Let's Play: StarTopia

I really like this game. It was 2001 when Mucky Foot Productions (not existing anymore) released this game. I played it a lot of times, and i never got tired of it. Beautiful music, funny characters, great landscapes. Ladies and gentlemen, a strategic game called... StarTopia!

A hard choice!

This is a test for the 1.0.1b version of the game.
Yes, this time it's a really hard choice.. But not so hard at all, let's see why!

StarTopia on GameTree Linux:

Well, i decided to not try to run games that aren't in the compatibility list. Since this program will never be updated again, i suppose it will be harder and harder to run some games under it. This game is not 100% compatible with GameTree Linux, so i'm not considering that.

StarTopia on Crossover Games (10.2.0 version):

There's no much to tell about it, the game works very well. Smooth, easy to install, playable and funny. You can patch the game and crack it as you want! As you will see, this will be your favourite choice. The only 2 things to say is that the installation process doesn't provide any executable file, which you can find anyway into your installation CD and easily copy into your installation directory (see installation video), and "shine" graphic option doesn't work. So:

- Need to copy StarTopia.exe from Suppfiles directory (into your installation CD) to installation directory on your HD.
- Can be patched to 1.0.1b version.
- Needs a noCD.
- "Shine" graphic option doesn't work.

StarTopia on PlayOnLinux (1.3.22 wine version):

The game installs, can be patched and can be ran. But, as you will see, FPS are less than Crossover Games and the game doesn't work with a version of wine > 1.3.22 (regression bug?). There's also the same "executable file" problem already seen on Crossover Games, and shine problem too. So:

- Need to copy StarTopia.exe from Suppfiles directory (into your installation CD) to installation directory on your HD.
- Can be patched to 1.0.1b version.
- Needs a noCD.
- "Shine" graphic option doesn't work.
- Needs a version of wine <= 1.3.22 (better use 1.3.22 version itself).

Talking about performances...

First of all, my hardware:

agp_aperture_size: 256
cpu: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
cpu_ghz: 0.80
distro: Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric
kernel: 3.0.0-13-generic
machine_bitness: 64
memory: 3960
soundcard: HDA ATI SB at 0xfbcf4000 irq 16
soundcard_driver: ALSA Version 1.0.24
videocard_direct: True
videocard_driver_version: 4.2.0 NVIDIA 290.10
videocard_manufacturer: NVIDIA Corporation
videocard_ram: 1024
videocard_type: GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCI/SSE2
x_version: X.Org X Server 1.10.4

The game is playable under Crossover Games and under PlayOnLinux/Wine, but these are the results of my FPS comparison:





The game has been tested on Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit, on Chakra 2011.11 (edn) 32-bit and on Windows 7 64-bit. As you can see, there's a performance issue (already seen when i firstly played the game on Ubuntu 3 or 4 years ago), but the game is really enjoyable. Chakra seems to be a little more generous than Ubuntu, but as i said before, the game works well under Ubuntu. Talking about Ubuntu, Crossover Games works better than Wine regarding performances.

Conclusion: use Crossover Games.

Installation



The process takes about 5 minutes (including patching and using the noCD patch).
At the end of the installation:

- Apply 1.0.1b patch (downloadable at this link: http://www.3dgamers.com/dl/games/startopia/startopiapatch1.0.1b.exe.html)
- Apply 1.0.1b noCD patch (downloadable at this link: http://dl.gamecopyworld.com/?c=725495341&f=dvns101b!ace)

Running



That's all. Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment if you got some problems or if you just wanna ask me a question. I will always answer you!