Civ not working

[brian_the_bold]

Civ is not working i formated my hd and reloaded eveevy thing and pached it to 1.22

if you start civ it goes through the movies and you can watch the splash screan then it goes to a blank black padge and you hear music but it will not do anything from that point on.. any ideas? old comp with win xp pro for os..

[miccofl]

Need information:
How much RAM?
What's your screen resolution and does it match the resolution in the conquests.ini file located in the C:\Program Files\Infogrammes Interactive\Civilization III\Conquests folder?
What video card are you using (if any)?
Did you install Civ III and PTW before Conquests or Civ III and Conquests only?
What order did you patch or did you just patch Conquests? (I have every patch stored for Civ III, PTW and Conquests if you need tham.)
Is the disk in the drive when you launch the game?

We'll start with those for now...

[brian_the_bold]

3 x 128 sticks
800 x 600
trident 8 meg agp card

installed civ them conquests and patched to 1.22 or what ever that last patch you can get was...

and yes the disk is in my c drive..

[miccofl]

From the readme (see the part in red):

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Windows(r) 98/Me/2000/XP
Processor: Pentium(r) II 400 MHz
Memory: 128 MB
Hard Disk Space: 800 MB free (in addition to the 600 MB required by Civilization III)
CD-ROM Drive: 4X or Higher
Video: 1024x768: Windows(r) 98/Me/2000/XP-compatible video card*
Sound: Windows(r) 98/Me/2000/XP-compatible sound card*
DirectX(r): DirectX(r) version 9.0b (included) or higher
LAN or Internet connection required for some multiplayer modes
High Speed Internet Access recommended for 5 to 8 player games
Microphone required for voice chat
*Indicates a device that is compatible with DirectX(r) version 9.0b or higher.

Not sure if that vid card will work with it either.

[brian_the_bold]

it use to switch atuomaticly to the higher res...this is the same comp i use to play civ on...

[brian_the_bold]

just to rule that out i reset the res to 1024 x 768 still doing the same thing...

[miccofl]

Sorry then, I have no clue. Unfortunately the game is no longer supported by its manufacturer.

[brian_the_bold]

does anybody know anything about civ complete? do you have to patch it to or is it already done?

[toddb]

Have you tried installing Trident's own drivers? Every Windows XP release/service patch edition usually keeps the earliest "basic" certified driver and often that is what causes so many video card issues with DirectX games. I'm sure other games of yours are having the same issues on the old PC, if a driver doesn't help then you may as well pick up a cheap ATI Radeon 7000 or NVidia GeForce 5200, both go for ~$15 USD/$20 CAD.

As far as Civ3 Complete, it has all the add-ons and patches integrated, I think you'll have to do one update to fix a minor glitch. I had been playing it within VirtualPC on a Mac and VPC emulates a Trident video card(4mb). Like I said above, if it is a driver issue you may want to replace the video card instead of buying another copy of Civ3.

If you do buy Civ3 Complete I'd suggest going through Amazon.com as it'll be cheaper, for a local store you may have better luck from a GameStop/EB since older "Collection" titles get marked down to $15. Careful at Best Buy as they may display $19.99 on older games online, keep an eye out for their internal prices in-store will have a $5-10 mark up once it gets scanned at the register.

[brian_the_bold]

Holy Shit im gonna have a melt down...I got my new cop and my new copy of civ complete loaded it up and guess what...same freeking problem you can hear it but not see civ...totaly different comp same problem whats the odds...

well only thing thats the same is the damm monator guess what when the monator changes resaloutions to 1024 x 768 it loses its syn signal the damm game was running fine all along and i did not know it b4ecouse the monator flaked out i cant even set the monator to 1024 x 768 now...went and barrowed monator from dad in law and it works fine ...

time to play some civ....