Balls of Steel problems - Page 2

Rassilon · 07-22-2006, 01:35 AM

Thanks mate, this is awsome! Now to get my hands on the full version....

Reckless · 07-22-2006, 02:07 AM

Sounds like a great post

Unfortunately I couldn't get it to work for me...

I've the original retail release of BOS - V1.0 CD
Patched it to V1.3 using the download (bos13rp.exe). This has an MD5 of:
4AF754AEBFA35515C9179076D36A381E
Downloaded the unofficial patch (BallsOfSteel13c.exe). This has an MD5 of:
B5DE5E18542243E2D76765C5844C1615

Attempting to run the unofficial patch, after choosing my game install directory, I get an error stating that barbarin.ddp is an 'unknown version'.

The MD5 for barbarin.ddp is: C75247980ABF5CF049E1A8A3FB365EDC. File size: 666 KB (682,496 bytes), Last Modified: 21 March 2001, 10:39:26

I've attached a file monitoring log in case this may provide any clues.

My system is WixXP SP2 with latest updates with English (UK) regional settings. Please ask if you need any other information!

Mok · 07-22-2006, 03:38 AM

Hm, it seems that there are different versions of retail patch 1.3 available. The one I used is downloaded from 3drealms.com and has a different MD5 hash: B9EBF7670488549643A4F0748983B665 (3932976 bytes). Where did you get your version of the patch?

Edit: Ok, I downloaded patch 1.3 from some random page returned by Google and it's indeed a different version (MDA is the same as the one Reckless reported). It seems it's an older version of the update as the date of the patched files is a bit older. I will update my patch to work with that version. Meanwhile just get the patch from 3drealms.com

Edit2: New version of my patch is up. The filename is the same but it's 1.3 MB now. It will update v1.3 patched with either version of retail 1.3 patch.

Reckless · 07-22-2006, 06:06 AM

Major thanks to you!

I 'think' I did download the patch from 3DR however my download was dated 11 Apr 2001 so it was a long time back so I cannot be certain of course!

Either way, the game works great now

Thanks for the effort you've put it!

uzikus · 07-22-2006, 07:58 AM

my BOS is running OK on XP with 1.3 patch.

Mok · 07-22-2006, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzikus

my BOS is running OK on XP with 1.3 patch.

Yeah, it will work for some people. But if you get a new gfx card with lots of videoram it will start crashing. Here v1.3 works fine using old Radeon 9100 with 64 MB of ram. But on both Geforce 6800 GT (256 MB) and Radeon x1900xtx (512 MB) it crashes when switching tableview using F2. Keyboard is responsive only on 1 of 2 machines. On a really old machine with GF2MX speed of the game is totally wrong as the profiler reports 63 Hz instead of real 85 Hz etc.

akula65 · 07-22-2006, 07:10 PM

Mok,

FYI, I applied the 3D Realms Version 1.3 patch on this site followed by the latest version of your patch to the BoS version described in this thread on a Win98 SE machine, and I had no difficulties in applying the patch or getting the game to run.

Joe Siegler · 07-24-2006, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mok

Hm, it seems that there are different versions of retail patch 1.3 available. The one I used is downloaded from 3drealms.com and has a different MD5 hash: B9EBF7670488549643A4F0748983B665 (3932976 bytes). Where did you get your version of the patch?

I created that patch, I don't ever recall making more than one of them. There was a 1.3 for shaeware, and one for full, but I can't recall making more than one of the v1.3 version for each.

Mok · 07-24-2006, 03:21 PM

There are definitely 2 different versions of patch 1.3. Menu executable BOS.exe is exactly the same, but the tables (*.ddp) are different. Older versions were compiled on 19 Mar 2001 and the newer on 12 Apr 2001. No idea about the changes.

Cheapy · 07-25-2006, 12:53 PM

weird, it is quite fatal and problematic in single mode rather than scrolling on winxp 64

Nukkus · 07-25-2006, 03:03 PM

the only prob i have with BOS is the f2 glitch you guys are having at the shop, Joe. Scrolling mode works fine for me.

Litude · 07-25-2006, 03:22 PM

Does the unofficial patch fix these problems?

gmB · 08-01-2006, 10:33 AM

Hi Mok,

I just wanted to say thanks for your fix. It works great. Excellent Job.

