raf Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 I'd love to get this old-timer working on my Win 7 x64 system, bit I'm running into problems. Version of the Steel Beasts game appears to be V1.15. The intro/splash screen plays through, but then the computer comes up with the message "d3drm.dll is missing". A further message is that "No Solutions Found for Exclusive Mode Video Playback Sample Application" I have done some searching and found what is purported to be a d3drm zip file, which, when unzipped gives a d3drm.dll file and a text which is of no use to me. So, the question is where do I go from this point? I realize the folks running this site are running a business which sells vastly updated versions of this game. It would be a kindness to help me out, though, and I would be much obliged if they would see fit to help, if possible. In any event, thanks for reading. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibsonm Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Might be more suited to the Support forum - but good luck anyway. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raf Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 Mods, please move if you think it best; I don't want to create an identical post and clutter the site, so your call. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ssnake Posted January 1, 2019 Members Share Posted January 1, 2019 Officially we no longer offer support for Steel Beasts 1.x The reason for this is that it is, actually, very difficult to get it to work unless you still have a Windows 95/98 computer (and if you do you should definitely not connect it to the internet). Anyway, the specific reasons are SB 1.x is a DirectX 7.0A application, so you first need to get DirectX 7 to install under Windows 10. I wouldn't rule out that it may be possible to do so, but I don't know how to do it, so I can't provide support for this step. SB 1.x is an SVGA 8 bit color mode (=256 colors) application. Graphics drivers stopped supporting such modes about ten years ago; I wouldn't rule out that there are ways to get it to work, but I don't know how to do it, so ... (see above) For some versions of SB Pro 1.x, the publisher added a stupid launcher program that created additional trouble. I seem to remember that the way to get around that was to create a direct shortcut to the program executable, but I'm no longer entirely sure about that, so... Unknown unknowns. I never got this far, so I can't say what else may be necessary to get it to work. Even with virtual machines as a workaround for step 1, step 2 is usually the killing blow. It's just not worth it. You can spend days tinkering with this to eventually get it to work, and if you have a Zen attitute towards computer game tinkering, you're free to ignore my advice. If on the other hand you are working under limited time constraints, why would you waste dozens of hours to get a version to work that is visually, technologically, and functionally inferior to pretty much every other version of SB Pro PE that was released ever since. It's not as if we tried to make the original Steel Beasts worse; rather, we improved on it, so it's a mystery to me why anyone would still be interested in those old versions (unless you are a computer game historian, if there is something like that). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raf Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 OK, thanks for the info. It's expected that getting this thing to run would be a chore. That said, I have quite a number of old games that use this game's operating system, so maybe I had better look into a Virtual Machine to really solve my problems once and for all--Ihope. Thanks for taking the time to give your good advice. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ssnake Posted January 1, 2019 Members Share Posted January 1, 2019 Getting the proper drivers will be the biggest problem I think, simply because you also need a suitable graphics card, and modern Windows versions may no longer work with vintage graphics adapters. I won't rule out that a solution exists; I just rule out our obligation to find it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotareneg Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 The original Steel Beasts runs reasonably well on WinXP inside VirtualBox. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raf Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 8 hours ago, Rotareneg said: The original Steel Beasts runs reasonably well on WinXP inside VirtualBox. I believe Win7 x64 has the ability to run, in VM mode, an already included version of Win XP. Apparently the framework is there, one must install a few free bits and pieces, and configure the whole shebang. IIRC, the process is different, but more expansive for Win 10 machines, as the list of possible Virtual OpSys is much larger. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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