Hi All,

I've been playing this on a MAC for awhile and noticed that the victory screen is always the same. I think that it's a human that wins every time with a garbled leader name. It also appears to be the "galactic vote" win everytime (that is, it doesn't matter if you win by vote or conquest...the ending is always the same). Has anyone else had the problem?

I assume that it's a result of the process that was used to crack the game and stop copy right protection, but on the other hand, it makes me wonder sometimes what also may be affected game play wise.

It's a very minor issue with this great game...I'm mainly curious to know if this is how it is or if I can repair it.

Thanks...

Having the exact same problem with my game on Windows 7. No matter who wins, "High Master 3" is the one traveling to Orion, and he's a human.
I reached out to tech support. They said they've never seen this problem before, but they forwarded it to their product staff. Guess we'll see what happens. Let me know if any developments come up.

That's it!!! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and alerting support. I thought that I was going crazy for awhile. :-)

No problem, dude. I'm a little bummed about it - it's the only gripe I have with the game as it's presented so far. Hopefully someone can find a solution. :)

Here's something I tried that may help shed a little light on the issue. I took the following steps:

- I kept my saves from a prior installation and installed MOO to a new folder.
- I copied my saves from the old folder to the new folder.
- On launch, my saves weren't there, but the Continue Game option was. When I clicked on it, it loaded my last save file from the previous installation -- a Psilons game on Average difficulty and a medium map.
- On winning the High Council vote there, the proper victory screen played, with the Psilon leader in the cloak and his name displayed.

However, once I played and won with a different race (the Meklars) on the new installation, the "High Master 3" bug happened again.

admiral229, I think your hunch about it being due to the copy protection might be right -- I hadn't been paying attention to which ship I chose in the copy protection screen, so maybe choosing the wrong ship does have an effect. While choosing the wrong ship no longer ends your game, perhaps it may trigger some other programming to display a generic victory screen at the end of the game.

I would suggest testing by always making the proper choices in the Copy Protection screens, but the GOG version of the manual doesn't have the ship images on its PDF pages. As such, I have no idea what to do here unless we can find an original manual in some form online or in physical form.

Let me know if you learn anything else.

Update:

I tried reloading the save I borrowed from the prior installation (with the Psilons), and I found that it now, too, gives the "High Master 3" bug. Considering that this same save file gave the proper ending the first time, I'm wondering if failing the copy protection screen even once corrupts all future ending screens for that installation of the game.

Either that, or the problem is more complex and we're missing something.

The only way I know how to test it is to find the original manual in some format, play a game, and be certain to choose the proper ship at each Copy Protection screen. If making the correct choices preserves the ending screen across separate games, we may be onto something. If not, then the problem is more complex and we'll have to leave the diagnostics up to people familiar with the game's programming.

tried attaching a pdf file I've got .....
but it is a big too big. (802 kb)

You know any easy file sharing service? (no register or anything needed....)

ok, played a bit around with it.

As jpg it was finally small enough.
I only hope it is still readable.

Let me know if it works (and I will not leave it long here though)

EDIT: removed attachment as no difference (thanks TulsethHavoc)

Thanks a bunch, Goodaltgamer! I was actually able to find an original version of the manual online, but I really appreciate you sending this image over for everybody! Hopefully whoever posted that manual wasn't breaking any laws by doing it.

I'll probably try testing this out in some of my off time. If anyone learns anything new, please post it here!

TulsethHavoc (and all),

yes, a bit of gray area here ;)

I still do own the original ;) And in one of my many boxes I still have the original. So owning it IS legal for me ;)
Same goes for anyone owning the game here on GOG by the way. (at least for EU-law, not sure about non-EU though)

So if somebody would find out if the proper answer does give the right ending screen, maybe it would be worthwhile if GOG would include this in their download section ;)

And no, I am not doing it right now, don't feel for MoO1, meaning testing it ;)

And I might be even persuaded to try to find the original PRINTED copy of my manual (unfortunate IIRC it would be in German......)

Deleted the old saves, made a fresh installation with no prior data, and tried a quick (at least, quick for MOO) game with the Meklars on Simple difficulty to test if answering the Copy Protection prompts properly would avoid the "High Master 3" bug.

The answer is a resounding NO. Upon being elected to the High Council after carefully playing by the copy protection rules, the human High Master 3 still cruised his merry butt on over to Orion, leaving my intrepid cyborg emperor in the dust.

I suspect something changed in one of the more recent GOG versions of Master of Orion to make this happen. The only way I can test the latest version vs. an older version is to root through my external hard drives and see if I can find an earlier MOO1 / MOO2 installer bundle. Not sure if I still have that package deal though. If I can find it, and there's anything different in that version, I'll let you all know.

Other than that, I'm stumped. I hope somebody can figure out the answer to this mystery.

Aaaaaaaarg, everything I typed lost!!!!!!!!!

OK, I found my old install from way back.

I found a difference with the date of the files.

File in question: Winlose.lbx.

GOG version is having 1996 original 1993.

It is 7zip file. * cough *

So if somebody wants to try (as well) with this version. During the next days I will try to beat the AI again. (Wiped the floor with me :D Really forgot how to play this old gem :D)

Hex editor IS telling me those two files are identical though.

correction, few files are having different dates:
Diplomat.bkx
Help.lbx
and few mores as well as
orion.exe!!!

Hint see above * cough *



EDIT:

Was MoO1 always so slow? :O

Still running my game :( (Psilon on easy.....)

Maybe this helps:
www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=8881&pid=642951#pid642951

About MoO (the first one) being slow: In GOG's version you can either modify the settings (b*y well hidden :-( in GOG version) or just click CTRL+F12 twice to get 5000 cycles (up from 3000).

Rocco.40,

You're absolutely right. I had used "install.exe" to change the sound settings from SoundBlaster (orig.) to General MIDI / Sound Canvas, to take advantage of a custom soundfont.

After reading the forum post you linked to, I tried running "install.exe" in the MOO1 directory and changing the sound settings from General MIDI back to SoundBlaster (orig.). I then loaded my endgame save with the Mrrshans and voted myself in during the High Council meeting.

With the sound changed back to SoundBlaster (orig.), the proper win screen displayed, with a Mrrshan in the cloak and the proper leader name displayed.

It's amazing that sound settings would have such a dramatic effect on the endgame sequence. I'm disappointed that such is the case, though; I love how the MIDI soundtrack sounds with custom soundfonts. I did notice that when running "install.exe," the General MIDI / Sound Canvas option is "greyed out" but can still be selected -- I wonder if being greyed out means anything in particular.

Might be a long shot, but if somebody on GOG could look into patching some things to restore the ending screen functionality for General MIDI / Sound Canvas and any other problematic music settings, I'd be very thankful.

Thank you to everyone who's contributed thus far!