Balls of Steel problems

[Scotty]

If you're familiar with Windows, you can run Regedit to export "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wildfire Studios\Balls of Steel\High scores" to a file, put it on a flash drive or similar, and then import it when you reinstall BOS on a new VM.

There's a similar registry key/subkey/values for Devil's Island, if you also have that game.

I've been doing that for years to keep my high scores.

There is also a place online, "Tower of Pin", where you can post your high scores.

[Ralf]

Thanks - I'll give it a try.

This virtual machine thing has really got me stumped - I tried creating a new virtual machine and installing BOS on that, but same problem - even tried downgrading another one.

I'll try and install BOS on my MS Virtual PC and see how it runs.

Edit: Seems it runs slow on my Windows 95 VPC and it crashes my Windows 98 VPC.
I think I need to reinstall them.

[Ralf]

This may be a stupid question, but if you re-install virtual machine software do you lose any existing virtual machines?

[Jeffpiatt]

as long as the files still exist the machines still exist oyu should have folders with the necessary files. i use vmware provided by my college (witch sucks for gaming) make shoure you have the vhd and config files still.

[Ralf]

How well do you know the VMWare software? I'm running it on my Mac and it was working for me for a few months, but now it doesn't. The best way to explain it is that when I load a table, it scrolls up and down so fast it's impossible to play. I've downloaded the patches (including the user generated one), reinstalled the game, and just today my VMWare software and created a pristine machine and I still have the same problem. At least it's consistent.

Why this suddenly happened is waay beyond me - at first I thought it was because I didn't completely power down a virtual machine when I upgraded my VMWare software. Since I've uninstalled/reinstalled that I'm out of guesses. What I do know is that I miss playing the game. I realize some of these threads go pretty far back and activity is sporadic at best, but I'm running out of options.

Any help is appreciated

[Jeffpiatt]

i have only used the pc version but vmware does not emulate the processor instead it tricks the os in to thinking it owns the cpu anything listed as a vmware driver is managed by the software the sound card emulated is the sb 128 or sb 16 depending on the os profile. but this probles seems to be a processor clock issue bos is running fast because a intel core 2 is much faster than a Pentium II.

[gmB]

Can someone reupload Mok's patch? That'd be great!


edit: Mok's link is dead. I didn't see, that you can download the patch from 3drealms official site, too. My bad.

Get it here: ftp://ftp.3drealms.com/patches/bos13c_unofficial.exe

[Zebius]

I recently installed Win7 64-bit on my computer and unfortunately Balls of Steel is not playable. I installed both patches - 1.3 and unofficial 1.3c but the game runs extremely fast and graphics is garbled, compatibility modes don't improve anything. I found out that garbled graphics can be fixed by launching task manager and killing explorer.exe process, but speed problem still remains.

Really pity, I hope someone finds a solution for that.

My spec: Win7 64-bit, Pentium Dual Core E6500, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 3850.

[Mok]

Originally Posted by Zebius

I recently installed Win7 64-bit on my computer and unfortunately Balls of Steel is not playable. I installed both patches - 1.3 and unofficial 1.3c but the game runs extremely fast and graphics is garbled, compatibility modes don't improve anything. I found out that garbled graphics can be fixed by launching task manager and killing explorer.exe process, but speed problem still remains.

Really pity, I hope someone finds a solution for that.

My spec: Win7 64-bit, Pentium Dual Core E6500, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 3850.

Heh... I haven't touched the game for several years now but ~2 years ago I did a test patch that worked on Vista 64-bit... if you want to try - here it is:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5784i8...OfSteel13d.exe
Not tested much but at least it was working at correct speed here. Personally I still use XP, can't get used to vista/win7 bloat.

[Djezpur]

Originally Posted by Mok

Heh... I haven't touched the game for several years now but ~2 years ago I did a test patch that worked on Vista 64-bit... if you want to try - here it is:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5784i8...OfSteel13d.exe
Not tested much but at least it was working at correct speed here. Personally I still use XP, can't get used to vista/win7 bloat.

Hi Mok,
Your BOS13d patch works fine for me on Windows 7 (64 bit).
Do you happen to have one for Devil's Island Pinball too? Your 12a patch used to work great on XP, but does not solve speed issues in Windows 7.

PS
Thank you Zebius for pointing out that ending the explorer.exe process improves the graphics

[Cern]

The BOS13d patch is working ok for me on win7 64 bit, but only if the explorer.exe process is stopped.

[Zebius]

Thanks a lot Mok, 1.3d fixed speed problems for me however graphics is still garbled. I found another workaround for it - just right click on your desktop and choose 'Screen resolution' option, don't do anything just keep that window open and launch the game. Really strange but it worked for me

[Mok]

Win7 poorly emulates DirectDraw and probably that's why screen is garbled. There exists a compatibility setting for old 8-bit color applications that fixes the issue for a specific exe file, I saw a generic patcher on some forum that asked for an exe file and applied registry changes automatically. Unfortunately I don't remember where I saw it and no idea if it's compatible with BOS (I don't have Win7 so can't do anything about it).

