Slaughter Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 GamersGate is an online download service. They focus on strategy games, and offer UFO: Aftershock for purchase without StarForce. You can buy and download the game at GamersGate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted September 12, 2006 Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 Y'know a while back it featured on a magazine cover? Did that come without StarForce as well or is this a special deal they've done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted September 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 Couldn't tell, but I would assume it was the same version as the retail one (meaning StarForce). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UfoMan Posted May 21, 2007 Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 I, too, was one of those who refused to buy UFO Aftershock unless I could get it without the StarForce. Gamer's Gate was the answer. It all goes on the hard disk and is played from the hard disk. I also had the usual grief getting it downloaded and installed, having to redownload the thing multiple times until I got one that stuck. -- I must say that UFO Aftershock is my favorite one of the bunch. That thing was addictive as heck! Nice graphics, nice music, nice looking tactical missions, nice detailed base management, a huge research tree, and a nice package all around. Of course, to get any real work done, I have to force myself to limit myself to a mission or two a day. I must also say that UFO Aftershock crashes to desktop more than any other XP game I have ever played. It crashes every 20 minutes of gameplay on average. And, UFO Aftershock crashes anywhere in the game, on the manufacture screen and the Squad Screen and the Geoscape and in the Tactical Missions. It is as if Altar knew that it was going to crash a lot on different machines, and for a game that crashes so much, it's been very playable, as the game autosaves before every tactical mission so that you always have a safe stable place to go back to, and it seems to have been designed to be very good at recovering from a save. A saved game is your anchor or safety line in this game. There's also a nice selection of bugs like rescuee's trapped in mountains or floating in the air where you can't get at them, and the periodic 'uncompress' error where their huge zip file has a file that can't be uncompressed and leads to an error message and a crash to desktop. Rebooting and reloading and refusing a mission and going a different route seems to get you past most of these, again, the saved game saves your butt and keeps the UFO Aftershock game going so that the addiction really takes hold. And, thank goodness, it doesn't seem to mess up too much or too often on the Geoscape Strategic Screen while you are fast forwarding to the next mission. It messes up more while tabbing to other screens. -- Before UFO Aftershock, the only game on my machine that was in a 'permanent' state of being BETA material and occasionally crashing on Windows XP was UFO Aftermath. UFO Aftermath 1.4 would crash once a month on my XP machine. UFO Aftershock crashes a hundred times more, about three crashes an hour, although occasionally, I would get lucky and have it go for an hour without crashing, if I got stuck in a particularly long tactical mission for example. UFO Aftershock has been really nice about NOT crashing during tactical missions, with it only crashing a couple of times during tactical missions so far. Most of the UFO Aftermath crashes comes while loading files or uncompressing files or loading up missions. Just save a lot and reboot and reload -- that's the way I seem to play these games anyway. There are only a few bugs that the saved games seem to bring back, like files that can't be uncompressed or a Laputa that disappears and suddenly shows up on the other side of the Earth. Only Altar was in the habit of releasing buggy software for Windows XP and never really ever getting around to actually fixing all the bugs and CTD's in the subsequent patches. And, UFO Aftershock is actually a hundred times worse for CTD's than UFO Aftermath was. Altar did break the promise there, when they said that Aftershock was going to crash less than Aftermath did, and to wait and see how much better and how much crash-less UFO Aftershock was going to be. We waited, and their promises to us were not fulfilled in that regard, as UFO Aftershock crashes infinitely more than Aftermath ever did. -- BUT, UFO Aftershock is very addictive, and I really liked it despite the continuous crashing. I figure that I must be about midway through the game. Gonna be taking it slow. My biggest hope with UFO Aftershock is that I will be able to play it all the way through before running into a bug or a crash or a file it can't uncompress that I can't get past with a saved game. I hope there isn't a permanent obstacle there to finishing the game to the end, as I have actually learned to live with the UFO Aftershock crashes. I know, that's probably hard for some of you who know me to believe, that I have actually learned to live with the UFO Aftershock crashes. But, UFO Aftershock is indeed my favorite of the bunch so far. It's as if the game were made just for me. I was one of those who always played X-Com Apocalypse in Real-Time mode all the time. And, I tended to like UFO Apocalypse gameplay the best of the bunch, and UFO Aftershock is the most like UFO Apocalypse, in my opinion, so I also really like UFO Aftershock. It's just too bad that Altar never finished UFO Aftershock and that Aftershock remains in a permanent BETA state in need of further bug fixes, as I think Aftershock is the one that comes closest to what I personally have been looking for and waiting for since UFO Apocalypse. I just liked and like UFO Aftershock a lot, despite all the constant crashing. -- If Altar stays true to form, I suppose Afterlight will crash more often than UFO Aftermath