Codename Condor Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Im in heaven, i finally managed to get “oldie” Clash of Steel running in my “state-of-the-art” puter under Winxp, geeze. Read below if u want to try the game, u don’t know what u r losing. I had forgotten the beauty of this game, I read the manual and other undocumented features and I see that I wasn’t aware of all the features in those old days. SC is the nearest thing to COS that has come to live, but there are very different in some aspects, lets review some of them. - Sub warfare: Perfectly handled in COS. Really accurately recreates the sub warfare. SC doesn’t get it. - Strategic Bombers: Perfectly handled in COS. SC doesnt get it. - Weather: Cool in COS. There’s no weather in SC, no Russian winter … - Naval Warfare: Im sure somebody would disagree with me, but I found the Sea Zones system much better that the actual SC system. In COS u can have great Naval Battles, with group formations that recreates history. No way u can destroy Fleets with yer mighty Jets level 4 as we see every SC game. - Units: Limited units in COS and Production Queues!!!: only have 4 AFs as Germany, only x armies, corps…Manpower. U can build unlimited numbers of AFs, armies in SC. No manpower. - Tech: Better represented in COS. Too luck involved in SC. - Special units: Engineers that build forts, Paratroopers to destroy that forts or negate rivers defense bonus. In SC u have Rockets, cool feature but a loser strategy tho. - Interceptions: U can choose if u want to intercept bombers or not in COS. U cant in SC. - Industrial Production: In COS u have Industry Base Modifiers for each country that vary from year to year. i.e. Germany 1939 is 1.0, an in 1945 is 2.0. USA 1940 is 1.0 and in 1945 is 4.0. SC doesn’t handle this in a realistic way. There’s also the possibility to Upgrade Countries in COS. - Autorefit vs Reinforcements COS refit is automatic and that is good for the mouse. SC lets u choose units to reinforce and sometimes, believe me, that takes a lot of brain work. Good for brain development. - Special Rules: Special rules in COS for Malta, now Malta is important, Norway, Homeguard, Blitzkrieg… Gibraltar tough to get in COS but once u have it… - Logistics: In COS u can only operate 1 unit and put 3 units in reserve. In SC as long as u have money no limits. - Anphibious invasions: COS has Mulberries!!! But in no-retreat hexes luck&cheat involved. SC good anphibious invasions BUT no limits in transports wandering around looking for holes… - Diplomacy: Political Pressure in COS that allows to much cheating. SC represents much better the way countries react to DOWs. - Special Combat Skills: Only in COS, such as Russian Infiltration, German Movile Defense,… that recreates better history. - HQs: SC HQs rocks!!! better than in COS. Also Auto attachment of units to HQs is good to speed things up. - AI: I think both games have implemented a great AI. I heard that the COS 1.1 AI was mutilated and the good AI is in COS 1.0. I dunno about COS Future Edition. - Bugs: SC has some flaws so has COS. But SC has released 7 patches!!! - Graphics: Much better in SC and the possibility to download other icons, Well, Elvis was still alive when COS was released… - Mods, editors: No possibility in COS, only with and hex editor. SSI has lost the Source Code and the designers have completely disappeared of the face of the world. Abducted??? SC comes with and editor, but people wants more features in it… Im sure Ive left a few other things, but as conclusion I can tell u COS is much more realistic whilst SC is so fun!. Great games and waiting till SC2 that im sure its going to be the best “great strategic game” ever. To Get COS: 1- You can find COS here. Go to files. Thx a lot to Manstein!!!. He has patched it, so u wont get the runtime error. COS 2- Download VDMSound here and u will hear those tanks rolling again. VDMSound 3- Unzipped COS, no need to install. Right click on COS.bat and choose “play with VDMS sound” 4- I think u wont need the DOSbox, a DOS emulator. 5- Enjoy it! See u in the battlefield. [ November 26, 2003, 05:02 PM: Message edited by: Codename Condor ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Codename Thanks for posting this. As you probably know I'm a big fan of COS. I just wish that idiotic Russian engineer unit would come in after the initiation of Barbarossa instead of building defenses all over the map before the USSR is attacked. That's one of my few gripes with the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Ranger Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Great post CC. I've never played COS, though I wish I had from what I've seen and heard on this site. I don't think I'll do the work you have to get it operating, but who knows, now I know where to go for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codename Condor Posted November 24, 2003 Author Share Posted November 24, 2003 I know u are a big fun of COS JJ, ive been reading yer posts hehe. And i know about the russian engineer, i remember it was the most hated unit in the war and german units always chasing him all the way around trying to isolate&kill him so he cant return in 1 year time!. Be aware JJ that the AI cheats in some areas, one of them is that AI has 70% defense bonus on forts and added to the 3 defense bonus in forts... Iron Ranger try the game, its easy to run u will like it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les the Sarge 9-1 Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Grrr Yahoo Groups. I was even interested in trying to see if it would cooperate in my XP environment until I came up against the need to Join Barrier. Wish the files were somewhere I could just get them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codename Condor Posted November 24, 2003 Author Share Posted November 24, 2003 Les, u can download COS from Underdog too, but u also need to TPpatch, dont know where u can download that program from, trying google... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xwormwood Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 doesn't run at all on my computer. do i have to install the original game first??