[Zebius]

I think you mean this fix:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=25534
Unfortunately it doesn't work with BoS, at least it didn't work for me. Anyway, I'm happy to be able to play BoS again

[Mok]

It doesn't work? Probably it's related to the fact that each table is an "executable" file (it runs as another process) so it's likely you'd need to add registry entries for them too, not only the launcher. But that's just a guess.

[quiffioza]

Hello Mok,

Can you please add new mirrors for another unofficial patches for BOS engine games? Because the download mirrors are dead...
Thanks for your work!

Ciao.

[Zebius]

Originally Posted by Mok

It doesn't work? Probably it's related to the fact that each table is an "executable" file (it runs as another process) so it's likely you'd need to add registry entries for them too, not only the launcher.

Unfortunately this fix can be applied to files with extension .exe only and I have no idea what shall I add to registry manually.

[quiffioza]

You can try my registry directdraw fixes. It works for me. I have a Windows 7 64-bit system. Download here: http://uploading.com/files/1eebee3a/BOS.zip/
Please your feedback.

[Zebius]

Thanks quiffioza, it works for me too
Good work guys, all problems fixed.

[Djezpur]

Does anyone know how to resolve the same speed issues with Devil's Island Pinball?

[quiffioza]

Can you give me patch of Devil's Island Pinball (Devil'sIslandPinball12a.exe)? I can't get the patch (the link is dead). I will look for you the speed issues.

[Djezpur]

Sure, here's a link to Mok's patch:
http://uploading.com/files/53336e2f/...inball12a.rar/
I've also included the BOS13d patch which resolves the speed issues in Windows 7 for the five Balls of Steel tables.
Thanks in advance!

[quiffioza]

Thanks for patch! I dont have speed issues here, I have run patch with administrator rights.
And i have fix the directdraw problems. Download here: http://uploading.com/files/get/e145ec7b/
Sorry for my bad English!

[Djezpur]

Thanks for making the DirectDraw compatibility regkeys for Devil's Island Pinball, they fix the graphics problem (just like your regkeys for BOS)!

Unfortunately, I still have speed issues on Windows 7 (64 bit) - running as administrator does not solve them. I guess I need the same sort of fix that the 13d patch applies to the BOS tables.

With Table View on Single Screen, the game is unplayable. If I keep Resolution at 1024x768 and Table view on Scrolling, it becomes kind of playable, but still the speed of the ball way too fast.

[quiffioza]

You're welcome! I dont have speed issues on scrolling mode (I use Windows 7 64 bit too). If i use auto switch mode, then i have speed issues. I dont know how to edit the ddp files. You can ask Mok for his help.

[dblsteve]

Hello everybody. A lot of kisses for MOK from my wife, my BOS works just fine on XP. Unfortunately Kiss Pinball with patch KissPinball122a.exe is not enough to avoid the single screen crash. Even if I put some registry for DirectDraw compatibility, it crashes for memory that could'nt be written.
In addition, always for single screen view, I'd like to retrieve the other patches of BOS engine pinballs, but the main source "http://strony.aster.pl/mokmtg/" is dead ... Does anybody have a backup of DirtTrackRacingPinball10a.exe and AustinPowersPinball10a.exe ?

[Litude]

I had the Dirt Track Racing Pinball patch still stored on my computer, get it here.

[fcorbier]

I just released a small loader for Balls of Steel that could fix some of the current issues on newer systems.

I created a separate thread here: http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?p=950951

-Christophe

[matthunt1984]

I love this game, thanks to all those that have kept it working.

I love it so much I wanted to take it with me wherever I go, so made it USB portable, and thought it would be worth sharing.

Portable BOS
The attached zip file has all you need to get this to work. Scores and settings are stored in the registry, so its just a simple batch file that:

1. Imports your latest scores and settings
2. Plays the games
3. Backsup your old scores and settings file
4. Re-export the latest scores and settings

If you already have your scores and settings in the registry on the active computer you will need to export these yourself - others they may be lost!
See the readme for more

So you copy your BOS install to your USB, unzip the attached into it, and then run PlayBOSWithScoresAndSettings.bat - that's it.
You can also ignore the zip file if you want to play with default settings, and don't want to maintain your scores

Hope this of help to some!

P.S. This works great on USB, but I also have it in my Dropbox and that works great too. If anyone doesn't have Dropbox, you should! Please sign-up via my referral link and we both get some extra free space, on top of the 2GB you get to start with - http://db.tt/PQ8dObt