What's up with Spartacus?

klesh · January 10, 2001, 17:32

Hi all,

Awhile ago I downloaded Alex the Magnificent and Captain Nemo's Spartacus scenario. The write up on it sound really good, and I've heard that it is a revolutionary scenario. But the .zip download contains bogus units.gif, and terrain.gifs. They show up as a red x when I try to open them, and the scenario obviously doesn't work because of it.
I also know that Alex has left the Civ community, though I don't know why. He isn't going to finish the Russion Revolution that I've been drooling at, and it seems that he has a sort of animosity going on.

Could he have removed his artwork from the download? could anyone with the files email them to me? I really would like to know what is going on.

Shaka Naldur · January 10, 2001, 17:36

it appears a red x but the scenario is still playable, it has to be something else
it´s works fine with me
do you have multiplayer gold edition or FW?

klesh · January 10, 2001, 17:37

I have MGE

Shaka Naldur · January 10, 2001, 17:39

sorry, I don´t know what can it be?

klesh · January 10, 2001, 17:50

Okay okay, I refreshed my memory a little bit. There is a problem with some of the .zip files. They download fine from the site, but as I try to extract them or copy the files into the scenario folder I get error messages. The problems are with the scn2.zip and sound1.zip. Sorry for the above confusion, I haven't tried to solve this problem in awhile.

Captain Nemo · January 12, 2001, 01:03

Alex protects his artwork against being edited with a special encryption program that makes the files unreadable though still accessible by Civ2. I had problems with loading the files sometimes, so I advised him that it wasn't the best idea but I think Spartacus and Quebec are still encrypted.

Alex has no animosity against the Civ2 community and he is a great guy... He has just been much too busy to even keep up with what's happening in the Civ2 world.

The Russian Civil War certainly had great potential and he made truly functional railroads with transport and armored trains for it (I made the graphics) so I am very sorry the project is shelved along with the "Birth of Russian" scenario, the "Great Armada" and the "Young America" projects.

Gothmog · January 12, 2001, 11:32

You can make Alex's GIF files readable if you hex edit them. The first six bytes of a GIF should be "GIF87a". (This is probably case sensitive.) To encrypt them Alex evidently blanked out the "87a" part. Once you repair the file, it is readable again.

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"There is no tiddle-taddle nor pibble-pabble in Pompey's camp."

Mao · January 13, 2001, 00:18

Quebec Scenario? Why wasn't I made aware of a scenario I didn't play???

Stefan Härtel · January 13, 2001, 01:16

Well, you can try downloading it from the CSC too. The gif files can be read with the units editor that comes with FW.
On the other hand, there are some scenarios that won't work with MGE.

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Shaka Naldur · January 13, 2001, 01:55

captain,

do you know anything about the great armada project, I could try to finish it, I think that it should be an scenario about it,

Exile · January 22, 2001, 17:41

I have MGE and I can't run Spartacus either. Nor River War, which I am REALLY sad about.

Exile

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Allard HS · January 22, 2001, 18:55

quote:

I have MGE and I can't run Spartacus either. Nor River War, which I am REALLY sad about.

I'm not sure how to fix Spartacus, but if you wish to run River War under MGE do this:

1) open the file "Riverwar.txt"
2) delete the 4th line: "@listbox"

if that doesn't work do this too:
3) delete the row before the last row: "@options"

if that doesn't work do this:
4) delete the file labels.txt

But you should be able to make it work with just 1) and 2)

I suspect that you can make Spartacus too by just deleting labels.txt

Exile · January 23, 2001, 08:30

Why would deleting the labels.text allow the scenario to run?

Exile

Allard HS · January 23, 2001, 09:48

Again, I'm not sure if that is the trick with Spartacus.
Labels.txt is the only text file that has been largely changed between FW and MGE. Especially in the beginning, where some apparently important stuff for the game has been changed.
Deleting the Labels.txt will force the game to use the standard labels.txt, so you're sure not to have a problem there.

Also, I know that scenarios designed for CiC, like Nemo's Gulfwar, and which included a LABELS.TXT file did not work under FW for the same reason.

Exile · January 23, 2001, 11:40

Understood. Thanks

Exile