Heroes of Might and Magic III + Win7?

[skdyer]

Just wanted to know if anyone has had success running Heroes of Might and Magic III on Windows 7? I ordered it this weekend but haven't received it so I just have my fingers crossed for now. I'll report back when I determine if I can get it working.

 

[rlwindows]

i got it to work

Well, your post was several months ago, so maybe you don't care any more, but I managed to install and run it after some trials. First, to install it, I had to right-click on the setup.exe (or whatever the program name was; i don't have it in front of me) on the CD and right-click and choose propertied. In the Compatibility tab, I picked "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)".

After it installs, go to C:\Program Files\3DO\Heroes 3 Complete.

Do the same thing (Windows XP SP2 Compatiblity) for ALL executables in that folder. There are a bunch of them. If you don't do it for all of them, the program will crash occasionally.

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Thanks for posting this, rlwindows. skdyer, let us know if this solution worked for you!

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[kokosbolle]

Heroes 3 change compapility Xp SP2

Didn't work for me!

-I have not yet seen 'changing compability' have any effect on any app?

'Run as administrator' sometimes seems to work on some things... but not this one apparently..

Oh well. If anyone else has had success with change compability or running H3 please post!

cheers,

 

[skdyer]

It's hard to know what I changed in order to make this work because I've changed too many variables at once. But I'll tell you my setup and hopefully it points you in the right direction.

First of all, I purchased the game from gog.com. This is a GREAT site that takes old games, repackages them with a new installer, and then tests/tweaks with modern systems to make sure the game works. (Plus they are DRM free so know annoying disc checks.) So, if you are running the game from the old CD it might be worth the $5 or $10, whatever gog.com charges, to just repurchase the game and run their setup.

As far as the compatibility settings, I am running as administrator in windows 98/ME compatibility mode. Even with these settings occasionally when I run the game it does not work correctly. But 95% of the time it does. I've noticed it often depends on what other applications I have open. For example, if firefox is running that will always cause it to crap out. So another suggestion would be to make sure you have all other applications closed.

If all of that doesn't work I am wondering if it is worth toying with running it in XP mode. Now that Windows 7 XP mode doesn't require hardware virtualization it seems like that is an option that is open to more people. I am pretty sure you should be able to get HoMM III running without taking this drastic action though.

 

[cmuije]

i cant get my Heroes of Might and Magic 3 to install on my computer, i just recently bought the game and it keeps giving me errors, i have tired everything on here and it still does not work... HELP!!

 

[skdyer]

i cant get my Heroes of Might and Magic 3 to install on my computer, i just recently bought the game and it keeps giving me errors, i have tired everything on here and it still does not work... HELP!!

Can you please be more specific? What are you installing from? CD or from downloaded installation package? What errors are you encountering?

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Cmuije, please post your System Spec first. We can't really help you until we know all the details of your setup.

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[annu]

So I too have a problem with the game. I tried what was explained here, nothing helped.

So my prob is that when I press Autorun it pops up that window with Instal, Play and so on clickers, and Non of them buttons work. The window disappears after I press any of them. Any ideas?

 

[Bootz]

Kinda off subject but i play Heroes 2 gold on Vista x64 all the time. Every once in awhile i lose sound and on occasion it does freeze, but most times i can play for couple hours with no issues at all.

Again kinda off subject but i can confirm Heroes 1 and 3 work on Vista x64 as well.

I should mention that all mine are the original 3DO versions and not remakes.

 

[kenn213]

I bought Heroes III Complete from GoG.com as well and have been playing it (with limited success) on Windows 7 Home Premium x64. I have set all the .exe files in the game's directory to "Run as Administrator" and Compatibility with WinXP SP2. I can usually get anywhere from two to four hours of gameplay in before it crashes and I have to reload from the autosave.

After emailing GoG.com's support team, they replied that they don't support Windows 7 yet. So warning to anyone buying from GoG.com, your games might not work on Windows 7. So far I'm 1 for 2.

 

[sygnus21]

Look through this guide... Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues, especially step 5, updating your direct x files, and step 14, permissions.

Good luck

 

[skdyer]

Wow, I was really surprised to hear you say that GoG does not support Windows 7 but sure enough in the description for that game on their website it says it only supports Vista and XP. Very strange. I too encounter the same problem. Sometimes the game randomly crashes. I've just sort of accepted it as a small inconvenience of getting to play such a great game. Though I can't present conclusive evidence about this, in general I feel like the game runs with more stability when I close all other applications prior to launching HoMMIII. You could give that a whirl.

 

[BDJ]

Tcp/ip games in Heroes III?

Hey all

My wife just got a new laptop with W7.
I just copied the whole game folder with everything from our normal PC to her Laptop (so no real installing - just copying the files)
And it works like a charm...almost

We normally play multiplayer tcp/ip, with me on the normal PC and her on the Laptop.
But she keeps getting "thrown off" all the time.

I tried everything!
Uninstalled antivirus. Switched off firewall. Changed channel on our wireless connection to the router. Even plugged in network cabel to the router instead of using wireless

Nothing works - she keeps getting disconnected from the games we play...
Anyone can help with this?

Thanks in advance!
(Ps we play the "Heroes Complete" game)

 

[sygnus21]

I'm going to "guess" it's a server thing. Might have something to do with the fact that the game was never "actually" installed and the server might see this as cheating and disconnects the game.

My two cents as I've never done multiplayer.

Good luck.

 

[BDJ]

Thanks for the reply.

I just tried installing it (only Shadow of Death) on both computers - like really installing it

It went fine, but the disconnects still happens :-(

Maybe it just cant work with W7?

 

[sygnus21]

Have you looked into some fourms for the game to see what others have to say? It might be worth a try?

 

[baal80]

Hello,

I'll just repost what I posted on GoG.com forums as an answer to the following post:

I have windows 7. I have this game on disc and when I try running it, a black screen just comes up, i have to run it in my xp mode to get it to play. I downloaded it off of GOG thinking it would work and the same things happened. any clue why?

Unfortunately I have the same problem. Bought this game yesterday from GOG, installed without problems on my Win7 (Home Premium 64) and I can't get it to work. I tried different tricks like running 'as administrator' and in 'compatibility mode' to no avail - after launching the game I get a black screen and nothing happens from now on... At this point I'm forced to reboot my PC manually (alt tab doesn't work, win+L doesn't work, ctrl+shift+esc doesn't work).

Naturally I'm using Home Premium version so I can't use XP mode...
It's really very annoying, I wanted to play HoMM3 again so much...

Do you have any tips on what else I can try to make it work?

Thanks in advance.

 

[lunchboxoven]

Can't install

I have Heroes 3 complete on disc, and I just got a new laptop with Windows 7, so I'm not very familiar. I've tried running Heroes several times now by skipping past the incompatibility messages (operating system, RAM, and DirectX) and it won't fully install. It gets to 94% every time and freezes up so I have to take out the disk to get the installer to close. I tried the properties/compatibility method only to find that I have no compatibility tab. I'm confused by this. Could anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

I have Heroes 3 complete on disc, and I just got a new laptop with Windows 7, so I'm not very familiar. I've tried running Heroes several times now by skipping past the incompatibility messages (operating system, RAM, and DirectX) and it won't fully install. It gets to 94% every time and freezes up so I have to take out the disk to get the installer to close. I tried the properties/compatibility method only to find that I have no compatibility tab. I'm confused by this. Could anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Hi lunchboxoven,

Make sure you're looking at Properties for the installer .exe, not the game disc. You need to right-click the game disc, click Explore, then navigate to the installer, right-click and select Properties, and there should be a Compatibility tab there.

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team