Armchair Dragoons Forums

Wargaming => Sci-fi & Fantasy Warfare => Topic started by: bayonetbrant on October 14, 2021, 06:53:57 PM

Title: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: bayonetbrant on October 14, 2021, 06:53:57 PM
#TBT - a throwback AAR of the old Shattered Union digital game

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/aars/classicsu/
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Martok on October 15, 2021, 12:13:15 AM
Nice!  I'd completely forgotten BC did an AAR for that one.  I almost picked up Shattered Union on a couple occasions, but never actually did so. 


Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: BanzaiCat on October 15, 2021, 01:09:53 PM
Be prepared to test it. I can't recall what I had to do but I tried to play this recently and it gave me some problems. It's just old. But, it's still a fun game to play.
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Martok on October 15, 2021, 10:39:16 PM
Yeah, I saw a lot of comments/complaints on Steam that the game doesn't like to run on anything newer than XP, or perhaps Vista.  Pity. 


Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Staggerwing on October 15, 2021, 10:52:58 PM
Again, another reason to keep some old XP hardware around. Some 98SE as well... and maybe even a decent 17 inch CRT. One with a Trinitron tube would be nice...
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: bbmike on October 16, 2021, 08:38:20 AM
I knew I should have kept that CGA card.
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Tolstoi on October 16, 2021, 11:33:57 PM
Would emulation solve this problem? Probably not for Steam; however, if the game became available on GOG, or if someone had an original CD, I wonder if that would help? 
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Staggerwing on October 17, 2021, 08:26:38 AM
Would emulation solve this problem? Probably not for Steam; however, if the game became available on GOG, or if someone had an original CD, I wonder if that would help? 

That might do the trick. You could set up a Win 7 PRO virtual machine using something like Virtualbox.  Shattered Union was released at the tail end of the Win XP era and 7 PRO has built in XP compatibility and (as far as I know) you can still use Steam with it. I don't think Steam will work with an actual XP VM. Just be careful going online. Make an image of your Virtual machine right after install and if you do get a virus later it will be confined to the VM. Delete that and reinstall from your earlier image.
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Tolstoi on October 17, 2021, 09:46:22 AM
That might do the trick. You could set up a Win 7 PRO virtual machine using something like Virtualbox.  Shattered Union was released at the tail end of the Win XP era and 7 PRO has built in XP compatibility and (as far as I know) you can still use Steam with it. I don't think Steam will work with an actual XP VM. Just be careful going online. Make an image of your Virtual machine right after install and if you do get a virus later it will be confined to the VM. Delete that and reinstall from your earlier image.

It was the "going online" part which concerned me, so learning it is possible is interesting. I've only played around with VM and often thought it would be a good solution to play games newer than DOS, yet old enough that they won't run on modern operating systems. DOSBox seems to work well for what it does in regards to DOS. I know of Oracle's VirtualBox and VMWare. Are these two the best, or is there another you recommend?
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Staggerwing on October 17, 2021, 10:23:59 AM
I've only dabbles with VMs a while back and currently don't have any set up so I'm sure there are others who have more practical advice. I did, however, just get an older Dell gaming laptop recently on eBay and do plan to try installing a VM or two (Win 7 pro and maybe Win98SE?) after I've gotten it's Win 10 all updated. I'll let you know how it goes.
Title: Re: #TBT AAR - Shattered Union
Post by: Tolstoi on October 18, 2021, 10:58:43 PM
Looking forward to learning how it goes. Fingers crossed it is a positive experience.  :fingerscrossed: