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child of Thor
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quote:
Originally posted by duke o' york
Out of interest, how large is the download file?
I've only got dial-up I'm afraid, and at the moment I'm sitting waiting for a 30MB file to DL. It'll end up being nearly 2 hours.   |
well the one you want is 2.34Mb - its the complete patched(v1.06) version(and the one i'm using). From that first link in my first post, you can also get the Floppy disk version which is around 440K approx[EDIT: NO this is for the disk version of Frontier(elite2)].
Still 2.34mb should be ok even on dial-up?
@Gamecube64,
ok i take it your going with the DOS version then(the full shareware version).
Ok do this:
1: restart in DOS mode only
2: goto the directory 'C\Program files\firstenc'
3: then type 'firstenc.bat'
(ignore the quote marks-i'm just putting them in to show that its the bit between you need to type).
you should see the opening shareware agreement title screen, from here it asks you to type Y or N to continue to the game.
At this point if you type Y you should see the opening title animation. If so then everything is working.
A few more things are worth doing to make things better.
1. You may not have any sounds/music
A: before typeing 'firstenc.bat', first type 'setsound(either .bat or .exe)', this should bring up a dodgy old DOS looking soundcard testing screen.
The trick here is to try all the options if your not sure what soundcard you've got, untill you prefrably get both digital and midi sounds working.
For example on my machine i've got a Creative AWE32 soundcard.
In the digital mode the program recognises it and i get sound when i run the test.
In Midi mode it doesnt like the port setting, so i started chooseing other card options for Midi, in the end the best sound i could get was by selecting the Soundblaster Pro for Midi. Not exactly correct, but it works.
So you may have to play around with these settings untill your happy.
2. You will need a dos mouse driver, which you would load before running 'firstenc.bat'.
I use a small one called Mouse5.exe. You need to install the mouse driver for sure before running the game, as once your in the game you cant exit without a mouse - i got caught out by this and had to do a hard reboot to exit the game!
There are a few other things that are good to run in the DOS version(a program called 'forcecol.exe' for example that makes space black, rather than the default blue!) .
What i'll do is bring in and attach the files i use tomorrow. I'll also add a step by step guide to getting the game running in DOS mode 
I prefer to run in the DOS version - the graphics just move much more smoothly, although there is one big drawback - you have no 'Roll' (left/right) keyboard command! which makes manual landing pretty tricky!
hopefully i can find a file to fix this and add it to the others.
Last edited by child of Thor on 01-02-2005 at 17:24
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child of Thor
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as Dr.spike said - you need to use the 'cd' command to tell it to change to the correct directory.
RUNNING DOS(SHAREWARE) VERSION OF FFE:
(or the way i get it working  )
1. download the shareware(v1.06) game from http://www.eliteclub.co.uk/download/
2. It will install by default into 'C:\Program files\firstenc', but you can put it where you want - just change the relevent info in the instructions below to make it apply to your installation on FFE.
3. next make sure you have a DOS mouse driver in the same directory(you can use the one below in the ffefiles.zip file, its called Mouse5.exe) before running the game in DOS mode.
I've also included a file called forcecol.exe - this will turn space black, you will also need to put this in the 'C:\Program files\firstenc' directory.
Both these files just need to be unzipped/extracted into your firstenc directory, its easy in windows.
4. Now restart in MS-DOS mode.
5. At the prompt type 'cd..' this will clear you into the plain 'C:\>' prompt.
next type 'cd progra~1' this will give you the prompt:
'C:\Program Files>'
[NOTE: type 'dir' to see what your Program Files folder has beed shortend to. In mine its always 'PROGRA~1', use whatever its called in your dir listing.]
next type 'cd firstenc' this will give you the prompt:
'C:\Program Files\Firstenc>'
[NOTE: this is longwinded, but you will not get any 'invalid directory' comments]
6. now type 'mouse5.exe' - this will run the dos mouse driver
7. now type 'forcecol.exe' - this will run the program to turn blue space into black.(This is an opptional step, if you prefer blue dont bother with it)
8. now type 'setsound' - this will run the DOS soundcard setup program. First run Auto-detect, if you still get no sound after this(or your pc hangs up!) then you will have to just go through each soundcard in the list and try the various settings.