Joe Siegler · 02-15-2007, 11:30 AM

Bump. Wanted to get this back up the top again.

03-27-2007, 09:53 AM

Just wanted to thank Mok for the patch. Just got a new Dell E1705 Laptop and BOS runs great under Vista using the patch. I had to download non-dell Nvidia drivers for it but so far so good.

BOS still one of my favorite games. Just wish new tables would be release.

SonnyBonds · 03-27-2007, 05:20 PM

Hey Mok, thanks a lot! I haven't played BoS in ages, I think I'll reinstall it tonight as this patch seems to work perfectly for everyone. Great stuff!

zartok · 08-21-2007, 01:42 PM

Where can I get the version of Balls of Steel which WILL support 1.3 and 1.3c patch,the one i have continuosly says that it's unknown version or that barbarian table is unknown version and no patch can be installed.Is there some problem or just version isn't right?In readme it says it's 1.2.

Edito:I solved the problem,but sound isn't best,is there a way to fix it?

08-23-2007, 01:46 PM

I've got the 1.3 patch, and BOS runs smoothly and fine with xp sp2.

I haven't tried changing from scroll to fullscreen, but it crashes occasionally anyway, it seems like it does it some of the times when I start a mission or 2-ball or similar. The screen just goes black, but the music continues for a while before it gets caught in a half a second loop. I have to return to windows and exit the game. There is no error message.

HELP!

EDIT: I downloaded Mok's patch, and it seems to be working now. Thanks a lot!

zartok · 09-08-2007, 10:15 AM

Where can i get the Devil's Island?It'd didn't came with the instalation...

Scotty · 09-08-2007, 11:34 AM

I don't know if there is a way to get Devil's Island anymore. It wasn't part of Balls of Steel, and had to be bought separately through one of Wildfire Studios' distributors. Apogee/Pinball Wizards/3DR never sold it.

Wildfire Studios had contracted with an online and traditional distributor to sell a downloadable and boxed version of Devil's Island several years ago. The downloadable version was only $9.95 back in February 2000.

There were also a few other tables made after Devil's Island, but I don't ever remember seeing a direct link to buy them.

Some years later, Wildfire Studios was selling Devil's Island and a few tables from Balls of Steel through Real's RealArcade service.

It's possible Wildfire Studios has since gone through some sort of reorganization, as their current website has no references at all to any of their pinball games.

Funduke · 09-08-2007, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scotty

I don't know if there is a way to get Devil's Island anymore.

Try this:
https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-...gi?item=3244-1

or this:
http://www.wildfire.com.au/content/s...sp?name=Devils

Greetings
Funduke

Reckless · 09-09-2007, 02:51 AM

or perhaps here

tpz · 09-14-2007, 08:06 AM

Is there any chance that the source code for this game will be available some day, Joe?

Joe Siegler · 09-18-2007, 08:43 AM

I don't know. It's not up to us. Unless the game was done inhouse by Apogee, it's up to the individual developer. This would be Wildfire's decision. Not ours.

But I can't get them to commit to fixing the 1.3 problems the game has, getting them to release source code I find even less unlikely.

10-22-2007, 06:49 PM

A recent trip back home to Illinois saw me finally bringing my Balls of Steel CD with me to Vegas after 2 1/2 years living here, and after the game failed to run in Windows 95 compatibility mode some quick research led me to this thread and with it the V1.3 commercial patch and Mok's XP patch. HUGE, mega, ultra props go to Mok for taking the time to develop this.

With all of this done however, when I try to go to the Darkside table (still my favorite from the trial version) my screen blanks and the computer locks up to the point that a cold boot is the only resolution. This happened both when the Win 95 compatibility option was checked in the Properties of my desktop's BOS icon, and again after I unchecked it. Is there anything else I could be doing wrong?

Thanks all for any help you can provide... And hi Joe!

--T.J.

Joe Siegler · 10-24-2007, 01:05 PM

Beyond compatibility mode, the official 1.3 patch, mok's unofficial patch, there's nothing else. Wildfire has stopped answering my emails about it, so I'm guessing they're not interested in updating it anymore. Shame.

