Armada I on Windows 7 not starting

posted on January 15th, 2013, 9:41 am

I have a newer laptop running Windows 7 and I'm having trouble getting Armada I to work. I get the splash picture then immediately get a 'Star Trek Armada has stopped working' error. I've tried several different combinations of comparability options from running in 256 color to admin rights and Windows XP (SP 2 & 3), 98 and even 95. I have switchable graphics capability and I've switched to the 'power-saver' card but it's still not working. Please help.

posted on January 15th, 2013, 5:09 pm

I believe you want the Armada 1.3 patch made by the FO devs. It can be found here:
http://www.moddb.com/games/star-trek-ar ... 13-project

posted on January 15th, 2013, 7:55 pm

I played a weeks worth of lan games in A1 over the summer on multiple win 7 machines. You shouldn't have problems, but I agree with Cabal, definitly install the 1.3 patch. Also, you may want to run as administrator, but don't run in compatibility mode. It doesn't help, and sometimes makes it worse.

posted on January 15th, 2013, 7:56 pm

I was able to download the patch but when i click install it skips straight to the finish like there was nothing there. Also the application version doesn't change, or is it supposed to?

posted on January 15th, 2013, 8:02 pm

If it installed correctly, it should say 1.3.0 in the main menu, at the bottom right, in red letters.

Also, just as ideas, make sure the CD is in the drive/mounted when trying to install, and make sure you installed Armada in c:/program files/activision and run the installer as admin. Just ideas.

posted on January 15th, 2013, 9:27 pm

I just re installed it, then patched to 1.2 and then to 1.3 it plays now but there are some graphic glitches like the intro movie won't play but I can hear the sound. Also the animations for the main menu don't play right and the numbers in the actual game are...distorted like in the crew level and resource counts, it's legible but still. I thought switching to my 'power-saver' graphics card would help but I got the same glitches as well as the camera would move all the way to the left and I couldn't move it to the right. I running as administrator but without compatibility mode.

posted on January 15th, 2013, 9:46 pm

I just re installed it, then patched to 1.2 and then to 1.3 it plays now but there are some graphic glitches like the intro movie won't play but I can hear the sound. Also the animations for the main menu don't play right

That sounds like a problem with Bink Video. A1 uses a different version than every other game so I don't know how to fix it. There is actually a very similar problem running the game on Linux using Wine.

and the numbers in the actual game are...distorted like in the crew level and resource counts, it's legible but still.

There should be an option to use an alternate font in the graphics settings. Try turning that on and see if it helps.

posted on January 22nd, 2013, 3:31 am

Ok thanks guys it's working better now, does anyone know how to solve the bink video problem I mentioned? Also what about the main menu animations is there a way to fix that?

posted on January 22nd, 2013, 5:50 pm

The main menu animations also use Bink. I haven't been able to find a solution, or even the same problem.

posted on January 23rd, 2013, 9:04 pm

You can always download Blink video and watch them manually, Blink video is free for download