[Sundog]

Hi, I'm a total newbie as far as Freespace goes, and I have a problem. I downloaded Freespace 2 and the Daemon Tools utility from Freespacezone, and while I can get it to work, I invariably get a Blue Screen of Death windows failure. At first it occurred during the second mission I played after going into FS2, but I just started playing the first Hercules 2 mission and it's happening just after the second batch of Shivan fighters arrive. Can anyone suggest any modifications I might make to my settings to prevent this? I'm running Windows XP, if that helps.

[TopAce]

Downloaded it? Is it a legal download?

[Kie99]

Well this board gives link to where he downloaded it from.

[Charismatic]

Any D\l of FS2 is legal unless he had to pay for it, which he didnt.

And i knwo the guy who hosts Freespacezone.com

And Sundog: Try reinstalling it. Maby try another host, another link to D\l FS2 off of another site. Plenty in HLP to choose from.

FS2 ISO's maby? (Im still clueless on that..)

[Hippo]

try running in compatability mode

[TopAce]

Originally posted by kietotheworld
Well this board gives link to where he downloaded it from.

[dumb question]HotU?[/dumb question] :devil:

[Hippo]

no, he said freespace zone

[Sundog]

Thanks. I'll try compatibility mode, and if that doesn't work I'll reinstall or try another d/l.

[Scuddie]

If you receive a BSOD in WinXP, there is something seriously wrong with your system.  Tell us what the STOP message was, and we might be able to help you.  The only likely cause of your situation is either you have bad hardware (faulty video card, bad memory), Overstressed hardware (heat), misconfigured hardware, or a spyware/virus infestation large enough to warrant a reformat/reinstall.

Anyway, you probably won't get this resolved until everything checks out.

[Sundog]

I'll have my system checked over (thankfully, it's still in warranty after my last upgrade).

I set the game for Win95 compatibility mode and haven't had any more problems so far. Thanks a lot for everyone's input!

[Sundog]

Well, so much for that. The Blue Screen says:

STOP 0x0000008e, (0x0000005, 0xe7953f24, 0xf733b494, 0x00000000)

ALCXSENS.SYS - ADDRESS F7953 BASE at F7939000, DATESTAMP 403A423D

[Scuddie]

Figures.  Disable any onboard sound you may have, and get yourself a real sound card.

[Sundog]

Ah. Well, I was planning on getting a card next week anyway (currently I'm using one on my Mother board).

Good to know it's not something worse.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Charismatic
Any D\l of FS2 is legal unless he had to pay for it, which he didnt.

Nope. Downloading FS2 is completely illegal from all sources no matter what you might have heard.

may have released the code but all other materials are still owned by Interplay which means that since they didn't release anything that FS2 is protected by exactly the same laws that protect any brand new game.


Enforcement of those laws is a completely different matter. Nobody cares much if you download FS2. Interplay haven't said anything despite it being up for download on HotU for years. As a result the community are quite happy to give out links to the game to stop the community dwindling away to nothing. It's still illegal though and if Interplay ever send out a cease and desist we'll have to stop giving out the links.

[Sundog]

That's interesting. Freespacezone states on their site that it's freeware. Frankly, I wouldn't have downloaded it otherwise.

[karajorma]

They've made the incorrect assumption that because the code was released the game itself is now Freeware.

However there is no way to actually pay the people who do have the rights to the game anyway. Interplay have closed their online store and don't sell games themselves so the only way to get hold of the game is to download a copy.

If you feel guilty just buy a copy of Red Faction and something by Interplay and throw it away

[karajorma]

If you're running FS2_Open the cutscenes on the CD are pretty much useless for you.

If you run HotU then you'll be running with the No-CD crack anyway.

[Deepstar]

FS2 Download is illegal? I heard this the first time since the Source Code was released..

I mean HotU is a full download- and playable Demo without Videos, Speech and High-Res Textures, but here on HLP you find the Files to make a full FS2 of it.


Okay i have 3 Original Freespace 2 Versions here, but for HotU Users this is.. confusing..

[karajorma]

HotU are the first to admit that almost their entire list of downloads is illegal. It's right there in their FAQ.

They claim that they have a the moral right to break the law because it would be a bigger crime to allow games like FS2 to fade away because no one can get hold of it. After all if Interplay shows no interest in selling the game then who does it hurt to allow people to download it for free?

 I tend to agree with them. Without HotU and other people putting up the ISOs the FS community would be much smaller. Many of the people who regularly contribute to the game are people who only have downloaded their copy (or who lost/damaged their original disks and can now only play using a download).

As for the level of illegality I think we're talking closer to the parking ticket end rather than the grand larceny end. HotU has been up for years and AFAIK no one has ever tried to shut them down because they only put up download links for games that even the publishers seem to no longer care for.

[Kie99]

Just spent about 10 minutes googling for this.

http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~plankerj/fs2movies/

Happy to oblige.

EDIT:  Take a look at the first link in my sig. (Karajorma's FAQ).