If you figure out a workaround Tom let me know.

11-29-2007, 02:17 PM

Hi, I had a problem with Balls of steel running on Windows Vista, it was going to fast, and no patch helped me, not even the unofficial one.

Then I had a lucky strike.

I was playing Starcraft, specifically I entered in Battle.net to play online.
While waiting for some friends I pressed ALT+Tab to go to desktop and by mistake I clicked on Balls of Steel shortcut. I do not know why but I clicked on play... and it was working perefectly!

I have tried many times and everytime I run Starcraft and enter in multiplayer game (Battle.net), I can play BOS at normal speed while Starcraft remains in battlenet. I does not work correctly if I do not enter in battlenet.

There must be an explanation but I don´t really care now

Hope this helps someone.

diego gr · 10-14-2008, 12:35 PM

The links are broken.
Do somebody have the files?

Joe Siegler · 10-14-2008, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diego gr

The links are broken.
Do somebody have the files?

What links are you referring to?

http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html

Ras · 10-26-2008, 12:11 PM

Never mind.

gila · 10-27-2008, 09:43 AM

another "thank you", Mok. the unofficial patch worked wonders for me.

Ralf · 12-16-2008, 11:56 AM

Thanks for the patches everyone! I forgot how much I missed playing this game until I was able to play it again. Unfortunately I am running into problems and thought this would be the place to get answers.

First of all, Balls of Steel is loaded on a MacBook Pro that runs Windows XP SP2 via VMWare Fusion. Everything was working fine, but I recently updated my virtual machine software from version 1 to version 2 and since then whenever I get to a table, the game scrolls up and down so fast I cannot possibly play the game. Did something happen when I upgraded virtual machine software? I have uninstalled/reinstalled the Balls of Steel software but nothing changes (still scrolling). Any ideas?

Ralf · 12-24-2008, 12:27 PM

Anyone?

Scotty · 12-24-2008, 12:38 PM

How does the virtual machine handle the display refresh rate?

What (virtual) Windows graphics driver are you using?

Ralf · 12-26-2008, 03:51 PM

I'm relatively new to using virtual machines so all I know about the refresh rate is that it is 60 hertz (with an option to go to 85 hertz). Would changing it help at all?

It's a DirectX9.0c with Shader Model 2 3D Graphics for Windows XP

Scotty · 12-27-2008, 09:52 PM

I've never dealt with virtual machines at all, so you know more than I do.

In the past, I've had slow/fast issues that were traceable to graphics drivers and/or refresh rates. The last time I had a problem (extreme lag) it was fixed by the unofficial patch mentioned in this thread.

How much stuff do you have installed in your virtual machine? How easy is it to back up and restore?

Is it possible to run two copies of Windows XP at the same time (set up a second virtual machine)? Depending on the XP license, you would have 3 to 30 days to activate. If that fixes the problem, then upgrading the VM software may have been the PC equivalent of swapping a mainboard or sticking a hard drive in a new computer, which usually tends to end up badly.

If it's not possible to run two VMs of XP simultaneously, how difficult would it be to back up the existing VM, wipe it, reinstall XP for troubleshooting purposes, and then either reinstall all software (if reinstalling XP fixed the problem) or restore the backup (if you still have the problem)?

12-28-2008, 09:49 AM

The refresh rate wont change the speed of your virtual machine.
Try to change the CPU settings in your virtual machine's properties.

Scotty · 12-28-2008, 03:52 PM

Refresh rate limitations are determined by the monitor and display adapter drivers. As this is inside a VM, these may not have anything do to with the actual hardware specs.

It sounds like the VM is using a very generic graphics driver. As I've never used a VM, I don't know if this is typical or not.

12-28-2008, 04:23 PM

It uses a generic SVGA card.

Ralf · 12-29-2008, 12:43 PM

Thanks for your help guys.

I'm going to create another virtual machine on an external hard drive. There were other problems with the virtual machine and my high scores on BOS were really the only reason I hadn't deleted & started over with the virtual machine. Since BOS won't work, might as well start from scratch. Hopefully the glitch I've been experiencing is just from updating an existing virtual machine.

