I hope you realize I was just trying to give you some goodnatured ribbing. Mostly it just boils down to the fact that I’m just lazy. Although, I think it is very rare that something like this could become a standard from a grass-roots basis, you’re welcome to advocate and proselytize. The cost difference between good-enough and better is often hard to justify a change to the existing inertia. (I know, that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.)
And I’m not even going to touch the argument about the environmental impact of the energy needed to put a few extra KB on disks and through the net. I’m pretty sure I’d do a better job reducing carbon emissions if I just ate one less burrito a month. :-D :-P
Lol, that’s right, but still, if it’s the right thing to do, plus you’re allowed to eat extra burrito’s, I wouldn’t doubt a second :-D
Is anyone else having trouble getting the latest files? I just tried to grab them and got an error from mediafire: “The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.”
Given the recent discussion, it would serve me right if this is because you’ve exceeded bandwidth limits or something similar.
Nope, no problems here… Poena Dei :-P
I guess us mac people are SOL?
I guess us mac people are SOL?
Perhaps. You mean to say that you cannot run any old DOS program on your mac? How old is your operating system! All new macs ship with Windows so they can definitely run Battlemap (or any DOS program out there.)
You could always run it in a shell as well if you have an antiquated Operating System like OS/Linux, etc.
@Cmdr:
How old is your operating system! All new macs ship with Windows so they can definitely run Battlemap (or any DOS program out there.)
You could always run it in a shell as well if you have an antiquated Operating System like OS/Linux, etc.
Ok maybe I’m not SOL, but there’s no nice simple mac version I take it.
I have a macbook pro which has the intel chips. I’m pretty sure that all new macs ship with the ability to run windows, but they don’t ship with windows per se. I do know that some computer retailers sell macs with windows pre-installed.
I could partition my computer and install a windows OS (not free), but there are a number of reasons why I don’t want to do that. I could also run a virtual environment like Parallels (not free) but I don’t really want to do that either. There are also a few applications, like CrossOver, that allow macs to run some windows apps without partitioning, installing OSes, or running virtual environments. However these usually work only for a few applications (like Outlook) and I wouldn’t expect it would work for this.
Thanks for the response cmd jfr. I’m not exactly even sure what a shell is, I assume it’s a kind of separate environment. Just so you know, I’m not as technically literate as you, and diving into mac’s terminal usually results in me becoming frustrated.
A shell is a virtual system that is totally encapsulated to protect the rest of your system from a program and to allow it to run on an operating system it was not designed for.
The problem is, macs and their proprietary (as in not boxed and shipped to every software development firm to use for making new software compatible) operating systems have never been, exactly, user friendly or very prolific in the personal computer market, thus, there never was a plethora of programs written to write on their systems. Windows gave away code needed to write programs that would work with it. Added to the incentives they gave computer retailers to sell their OS you had a situation where everyone could use windows because it was so user friendly, AND it was universally recognized as the go to operating system that just about every program has been written specifically for windows first and other operating systems later if the developers felt like it.
I’m pretty sure OS10 has a program in it already that will run rudimentary dos based programs. Remember, ABattlemap is designed to run on just about any computer from 1985 on.
Help! I’m ready to start trying to play AA50 online, but I’ve got a small problem.
I live in China, and I haven’t been able to access mediafire.com for the last few months for some reason. Could someone please make the AA50 modules available in some other format or e-mail them to me? I have already downloaded the Battlemap program.
Thanks in advance.
China’s government is mounting an offensive against “indecent internet”, blocking acces to sites containing material or linking to material they deem improper. This includes porn, falun gong, tienanmen, dalai lama/tibet… So that’s why I think you’re not able to reach mediafire :(
'nyhow, mail me your e-mail address, and I’ll send them through. Mine is <my username=“” on=“” this=“” forum=“”>(a) gmail (.) com</my>
Allright Bardoly, e-mail’s sent :)
Also, since 7-zip is able to compress it this good, I tried to upload the 7-Zip version with the forum’s uploader again. First I tried .7z.txt, but that turned out corrupted. Then I tried .7z.jpg, and it seems to work for now :lol: Hope this helps some people out…
Hey, I’m having trouble opening the files and getting them into Battlemap. I can download the module files, and I downloaded that 7-UP or 7-Zip program, but after that, I am unable to open anything and don’t know what else to do. Any thoughts?
