Max 188's Classic EAW Guide: CLICK
HERE. VonOben's
EAW Tutorial: CLICK
HERE.
EAW manuals in PDF or Word
format: CLICK HERE. EAW
keyboard cards and Reference card: CLICK
HERE.
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The EAW message boards (forums) at SIMHQ and FRUGAL are
THE places to go for the latest in EAW. To post messages you'll need to
register (it's free). The 'search' archives facility will give you acces to
many of the questions asked previously and many of the answers from community
members. A great source of information:
 
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The FAQ's listed below were from members of the EAW community
and submitted through the EAW message boards at the SIMHQ and FRUGAL forums.
If you find a FAQ that causes a problem, please E-mail me from the
'Contact' link at the ' Home' page and I'll try to put you in contact with the
person concerned. |
The FAQ's listed below were from members of the EAW community
and submitted through the EAW message boards at the SIMHQ and FRUGAL forums.
If you find a FAQ that causes a problem, please E-mail me from the
'Contact' link at the ' Home' page and I'll try to put you in contact with the
person concerned. |
 EAW INSTALLATION BEST PRACTICES
(Answer submitted by Kay 'Huntress' Hamill
QUESTION - The best way to
install EAW.
Modern Hardware Recommendations:
EAW was published in 1998 and was never updated to account for
modern equipment, particularly in the area of graphics cards and their drivers.
As such, there can be hardware- and/or driver-related issues encountered in
installing EAW on a modern computer system. For the sake of easiest use, this
is the recommended hardware/operating system setup:
Motherboard:
Any motherboard
that allows for the use of an AGP or PCI graphics card. Under Windows 2K/XP,
PCI-E motherboards are acceptable in combination with ATI Radeon PCI-E graphics
cards; NVidia's PCI-E graphics cards are acceptable in certain limited cases
but are not universally acceptable under these operating systems without
intervention to prevent fatal errors in EAW. Under Windows Vista, any
Vista-compatible motherboard/CPU/graphics card combination is acceptable with
minimal intervention by the user.
Audio
card:
Any Network card or modem plus Internet
connection (necessary for online flying): Any
Graphics card:
NVidia
GeForce, GeForce 2, GeForce 3, GeForce 4, GeForce FX, GeForce 6xxx (most
versions, particularly if older driver packages are used--NVidia's reference
driver packages v.66.93 or less).
Use of a
GeForce 7xxx or higher graphics card will require the installation of
additional software developed by Mr. Jelly to solve a fatal error (Error 7217)
in EAW.
Under Windows Vista, any Vista-compatible
graphics card and driver package is acceptable without any further
intervention.
ATI Radeon cards (Radeon 9500 or
higher is preferred) with the latest ATI Catalyst drivers
installed.
Windows-compatible
joystick:
Operating system: Windows 98,
Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows
Vista.
Windows NT is a possibility but has not
been tested.
Online flying will not be possible
under Windows 2000 or Windows NT.
INSTALLATION OF EAW ON A MODERN SYSTEM:
Prior
to attempting to install EAW, download Sydbod's v.1.26e patch from
HERE. Save
this file to your hard drive and extract it using WinZip or any other file
decompression utility. Back this file up for safekeeping.
Insert the EAW CD in your optical drive. After the installer
loads in, choose to install EAW, using the Full Install option. If the
installer does not load in, go to Start | Run, browse the EAW CD and select
Setup.
Run it to install EAW; choose the Full
Install option. Do not attempt to run EAW. Once EAW has fully installed, close
the installer. Go to Start | Run, Browse to the location of Sydbod's extracted
patch file. Select it and choose to Run it. It will locate your EAW install;
confirm that this is the correct location and allow the patch to install.
EAW is now installed and patched to v.1.26e; this
patch file supersedes the MicroProse v.1.2 patch. Do not install any other
add-ons or modifications or make any changes to your EAW folder at this time.
