Is the original Star Trek Armada compatible at all with Windows Vista?

Shaggy Alonso

Shaggy Alonso

Shaggy Alonso

Associate
Joined
10 Dec 2009
Posts
10
The problem

The game starts up as normal and in the graphics settings the game also recognises my graphics card, despite coming out around 6-7 years after the game. I can progress through the menus as normal, and everything looks fine, then when I load up the first mission, even in the loading page the problems start. The screen flickers and the picture starts to go pear-shaped. Then once the game loads, many of the graphics are missing and the game runs at a painfully slow rate, and the audio sometimes skips.

What I already know

From what I can gather, it isn't compatible with Vista but that it is with those who can boot up their systems with windows 98, which I don't think I have anywhere.

I have tried all the suggestions that I have come accross to try and fix it:


  • I have run it in compatibility mode with all of the older Windows systems, but none of them make any difference


  • I have changed my graphics card to 16 bit, no improvement


  • I have tried every different screen resolution, and toggled with the graphics detail, again no improvement

My system

Windows Vista Home Premium
Intel Core 2 CPU 6420 @2.13 GHz
3.00 GB ram (It should actually be more than 4gb but apparently my version of Vista doesn't recognise anything above 3gb)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

I have the game patched to its most recent version, 1.2.

Now I am aware that this game is almost a decade old and it might be wishful thinking of me to try and get it working on a much more modern system. But I hoped with the different compatibility modes that it might have worked, but they seem to make no difference at all.

So does anyone in the know, know if this game can be run properly without having to resort to a windows 98 start up? And if this is the only way it can be done, is it easy to install windows 98 so that you can start it up in either mode?

Please bear in mind that obviously I'm not the most computer savvy person around.

Thanks
 
Yo, had the exact same problem as you.

STA is awesome, but I just couldn't get it to work on Vista. Luckily I have XP on my slightly less powerful PC in my room so just use that.

Think its just one of those things.

I'll fire it up and double check I didn't find a vista fix.
 
Right just had a look, I did infact manage to get it to work on Vista.

Latest patch,
640 x 480 x 16 (looks horrible, but runs at least).
Try opening it from vista's games folder, rather than the CD loading screen or from the desktop shortcut- have a feeling this may have helped.

I didnt run it in a compatibility mode.

Let me know if any of that helps at all.
 
sammo62 said:
Right just had a look, I did infact manage to get it to work on Vista.

Latest patch,
640 x 480 x 16 (looks horrible, but runs at least).
Try opening it from vista's games folder, rather than the CD loading screen or from the desktop shortcut- have a feeling this may have helped.

I didnt run it in a compatibility mode.

Let me know if any of that helps at all.
Click to expand...

Nope, I'm afraid the exact same problem happened even after doing this exactly as you did :(

I''m pretty resigned to this not working for me, so i'm looking now at maybe installing windows 98 on the machine and being able to do a double boot. Do you know if this is easily accomplished?
 
Found this , dunno if it helps ?

Received the follow messages:
1) Playing version 1.0 on Windows 2000, it works great. Speed is
wonderful and it hasn't crashed once.
2) Works fine.
3) it doesn't work at all on my system. Dual Celeron 450, 256MB PC100
Ram, TNT Viper550, Voodoo 2 12MB SLI
4) Runs ok, but sound and music stutter like crazy. PIII 700, Sound
Blaster Live with Liveware 3.0 and GeForce DDR
5) Runs in Win 2K on Geforce only at 640x480x16, crashes in any other
resolution.
6) you'll need to get the nvidia 5.13 drivers for correct DX-7 D3D
support for your nvidia card in order to play this correctly, otherwise
you're stuck at the 16 colors
7) Crashes in Win98, works at any resolution/color in Win2K
[P3-504, 256RAM, GeForceDDR, 5.13 detonators] Do not push "ESC"!
Awesome game.
8) It works fine on an ATI Rage 128 (with the latest Win2K drivers from www.ati.com).
9) Runs using Win2k w/ Voodoo 3 2000 PCI :)
 
duc999 said:
Found this , dunno if it helps ?