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codename Condor Posted November 24, 2003 Author Share Posted November 24, 2003 Nope, no need to install the game, just unzip and thats the game. Run install.bat and select sound installation only, i.e. soundblaster. The protection codes that asks the game are inside the zip file and so is the manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt88 Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 TPpatch and the update to 1.1 can be found here . [ November 24, 2003, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: kurt88 ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt88 Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Mmm, the link to download the patch is broken. I mailed the guys from the site to send me the patch, don't think they'll respond but at least I tried. Les, What's so bad about Yahoo groups? Never was in one,but your reaction tells enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Codename The worst cheating case I had with the game was with AI Axis, when some infantry corps in became airfleets, did their missions and the game immediately crashed! I destroyed the files and reloaded everything -- including having to manually make a new save file because SSI's multi-pak version didn't create one -- and it never did that again. I think that particular time it was possessed! :eek: But normally it runs well. I'm glad to hear you hate that Soviet engineer as much as I do. Fortunately he's a bit dopey and spends a lot of time fortifying the Pripyet Marshes. That must be interesting; I keep picturing the Maginot Line being swallowed by the earth! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt88 Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 When I run the COS.bat I get : 'Sorry, no EMS found' I'm running win'98, I downloaded the 1.1 file from the Yahoo Groups site. What should I do? I'm no wcomputer wiz.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Kurt, I think there were two basic memory forms for DOS, XMS and EMS; most programs needed the first while COS, HiCom and many complicated wargames needed the second. In the DOS days I'd have to make a boot disc specifying EMS memory. Then there was the basic memory block issue and loading devices high etc & etc.. I Don't recall much about it beyond that point; it was a real pain and I'm glad those days are over. Hopefully a computer wiz will post some answers, if not I'll go rummaging trough my old DOS manuals to see how it was handled for boot discs, but that's a last resort in Windblows, uh, sorry, I meant Windows. [ November 24, 2003, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt88 Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Yeah JJ, the good old dos days ! I remember having several boots disks for several games. Back then it was easy. I also remember toying with config.sys and autoexec.bat files to free up the EMS memory but I wouldn't have a clue how to make those things now using windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt88 Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Can't believe I fixed the issue. It was quite simple really. I do think I need to read the manual before I can play the game though. It looks a bit more complicated than SC. If anyone needs to know how the should free up EMS memory, let me know, I'll be happy to explain... (looks around immensly proud of himself ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konstantin V. Kotelnikov Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Originally posted by kurt88: Can't believe I fixed the issue. It was quite simple really. I do think I need to read the manual before I can play the game though. It looks a bit more complicated than SC. If anyone needs to know how the should free up EMS memory, let me know, I'll be happy to explain... (looks around immensly proud of himself ) Kurt, How did you solve the EMS thing? I am running into too. I found some instructions on the web, but those were less than helpful. Can you explain it to us that are only semi-computer literate. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 I found the old guidelines for DOS machines CONFIG.SYS FILES=25 BUFFERS=25 DRIVE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.sys DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE 1000 RAM DOS=HIGH,UMB AUTOEXEC..BAT PATH=C:\C:\DOS:C:\MOUSE PROMPT $P$G LOADHIGH MOUSE Probably not of much use, but it might help. On my DOS machine I need to use the bootdisc that has no CD-ROM Drive or soundcard because the program requires too much of the basic memory block; I'm wondering if possibly that's the problem? [ November 25, 2003, 12:37 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt88 Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Edit your config.sys. There should be a line that says device=c:\windows\emm386.exe . If there is a word behind emm386.exe, delete it ten save the file and reboot. Right click on the COS2.exe file. Choose properties, then memory. Look at expanded memory ,you can select total, automatic or a numerical value ,set it at 1024. Fire up the exe file. I'm running win'98, hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les the Sarge 9-1 Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Thanks for the file Kurt. I will give it a try. All this EMS talk heheh and therein lies the reason I don't miss anything pre Win XP Today, my wargames either like Windows or else hehe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Ranger Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Anyone want to send me the file? Like Les I'm not big on joining some of these sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konstantin V. Kotelnikov Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Thank you Kurt. I should have noticed that word at the end of that line in CONFIG.SYS was NOEMS. D'oh Computers confuse me so, maybe it's virtual purge time. I denounce both my computers as enemies of the state and they both work on counter-revolutionary activities when I am not around. I'll give your instructions a whirl when I get home from Class tonight. Funny thing is I still have my COS CD and Instuction book from when I originally bought the game. Of course I had to quit playing it when I upgraded machines as I would always get the runtime error. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les the Sarge 9-1 Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Sent that file to you Iron Ranger. I have not done anything with it yet, so I can't comment on it further though. Sent to your listed in details email address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Ranger Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Thanks for the file Les, looks like I'll need to read the manuel. The graphics are UGLY! But the game looks very similar to SC on the surface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codename Condor Posted November 26, 2003 Author Share Posted November 26, 2003 Originally posted by Iron Ranger: ... The graphics are UGLY! But the game looks very similar to SC on the surface. What were u expecting? some state-of-the-art bitmaps? . Stalin was still ruling Russia when this game was released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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