02-15-2007, 11:30 AM	#54
Joe Siegler 3D Realms Staff	Re: Balls of Steel problems Bump. Wanted to get this back up the top again. __________________ Apogee / 3D Realms Employee: Dec 14, 1992 - May 22, 2009, Oct 23, 2014 - current "Lifting up the Cross to the waiting lost" - Petra \| John 3:16

03-27-2007, 09:53 AM	#55
GAH1068 Guest	Re: Balls of Steel problems Just wanted to thank Mok for the patch. Just got a new Dell E1705 Laptop and BOS runs great under Vista using the patch. I had to download non-dell Nvidia drivers for it but so far so good. BOS still one of my favorite games. Just wish new tables would be release.

08-23-2007, 01:46 PM	#58
serpian Guest	Re: Balls of Steel problems I've got the 1.3 patch, and BOS runs smoothly and fine with xp sp2. I haven't tried changing from scroll to fullscreen, but it crashes occasionally anyway, it seems like it does it some of the times when I start a mission or 2-ball or similar. The screen just goes black, but the music continues for a while before it gets caught in a half a second loop. I have to return to windows and exit the game. There is no error message. HELP! EDIT: I downloaded Mok's patch, and it seems to be working now. Thanks a lot! Last edited by serpian; 08-23-2007 at 02:52 PM.

09-18-2007, 08:43 AM	#64
Joe Siegler 3D Realms Staff	Re: Balls of Steel problems I don't know. It's not up to us. Unless the game was done inhouse by Apogee, it's up to the individual developer. This would be Wildfire's decision. Not ours. But I can't get them to commit to fixing the 1.3 problems the game has, getting them to release source code I find even less unlikely. __________________ Apogee / 3D Realms Employee: Dec 14, 1992 - May 22, 2009, Oct 23, 2014 - current "Lifting up the Cross to the waiting lost" - Petra \| John 3:16

10-22-2007, 06:49 PM	#65
TJSwoboda Guest	Re: Balls of Steel problems A recent trip back home to Illinois saw me finally bringing my Balls of Steel CD with me to Vegas after 2 1/2 years living here, and after the game failed to run in Windows 95 compatibility mode some quick research led me to this thread and with it the V1.3 commercial patch and Mok's XP patch. HUGE, mega, ultra props go to Mok for taking the time to develop this. With all of this done however, when I try to go to the Darkside table (still my favorite from the trial version) my screen blanks and the computer locks up to the point that a cold boot is the only resolution. This happened both when the Win 95 compatibility option was checked in the Properties of my desktop's BOS icon, and again after I unchecked it. Is there anything else I could be doing wrong? Thanks all for any help you can provide... And hi Joe! --T.J.

07-22-2006, 01:35 AM	#41
Rassilon	Re: Balls of Steel problems Thanks mate, this is awsome! Now to get my hands on the full version.... __________________ ~When life gives you lemons, suck them!!!! ~What is life?, but natures way of keeping meat fresh....

07-22-2006, 03:38 AM	#43
Mok	Re: Balls of Steel problems Hm, it seems that there are different versions of retail patch 1.3 available. The one I used is downloaded from 3drealms.com and has a different MD5 hash: B9EBF7670488549643A4F0748983B665 (3932976 bytes). Where did you get your version of the patch? Edit: Ok, I downloaded patch 1.3 from some random page returned by Google and it's indeed a different version (MDA is the same as the one Reckless reported). It seems it's an older version of the update as the date of the patched files is a bit older. I will update my patch to work with that version. Meanwhile just get the patch from 3drealms.com Edit2: New version of my patch is up. The filename is the same but it's 1.3 MB now. It will update v1.3 patched with either version of retail 1.3 patch. Last edited by Mok; 07-22-2006 at 03:58 AM.

07-22-2006, 06:06 AM	#44
Reckless	Re: Balls of Steel problems Major thanks to you! I 'think' I did download the patch from 3DR however my download was dated 11 Apr 2001 so it was a long time back so I cannot be certain of course! Either way, the game works great now Thanks for the effort you've put it!

07-22-2006, 07:58 AM	#45
uzikus	Re: Balls of Steel problems my BOS is running OK on XP with 1.3 patch. __________________ What are you waiting for, DNF?

