Need help, don't know where else to ask

[Kai_Lae]

Need some help with a game. Everyone please all aboard the waaay back machine. In 1997 there was a game released - and IIRC distributed - by battlefront called achtung spitfire, by avalon hill. Now just so happened the other day I was digging through my closet and I ran across the disk (I tend not to throw anything away, yeah I'm one of those guys). Got me remembering how much I dug it when I had like win 98 on my PC. Anyway I did a google search on it, sure enough there are download links for it. Cool might as well give it a try. This is where my annoyance begins. First the game runs, which is good. Problem is, it's version 1.00. There are links to the 1.05 patch, but they won't run on my windows 7 machine (which is just odd to me). There are links to download the entire 1.05 game on places like CNET but if you attempt to use them, they ask for a login, username and password from:

"Enter username and password for ftp://ftp.battlefront.com"

I tried my forum login, but no luck. Any ideas? Original version of game has some minor bugs which are annoying, but most of all the AI is able to disengage very easily from fights, which was fixed in later patch. Would like to download the 1.05 version, but need some assistance in this area ofc.

[Michael Emrys]

In 1997 there was a game released - and IIRC distributed - by battlefront called achtung spitfire, by avalon hill.

You kind of have that part turned around. The game was designed by Big Time Software, which is what Charles and Steve were calling their company before Battlefront started up. And it was distributed by Avalon Hill.

Sorry that I cannot help you with your other problem.

Michhael

[Kai_Lae]

You kind of have that part turned around. The game was designed by Big Time Software, which is what Charles and Steve were calling their company before Battlefront started up. And it was distributed by Avalon Hill.

Well, it was now 14 years ago My memory is no longer exact. Still a fun game though. I'd love to see it made again, w/ 3d graphics a la combat mission. Combat mission air war as it were heh.

[-E]

The game was based on the boardgame of the same name (as was Over The Reich), and was put out for windoze 95. The last version was 1.15.

The real dilemma is that the illegal versions will run, but cannot be patched because they are hacked. While the legal version can be patched, but will not run because it's not hacked (the copy protection is incompatible with newer CD/DVD drivers).

A typical fix is to drag out an old retired machine, reinstall windoze 95 and the original game and patch it all up to 1.15 (many find this fix is great for almost all of their retro-gaming needs).

If you search the web, I think somebody had some luck "sandboxing" windoze 95 and the game.

[Edit/Addition...]

If memory serves, that link you cannot access is not really the whole game, but is only the 1.05 patch (with a badly worded download description. Not to mention that common sense also tells you that BTS/BFC would never give the whole game away).

[Michael Emrys]

Well, it was now 14 years ago My memory is no longer exact. Still a fun game though. I'd love to see it made again, w/ 3d graphics a la combat mission. Combat mission air war as it were heh.

My problem with both games is that it tried to represent a highly 3-dimensional form of warfare in two dimensions. Granted, the more advanced modes of the game tried to represent climbing and diving, but they never came close to what any flight sim could do with ease. In short, while I found aspects of the games interesting, they lacked lasting value for me.

An air war boardgame that I really wish somebody would translate onto computer is Bomber from the game company Yaquinto. It truly cries out for a computer version and a 2D representation would work fine here. It was a great game that was almost impossible to play solitaire.

Michael

[-E]

My problem with both games is that it tried to represent a highly 3-dimensional form of warfare in two dimensions. Granted, the more advanced modes of the game tried to represent climbing and diving, but they never came close to what any flight sim could do with ease. In short, while I found aspects of the games interesting, they lacked lasting value for me.

I found the isometric presentation misleading. I wish Charles had stayed with the straight 2D presentation of Flight Commander 2. However, the underlying mechanics were present. Which helped to offset the presentation for me.

An air war boardgame that I really wish somebody would translate onto computer is Bomber from the game company Yaquinto. It truly cries out for a computer version and a 2D representation would work fine here. It was a great game that was almost impossible to play solitaire.

