Can't play Red Alert 2 on WinXP SP3

[tk149]

Command and Conquer Red Strike (RA2 + Yuri's Revenge packaged together) - retail copy
I installed both games alright, and I can play Yuri's Revenge fine.

If I try to start RA2 (not Yuri's), I just get the splash screen, the CDROM drive and hard drive spin a bit, and then the whole pc freezes. I can CNTRL-ALT-DEL out and stop the RA2.EXE process, but I can't get the thing to play.

Based on Google searches of people with the same problem, I've tried:

"normal"mode
all the compatibility modes (95, 98, NT, 2000)
run in 256 colors
run in 640x480
disable visual themes
turn off advanced text services for this program

Allowing "Everyone" Full Access in the security tab

My best guess is that it's hanging on the CD check (Safedisc maybe?), since running in "NT" compatibility mode gives a "cannot locate the CD-ROM" error (even though the retail disc is in the drive). All the other compatibility modes just freeze the PC.

I've played this game before on this exact same PC. I can't remember what I did before to get it to run though.

Need my Kari Wuhrer fix!

Help?

EDIT 4/27/09
I scoured the web for answers, but I didn't find any solution that worked for me.

I finally ended up checking my own hard drive for any RA2 patches. I found a cracked EXE file. So I wondered, why do I have a crack for a game I already own? I installed the crack, and the game worked fine.

My guess is that Safedisc (or whatever copy-protection) is not XP-friendly, and, of course, they don't offer an upgrade patch for WinXP. Fvck DRM.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: tk149


Need my Kari Wuhrer fix!

Help?

Youtube?

 

[Barfo]

I remember trying to install it in Vista 64 a while ago...no go, not even in a Win 98 VM

 

[shortylickens]

Theres a dude on here that got a whole buttload of games working in Vista. This includes the old C&C's.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Theres a dude on here that got a whole buttload of games working in Vista. This includes the old C&C's.

Any idea who?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Theres a dude on here that got a whole buttload of games working in Vista. This includes the old C&C's.

Any idea who?

AdamK47

Here

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Theres a dude on here that got a whole buttload of games working in Vista. This includes the old C&C's.

Any idea who?

AdamK47

Here

Thank you!

 

[AdamK47]

I honestly don't remember having any problems with the game. It loaded and played fine from what little I can remember.

 

[Maximilian]

Ive got the first decade pack and it worked fine until i tried it on vista. There were some difficult to solve problems, i had to edit a rules.ini file or something and mess with some graphics setting, cant remember exactly what i did but it all came from nyerguds page. Thats all for the first decade pack but some of it might be relevant to the individual game.

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: AdamK47
I honestly don't remember having any problems with the game. It loaded and played fine from what little I can remember.

I can't even get it to install under Vista 64, it just stalls when they're cracking the code and then nothing.

 

[AdamK47]

Loaded the game up a few minutes ago. It loaded and played fine. This is version 1.006. This is with the First Decade DVD for the game.

 

[flyboy84]

It worked for me in Vista 64 but you have to run administrator mode and some other crap

 

[tk149]

Nuts, I still haven't found a solution. I don't know if they changed something with the re-release on the First Decade DVD.

 

[Barfo]

That must be it, I have the original CDs and can't install from them.

 

[AdamK47]

Originally posted by: barfo
That must be it, I have the original CDs and can't install from them.

You can try installing it on another PC and then copy the game directory and registry entries over to the other PC (make sure directory structure is the same). That's what I do when I have a problem with an installer in Vista x64. 95% of the time it will install fine in XP so that I can copy everything over to Vista. VMWare works great for this.

 

[Barfo]

Thanks for the tip, how do you copy the registry entries?

 

[tk149]

I scoured the web for answers, but I didn't find any solution that worked for me.

I finally ended up checking my own hard drive for any RA2 patches. I found a cracked EXE file. So I wondered, why do I have a crack for a game I already own? I installed the crack, and the game worked fine.

My guess is that Safedisc (or whatever copy-protection) is not XP-friendly, and, of course, they don't offer an upgrade patch for WinXP. Fvck DRM.