can just pick it up again and usually with a different force composition and then just play it through.

I installed M1TP2, the v1.2 patch, nglide, and the experimental patch from zeussoftware you posted. However, when I started the program, there's only sound, probably of the introduction video, and later maybe menu, but no graphic. The screen is completely blacked out.

This is the first time I install this game and nglide. Could there be anything I miss?

no idea..........but is anything forced like aa and all that? Unlikyly to be supported by game. But if you have audio and its running......... I would mess with all the settings of your vid card and see.

hmm - i think i have gotten that problem with the blacked out screen when i tried to runn the game either with compatibility settings on or with my NVIDIA card - i realise that so cards just may not work . - my laptop with Win 7 64bit luckily has an nvidia card and intel card and so i use the intel card as that is more stable for old games.

This being said, i can run M1TP2 also fine with an ATI Radeon card thats only a few years old on my other XP machine

Funny that you post this as late last night just before bed i played this again and it still running greatr (though it crashes i think when i run FRAPS).

My advice again which i really must insist on is that that game is better with just hte 1.1 patch not 1.2 - at least in my experience.

I think playing with your card setting sspecifically for this game will be a good idea. If you have an intel card onboard also have the game run with that instead.

Exactly as you said! My laptop has both an integrated card and an nvidia card. The program was running with the nvidia card by default. After I changed the setting and run it with the integrated card, it works now! Thanks a lot!

Oh and the game is awesome. Tired of WoT's arcade mode and looking for something more real. And I guess this is a good starting point.

This game is awesome and it still keeps surprising me - glad you can play it now. I get some crashes here and there but its far more stable and i you can generally get through the campaign now
I am doing the Poland campaign on Hard and its just amazing really - i have had some really edge of the seat moments - last night i had a mission and it was on a map that was a defined by choke points caused by the forest blocks - i thought again stupidly that it would be a snap to do, - i had 2 M1A2 platoons and 2 Bradley platoons each full of infantry as well as A10s and about 5 different types of artillery. - all this against an understrength tank battalion - hubris again on my part - i expect just some sporadic groups of enemies around the hill i had to take , but no just below the low hill and behind the forest of the major chokepoint - they had virtually every unit just crammed in -
i expected something but not everything at once! some much firepower and so close to my tanks i lost 3 of the 4 tanks in my group and i think the 3rd only survived because of all the wrecks piling up between the firefight - i just quickly poured in all my units and dropped all the artillery i could -
It was just the craziest close range combat i had perhaps seen in an M1TP2 campaign. I had not encountered the AI doing this before but they almost ended my campaign. It was my fault too i suppose - i had alot of options for scouting that trap and i thought no, a wall of 8 tanks will do it,
anyway thats my little story from the one game i played last night before bed

Actually i wish i could find out more about how the campaigns are designed because there are missions where i have come upon a heap of fuel trucks and other supply units and then also there are missions where my forces have joined up with british challenger tanks - i guess i would like to know exactly what has been implemented into the behaviour of all the units and whether destroying supply trucks in a mission will be some kind of bonus or advantage to slowing down an enemy army group.
simply a great game!

i remember there where mods for m1tp2 so you could play campaigns or missions with british, german and russian equipment too.. but i think the site is long gone offline..

(was a simhq site http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/turret/m1tp2/ )

Heya Xambrium - i have kept all the M1TP2 missions and mod campaigns and other special things like sound mods and such and ever M1EDIT which will run fine in dosbox and allow you to make new missions and even change the terrain - its a small zip file so if you or any one else wants to PM me i can send it to you all of it - there is a soviet campaign in there, but no german or british one sorry, i never found any of those

Hi Guys,

I stumble to this thread by accident.
And it is a very nice surprise indeed to know that we can still play m1tp2.
Thanks for all the explanations especially to Agathosdaimon.

However, how do you run this game with the correct aspect ratio 4:3? Is it possible?
I am using nglide v1.01 and I have set the aspect ratio option in the nglide configurator to 4:3, but it does not have any effect on m1tp2.
Please advise.
Thank you.

I'm running M1 Tank Platoon on my Packard Bell 486 and M1 Tank Platoon 2 on my Pentium II-350. No crashes whatsoever, albeit it's not Windows 7. I just happen to have lots of ancient old working computers lying around. Still living the good ol' days.

Uncle

Wow. I have an ancient Pentium IV with Win XP. But a Packard Bell 486? Man, that PC came out back during the Civil War. I think Ulysses S. Grant had one. You win the prize.

You should see my home built 286 and 386. These are great for Earl Weaver Baseball and Wolfenstein 3D. I've had the 386 since 1991 and it's still going strong. I've upgraded the case but all else is original.

Uncle

I've got a 48k Spectrum.

Not a tape player, or TV though, so it's more or less useless, but it did still work last time I plugged it in.

Do still run some of the early games on it (or rather an emulator)

"Lightning Simulator" was a quite fun little flight sim, and is surprisingly good if you can see past the basic graphics. Quite a rare 'bird' too. Not many more recent takes on this English Electric bird.

