Having trouble just getting Wing Commander IV to start? Getting a black screen of nothingness? Seeing unhelpful pop-under error messages like "C:\VOB\SC_0010A.vob not found"? Here's your solution guide.

Keep in mind that this guide was written with the Good Old Games (GOG) version of Wing Commander 4 in mind. However it should help people get non-GOG releases running too.

First thing's first: GOG's release of WC4 uses DXMCI [ http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/dxmci.html ], which is an MCI to DirectShow wrapper. That means when WC4 says, "MCI please," DXMCI translates that for Windows into, "DirectX please." But that isn't going to help us if Microsoft Windows doesn't have the right codecs.

What *are* the right codecs? This release of Wing Commander IV used DVD video. DVD video uses MPEG2 for both the container and the video codec. The author of DXMCI took this into consideration and released MPEG2dec (a GPL'd MPEG2 decoder available at [ http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/bin/mpeg2dec.zip ]). Please download and install this video codec. For best results, it is recommend to install MPEG2dec using an account with Administrator privileges as the file you need to run (register.bat) will need Admin privileges to correctly work.

Next, you'll need an audio codec. DVD video uses a format called AC3. Once again, the author of DXMCI is to the rescue with a good bit of software, this time a recommendation of the fine AC3Filter. This can be found at [ http://ac3filter.net/ ]. Please download and install the Full version of AC3Filter. Use Admin privileges when installing as once again we'll need to register this codec system-wide.

At this point your copy of WCIV might work. But then again, it might not. But to save yourself some extra steps, try running the game now. If the opening video begins, congratulations, mission accomplished! However if you just get a problem (black screen of doom, pop-up error), use the Alt-Tab keyboard combo to move to the error window and then press Enter on your keyboard to dismiss the error. Alternatively, hold Alt+F4 until all the WIng Commander windows close.

Now if your copy of WC4 didn't run but instead you got an error like "C:\VOB\SC_0010A.vob not found," you need to take one final step. Go back to the DXMCI Web site [ http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/dxmci.html ] and download DXMCI. From the download (dxmci15.zip) please extra the file named "configure dxmci.lnk" into the WC4 install directory. Double-click the file which should show a configuration dialog. Check the box which reads, "Use alternative file path:" and in the text box below write ".\VOB" (naturally input that without the "quote marks.") Now the codec should be able to find your VOB video files.

However it is important to note in that last step that we *do not* want to overwrite the copy of dxmci.dll which already exists in your game install directory/folder. It is a modified version distributed of dxmci.dll by GOG which has better compatibility with this version of Wing Commander IV and overwriting it will render the video files unplayable. If you do accidentally overwrite dxmci.dll you will need to reinstall the GOG version of this file. That usually means that you'll need to reinstall and/or redownload WCIV from GOG.

If things still don't properly work, re-run the DXMCI Configuration and try checking "Force MPEG2dec" as this sometimes gets things running.

Finally, if you get a "VirtualProtect() error" when trying to run the game, visit the DXMCI Web site and download the WC4DVDFix.zip for the WC4 DVD version. Extract the executable WC4DVDFix.exe file to your Wing Commander IV directory and run it to patch the WCIV executable. The error should now not appear.

And as an extra tip: even though the GOG version of WC4 already is set to run in Windows 98/ME compatibility mode, if all the above steps haven't yet helped, try double-checking the program's properties to be sure that it is still set. If not, follow these steps: Right click wc4dvd.exe or its shortcut, select Properties, select Compatibility, check "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows 98 / Windows ME."

Summary:
-Install MPEG2dec [ http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/bin/mpeg2dec.zip ]
-Install AC3Filter [ http://ac3filter.net/ ]
-Run the Configuration tool for DXMCI [ http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/dxmci.html ]
-Patch if needed with WC4DVDFix.zip [ http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/dxmci.html ]
-Set compatibility mode for Windows 98

Have fun! And any thanks are appreciated.

Works perfectly. After hearing about this game for so long, I can finally play it. Thanks bunches, nz17. This needs to be stickied.

Thank you very much, joethulhu. I would be honored if this guide were made "stickified" to counsel others who might need help in the future.

For those following my guide above, be sure to remember to restart Windows after installing the audio and video codecs. The codecs won't be fully registered with DirectShow (a part of DirectX) until after Windows is rebooted. Therefore Wing Command 4's videos might not properly play until after your computer is rebooted.

Good gaming, y'all!

So I'm running windows 7 and the mpeg2dec thing and the confirguration tool for DXMCI both error out. When I manually cancel some of the error messages I can hear some audio but it's jarbled and doesn't make much sense. Is there not a way to get those programs to work on windows 7 to help get the rest of the game running. Also wondering why GOG is ignoring this problem still.

Excellent guide, thanks.