Runnable in Windows 2000?

It might, but it is not officially supported.

It won't even install on W2k. (Aborts with an error message)

I'd really appreciate (inofficial) suppport for W2k. W2k is still widespread - especially on mid- to low-end machines. And that is a huge part of the target group that "Sins of a Solar Empire" is aiming at.

Please do release a patch. Thanks!

whats the error msg? i dual boot win2k/xp maybe i could log into windows2k and try and launch the game to see what happens, dont have time right now though

Hmmm... Good to know that it won't install... I'll just save my money instead.

Cheers.

Underneath the hood, Windows 2000 and Windows XP are virtually identical. XP is merely a version of Windows 2000 that's been polished for consumer use and has a new interface. There are a few changes to the kernel and such for better performance but they are minor.

Microsoft however, as is fairly typical of them, has decided to artificially force people to upgrade by restricting the newest versions of their libraries (such as DirectX) to Windows XP or newer. The libraries themselves run fine under Windows 2000 however the installers are programmed to detect that you are running Windows 2000 and refuse to install.

And rest assured, Microsoft is already hard at work forcing XP users to upgade to Vista by buying out game studios and turning their games into Vista-exclusive titles.

Frankly, it's disgraceful on the part of Microsoft but it's not really Stardock or Ironclad's fault as they don't control what Microsoft does and it just so happens this game uses one or more Microsoft libraries that do not install on Windows 2000.

What a shame that this won't run on Windows 2000. It won't even install? Is this the same artificial restriction that Age of Empires III had, which you could get around? (And after you got around it, Age of Empires III worked like a charm in win2000. Thanks for trying to force people to change OS, Microsoft.)

Or if you got around it, will there be other technical difficulties. Like in Bioshock, where all you had to do was to put two files in the game directory to make the game work on win2000 (though you couldn't use a xbox-controller to play the game with that workaround).

It would be nice to hear something from the developers about this. Is there huge, insurmountable obstacles that stops this game from working on win2k (and please don't just say yes, do elaborate), or could you give us a quick'n'dirty and unofficial (and unsupported we-can't-bother-you-about-it-again) workaround?

The obstacle is Microsoft. As in their latest development libraries no longer support or are distributed for Windows 2000. So anyone that uses them creates a program that is incompatible by default with Windows 2000.

Looks like a deliberate check of the installer and not like an OS error message. Please try to run it on W2k when you have the time.

Can't you force installers to run in windows 2000 anyway, using run and a command line switch after the executable name? I remember System Shock 2 would not install in Windows 2000 unless you forced the installer to.

Sins of a Solar Empire runs fine on Win2K!
But you have to install the game once on a computer with XP first.
Then copy the whole directory to a USB-stick and copy additionaly the sig.bin from the C:\documents and settings\... directory.
Take the USB-stick to the win2k-computer and copy the Sins files.
Create a similar C:\documents and settings\... directory and copy the sig.bin.

To make the game runnung on win2k I copied some modded files to the Sins main directory.
I used files made for Crysis and Supreme Commander. I didn't test which were needed but I think you only need the modded input1_3.dll. I'll test that later and will post the result.

Sweet! Please post what files are needed when you've checked up on it, and if you can, where to download them! Great job, now we'll just have to figure out how to sidstep the installer and make it install on win2k too, so that those without a XP computer can enjoy the game out of the box.

It really leaves a bad taste that they wouldn't allow you to install on win2k though, when it is possible to make the game run on it. Bad game-developer, no twinkie!

Thanks, finalvinyl! I've just tried it an it seems to work great on my W2k system. Actually I had to replace/add two modified dlls: xinput1_3.dll and faultrep.dll. They are either from the Supreme Commander or the Bioshock W2k patch.

I've just uploaded them here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/90132280/SoSE_W2k.zip.html

DISCLAIMER: no warranty whatsoever!

@Stardock: Please do support W2k officially or at least remove the limitation in the installer.

