Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

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Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Specialist »

DISCLAIMER: These are no longer (as of February 17, 2014) the steps required for an Origin client to play on EA117's Desert Combat server.

See new topic : http://www.ea117dcfanfavorites.com/view ... =62&t=5180







I found a work-around where you can play on the 1942 servers running 1.61(CD version) using the Origin 1942 version. I tested it and confirmed its working but be aware that if you do this you might not be able to join any servers that are only running on 1.612(Origin version) unless they have the modded server file to allow both CD and Origin players to connect.

You're going to need to install PB to your Origin 1942 version since it doesn't come with it and also the DC and DC Final mods.

I made a walk through so follow the steps below.

Step One

Download the Origin client - Origin Client
Once it's installed, download and install the BF 1942 game on Origin - BF1942

Step Two

Download the DC and DCF mods from our downloads section and follow the steps below

How to install Mods on Origin version.
  • 1. Download the mods from our download section.
    2. When the installers ask you where to install, make sure you select the Battlefield 1942 directory inside Origin Games and install as normal from there.
    For most people this will be: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Battlefield 1942
    It can be different if you installed Origin somewhere else or you have a 32-bit OS.
MAKE SURE YOU STILL RUN BF192/DC/DCFinal IN WINXP COMPATIBILITY MODE AND RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR

Also, I suggest letting the installer make the desktop & Start Menu shortcuts for easier access to the MOD.
The splash screen removal does also work in this version -Some DC How-tos.
How do I remove the splash screens and intro movie when starting up DC?
Right click your Desert Combat shortcut; click properties. In the 'target' box add this at the end: +restart 1
Step Three

Install & update PB to the your Origin 1942 version.

Go to your Origin 1942 folder and see if you have a pb folder.
If you don't have a pb folder, just create a new folder in your Origin 1942 directory and name it pb.

Image

Next, download and run TanksPBUpdate - and select the destination folder as the pb folder in your Origin 1942 directory and install as normal.

Image


Step Four

Next, you'll need a modified BF1942.exe file to be able to play on 1.61 servers from your Origin 1942 version so you'll need to download the BF1942.exe below and replace the existing BF1942.exe in your Origin 1942 folder with this one.

BF192.exe

Image

Step Five

Now, you should see our EA 117 server when you launch BF on Origin and if you don't, just add it using our IP or join directly.

If you get an "Invalid CD Key" error follow these steps.
  • 1) Click start menu, type regedit in the search field (or hit windows+r if you do not have vista/7)

    2) Navigate to the following section(s) depending on your OS,

    For those of you that don't have an Origin folder located in either of these two locations:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Origin\Battlefield 1942\ergc (FOR 64bit OS)
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\Origin\Battlefield 1942\ergc (FOR 32bit OS)

    3) Next, click on the ergc "key" , on the right hand side you'll see it has a string value called "Default". Right-click it and then choose "Modify".

    Now you need to copy your product key from CD Version of BF1942 and paste it as the new modified value.

    4) You do NOT need to include spaces, just copy and paste the key and click on "Ok".

    Image

    For those of you that don't have an Origin folder located in either of these two locations:

    1) You need to create it yourself. I have Win 7 x64, so I made an Origin folder (also known as a "key" in the registry) under Electronic Arts.
    To create this "folder", right-click on Electronic Arts and then choose "New" and then "Key". Now it should allow you to give it a name, rename it as Origin.

    2) Next, right-click on the Origin "key" you just made and again pick "New" and then"Key". Give this new key a name of Battlefield 1942.

    3) Next, right-click on the Battlefield 1942 "key" you just made and again pick "New" and then "Key". Give this new key a name of ergc
You should now be able to connect and play on the EA 117 server using the BF1942 Origin verison.

Let me know if it works for you which BTW doesn't have those ugly map load crashes that us Vista/7 users suffer from :D .
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Slagothor »

Thank you so much for posting this. It worked perfectly! I haven't been able to play in about 6 months so this was a real treat. Look forward to playing again. :D
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Trench »

Specialist wrote:Next, download and run TanksPBUpdate - and select the destination folder as the pb folder in your Origin 1942 directory and install as normal.
Thanks here too, Specialist. I ended up being able to use these overall instructions successfully for getting the Origin Battlefield 1942 connecting to the EA117 server, and I ended up needing the "invalid serial number" instructions too, so definitely appreciated having those.

Something I think is not complete about the instructions is the Punkbuster / TanksPBUpdate section. If you started off with new computer / clean installation of Windows, and performed only the above instructions, you definitely DO NOT get a working Origin Battlefield 1942 Punkbuster installation.

I think the instructions listed here work on any machine where Punkbuster is ALREADY installed; e.g. you already have Battlefield 3 or some other game which required and installed Punkbuster, before you ever installed the Origin Battlefield 1942. Adding Origin Battlefield 1942 to such a machine probably does only require running TanksPBUpdate, to handle installing just the Battlefield 1942-specific aspects of Punkbuster operation.

But TanksPBUpdate alone does not actually install Punkbuster, so on a machine where TanksPBUpdate is the only "Punkbuster install" ever performed, the PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB services have never been installed. Trying to connect to the server after running only TanksPBUpdate gets an almost immediate kick for "Service process communication failure: PnkBstrA".

