Topic: PolyTron issues for Win7 64-bits systems

[Sapphirus]

Once I open Polytron as administrator, after the splash screen, it cuts to the main Polytron interface, and suddenly, the cursor flashes from loading to normal to loading and so on like crazy until a few seconds... Polytron crashes.
Does anyone have this issue?

Am I forgeting something?

EDIT: 100th post Milestone!

[SaladBadger]

This is common and I have found no solution for it so far. The Descent Manager stuff is honestly terrible from a techinical perspective.

[Kaiaatzl]

I can't even get it to install.

[SaladBadger]

You need to install one of the Microsoft visual basic runtimes first (I can't remember if it was 6 or 5). They have this nice "DLLPAK" available at the descent manager website (http://www.descent-network.com/cgi-bin/descman.cgi?module=polytron), but I've had no luck getting that running under Vista/7. Also, appearantly since they don't believe in the proper function for loading fonts, you need to copy your "TAHOMA.TTF" file from your Fonts directory to your System32 directory. (seriously?) With some luck it'll install and I think HAXMEDIT will run at least making this endavour slightly useful. Of course, I totally plan to overhaul HAXMEDIT with HamEdit, but that hasn't happened yet.

(I have gotten the RCK to work under Vista, but only after installing some other VB program. Just follow the tahoma advice (because they don't believe in future proofing) and see if it'll run)

(also, sorry for the mini-rant but I am really sick of the way the Descent Manager tools were developed)

[TechPro]

Everybody needs to keep in mind when these tools were created.

Descent 1 came out in 1995, I believe before Windows 95 was released ... and these tools were NOT made with Windows 95 in mind, not even close.  That fact we've been able to use them for so long despite newer and newer operating systems ... is practically a miracle by itself.

You might just get the free VMware player and make your own VM installs of something like XP ... and run those tools inside that.  Otherwise ... you may not be able to run them under the modern systems.

[SaladBadger]

I've had issues getting HAXMEDIT running on XP. Your best bet is to break out your old 95/98 discs.

Also, all of RCK (and some later Descent Manager tools) were designed with Windows in mind, but rather the simpler Windows 95-ME rather than NT/XP/Vista/7. In particular Vista/7's security features mess with the Descent Manager tools a lot, as it seems to be trying to write and read to secure folders (but shouldn't Windows Vista/7 redirect that to a virtual folder?).

[Thomas]

(also, sorry for the mini-rant but I am really sick of the way the Descent Manager tools were developed)

No worries, I'm on your side.

VB is a toy for kiddies and not meant for professional software. It hasn't got much to do with the time it was "developed". That's in double quotation marks because it usually means "clicked together with the mouse and a minimum of actual knowledge of what you're doing".

[Kaiaatzl]

I (sort of) learned Visual Basic over the summer of 2004... It was in a summer program at the University of Manitoba called "mini-university".  I had just finished Grade 8.

In Grade 11 I tried to take Computer Science and discovered that I hadn't learned anything of use in 2004...

[Matthew]

I (sort of) learned Visual Basic over the summer of 2004... It was in a summer program at the University of Manitoba called "mini-university".  I had just finished Grade 8.

In Grade 11 I tried to take Computer Science and discovered that I hadn't learned anything of use in 2004...

Lucky mofo. The ONLY programming course my school offers is a computer programming course that encompasses basic HTML and Visual Basic. Is teh fail.

[Sapphirus]

I did manage to find my dad's old Windows XP disc and I installed it within Virtual Box, and that seems to be the only solution to make most DMTools work such as Polytron.  Other than that, I managed to put in DevilXP (the modified version from Pumo) within WinXP via VirtualBox