Schrullenhaft

Have you compared the installation files on your desktops with this info here (file size and SHA256 checksums) ? The 'demo.brz' is probably the key file here since that is where almost all of the data is at for the installation. What security software are you using on your desktops ? Is it possible to temporarily disable them during installation and then create 'exceptions/white-list' for the game executable within the security software ? What is currently running on the desktops when you launch CMSF2 ? The CM series has previously had issues with some 3rd party audio programs such as 'Nahimic' and some others (though the standard Realtek control applet isn't an issue) that required uninstalling them in order for the game to work (sound would still work with these programs removed, it just wouldn't have the effects of the specific 3rd party software).

I suspect that the 'size' of the game (map, number of units, etc.) may be a factor in the disconnects. I don't think that there is much, if any, code difference in networking between the full version and the demo. Primarily I would guess that disconnects typically result from the way that the traffic is routed between the two competitors and the game's TCPIP code may not be very resilient with large latency of packets. To my knowledge the network code is an externally created library that has been in use with CM for a long time. There may have been changes/updates to this library over the years, but I suspect it has been pretty stable and pretty basic in its functionality. You may want to try a VPN service like Hamachi (by LogMeIn...), which is free (for up to 5 computers... beyond what CM would need). A VPN might have a bit less latency or at least a consistent amount of it that should be a bit more predictable to the game code.

I don't know about the 'blank' screen on the initial launch, but if these are UPGRADES, then you would need to also activate the original license keys (CMSF1) for the main game and each of the modules.Typically there should be a shortcut for 'Activate Modules' or something like that on the desktop for activating modules and previous CMSF1 license keys. For a full, non-upgrade purchase and installation the CMSF1 license keys would not be necessary of course and the game should activate and run with the license key(s) provided with the purchase. Each time you launch the 'Activate Modules' shortcut (or whatever it is actually called) it should show you all of the current activations for CMSF2 (including the 'v1' license keys for the Upgrade installations). It's possible that you may get a 'blank' screen when launching the main game executable that is lacking the necessary activations (though the 'Activate Modules' shortcut should show what is exactly activated).

With a black screen it sounds like there is something wrong with the installation and it isn't able to get access to graphic/sound resources for the game. I assume that you're seeing the Battlefront logo (a Vietnam era M48 firing in the darkness) with sound and then a purely black screen, is that correct ? I downloaded the demo onto a Windows 10 Pro v. 1809 PC using Intel integrated video. Installation went fine (to default locations) and the game worked fine (though text is a bit smeared - expected with Intel integrated graphics) running at 1920 x 1080 (no modifications to the 'display size.txt' file). You may want to check on the files you have for the installation. This is what I downloaded and extracted today (from Battlefront's Sharefile download location - the default location linked on Battlefront's website for CMSF2). Extraction was done with the built-in Windows Explorer extraction capability (right-click .zip file and select 'Extract All' from the popup menu): I used a website to generate the SHA256 file checksums ( https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha256_checksum.html ). Just drag the file from the Windows Explorer file manager to the box with the gray dashed outline and it should generate the checksum. CMSF2 Windows v200 DEMO.zip Size (not 'size on disk'): 1,027,872,472 bytes SHA256 Checksum: 078ecbad2f2ce51c9ef80cadbbd06823df9b1c83500534bbd14be259796a2d00 Two files are extracted, 'CMSF2 Demo Setup.exe' and 'demo.brz' with the following properties: CMSF2 Demo Setup.exe Size (not 'size on disk'): 17,395,824 bytes SHA256 Checksum: cfd317368d27d1c054a479f9ffbf2068f208a2ed405fa859995cb21d09cc0ccd demo.brz Size (not 'size on disk'): 2,040,407,125 bytes SHA256 Checksum: dd5ae1468cf4490673bc0337e6cc3a184a7a9d57ab83247402e6371109166d4b Installing to the default location (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Battlefront\Combat Mission Shock Force 2 Demo) went fine, this was with a Sophos corporate version of anti-virus running (I'm not sure if other anti-virus/security programs may have problems with the installation though). The properties on that folder are: Size (not 'size on disk'): 2,058,145,637 bytes 29 Files in 13 Folders