Originally Posted By: ataribaby
Menu corruption is caused by explorer on at least win 7.

I solved it by make start.bat with this content

Code:

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start /w M1TP2.exe
pause
start explorer.exe

and running game via that bat file. Menu corruption is very rare now.

Forgive my ignorance, but is there more to creating the "bat" file? When I double click on the desktop shortcut it simply opens the text file in the M1TP2 folder where I had copied your code. Thanks, BM.

sorry been away from the forum for a while. Thats awesome with the start.bat fix - I used that in Janes F15 but forgot to try it with M1TP2!

I have seen the start.bat files done differently with things like echo off added (i am not sure what that does) there is a quick tutorial on making one here

http://forum.mintywhite.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3272

echo on/off doesn't do much other than to either show (or hide) what's running in the command box as it executes each line.

Hi,

I'm currently playing a lot of oldies, including M1 Tank Platoon 2.
Running under Win 64 bits, with NGlide, using the Zeus experimental patch, game patched to 1.2, no specific compatibility settings.

I got rid of this annoying menu issue thanks to this patch : http://static.macuyiko.com/files/w7ddpatcher/w7ddpatcher.zip

Instructions are as follows :
- Download the zip archive, copy into the game folder and launch it.
- when asked, point to the M1 Tank Platoon 2 exe and you're done ! No need for batch file anymore...

For those interested, there's a long and detailed explanation regarding old games and colors issues with Win Seven on this coder blog (the link to the patch is referenced at the botton of the page, part 9 'Newer and/or reliable methods', under the name 'tool by Mudlord', and mirrored by the author) :
http://bedagainstthewall.blogspot.fr/2009_07_01_archive.html

Hope that helps.
Don't know about the ending mission crash, though. So far I didn't have this issue, but who knows...
Anyways, definitely worth a try.

Over and Out,

Andromedius.

Excelent, will try to get rid of starting bat. BTW use patch 1.1 as 1.2 broke some AI like helocopters do not engage. 1.1 still contains art updates like out of hatch turret 3d "cockpit".

Just curious, what is the benefit of playing this over Steel Beasts?

For me, its more of a retro thing. Its no where near the sophistication of SB, and there in also lies an attraction to a switchology drill versus a couple keyboard presses. That's my like of it though, other opinions may vary.

I enjoy retro as much as the next guy, but they never play right on new systems.

Surprisingly, it plays really well, though the graphics are a bit dated. Still, overall, not bad. Also, I think part of the attraction is it has the atmosphere that pulls you into the game more so then SB. While I truly like how SB has evolved, it was the campaign, the named crews and your platoon that continued the fight through the campaign of M1TP2.

When were you in A Troop. I was there 02-05.

I was a PL in A TRP from April 07-May 08.

Missed you by a few years and was in 4-2 by then. Good and bad times. Anyway, give it a try sometime, M1TP2. Its really not that bad and as stated, has some immersion that can be lacking in other newer Sims.

BTW, wasn't SFC Perry your PEG? I think we spoke a while back about our time in RSTA.

Indeed, he was.

Hi all.
I cannot get this game to work and the links do not extract when downloaded from the zeus site ie: The m1tp2 patch does not extract correctly.

Can somebody just upload all the correct files here please to save me wasting time and running around in circles with no success.

Thanks.

...so, you have it on both Windows 8.1 and on Windows 7?

Just windows 8.1, ive followed all the advice to get it working and when i boot the game up i hear the music but see nothing. Once i press a key or mouse button it crashes instantly to desktop.

Does anybody know how to run m1 war college?
I have installed qt16 but when I run omoplay I always get "can not run 16 bit windows program" error msg.

What is wrong here?
my windows is still xp sp3

I spent many a long night playing and enjoying Tank platoon,
Hope you guys get it running,
If not try SB if you want some M1 Tank action I did and never looked back.

Confirming that the "explore" bat along with Nglide and the experimental exe patch have made running M1TP2 on Win 7 with the latest Nvidia driver - successful. No CTD or freeze upon completing a mission.

Eugene

Does anyone have the English 1.1 patch for this game? I could only find the German 1.1 patch.

i have it - if i could attach a file i would but other PM me - sorry i have been off this forum for a long while but i will be checking in more regularly now
cheers

Wow.

A BIG THANK YOU from me, Agathosdaimon!



I got my (german) version of M1TP2 working on my Win7 64 bit system at 1920x1080 resolution without any menu colours problems! Amazing work!


Just one thing: I still get the CTD at the end of a mission.


Using Ver 1.1 of M1TP2, Nglide, the experimental patch for 1.1 and the w7ddpatcher.

do you get it every time? It sounds like you have everyting in place that i do, so i am not sure what is causing the ctd for you - does this happen with each ingame graphics selection?

One thing i think may play a part is what kind of graphics card you have - on my comp i have 2 to choose from - the intel one and the nvidia one, i find the intel one works best for old games

have you played around with the compatibility settings?

More pics please or it didn't happen!

I loved this game back in the day.

