So My Dad Was Going Through Some Old Stuff This Morning…

[Tormuse]

I've been using Dosbox with mine and it works fine. (Dosbox is available as freeware if you don't already have it, and if you don't have it, then what have you been doing with your life? Dosbox is the only way to play old games!)

Yeah, I remember having a lot of fun with the scenario edittor back in the day. I think, at one point, I tried to challenge myself by giving the AI opponent a fleet of Hierarchy ships and giving myself just a Shofixti scout, Starbase, and no money, so I would have to build up my mines, colonies, and forces completely from scratch.

Wow! That sounds like a tall order for the poor Scout!! In this scenario, what was your overall strategy? Would you build a second Scout when you could afford one, or save up for something else? I'm sure I'd probably go for a Cruiser.

It's been a while since I played, but as I recall, I would build a second Scout as soon as I could and got them building mines so I could get a bigger ship as soon as possible. Beyond that, I mostly hoped I would get lucky. sometimes the AI would have difficulty getting ships over to my starbase; sometimes, it would send over ships that I could have an easyish time dispatching with the Scouts. (Vux Intruders and Ilwrath Avengers can be taken down by a Scout fairly easily; anything bigger might require a Glory Device or two) Sometimes, it was beneficial to move the starbase into a more defensible position where they could only be attacked from one direction and then fortify that direction. (You can move the starbase if you use up your entire turn to do it) Of course, if I was playing against a human opponent, I would probably be crushed, but the AI is considerably more predictable.

And on a completely unrelated note, I happened to visit my parents' place today and saw something on a bookshelf that made me think of you, Troglodyte...

...Er... at this point, I was going to post a picture I took of the original Star Control box along with the Dr. Zorg code wheel and instruction manual, but I keep getting a message saying, "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached" so you'll have to take my word for it that the pictures exist.

[The Troglodyte]

And on a completely unrelated note, I happened to visit my parents' place today and saw something on a bookshelf that made me think of you, Troglodyte...

...Er... at this point, I was going to post a picture I took of the original Star Control box along with the Dr. Zorg code wheel and instruction manual, but I keep getting a message saying, "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached" so you'll have to take my word for it that the pictures exist.

Here's what I did to fix that little issue:

go to imgur.com and upload it there. it will provide you with a bbcode link to place here, and that will work and display the image correctly .

It's super easy, and I usually re-size the picture to make the horizontal under 1000, so it doesn't stretch the page when you're reading text. I'd love to see that box (and Zorg!) Is it the one that says, "How does eternal slavery sound, Earthling?"

EDIT:

I've been using Dosbox with mine and it works fine. (Dosbox is available as freeware if you don't already have it, and if you don't have it, then what have you been doing with your life? Dosbox is the only way to play old games!)

Looks like I've encountered another small obstacle, since both of my downgraded computers don't have internet access, so I'll probably have to use a router or something to download the Dosbox.

[The Troglodyte]

Ok, so I managed to get internet access on one of my crappy computers, and proceeded to download DOSBox. However, I wasn't able to get the game to run any better, and to tell you the truth, I have no idea what I'm doing. I just want the game to run faster, does anybody have any advice on how to accomplish that?

[Tormuse]

Er... Perhaps put Dosbox on your faster computer? It's designed to work with more modern, faster computers to allow them to play older Dos-based programs and it slows everything down quite a bit. Sorry, I forgot to come back to this thread; if I had realized you were planning to put Dosbox on your downgraded computer, I would have warned you. That being said, Dosbox has limited speed control: Ctrl-F12 to increase speed and Ctrl-F11 to decrease speed.

[The Troglodyte]

Thanks Tormuse, I've been reading up on it online and I think I've been going about all wrong too. I thought if I just had it running, it would automatically speed up the game. From what I've read, it looks like I need to run the game through DOSBox, so I'm going to give that a try.

[Death 999]

That reminds me of when I was first playing Wizardry, and hadn't worked out how to equip items.

That didn't work very well.

[The Troglodyte]

Yeah, I think I've grown way too accustomed to simply pressing a
button or launching an app and it takes over and does the rest!

[The Troglodyte]

Ok, so I was able to run Star Control using DOSBox and it's now working pretty well, except for occasional sound glitches like...

For instance, when an Ilwrath destroys a ship and immediately recloaks, sometimes a long sustained and very annoying beep will go on until something similar to the beeping sound occurs, which is unfortunately sometimes a good while, at which time I'm compelled to turn down the sound until it corrects itself.

All and all though, it's been pretty awesome. I've been spending some time creating different scenarios, mostly centered around events of the war as described by Commander Hayes.

EDIT: Sorry about all of the unnecessary topic bumping. I got bored at work late in the day and couldn't undo my actions. Oops!