VOGONS


First post, by ]--Freeman--[

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Hi everybody!

I'm trying get working Incoming from Rage Software with my original CD (It's the bundle version had come with voodoo 2) but it runs very slowly.

This is my hardware:
Motherboard Gigabyte GA8IPE1000 Rev3
Pentium 4 2'6GHZ
512 MB RAM
NVIDIA Geforce Ti4600 128MB (Nvidia Driver 45.23)
Windows 98 SE
DirectX 7.0a

I've tried nglide and dgvoodoo 1 but the result is the same. However I've seen that it's possible to run it properly but in systems more moderns like Windows 7, 8 o even 10. But I remeber to play it when I was children in Windows 98 with my Voodoo 2 without problems.

Maybe with a good settings in dgvoodoo 1 is possible to run it well, yet I'm lost with that.

I've checked here in Vogons, Steam and GOG forums but all the topics are related with modern systems or the topics related with Windows 98 are not solved or incomplete.

Can you help me?

Thanks a lot!

Reply 1 of 18, by soggi

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Did you try Incoming only with nglide and dgvoodoo? I know both only by name, never used them...but why are you using them with the config above? Incoming is a D3D game, it doesn't support 3dfx Glide - it's one of the many what I would call "false positives". People think it supports 3dfx Glide because it was bundled with a 3dfx Voodoo and/or has a 3dfx logo on the package.

Incoming should work flawlessly w/o nglide or dgvoodoo on the above system.

kind regards
soggi

Vintage BIOSes, firmware, drivers, tools, manuals and (3dfx) game patches -> soggi's BIOS & Firmware Page

soggi.org on Twitter - inactive at the moment

Reply 2 of 18, by fix_metal

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Have you possibly tried disabling hyper threading? I kind of remember some old games to actually slow down due to that, and by the clock of your P4 I'd say it has the feature (Northwood or Prescott?).

Reply 3 of 18, by soggi

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Yeah...that's another thought I also had and which I forgot to write down.

kind regards
soggi

Vintage BIOSes, firmware, drivers, tools, manuals and (3dfx) game patches -> soggi's BIOS & Firmware Page

soggi.org on Twitter - inactive at the moment

Reply 4 of 18, by ]--Freeman--[

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Yes, I've also tried without the wrappers (with direct3d) and the result it's the same 🙁 . However I've discovered if I run it with the parameter -nofullscreenmode, in windows runs very fast (too fast). The slowless comes when I run in fullscreen.

About hyperthreading, I have it disabled before installing windows 98. The CPU is Northwood.

It's true Incoming can run with Direct3D but also with 3dfx. With 3dfx it looks better.

Reply 5 of 18, by akula65

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Back in 2014 I downloaded some (supposed) official updates for Incoming:
i686vod2.zip - Cyrix Fix Voodoo2 OEM
incgerfx.zip - German Missing File Fix
ipaqjoy.zip - Joystick Fix Compaq OEM
itntjsfx.zip - Joystick Fix Creative GB Riva TNT OEM
incv2oem.zip - Speed Fix Voodoo2 OEM

You can currently get the first and last files at this URL. There is no documentation with these patches, and I don't know how specifically they are targeted, but the Speed Fix Voodoo2 OEM patch might be worth a try.

It baffles me why Rage Software couldn't/wouldn't produce a patch to integrate all of these fixes.

Reply 6 of 18, by eddman

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]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-01-12, 19:37:

It's true Incoming can run with Direct3D but also with 3dfx. With 3dfx it looks better.

There is no 3dfx Glide support. If it looks different it's because of the card itself, not the API.

Reply 7 of 18, by soggi

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akula65 wrote on 2025-01-12, 22:08:

Back in 2014 I downloaded some (supposed) official updates for Incoming:

It baffles me why Rage Software couldn't/wouldn't produce a patch to integrate all of these fixes.

I also thought there was at least one patch for an OEM version… It‘s the time when Incoming has been released - there where also many other games which came out in some slightly different versions and different patches and you sometimes don‘t know which of them you have to install.

The patches you named even didn‘t make it to Rage Software‘s website…

eddman wrote on 2025-01-13, 00:14:
]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-01-12, 19:37:

It's true Incoming can run with Direct3D but also with 3dfx. With 3dfx it looks better.

There is no 3dfx Glide support. If it looks different it's because of the card itself, not the API.

Yes, as I already wrote above - eddman is completely right here! I‘ll quote myself:

soggi wrote on 2025-01-11, 22:30:

… Incoming is a D3D game, it doesn't support 3dfx Glide - it's one of the many what I would call "false positives". People think it supports 3dfx Glide because it was bundled with a 3dfx Voodoo and/or has a 3dfx logo on the package.

kind regards
soggi

Vintage BIOSes, firmware, drivers, tools, manuals and (3dfx) game patches -> soggi's BIOS & Firmware Page

soggi.org on Twitter - inactive at the moment

Reply 8 of 18, by akula65

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Apparently, the files I downloaded were in response to this thread. Stiletto's link worked at that time and the URL had links to already patched EXEs rather than the original Rage patches, many of which were referenced in the Incoming FAQ on Rage Software's site. MAZter's link to the old Patches Scrolls appears to show valid links to patches no longer visible at https://www.patches-scrolls.de/ (search for "incoming" on the page). This includes a Matrox G200 OEM patch for the game.

Reply 9 of 18, by soggi

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Oh yes, haha...how could I forget...sometimes there were no download sections and even no information on the game's page...but in the FAQ! I will have a deeper look at it... *rollingeyes*

BTW I always try to get original files from the primary source (or archived primary source), for some time I save them separately together with an .url link file and maybe additional stuff in separate folders for each game / add-on.

BTW2 years ago I had the idea to mirror old game FAQs...could be a really great idea!?

