Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Warning for game developers: PCGamingWiki staff members will only ever reach out to you using the official press@pcgamingwiki.com mail address.
Be aware of scammers claiming to be representatives or affiliates of PCGamingWiki who promise a PCGW page for a game key.

Jane's Longbow Gold

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 09:55, 29 May 2019 by Garrbot (talk | contribs) (updated template usage)
Jane's Longbow Gold
Jane's Longbow Gold cover
Developers
Origin Systems
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Release dates
DOS June 30, 1997
Windows June 30, 1997
Jane's Longbow Gold on Wikipedia
⤏ Go to series page
US Navy Fighters 1994
Jane's Advanced Tactical Fighters 1996
Jane's AH-64D Longbow 1996
Jane's US Navy Fighters '97 1996
Jane's Longbow Gold 1997
688(I) Hunter/Killer 1997
Jane's Fighters Anthology 1997
Jane's Longbow 2 1997
Jane's WWII Fighters 1998
Jane's F-15 1998
Jane's Israeli Air Force 1998
Jane's Fleet Command 1999
Jane's USAF 1999
Jane's F/A-18 2000
Jane's Attack Squadron 2002
Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters 2011

Key points

Combination of Jane's AH-64D Longbow and Jane's Longbow Flash Point Korea.
DOS version requires DOSBox to run on modern systems.
Windows version requires patching, but works on modern systems.

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 Original Longbow Gold 3-CD set. Includes unpatched DOS and Windows.
DOS
Windows
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 Longbow Anthology 2-CD version. Includes patched Windows and no DOS executable.
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

Version 1.04e

The 1.04e patch fixes skipping and garbled in-flight speech, and fixes the movies in the game locking up, skipping, or crashing to the desktop in both Windows and DOS versions of the game. Longbow Anthology versions of Longbow Gold do not need this patch, as they include a custom version called 1.04f.

GoldFX

The GoldFX patch adds 3DFX Voodoo support to Windows versions of Longbow Gold. This renders the DOS version unplayable but enhances the graphics under Windows and allows the game to be playable on modern Windows with nGlide. This patch does not work with Longbow Anthology versions of Longbow Gold and requires a special version included on the first CD-ROM called GoldFXA.

Applying the GoldFX(A) patch will disable the AH-64A variant of the Longbow, making only the AH-64D usable.

Patching for Windows

Longbow Gold for Windows Fixes

Both of these methods are similar, but have different installation methods. GoldFXA and GoldFX are not interchangeable and are exclusive to their separate versions.

Installing the Anthology version[citation needed]
  1. During the installation of Longbow Anthology, do a Custom installation and check only Longbow Gold when prompted. When asked to install GoldFX select No.
  2. Open the Longbow Anthology CD 1 and copy goldfxa.exe to anywhere on your computer.
Install Gold[citation needed]
  1. Install Longbow Gold to C:\JANES\LBGOLD using the Windows installer.
  2. Get the V1.04e patch and extract it to where you installed Longbow Gold.
  3. Download DOSBox and install it.
  4. Open DOSBox and use these commands:
mount c C:\JANES\LBGOLD
c:
PATCH.EXE
  1. Download the GoldFX patch.
Apply the patch, fixes, and nGlide[citation needed]
  1. Open GoldFX(A) with 7-Zip or a similar archive program that can open archive executables. Extract the files to a folder anywhere.
  2. Open the folder, and set Windows 98/Windows ME compatibility mode and Run as Administrator on all of the applications inside of that folder.
  3. Double-click FXPatch.exe. Click Continue in the window that pops up and point it to your Longbow Gold installation directory to continue installation.
  4. When it finishes, go to where Longbow Gold is installed and open CA.INI
  5. Append these two lines to the file at the top:
[Backdoors]
HEAP_PERCENT=0
  1. Right click on lbwin.exe, and click Properties. Go to Compatibility and set the compatibility mode to Windows XP (Service Pack 2) and check the Run as Administrator and Run in 640x480 resolution boxes.
  2. Download and install nGlide.
  3. Start Longbow Gold using LBWin.exe or a shortcut to LBWin.exe. Press Alt+O and set all the graphical options to the maximum.

Patching for DOS

Longbow Gold for DOS in DOSBox

Running the game in DOSBox will look worse and possibly perform worse but works on all operating systems.

Install and play in DOSBox[citation needed]
  1. Install Longbow Gold in the Windows installer. When prompted to select a directory, point it to C:\DOS\LBGOLD and say Yes to creating it if it doesn't exist.
  2. Use software like ImgBurn to rip your Longbow Gold CDs to ISO format. Name them LBGx, where x is the CD number. Put the ISOs in C:\LBGISO for easy reference.
  3. Install and start up DOSBox 0.74
  4. Use these commands in DOSBox:
mount c c:\DOS
c:
cd LBGOLD
SETSOUND.EXE
  1. The sound setup will start. Press ↵ Enter on Select and configure digital audio driver
  2. Select Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32 and Attempt to configure device automatically. Press OK and then DONE. Do not close DOSBox.
  3. Get the V1.04e patch and open it in 7-Zip. Extract the contents to where Longbow Gold is installed.
  4. Type PATCH.EXE into DOSBox and press ↵ Enter. Wait for the patch to finish. When it does, the game will be fully playable.
  5. To skip mounting the ISOs manually every time and to start the game when DOSBox starts, put this in your DOSBox configuration file after [autoexec] at the end:
imgmount d "c:\LBGISO\LBG1.ISO" "c:\LBGISO\LBG2.ISO" "c:\LBGISO\LBG3.ISO" -t iso
mount c c:\DOS\
c:
cd JANES\LBGOLD\
LB.exe
exit

Notes

CRTL+F4 toggles what disc/ISO is currently active. Disc 1 is used for the main campaign, Disc 2 is used for the historical missions, and Disc 3 is used for the Korea campaign.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\
Windows <path-to-game>\[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
DOS
Windows

Video settings

Graphics settings during flight.
Graphics settings during flight.

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Control settings during flight.
Control settings during flight.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Sound settings during flight.
Sound settings during flight.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
German
German is not available in any version but the German version of the game.
French
French is not available in any version but the French version of the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 66 Intel Pentium 120
System memory (RAM) 16 MB 32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 70 MB 150 MB

Notes

  1. ↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References