Ah, thanks for those files, W2kW2k! (Nice nick. ) Now we just need Stardock to help us get around the (utterly unnecessary) limitation in the installer.

I have just got this game and because of the error I sent email asking for refund. If you could tell me how to install in win2k I am willing to risk any insatiability but I am not very technical. Please help I have got gal civ 2 and all expansions an they all work!

Just as a sub point - windows 2000 must be much much MUCH easer to support than say VISTA!

bump

All I could think of was repack the installer with an older SDK which still supports Win2K... or someone create a custom script for it...

I tried to run the msi with the /a parameter (Admin mode, should get around the check) but all it does is show a lot of disk activity and do very little. Ofcourse, feel free to prove me wrong there

We won't be removing the restriction from Stardock Central because Windows 2000 is not officially supported. The retail installer doesn't care (at least I don't think it does), but the SDC one does.

I tried the download and archive option in stardock central, thought maybe I could extract the archive manually. No go, the files are odd. So I tried editing the data.ini so that it didn't demand xp and repacked the .sdc archive. Sort of worked, it started installing the archive but got stuck around 38%. Maybe if I knew what .sdc files were compressed as instead of renaming to .zip and hoping it works.

On the other hand, the files from the retails are fine. Just copy them out of OFFLINE\CA21F9C0 and use sin.xml as a guide for renaming the folders. Move whats left into 'Base', put the modified xinput1_3.dll and faultrep.dll there too, and your good to go. Or at least I am. Of course, since it wasn't a proper install the update doesn't work since there are no registry entries.

Bottom line: the game works fine but you have to do the install yourself using a retail cd and updates are unlikely to work.

Well, if I won't be able to update the game, there isn't much reason to get it (there seems to be quite a few pesky bugs when you browse through the Technical forum). Bought Galactic Civilizations II and its expansion packs instead.

Shame Stardock is allergic to money. (More OS' supported == larger userbase == more money. Though I have to be honest, I'm sure there are only a few million Windows 2000 gamers out there these days. )

Updates seem to work on W2k! You just have to add this key to the registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Stardock\Drengin.net\sins]
"Path"="[DRIVE LETTER]:\\[INSTALLATION DIRECTORY]"

I'm also kind of disappointed about Stardock ignoring W2k-users for no reason.

Danny Basette - Could you post how your folder structure looks? I had intended to write an 'easy to understand' way to get Sins to work on 2000, but I'm having trouble finding out where goes what. So if you could post how your folder structure looks, that'd be great!

Also, where can one find the modified xinput and the faultrep dlls?

Edit: Just thought of this, once this works properly, could someone make a script out of it that would automate this process? I'll host it...

"I'm also kind of disappointed about Stardock ignoring W2k-users for no reason."

You probably didn't read the above posts It is out of Stardocks control because it is microsoft who usually makes things incompatible with their "Libarys" and what not. Blame microsoft not Stardock and Ironclad

P.S I gotta say SD and IC this game will stand the test of time! I even checked Gamespot a few days ago and you guys were ranked 8th OVERALL and 2nd on the PC platform so I gotta say Atta Boys!!!

Sorry, if I was unclear about all that: English is not my native language. I've read the respective posts and completely understand the situation regarding Micro$oft.

What I meant to say was only: IMO Stardock should replace the W2k-restriction in the retail-version's installer with a "continue at your own risk/no official support"-warning. I'm pretty sure that it could be done easily by releasing an updated installer.

It would be a big help for W2k users if we just had to add the two .dlls instead of having to install the game on an XP machine, then burn the files and finally having to add stuff to the registry, etc...

I'm pretty positive that SoSE will stand "the test of time"! But the OS-check MIGHT also be a problem in the future: There are several games still worth playing from the late 90s which are unnecessarily difficult or impossible to install under W2k/XP only because their installer (and NOT the game) runs exclusively under W9x. It would be a shame if Sins of a Solar Empire would be unplayable in ten years.

I condensed all the information from this thread in an easy to read how-to and posted it here.