Huntress send me this DUMMY GUIDE for a first lecture by the coders group members.
Your comments will be welcome and of great help.
Regards.
Hi Gus,
Here is a rough draft of an installation document, just as a starting point for you guys to consider; final formatting can be done after a final version of the document is agreed upon, OK? Please let me know of any changes, additions, or subtractions you want made, OK? Or you could just alter it yourselves. My view is that the final document needs to be placed as a sticky, at the Wiki (perhaps on a new page if we want to emphasize its importance) and at Sandbagger's Starting Gate (again, a new page would be desirable).
As you point out, it will be difficult to get new people to follow this; the only way we can possibly do it is if we refuse to help someone who has not installed EAW using the final guidelines and that risks sending people away from the sim. So few people come to the forum and say, "OK, I have an EAW CD and this hardware/driver array. How do I best install it?" Most people don't show up until they have installed it and have trouble. Your signature does say it all--there are people like NA who are clearly very knowledgable in terms of basic file and folder management and are willing to accept advice on how to make it go smoothly. Then there are people like Slackdaddy and Burgan who don't seem to be knowledgable enough to try what they want to try nor do they want to learn what they need to learn to make it succeed. This document is a starting point, but it will be difficult to force people to use it...
If this works out, I was thinking that we could follow this up with two documents: one would cover errors that might arise and how to solve them, such as Error 7217, the GeForce registry edit, ATI graphics cards anomalies and the use of the latest drivers plus Glide Wrapper, those kinds of things we could put in one document. The other document might cover basic folder and file behaviors in Windows and in EAW and how modifications work, in general, when copied into a basic EAW install.
Cheers,
Kay
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EAW Installation Best Practices
Modern Hardware recommendations:
EAW was published in 1998 and was never updated to account for modern equipment, particularly in the area of graphics cards and their drivers. As such, there can be hardware- and/or driver-related issues encountered in installing EAW on a modern computer system.
For the sake of easiest use, this is the recommended hardware/operating system setup:
Motherboard: Any motherboard which allows for the use of an AGP or PCI graphics card. PCI-E motherboards are acceptable in combination with ATI Radeon PCI-E graphics cards; nVidia's PCI-E graphics cards are acceptable in certain limited cases but are not universally acceptable without intervention to prevent fatal errors.
Audio card: Any
Network card or modem plus Internet connection (necessary for online flying): Any
Graphics card:
nVidia GeForce, GeForce 2, GeForce 3, GeForce 4, GeForce FX, GeForce 6xxx (most versions, particularly if older driver packages are used--nVidia's reference driver packages v.66.93 or less).
ATI Radeon cards (Radeon 9500 or higher is preferred) with the latest ATI drivers installed.
Windows-compatible joystick
Operating system: Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista. Windows NT is a possibility but has not been tested. Online flying will not be possible under Windows 2000 or Windows NT.
Installation of EAW on a modern system:
Prior to attempting to install EAW, download Sydbod's v.1.26e patch from here . Save this file to your hard drive and extract it using WinZip or any other file decompression utility. Back this file up for safekeeping.
Insert the EAW CD in your optical drive. After the installer loads in, choose to install EAW, using the Full Install option. If the installer does not load in, go to Start | Run, browse the EAW CD and select Setup. Run it to install EAW; choose the Full Install option.
Do not attempt to run EAW. Once EAW has fully installed, close the installer. Go to Start | Run, Browse to the location of Sydbod's extracted patch file. Select it and choose to Run it. It will locate your EAW install; confirm that this is the correct location and allow the patch to install. EAW is now installed and patched to v.1.26e; this patch file supersedes the MicroProse v.1.2 patch. Do not install any other add-ons or modifications or make any changes to your EAW folder at this time.
You may now try to run EAW. If you encounter difficulty with any of the installer-created shortcuts, try going to Start | Run, browse to the location of your EAW folder and select the eaw.exe file. Choose to run it. Create new shortcuts if necessary and if desired. Configure EAW using the configuration screens.
You are now ready to fly. Fly one mission to be sure EAW is running properly. If it is, it is *strongly* recommended that you back your EAW folder up by burning it off to CD or to DVD or by copying it to another partition, hard drive or flash drive.
If EAW is not yet running properly for you, be prepared to specify your hardware setup including your graphics driver version, your operating system, your installation procedure and your specific error or faulty behavior; go to SimHQ's EAW forum or Frugal's EAW forum and request assistance for your problems; provide as much detail as possible in your post as to any specific error message or behavior, the point after launching EAW that the problem occurs, and what you are trying to do when the error occurs. Someone will be glad to help you with your problems.
Special installation case: If you purchased a downloaded install file for EAW from EB Games, this file will not install under any operating system other than one of the Win 9x operating systems. You will need to be able to install EAW (using the Full Install option) on a Win 9x system, immediately patch it to v.1.26e using Sydbod's patch, then burn the resulting EAW folder to CD or DVD. Take the disc to your system running Windows 2000 or Windows XP and copy the EAW folder to your chosen partition or hard drive. Create any desired shortcuts to the eaw.exe file. If your network includes a Win 9x system, install EAW there, patch it to v.1.26e and share the resulting folder. Copy the folder to your chosen system. Back this folder up immediately and keep the backup in a safe place.
If this describes your situation and if you have no access to a Win 9x system please post at either SimHQ's EAW forum or Frugal's EAW forum and possibly someone running one of the Win 9x line will be able to help you with the installation process.
Author's note:
Sydbod's survey of acceptable graphics cards for EAW and Sydbod's procedure for installing a downloaded EAW install file from EB Games are used in this document.
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"Terrific. I'm about to get killed a million miles from nowhere, with a gung-ho iguana who tells me to relax!"
Alex
The Last Starfighter
... and thank you for the flowers ... very good choice as we have a woman involved .. 