What Windows version are you running ? Do you know what video card or chip you have in your computer and what driver version you have installed ? Is this a laptop or desktop ? With laptops there's the possibility of running on the Intel integrated video (a chip or the CPU itself), which may have issues since Intel's OpenGL drivers don't always play nice with the CM games. Usually they'll display something, just with messy text and/or slow performance. If you Alt-Tab (to minimize the game) and, assuming that minimizing is successful, then re-maximize it, does that possibly refresh the display to show something other than the black screen for the game ? To my knowledge 'compatibility mode' shouldn't be necessary for the game. Have you tried right-clicking on the launching icon and selecting 'Run as administrator' (assuming this is Windows Vista or later) ? 'Run as administrator' also shouldn't be necessary, but it may be worth trying.

The 1.04 patch REQUIRES a license key to activate it and use it. eLicense was the copy-protection system for Battlefront at the time that the patch was released. A third party (who eventually would work for Battlefront as the '2nd Programmer') was responsible for creating the 1.04 patch (which is primarily just some updated DirectX calls to fix some graphics problems at the time of Windows Vista release - and have proven useful for other graphic problems seen later with some video drivers) and I believe the fee was to reimburse him and pay for the licensing of the copy-protection system at that time. Once the 1.04 patch is installed your version of CMBB or CMAK no longer needs the CD in the optical drive in order to run (the original copy-protection system for Battlefront). When you install the 1.04 patch it will replace the 1.03 executable (unless you move and or rename the 1.03 executable before patching). The 1.04 executable will not run until it has been activated with a license key, which is what you're seeing. All of the fixes for 1.04 are ONLY in the executable. There are no other art files, etc. in the 1.04 patch. Until Steve puts the 1.04 patches back into the Store you'll be unable to play with the 1.04 patch.

The 1.04 patch REQUIRES a license key (eLicense). There is no 'CD-based version' of the 1.04 patch. The 1.04 patch works if you have either the eLicense or CD-based installation of the CM1 games (CMBB & CMAK). It basically converts your installation to a Battlefront eLicense based one (including CDV disc versions). The games need to be patched up to the latest patch (1.03) BEFORE applying the 1.04 patch. I believe the patches cost US$5.00 each in the past. Over a month ago Steve said that he was going to add the CM1 series content back to the Store, but apparently he hasn't had time to do that lately. I'm not sure when he'll get around to it and unfortunately, as you know, Support is unable to generate license keys.

Were you able to install the 4.0 Upgrade/full-installer ? The error that you originally got is something that EVERYONE who attempts to run CMBN 1.x will get with Windows 10 (irrespective of what anti-virus/security software they are running). For the 4.0 Upgrade you will need the 3.0 Upgrade and 4.0 Upgrade license keys and then the keys to any modules/packs that you have purchased. When it comes to anti-virus/security software adding an 'exception' for the game executables and/or directory is a good idea. Sometimes a signature update could cause a sudden quarantine of your CM executables and adding an exception or whitelist entry should prevent that.

I believe if you select, within the 'Delivery' dropdown, "Download + Disk" or "Download + Manual + Disk" that you should get a DVD for each game. In the case of CMBN this will likely be a single DVD with a single installer on it that installs the base game and all of the modules/packs. CMRT should be a separate disk, if you again make the selections mentioned earlier in the 'Delivery' dropdown during purchase. For CMBO/CMBB it sounds like you were having a problem with your security/anti-virus software (Vipre ?). Possibly shutting it down temporarily, then installing and licensing CMBO and CMBB and then reactivating it MAY work. Shutting down Vipre temporarily (from 2015) Once Vipre is re-enabled, you will want to add exceptions for CMBO/CMBB: Adding exceptions within Vipre Home (from 2016)

If CMSF + Marines was never activated/licensed on this particular computer (new motherboard, etc.), then you would be unable to unlicense it. With the drive being plugged into a new computer or motherboard (with a copy of Windows booting from a different drive), the licensing system is not going recognize the new computer to perform an unlicensing. I don't know where in particular the licensing data is stored/recorded, but since this isn't the copy of Windows where the game was activated it isn't going to allow for an unlicensing. Also if you have reinstalled or upgraded Windows (to a newer version, etc.) on this computer (without unlicensing CMSF and its modules), then it is possible that the activation can be lost/invalidated. At this point you will probably need to contact the Helpdesk and submit a ticket for them to 'reset' your license key, allowing for another activation (you'll need to provide the requisite license key).