OK, so now I’ve got troubles opening the AA50 module(s). What am I supposed to save it as? Because when it wants to save, it comes up saying open with X program or save the file. Well, no matter what I seem to do, it will only open under Adobe Acrobat. Should it be that? Or did I mess up big time somewhere?
@The:
OK, so now I’ve got troubles opening the AA50 module(s). What am I supposed to save it as? Because when it wants to save, it comes up saying open with X program or save the file. Well, no matter what I seem to do, it will only open under Adobe Acrobat. Should it be that? Or did I mess up big time somewhere?
A quick summary of the possible versions:
A: from mediafire, .7z-version:
This is the reference file.
Name: “AA50_ABattlemap_Modules.7z”
Extract with: 7-Zip program
B: from mediafire, .zip-version:
This is for people who don’t like 7-Zip.
Name: “AA50_ABattlemap_Modules.zip”
Extract with: WinZip or Windows XP / Vista
C: from the post itself, .7z.jpg-version:
This is only for people who have problems with filesharing sites.
Name: “AA50_ABattlemap_Modules.7z.jpg”
Extract with: 7-Zip program after you removed the “.jpg” at the end of the filename manually. Note that Windows may not show you the extension (=the last 4 characters of the filename). In this case, go to “My Computer” -> menu “Extra” -> “Folder Options” -> tab “View” -> make sure “hide known extensions” is not checked. Normally Windows should show the extensions of files now, allowing you to remove the “.jpg” at the end of the filename, allowing you to extract it with 7-Zip, allowing you to place the modules in the ABattlemap folder, allowing you to play.
Hmm, which version did you download? Am I right if it was version C? Did the walkthrough to the Windows-extension-hiding-problem fix your problem? If not, plz give a bit more info, such as operating system type, browser type, file version downloaded, compressing programs installed, name of the file seen on screen…
I actually tried downloading the first two versions/options, but I guess I didn’t do so hot on either! :-P :lol:
Maybe I should give a rundown of what I’m doing and let you decide where I’m messing up.
I am using Vista, Firefox.
Step 1: I have downloaded Battlemap.
Step 2: I go to the mediafire website and download the files there. I save the files instead of opening them because I have no clue what to open them with. (If you/someone can tell me what to open them with under that “open” option, that’d be great). The file I download at mediafire is: AA50_ABattleMap_Modules.7z.
Step 3: I download 7-Zip. I download the .exe version, as opposed to the .msi version. Is there one I should be using of the two?
The file for 7-Zip is 7z464.exe. I save it. I double click it and download/install/open it.
From here I have no clue how to copy the files or extract them into Battlemap directory. Are the files an Adobe Acrobat thing at all? Do I have to open the 7-Zip first?
OK, so I went and downloaded Option B. Now what? I moved them into the Battlemap folder where the Battlemap map is. What do I do next?
Aha, we’re almost there :)
First a little word on what you actually want to get. You want 2 folders, titled “AA50.gim” (for '41-scenario) and “AA51.gim” (for '42 scenario) in your ABattleMap directory. Those 2 folders (or alternatively named “modules”) contain the necessary files for the ABattleMap program to load up the AA50 maps.
Next, I’ll explain the concept of compressing files. If you quickly want to know what you should do, skip 2 paragraphs. It’s a highly recommended reading though ;)
Because it’s inconvenient to upload and download all those files and folders by hand, they’re compressed into 1 single file. This is common practice when sharing files via the internet. An extra advantage is the files take up less space on disk, and thus are downloaded and uploaded faster. However, there are different ways to compress files. The most common one is using WinZip, which creates a <filename>.zip file. This way of compressing is also recognised by Windows Vista. The best way I know to compress files is using 7-Zip (compressing is also known as “zipping”, hence the “zip” in the program names). This creates a <filename>.7z .
