Armada II looking weird, not playable

posted on June 7th, 2010, 4:18 pm

Hi guys. I'm having problems with Armada 2 on my laptop and on my desktop. The problems are always the same: the game starts fine, menu is OK but after starting singleplayer, all the buttons in the game are black, nebulas are not visible, cursor is weird and enemy ships are invisible and impossible to be hit. I have 1.25 patch on both laptop and desktop, laptop config is: Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 @ 2.1 GHz, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 4650 1GB, latest catalyst (10.3 or 10.4 i think), WIN 7 64-bit Pro. Dektop is Pentium dual-core E6300 OC @ 3.8 GHz, 4GB RAM, GeForce GTX 260 (forceware 197.45), WIN 7 64-bit Pro and Win XP Pro. The game looks and behaves absolutely the same on both Win 7 and Win XP.
Any solution please? I LOVE THIS GAME, I need to run it!!!
Thanx

posted on June 7th, 2010, 4:30 pm

Have you ever thought of changing the graphics mode? Sometimes the display settings may be too old-timer for the computer. Idk but I think 32-bit display is recommended for those that have 64 bit systems. Plus also raising the graphics detail might help.


Also make sure your graphics card is properly referenced, and that you have the latest DriectX available for your OS. And see if there is any graphics card driver updates as it may be important.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 4:37 pm

I have tried changing all the graphics and sound settings in the game, with no success. I have installed latest DirectX redistributable and I have the latest graphic drivers. I have also tried running the game in various compatibility modes, without any success. I have all the updates from Windows Update. My friend has a Athlon II X2 @ 2.7 GHz, 2GB RAM and a GeForce 9600 GT, and he runs the game with no problems on Win 7 32 bit... Damn.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 4:39 pm

.... hmmm..... Is this stock or FO? If it is FO. Then I feel bad for you, if it is stock. Not as much.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 4:52 pm

Stock. I thought about downloading FO but I would like to play through original Armada II first... Maybe I will have to look at the old pile of PC components I have here and try to build an oldschool PC with geforce 2 and 450 MHz AMD CPU with Win 2000 and try to hook it up to my new display and try to play Armada 2 on that... but I'm not sure if I want to... there's centimeters of dust on that pile of garbage 

posted on June 7th, 2010, 10:26 pm

OK I built that comp from old components. But my Geforce 2 MX wasn't working, so I had to replace it with a Vanta LT. And I could not turn on bump mapping or put the details slider to max, so I won't play it on that machine (at least until I get some "decent" old components, like a Geforce 2 MX or a 800 MHz celeron). I need to run that game on my new rig, so I would appreciate anyone's help with that...

[quaddmgtech]

posted on June 7th, 2010, 11:31 pm

Last edited by quaddmgtech on June 7th, 2010, 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

OK I built that comp from old components. But my Geforce 2 MX wasn't working, so I had to replace it with a Vanta LT. And I could not turn on bump mapping or put the details slider to max, so I won't play it on that machine (at least until I get some "decent" old components, like a Geforce 2 MX or a 800 MHz celeron). I need to run that game on my new rig, so I would appreciate anyone's help with that...

PM me your address. I'll send you a Gforce MX440. I have a box of them  Not the best but its better than a vanta or an gforce 2. It will run FO pretty decently at medium resolutions.

EDIT: That old board has AGP right?

posted on June 8th, 2010, 12:07 am

OK I will PM you my adress but first you should know I'm from the Czech Republic, is that OK? Because it could be a little expensive... But I'm sure a MX440 would be exactly the card to accompany the 600 MHz celeron in that machne...  (yeah it's got an AGP 4 I think)
When thinking about it, the old computer idea is more and more interesting to me, cause I remember more and more old games I would love to play but my new rig cannot run them because of that incompatibility. Another iritating thing is that I installed Windows XP on my second HDD for no reason as I found out now...

[quaddmgtech]

posted on June 9th, 2010, 8:30 pm

Last edited by quaddmgtech on June 9th, 2010, 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

OK I will PM you my adress but first you should know I'm from the Czech Republic, is that OK? Because it could be a little expensive...

MX 440 is only a few ounces... as long as it is not too unreasonable it should not be a problem. It may take a while to get there but that's about it.

I like old hardware too 

Here is a picture of the card... though I do not have the box 

http://img.clubic.com/photo/0190000000054833.jpg

[Phoenix]

posted on June 9th, 2010, 8:40 pm

Last edited by Phoenix on June 9th, 2010, 11:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The oldest working graphics card that I have is an old Voodoo 3 2000. Tis a hark mack to the good old days . That's a lie; things like "keyboard not detected, press any key to continue" well, ummm... interesting, when you're trying to make your dying pc work again!

posted on June 9th, 2010, 10:40 pm

The oldest working graphics card that I have is an old Voodoo 3 2000. Tis a hark mack to the good old days . That's a lie; things like "keyboard not detected, press any key to continue" were ummm... interesting, when you're trying to make your dying pc work again!

Ah, the days of 'plug and pray'.

posted on June 10th, 2010, 4:50 pm

Thanks for your will to help me, but yesterday I bought a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 and a Pentium III 866 MHz, so my "oldschool" computer is finished. Man these Windows 98 woke a lot of nostalgia in me  Only problem is that the mobo has AGP 2x only, so the card is not at it's full potential. That might be the cause that the game stutters a little sometimes, I guess I will have to play with the bios a little. Maybe I will install Windows XP or 2000, but then I don't know if I will be able to play X-Com Apocalypse  Armada II rules, I look forward to installing FO

posted on June 11th, 2010, 3:15 pm

Thanks for your will to help me, but yesterday I bought a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 and a Pentium III 866 MHz, so my "oldschool" computer is finished. Man these Windows 98 woke a lot of nostalgia in me  Only problem is that the mobo has AGP 2x only, so the card is not at it's full potential. That might be the cause that the game stutters a little sometimes, I guess I will have to play with the bios a little. Maybe I will install Windows XP or 2000, but then I don't know if I will be able to play X-Com Apocalypse  Armada II rules, I look forward to installing FO

Good to hear!  wow 866Mhz, thats a pretty strong old school computer. I'd leave 98 on it for all your old school gaming needs =-)

posted on June 11th, 2010, 5:43 pm

apparently the 2.5 patch did cause issues with some peoples system

posted on June 12th, 2010, 10:18 pm

When I installed Armada 2 on that Win 98 the 1.25 patch warned me it was not tested on win 98 etc, so I chose not to install it... was that a good choice?

BTW little OT: Duke nukem 3d runs great on my new old computer... no need for dosbox now