Yeah, getting the CTD at the end of a mission every time. No matter what mission or campaign. I tried all kinds of compatibility options, didn't help. Switching between directx and glide modes also didn't help.

I do have a NVidia GTX 760, even tried a few (much) older drivers, didn't help either.

It's possibly worth mentioning here that Steel Armor: Blaze of War looks well cool and very similar to the feel of the old M1 Tank Platoon, I just noticed it on Steam today.

Any luck with Win 8.1 ?

There is now a ddraw wrapper that works with M1 Tank Platoon II. By placing ddraw.dll and aqrit.cfg in the game folder and toggling one item within aqrit.cfg ColorFix = 1 ... the scrambled palette colors are gone! Of course this does not effect the crashes after missions.

Download web site: http://bitpatch.com/ddwrapper.html
(download link is at the top of the page just below 'Home of Aqrit's ddwrapper')

RealDDrawPath = AUTO
BltMirror = 0
BltNoTearing = 0
ColorFix = 1
DisableHighDpiScaling = 0
FakeVsync = 0
FakeVsyncInterval = 0
ForceBltNoTearing = 0
ForceDirectDrawEmulation = 0
NoVideoMemory = 0
SingleProcAffinity = 0
ShowFPS = 0

Any of you guys know a workaround in the event that I can't see ANYTHING on the main menu screen besides the awesome-looking background?
I tried the BAT file thing, patching plus the DDWrapper... Failed. Maybe there's something else about this?

My game runs just fine, but CTD at mission ending. I tried the Nov,12 2013 fix, but does not work. Any idea?

I can't say about the mission end CTD, but I'm more interested in figuring why I can't see the intro videos plus the menu options even with BAT mentioned here, patches and the like, please! So much so that I had to try and make a little petition to get this plus its prequel and a couple of other sims to be rereleased by Retroism and Night Dive Studios in the event that nothing worked...

I made a normal install and then played. I'm uzing that GlideWrapper by Zekenzak or something like that.

Anyone tested on windows 10?

I STILL can't get the Main Menu screen or the opening movies to display AT ALL on my Windows 7 rig! Even with Ultimate installed, it won't display properly! Patches, DDWRAP, BAT file, Normal Install... NOTHING! And I whenever I try to make a screenshot, the damn image doesn't display its proper colors! You guys need to PLEASE help me! How can I fix this problem?! I would really appreciate it!

As said in the other thread - try DXwnd - https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/general/thread/5216d1b9/#69f8

Well, while that has worked thus far... I can only do it in Windowed Mode. Any ideas? Am I not doing it right?

BTW, I've heard the Armored Cavalry's music before... But I never got the name of it.

I understand this is a long shot, but has anyone got the game working on Windows 10? I can't even get the setup file off the CD running, much less the game itself.

Where can I get a copy of M1TP2 from? I still have the manual but no idea where the disk went.

Does it use securom? You know Microsoft disabled Securom? Microsoft said it was a security risk and only a few games used it anyway. Well, far more than just a "few" games used it and if they care so much about security why do they use WU to install Flash for IE with no uninstaller?

But you can Securom running again with this command.

To start it;

sc config secdrv start= demand
sc start secdrv

To stop it;

sc stop secdrv
sc config secdrv start= disabled

Hey, how's the best way I can get Dxwnd to work with M1 Tank Platoon II and on fullscreen? As somehow, it tends to crash fullscreen when I try to use some of the best options. Could use a little elaboration here and there on how best to pull it off.

I just read an ad for M1 tank platoon 2 for $29.99 that has been modified to run on windows 10. The seller seems to have a good rep so I am considering buying it. Has anyone else done so?

Can you let us know if it works I would love to play it again a bit of retro gaming mite be fun.
The Armour sim I play now is far more realistic but M1TP2 is one of my all time favourite games /not sim

marko
What sim do you play now?

I think he's referring to Steel Beasts Pro...indeed a very nice simulator, but lacks a campaign that was used in M1TP2. Not that a campaign lacking in Steel Beasts Pro is a criticism, as there are hundreds of single and multiplayer scenarios available to download.

That's correct I play SB now its a far better simulator then M1 but M1 will always have a special place on my top ten games /sims of all time.

I'll definitely try out SB at some point, but... But two questions remain: How can I play M1 Tank Platoon II to play on DxWND without CTD'ing in Fullscreen mode? [Which I can only play it in Windowed mode at this time]
And does anyone know what the Armored Cavalry's music is called when you select them for a Campaign?

I just installed M1 Tank Platoon II to do some testing.

Running:
Windows 10 Pro x64 Anniversary Edition.
Version 1607
OS Build 14393.321
Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16GHz
Ram 4GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB GDDR5

Full Custom install of M1PT2

Movie files YES
War College files YES

I knew from looong before that the movies were a no no, but I checked both movies and college files during install anyways just for testing.

Applied Patch 1.2

Installed DxWnd v2.03.92.fx2

I will edit this post when I get a chance BUT after pressing the space bar to get through the intro videos,
I am at the main screen (at full screen) and I can set everything up with mouse visible too.

