Newbie player
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Hi, Josey, and welcome. Your post got me to thinking, so I did some checking. F4 did not show up in my hardrive, either. It did show up in -
J:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common
I suggest you check your Steam Library for a F4 folder. If it isn’t there, that could be your problem, or maybe a corrupt install from Steam.I see the Falcon folder in my list of games under the Steam Commons folder…Falcon will not start as mentioned before. And BMS refuses to install- so what’s left? Can’t we simply purchase BMS? Any copyrights that were once in place for Falcon 3/4 are long expired. There’s not one court in the land that would even hear a case, much less render a verdict of infringment.
Ask me how I know these things. Being married to an Ole Miss Law graduate (honors) since 1980 who has served at both state and federal positions within our court systems after serving both as prosecutor and defense appointee .
After googling forever so many fans of the Falcon 4 production…and reading so many of these enthusiasts running into loading issues, its high time the programmers sit down and develope a business plan.
As I step down from the soap box, what steps am I missing that Falcon BMS will not install? Some years back I had success, but that was a different system. I believe I was running Windows 8.1 at the time (and still do, refusing to go to WinX)
My system is the HP Envy 700-216
AMD A10-6700 APU Radeon 8670 HD running at 3.7GHz
28 Gb ram 2Tb Western HD Toshiba 42" monitor
Logitech Wingman Xtreme
Realistic STA-2000 that I’ve had since 1980.Waiting on a Founder’s Edition GPU to arrive Wednesday…500 watt PS in place.
Current setup runs DCS v1.58 flawlessly…v2.56 is the pitts plain and simple.
FreeFalcon6 runs like a scaled dog.Its a shame the money that has been lost that BMS could have reaped from their efforts.
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(ignoring all questions about international IP law and business models)
I think I’ve heard others here, or on reddit etc, having problems specifically with Windows 8.1 and the Steam install of Falcon 4.
I can easily imaging neither BMS nor Steam getting much test coverage on a ~10 year old OS that was never very popular even at the time…
Maybe worth starting a new thread with “Windows 8.1” in the title and see if we can find any examples of folks who installed successfully… maybe there are some tips/hacks or workarounds to be learned.
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I see the Falcon folder in my list of games under the Steam Commons folder…Falcon will not start as mentioned before. And BMS refuses to install- so what’s left? Can’t we simply purchase BMS? Any copyrights that were once in place for Falcon 3/4 are long expired. There’s not one court in the land that would even hear a case, much less render a verdict of infringment.
Ask me how I know these things. Being married to an Ole Miss Law graduate (honors) since 1980 who has served at both state and federal positions within our court systems after serving both as prosecutor and defense appointee .
After googling forever so many fans of the Falcon 4 production…and reading so many of these enthusiasts running into loading issues, its high time the programmers sit down and develope a business plan.
As I step down from the soap box, what steps am I missing that Falcon BMS will not install? Some years back I had success, but that was a different system. I believe I was running Windows 8.1 at the time (and still do, refusing to go to WinX)
My system is the HP Envy 700-216
AMD A10-6700 APU Radeon 8670 HD running at 3.7GHz
28 Gb ram 2Tb Western HD Toshiba 42" monitor
Logitech Wingman Xtreme
Realistic STA-2000 that I’ve had since 1980.Waiting on a Founder’s Edition GPU to arrive Wednesday…500 watt PS in place.
Current setup runs DCS v1.58 flawlessly…v2.56 is the pitts plain and simple.
FreeFalcon6 runs like a scaled dog.Its a shame the money that has been lost that BMS could have reaped from their efforts.
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If you bought Falcon 4.0 or “Gold” or “Collection” from Steam, and you are sure you have installed the one game out of those collections (Falcon 4.0) that is required by the current legal license holder (Retrosim/Tommo) for the Falcon software international copyright to install the BMS modification of Falcon, per the license agreement with the current copyright owner Retrosim, then uninstall it, get a return from Steam, and buy it from GOG.com. If the one from GOG doesn’t work, and you have tried everything, you can uninstall that and return it to GOG as well, to get your money back. Both of these companies offer this sort of return for unused games that won’t install or run. Obviously, that is not ideal, but the point is that if one does not work, try the other - if you return any unused game within a designated time window, you will get your money back. Not gonna touch the rest of that can of worms, best wishes and luck with the RTX FE and driver installation on Win 8.1 - I don’t envy the potential headaches there… and to not be able to even take advantage of DX12 (or even ray tracing, when Vulcan is not an option) would be a deal breaker for this e-pilot, for sure.
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If you bought Falcon 4.0 or “Gold” or “Collection” from Steam, and you are sure you have installed the one game out of those collections (Falcon 4.0) that is required by the current legal license holder (Retrosim/Tommo) for the Falcon software international copyright to install the BMS modification of Falcon, per the license agreement with the current copyright owner Retrosim
+1 this is often glossed over in youtube vids etc … but it’s shockingly confusing, on GoG… sounds like Steam is too.