You may now try to run EAW. If you encounter
difficulty with any of the installer-created shortcuts, try going to Start |
Run, browse to the location of your EAW folder and select the eaw.exe file.
Choose to run it.
Create new shortcuts if
necessary and if desired. Configure EAW using the configuration screens. You
are now ready to fly.
Fly one mission to be sure
EAW is running properly. If it is, it is *strongly* recommended that you
back your EAW folder up by burning it off to CD or to DVD or by copying it to
another partition, hard drive or flash drive.
If
EAW is not yet running properly for you, be prepared to specify your hardware
setup including your graphics driver version, your operating system, your
installation procedure and your specific error or faulty behavior; go to
SimHQ's EAW forum and request assistance for your problems; provide as much
detail as possible in your post as to any specific error message or behavior,
the point after launching EAW that the problem occurs, and what you are trying
to do when the error occurs. Someone will be glad to help you with your
problems.
If you notice graphics anomalies with
your map screen and briefing room screen, please see the graphics anomalies
section below.
Special installation case
1: If you purchased a downloaded install file for EAW from EB Games, this
file will not install under any operating system other than one of the Win 9x
operating systems. You will need to be able to install EAW (using the Full
Install option) on a Win 9x system, immediately patch it to v.1.26e using
Sydbod's patch, then burn the resulting EAW folder to CD or DVD.
Take the disc to your system running Windows 2000
or Windows XP and copy the EAW folder to your chosen partition or hard drive.
Create any desired shortcuts to the eaw.exe file. If your network includes a
Win 9x system, install EAW there, patch it to v.1.26e and share the resulting
folder. Copy the folder to your chosen system.
Back this folder up immediately and keep the backup in a safe place. If this
describes your situation and if you have no access to a Win 9x system please
post at SimHQ's EAW forum and possibly someone running one of the Win 9x line
will be able to help you with the installation process.
Special installation case 2: If you are installing EAW
under Windows Vista, you may need to manually edit your eaw.ini file (in
Notepad or another text editor) to force EAW to accept your controller mapping
instructions. You will find your eaw.ini file in your EAW folder after you have
patched EAW to v.1.26e. It will be helpful to have a prior eaw.ini file
available to you so that you can copy your prior settings. Syntax, spelling and
spacing must be exactly correct or EAW will ignore your configuration
instructions.
NONFATAL GRAPHICS
ANOMALIES:
Under the Windows 9x line, Windows
2000, and Windows XP systems, if your graphics card contains an NVidia GeForce
chip, you will need to edit your registry in order to cause your system to
render the map screen and briefing room screen properly. Max188 has web pages
that describe the necessary regedit. If your operating system is one of the Win
9x line, you will be able to download and run a file that will make this
regedit for you. This is available
HERE.
If
you run Windows XP, you can reach the necessary page by taking this
HERE.
Create a Restore Point prior to manually editing your registry.
If you run Windows 2000, instructions for this regedit are
available at RAF Dumoulin's EAW Wiki:Hardware Guide. as well as
at Sandbagger's HERE I
cannot comment yet on the need for this registry edit under Windows Vista; it
may or may not be necessary, and if it is necessary, we do not yet know the
location in the registry where the edit would need to be placed to have it
work.
When we find the necessary information,
this document will be edited to include it. If your graphics card contains an
ATI chip, be sure you are running the latest Catalyst driver version; this will
solve some of the graphics issues presented by ATI chips.
For
improvement of ingame graphics, consider installing Zeckensack's Glide Wrapper,
then choosing Glide as your 3D rendering method in your configuration options
for EAW. This option is available under Configuration | Graphics.
The Glide Wrapper is available
HERE
Author's notes: Sydbod's survey of acceptable
graphics cards for EAW and Sydbod's procedure for installing a downloaded EAW
install file from EB Games are used in this document.
Steven190 kindly installed EAW under Windows Vista so that we now
have a record of how EAW installs and performs under this operating
system. |
  
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