07-22-2006, 07:10 PM	#47
akula65	Re: Balls of Steel problems Mok, FYI, I applied the 3D Realms Version 1.3 patch on this site followed by the latest version of your patch to the BoS version described in this thread on a Win98 SE machine, and I had no difficulties in applying the patch or getting the game to run.

07-24-2006, 03:21 PM	#49
Mok	Re: Balls of Steel problems There are definitely 2 different versions of patch 1.3. Menu executable BOS.exe is exactly the same, but the tables (*.ddp) are different. Older versions were compiled on 19 Mar 2001 and the newer on 12 Apr 2001. No idea about the changes.

07-25-2006, 12:53 PM	#50
Cheapy	Re: Balls of Steel problems weird, it is quite fatal and problematic in single mode rather than scrolling on winxp 64 __________________ heh

07-25-2006, 03:03 PM	#51
Nukkus	Re: Balls of Steel problems the only prob i have with BOS is the f2 glitch you guys are having at the shop, Joe. Scrolling mode works fine for me.

07-25-2006, 03:22 PM	#52
Litude	Re: Balls of Steel problems Does the unofficial patch fix these problems?

08-01-2006, 10:33 AM	#53
gmB	Re: Balls of Steel problems Hi Mok, I just wanted to say thanks for your fix. It works great. Excellent Job.

03-27-2007, 05:20 PM	#56
SonnyBonds	Re: Balls of Steel problems Hey Mok, thanks a lot! I haven't played BoS in ages, I think I'll reinstall it tonight as this patch seems to work perfectly for everyone. Great stuff!

08-21-2007, 01:42 PM	#57
zartok	Re: Balls of Steel problems Where can I get the version of Balls of Steel which WILL support 1.3 and 1.3c patch,the one i have continuosly says that it's unknown version or that barbarian table is unknown version and no patch can be installed.Is there some problem or just version isn't right?In readme it says it's 1.2. Edito:I solved the problem,but sound isn't best,is there a way to fix it? Last edited by zartok; 08-22-2007 at 09:50 AM.

09-08-2007, 10:15 AM	#59
zartok	Re: Balls of Steel problems Where can i get the Devil's Island?It'd didn't came with the instalation...

09-08-2007, 11:34 AM	#60
Scotty	Re: Balls of Steel problems I don't know if there is a way to get Devil's Island anymore. It wasn't part of Balls of Steel, and had to be bought separately through one of Wildfire Studios' distributors. Apogee/Pinball Wizards/3DR never sold it. Wildfire Studios had contracted with an online and traditional distributor to sell a downloadable and boxed version of Devil's Island several years ago. The downloadable version was only $9.95 back in February 2000. There were also a few other tables made after Devil's Island, but I don't ever remember seeing a direct link to buy them. Some years later, Wildfire Studios was selling Devil's Island and a few tables from Balls of Steel through Real's RealArcade service. It's possible Wildfire Studios has since gone through some sort of reorganization, as their current website has no references at all to any of their pinball games.

09-09-2007, 02:51 AM	#62
Reckless	Re: Balls of Steel problems or perhaps here

09-14-2007, 08:06 AM	#63
tpz	Re: Balls of Steel problems Is there any chance that the source code for this game will be available some day, Joe? __________________ "A Smith & Wesson beats four aces."

10-24-2007, 01:05 PM	#66
Joe Siegler 3D Realms Staff	Re: Balls of Steel problems Beyond compatibility mode, the official 1.3 patch, mok's unofficial patch, there's nothing else. Wildfire has stopped answering my emails about it, so I'm guessing they're not interested in updating it anymore. Shame. If you figure out a workaround Tom let me know. __________________ Apogee / 3D Realms Employee: Dec 14, 1992 - May 22, 2009, Oct 23, 2014 - current "Lifting up the Cross to the waiting lost" - Petra \| John 3:16

11-29-2007, 02:17 PM	#67
juandel aguila Guest	Re: Balls of Steel problems Fix in Vista (fix for Vista) Hi, I had a problem with Balls of steel running on Windows Vista, it was going to fast, and no patch helped me, not even the unofficial one. Then I had a lucky strike. I was playing Starcraft, specifically I entered in Battle.net to play online. While waiting for some friends I pressed ALT+Tab to go to desktop and by mistake I clicked on Balls of Steel shortcut. I do not know why but I clicked on play... and it was working perefectly! I have tried many times and everytime I run Starcraft and enter in multiplayer game (Battle.net), I can play BOS at normal speed while Starcraft remains in battlenet. I does not work correctly if I do not enter in battlenet. There must be an explanation but I don´t really care now Hope this helps someone.