Received the follow messages:
1) Playing version 1.0 on Windows 2000, it works great. Speed is
wonderful and it hasn't crashed once.
2) Works fine.
3) it doesn't work at all on my system. Dual Celeron 450, 256MB PC100
Ram, TNT Viper550, Voodoo 2 12MB SLI
4) Runs ok, but sound and music stutter like crazy. PIII 700, Sound
Blaster Live with Liveware 3.0 and GeForce DDR
5) Runs in Win 2K on Geforce only at 640x480x16, crashes in any other
resolution.
6) you'll need to get the nvidia 5.13 drivers for correct DX-7 D3D
support for your nvidia card in order to play this correctly, otherwise
you're stuck at the 16 colors
7) Crashes in Win98, works at any resolution/color in Win2K
[P3-504, 256RAM, GeForceDDR, 5.13 detonators] Do not push "ESC"!
Awesome game.
8) It works fine on an ATI Rage 128 (with the latest Win2K drivers from www.ati.com).
9) Runs using Win2k w/ Voodoo 3 2000 PCI :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, but unfortunately I still haven't been able to get it to work. I downloaded the demo of Star Trek Armada II and it worked absolutely perfectly - how annoying! So logically I should buy STA 2 and forget about the first one, but STA 2 costs an eye popping 100 quid for a new copy, apparently because of its rarity. Second hand copies are going for about half that, what a joke...
 
I wouldn't pay anything for it now anyway. I gave it a go again last year and the game has aged badly. No where near as cool as I remember it.
 
Hmmm I couldn't get it to run on my computer on Windows XP with 8800GT but it works fine on the laptop with Windows XP with onboard graphics... maybe the graphics card is too new? (I may be completely wrong)
 
I cant verify vista, but the game works fine in Win7-64 using xp compatability mode. Game version 1.2

The movies in this game .....Should have been made into a proper movie ! Great story makes this a good play no matter how old it gets. Armada 2 is a borring as hell game.
 
Last edited:
MadMatty said:
I cant verify vista, but the game works fine in Win7-64 using xp compatability mode. Game version 1.2

The movies in this game .....Should have been made into a proper movie ! Great story makes this a good play no matter how old it gets. Armada 2 is a borring as hell game.
Click to expand...

Well, I suppose that's a small crumb of comfort in that it will hopefully work when we eventually get a new PC, probably wont be for at least 2 years mind. I don't know why but I have a real craving to play this game. I loved the story and Armada II does seem rather boring in comparison.
 
Hmm, i've read that the main problem is that Star Trek Armada does not agree with DirectX 9 and above. I tried it with DX8 and it loaded up quicker and the graphics were actually different this time, albeit just as hopeless - but it did seem to change slightly for the first time.

This was the post that I read:

"Armada is one of my favorite games so I've tried to get it to run on my machines.

First, if you're running Windows 98/Me, the game works great.

Under XP, it works fine with garbled voice sounds.

Here's the problem - ARMADA doesn't like DirectX 9

I've tested the game under XP with and without DX9 and it freezes with bad pixels under DX9.

My suggestion is to uninstall DX9 or buy a video card that supports DX 8 and under.

Recommendations - Radeon 9000 or Geforce 2 Series cards."


After my DX8 experiment failed, I tried to install DX7 on my machine but it will not allow me as it says my version of Windows (Vista) is incompatible with DX7 :(

Is there any way round this, or can I just uninstall Direct X as is mentioned in the above quote? Please help!
 
Last edited:
My advice would be to setup your PC as dual boot for WinXP and Vista (example: before your PC boots it will ask you if you want to boot Vista or XP). It will require some IT know-how to setup and I would recommend you ask someone you know in your local area to either do it for you, or to help you out. (You will have deal with drivers for your hardware, saving all your files (e-mails, bookmarks, photos, videos, saved games etc), partitioning your hard drive, etc). It can be a lot of work; however it would solve your problem.

There are plenty of guides on the net to get you started, should you decide to go down this route on your own.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom