Who do I call to get support for two HPS games

[bruceman]

I am having issues trying to upgrade my two HPS games, Smolensk 41, E Alamein 42. It seems that I cannot upgrade to the new versions. I am running Windows 7 on my new laptop. It would be nice that HPS have a toll-free support line that I could call and get technical help that I need. At $59 a pop I think HPS can afford that for their customers. I contacted them some months ago with these issues going back and forth with e-mails is not doing the trick. So HPS if you are reading this please contact me at pletschbruce@Hotmail.com and leave me with a telephone number of a human being I can talk to.
Thank you
dedicated wargamer
Bruce

 

[Jazz]

I am having issues trying to upgrade my two HPS games, Smolensk 41, E Alamein 42. It seems that I cannot upgrade to the new versions. I am running Windows 7 on my new laptop. It would be nice that HPS have a toll-free support line that I could call and get technical help that I need. At $59 a pop I think HPS can afford that for their customers. I contacted them some months ago with these issues going back and forth with e-mails is not doing the trick. So HPS if you are reading this please contact me at pletschbruce@Hotmail.com and leave me with a telephone number of a human being I can talk to.
Thank you
dedicated wargamer
Bruce

This forum is for support for the Forums only. There is no game support here.

You will probably get better response by posting your questions to the PanzerCampaigns/Modern Campaigns sub forums at

http://forums.gamesquad.com/forumdisplay.php?105-Panzer-Campaigns-Modern-Campaigns

 

[Gary McClellan]

I've sent notice of this to the guy who does HPS support.

 

[bruceman]

HPS e-mail me with the solution to my problem. I am now up and running with the update. Thank you Rich ( HP Support ) and thank you Gary to pointing me in the right
direction.

Bruce

 

[edh]

care to share the fix? i too am having problems getting all my games updated on my new laptop...

 

[Gary McClellan]

One fast thing. If you are installing to Vista/Win7, you cannot let the earlier HPS games install to their default directory. (The later games have their default directory fixed). In short, if you try to install to /program files/whatever it won't work. (I don't know the technical details).

The easy fix for that is this. When you install games, set up a directory directly on the HD you want to use. For instance, all my HPS games are installed to C:\HPS Simulations (So for instance, it might be C:\HPS Simulations\Stalingrad 42 or the like).


Not sure if that will fix your specific issue edh, but it's the best starting place.


In any case, for more detailed help, email the HPS support at support@hpssims.com and they'll get you set up.

 

[edh]

thanks gary

i found out that it was showing installed in /program files/ and in /program files (x86)/. i was able to patch up and get it working in the x86 one just fine but was having a small problem w/ a few of jison's unit markers only showing the inside box but not the surrounding border on the game screen. in trying to fix that i un-installed everything and then re-installed the game (MG44) in a new folder i put on my C: drive i named HPS and patched back up but now it keeps hanging up on me when i try to re-install volcanomans art work. on top of that its not making a folder when im installing the games into the HPS folder its just putting all the files into that folder w/ no sub-folder for each game title (which i ended up making myself and cut/paste all the files into). its getting very frustrating now


and just to be clear i have been doing them in the order your supposed to ie, install game, patch up game, install volcano artwork, install jison mods...

 

[edh]

i also DL'd volcano mans artwork for MG44 a 2d time just to make sure the first one i was using hadnt become corrupted somehow and had the same problem... i then went and installed korsun to see if it was just the MG44 game that was having the problem but it keeps hanging up w/ his korsun artwork as well.

 

[schwerepunk]

I had some problems with Volcano Man's mods, if I extracted them from the zip file. No problems if I just downloaded the file, right clicked open (instead of extract), copied and pasted the files into the game. One other minor point I found, make sure files are bitmaps as opposed to jpg's once installed.

By the way Volcano Mans mods are outstanding as are Jason's Map Mods (I absolutely couldn't play the games without the embedded symbols from Map mod, and wouldn't enjoy it without Volcano Mans and Phillipe's artwork). Thank you to all three gentlemen for all of that labor.

 

[vsadek]

I am not saying this will 100% solve your issue, but try this.

After you download ZIP file with Volcano's mods and before you extract content of the archive, right-click on it and call Properties. In the lower part of General tab click the Unblock button and then Apply or OK button to close the dialog immediately.

Hope this will do the trick for you.

 

[edh]

i appriciate the attempts to help guys.

its all just very strange. so after going into my control panel and un-installing all the games and then having the problems i talked about w/ trying to create my own folder on the C: drive to re-install the games into and then the problems to re-install volcanos work i just said the hell w/ it and went back to what was working for me originally, ie putting them back on my program file (x86). now here is where the strange stuff is. i finished re-installing all the games and go in to patch them. after patching them i start them just to make sure that the patch went on right and they were up to date, only to find that i dont need to re-install volcano or jison's stuff as it is already there along w/ the couple of saved games i had started in MG44 and S41?!?!?! now how that happened after going into my control panel and telling it to un-install each game i have no idea.

so anyway the couple of errors that popped up when i installed jison's work initially for the different games i will/can live with as i spent most of yesterday un-installing/re-installing games becoming very frustrated

sometimes i really hate computers!

 

[vsadek]

edh, can you post those error messages? From them, maybe, we can figure out what is happening.

I also have Market Garden '44 and Smolensk '41 (together with 9 other PzC titles) and I am using Volcano's mods and Jisons maps in all my PzC games. Never had any issue with them.

