"You can survive this. Talk to others that have"

DragnHeart posted 2/23/2019 20:06 PM

Running Windows Ten.

Want to play Red Alert.

Game installs but wouldn't play. Comes up with an error message saying we have to uninstall the "debugger".

Does anyone have any ideas what this is and how to do this?

Thanks

P.S. Oh the days of windows '98 and being able to play Quake lol

UglyBetty posted 2/23/2019 21:51 PM

Hi DragnHeart!

Can you post an image of the message? What have you tried so far in terms of fixing the problem? There are some suggestions in the question I've linked below for fixing; preliminary things to try. If none of those work, the following posts have a suggestion. It's a custom launcher but seems to have solved some people's problems:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/C-C-The-Ultimate-Collection/HELP-RA2-amp-YR-won-t-launch-on-Windows-10-fix/td-p/5764846

Good luck!

[This message edited by UglyBetty at 9:51 PM, February 23rd (Saturday)]

DragnHeart posted 2/23/2019 22:55 PM

I briefly looked at the URL, thank you. Getting a patch isn't possible. This computer isn't online. We have no home internet, just our cell phones.

The game just won't load onto the computer. Put in disks and it says to uninstall the debugger first.

What debugger? Is that apart of windows ten or apart of the game?

It's dumb that a newer graphics card would stop an older game from even being able to load onto the computer.

The old laptop is running Windows XP. We can get the game to load onto it BUT when it starts to play the screen goes black. We can hear the game but not see it. At least it loads onto it unlike the computer.

LilBlackCat posted 2/25/2019 11:35 AM

Getting a patch isn't possible

Any chance you can get a thumbdrive and put the file on there then copy it to the non-internet computer?

Or do phone internet tethering to get that computer online? The only downside would be that if the patch file is large, it will take a long time to possibly download.

DragnHeart posted 2/25/2019 11:41 AM

We could tether to the phone however if the windows itself needs an update it will use up all of our data.

From all we have read even some of the patches don't necessarily work. Many have had to go in to DOS and change stuff from there. The five steps Microsoft gave to help didn't work for us so...If I could find another computer and then get windows 98 again I would.

Frankly every Windows after 98 sucked! But that's just my opinion lol. One guys said in order to get the game to work trash the windows and go for a Mac lmao

Cephastion posted 2/26/2019 10:44 AM

I am far from fluent by any means but some of the older games had two versions or formats you could select from to get them to run.

Oftentimes they would have either a DOS (Like MS-DOS 10.0, I think) or a Windows based option.

There were of course numerous versions of DOS, but within most older Windows programs there is a DOS "command" shell that is selectable.

I'm not sure if your Red Alert game is the same as the one I'm thinking of, but maybe you can either opt to run it in DOS mode using a Windows DOS shell, or else opt out of running Windows when you start up your dinosaur at the startup boot up menu. Sometimes the BIOS at the startup will allow you to bypass Windows and run DOS instead as the operating system until you decide to opt otherwise or reboot. I don't know if you would have to hit escape or f10 or F1 since it's been so very long since I've pulled that stunt, but I do remember using a DOS shell within Windows or running the computer directly through DOS instead of Windows ticket certain older programs and games to function smoothly when Windows wouldn't allow for such to happen otherwise.

You shouldn't have to go online for what I'm referring to either. Alternatively besides running DOS or a DOS command shell, it may be that running aLinux OS of some kind could also do the trick without having to invest in Apple or Mac.

Ubuntu and numerous other brandings/versions of Linux Operating systems is out there and available as freeware unless something has changed that I don't know about.

I'm also fairly way over my head in what I'm sharing and recommending to you in a way here so hopefully other more qualified people can correct or add to my very antiquated advisings here

DragnHeart posted 2/26/2019 12:58 PM

WH says we'll just have to bite the bullet and take it in to see if the professionals can install it because neither of us is comfortable playing in DOS. My ex fiance and bF were both computer geeks lol. They would mess with my mom's computer and change the Start button to say something else lol.

I alas dont have that knowledge. The Red Alert is number two and a part of the Command and Conquer series. We can play the Warcraft games and IF WH tethers the computer he can get StarCraft to work (that game needs an internet connection to load....stupid!!!).

Oh the days of playing Quake and Decent ...I miss those days. And I only like the first release of Warcraft. Especially the map editor. I once made a map with all sheep lol

LilBlackCat posted 3/1/2019 11:36 AM

oh yeah, I used to play Quake, Decent, Warcraft II on PC back in the day.

Edit:: Duke Nukem was fun too..

[This message edited by LilBlackCat at 11:37 AM, March 1st (Friday)]

DragnHeart posted 3/1/2019 18:55 PM

Wasn't Quake the best? Back in the day my fiance (not my current WH) and my best friend (male) would all network our computers together and play Quake Arena. Oh man it was the best. I'd stay hidden by a port and wait for one of them to die then shoot them when they came back. It was so funny. More times than not I won the games. I miss those days...