Z Expansion 1.7 beta

[Antares]

Z Expansion XP v1.7 beta (23112008) - Christmas edition

Fix List
1. Corrected stop music playing in random intervals
2. The ability to disable intro (previously, when activated option to "disable movie" intro still show)
3. Revised and rewritten almost all the previous fixes
4. Completely rewritten cycle of messages, much improved response games (minimized, closure, etc.)
5. Reduced load on the processor at ~ 26% during the game
6. Fixed a mouse when you play in windowed mode
7. Removed heavy delays when connecting to a server
8. Meaningful work chat in a network game
9. Improved stability of the game
10. Finalized and included AMEC (automatic mode error correction). This includes a year ago in a test version and has since been turned off because of unsatisfactory performance. In short, the essence of this feature is the automatic handling of potential errors and corrections on the fly. If can not correct the error generated by a report about this problem
11. Total processing algorithm patch
12. The ability to write their own "hot-patch" (for expertise in Assembler). Description will be given later.

Command Line Switches
/w3d - remained unchanged, includes a windowed mode
/dos - a new emulation of original games, more than any additional files (robots.dat) is not required

Attention!
Version 1.7 is not compatible with previous versions. Play on the network, you'll only if all will be version 1.7. Similarly, when the line "/dos", playing on the network can only be a person who is also mode activated.

Download with imasters


Please leave here your comments and suggestions.

[zfrank]

WOW! Thanks for your work!!

One issue: This time (only) AntiVir complains again it is a virus. I just run it through http://virusscan.jotti.org/de/ and at the moment Antivir seems has this - I believe - false positive result. However for the 1.65er version now a lot more scanners seems to detect some malware stuff. I think that these are false positive results but it may be good to publish md5 checksums on your download site so we can check that nobody has tampered them locally and maybe contact the anti virus companies to improve their scanners!

Merry Christmas

Frank

[Antares]

There is a lot of young antivirus, which lured potential buyers that the detected non-existent viruses. For example Kaspersky Labs detected a large number of keygen, but they do not represent any threat. This is an extra reason to show that the antivirus like works, in fact it is a marketing move, aimed at trusting users.

Certainly in my patch have no viruses or trojans. All that is downloaded into my site, contains nothing of this. You can compare the identity of the file on the CRC archive - 673F5EBA.

[Z3r05t4r]

i've found a virus free, running on XP without anything Z version. i don't really know if its Z95 or Z96 but that doesnt really matter i think. the only problem on this version is that it has got no sound. but its still working fine.
here you go:
http://www.486games.net/game.php?id=173

[zfrank]

Thanks but thats the DOS version I think. Z Expansion however works with the W95 version and with sound.

Again - I don't believe there is malware in ZEXP. It just does 'strange things' compared to other more normal programs (like copying/patching the Z EXEs, etc.) that tend to trigger a generic alarm like 1.65 does. I am doing software development myself and was victim of such a 'false positive' more than once. In particular programs that work outside the scope of normal applications are condidates of being flagged as suspicious by some virus checkers.

[Ravey]

Thanks for the patch, Antares! Seems to be running really well, I tried using a Roland MT-32 emulator to test the sound quality because I heard that Z was compatible with it, but it didn't sound too good. It worked fine but I guess it sounds better with soundblaster.

[Red_Wraith]

Thank you very much for this new patch! Finally the background music works perfectly

[zfrank]

I have posted the binary and received message from Avira (AntiVir guys) that the detection of zexp1.7 was a false positive (like before for 1.65) and they will change their database accordingly.

Code: Select all

 
Dateiname   Ergebnis  
Zexp17.exe  FALSE POSITIVE
Die Datei 'Zexp17.exe' wurde als 'FALSE POSITIVE' eingestuft. Dies
bedeutet, dass diese Datei nicht gefährlich und eine Fehlmeldung
unsererseits ist. Das Erkennungsmuster wird mit einem der nächsten
Updates der Virendefinitionsdatei (VDF) entfernt werden.

Translated: The file 'Zexp17.exe' is considered a 'false positive'. That means that file is not a threat and the message an error of our (anti virus) system. The detection pattern will be changed accordingly with the next virus definition update.

Cheers

Frank

[Optimus Prime]

i downloaded it, but how must i copy it ? when i want to start it, there is a mistake message

[Antares]

This should be placed in a folder with installed the Z95 and run.

[barkmann]

1.7 beta 2 doesn't run, it generates an error when I run it (whereas 1.6 runs Z just fine).

'winz.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close.
We are sorry for the inconvenience'

cheers

[Antares]

download again

[barkmann]

Thanks Antares, it's working now

cheers Chris

[cpt.mike]

Hi,
@Antares, I have problem with zexp17b3, after run I get "The patch is not compatible to this version of game". I tried to uninstall/install but still problem occured.
OS: Vista Home 32.
With zexp 1.6.5 everything works fine (thanx, great work, I can play Z once again after a years).
Regards

[Antares]

Version 1.7 tightened control over the file winz.exe, and if it differs from the original version, the patch displays an error. The appearance of errors is also may be an indication of running away from the game directory.