Anyone have any tips/tricks/etc for installing/running Wing Commander IV under Windows XP? Friend of mine is having some trouble and any help is appreciated.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

You don't. I hate to be so blunt, but I have searched the technical support forum in Wing Commander CIC and nobody seems to be able to run the game without any glitches.

On a side note: There is patch for the game to run in Windows 95. You can try it out on any older Pentium 120/133/200 PCs.

[ 02-09-2004, 02:37 AM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

Bummer. I'd done some quick searching myself before posting, and hadn't found anything useful on the net. He's not gonna be happy; I hear IV was one of the best in the series. :(

<center>Nightowl2</center>

IMO, I agree with you completely; WC IV was a masterpiece.

[ 02-10-2004, 12:38 AM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

It was the best Wing Commander game, IMHO.

Try the program compatability wizard. You can find it in the start menu. It works because I had a game that wouldn't work until I used the program compatability wizard.

That is the first thing people would try. Unfortunately for WCIV, it didn't work. I mean the game would run... but the FMVs are not being played correctly or refuse to play at all. That's because the game was not meant to run on anything faster than 200+ MHz and also the compatibility issues with modern Graphic cards.

Gamewise I felt it lacked something compared to WC3 and even Prophecy, but in terms of storytelling and plot it was excellent. Better than the Star Wars films. Light years ahead of the Wing Commander movie. In fact, I think WCIV had a bigger budget in terms of special effects and actors... I mean, Freddie Prinze jr. and Matthew Lillard?!? Ohhhhhh dear.

I don't know why, but for some reason you need a *natural* DOS environment to run the WC games. I had to write a custom config.sys and autoexec.bat to run while I was using Win95. You just can't do that in XP, it seems, or if you can, I haven't figured it out. Anyone got any ideas? I remember I once found on the internet a rewritten .exe file for running Frontier: First Encounters on XP... I hope someone does the same for WC, despite it being completely illegal

[ 02-13-2004, 05:41 PM: Message edited by: Tancred ]

Gameplay wise, WC IV is kind of short. But the great storyline and FMVs make it up for the shortcomings. I felt kind of sad when Tolwyn hung himself.

I think it has something to do with the engine the game was running on, which would require pure DOS environment.

Heh.. especially since he turned out to be right. If you liked the game, I suggest reading the book. It gives far more depth to Tolwyn and his motivations.