You pay for something called “Falcon Collection” (ooh 50% off right now… just $5) and you get several things in your game library (Falcon, Falcon A.T., Falcon Gold) but none of those are exactly what you need … you have to drill down to the “extras” or “goodies” section of “Falcon Gold” and download the 367MB thing called “Falcon 4.0”.
https://www.gog.com/game/falcon_collection
pro-tip: also download the uber classic “Art of the Kill” pdf while you’re there.
HTH
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airtex2019 is right. I have the same Falcon 4.0 installation (but from the original CD) and I use it since windows 8.1 and then I moved to Win 10 with it. I never had issues with the BMS installation. Try this first, and if it does not work then it would be good to start a dedicated topic to try to gather those that might have experience with windows 8.1.
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I don’t know….I do know that Windows 8.1 has served me very well. I’ve had Windows 10 and I’ve setup Windows 10 systems.
No thanks No more. Besides, Windows 8x has better backward compatibility for older games, whereas Win10 admits they will no longer support older games.This is a generational subject matter. I’m 60 years of age and I’ve seen it all.
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Did you try the $5 version from gog.com? Ok if you don’t want to, well within your rights. I’m just curious to learn, if it’s something specific to Steam. (And if so Steam should refund you what you paid them.)
(Not sure about Steam but) the GoG version is a standalone download – it doesn’t need or make any use of their “GoG Galaxy” software running in the background.
Fewer moving parts == fewer stuff to break down over time. As true in software, just as it is in real world…
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This is a generational subject matter. I’m 60 years of age and I’ve seen it all.
You’re not alone here, plenty of seasoned bone bags around these parts. I lived through the DOS and then MS/DOS eras, and each version of Windows since. It was when the tech gear I was buying literally required DX12 for functionality that I bit the bullet myself and began the fight to teach Windows 10 that my fancy gaming computer is not a smart phone. Mentioned previously in this thread iirc, I spent some time learning how to wrestle control back and get look and feel more on par with the older Windows I was used to (and I did), and wrote it all down in an article for my friends (and for my own personal reference in future, as I forget things plenty easy enough having been born in era of DOS).
Windows 10 is a demanding horse, but not one that is incapable of being tamed. In the way you know Windows 8.1, you can one day learn to force Windows 10 to function and behave similarly - even if it means involving *(known and safe) third party applications to help when necessary. But as long as you can get your Windows 8.1 to work, and you aren’t concerned with modern features or functions which may be unavailable in older versions of Windows, stick with what you know and keep doing what you love!
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Did you try the $5 version from gog.com? Ok if you don’t want to, well within your rights. I’m just curious to learn, if it’s something specific to Steam. (And if so Steam should refund you what you paid them.)
(Not sure about Steam but) the GoG version is a standalone download – it doesn’t need or make any use of their “GoG Galaxy” software running in the background.
Fewer moving parts == fewer stuff to break down over time. As true in software, just as it is in real world…
Yes, I just now purchased and downloaded the Falcon Collection from GoG…but alas, problem not solved. BMS installation still sees my system as sans Falcon 4 install. I now have two versions of Falcon 4…the GoG and the Steam version.
Can I please get some help here?
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Yes, I just now purchased and downloaded the Falcon Collection from GoG…but alas, problem not solved. BMS installation still sees my system as sans Falcon 4 install. I now have two versions of Falcon 4…the GoG and the Steam version.
Can I please get some help here?
That is certainly strange behavior. Taking shots in the dark, but not much more that can be done, really… It makes me wonder if Windows 8.1 has properly installed Falcon 4.0
You can verify this by opening the Windows Registry and navigating to the GOG program listing - press the Windows Start key and type RegEdit and click on the Registry to open, then in the address bar along the top, paste this line and press enter:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\GOG.com\Games\Extras\FALCON-BONUS
If installed, the screen should show all sorts of installation details like this:
If it’s not there, you can poke around to see if it is in a different location, potentially the same path without the “WOW6432Node” part of the address. But if it doesn’t exist anywhere, there may have been a problem with the program installation which is causing BMS installer to not recognize your Falcon 4.0 program.
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Yes, I just now purchased and downloaded the Falcon Collection from GoG…but alas, problem not solved. BMS installation still sees my system as sans Falcon 4 install. I now have two versions of Falcon 4…the GoG and the Steam version.
Can I please get some help here?
Why did you purchase the Falcon 4.0 “Collection” instead of simply purchasing Falcon 4.0? Did you do the same for Steam? I have that (Steam) version and got it when I was running Win 7, then Win8.1, reinstalled it again with Win10 Pro and never have had an issue.
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Yes, I just now purchased and downloaded the Falcon Collection from GoG…but alas, problem not solved. BMS installation still sees my system as sans Falcon 4 install. I now have two versions of Falcon 4…the GoG and the Steam version.
Can I please get some help here?
Hi, Josey,
Firstly, don’t get frustrated!