Went through the 1st training mission running d3d mode full screen and had no issues.
Went through all different positions (I have the get a pdf manual as I forgot all the keys)

I will post some screens of the settings for DxDwnd tomorrow.

P


EDIT - I haven't run the 1st mission yet to check for any ctd's but will try it tomorrow

Parker, that is really interesting!When you completed the training mission, did the game successfully return to the debriefing and then the main screen OK? My recollection is that the game looks relatively terrific in Glide, but will CTD after a mission is completed. It would be really a breakthrough for the old sim to be able to run in Glide at high resolution and not crash.

Eugene

Yep no ctd here.

I get the pink screen right after confirming Y to exit the training mission
Goes ok through the debrief and back to main screen.


The main thing I am testing now is getting the movies to play.

I have a few sneaky tricks up my sleeve to try tomorrow.....:)

P

Parker

I have Win10 and an original M1 tank 2 disc so I am eagerly awaiting your testing before I try it myself. If everything works OK are you going to provide us with the details so we can try?

ah cool - wonderful that this is still being worked on

I am sorry that all the way back when i started the thread, i got m1tp2 running pretty well with few crashes on my old laptop with windows 7- and perhaps it was the cards on that one. M new laptop with windows 7 professional and ddiferrent intel/nvidia cards does not have the same luck with overcoming the CTD plague upon M1TP2

I was going to mention though my hope that a tinkering around with DXWnd would yield a good result, but it seems other good souls here are already on the case!

i too will like to know what has been done exactly so as to overcome the ctds as intimated above

Hey guys I am not having much luck, I am trying a few tricks such as converting the videos to a different format etc.

I wont give up though and will update here when I make any progress.

Why has no one answered my two questions regarding the following?

How can I configure DXWnd to play M1TP2 in fullscreen? Every time I try it, it CTDs! Please tell me how I can get around that.

And what is the Armored Cavalry's music named? It's obviously a Civil War tune, but I don't know its name...

You might try this page for DXWnd settings:
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/09/dxwnd-improves-classic-pc-game-compatibility/
and links about this version DXWnd herea;
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4310852/DxWnd_Windower#Post4310852

OK
I had this running last year ..i believed I just used one of the batch files and nglide..Can't get the rigional Steel Beasts to run and Panzer Elite is Ok but would like a more modern sim..
Been over at Zeus's nglide site and can't find the thread Agathosdaimon refers to,,,to grab the batch files,,Could someone please post a direct link to it..
Also I use nglide for EAW along with D3DWindower..Is that the same kind of program as d3dWin?? I need to use the windower to fly EAW without a laggy mouse.
Got my original CD and manual sitting here ready to rock....Thank you for any help

Have you ever considered SB Pro PE?

I would recconmend the current PE version and here's why.


Current PE version

Well actually two reasons,,,Computer is kind of old 2011 build and the price is more than I can afford being retired,,,,I get a lot of enjoyment out pf M!TP2 and occasionally Panzer Elite SE...

Get this tank sim, a lot cheaper and is still a sim and not an arcade game, also has a campaign and a DLC campaign too.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/286280/

Steel Armour BOW. Its not a bad simulation.
But has limitations the map size and the terrain types are limited/mission options are also limited.
With out trying to sound too much like a SB fan boy. SB is a far more comprehensive sim with many more playable and none playable AFV types ranging from the 1950's to modern equipment.also infantry is much better in terms of appearance and AI behavior in SB then SA

Debatable. SB Pro PE has many more fully playable vehicles and bigger maps. SABOW's smaller maps have much more convincing (and deformable) terrain and scenery objects. Have seen little evidence of SB inf having superior AI, admittedly just watching videos. If you don't mind the directive-style 'briefings', SABOW has a superior, full dynamic campaign eg KO'ed vehicles will be there next mission; replayability tends to compensate for a lack of user-made missions. While personally preferring SB's menu-driven command interface to SABOW's icons, and much perferring its more mainstream setting and vehicle set, I don't rate SABOW an inferior tanksim to SB, technically or overall, with comparative cost a factor, too.

SB is scheduled for a new high-resolution terrain engine (free) upgrade in Q1 2017. That will permit deformable terrain, although I infer from a recent eSim post that deformable terrain will not be implemented immediately. However, eSim posted a video comparing the old and new terrain engines, and the latter improves the sim's appearance somewhat:

you really cant compare Steel Armour with SB.
SB has a powerful mission editor and map editor it has evolved over the years to become the premier Armored warfare simulation.
its used as a training tool by over a dozen military's
Steel Armour is a good game i have played and enjoyed it but as previously stated its limited in scope
I have been a SB player for over ten years. i have never tired of it.
I do agree its not cheap compared to some others.But your getting a lot for your money
Also you have to take in to account its had many upgrades over the years.
literally dozens of new vehicle playable additions.
The infantry has been steadily improved over the years theirs two many new features to list It really is worth the money.
theirs also a few purchasing options worth checking out if your on a limited budget. a one month licence starts at Ten euro.

