Play old version on Win 10 64 bit pc

Problems and solutions for installing or running FreeOrion, including discussion of bugs if needed before posting a bug report on GitHub. For problems building from source, post in Compile.

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oldversion
Space Krill
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Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 2:54 am

Play old version on Win 10 64 bit pc

#1 Post by oldversion »

I played this game online about 10 years ago, and have been looking for it ever since. Found it!! Problem is, I want to play that version from 10 years ago. I liked the simple interface and the depth of the game at the time. I downloaded 0.3.13 and installed, but upon launching it opens a few dos windows which shortly disappear, and that's it.

Can I get some help on installing/playing the old state of the game? If not, is it still hosted online somewhere?

Thanks!

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Play old version on Win 10 64 bit pc

#2 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Old versions are still available on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/freeor ... FreeOrion/

oldversion
Space Krill
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Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 2:54 am

Re: Play old version on Win 10 64 bit pc

#3 Post by oldversion »

Geoff the Medio wrote:Old versions are still available on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/freeor ... FreeOrion/
I found it there, thanks. When I installed and tried to run I got a dos window flashing up for a split second, and then closing. Any idea how to troubleshoot that?

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Play old version on Win 10 64 bit pc

#4 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Run it from a dos window that's already open, so you can read any error message it outputs.

See if there are any .log files produce in the directory with the program, or in the user data directory (something like C:\Users\YourWindowsUserName\AppData\Roaming\FreeOrion but possibly somewhere else). If you can find one, have a look in it for relevant error messages.

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Dilvish
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Re: Play old version on Win 10 64 bit pc

#5 Post by Dilvish »

Although those old versions may have had simpler controls that you liked, they also had a lot of significant memory leak problems and other errors. Plus, the AI back then was very simplistic and couldn't actually threaten you (the game instead had some late-appearing monsters that could provide some carnage and challenge); the whole game was mostly a development sim and exploration (quick)sandbox.

I'd highly recommend that you read our (only modestly outdated) starter guide and try the current versions a bit more.
If I provided any code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0

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