However, compressed files don’t run, they can’t “do” anything before they are uncompressed or extracted. For this, you use the same program they’re compressed with, hence why you were asked to download and install 7-Zip. To uncompress, open 7-Zip, choose “open archive” or something similar, browse to/select the .7z-file, and you’ll be presented the folders/files “inside” the compressed files. Then copy-paste them to the desired location (in our case, your ABattleMap folder). Make sure 7-Zip is installed though! For the WinZip (= “.zip”) version, it’s similar, just replace “7-Zip” by “WinZip” in this paragraph.
Allright, this was the long way. Because WinZip is integrated in Windows Vista, there’s a quicker way. Here’s what you should do (continuing from option B):
1. First check if Vista recognises the file you downloaded as a compressed file. The icon you see next to the “AA50_ABattleMap_Modules**.zip**” should look like a folder icon, except there’s a little zipper on the side. If you don’t see this, still try 2., but if it doesn’t work, report back :P and tell me which icon you see next to it.
2. If you do see this icon, double click it. You’ll see a window pop up with 2 folders (named AA50.gim and AA51.gim) in it. Copy paste those 2 folders into your ABattleMap folder. They should be placed next to folders named “AAR.gim”, “AAH.gim” etc.
3. Now start up ABattleMap, and check if you see the options AA anniversary 1941 and 1942 in the “New” menu. If they’re there, you made it. If they’re not, you didn’t, report back here :|
PS:
Here’s an extra link about compressing/extracting with WinZip in XP/Win2000. I guess it’s about the same in Vista.</filename></filename>
OK, so I’m going to jump to your last point.
I did put both folders into the Battlemap folder, however, I don’t have other folders named “AAR.gim”, “AAH.gim” etc. All I have in my main BMP folder is A50.gim, A51.gim, Battlemap, and uninstall battlemap.
So as you can guess, there are no anniversary options when I open Battlemap. I really don’t know what I am doing wrong or what’s going wrong. I attempted to right-click the main folder, click on 7-zip, and and then clicked on “add to archive.” Should I be doing this? Any other suggestions?
@The:
OK, so I’m going to jump to your last point.
I did put both folders into the Battlemap folder, however, I don’t have other folders named “AAR.gim”, “AAH.gim” etc. All I have in my main BMP folder is A50.gim, A51.gim, Battlemap, and uninstall battlemap.
So as you can guess, there are no anniversary options when I open Battlemap. I really don’t know what I am doing wrong or what’s going wrong. I attempted to right-click the main folder, click on 7-zip, and and then clicked on “add to archive.” Should I be doing this? Any other suggestions?
My guess is you put the modules in the shortcut folder, not the program folder. I don’t know about Vista, but in XP this folder would likely be C:\Documents and Settings\User\Start Menu\Programs\ABattleMap … if this is the case you should notice that the “Battlemap” and “uninstall battlemap” files in the folder you used are actually shortcuts. You need to find the folder where the program was installed. In XP the default folder is C:\Program Files\ABattleMap . If you used something other than default then you could do a windows file/folder search for rcsek.txt and if you find it, then right-click on it and select “open containing folder” (assuming this process works the same way in Vista as in XP). Hope that helps!
BTW Holkann you are awesome i love how detailed your walkthrough has been! + karma for you.
Thanks Holkann. +1
@The:
I did put both folders into the Battlemap folder, however, I don’t have other folders named “AAR.gim”, “AAH.gim” etc. All I have in my main BMP folder is A50.gim, A51.gim, Battlemap, and uninstall battlemap.
My guess is you put the modules in the shortcut folder, not the program folder.
hits meself on the head :roll: gotta remember this, nice thinking Stoney :lol:
Aw well, problem solved, have fun Desert! (and tnx for the karma guys :wink: )
Two quick questions on ABattlemap for whoever creates these modules.
My “InfoView” window seems to be too small to display all the information (line after “Land” is cut off, I assume it is total IPC value of sea forces). I can’t seem to resize it so I can read it. Any suggestions?
Under the “InfoView” window, the NO values are shown on the line labeled “Oil”. It’s a minor issue, but couldn’t this line be edited to actually say “NO’s” ?
Thanks in advance!