You may want to consider a used copy (say, version 2.6 or 3.0) from eBay. They are cheaper, obviously, and they are eligible for later upgrade if one day you can afford them. The installation files are still available on our homepage.

Or, we have time-based licenses, like four months for $24.50, or a year for $39.50. Version 3.0 will work with these time-based licenses, and may perform just fine with an older computer. This might actually be a sweet spot for you - performance wise, and from a pricing point of view.

Is this what you're after? See Zeus's 5 Dec '12 post on page 4 of this thread - the link at the bottom of that post still works:

http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=259&hilit=m1tp2&start=30

Haven't played M1TP2 for a while (am on Vista 64) but I notice I have w7ddpatcher.exe in the game's root directory...can't recall why, maybe an attempt to fix menu screen colour corruption. Don't recall getting CTDs, last time I played.

33Lima
Thanks for the link..I guess I was confused about a different patch 1.2 that a member sent me,,Also didn't set the renderer to glide...got it running well now Movies are solid,,Menu screens are psychedelic but totally usable hoped into the game and looks sweet,,and runs great,,,I've got the latest nglide wrapper installed foe flying EAW,,I should have guessed when I didn't see the 3dfx logo on starting a game..but running ok got my manual out and heading to tank school to brush up

Glad you're up and running, 'MPS News' broadcasts and all!!!

In case you weren't aware, Jon Sponauer's M1TP site is still around, now here...

https://web.archive.org/web/20040404034108/http://oldsite.SimHQ.com/simhq3/sims/turret/m1tp2/

...where you can get all the custom missions, including the one that lets you play 73 Easting in T-72s from the Iraqi side

A mission i played many times.
Its possible to man any vehicle in M1TP2.
All you need to do is change a couple of digits in the mission script.
Sponauer's web page had a list of vehicle numbers.
I used to like to playthe T-80U as you could guide in the At-11 ATGM to its target.

Hi. How do you get this old game to work? I tried Dxwnd, but every time I access the commander station, it CTD. Other stations seem ok. Also, your graphics look so much better than mine. Any tricks on how to do that?

Ditto pandacat on Win10?

Win7 pro 64bit on Intel(R) Core i5-4670k 3.4GHZ. RAM 8gb, nvidia GTX760.

I have Vista 64, Nvidia GTS250. Running what I believe is the Zeus M1TP2 patched exe (version 1.2 I believe, file last modified date is 6 Dec 2012) with compatibility mode set to Win XP SP2 and the boxes on the .exe's Compatibility tab ticked to disable both visual themes and desktop compression.

Running NGlide, not sure which version, and IIRC have used W7ddpatcher ('for Win 7/Vista 64') to patch the exe.

In M1TP2 Configuration menu, have Glide mode selected, also High detail and Alpha Blending turned on. Have also got the menu bar animation turned on.

Used Nvidia control panel to set AF and AA.

Game plays fine, including intro and training videos. No menu colour corruption, no CTDs at end of mission.

Only problem is that on the main menu screen, the 'Quit' option is not displayed, so I use Alt+F4 to close the program.

I see. W7ddpatcher patches m1tp2.exe or the Nglid's exe?

I'm about 99% certain it patches M1TP2.exe. Can't locate a ref to its use - might have been right here in this thread, somewhere - but I see that it's recommended on this EAW site...

https://eaw.neocities.org/links.html

...as a tool to get rid of colour corruntion in EAW, which corresponds exactly with my previous recollection that this was what I used W7ddpatcher for.

BTW, I played a user-made battle last night, and I got a CTD at the end of it. Don't recall that happening since I last tweaked M1TP2, but I'm less confident now that I'm reliably rid of that

If it's just a random CTD, I wouldn't worry 2 much about it. Ok, here is another question. I have installed nglid, patched up M1tp2 to 1.1. I ran the game. My intro movie screens are black. Then once I am in the game, I don't see any menu items to select. No mouse cursor either. Just the background m1 tank wallpaper and the music. How should I fix it?

Also, when I am using win7ddpatcher, I keep getting "can't load process".

Thanks for the optimistic words!

It's a long time since I set this up, so I'm fairly hazy now - basically I would just have followed the advice on this thread, also looking at the thread on the nglide site. Don't recall getting sound without vision at one stage.

Probably makes no difference, but I'm using the Zeus patched exe for 1.2, same datestamp as 1.1 but timed 02.00 instead of 02:38. IIRC 1.2 added a TC .50 cal or something like that, but made air support less effective (having said that, I called in an AH-64 during last night's user mission and they blasted away at the Red Tide with Hellfires, not before they had burned my LAV-25s, sadly). Take it your base game was 1.1 and not 1.2, when you applied the Zeus 1.1 .exe. Might be worthwhile temporarily replacing the latter with the Zeus 1.2 and see if you get the sdame problem,

Did you try, in the Compatibility tab for the exe, ticking various secondary options? As I said the ones I ticked were to disable desktop composition and visual themes, on what advice of with what effect I do not know, but trying out different combos of ticks in boxes there might be worthwhile.