What I did to fix the issue was to delete the "C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 1942\pb" directory I had manually created and installed TanksPBUpdate into. And then I used the PBSVC.EXE followed by PBSETUP.EXE from the PBSetup42.zip available from Monkey on Moongamers. This not only installs the core Punkbuster services themselves, but also installs the Battlefield 1942-specific client pieces too. Such that once finished, you don't even need to run TanksPBUpdate.


Specifically, I used the same steps I had listed for Windows 8 in http://www.ea117dcfanfavorites.com/view ... 477#p33050:

Punkbuster can be successfully installed for the Origin-based Battlefield 1942 client using the PBSVC.EXE followed by PBSETUP.EXE available from the PBSetup42.zip from Monkey on Moongamers.

Running PBSVC.EXE installs the core Punkbuster services, and also performs various tests and adds exceptions to the Windows Firewall for the PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe services. Note the rules created by the installer are only for your current Windows network type ("Public" versus "Private"), so if you want to ensure the rule continues to apply even if you change your Windows network type later, visit the Windows Firewall "allowed programs" list and check the box for both "Public" and "Private" beside the PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe entries in the allowed programs list.

Next, during PBSETUP, use the "Add Game" button and select "Battlefield 1942" from the available drop-down list. Then provide the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Battlefield 1942" path to the Origin-based Battlefield 1942 install. (Or just "C:\Program Files\Origin Games\Battlefield 1942", if using a 32-bit version of Windows.) Then with the new "Battlefield 1942" game entry highlighted, invoke the "Update" button in PBSETUP which will begin the download and installation of the Battlefield 1942-specific Punkbuster client.

NOTE: As described in the PBSetup42.zip readme and in Monkey's online download and installation instructions, an error trying to overwrite a read-only .HTML file is expected during this process.

Once the update has completed and reported the read-only error, you can just close PBSETUP and you're ready to play.

-Trench
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by c0loNeL »

Awesome Spec. Had a HD crash. :x :cry: Having to reinstall "everything". :15: 1942/DC back up and running, thanks bud.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Nightstalker »

Yes same here. I did the Origin version and working good so far.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by c0loNeL »

Specialist wrote:
How do I remove the splash screens and intro movie when starting up DC?
Right click your Desert Combat shortcut; click properties. In the 'target' box add this at the end: +restart 1
Or you can go to your 1942 folder, find the "Movies" folder and rename it "Movies SHUT"
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by yashpant »

I tried all the steps, but I still the invalid CD key error. For the value given to 'ergc', I used the same product code that I see for battlefield 1942 when I open origin. Any idea as to what I may be doing wrong?

For more info, I have the origin version of BF1942, version 1.612, and have installed DC0.7, DC0.8,DCrealism 1.0, DC final, and DC extended installed.

Would appreciate the help.

Thanks,
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Trench »

yashpant wrote:I tried all the steps, but I still the invalid CD key error. For the value given to 'ergc', I used the same product code that I see for battlefield 1942 when I open origin.
My guess would be that the CD-based server is still requiring a CD-based key. The Origin-based key value should have been what was already in the "ergc" value, and is what was being rejected at least in my case until I replaced the "ergc" value with my CD-based key. Would probably take Specialist or someone managing the server to comment on whether any non-CD-based key is expected to be possible.

-Trench
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by yashpant »

Trench, thank you again for the reply. So I need to have a CD-based key to use? If I get my hands on a battlefield 1942 cd version (the original thing), should the key there be enough if I use that as the ergc value?
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by yashpant »

On the same lines, if I buy a used version (say, from Amazon ) of BF1942 cd version, is it likely that the key is in use somewhere else and I still get an invalid CD-key error?
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Specialist »

Yes, you'll need a cd based cd key to play in our server or any servers running the 1.61 version.

If you buy a used version with a valid cd key from Amazon you should still be able to use it on your own system and play on other 1.61 servers as long as that cd key hasn't been banned on PBBans/Punksbusted for previous exploits/hacking.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by yashpant »

I've ordered a used version from Amazon, let's see how that goes. Thanks for the clarification Specialist.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Hav3n »

I put the origin version on my new windows 8 machine and followed all the instructions in the original post. I already have BF3 & BF4 installed so perhaps my punkbuster experience was smoother.

Anyways, DC works now and I don't have to get my older laptop out to run DC & EA117. Good times. Plus, I'm on the large monitor, so it is pretty cool to be playing DC at 1080p.

Anyone else running DC on a 16:9 screen care to share the aspect ratio they're using? I did the 1.3333 that this page recommends: http://www.widescreengaming.net/wiki/Battlefield_1942

But it felt far too compact vertically, so I eased it to 1.2

I may ease it even more. Perhaps one of those is the intended ratio, but I think I've been playing with something a bit wider so everything looks slightly off. Ah well...the joys of playing a game that came out over 10 years ago and doesn't even have widescreen support.

