Path: rQ!rQdQ!remarQ73!supernews.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!pln-w!extra.newsguy.com!lotsanews.com!news-feeder.onramp.net!news.onramp.net!not-for-mail From: Craig Castle Newsgroups: alt.games.tw2002 Subject: TWGS & NT 3.51 Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 09:07:53 -0600 Organization: The Orchestra! Online Services Lines: 72 Message-ID: <36B07D49.A318CD7A@bbs.coderite.com> Reply-To: NOSPAMsysop@bbs.coderite.com NNTP-Posting-Host: host-75.coderite.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [en] (WinNT; U) Xref: rQ alt.games.tw2002:193 To start with, THIS INFORMATION IS **NOT SUPPORTED** by either Epic Interactive Strategy or Martech Software. The TWSG is officially only supported under Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0, but I've been running it successfully under Windows NT Server 3.51 since November. I'm publishing this info for the benefit of those who want the reliability of Windows NT but cannot afford or don't want to pay the $700+ for NT Server 4.0. There are a lot of retired copies of Windows NT Server and Workstation 3.51 out there; IMO this is a good opportunity to put some of them back into useful service. If you decide to try this, don't bother contacting EIS or Martech for support should you need help. Martech doesn't support the TWGS to begin with and John (EIS) will most likely tell you that it's not currently supported under NT 3.51 and tell you to talk to me. Assuming you have installed Windows NT Server or Workstation 3.51 on your prospective server, make sure you have installed the appropriate Service Pack 5 for NT 3.51 and the Y2K hotfix. These can be obtained from the Microsoft web page (http://www.microsoft.com). Install the TWGS and start it up. Version 1.00 will give you an error message immediately. Just click on the OK button and everything will be fine. The 1.01 beta doesn't have this problem (a reference to a non-existant system tray) and I believe it's safe to assume that future versions won't either. If you have registered it you can enter your registration info right away. If not just click on the ok button. If the Stop Server button is available, you'll need to click on it in order to ungrey the Configure button. All other configuration items aside, make sure that you click on the check box for Separate VDMs under the Server tab. If you don't, it will not disconnect users properly when they exit the game. You can configure everything else to fit your needs. The other items where you might have problems are the config files for the DOS sessions and the .PIFs that 1.00 ship with. The TWGS tries to create a directory under your \winnt (or \winnt35) directory called tw2002 and then create the autoexec.tw and config.tw files that it uses for DOS sessions (need them for EXTERN). On my machine, it created the directory, but didn't create the actual files. You can manually copy the autoexec.nt and config.nt files in the \winnt\system32 directory over to the tw2002 directory and change the name, or simply edit them and dump the .PIFs that the TWGS ships with. You'll probably have to do this anyway. The config.nt (or config.tw depending on how you want to do it) needs to contain a line for FILES=###. The default for the TWGS is 255, but that never worked for me, so mine is set to 99. The autoexec.nt or autoexec.tw file needs to have a line added to it that says SET RTM=EXTMAX 1024. Like I said, you probably won't be able to use the .PIF files that came with the TWGS. If your Command Center icons won't work, rename or delete the .PIF files in your \twgs\game directory and build your own with the PIF editor in the Main program group. You will need to create ones for BIGBANG.EXE (need it), EXTERN.EXE (if none else this one's got to work!), TW2002.EXE, and TW2002.EXE. What works best for me is leaving most everything at default and then setting the Diplay Usage to Windowed and then under the Windows NT button, clicking the Compatible Timer Hardware Emulation check box. That's pretty much it. You may want to wait until version 1.01 comes out. It's easier to get it going once you know what you're doing. I had multiple problems with 1.00 and ended up going back to the last pre-1.00 beta of the TWGS in order to improve stablilty and reliability after a great deal of frustration and downtime. Oh yeah, DON'T MINIMIZE THE TWGS UNDER NT 3.51. It minimizes to a non-existant taskbar and you will not be able to get back to it without restarting Windows NT. If you have any questions, comments or whatever, drop me an e-mail at the address below. TTFN! Craig Castle The Orchestra! Online Services sysop@bbs.coderite.com http://bbs.coderite.com