M1 Tank Platoon

agathosdaimon 2021-09-29 0 point

@ Zachax

thanks for your comment - i am surprised that setting the core to dynamic would work, i have never found that to work for the older Microprose games - for M1 Tank Platoon and F-15 Strike Eagle 2 at least the only setting that works is CPU= 386_prefetch

M1 Tank Platoon did have copy protection and the technical supplement in the boxed version (the one with teh photo of the m1 tanks on the cover rather than a painting, ) actually describes this in detail - Microprose used the key disk protection whereby disk A has some kind of code in it which cant be copied, and only can be detected by the physical floppy drive
I have the original floppies with this and sadly it seems that either Dosbox cannot recognise it , or modern USB Floppy drives lack some ability to detect it. I suspect the latter as I also tried to install M1TP in dos through PCEM and that also did not work.

If your actual floppy disks dont have this protection then i would love to know what exactly the box and disk look like, that you have - is yours a later budget release copy like the Kixx versions?

Fortunately i do have a cdrom copy of M1TP 1 , it too was a later budget release version, so i at least have that if floppy version is inaccessible for me

that Tank.com file you mention is precisely the one that must usually one must swap out with the cracked version that is to be found onlne

Zachax 2020-10-03 1 point DOS version

This version runs fine for me, but only when I'll set in DOSBox configuration:
core=dynamic

As far as I know all the INSTALL.EXE file really does is copies the game to hard drive on a preset folder and adds a batch file to the drive root. No installation should be necessary and the game should work fine by TANK.COM file in whichever own custom folder just by copying it manually.

Also at least my original HD floppy version of this game was not copy protected by any means. In fact I'm recalling the Technical Supplement leaflet in my DOS version was encouraging to take a backup of the game and keep the original floppy safe. However, can't check if I remember wrong, since my old original package is storaged far far away. The manual here including Technical Supplement is for Atari ST.

Curiously this version has Roland MT-32 version which was absent on my old original version version (449.01, this version is 449.02). MT-32 goes a bit wasted in this game to be honest since there is but short menu/intro music and some quite archaic sound effects, but cool curiosity as such, and by a quick test it overall sounds better to me (including effects) through MUNT than Adlib sound setting.

Microprose indeed made the best games or at least simulation games in 1980's and early 1990's. This was probably the best game that was actually possible to run on our PC XT clone with 512 kB of RAM and Hercules Graphics Adapter, and truly I played it a lot back then even if it was not rolling very smoothly on it. Unfortunately, I felt already in late 1990's that time had largely passed by the simulations made in early 1990's or before, and overall I think simulation genre games (they used to be my favourites) have suffered with years more than most if not all other genres. Therefore sadly can't really get myself playing this or most other Microprose classic simulations anymore, no matter how much I used to love them (partially this is also due to having played them too much in my childhood though).

daffyff 2020-05-26 0 point

My favorite part of this game was given medals and promotions to the surviving crew. I don't remember ever losing a battle...

agathosdaimon 2019-08-14 -1 point

I have gotten the original disks recently for this game and am trying to install it with them - i set dosbox cpu to 386_prefetch and i mount the disk in a a drive (i have a usb floppy disk drive) and mount my virtual c drive - i can install the game but then when i go to play it, the game requests i insert disk_a and type the drive letter - however this doesnt work, i cant type any letter and nothing else happens

how do i get the game to actually recognise that i have the game in the disk drive?

also i dont understand how others have been able to just sit the disk contents in a folder called a as Microprose specifically made the disks to have security protection on them - hidden files or something that dont get copied -is the some setting i require in dosbox for this to work?

The Duke 79 2019-07-09 1 point

Microprose had the best games. Ever. Like Bluddy Snoman, I too bought the three game pack that included this game, Silent Service II, and F19 stealth fighter. I'm excited to find it again!

Birddog5 2019-02-03 -3 points DOS version

the download does not run the program. it is an install version which requires it be run from either floppy drive A or B. Who has one of those today!

Please remove this or at least warn people its only an install program.

Luk 2017-06-19 0 point

BTRs in dos version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M553sTemeHs

Luk 2017-06-16 0 point

My ingame 3D Hind footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lox9umbFNpA&t=0s

Luk 2017-06-15 0 point

@Lulz
According to this video, Mi-24 Hind is possible!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LZtlFaFjsg

I have tried the version. I saw many BTRs in the firs "assault" mission. There were also BTR-60s and BTR-80s with infantery....
two BTR-60s as elite guard here:
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab4/Luk77/game%20%20_267_zpss4iu1rj7.png

Bluddy Snoman 2016-12-11 2 points DOS version

I bought this with a submarine game and a stealth fighter game 3 pack circa early to mid 90's.
I ran DOSbox. from the z:\ mount a: c:\a then I press enter and it mounts a folder I named a in the c:

Then I type at Z:\ mount c: c:\c

then at Z:\ I type a:and the drive changes to a:\

at a:\ it type install

I follow the install instructions in game. and it says installation complete,

At a:\ I type C: and switch to the c:
at C:\ I type tank and the DOSbox does nothing and I can no longer regain control of the DOSbox.

************ALERT************
I then ran DOSbox again and mounted as before a: and c:
then I followed a previous comment advice and type at c:\cputype=386_prefetch
Then I typed at C:\tank and tank platoon loaded. asked me some basic settings questions. Now I will play the game and see how it runs.