SCO
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2009
- Messages
- 16,320
Edit: Well, i've since been told the windows no-cd has a few problems, i've not resolved. The dosbox still works fine though, and you can use it to play without the cd too, just follow the list without hacking the windows exe, or copying the dll and run Express.bat on dosbox. I think this is similar to what GoG did.
Ok, last present today, another game without a full install option.
This will only work (for the windows version, dosbox still works - steps 1,2,3,4,5 and 7) if you have the original version of the game. That version has 3 cds and 3 executables : Express.exe (DOS version), ExpressW.exe (windows launcher) and _le.exe (windows version). There is another version that only has Express.exe and a different ExpressW.exe.
First this game has a strange file format protection in my version (3 cd original). In cd 2 and cd 3 there are actually 2 files CD2.HPF and CD3.HPF one with 2.2kb and anothers with about 640 mb. Guess which ones are important and which ones are visible.
To copy the large files to the hardrive i had to create a ISO (really iso not bin/cue) image and open it with winrar, maybe you would have other solutions.
Any way:
1) install game maximum install, both dos and windows version is ok.
2) Delete the Ereg directory it's the interplay zombie registration program.
3) copy from cd 1 the data dir, cd1.hpf (about 501 mb - if it's not you might have that problem above) and the makingof.avi if you want.
4) from cd 2 and cd 3 copy the large cd2.hpf and cd3.hpf following the procedure above. From cd 3 you might want to copy the manual too.
5) The game is retarded and uses a library that might not exist. Thus it doesn't work on wine. Get the libs mfc42.dll and mfc42u.dll and put them in the game dir. On wine you can do winetricks mfc42 on a console and then copy them from the system32 folder on the "windows" dir (to make it portable).
6) Edit the _le.exe file with a hex editor.
original file md5:
89ccc685b5fcea6157ec5f7b689a2001
At offset BF4C0 edit what is there (is C:\ in ascii) to
3A 5C 00 (.\ in ascii).
At offset F3EF edit what is there to
90 90 90 90 90 90
At offset F3FF edit what is there to
90 90
Edited file md5:
0f6b4492164672d41da89065ddad9e59
7) to play in dosbox without cds (but not in dos) create a batch file Express.bat with this contents:
mount d . -t cdrom
Express.exe
and use it to run the program.
You probably should use the DOS/dosbox/GoG version,
Since there is a report of problems with the windows version, (i don't think it's due to the no-cd, but you never know) you'll probably want to use the dosbox trick. The new GoG version has this incorporated too.
That's it i guess. Tell me if there is any problem.
Ok, last present today, another game without a full install option.
This will only work (for the windows version, dosbox still works - steps 1,2,3,4,5 and 7) if you have the original version of the game. That version has 3 cds and 3 executables : Express.exe (DOS version), ExpressW.exe (windows launcher) and _le.exe (windows version). There is another version that only has Express.exe and a different ExpressW.exe.
First this game has a strange file format protection in my version (3 cd original). In cd 2 and cd 3 there are actually 2 files CD2.HPF and CD3.HPF one with 2.2kb and anothers with about 640 mb. Guess which ones are important and which ones are visible.
To copy the large files to the hardrive i had to create a ISO (really iso not bin/cue) image and open it with winrar, maybe you would have other solutions.
Any way:
1) install game maximum install, both dos and windows version is ok.
2) Delete the Ereg directory it's the interplay zombie registration program.
3) copy from cd 1 the data dir, cd1.hpf (about 501 mb - if it's not you might have that problem above) and the makingof.avi if you want.
4) from cd 2 and cd 3 copy the large cd2.hpf and cd3.hpf following the procedure above. From cd 3 you might want to copy the manual too.
5) The game is retarded and uses a library that might not exist. Thus it doesn't work on wine. Get the libs mfc42.dll and mfc42u.dll and put them in the game dir. On wine you can do winetricks mfc42 on a console and then copy them from the system32 folder on the "windows" dir (to make it portable).
6) Edit the _le.exe file with a hex editor.
original file md5:
89ccc685b5fcea6157ec5f7b689a2001
At offset BF4C0 edit what is there (is C:\ in ascii) to
3A 5C 00 (.\ in ascii).
At offset F3EF edit what is there to
90 90 90 90 90 90
At offset F3FF edit what is there to
90 90
Edited file md5:
0f6b4492164672d41da89065ddad9e59
7) to play in dosbox without cds (but not in dos) create a batch file Express.bat with this contents:
mount d . -t cdrom
Express.exe
and use it to run the program.
You probably should use the DOS/dosbox/GoG version,
Since there is a report of problems with the windows version, (i don't think it's due to the no-cd, but you never know) you'll probably want to use the dosbox trick. The new GoG version has this incorporated too.
That's it i guess. Tell me if there is any problem.