Pacific General

[dragos]

Does anyone still remember/play this title, the last of the SSI 5-star series?

I have just reinstalled - it's a PITA to get it running under Windows 7 x64 using the original CD image but I eventually did it. There are some downloadable versions on the net, but without the music and speeches from the original CD it doesn't the same atmosphere.

Here are some features that Panzer Corps does not have and makes PacGen still worth playing:
- separate naval combat rules (critical hits on capital ships, submarines diving, repairing damaged parts etc)
- night combat turns with special rules
- flexible victory conditions, casualties adds to scenario score so you can win both by capturing objectives OR inflicting huge losses
- more unit classes (including HQ units - killing those weight a lot on score)
- cool atmosphere with real combat footage, music of the era and radio propaganda speeches

[wanwei]

i missed the carrier which can put in 6 aircraft...

[wanwei]

I have just reinstalled - it's a PITA to get it running under Windows 7 x64 using the original CD image but I eventually did it.

are you able to provide any installation help? Tried to install on W7 x64 but it did not work...

[dragos]

On Win7 64bit the setup.exe from installation CD won't even start, so I had to user Microsoft Virtual PC + Windows XP mode to install the game. After the game is installed you can remove Virtual PC.
Then I applyed the 1.1 patch, and downloaded the fan made XP patch and copied it into the game folder. Right click on it and set compatibility to Windows XP, 256 colors and disable desktop composition and other stuff.
To play the game you must have the PacGen CD in a drive (physical or virtual) with letter D (or must be the first CD/DVD drive if you have more than one HD partition, I'm not sure), and before you start the game you have to change the windows advanced display settings (in monitor tab) to 16 bit color depth. Then double click on the XP patch executable or create a shortcut from it.

I recommend using the equipment roster 4.71 and the excellent campaigns "East Wind, Rain" or the US CRS (campaign replacement scenarios) for a greatly improved campaign.

http://web.archive.org/web/200809190143 ... acinfo.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/200809192116 ... accamp.htm

[morge4]

Really enjoyed Pacific General! Thanks for the install instructions.

[rezaf]

PacGen was great, the only thing I disliked was it's radically shortened campaign paths.
IIRC, there was a hard limit of about 10 missions, which was a bit of a letdown.

I also liked Fantasy General, though, with it's cool unit-research metagame and special unit abilities - PC could benefit from something like that.
Whatever, I hope there'll be a next step for PC. We'll see, I guess.
_____
rezaf

[wanwei]

The 5 stars series were very enjoyable maybe star General does leave a bit to be desired...