homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation European Air War Legacy PC build

Hi guys...long time...im wanting to build a legacy PC to run the original EAW in all its lores glory...i have access to some very
old pc gear and was wondering if nyone can give me tips on what i need in the way of motherboard and cpu, ram, video card
to run this and perhaps CFS2 and the original il2 like it was 2002 or thereabouts all over again. Hope you all are well and as usual any
help will be appreciated. Cheers...Tonester

PS...also how do i get rid of the ATAG in the front of my name as i am no longer associated with them in any way

Hello Tonester, great to hear from you. You can actually run legacy EAW on a modern machine. Perhaps the simplest way is by using the recent GOG release of 1.28. Runs the 1.2 default game with all the bells and whistles including the films, and runs all those add on theatres made for original 1.2 which you can get from EAW TallyHo.

Yeah i was aware of tha GOG thingyt...bit cheeky of them to charge for an abandonware game...i wonder if i can get CFS1 and 2 and the original sturmovik to run on my win 7 rig as well?

Regarding legacy machines, I still have a computer which runs XP. I keep it Internet isolated, but have cable file transfer software available between it and my main W10 machine. Old Matrix G400 video card. Runs EAW very nicely, and all the old EAW utilities that a W10 64 bit machine won't.

Another resource I also have actually on the W10 is Oracle Virtual Box, which gives a very stable virtual XP setup. I also use that for running old EAW utilities, and can move files in and out of the virtual XP setup via a virtual network with the W10 machine. I haven't much explored running EAW on the virtual machine, because I don't need to, but with it's many possibilities it ought to work.

I run most things in Win7 or Win10

Tonester, great to see you here, mate. I just dug around in the scrap heap of computers, and lo and behold, my old Windows ME rig was being used to support the road case that holds my compressors, eq and patch bay in my studio. I wired it up and there were all my old setups, code stuff, even Nachtjager files. I got rolling on stuff and finally found the key to having hi res gauges work, so I am working feverishly on some new stuff to release.

I have had no problems running the game on my Windows 10 machine, my old Saitek even works. However, as Moggy points out, modding tools don't work in Win10, so I keep a thumb drive handy and move stuff about. Look for my cockpit thread to see where I am at!

Cheers mate!

CJ

Tonester, you need to provide more details about your computer for a decent answer. Provide as many details as possible.



Things that make a major difference:

1) Computer CPU. The latest iteration that will fit into your computer, the better. If your computer allows, replacing CPUs is pretty easy.

2) RAM. Just install the max possible.

3) Power Supply Unit (PSU) . You will need to adequately power all your stuff. If you need a new power supply, Do NOT cheap out, buy from a trustworthy vendor Unless you like fires, lol.

4) Graphics card. This what 1, 2, and 3 were all about. Setting the foundation, so to speak.. Buy the best Gfx card that will physically fit into your computer, and which your PSU will allow.. Many sites rating Gfx cards. Get the very best that will accommodate all the other things; they are all important.

FWIW, my current Win 7 Dell 760 Optliplex Small Form Factor (SFF) system has original 240w power supply, maxed out RAM, and a low-profile, single slot Nvidia 1030Ti Gfx card. It plays many games like EAW very well. It has glitches playing more advanced games, and for that I use a much more advanced Win 10 computer.

HTH.