Edit:
Finally found three of the patches at "downloads" -> https://web.archive.org/web/20001005114842/ht … nload.asp?sid=5 (but also not archived).
BTW I have a copy of the gamesdomain.co.uk FTP locally available.

thx 😀
kind regards
soggi

Vintage BIOSes, firmware, drivers, tools, manuals and (3dfx) game patches -> soggi's BIOS & Firmware Page

soggi.org on Twitter - inactive at the moment

Reply 10 of 18, by ]--Freeman--[

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First of all, thanks everybody for the help.

I see. I f you say that it's only a direct 3D game and all the 3dfx stuff related with it was a commercial action, ok, it's good to know these things. I didn't know it 😀. Thanks!

Well, I've applied i686vod2.zip and the result is the same. With incv2oem.zip, the same. :_(

I've taken a look the Rage FAQ but there is not a case where the game in fullscreen was slow. There is a new detail that I haven't realized. There is not music, but yes fx sound.

It's like the game didn't identify the graphic card. There is not 32 bits resolutions, only 16 bits resolution when I run the game with "-screenmode" parameter.

Reply 11 of 18, by RetroPCCupboard

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Not much help, but I just tried installing it from CD to my nVidia 4600 machine. CPU is Core 2 Duo X6800 on Intel 865 chipset. Graphics drivers are 45.23. RAM is 512Mb. For me it worked well at 1024x768 32 bit.

What resolution are you playing?

Reply 12 of 18, by ]--Freeman--[

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RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-15, 20:15:

Not much help, but I just tried installing it from CD to my nVidia 4600 machine. CPU is Core 2 Duo X6800 on Intel 865 chipset. Graphics drivers are 45.23. RAM is 512Mb. For me it worked well at 1024x768 32 bit.

What resolution are you playing?

I think that's the key.... When I run the with the parameter "-screenmode", only I can choose 16 bits resolutions (Max I can choose: 1024x768 16 bit). My desktop resolution is 1280x1024 32bit. Which directx are you using?

Another thing I tested is the GOG version. The GOG version is working well in windows 98 but there is not sound. I think is a codec problem because the music is in ogg format. I've installed k-lite codec but I can't play oggs yet...

Reply 13 of 18, by RetroPCCupboard

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]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-01-15, 20:51:

I think that's the key.... When I run the with the parameter "-screenmode", only I can choose 16 bits resolutions (Max I can choose: 1024x768 16 bit). My desktop resolution is 1280x1024 32bit. Which directx are you using?

It looks like DirectX 9.0b is installed. I'm not quite sure how that got there, as I'm pretty sure I didn't install it on purpose. Maybe one of the many games I put on there did. I thought it was on DirectX 8.x.

Reply 14 of 18, by ]--Freeman--[

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RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-15, 20:56:
]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-01-15, 20:51:

I think that's the key.... When I run the with the parameter "-screenmode", only I can choose 16 bits resolutions (Max I can choose: 1024x768 16 bit). My desktop resolution is 1280x1024 32bit. Which directx are you using?

It looks like DirectX 9.0b is installed. I'm not quite sure how that got there, as I'm pretty sure I didn't install it on purpose. Maybe one of the many games I put on there did. I thought it was on DirectX 8.x.

Hmmm mine is directx 9.0a.

Reply 15 of 18, by ]--Freeman--[

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]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-01-15, 20:59:
RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-15, 20:56:
]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-01-15, 20:51:

I think that's the key.... When I run the with the parameter "-screenmode", only I can choose 16 bits resolutions (Max I can choose: 1024x768 16 bit). My desktop resolution is 1280x1024 32bit. Which directx are you using?

It looks like DirectX 9.0b is installed. I'm not quite sure how that got there, as I'm pretty sure I didn't install it on purpose. Maybe one of the many games I put on there did. I thought it was on DirectX 8.x.

Hmmm mine is directx 9.0a.

Ok. I've installed directx 9.0b and same result....Why the game doesn't detect 32 bit resolutions?

By other side, the GOG version doesn't sound the music.... even I've installed a ogg codec for windows 98 and... nothing! I can play the music in a player but not the game XDD.

Reply 16 of 18, by ]--Freeman--[

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The music is solved in original Incoming. I needed an audio cable connected from cdrom to sound card. Pending its poor perfomance that I think it's a problem related with the graphic card driver or directx because I can't choose a 32 bits resolution when I run the game with the "screenmode" parameter. There is only 16 bits resolutions.

I'm watching this video from Phil Computer Lab so that I can install Incoming (GOG Version) in Windows 98 SE and see what happens:

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/installing-g … s-on-95-98.html

Reply 17 of 18, by ]--Freeman--[

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Ok. Finally, I've reached some conclusions.

In GOG Version, works perfectly in excepcion of the music because the tracks are encoded in ogg vorbis and windows 98 can't play ogg music throught directsound from directx in Win98SE.

The original version works but very slow, I think that my graphic card (MSI Geforce 4 Ti4600 128M) has a incompatibilty stuff or something that avoid I can run the game with 32 bit resolution. From what I've read some sites, Geforce 4 an 5 series have a poor compatibility with 16 bit graphics stuff that explains that If I run the game with 16 bit resolution, its perfomance is very low. I can understand why can run the game in 32 bit resolution. I think Incoming original version is very restrictive to work well. Or direct x 5.2 or nothing xD. Maybe with an older card more friendy with an old directx version.

If someone can help, thanks a lot and nice, but I have the feeling that as we said here in Spain: "El pescado está todo vendido."

Reply 18 of 18, by akula65

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For some games, having an exact NVIDIA driver version for GeForce4 can be critical for success. If you haven't tried already, use the Version 45.23 Windows 9x driver, and if that doesn't work, work your way backwards through the 4x.xx driver series.