9. now type 'firstenc.bat' - this will run Frontier First Encounters. First you will see the shareware agreement title screen. If you agree with it type 'Y' to run the game.
At this point you will see the opening animation - and hear some music. hit the space bar/Return key/left mouse button to start the game.
If all this seems like too much hard work - then have a look back earlier in the thread to where the JJFFE program was discused - its a windows friendly version, no messing around in DOS required
Although you will still need the shareware version to get all the sound and music.
 Attachment: ffefiles.zip
This has been downloaded 5 time(s).
Last edited by child of Thor on 02-02-2005 at 16:37
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child of Thor
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mine is my main games playing pc 
The combat computer is a pain i find - maybe i'm just not used to it, but it kind of clutters the display.
To help see things more clearly i play with the 'space dust etc' turned to off. And when you get the pirates jumping you, as snotty said; click the button that turns planet/spaceship names on to help you see where they are.
Sometimes if they are far away you will have to wait a few minutes before they attack you.
For some reason things have got pretty peacefull in my current game. I hardly ever get attacked by pirates now, unless i go into an anarchic system??
I havent been able to find any files that will include the roll command in the DOS shareware version, but i have got a sort of work-around.
What i do is whenever i've started the docking procedure(either with a space station or on a planet), i go into the menu screen and select the 'Elite controls' option.
I dont like dog-fighting in this mode(didnt in Frontier either - the mouse is more useful), but you can use the '<' and '>' keys to roll left and right, which is very usefull when going for a manual flight normal speed landing.
Last edited by child of Thor on 05-02-2005 at 01:12
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Gamecube64
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of Persia
Apr 2004
time: 23:21
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I bought myself a Cobra MKIII, It seems good value with all the extra space. I bought an Adder (I think) before this to discover since it required a class 2 hyperspace drive it only had enough room for one extra item in it's hull. I didn't like that a bit, but now with my Cobra I'm raking in money more than 4 times as fast. After I get some more money I'll probably switch over to an Asp or keep the Cobra. How good is a Cobra MKIII for combat? What do crew do for you, on bigger ships do you need all of them?
Last edited by Gamecube64 on 12-02-2005 at 05:20
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child of Thor
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On the first page of this thread i think it was Reds4ever posted a link to JJFFE.
Its a windows friendly version of FFE.
After failing to find a way to introduce the roll commands in the DOS version of the game i've reverted back to playing the JJFFE version, even though on my P166 the game doesn't run as smoothly as the Shareware DOS version(its just slightly less smooth so not a big problem).
I've been playing with that ship i created(the Galactica Falcon). For those that are finding the combat too frustrating(or too frequent), i'd give that ship a try.
The reason you will get engaged less often is because of the speed of your hyperdrive. You always arrive at a system days before the fastest regular ship can catch you on an intercept!
Now this was not a planned thing - just what happens when you have a class4 military drive fitted.
The way to ensure you get the frequency of combat encounters back is to just stop when you arrive into a new system. Engines completely off(so you dont burn fuel) then increase time flow to let a couple of days skip by, or untill you get the alarm sounds
This way you can kind of choose when you want to engage in combat or not, and still increase you combat rateing(important for some of the latter main quest missions).
I've since made a slightly slower version of the Galactica Falcon which i'm using now, it handles a bit less wild in combat - i've updated the download file to this version(its got forward thrust of 25 and retro of 11, as opposed to the origonal 30g's and 15g's)
Last edited by child of Thor on 19-02-2005 at 18:06
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child of Thor
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I've added the link to the JJFFE(windows version of FFE) in the first post(the other link that red posted appears to be down).
And i'm now contemplating a completely new option with Elite for me. I'm going to go exploring - like deep space exploring. What ship type + setup would people reccomend? Has anyone here done this before?
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Snotty
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I think I tried it with an imp explorer last time this thread came up. First off I got mobbed by pirates for sector after sector, but then just empty space, and crashing into stars when i tried to scoop gas.
Good luck dude
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30-01-2005 16:26
i think there was a problem with it, maybe you cant move your ship or something when using it? I dont know
all you guys with your fancy pc's 
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