thinking of re-buying locomotion, have a few questions...

[ZBOX]

Hi,

I used to own the boxed version of locomotion a few years ago, but i got rid of it as i used to have A LOT of problems with it - mainly this "access violation error" and the game used to crash to the desktop, i could never find a fix for it.

At the time i was using windows vista 32bit with 2gb of ram., i am now using windows 7 64bit with 3gb of ram, and i download the demo of locomotion and had the "access violation error" again.

anyway i was thinking about buying the game again this time is the form of a digital download from gamesplanet.com, but i dont want to pay £7.99 for it if i am going to get "access vialation errors again"

Is there a fix for this error ? like a patch or workaround or something ?

Thank you.

[kamnet]

Try running the game in Compatibility Mode, set to Windows XP.

[Zakos]

Yes, you'll find that most of Chris Sawyer's games don't agree with Windows Vista or later editions.

[ZBOX]

Thanks for both reply's.

I used to run in compatibility mode xp when i had the vista machine, still had that error. I have been trying to google to see if that "access violation error" had been a problem for other users of locomotion, and yes is seems a few people have had it, A LOT of people from this fourm.

There was a thread on this forum i found from a few years ago saying that game had issues with securerom or something ? which caused issues with the game, and that the digital download version had a no-cd patch applied to it which prevented this issue ?

Anyone know if this is correct ?

(also is it possible to still add mods the the digital version ?)

Cheers.

[Opan]

Your best bet is to get a digital version. I have the boxed version, but I purchased the digital version to save the headache of getting it to run on Windows 7.

Its available at Good Old Games for a few dollars and it goes on sale from time to time.

And yes mods still work on a digital version.

[ZBOX]

Thank you opan,

So can you confirm the digital version runs fine on windows 7 (64bits) ? also have you had any major errors/crash to desktop like "access violation" ?

[Opan]

I've got a digital download from GOG running fine on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Never had it crash before as far as I can remember but that doesn't mean that it never will. The only thing that it does, is it changes your desktop appearance to Win7 classic to run the game, and closes open folders for whatever reason (but not programs). So if you have 'My Documents' open it will close the window; I've never figured out why it does that but its a minor inconvenience.

I've got a multitude of mods that I have run on the game and never had any issues.

[doktorhonig]

I can confirm that. I got it to work on two Win 7 x64 machines, BUT if you have an ATi card, be aware, that the 8 bit palette is screwed up, so you'd need to downgrade your driver. There's a warning about that on the gog website.

[ZBOX]

@ opan, thanks again, thats no problem about locomotion closing programmes, when i would play locomotion, i would not have any other programmes open anyway, good news about the mods though, when i last had this game, i think i had a british rail mega pack, it was really good, have to try and get that again if possible.

Do you know of any good station mod packs ? (like more variety etc )

Cheers.

@ doktorhonig, thanks for letting me know, i would use locomotion on a laptop (i think it has a built in hd2000 card) would that be ok for it to run ok ?

Cheers.

[Nawdic]

When you set the compatibility, also click "Disable visual themes".

[ZBOX]

Cheers for advice aycliffe.

by "Disable visual themes" what does this actually do for locomotion ?

[PikkaBird]

Cheers for advice aycliffe.

by "Disable visual themes" what does this actually do for locomotion ?

IIRC, when your desktop background changed it screwed up the palette in locomotion. I don't know if this is that issue.

[ZBOX]

Cheers PikkaBird,

do you know of any good station mods ?

[Zakos]

I'm a fan of digidampfman's station pack, which is very extensive. There's also the UK Station Pack.