[Size_Mick]

Minimal Google Research ™ has led me to the conclusion that amongst heli sim fans out there, Jane's Longbow 2 is the best heli sim around. My questions are thus:

1. Is there any way to get this friggin' game to work under Windows XP?

2. Is this really the best heli sim out there? I'm looking for realism, especially in the flight model. But also I'm looking for war too, not just some MS Flight Simulator garbage :P

When I run the Longbow 2 demo on my PC in *any* mode (software, D3D, any res), all I get is a 640x480 black window with a small message at the top left corner that says "Good luck, pilot!" or something to that effect. My hard disk runs a little bit, then the message disappears after about 10 seconds and the black window just sits there, along with the rest of my PC, apparently doing nothing. Meanwhile, the mouse cursor has been an hourglass this entire time. I have to use Task Manager (which I need to move over because the black window is stubbornly forcing itself on top of everything) to end the program. I've messed about with a few of the ini and cfg files and such but nothing changes. It simply can't even get to the menu or the startup logo or anything, apparently.

I checked ntcompatible of course and saw a "No" in red for Longbow 2 under 2k, but of course no explanation was given.

I'm really hoping some hardcore Longbow 2 fan reads this and has come up with a good solution. I'm also hoping that there is a better or at least similar heli sim game that *does* run under XP. TIA

Incidentally, what got me interested in this was the helicopters in the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942.

[ConQueso]

Team Apache and Gunship! both run fine in XP. I haven't played longbow, though I'd guess TA and G are slightly more on the arcady side.

I got Gunship as it was the only Helicopter Sim I'd read about that included the ability to play multiplayer games with one player pilot and the other gunner in the same craft. Sadly, the arrow that's supposed to indicate which direction the LAN gamed gunner is looking doesn't function correctly. If anyone knows how to get this to work, please let me know.

Thing I really like about Gunship is the trees. Ya, they're intersecting 2D textures with collision radii, but because this lets the game show so many individual trees, flying NOE through a forrest or wooded area looking for tanks is increadibly cool.

[Phoenix_71]

Here goes my 2 cents...

I know Desert Combat helicopters look great but having to fly with either full throttle or no throttle kind of sucks. After playing for a while, I too jumped back into trying to get a helicopter sim to work on XP.

Gunship 2000 (Microprose) is a DOS game. It is great because of the selection of aircraft and team management that you have. However, this game has some dated graphics. Windows XP will do DOS (somewhat) but you have to use the generic sound driver using the "VDM Sound" drivers.

Apache (DI) is also a DOS game. This too was a great game in its time. It allowed for multiple players to be in the same aircraft. (1 as gunner and 1 as pilot). The game went through a few changes to make it Windows 95 compatible, but it too was limited since it is actually still a DOS game.

Hind (DI) is also a DOS game that is pretty much the twin to Apache (DI). Only thing is that everything is in Russian and you fly the Mi-24 instead of the Apache.

Longbow 2 (Jane's) is a Windows 95 game. It was made in the 3dfx time frame, so the graphics here are better than the regular DOS games, but still outdated. With Windows XP, I can install this game, start the game (in both Windows 95 and in Windows 98/ME compatibility modes) to get to the menu, and even start a mission. The problems is that I have grown quite fond of resolutions HIGHER than 640x480 and a game that does not blink at me (where you get the black screen, I get a blinking screen). I have found that if you install the 2.09 patch, it makes the game crash back to the desktop when trying to start a mission. After installing the Direct3D patch for the game, I then have the added problem of even trying to get out of the game.

Team Apache (Mindscape) is also a Windows 95/98 game, but it is reported to have no problems with Windows XP. I have not tried this game yet only because after getting the game (when I was running Windows 98se), I found the game to be QUITE an arcade game and not really a sim. I also prefer the ability to fly different helicopters. I will be trying this game again in a few days / week, but this is my view so far.

Apache vs. Havoc (Empire/Razorworks) is also a Windows 95/98 game. This one has loads of eye candy when it came out, but I haven't tried it yet with XP either. I guess this too is another one that I will have to get back with you on since no one has put much information in the Games Compatibility section for it.

Gunship! (Microprose) - This one here is the one that I have been looking at (since I can't get Longbow 2 to work) for the past day or so. I sure would like to have the ability to fly the AH-1 Cobra, UH-60, and OH-6 along with the ones that Gunship! allows, but I can't be too picky. I did see a few posts over at flightsim forums from fng2k about his "additions". Too bad his website doesn't work any longer. As for Gunship! being the first to port two people in one aircraft, that was done quite a few years ago with DI's Apache.

Still, no other helicopter game gives you the abilities that Longbow 2 did. I am talking about the ability to select targets, prioritize them, and even have your wingmen attack them in the order your prioritized them as. But then again, those are my 2 cents...

-Phoenix
-Sager NP5660 2.4Ghz 533FSB-768MB DDR2100-ATI M9 9000 64MB

[ConQueso]

Have you tried running Longbow2 in Glide? OpenGLide (v.08f) runs Carmageddon 2 just fine in Glide with a GF3/4MX.

Does it offer higher than 640x480 in glide? If not, you can at least enable antialiasing and anisotropic filtering to make the screen seem higher res than it is. With dated polygon counts, the game would likely still run smoothly.

AA and AF would need to be enabled in your cards OpenGL section, and the "OpenGLide" needs to be copied on top of the same file of it's name in the game's directory.