If the file is disappearing after you attempt to run it, then I would guess you may have a problem with your security software. You may want to temporarily disable your anti-virus/security software and then run the installer or add an 'exception' within your security software for the installer and its directory that it is in. You may need to especially do this with the final game directory and its executables. The Commonwealth module executable is well known to get quarantined by a number of security programs, though i don't know how much bearing that would have on the installer executable.

So once you move the downloaded .zip file to its own directory (perhaps something off the root, such as 'c:\cmbn\demo') and extracted it, you still get a similar error message as you did initially ? If so, have you tried launching the installer by right-clicking and selecting 'Run as administrator' from the popup menu ? You are fulling extracting the file and not attempting to launch it within WinRAR, is that correct ?

What program are you using to extract the files ? I suggest copying the .zip file to its own directory and then extract the files there. Hopefully this should get rid of the error that you're seeing.

The vertical component of the 1600 x 1200 resolution (1200) is larger than your monitor's vertical resolution of 1080, so CM doesn't offer this resolution and instead starts at 1280 x 1024. Interesting that with the scaling option turned off via the Nvidia control panel that the resolution shrinks to 1084 x 1020.

The CM1 series does NOT support the mouse-wheel. Unless you map it to some sort of hotkey (outside of CM), which would simply be pressing it as if it was a third mouse button (not the actual wheel function).

I can't upgrade to OS X Mojave myself, so I'm not sure what you're running into (my references here will be on OS X 10.13 - so they may not exactly match). Do you hear sound for everything else ? If you go to your Sound control panel (Apple menu > System Preferences > Sound) what is listed for your 'Play sound effects through' ? Typically I would expect 'Internal Speakers' for most users. If you select 'Output' along the top, with 'Internal Speakers' selected is your 'Output volume' at the bottom at a sufficient level and does NOT have the 'Mute' checkbox selected ? Within the CM games themselves I assume that the Options > Sound is set to 'On', correct ? I couldn't imagine all of them being off at the same time. Possibly cycle through this setting and exit the game after each change (i.e. - turn off > OK > exit game and then relaunch game and change and exit again). If you're not getting any sound at all on the Mac and the above settings haven't changed anything you can possibly reset the audio system with the following command run from the 'Terminal': sudo killall coreaudiod This should prompt for the system password, which is likely the password you use at boot time. This article discusses problems with audio and previous OS X versions, but should still be applicable to Mojave: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sound-advice-fixing-common-mac-audio-problems-os-x/

You should ONLY install the 4.0 Upgrade bundle (the 'all-in-one' installer: 'Windows FULL CM Fortress Italy' at 5GB). This should only need the 3.0 Upgrade, 4.0 Upgrade and Gustav Line license keys to activate all of the content. Delete your current installation and reinstall the 4.0 Upgrade bundle full installer. Hopefully this will NOT require the original license key (CMFI came out with the engine at version 2.0, so it didn't have a '2.0 Upgrade').

In this case, he would probably WANT a video card that has a PCIe power connection. The motherboard in this particular Dell supports a lower-than-normal amount of wattage for a PCIe slot. Video cards that rely on the PCIe slot as the sole source of power are quite possibly looking at the entire 75W a normal slot would support. Such video cards in this particular Dell would be unstable and result in crashing and/or unexpected power shut downs. I agree that an Nvidia GTX 1050ti would be a good video card too, but most likely he would want one with a PCIe power connector on it.