I just looked at Steam. There is still a Falcon 4.0 Standalone. That’s how I set mine up, on Win 10, with absolutely no issues. The reason I mention that is that I suspect the Collection is the problem, as others have mentioned. I don’t think BMS can “see” F4, it sees the collection. If it were me, I’d return both collections and just get the standalone F4
While I was in Steam, I went into F4 (BTW, jeez BMS has grown a LOT since then) . Can you enter the game via Steam? Not the collection, the actual F4? Just take it as far as the Intro screen, the one with Instant action on top. -
Yes, I just now purchased and downloaded the Falcon Collection from GoG…but alas, problem not solved. BMS installation still sees my system as sans Falcon 4 install. I now have two versions of Falcon 4…the GoG and the Steam version.
Can I please get some help here?
Dang.
Just to be clear – you are running the 64-bit edition of Windows 8.1, correct?
BMS 4.35 is now x64 only … but I don’t know what the error message is when attempting install on 32-bit OS. (Maybe it just gets confused looking for original F4 in the wrong spot?)
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I’m trying close to every avenue I read not only here, but other sites posting found via Google-
Here, posters say the Steam version works and is all that is needed.
(Fail)
Here, posters say to purchase the Falcon Collection from GoG-
(Fail)
Here posters say to examine my registry-
Steam doesn’t register.
GoG did however as shown by Semlar-But nothing is working…I’m getting sick to my stomach with this business.
Posters quote saying I need a Falcon4.0 folder with just the Falcon4.exe file…and I need registry info merged into my registry.
So…it begs to raise the question- where do I get the reg files and the executable?Why would BMS coders spend years on this developement if its more than a trip to the dentist to get it to work?
As far as securities go, I use default windows firewall with my own rules, Windows Defender and my own Windows Hardening procedure that culls certain services.Is there a Doctor in the House?
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Dang.
Just to be clear – you are running the 64-bit edition of Windows 8.1, correct?
BMS 4.35 is now x64 only … but I don’t know what the error message is when attempting install on 32-bit OS. (Maybe it just gets confused looking for original F4 in the wrong spot?)
Correct-
Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
28 Gb ram
2 Tb Western Digital
MSI MB
MSI GTX-1060 (6 Gb)
Toshiba 42" monitor
Wired Keyboard, Wireless Mouse, Logitech Wingman XtremeGoG registry entry makes no mention of Falcon 4.0…only Falcon Gold and Falcon AT
The Falcon 40 from steam refuses to launch…no matter what compatibility mode. Even FreeFalcon6 campaign fails work properly. So its got to be part of a windows update.
Do I need Dot.Net installed (which I don’t)
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From GOG you go into “Falcon Gold” and select the 367MB “extra” called “Falcon 4.0”
In your downloads folder it will be called
setup_falcon_4_2.0.0.1.exe
I feel bad for wasting your $5 so I’m spinning up a virt with Windows 8.1 and will give it a try… if it ever gets done downloading 8 years of security patches, lol
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From GOG you go into “Falcon Gold” and select the 367MB “extra” called “Falcon 4.0”
In your downloads folder it will be called
setup_falcon_4_2.0.0.1.exe
I feel bad for wasting your $5 so I’m spinning up a virt with Windows 8.1 and will give it a try… if it ever gets done downloading 8 years of security patches, lol
Ok…I see-
I’ve just now downloaded the setup_falcon_4_2.0.0.1 file…I had not done this before posting (w regards to GoG)…
Will run setup and see what follows.
5 bucks? Lord, I would spend 40 bucks just to get BMS back again. Its been so long since I had BMS albeit it was my earlier system that croaked. -
From GOG you go into “Falcon Gold” and select the 367MB “extra” called “Falcon 4.0”
In your downloads folder it will be called
setup_falcon_4_2.0.0.1.exe
I feel bad for wasting your $5 so I’m spinning up a virt with Windows 8.1 and will give it a try… if it ever gets done downloading 8 years of security patches, lol
Ok….here’s the outcome ATM-
the setup completed.
the setup window offered a “Launch Now” button on the lower right-
I selected the “Launch”Low and Behold, Falcon 4.0 main screen interface came up. Something I have not seen since probably 2001.
I’m just reporting fact ATM. I looked through the setup screen-
It recognized my logitech joystick- so, that was interesting to me anyway. I was scared to opt for an instant action for fear of a CTD, I’m just hoping that the successful loading of Falcon4 was recorded into my registry.
BTW, I just let the GoG setup run its default course, so the install directory is C:\GoG Game\Falcon4.0-Please Advise if I need to make an adjustment at this point. I will now attempt to start the BMS setup file and report findings ASAP-
PostScript:
Oh my God-
There is a God-
Of all days, to be on an Easter Sunday-
I have the BMS setup launch screen before my eyes.
I had to report at least the screen presence, as my hopes are now so high.
I think I’m going to cry and ask for forgiveness of my sins. -
Let us know! I just completed install of GoG Falcon 4 and and BMS 4.35.0 on my test virt … seems to work just fine. (Can’t actually play it on a virt … no direct3d graphics and no audio device … but the install seems clean and the config-launcher starts, can even get the 2D menu screen to load for a moment.)