Escape Velocity: Nova

What works

* Gameplay, graphics, and sound
* Minor mission strings

What does not

* Text in the registration app (see below for a workaround)

Workarounds

What was not tested

* Windowed mode
* Plugins
* Major mission strings (but I have no reason to believe these will be a problem)

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

You will need to install Quicktime or Quicktime Alternative to play. The registration app has drawing issues: the text does not initially draw, but can sometimes be made visible by moving the mouse over it. To register EV Nova if you've already got a registration code, run the registration app ("Register EV Nova.EXE"). On the screen with four buttons on the left, click the second one (the one with the icon of a key). The screen that comes up has three invisible text fields: you can find them by moving around with your mouse; the pointer will change to an I-beam when you're over one of them, and clicking will make the text field visible. The first field is your name, the second is the number of copies you registered, and the third is your registration code. Once you've filled those in, the "register" button is in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Renewing the registration over the Internet no longer works: it appears that Ambrosia's registration server is no longer running. To migrate your license (eg. when upgrading to a new computer), you need to copy the "users/*/Application Data/EV Nova License.lcs" file from your C: drive (most likely "~/.wine/drive_c").

I CAN MAKE NO GUARANTEES OF THIS WORKING. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

So you've downloaded a plugin for EV: Nova. Congratulations. Unfortunately, the EVN we are working with is a Windows port of a Mac game, so most plugins will need to be rewritten with a more windows-freindly architechture. This is the simplist way to do it, based on the procedure Windows users have to go through. Fun to think of Windows users having to jump through hoops, ain't it?

1. Unzipping

If the plugin comes as a .zip file, you're in luck. Unzip and skip to step 2. If it is a .bin file, skip to step two without unzipping. If it is a .rez file, skip to step 3. If it is a .sitx file, follow the directions for .sit, but it likely will not work. If it comes as a .sit file, download and install Stuffit 9 (for windows unless someone knows how to install the linux version, for whick I'd be grateful) from here: http://www.download.com/StuffIt-Standard-Edition/3000-2250_4-10418322.html?tag=lst-0-1. Once you do that, open Stuffit, and click Edit>>Application Options>>Cross Platform and select "Encode Data and resource forks of each file together in ManBinary format". Now click the Drop Areas Button. Now Drag the .sit (or .sitx) file into the 'Expand' drop area or click Open, navigate to the .sit file, click on the files in the archive, and hit extract. Your file should now be unzipped.

2. Convert from MacBinary to .rez

Look at the extracted files. If they are .rez files, skip to step 3. Note that some people include both the Mac and converted Windows versions of the plug, and if this is the case delete the .bin file and go to step 3. If there is no .rez file, you have to convert from MacBinary (.bin). Now, bring up the 'run application' box. type in 'wine' and 'click run with file' navigate to the EV: Nova folder and select 'Convert Plugins.exe'. Now, instead of hitting 'Run', click 'run with file' again and select the .bin file. If there is more than one .bin file, click 'run with file' again. This can get iritating with Total Conversions or packs of plugins. When all .bin files are selected, hit 'Run'.

3. Adding the Plugin to Nova

You should now have a .rez file. You should probably right-click>>Properties to make sure that it is not 0kb. If it is, this did not work and I apologize. If it does have a size, drop it in the Plugins Folder in the /userhome/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/EV: Nova/ directory.

I must caution you that many plugins are incompatable with each other. The more a plug does, the more likely it is to interfere with another plug. If you create a file in the EV: Nova folder called debuglog.txt, Nova will save debugging data there when it runs. You can ask for more help regarding plugins at the forums at www.ev-nova.net.