Miscellaneous FAQs

by Narayan Sengupta

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This is a collection of FAQs that have been asked or answered in JP's Panzer's Forum or have been asked and answered off-line. These questions are related to various aspects to more than one of the games, as opposed specific games, some of which have their own FAQs now. I have used the original pen-names instead of getting real names since it was easier to do so. If you would like to have your real name used, then please let me know...

Windows XP

I found a way to play on windows xp and so far have not experienced any problems.
Download the game in DOS:(go to the DOS command prompt, type your CD drive, type setup.exe). It downloads in DOS. Go back into XP and use the compatibility wizard and change it to run under windows 95 with no visual themes. Play the game. Roy Chaney
Note that Panzer General II seems to run okay with Win 95 setting.

Windows XP Fix for Pacific General

You can use the compatability setting on "setup.exe". That's what I had to do to get PacGen to install on XP. - MJP

Windows 2000

Q: Some of my games are no longer working with Windows 2000 or Windows XP?

A: Re: PacGen installation on Win2K: Actually, I found a solution. Win2K has an update called Application Compatibility Update, and it can be used to run any progtam under Win9X compatible settings. Just install the package and reboot, then create a shortcut to SETUP.EXE, set the Compatibility tab to Windows 98 and presto - PacGen installs just like that. So far it's been working just fine. The URL to go to is:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/appcompat/default.asp

- TLASSILA

Great News!! You CAN install under Win2K. I stumbled on this trick:

You will need to visit the Microsoft site and download the compatability patches first. Then:

Create a shortcut to setup.exe

Set the properties of this shortcut to run using the Windows 95 compatability layer.

Execute the shortcut to setup.exe. After the game is installed:

Change the properties of the PG shortcut in the start menu to run using the windows 95 compatability layer.

Run the game

I have done this and it works perfectly! - JWF0603

PG2 Map Problems

Q: I can't view the mabs and if i try to hit strategic map i crash to desktop. Anyone know how to fix this? - Arondar
A: If you copied the MAP folder with all it's content to your PANZER2 folder, you should remove the "ReadOnly" marking on all the MAP*.SHP files here. - Programmer

Railway Guns

Q: How should Railway Guns be modeled?

A: 1. Movement should be 0 or very limited (like 1). These (really big) railway guns were typically set up once and then not moved for a while. Other railway guns were smaller and thus more tactical in useage, but I don't know how to model those. They should be classified as forts so that they can't be purchased by the player.

2. The attack values, based on gun bore alone should theoretically be huge. But remember that a unit would typically be perhaps one railway gun firing one huge shell about every hour or so (or something much slower than one every 30 seconds). Artillery units in these SSI games are battalions or brigades, consist of rapid fire heavy artillery able to lay down a lot of destructive power in very short periods of time, and are, in fact, the deadliest of all weapons in WWII - yup, more than planes, trains or automobiles, tanks, or infantry.

3. Railway guns were great at destroying forts and okay at firing into big cities, but they were lousy at taking out the enemy units that are typically represented in these games.

4. Of course, railways are not modeled in any of these games. I wish they were!

My conclusion, unfortunately, has been that there is very little need for railway guns. - Narayan