I see. Ok. Let me explore around a bit to see if I can fix the issue. Currently I can get software emulation to work. But there are a few random crashes here and there from time to time.

Oh btw, the loader keeps wanting to switching ammo to staff and mpat rounds. Often a lot of time is wasted loading and reloading ammo. I know this is an old bug from the original game. But just wonder how you overcome this issue during your game play?

I don't recall ammo selection issues, tho last night I noticed that my crew loaded MPAT, either uncommanded (perhaps as there was a Hind to our front) or maybe I chose it by hitting the wrong key (I'me still re-acquiring my keyboard command knowledge!)

I wonder if your ammo selection issues were the ones fixed in 1.2, as described here:

http://www.combatsim.com/review.php?id=343

I see that article also mentions a cause of CTDs I had not seen before - not sure if there could be a common or related cause to the end-of-mission CTDs common with newer systems.

I still dislike the extreme vulnerability of light units to the pervasive enemy artillery (I give then zig-zag paths ending in dead ground, but still often lose them to the Red Waves that can wash past your tanks) and the fact that, to keep track of what's happening in a typical battle, you need to spend a lot of the time in the map view 'watching red and blue dots fire pixels at each other' as one reviewer described it. And M1TP doesn't do the 'floating reticle' for crossing targets of the real Abrams FCS (the original Steel Beasts didn't at the outset, buut added this in a patch) But M1TP2 still is a terrific tanksim with a lot of good features and is fun to play, even now.

Man, your graphics look gorgeous. I wish I could have this. I can only play with software emulation instead of nglide because Dxwnd doesn't really support it. If I play without Dxwnd, the main menu won't show up at the beginning. Oh, btw, any of you have the manual. I need figure out the shortcut key for each function.

Manual is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=manual.pdf

I am using nglide but I get a CTD when starting a mission

What is the "Zeus patched 1.2 exe"? I have nGlide, by Zeus, but cannot find a reference to a specific M1TP2 1.2 ese file that has a "Zeus" patch applied. Am I misunderstanding the terminology, and this only means using the 1.2 version of M1TP2 with nGlide (from Zeus)??

Thanks for any help on this.

Eugene

I never got nglide to work. I am currently using dxwnd. It works fine under software emulation graphics. You can watch intro video and see the "quit" selection. No screwed color/texture. The only downside is you don't get as nice battle graphics/texture as lima got in his screen shot. I know dxwnd folks are working on something to fix the compatibility with nglide, but not sure how long it will take.

btw,lima. I can't access the manual you just posted. I clicked on the link. It took me to the dropbox, but I don't c anything.

I can see the manual on dropbox, if I log in.

Try here, instead, just uploaded it:

http://combatace.com/files/file/16342-m1-tank-platoon-manual/

Just played a campaign mission last night. Still can't remember half the keyboard commands so I'll have to read the manual myself! The map zoomed in and I didn't know how to zoom it out, so I lost track of what was happening and got my backside handed to me. The Apache did ok but couldn't save me; my A-10 got shot down. The MPS News report said the Soviets had got across Poland and were into the former East Germany, so it looks like I'll be having an interview without coffee with the CO.

Just noticed that (with Vista 64) another thing I'm using - as well as nGlide 1.01, W7ddpatcher (just to cure the psychedelic menu colour corruption, IIRC) - is a batch file, starter.bat, which IIRC was a suggestion posted earlier here.

It kills explorer.exe - opened, its contents read:

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start /w M1TP2.exe
pause
start explorer.exe

The only other maybe notable things I have are:

8x CSAA antialiasing, 4x aniso filtering, aniso sample optimisation off, and negative LOD bias at Clamp - set in an Nvidia driver profile with everything else at default settings;

the 1.2 Zeus ppatched exe set to Win XP SP2 compatibility with both visual themes and desktop composition set to disabled;

...and the game installed in C:/Micropose/M1 Tank Platoon II, ie outside Program Files (x86), which is sometimes recommended for older games.

Thanks for the info on the Zeus patched exe. I guess it was a very dumb question.

Thanks, Lima. I am into the 4th mission of my Iraqi campaign now. I beat the first 3 missions with 0 losses to my own platoon. First and third missions I got 100% kills and 58% on the second one. After hours of play, I finally got a hang of it. My crew are pretty ranked up after showering em with promotions and medals. Some of my tips:

1. I always play TC position cuz it has better situation awareness and I can leave gunner to his specialty while I manage the tactical aspect of the mission (i.e. calling fire missions to arty and managing support units around so that they don't get killed by enemy arty)

2. You can also shoot at TC position. Press G, you can override the gunner and lase/fire yourself. "[" key to release the override.

3. One bug that the original game never managed to fix is the gunner keep ordering the loader to reload the gun with different ammo than what you want. It is because when you assign a new target to the gunner or he picks up a target himself, AI would assess the range and choose the best ammo for the target and situation. One way to get around this bug, is to designate target first. Then keep pressing the ammo you want to override him. Once the gunner locks onto the target designated, he won't argue with you anymore. If the target is within the range and LOS is obscured, he would fire with any ammon in the tube no problem.