--------------------
Off-topic … since I started to use Volcano's and Jisons work I can't think of playing this games with old graphics. It's amazing how this great looking graphics radically improve the overall look of the game.

 

[edh]

ok these are the ones i got in market garden using the 7-zip file manager:

0 can not open output file C:\program files (x86)\hps simulations\market-garden '44\east-german\2d symbolsLg.bmp
1 can not open output file C:\program files (x86)\hps simulations\market-garden '44\east-german\2d symbolsSm.bmp
2 can not open output file C:\program files (x86)\hps simulations\market-garden '44\east-german\unitbox.bmp

and just an fyi but i wasnt receiving any error messages when i was trying to install VM's artwork when i had created my own folder on my C: drive entitled hps, it was just sitting there doing nothing shortly after i started it ie it had started asking me if i wanted to overwrite stuff like it does and i said yes then it went a little further and then just stopped working...

 

[vsadek]

edh, attached is the ZIP file with Jisons 3 BMP's you have trouble with. Try to use them.

Do you have some anti-virus software running on your computer? Try to disable it while extracting files from ZIP.

Generally, I never install HPS games into default folder :\Program Files\etc. Actually, I always partition my HD’s to C: and D: logical partitions.

If I have, for example, HD of 300GB total capacity I create C: partition with 60GB space and D: partition with all the rest of available space. Then I use C: partition only for operating system installation and necessary applications I require for my work. D: partition is used for documents/data storage and installations of all the other stuff. So here, all my HPS games are installed in D:\HPS Simulations\whatever-the-game-name-is pattern.

I am not saying this is the most brilliant way of managing things, but it works perfectly for me.

 

[edh]

as you may be able to tell by now im not very computer savy... :nuts:
i had a major meltdown some time ago with my old system and just got this new laptop in aug and finally got around to putting my pzc games on to it and just did it the the way i had always done w/ my old computer.

after initially doing it as i said i went back and thru the control panel un-installed all the games and tried to make up a new folder putting it on the C: drive instead of c:\program files\ but then like i mentioned after hours of fighting w/ it was unable to get VM's artwork to install for me and so just went back to what was working for me originally using the \program files (x86). and im not sure why but when i originally installed the game i was just going thru the \program files\ and it wouldnt let me patch any of the games from the original v1.0 yet i was able to get them working in (x86) which i had discovered the games had installed to both areas (have i mentioned i really hate computers sometimes)...

anyway thanks for posting these files and i will give them a go and let you know the outcome...

 

[edh]

nope still showing up the way they were w/ just the symbol for an infantry unit w/ no bordering box on the map and no artwork in the side panel, just a box w/ grey background w/ FIXED in the middle. thankfully it does show the units name and # of men, morale etc etc.

 

[Jazz]

ok these are the ones i got in market garden using the 7-zip file manager:

0 can not open output file C:\program files (x86)\hps simulations\market-garden '44\east-german\2d symbolsLg.bmp
1 can not open output file C:\program files (x86)\hps simulations\market-garden '44\east-german\2d symbolsSm.bmp
2 can not open output file C:\program files (x86)\hps simulations\market-garden '44\east-german\unitbox.bmp

and just an fyi but i wasnt receiving any error messages when i was trying to install VM's artwork when i had created my own folder on my C: drive entitled hps, it was just sitting there doing nothing shortly after i started it ie it had started asking me if i wanted to overwrite stuff like it does and i said yes then it went a little further and then just stopped working...

You need to open the zip archive as an administrator.

I've never had any issues with installing or updating games on Vista/Win 7 machines in the original program files directory as long as you do things as an adminstrator.

Right click on the icon of the Zip archive and "Run as Adminstrator" should be one of the options.

 

[edh]

im not sure where you mean to click on the zip archive? i have a library that i click on down in the taskbar area which i then go through to get to my downloads.. i tried clicking on the east german folder but dont see any option for 'run as...'

now when i unzip the file to the game it does pop up w/ a message saying 'you'll need to provide admin permission to copy to this folder'...

as far as i know i am the admin on this computer as its my own laptop and no one else uses it...

when i click the continue button it appears as if it is copying the files to the game and comes up showing a box saying that it is copying them yet they still dont appear in the game. i just dont get why it took all of jison's other files but not these 3 as everything else appears as it should in the game

have i mentioned i really really REALLY hate computers sometimes...

 

[vsadek]

I live in Europe, so time-zone difference has to be taken into account.

What Jazz is referring to is following: you start your 7-ZIP application from Start button –-> Programs –-> 7-ZIP. You have to right click your 7-ZIP icon to call the menu with Run as administrator command (screenshot attached).

I see two potential issues with your computer.

First, you have to be Administrator on your machine to run installations/copy-pasting etc (and some other useful things). "To be Administrator" actually means your user account had to be assigned with privileges of total control over commands and actions you issue to the OS.

Second, the name of folder :/Program Files(x86)/etc suggests me you maybe have 64-bit version of Win OS installed. When you use 64-bit OS and installing some 32-bit applications onto it, OS by default creates folder named Program Files(x86) where (x86) is distinction mark that 32-bit applications are here. Generally, 32-bit applications can run on 64-bit OS, vice versa is not possible so this should not be the cause of your problems but we have to consider it as well.

To check what version of OS you have installed go to your Start button –-> Control panel –-> System and there you can find this information.

 

[edh]

ok i was able to select that and run it as admin and it seemed to go into the MG44 folder just fine but nothing has changed in game...

and yes it is 64 bit