I did a Vassal module of Yaquinto's Bomber* several years ago. I believe it is still available on the vassal site (note: this a completely freeware deal). However, I make no promises as someone saved all the modules I did as Vassal 3.XX modules with no real conversions/allowances being done (just a "load it in 3.xx and save it under 3.xx" deal). (If you want/need the original version under Vassal 2.99, pm me)

As to the "solitairability (tm)", there was actually an article (which took me awhile to track down and get) on how to solitaire Bomber as the Germans. To save you $15.00 for ordering the out of print magazine... essentially, you plan out a crap load of allied raids, writing each counter's movement, step by step, on a piece of paper. Then mix all the raid papers about and grab one. Then reveal each raid, one line at a time. I never tried it, but it sounds like it might have worked fine if you pre-planned enough raids that which one it was wouldn't be obvious as you played.

* Mucho credit to GJK for salvaging the map... at the time I had recently dumped my old, old, old, old, old, old scanner (read: that scanner was so old, you could load a c64 program WELL before it would complete a single page scan) and bought a new one that did everything but the dishes. But the new and really fast one, turned out to use a dynamic algorithm when scanning (meaning no scan would match up with any other scan when piece-mealing a map).

[Michael Emrys]

As to the "solitairability (tm)", there was actually an article (which took me awhile to track down and get) on how to solitaire Bomber as the Germans. To save you $15.00 for ordering the out of print magazine... essentially, you plan out a crap load of allied raids, writing each counter's movement, step by step, on a piece of paper. Then mix all the raid papers about and grab one. Then reveal each raid, one line at a time. I never tried it, but it sounds like it might have worked fine if you pre-planned enough raids that which one it was wouldn't be obvious as you played.

Yes, I suppose that could be made to work. But firstly, that sounds like it would require an enormous amount of effort (not a pleasant prospect); and secondly, I would prefer to play the US side.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

Mucho credit to GJK for salvaging the map...

Is Gary still around? He used to post regularly here, but I haven't seen anything from him in years. About six years ago I sent him several big boxes of gaming magazines, including issues of S&T as he said he wanted to adapt them for VASSAL, but I never heard much about the project after that.

Michael

[-E]

Yes, I suppose that could be made to work. But firstly, that sounds like it would require an enormous amount of effort (not a pleasant prospect);

Hence my mention of never having tried it (after no little effort tracking down the publisher and ordering the magazine, based on a rumour). But, if one DID do the effort and planned a s**t-load of raids, I think it would work fine.

Once I read the article, I seriously thought about including solitaire in my VASSAL module. But I came to the conclusion that raids would probably have to be a bit thin to fit in the number of available variables in VASSAL.

and secondly, I would prefer to play the US side.

Actually, after planning, the game is the German side (much like it's more exciting to be the British in any BOB game). However, considering you want to be the US, why don't you do so, plan a million raids, then mail them to me. *grin*

Is Gary still around? He used to post regularly here, but I haven't seen anything from him in years. About six years ago I sent him several big boxes of gaming magazines, including issues of S&T as he said he wanted to adapt them for VASSAL, but I never heard much about the project after that.

No. He kind of disappeared on me, about the same time frame (he had met a new gal then... perhaps that went well for him? ...good for him, shame for us). Although, I think he has made some sporadic posts on gamesquad since then(?).

[Kai_Lae]

Back to the OP, the consensus is that I'm SOL? Because it would appear from the info that I put in the OP that the final patched version is available for download from the servers here, if you only knew the right login to allow access. Which I don't. I'd sure like to get hands on it if possible, you'd think someone would likely know the answer to what you need to do to allow access.

[-E]

Back to the OP, the consensus is that I'm SOL?

Not at all. Install your original Achtung Spitfire and patch it to v1.15, then follow these instructions...

http://home.comcast.net/~hagler11/otr/subpages/run_otr-as.html