The Dell OptiPlex 790 Mid-Tower is a bit problematic for higher performing video cards. I assume your spec of 'w/400 PS' is a 400W power supply (the default listed in most specs is 265W). The other part of this problem is that the motherboard has a 35W limitation on PCIe slots per some documentation I've read, rather than the standard 75W. You may want to check your motherboard since Dell sometimes prints this limitation near the slot. Does your power supply have a PCIe 6 or 8-pin connector for a video card ? I'm guessing that your video driver listing in the Device Manager is mentioning the 'Radeon HD 7700 series', which is a very generic listing. Typically it would actually be a 7730, 7750, 7770 or 7790, quite possibly with it being the 7730 or 7750. Your AMD control software (Catalyst or whatever it may be called now) may give a more accurate reporting as to the exact GPU. Generally I would have recommended a Radeon RX560 (here's one Newegg listing) in your situation, but I'm under the impression that it may draw far more than the 35W your PCIe slot may be limited to. This will cause instability and crashing while playing a 3D game, so it probably will NOT work for you. If your power supply has a 6 or 8-pin PCIe power connector, then you may want to look into this particular Sapphire Radeon RX 560. Radeon RX 570's & RX 580's are pretty much out for your current configuration since they seem to need an 8-pin PCIe power connector and typically require 450W or more on the power supply. Here's some benchmarks of sorts that compares a generic Radeon HD 7770 vs a Radeon RX 560. I'm not sure how well the comparison would be in real-world terms for CM and other games you're interested in playing. One other thing to be aware of, these newer cards do NOT support VGA displays. Typically it is either DVI-D (digital - so no VGA adapter will work), DisplayPort or HDMI. Basically if you have a 6-pin PCIe connector on your 400W power supply, then you can probably upgrade to the Radeon RX 560 with the PCIe power connector. If your power supply does NOT have a PCIe power connector, then you probably can't upgrade to anything more significant without upgrading your power supply (which is NOT a standard ATX type)

Within CMBB there is no setting that could change this (scaling). Your monitor or videocard MAY have settings to allow it to map the pixels one-to-one (so that a 1280 x 1024 sized image would be centered on the monitor and not stretched). I know in the past that the Nvidia control panel was capable of this (though it may have taken a lot of experimentation to get it to work). I'm not sure about the current Nvidia drivers (and specific OS versions) or if AMD Radeons have this functionality. The most convenient method would be for the monitor to have a setting that disables the scaling (mapping one-to-one on the pixels). Some monitors have such functionality, while many don't. The feature can go by a number of names/descriptions, so you may want to look through your monitor menus to see if there is anything that may support such a function.

Interesting... CMSF1 and CMA use the eLicense copy-protection system. All of the other (newer) CM games utilize a different copy-protection system. I suspect it may be an issue with either security/anti-virus software or possibly a program/utility that is loaded up that interferes with the newer copy-protection system. How long ago were you able to play the now not-working games ? Do you know if you installed/updated anything since those games were last working ? If it is somehow security software, you may want to add an exception within the security software (especially within any 'active' protection systems of the security software) to ignore all of the CM game executables and/or directories.

As 'Wicky' pointed out, it may be simpler to reinstall the games, especially with any "all-in-one" 4.0 installers. You will need to activate with the 3.0 & 4.0 license keys along with any modules and battle-packs (using the "Additional Products activation" shortcut). You can copy over your PBEMs, saved games, downloaded scenarios/campaigns and mods to the appropriate folders on your new installation.

You will probably need to open up 'Terminal' and type the following (with variations as to exactly where you installed CMRT): cd /Applications/'CM Red Thunder' (press 'return') ./'Activate New Products - CMRT.sh' (press 'return' - the './' at the beginning is important) This should hopefully bring up the activation window.

CMBN 1.x will NOT run on Windows 10. The copy-protection system in that version is incompatible with Windows 10. I'm not sure if it is CMBN 2.0 or 3.0 that is fully Windows 10 compatible when it came to the copy-protection system. Do you have the 4.0 Upgrade for CMBN ? If so, then download the 'full Windows installer' for it and install that. This will have just about everything for CMBN. Each module/pack/upgrade will need to be activated in order to access it. I believe the 3.0 Upgrade license key will also be needed (2.0 Upgrade license key should NOT be needed). If you don't have the 4.0 Upgrade, then you will want to install the 2.0 Upgrade (and the 3.0 Upgrade if you have that) and activate that instead.

I have a copy of the file. How would you like it delivered ?