But thanks again to Specialist and Trench for all their instructions and info on getting Desert Combat to work with the new Origin option.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Trench »

Hav3n wrote:Anyone else running DC on a 16:9 screen care to share the aspect ratio they're using? I did the 1.3333 that this page recommends: http://www.widescreengaming.net/wiki/Battlefield_1942
The "renderer.fieldOfView 1.3" setting doesn't actually change "aspect ratio", specifically. It essentially moves the "camera" that is providing your view of the game forwards or backwards, such that more or less of the game happening in front of you can be seen in the screen.

I have the opinion that this setting was really only "necessary" back before true widescreen support solutions were available for Battlefield 1942. Before the current fixes, although you could force video.con to have a high and wide resolution like 1920x1080 set, the game's natively 4:3 screen content was still essentially being "stretched" horizontally to fill that 16:9 resolution.

So upping the "renderer.fieldOfView" helped by "backing up the camera a bit" so that more objects were being shown in the 4:3 view. Which might have been "made things too much smaller and further away" if you did it on an actual 4:3 screen, but when that same content was stretched to 16:9 it feels okay and lets you "see more of the game horizontally on this wider screen."

The "real solution" that exists today is that the BF1942.EXE itself has been modified (not by EA) to support the actual video resolutions your card and drivers are reporting, and these resolutions now simply show up in the Video configuration section of Battlefield 1942, and can be selected normally without manually editing video.con, without forcing video.con to be read-only, etc.

And you have already installed the modified BF1942.EXE. The modified BF1942.EXE which allows an Origin-based Battlefield 1942 client to play on an otherwise CD-based server /also/ includes the "widescreen fixes" which allows all supported resolutions to show up in the normal Video configuration menu. So you no longer need to follow any "manually edit video.con and mark read-only" instructions to achieve widescreen support in the Origin Battlefield 1942 installation.

I think the difference you're seeing where things "feel a bit off" is the difference I showed in the screen shot comparisons at the beginning of this thread. Which as explained later in the thread was actually just the difference of having applied the modified BF1942.EXE for Origin to be able to play on CD-based servers, because of the widescreen support changes that are also present in that modified BF1942.EXE.

So I don't think anything is going to make that "things look different now" feeling go away. Essentially we've all been playing with objects rendered "stretched wider than they should have been" because we've been "forcing" widescreen support on a game that didn't know how to do it. And now we're seeing them rendered "correctly" in widescreen at the same aspect ratio we used to get back when all we had were old 4:3 CRT monitors, but we haven't seen or been playing with for a very long time.

I do happen to still play with "renderer.fieldOfView 1.33" set, probably mostly because I'm used to it / used to seeing that wide of a field of vision on the screen now. It causes minor rendering quirks, such as my view being "behind the barrel of the M1A1" instead of the barrel sticking out from the bottom of my screen like a normal first-person shooter view. Also in the A10 I get to see part of the landing gear in my field of vision.

But I'm too chicken to change it back to 1.0, because I know that sniper will always be just off the edge of my screen...

-Trench
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Hav3n »

Very interesting. Thanks for the response. I did feel like I could see a lot of peripheral now.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Swanny-CG »

I never realized that's why I can see the A10 wheel in the bottom of my screen, turning this way and that as I try not to hit things.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Hav3n »

For what its worth, I think that value actually just changes the angle of view, not camera position. So even though position likely doesn't change, certain things will come into view because the "rendering lens" can see them at a wider angle.
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Nightstalker »

Silly question and of course off topic, but can you take a SS of each setting in the same location so I can see WTH y'all are talking about? I am not a fan of messing with any of the files in game so I am going to live vicariously through y'all. :D
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Hav3n »

These screen grabs are minutes apart, during a game so that is why some stuff like that vehicle is in one shot, but not others. But I just hopped into the BMP so I had a default position to cap a view from each time. You can see the field of view change as the value changes on that short string: renderer.fieldOfView x

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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Trench »

Hav3n wrote:For what its worth, I think that value actually just changes the angle of view, not camera position. So even though position likely doesn't change, certain things will come into view because the "rendering lens" can see them at a wider angle.
I agree that both "field of view" (as they've named the setting) and "angle of view" (as used in photography) both describe what we're talking about. I just thought "moving the camera" was the easier and more simple example. e.g. Regardless of the affixed lens type you might have on the fictitious camera we're talking about, if the camera is pointed straight at a wall then moving the camera forward decreases your field of view so that you will see less of that wall, and moving the camera backwards increases your field of view so you will see more of that wall. In this case "the wall" being the 2D flat rendering the game is making of what objects are in front of you.
Swanny-CG wrote:I never realized that's why I can see the A10 wheel in the bottom of my screen, turning this way and that as I try not to hit things.
Something I didn't realize until trying to get Nightstalker's screen shots is that with the modified Origin BF1942.EXE, it's as though you /always/ have a non-1.0 field of view set. Meaning I actually could /not/ get a screenshot of "the correct first person view from inside an M1A1 tank" using the Origin modified BF1942.EXE. I had to run my CD-based installation instead in order to get the example of what I was describing:
tank.png
-Trench
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Re: Use Origin BF1942 to play on CD version servers: How-to

Post by Nightstalker »

WOW ... I had no idea it was that drastic.
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