10-14-2008, 12:35 PM	#68
diego gr	Re: Balls of Steel problems The links are broken. Do somebody have the files?

10-26-2008, 12:11 PM	#70
Ras	Re: Balls of Steel problems Never mind. Last edited by Ras; 10-26-2008 at 12:25 PM.

10-27-2008, 09:43 AM	#71
gila	Re: Balls of Steel problems another "thank you", Mok. the unofficial patch worked wonders for me.

12-16-2008, 11:56 AM	#72
Ralf	Re: Balls of Steel problems Thanks for the patches everyone! I forgot how much I missed playing this game until I was able to play it again. Unfortunately I am running into problems and thought this would be the place to get answers. First of all, Balls of Steel is loaded on a MacBook Pro that runs Windows XP SP2 via VMWare Fusion. Everything was working fine, but I recently updated my virtual machine software from version 1 to version 2 and since then whenever I get to a table, the game scrolls up and down so fast I cannot possibly play the game. Did something happen when I upgraded virtual machine software? I have uninstalled/reinstalled the Balls of Steel software but nothing changes (still scrolling). Any ideas?

12-24-2008, 12:27 PM	#73
Ralf	Re: Balls of Steel problems Anyone?

12-24-2008, 12:38 PM	#74
Scotty	Re: Balls of Steel problems How does the virtual machine handle the display refresh rate? What (virtual) Windows graphics driver are you using?

12-26-2008, 03:51 PM	#75
Ralf	Re: Balls of Steel problems I'm relatively new to using virtual machines so all I know about the refresh rate is that it is 60 hertz (with an option to go to 85 hertz). Would changing it help at all? It's a DirectX9.0c with Shader Model 2 3D Graphics for Windows XP

12-27-2008, 09:52 PM	#76
Scotty	Re: Balls of Steel problems I've never dealt with virtual machines at all, so you know more than I do. In the past, I've had slow/fast issues that were traceable to graphics drivers and/or refresh rates. The last time I had a problem (extreme lag) it was fixed by the unofficial patch mentioned in this thread. How much stuff do you have installed in your virtual machine? How easy is it to back up and restore? Is it possible to run two copies of Windows XP at the same time (set up a second virtual machine)? Depending on the XP license, you would have 3 to 30 days to activate. If that fixes the problem, then upgrading the VM software may have been the PC equivalent of swapping a mainboard or sticking a hard drive in a new computer, which usually tends to end up badly. If it's not possible to run two VMs of XP simultaneously, how difficult would it be to back up the existing VM, wipe it, reinstall XP for troubleshooting purposes, and then either reinstall all software (if reinstalling XP fixed the problem) or restore the backup (if you still have the problem)?

12-28-2008, 09:49 AM	#77
The Stinger Guest	Re: Balls of Steel problems The refresh rate wont change the speed of your virtual machine. Try to change the CPU settings in your virtual machine's properties.

12-28-2008, 03:52 PM	#78
Scotty	Re: Balls of Steel problems Refresh rate limitations are determined by the monitor and display adapter drivers. As this is inside a VM, these may not have anything do to with the actual hardware specs. It sounds like the VM is using a very generic graphics driver. As I've never used a VM, I don't know if this is typical or not.

12-28-2008, 04:23 PM	#79
The Stinger Guest	Re: Balls of Steel problems It uses a generic SVGA card.

12-29-2008, 12:43 PM	#80
Ralf	Re: Balls of Steel problems Thanks for your help guys. I'm going to create another virtual machine on an external hard drive. There were other problems with the virtual machine and my high scores on BOS were really the only reason I hadn't deleted & started over with the virtual machine. Since BOS won't work, might as well start from scratch. Hopefully the glitch I've been experiencing is just from updating an existing virtual machine.