Armada I, Armada II (FleetOps) and Windows 10

[Je_mezu24]

*First, I'm not sure if this would be the right spot to post this, so feel free to move it to the right section if needed.*

Ok, with the official release of Microsoft's Windows 10 today, I'm not sure how many people like myself have actually reserved their free copy or have already installed/upgraded to Windows 10.

As you may have guessed, yes, I have reserved my copy of Windows 10 and my computer, a laptop is already attempting to download and install Windows 10 to my HP Pavilion g7-1310us Notebook PC but I have been preventing it well backing up files, programs, music, pictures, videos, documents and mods before upgrading so I don't risk losing anything that I really want to keep. I've actually hidden the Windows 10 Upgrade in Windows Update so I don't accidentally install it on my computer before I'm ready after all reserving your free copy is good for a year according to Microsoft so there's plenty of time to use it and take advantage of the free Windows 10 Upgrade.

Now my number one fear is that after upgrading to Windows 10 is that Star Trek Armada I, Star Trek Armada II (along with FleetOps on the Armada II front) as well as Star Trek Legacy and Star Trek Online will not work on Windows 10. That's the last thing I want to happen since these are the only PC games I actually play.

So here's my question, has anyone upgraded to Windows 10 here, does Star Trek Armada 1 & 2/FleetOps, Star Trek Legacy and Star Trek Online actually work for them? If so (and thus the answer here is yes) what did you do or need to do to get these games to work on Windows 10? I'd like to know before officially taking "the plunge" and upgrading to Windows 10; after all according to the "Get Windows 10 App" for Windows 7 Home Premium my computer is good to go for the upgrade, it says "Apps: 0 Incompatible", "Data and files: Ready". Of course it's really impossible to know if that is counting all my games I've mentioned or is really correct.

[thunderchero]

So here's my question, has anyone upgraded to Windows 10 here, does Star Trek Armada 1 & 2

since you are the only member to say they got armada 1 to work on windows 7 properly.

I would say you would be only person to test on windows 10?

good luck

thunderchero

[Je_mezu24]

So here's my question, has anyone upgraded to Windows 10 here, does Star Trek Armada 1 & 2

since you are the only member to say they got armada 1 to work on windows 7 properly.

I would say you would be only person to test on windows 10?

good luck

thunderchero

Windows 7 was like Windows Vista thus nothing but patches were done to get Star Trek Armada 1 to work. I did nothing special except use its patches Windows 8 was on a friend's computer and that was just adjusting graphics card settings. Windows 10 is supposedly nothing like Windows 8 but I've also learned from upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista since graphical settings never changed on that computer nothing needed to be done to patch Armada 2 for playing it other than Activisions' patches.

I'm strictly asking because I don't know much about Windows 10 yet and getting these games to work right before needing them to or finding out they can't is far more valuable to everyone that plays them because logically if we can't get them to work eventually all communities for these games will die out as the systems they work on die out when they hit their "End-of-life" time, that's why I always upgrade my system to keep up-to-date.

When it comes to keeping these games alive on newer systems, am I really the only one who wants them to work and to find out how others have gotten them to play on Windows 10? This information would be valuable to everyone, either before upgrading to know what to do to get them to work or after upgrading to Windows 10 to quickly get them working.

[Je_mezu24]

Ok, I have some news that I was given by a friend named Chris that already upgraded to Windows 10 and I asked him if he got any older games to work on the new OS and he said: "Works with Diablo 2. Should work with those but make sure your graphics drivers are updated after updating windows".

I also found this website as well:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insi ... ced?auth=1

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/ ... -windows-7

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2945364/ ... ws-10.html

https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/26 ... mes-better

[MrVulcan]

Thanks for the bit of info.

Win7 works fine for most people with patches as you mention. Win8 is the one people are having problems with. It is conceivable that different editions of Win7 may have better support for Armada (home basic vs pro or ultimate). I didn't notice the same significant feature set differences in Win 8 editions. Have not had a chance to look at Win10 editions.

There are a few people interested in getting Armada running on Win10, including myself. So do keep trying, might find something that'll get it working. At any rate, we'll all learn something from the efforts.

Cheers

[Je_mezu24]

Thanks for the bit of info.

Win7 works fine for most people with patches as you mention. Win8 is the one people are having problems with. It is conceivable that different editions of Win7 may have better support for Armada (home basic vs pro or ultimate). I didn't notice the same significant feature set differences in Win 8 editions. Have not had a chance to look at Win10 editions.

There are a few people interested in getting Armada running on Win10, including myself. So do keep trying, might find something that'll get it working. At any rate, we'll all learn something from the efforts.

Cheers

I haven't upgraded to Windows 10 yet, I'm still backing up files for safety precautions just in case something gets lost during the upgrade even though Microsoft says that the upgrade won't remove any files or lead to the loss of data. I'm also looking into creating a Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Home Premium so if the games don't work on Windows 10 Home I will still have access to them.

[ragez0r]

same issue trying to install armada II.. i use win 10.... but as soon as i press INSTALL i see a flash of installshield and it shuts down.. pls help

[MrVulcan]

You do not have to "install" armada. You can navigate to the setup folder on the CD and copy-paste the game files into a folder on your drive someplace. I don't recall the exact location, but you will know it when you see it. It should have folders like "addon", "sod" as well as the Armada.exe file.

The only downside is that when you insert the disk, it will ask you to install instead of presenting the option to launch the game.\

EDIT: I did not see that you said Armada II. The above is true for Armada I. You should try running the installer as admin, and in compatibility mode. Might help.

[craigc1]

In could not get Armada 1 to work in Windows 10 buty di work out a solution to get it to run inside windows 10:

1. Install VMWare Worstation 12 within Windows 10 64bit. (I5 4690, 8GB RAM DDR3, ATI HD6800 graphics card, Samsung 840SSD;
2. Installed Windows 7 Pro 64bit within VMWare environment;
3. Fully updated OS;
4. Installed Star Trek Armada 1, Patch 1.2 then 1.3 (thanks to the developers);
5. Installed 'Armada Restoration Project' MOD (thanks to the developers);
6. Set Compatability Mode to 'Windows XP SP3' & 'Run as Adminsitrator' selected;
7. Start game and go to graphics settings;
8. After trial & error, have set graphics resoultion to 1680x1050;
9. Set 'Alternate Font' & 'Cinematic Window' to 'OFF'. Graphic detail to minimum (for smoother game play);
10. I tend to play Multiplayer Istant Action. Initially I could not see the 'map grid' on the playing map (assists in where to layout defences etc) which was more annoying than anything else but I found the solution was to turn 'OFF' Shroud & Fog when selecting the map.

I have played the game non stop for many hours without a single crash. ENJOY!

[MrVulcan]

Hi craigc1,

Great that you got it running! Thanks for sharing the steps.

Seeing as you had to turn the graphics settings down to minimum to get the game to run smoothly (even with that speedy hardware), its likely that 3D acceleration inside VMWare has room for improvement.

Few VM solutions provide 3D acceleration, and not all have a passthrough to the graphics card. So performance is going to suffer inside a VM. It may be that the paid version of VMWare is capable of providing the passthrough. It has been a while since I looked at VM solutions, so things might have improved for 3D acceleration, and you may be able to find another VM solution that gives you better 3D acceleration performance.

Cheers!