did, too -- true to Altar's legacy. But, I have recently been curious as to whether Afterlight will be anything that I like, for obvious reasons, because I liked UFO Aftershock so much. But, after the bankruptcy, maybe we got a new Altar? I would be nice to have an Altar that actually patches away the CTD's and gets them all killed before it stops patching the game. It really does seem to me that UFO Aftershock was made especially for UFOMan. Out of all the UFO Clones out there UFO Aftershock so far has come the closest to being what I was looking for and waiting for, ten years after UFO Apocalypse. Late, I know, but I had to wait for a version of UFO Aftershock without the StarForce, as I'm one of those boycotting StarForce games, and I also had to wait until I got a price for Aftershock that I was willing to pay, as they never really finished the game with the proper post-release support, another area where Alter broke it's promise to us, when they told us that they would be doing much better post-release support for Aftershock than what they did with Aftermath. Despite Altar's failings in regards to properly finishing and supporting Aftershock, I still really really like and liked Aftershock a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azrael Strife Posted May 22, 2007 Report Share Posted May 22, 2007 About ALTAR never fixing the CTDs, I have to disagree, after patching it my game it would not crash, ever, maybe once a week or so, hard to tell, maybe it just doesn't like your computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UfoMan Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 It comes patched to version 1.2 from Gamer's Gate, but still crashes a lot. I know that getting rid of the StarForce is one of the tips for improving performance and decreasing crashes. I guess I'm in the need of links for ways to reduce Aftershock crashes. -- I have dozens of games that have never crashed at all. But, there are three so far that are indeed my Nemesis. -- 1) UFO Aftermath would crash about once a month on Windows XP. That I can live with.2) Supreme Commander crashes on average about once an hour -- it was BETA material upon release. It gets better and better with each patch, and the recent 3251 patch is the best of all.3) UFO Aftershock 1.2 can crash as often as every 20 minutes, and it can crash anywhere. I haven't seen any working solution to that problem, except you have to move slow and not rush things, especially on the screen where you equip the squads. Also, there are more 'non-crashing' bugs that have surfaced in UFO Aftershock than any game I have played in years -- rescuees located inside of mountains or in the air or on a ledge where you can't get to them, a Laputa that shows up on the other side of the world after doing a mission, and the periodic report that it cannot uncompress a file and then quits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UfoMan Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 I have been lurking around the Supreme Commander forums, and somebody there was suggesting that I underclock my video card in order to get Supreme Commander to stop crashing. So, I did. I haven't played Supreme Commander all that much, as I'm playing UFO Aftershock right now with my spare time, so I don't know if it made a big difference for Supreme Commander, but the Supreme Commander games I have played so far haven't crashed on me, which is a good sign. But guess what! I haven't had a single UFO Aftershock crash after underclocking my video card! And, I have played many many hours of UFO Aftershock after underclocking my video card. I was getting UFO Aftershock crashes every twenty minutes or so, and now I haven't had a one. I can finally understand and relate when you guys say that UFO Aftershock has never crashed on you. Now, it has never crashed on me either after I underclocked my video card below factory settings. I'm starting to guess that UFO Aftershock and Supreme Commander are part of that group of borderline software that just doesn't run right with SuperClocked video cards or any sort of overclocking whatsoever. Hundreds of other programs have run without any problem whatsoever for the past year or so since I bought my video card, but UFO Aftershock, and I suppose Supreme Commander as well, they just don't like the default factory settings of my video card. Underclocking seems to be working miracles with the buggiest or crashiest games I have ever owned. I really really like UFO Aftershock, so I'm extra pleased that it isn't crashing any more. I believe I'm now actually going to be able to finish Aftershock all the way to the end, and then try some of ShadowWarrior's goodies. So, thank you to the people over at Supreme Commander forums for finally helping me to find a way to get rid of all the UFO Aftershock crashing! I figured it was probably right to come in and spread the gospel, or the good news, here as well, even if it has only been a day since I last reported in. What a difference a day can make! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knan Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 So your video card or its cooling is somewhat dodgy from the factory, or perhaps clogged with dust. So when a game pushes it to the max, it overheats and that's causing the crashes. It happens. Good that you found a solution! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antitrust Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 For the record, the "UFO: Trilogy" edition doesn't seem to contain Starforce. I checked the device manager and system32 directory and found nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Aye, I can confirm this: no Starforce on Trilogy. That's a great thing. - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERISS Posted December 16, 2009 Report Share Posted December 16, 2009 https://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/ufo_aftershock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now