OK, brief explanation of my setup, running Win98 on my desktop, which is quite rubbish(can't fix graphics settings so getting askewed colours only), but can browse the internet. Needless to say, I want to use my laptop, which is also rubbish, but is running Win98 2nd ed, and has a far bigger hard drive( 4.5gig as apposed to 2), though it can't handle the internet. I've not got a network running either. I've downloaded Verge3, and Sully seperatly. Running Verge from Sully I get a 'Compiling VC code please V(??! Graphics are probable screwed)) message, then it goes back to the desktop and I've no idea what I'm meant to then run. Dragging Verge.CFG onto Verge just gives me a message going 'Vid_bpp(24) not a standard value'.

I thought I might need the .NET package I've seen mentioned, but when I tried to run it (I'm using a flash memory pen to transfer files), I get a message saying I need to have Explorer 5.1 to run it. Fair enough, I download what I think is IE6, but then find that it is only an installer package that gets the other files of another site, and I can't figure out what is what so I can't just copy over the files from my desktop. Does anyone know of a place where I can download a full copy of IE without having to be connectec to the net to install it? Or am I just going on a completly wrong tangent here? Sorry this is a bit long but I'm getting a bit frustrated getting this thing to work. If it doesn't work, how stable are Verge1 or 2 and would they be simpler to get up and running?

Second of all, does anyone have any advise on coming up with a combat system? Has anyone just made one up from scratch or just duplicated a system from say FFVII or Phantasy Star?

Finally, is it easy enough to make a Shining Force style combat system with Verge? As in a battle map is made, simmilar to a chess board, and the player moves their party around the board to attack enemies. Sorry this is such a big post.

The laptop was running 24-bit before. Trying it on 16-bit makes the game 'playable', but only one eigth of the screen is used (top left if that at all matters). All the colours are 'odd' as well. It's pretty much the same if I try using my desktop monitor. 32-bit isn't an option at all. One of these days I'll have to wipe the desktop and do a fresh install. Last time I trust PC World on buying a laptop for software development. If wiping the desktop HD and reinstalling everything doesn't work, would Verge 1 or 2 be better screen-wise? I managed to get RPG-Maker working but I'd rather use some software that's a C varient (I'm not too fond on game-dev software that does all the hard work, and RPG-Maker seems very restricting).

So the full 20 meg (or was it 40 meg?) redistributable of the .NET runtime is actually an internet installer? I'm not sure. I'm pretty confident you can find a full non-internet install redistributable for .NET.

Also, what is really horrible is that to use the Windows Update service you are literally required to do it with Internet Explorer, rather than Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla suite, which are absolutely superior. Geez, I hate Windows Update...

Running in 16-bit mode should be fine for Verge3. What do you mean by 'it only takes up a fourth of the screen?' Is this running full-screen mode, or windowed? You can check the 'windowmode X' flag in user.cfg, where if X is 1, it's windowed, and if X is 0, ie, 'windowmode 0', then Verge runs fullscreen.

I think he was trying to say that he wants to use Firefox to access and run the windows update page, not touting Firefox as a bugless browser.

After all, if windows update were Firefox compatible, you could then remove IE and you wouldn't need most of the bugfixes on the windows update site, ne?

Back to the subject, I'm guessing his laptop is one of those laptops that doesn't stretch 320x240 res screens to fit the entire laptop display.

The only version that makes working Verge3 maps is Maped3...is there no way to install or otherwise download the needed IE install files, save them somewhere, and transfer them to the Internet-less laptop? There must surely be a non-Internet way to get a working version of IE. Aren't the archive files used by the install cached somewhere in the Temporary Internet Files or Temp folder or anything like that?

Also, Fox Astron hit it right on the head. Your laptop probably doesn't stretch small resolutions to cover the entire LCD screen. So when you run something in pure 320x240, the monitor is using literally just 320x240 pixels, not the whole panel.

There may be a BIOS option to alter this -- on my Dell, I can change it via accessing the BIOS setup when the laptop boots, or through the Display Properties -- Settings -- Advanced dialog (video card setup).

And, I was mainly talking about how Firefox can't access Windows Update. Though I firmly believe it is superior to Internet Explorer in many ways. (However, I have noticed that one or two pop-ups have broken through lately. It may be time to update it indeed.)

And, as an aside. Won't WinXP or 2000 disks have the setup files for IE and other tools on them? I mean, you probably can't install Windows from them due to EULA, but certainly ripping IE's files would be fair game. I used to do that from old Win95 and 98 disks. Surely an IE install could be on an XP or 2K disk. Maybe some friends have one. (Or maybe this is a stupid idea. Never tried it before.)