CIVIII Safedisk

MrBeer · #1 20-02-2002, 23:08

I bought a copy of Civ III. I've installed it, but when I go to play the game, the initial screen pops up (splash screen?), does nothing for a few minutes and then drops back to the desktop without starting the game or opening movies.

Checking the suppliers website, I need the CivIII Safedisk patch, but the game suppliers won't provide it to me unless I live in North America, which I don't.

Does anyone know where I can get hold of this patch on the Net?

<BTW I'm don't know much about this kind of thing, but I know enough to have checked the minimum system requirements -I'm way over-, spare hd space - way over-, re-booting, de-installing and trying again and downloaded the 1.16 Patch for CIVIII>

podunkviller · #2 21-02-2002, 01:19

i had same kind of issue on win98 pc. i eventually said f*** it, because there wasnt enough room for a full install on it. i installed civ3 on an XP pro machine and it runs fine. i just wanna know why the f*** it didnt get by the splash screen in 98, unless doing a minimal install messed it. no spare hd to find out.

ps safedisk patch? whoa......they have a messy thing. i just read the website as well. they did the stupid circa 95 thing where the install looks for the cd in only the drive it was installed from. retarded.

try the v1.17f patch. they say it fixes stuff

MrBeer · #3 21-02-2002, 02:46

I know it's not the installation, I've got about 37 gigs free on my hard drive, so I put it in as full installation.

I'll certainly try the 1.17patch, but I've got a bad feeling it's the safedisk problem, which I have no fricking idea how to solve, except get the patch from the suppliers (who won't give it to a non-American).

This is how I feel - I'm a genuine customer, I pay these people for a game out of my hard earned cash and they won't give me a fix to a problem they know they created. Perhaps I'll just never buy another product from them and just download everything off the Net in future. Go Morpheus.

Anyway, thanks for the information and reply.

MrBeer · #4 21-02-2002, 13:36

Sorry if I'm a bit slow - like I say I'm new to this - but are you saying that I should download the whole Civ3 game? Because I would *love* to do that, but on my standard 56k modem, it will take too long to be practical.

themis_t · #5 21-02-2002, 13:41

he means just the game.exe

this is what you need....

MrBeer · #6 21-02-2002, 13:56

OK, so he is referring to a download which I can use to overwrite part of the CIVIII disk I currently own, which will effectiveky disable the copy protection facility on the disk?

That makes sense; unfortunately I don't have a cd burner, so I can't write to the disk.

But again, thanks for the help, I appreciate the input.

MrBeer · #7 21-02-2002, 16:01

That sounds exactly what I need!

This is embarassing, but I can't find the "no cd for Civ 3 1.17f" on the GCW main-page. Please take pity on my stupidity and provide directions a blind idiot could follow - the sooner I do this, the sooner I can sort this out, the sooner I'll stop asking what I assume are very basic question.

Thank you very much for your help.

MrBeer · #8 21-02-2002, 17:34

Ooops, found it. Won't know if I can work everything out 'til I get home. Again, thanks.

themis_t · #9 22-02-2002, 13:09

it wasn't so difficult atl last,was it?

MrBeer · #10 22-02-2002, 15:31

* Heavy sigh * Still no game for me.

OK, here's what happened. I installed CIV3, installed the 1.17 patch, unpacked the no-cd patch with WinAce, creating a seperate folder for it. I copied the Civilization3 application it created to C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\, which overwrote the Civilization3 application already there.

Net result? When I go to the play the game, nothing happens at all i.e. no start up screen at all.

Did I copy the unpacked application to the wrong place?

Also, checking the ReadMe notes on the no-cd for 1.17vfCiv3, they go as follows:-

1. Unzip.
2. Unace manually to a temp dir.
3. Run the updater.
4. Copy crack over original exe.
5. Start the game as usual.

Now, I did steps 1,2,4 and 5 ok (assuming I copied to the right place), but I don't understand step 3. What is the updater?

MrBeer · #11 22-02-2002, 15:33

Thinking about it, I didn't do step 1 either, I just unpacked the thing using WinAce, I think.

MrBeer · #12 23-02-2002, 11:52

Ah, now I understand.

Nope, didn't work - goes from showing the splash screen and then doing nothing to just doing nothing.

Time to try a new operating system, then I'm taking the game back.

Crap crap crap.

Thanks for the advice and help everyone, I've learned a lot of things I didn't know about.

themis_t · #13 26-02-2002, 13:24

hey our friend didn't answer....

podunkviller · #14 26-02-2002, 18:43

we know what a crack is. i believe he was addressing if there was a new crack for v1.17 patch, rather than the 1.16. if only these infogrames people would put out a patch every other month instead of the torrid pace they are setting.