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So I was doing some looking around and it looks like VPA (VGA Planets Assistant) has had some updates over the last few years. I'm very happy to see that as it was stagnant for a long time.
If you're reading this and don't know what VPA is, well IMOP it's the best way to experience VGA Planets. I used it to play my games for years. VPA is a far superior player interface for VGAP and Tim's original player client and Winplan. That's not a knock on Tim, just my opinion. It's as easy as you want it to be and it can also be as complex as you need it to be once you become a more advanced player.
VPA is available via a Source Forge page. Click here to learn more.
Regards,
][avok
Good news! The writeup says it required DOSBox though, and the last time I tried that, it was a tiny window that I couldn't really read. Have things improved there?
That worked - thanks! Now to see if I can install VPA. I was a mainframe programmer that never quite made it into the PC age...
Not much to install. You just unpack it into your game folder. You can configure / customize it from there if you wish.
Regards,
][avok
I'm trying that and I'm getting a "Stub error (2003): can't find dpmi16bi.ovl" message. Same error for running VPA and VPA510 execs.
Do you have an unpacked turn in the folder?
Regards,
][avok
I'm trying that and I'm getting a "Stub error (2003): can't find dpmi16bi.ovl" message. Same error for running VPA and VPA510 execs.
I found the following when I googled your error.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12681889/turbo-linker-error-2003-on-dosbox
Regards,
][avok
I took a look at that - not sure what it's telling me to do. Meanwhile I might have an old DOS shareware version but I can't get much out of it since I don't have an RST file.
It's saying you need that file, dpmi16bi.ovl, which is an overly. I found a copy of it believe it or not on a obscure OneDrive folder that I didn't know existed.
The file is called VPAsupp2.zip and it includes that, rtm.exe some fonts and a better looking resource.pln file (pictures of the ships) for VPA.
Just unzip the file into the game/vpa folder.
Regards,
][avok
I never liked VPA that much. It had great features but it was not the most fun to play in dosbox.
I used to play with JVC and Echoview
I used VPA on an XP machine last I recall.. Maybe on Windows 7. I never used it via dosbox... I ran everything through a batch file that had a menu in it that DF made years ago.
Regards,
][avok
I had a look in my archive and found that all the files of VPA (also older ones) are still there. Besides vpa2supp.zip there's also a file for supported fonts. Also still got UFO4VPA. Drop me a line if you need something.
Human by birth, Klingon by choice
I wanted to give an update on the file recovery. It's in progress as I type this. I found the drive and pulled it and am making a backup of the entire old VGAP server. This includes the entire old CM FTP area that literally has everything in it. My next phase of the site will be to start incorporating all of this files back into the site for downloads.
Regards,
][avok
I also got ~1.5 GB of VGAP stuff in my archive, and still considering options how to make that public. Maybe we should trade files at some time 🙂
--Stefan