Tactics:

1. Keep a distance between you and the enemy, especially their infantry and APC's. If you are surrounded by them at close range then you will be dead within few seconds. At long range, 120mm main gun is almost unmatched. The best killing zone is between the max range and 1000 meters. So how do I keep a distance? When you see enemy charging at you, backup. If necessary, lay down a smoke screen and turn tail and run. My usual tactic is first close with enemy to max range, then keep backing up to maintain some distance. By the time their fast unit can catch up, you will have enough time to kill most of em with your main gun.

2. Always use your frontal armor to face the biggest threat. The quick way to do this is shift-G, it will align the whole tank to whichever way you are looking. I find M1 tank's frontal armor is almost impervious to most ingame AT missiles and only vulnerable at close range to enemy tank's main guns.

3. Keep moving. Especially at the start of the mission, if you don't move your ass quickly, enemy arty will bracket you in. AI is very good at using arty. The only defense against this is constant moving

4. Formation use. Change formation to suit your tactical situation. Say if you wanna flank the enemy to left, use echelon left while running parallel to the enemy line. That way, most of your guns can aim and engage. On backup, use V formation or line formation. Charging forward use wedge or line. Remember the formation shortcut keys and keep changing on the move

5. Use arty first then air support. I usually send in mass arty barrage to stationary enemy concentration. Knock out their air defense first then immediately send in air support.

6. Spend a lot of time on F3, the tactical map. When I find a group of enemy, I usually designate the first target to gunner and let him work on the rest himself. I then immediately turn my attention to the tactical map to arrange fire mission or send support to flank

7. Ammo use. Often you will find yourself low on ammo. Try to ration your rounds during a mission. Save sabot for tanks and bmps. Use up MPAT as early as possible. MPAT's are great for light armor such as wheeled apc's, shilka, other non-armored units. MPAT's are great for infantry 2. Try to save STAFF. They are great for hitting the enemy behind a slope and long range kills. However due to the ammo reloading bug, AI would always try to use STAFF first.

8. Targeting. Enemy MBT's are not necessarily your worst enemy. Your frontal armor and their slow speed can usually keep em at bay. The worst enemies are those fast moving missile carrying vehicles. I find AI gunners are very bad at leading the targets especially if the target is a fast mover. If you don't kill those fast movers fast, they can quickly swarm around you and send a missile up your ass. Every time after target designation, I would then zoom out to observe around to make sure no one is creeping close to me. I also use turret windows to make quick observation as well. Kill fast movers close to you first then tanks. If you have air support, kill shilka as early as possible. Engage infantry at long range with your heat and MPAT. If you are out of ammo, try to call arty on them or send your infantry and support to deal with em. Try not to get close to knife fight with infantry.

9. Your ground support units are usually cannon fodders. But try to have em do something before they sacrifice themselves. Send them around flanks to harass enemy. Put em in front of you to fend off fast movers.

10. Do some shooting yourself. If a target is out of range for your AI gunner, it doesn't necessarily mean it's out of range for you. Press G to take control of the gun and shoot yourself. If you know for sure there are enemy behind a crest, don't crest the summit yourself. Call arty or send your support to scout. The key is to keep a long distance.

Oh, forgot to mention. Zoom in and out keys also work on tactical map. If you are outside the turret, those 2 keys will toggle on/off the binoculars.

GUYS, one more time - will someone explain what the "ZEUS patched 1.2 exe" is?

Thanks,

Eugene

It's the file you can get here - see Zeus's 5 Dec '12 post on page 4 of this thread - the link at the bottom of that post still works:

http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=259&hilit=m1tp2&start=30

If you download that, you'll find it's a compressed file called m1tp2_patch.zip.

Double click on it after downloading - I'm assuming you have a program that can open compressed files, I use winrar - and you will see that there are actually three files in the .zip, each in its own folder: one for each of three versions of M1TP2. These patched .exe's are all called m1tp2.exe, but their folder name describes the version of M1TP2 that each one is for use with - Version 1.1 (English language version), Version 1.2 (German) and Version 1.2 (English). Use the one that matches your version of the game. If your M1TP2 is patched to the latest version, this will be 1.2 - this added a view of your tank's turret top and gun tube in the TC unbuttoned .50 cal. view (better for orientation - with 1.2, you could jost see your .50 cal and nothing of the turret)...




...but it also reduced the effectiveness of close air support, so some people prefer 1.1.

I have no idea what modifications were made, but just rename the file m1tp2.exe in your game (= game installated into) folder to something like orig-m1tp2.exe (as a backup) extract your chosen patched file from the download, into your game folder.


TBH while I've got M1TP2 playing ok apart from the odd post-mission CTD (and Armored Fist 3), I rarely play it - Steel Armor Blaze of War is now my modern tanksim of choice; it doesn't have the classic cold war settings of M1TP2 and there are no news broadcasts, but it's technically an excellent tanksim, has several dynamic operational-level campaigns, and of course visually is much better.