Let me know how well OpenGLide works, and if you now where to get a copy of LongBow 2 if you wouldn't mind.

Can you have two players in one helo in LB2?

I tried Apache vs. Havok and, IIRC, the main problem was having the first person feild of view constantly jerking up and down... I think there might have been a speed/framerate problem as well, but I'm not certain. It's been a while.

[rnoe71]

I also wanted to play Longbow 2 with Windows XP and I also was getting the flickering screen, so I took your suggestion and tried it with OpenGlide. Now, Longbow 2 no longer has the flickering screen and the graphics (after tweaking the OpenGlide.ini file to the below) are pretty nice (eventhough it is 640x480).

Now that Longbow 2 is playable on Windows XP, we have no sound. Sound works when you are in menu mode, but not during the game. Is there a work around on this?


My OpenGlide.ini file:

Configuration File for OpenGLide

Info:
Priority goes from 0(HIGH) to 5(IDLE)
Texture Memory goes from 2 to 32
Frame Buffer Memory goes from 2 to 16
All other fields are boolean with 1(TRUE) and 0(FALSE)

Version=0.09rc6

[Options]
EnableMMX=0
CreateWindow=0
InitFullScreen=1
EnableMipMaps=0
IgnorePaletteChange=0
EnableFog=1
EnablePrecisionFix=1
EnableWrap565=0
EnableMultiTextureEXT=0
EnablePaletteEXT=1
EnablePackedPixelsEXT=0
EnableVertexArrayEXT=0
EnableSecondaryColorEXT=0
EnableFogCoordEXT=1
TextureMemorySize=32
WrapperPriority=3
FrameBufferMemorySize=24

[rnoe71]

Finally got it to work with sound. Here is how:<br>

1. Install the game from CD.

2. Install OpenGlide RC006 from http://openglide.sourceforge.net/

3. Change the OpenGlide.ini to:
[Options]
EnableMMX=0
CreateWindow=0
InitFullScreen=1
EnableMipMaps=0
IgnorePaletteChange=0
EnableFog=1
EnablePrecisionFix=1
EnableWrap565=0
EnableMultiTextureEXT=0
EnablePaletteEXT=1
EnablePackedPixelsEXT=0
EnableVertexArrayEXT=0
EnableSecondaryColorEXT=0
EnableFogCoordEXT=1
TextureMemorySize=32
WrapperPriority=3
FrameBufferMemorySize=24

4. Now, install the patch lb2209e.exe, but <b>YOU MUST INSTALL THE LB2209E PATCH IN WINDOWS 98/ME COMPATIBLITY MODE</b>.

5. Now, install the Direct3d patch named D3dinst.exe, but again <b>YOU MUST INSTALL THE DIRECT3D PATCH IN WINDOWS 98/ME COMPATIBILITY MODE</b>. The Direct3D will error out and not install. This is okay, just let it.

Now you are done. You can now play your Longbow 2 with Windows XP and you don't even have to start the game in any Compatibility Modes.

-All this thanks to ConQueso for suggesting OpenGlide.

[ConQueso]

Quote:

-All this thanks to ConQueso for suggesting OpenGlide.

Thank you, but I really must pass that thanks along to DOSFreak, who was the one that made me aware of OpenGLide in getting Carmageddon 2 to work with hardware acceleration and joystick support (an apparent USB joystick bug in D3D i guess).

So, thanks again, DOSFreak!

[ihopper]

I'm one step behind you with Longbow Anthology. Trying to get Longbow 2 to work.. using OpenGlide, it's working in Glide, sound in menus, but no sound in the game.

Followed the instructions for the patch and Direct3D in compatibility mode. In Anthology, the patch errors out halfway through (because some doesn't need to be patched) but the Direct3D patch doesn't error out, oddly enough.

Got any ideas? Using an Inspiron 8600 laptop with 128MB Radeon.

- Ian.

[WRX_Rocky]

Boy what a sad day it was when HasCrap bought out Microprose! Imagine, they bought one of the BEST mil-sim game companies ever, and then go and trash it by getting rid of all combat games to instead make more poke-crud! Though I am not a heli nut, I sadly miss M1 Tank Platoon I & II, and was eagerly waiting for M1TP3 to come out, which was supposed to be able to be combined with Gunship! to make it both a land and air combined arms game. And I have not tried M1TP2 in XP yet, but last time I tried it on a system (98SE), the menu items (as in EXIT the game) was nowhere on the screen!

Oh, and even sadder, for the flight sim world, HasCrap also destroyed Falcon 4.0! There was no combat sim like that one.

[ConQueso]

Fair Strike was released not to long ago. There is a demo you can download on the page linked to.

[timtom1]

I have Longbow 2, I have played all the newer Apache flight sims and they don't even come close!!, I have now got window XP and am having a bit of trouble playing it, so when I get it sorted, does anyone want a multiplayer game? Plus how do you set multiplayer up?
e-mail me here if you want to play with Longbow 2 as the subject tim_farrington@hotmail.combold text

[timtom1]

Does anyone have the OpenGlide RC006 file?

[rnoe1971]

After playing around with this I have found an even better way to play Longbow 2. Instead of just using the 3dfx at 640x480 res, I have been able to get Longbow 2 in the 3dfx at 1280x960 using the instructions that I found here...

http://www.speichts.com/games/lb2.htm

THIS IS TOO SWEET!!!

[thinkr]

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LIVE MULTIPLAYER LB2 GROUP~!

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