Viability of old disks

[redboot]

I have several old HPS CDs of Panzer Campaign games from the HPS days.  They load but they don't seem to want to update to the latest versions, even through the HPS website.  Does anyone know if those old CDs are still viable?  Should I rebuy those titles to get the updated versions of the game? (Ugh!  I have 5 of them!)

[Ricky B]

The CDs won't update directly, they don't matter at all when it comes to downloading the updates. Are you actually trying to download the updates and they won't apply in your game, or something else? If you are installing the games okay, but the updates are failing, what is the error message? Or if no error message, is it simply that you can't see the updates get applied? If the latter, try installing to a different directory and make sure you apply the updates to the same directory.

Rick

[Mr Grumpy]

That was my first thought, that the update is not being applied to the same location that the game is located, are you seeing a warning message that you will be overwriting files when you unzip? Are you getting the message that the files were unzipped successfully?

[redboot]

When I try to unzip the file from the HPS website, I get the error message "Can't create output file C\Program Files\HPS Simulations\Korsun44\Korsun44.exe"

[Barbarrossa.]

That was my first thought, that the update is not being applied to the same location that the game is located, are you seeing a warning message that you will be overwriting files when you unzip? Are you getting the message that the files were unzipped successfully?

[Ricky B]

When I try to unzip the file from the HPS website, I get the error message "Can't create output file C\Program Files\HPS Simulations\Korsun44\Korsun44.exe"

So you have the game installed. What version of Windows are you running? And when you go to run the existing install, you should be able to right click on the Main Program link and see where the game is actually installed. How does that compare to the path in your message? I am guessing it is different, it has been a long time since the games installed to Program Files... But if you unzip to the actual folder, it should work.

Failing that, uninstall, reinstall and then run the update, being sure to update/unzip to the exact folder you installed to.

Rick

[Barbarrossa.]

When I try to unzip the file from the HPS website, I get the error message "Can't create output file C\Program Files\HPS Simulations\Korsun44\Korsun44.exe"

So you have the game installed. What version of Windows are you running? And when you go to run the existing install, you should be able to right click on the Main Program link and see where the game is actually installed. How does that compare to the path in your message? I am guessing it is different, it has been a long time since the games installed to Program Files... But if you unzip to the actual folder, it should work.

Failing that, uninstall, reinstall and then run the update, being sure to update/unzip to the exact folder you installed to.

Rick

I too have found the use of the original cd disks very difficult. I am on Widows 10.  There often seems incompatabilty between the various systems and or upgrades. If I really want to play an old HPS game I find it  necessary to pay the money to John Tiller Software and get a modern download and they work. Not a satisfactory answer but you only to look at the number of posts on the older games to note that they may be difficult to update and many have moved on to the more recent games, which is a pity.

[Gary McClellan]

You may want to get in touch with [email protected]

In any case, what you may be running into is this. When windows updated to Vista, they changed some rules on what can go where. Games released after that have a new installer which bypasses the problem, but if you have old disks, you'll need to install outside the program files directories. So, try installing the games from disk to a custom directory. (I use C:\HPS Simulations\Gamename)

[-72-]

The instructions as posted on the HPS site:  http://www.hpssims.com/vistahelp.htm   This was originally a Vista issue, but applies to other OS's.

[redboot]

You identified the issue and I thank you.  In order for the HPS updates to work in Windows 8 or 10 (or Vista or 7 I believe), it seems they have to be loaded into a non-Program Files folder.  I had to fiddle with the file configurations a bit, but I finally got the updates done for all my disk-based Tiller games.  The link to the HPS website was especially helpful because it also pointed out that an IDSX error I was getting could be ignored.  Thanks all.