Thanks! That explains it. I also have SABOW but would enjoy getting the olde M1TP2 functioning on Win 10 machine, if possible.

Eugene

Eugene
If you get this to work on Win10, please let me know how you did it.
Thanks

sobe, you are from Bend: your wish, my command. But no guarantees about successful outcomes.

Eugene

sobe, total failure. Regardless of what patch, what wrapper, and what compatibility - on my Win 10 machine it will not even launch. Just get a black screen with a faint change in the saturation. Alt tab del to get out. Rinse, repeat.

Eugene

Eugene
See my post in Longbow2

Well, I managed to get past the Fullscreen CTD problem with DxWND on my Win 7 rig, but I'm now stuck with no intro movies playing and the cursor not popping up in the menu screens. Does anyone have solutions or can link me up with something that DxWND can fix? Because I'm obviously not doing something right. So far, I've had to reinstall it, to which I'll then patch it up to V1.2 [or was it 2.0?], but I'll have wait for advice from you great experts.

Has anybody managed to get this to work on windows 8.1 or windows 10 please?

Yes on Win10

How did you get this to work on win 10?

could someone point out to me where, if there is, a joystick setup screen or how to get a joystick to work

game is working, up to the CTD when exiting battle, and I can live with that for now, but not without a joystick

thank you for your time

V3teran
I got it to work by buying it on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/M1-TANK-PLATOON-2-1Clk-Windows-10-8-7-Vista-XP-Install-/251617902754?hash=item3a959880a2:g:pZEAAOSwbqpT7YiG

As I had the disk already, I made a deal with the seller to just get his version for 19.99. So far it works fine on Win10 although I have been only able to get the x and y axis and 2 joystick buttons to work. Better than nothing. I have not played a lot with it as I just got Janes F15 to work and I mainly fly flight sims.

Let me know if you have any questions and what you decide to do.

Tell him I said hello (I think I bought it under the name sobebeach or something like that)

Sobe.

This seems to be working on XP, only in soiftware though. Glide crashes even with nGlide.

Hi all,
Finaly got it working in Win 10 64bit after watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYhMIPsU9cA. Although only in software mode - glide wrapper always CTD after end mission. Played 5 or so campaign missions and so far so good.

Short guide:

* Install game and use this patches with nocd. I prefer v1.1. Also copy Videos dir from CD to your install http://www.prekladytextu.eu/m1tp2/Patches.ZIP

* Download and unzip dxwnd v2.04.40 (latest in time of writing of this) from https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/

* Download profile I modified from stock dxwnd one http://www.prekladytextu.eu/m1tp2/m1tp2dxw.zip and unzip somewhere to get M1 Tank Platoon 2.dxw file

* Run dxwnd.exe and follow this pic to import profile (right click on profile to get Modify)



* Modify path to your installed game and resolution. Just fill your desktop height and then multiply it by 1.333333 to get width

* Run it by double click on profile in dxwnd

Enjoy as it is great game! I modified profile to mimick fullscreen mode.

ataribaby

I have tried the Youtube video method and your suggestions and the following are my comments:
1. My version do not have any videos. Where are they?
2. I tried the other version of the crack cd 2v12 and so far so good. Why did you like 2v11?
3. I could not get your dxwind dxw file to turn green so I created my own and then copied each page of your dxw version to my version and so far so good.
4. Page 34 of the manual is confusing and wrong in some places. Will post about this later.

Hi sobe,

1. Videos I copied from M1TP2 Game CD (Sold Out edition i think) that I own. They are not needed to play game anyway.
2. I use v11 cos v12 porked support helicopter AI so they nearly never actually attack. Just use what you prefer here.
3. You probably missed step 4. on my picture and didn't update game path to your actual game exe location.
4. That's out of scope of my article

Look here:

http://www.tanksim.com/topic2.htm

Patch 1.2 released.  It doesn't "fix" a whole lot, and in fact slows down the game considerably and makes it unstable for many people.  It also neuters the AI of helicopters, apparently.  They now act very timid, whereas before they were almost reckless in their attacks on enemy units.  
Some people to this day feel the 1.1 patch is more stable in the long run and play with that.

ataribaby

Thanks for the quick response.
1 ok
2 Now that I understand, I may just replace v12 with v11. Can I just replace the exe file? See also number 6 below
3. I did that but mine works so ok.
4. I will send an article on this later

5. With respect to v11 and v12, assuming that I use the cracked v12, do I also have to copy the v12 folders in the v12 patch-art, battles, campaign, game and game.cfg. I assume so.
6. If 5 is correct, then I may make a second tank folder and just use the v11 crack and the v11 patch folders so I have both versions as an article that I have discusses page 34 of the manual and makes some corrections. I would like to send you the article. where?

Yes just apply 1.2 patch (copy it over) and then 1.2 nocd. Yes you can have both version side by side.

ataribaby

I solved the dxw issue and now have two versions of the game, 1.1 and 1.2. If you PM me your email address I will send you a 4 page article on page 34 of the manual.