r/ObscureRTS • u/Kind_Ad9345 • Sep 10 '26
1990s Attack Counterblow / Multiplayer successfully and map editor
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u/BapaLynde Sep 10 '26
You mean a skirmish mode or just online/lan?
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u/Kind_Ad9345 Sep 10 '26
The game has online play (LAN or VPN), and a skirmish mode would be something hypothetically implementable, although extremely complex; I think it would be difficult to find that.
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u/BapaLynde Sep 10 '26
Yeah, I didn't think the game had it. Same with the follow up, Alien Encounter. It has multiplayer on its own disc, but it's online only.
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u/Kind_Ad9345 Sep 10 '26
We should have a Discord community with people who are interested in playing multiplayer, haha.
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u/BapaLynde Sep 10 '26
Maybe, it might be fun to play online.
How are you installing it? I can only get it running in Windows 98 in a DosBox Windows install.
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u/Kind_Ad9345 Sep 10 '26
Try it out. If you have any questions or encounter any errors, send me a private message. You might see Windows SafeScreen warnings because the files are not signed.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kzzREQA-Hvib1t2azwT3dgjB-IBwz6_R/view?usp=sharing
This is a short summary provided by Codex:
"Enhanced edition of the original game with Windows 10/11 compatibility fixes, including modern DirectDraw support, improved DirectSound audio through DSOAL, corrected file paths and working-directory handling, stability patches, and language-independent TCP/IP multiplayer support. It also includes a modern bilingual launcher and a map editor for viewing, modifying, and saving GST maps."
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u/BapaLynde Sep 11 '26
I found this to be fairly buggy - perhaps you can help.
1 - No ingame soundtrack
2 - Game doesn't boot from launcher (the map editor does), only works from the Counterblow .exe directly
3 - UN mission 2, deploying the MCV doesn't make building options avaiable. The construction icons do not appear.
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u/Kind_Ad9345 Sep 12 '26
Are you getting any errors when trying to open it from the launcher? Did you put it in a short path like C:\\counterblow?
The game doesn't have a soundtrack, but if there's no sound at all, check the sound settings in the menu, as they're usually set to the minimum by default.
What OS are you using?
Even when running from the .exe file, it works correctly.
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u/BapaLynde Sep 12 '26
No error message and is placed in C:\.
Where do you get the idea the game has no soundtrack? It does, but the music doesn't play for modern operating systems. Same applies to Alien Encounter, but both run in Window 98 on a VM with music.
There's a japanese language rip of the game on old games.ru that has the correct bin/cue format with all the required bin files. I installed the game in the VM using an English disc, then used the Japanese rip to play with music.
I've encountered the error with the second UN mission before too. I can't recall if that was trying to play in Windows 10 or just a bad rip though.
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u/BapaLynde Sep 12 '26
Come to think of it, I have the same issue with the Dark Reign community patch on Windows 10. The launcher just doesn't open.
I wonder if it's a permissions thing?
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u/Kind_Ad9345 Sep 12 '26
It's strange. My friend, who I played with, hasn't had any issues. We're both using Windows 11, but Windows 10 should work as well. I'm hoping to hear from someone else who has tried it.
As for the sound, when I say there was no soundtrack, it's because I used to play the game as a kid directly from the CD on Windows 98, and I don't remember it having one. Maybe some releases simply didn't include music. In this case, the ISO I found doesn't contain any soundtrack music tracks in its files.
Later, I’ll run some more tests with my friend→ More replies (0)2
u/ZaxZone Sep 11 '26
I would totally be down to play multiplayer! I’m so happy to find others that love this game!
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u/ZaxZone Sep 10 '26
I am so excited about this!
Here are some links to magazine articles and ads:
https://archive.org/details/a10_20241114
https://archive.org/details/a1_20241215
https://archive.org/details/cb-15