Original discs for RA2 and I am not able to get them to work (Win10pro 64bit)

[SirDanBaker]

Hey guys, just found this fantastic old game in my collection but I'm not able to get it to work.....

I do get the main screen from the dvd but when I click install just nothing happens, the installation screen disappears, I hear the drive spinning up for about ten second, and then it spins down and nothing happens.

Is there anybody who can help me with this issue?

 

BTW I'm only interested in Single Player..

 

I did manage to get Tiberium Wars to run, after waiting ages on the 'component registration' part of the installation.

 

 

Please help, thanks!

 

Dan.

[yahoo]

try copying the entire cd to your hard drive and install it from there

[SirDanBaker]

try copying the entire cd to your hard drive and install it from there

 

Will try tonight (GMT+1 timezone) and post back here. Thanks.

 

Dan

[Tore]

What version of Windows do you have?

[SirDanBaker]

What version of Windows do you have?

 

Win10 pro 64bit

[Tore]

What is preventing you from playing/installing is SafeDisc. In Windows 10 Microsoft removed support for SafeDisc and SecuROM making it impossible to run games that use those copy protections the way they were intended to be run.

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/230773/how-to-play-pc-games-that-require-safedisc-or-securom-drm-on-windows-10-8.1-8-7-and-vista/

 

You can either buy Command & Conquer The Ultimate Collection which doesn't use SafeDisc or you can attempt to follow this guide.

[SirDanBaker]

Thanks for the tips guys, I hope I'll be able to play RA2 once again :-).

[Plokite_Wolf]

The installer executable won't work for RA2 even when you re-enable SafeDisc (but TS and YR ones do, curiously).

 

Here's how to install the game using a different route: http://forums.cncnz.com/topic/19497-original-ra2yr-cds-vs-windows-10/?p=225594

[SirDanBaker]

The installer executable won't work for RA2 even when you re-enable SafeDisc (but TS and YR ones do, curiously).

 

Here's how to install the game using a different route: http://forums.cncnz.com/topic/19497-original-ra2yr-cds-vs-windows-10/?p=225594

 

Maybe a real dumb question but can I play singleplayer this way?

[Plokite_Wolf]

In short, yes.

 

Since you have the discs themselves, the procedure I linked you to explains how to have a fully functional RA2/YR experience. maps##.mix and movies##.mix hold singleplayer scenarios and cutscenes respectively. Place those to the folder you install RA2/YR to and you'll play all the missions you want. I had a successful RA2 playthrough with this installation, both campaigns without issue. Didn't have time for YR, but it should work too.

[SirDanBaker]

In short, yes.

 

Since you have the discs themselves, the procedure I linked you to explains how to have a fully functional RA2/YR experience. maps##.mix and movies##.mix hold singleplayer scenarios and cutscenes respectively. Place those to the folder you install RA2/YR to and you'll play all the missions you want. I had a successful RA2 playthrough with this installation, both campaigns without issue. Didn't have time for YR, but it should work too.

 

I installed RA2 according to your link and copied the different files from the original discs in the directory. Now the game runs but I only see a black screen (I hear the menusound). When I touch the windows key to switch back to the desktop I see (very briefly!) the main title of the game.

I did not find the ini-file to set the resolution in the RA2 directory, can that have something to do with this issue?

Ahem, just noticed that I forgot the patch.....lol

Dan

[SirDanBaker]

So I did manage to get past the loadingscreen, but now I only have the menus without option to choose from? Please help

[Plokite_Wolf]

You didn't read the instructions on the XWIS pages for Windows 8/10 fixes. What you need to do is set compatibility mode for Windows 7 (or XP SP3), set 16-bit colour mode and disable DPI scaling for the executables of RA2 and YR.

 

Also, did you run the Double Click Me.bat file when you applied those fixes?

[SirDanBaker]

Yeah I did, nothing worked. The best result I yielded was a menu with invisible though clickable buttons.

I could send you the complete directory to see what's wrong?

 

Dan

[Plokite_Wolf]

Put a screenshot of your RA2 directory.

[ROBOTICSUPERMAN]

Have you got avg pc tune up by any chance?

I had a similar problem, and it all worked fine once i undid some of the changes to achieve optimum running efficiency...

 

Just a thought.

[Plokite_Wolf]

That's not a factor here.

[SirDanBaker]

Still not working, redid the xwis patch but no luck. Funny though how I only get to the (blank) menus when using Red Alert 2.exe

 

Starting to feel pretty discouraged, what a hussle to play a couple of old games.

[SiRaLeX]

I've had similar issues on Windows 10.

 

Install Windows 7 if you can, that's what I did anyway.

 

 

[Rampastring]

Sounds like you'd only need a suitable DirectDraw wrapper (like TS-DDRAW or DDWrapper) or a compatibility database fix and the game would work.

[SirDanBaker]

Sounds like you'd only need a suitable DirectDraw wrapper (like TS-DDRAW or DDWrapper) or a compatibility database fix and the game would work.

 

And I got this one on XWIS forums:

http://bitpatch.com/downloads/ddwrapper.zip

 

and now it works perfectly :-).

 

finally, thanks a lot guys for taking the time to help me here. I'm gonna share the whole directory with a couple of friends with win10 to see if it works for more than one computer and could be regarded as universal solution.

 

Dan.

[yahoo]

So guys, im in win 7 now and aside from the usual issues I have no problems. However my OS (GWX.exe) keeps notifying me to upgrade to win10. You think its a bad idea to upgrade?

[SiRaLeX]

It's a pretty bad idea to upgrade if you want to play CNC classics otherwise I'd say you can go for it.

 

Windows 10 isn't bad. If only RA2/YR worked well with it.  :ranting:

 

[Rampastring]

DirectDraw wrappers and compatibility fixes make C&C classics playable on Windows 10. They're not as smooth as on Windows 7 (most DirectDraw wrappers cause microstutter, for example), but they're playable.

[fir3w0rx]

So guys, im in win 7 now and aside from the usual issues I have no problems. However my OS (GWX.exe) keeps notifying me to upgrade to win10. You think its a bad idea to upgrade?

Well, when Win 7 was released in 2009, during the first year or so, I would not have recommended it. I reverted back to XP. But as time went by and more and more compatibility patches were made, I decided to reinstall it and was glad that I did. So my suggestion is, google around to see if any of your current games/programs are incompatible with Win 10, and if so, wait a while until a fix is released. If RA2 is the only thing that's incompatible, then you'll have to decided whether or not keeping Win 7 just for one game is worth missing out on a free upgrade for (I'm not sure when it expires). Or you can just go with the old saying; "If it ain't broke... don't upgrade it" (or something along those lines).

 

Btw, if you didn't know already, you can remove that constantly nagging "Get Windows 10" from your taskbar by uninstalling the KB3035583 update.

 

[yahoo]

Yah thanks for the opinion guys. My thought of upgrading to win10 is from a friend that said when he upgraded his pc went faster. I was kinda skeptical anyway.