Honour & Freedom (1999)

[sunnysports]

An introduction to this game:

Honor & Freedom is a 3D real time strategy game. (The original version released in August 1999)

The players need to excavate resources, construct base, produce weapons, and protect themselves by controling 3D air-force and ground-force units in order to defeat the enemy; there're also specific missions in each assignment.

Human and Robot are the two races in the game; they have complicated weapon systems individually. They have different specialties in varieties of ground and air forces; however, those characteristics are also restricted to each other. Players could constitute them to be an irony army as they wish.

This game has an outstanding 3D characteristic. The sky, mountain and water make players be personally on the scenes. The vivid fighting scenes and varieties of special effects in the game will sure give players a surprise.

In addition, this game is also a test of players' abilities, for each player needs his own strategy. AI combines and optimizes many programmers' strategies; it will bring players many troubles!

• 3D Mode: Using DirectX 5.0 as the bottum, all basing on the ImmediateMode pattern, fully utilizing the optimization and characteristics of 3D graphics card, giving a convulsive visual effect and an unimaginable feeling that 2D game never has.
• Real Time Strategy: To render, order and perform in real time, you need to face a mightiness opponent-the computer and an even mightier opponent-your enemy.
• Battle Online: Supports 4 players at the most in Internet online game. Challenge proficient players in different areas.
• Artificial Intelligence: AI has annoyed type, crazy type, conservative type, and aggressive type. Each type will give you a hard time to deal with.
• Varieties in Methods: You can choose to be either the Human or the Robot. Each army has its own characteristics, they patch up and restrict each other at the same time. The more powerful weapon system and mighty weapon will produce with the upgrading of the base.
• System Minimum Requirement: PII 233, 32M Ram, 2nd generation 3D acceleration card, 4M display memory, 4x CD-ROM, WIN95/98, DirectX 5.0 or higher

In each fighting moment and each real time strategy game, it might be bloody and cruel, we do hope you still keep a virtuous heart no matter you were the evil Robot or the rebellious Human in the game.

The original version supports Windows 95/98/ME. The latest official version is 1.6.2, released in January 2001. Version 1.6.2 add supports for Windows NT/2000/XP, and now we can play it in Windows 10:

• Use Dege's special patched D3DRM.DLL to fix mouse cursor problem, and support Windows Vista and above. (D3DRM.DLL is not part of OS since Vista)
• Use IPXwrapper for a game on IPX/SPX local area network.
• In Windows 8 or above, use Windows compatibility "16 bit color", and launch the game by "start JMain.exe -window". If you directly launch JMain.exe then the screen gets stuck once you select anything in a game.
• In Windows 8.1 or above, we need to enable Windows feature: Legacy Components - DirectPlay.

But 1.6.2 is a bad version. It's absolutely unbalanced. All damage is doubled, compared to old versions(version 1.1, 1.2), and Human is too strong while Robot is so weak. AI computers also behaves differently. AI now has a poor strategy and this makes the game much less interesting.

Although I have made a balance fix version 1.8.1 (primarily armor fix), it's not so perfect.

So is it possible to run old versions(version 1.1, 1.2) on modern Windows OS? Version 1.1/1.2 only works on Windows 9x and even doesn't support Windows NT/2000/XP. PCem emulator is a choice, but it requires 4+GHz CPU otherwise it's too slow. And there seems to be no way to battle online through PCem with win9x.

I tried DxWnd. It works well with version 1.6.2, but I failed to get version 1.2 to work. Is there any way to make version 1.1/1.2 to work with DxWnd on modern Windows OS?

Here is the game on my OneDrive:
Honour & Freedom(Juliet)

Thanks, GHO!

[gho]

Game grabbed, you can unshare it now as you like.

[gho]

First feedbacks: I attacked the problem with the version 1.2 of the game. The first problem here is that the game uses unsupported MMX instructions, or to be more precise, instructions supported by most CPU chipsets but disabled by recent OS for security reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if the game v1.2 would run on WinXP, the last OS to support MMX instruction set.
You can bypass the exception thrown by these instructions by using the DxWnd "Handle exceptions" flag, but this way you could easily bypass some necessary processing.
As a matter of fact, using that flag and a few other triks it seems I got a windowized working game with the only problem that all screens are completely black, though you can hear the sound and blindly click on some button.
Bot, ok, this is just the beginning ....

P.s. I wonder how such a gem went unnoticed in western countries. The game should have had success if translated in english. Look at a screenshot from version 1.6.2!

[gho]

Interesting: clicking blindly on version 1.1 I managed to enter the mission area: it seems that while all 2D parts are black, the 3D schenes are ok. Maybe the case is not without any hope ....

[gho]

Good! Same game but setting the "Libs / GDI / Emulate Device Context" flag!

[gho]

Good! Same game but setting the "Libs / GDI / Emulate Device Context" flag!
Please, try the attached exported configuration (after setting the proper game path).

[gho]

I think we're close enough to a happy ending.
Current DxWnd release is not able to support this game, it is necessary to have two patches to ddraw surfaces handling and GDI32 SetDIBits wrapper. These fixes are implemented in the attached beta, so you'll have to install the last DxWnd release v2.04.59 and overwrite that with the dll in the attached archive. Then import the included export files and set the game folder and all other flags (window position, style etc.) according to your preferences.
I tested the game quite quickly but everything seemed ok (that is not a proof, of course!) but the movie from main screen (see screenshot).
I recommend you to test it a while because the bypassed MMX instructions could have been useful to something, after all!

[sunnysports]

This is indeed goog news. Thanks a lot for the patch! I'll test it.

[sunnysports]

Thanks for your help and the game now v1.2 work well on my win8.1 laptop both in windowed mode and fullscreen mde. Just one problem. If you minimize the window, the game will stop. In fullscreen mode if you press Win+D to return to desktop, the game just terminates itself. I tried "Pretend visible & on top" but it didn't help.

[sunnysports]

PS: This game has a demo mode, in multi-plauers/virtual network mode, AI will help you to build and fight. Use "JMain.exe -demo".

[sunnysports]

Update: I tried "DirectX(2)/No EXCLUSIVE coop level" with fullscreen mode. Now the game won't quit on pressing win key or alt+tab. But it still doesn't survive Win+D...

[sunnysports]

I found a way to avoid the problem: use "JMain.exe -window" and "Video/Initial virtual color setting/16BPP". Now the game survives Win+D both in windowed mode (with "Run in window" checked) and fullscreen mode ("Run in window" unchecked and "Fullscreen only" checked).

With "JMain.exe -window" and "Fullscreen only" checked, the game uses only a 640x480 size region at the upper left corner on the screen (See screenshot). We can use a DxWnd proxy ddraw.dll and use SetRes.exe tool so that the game runs just like on full screen. For example we use a .bat file:

SetRes.exe h640 v480
JMain.exe -window
SetRes.exe h1920 v1080

About the movie problem:
It seems that the game runs in 16-bit color but the movies uses system color bit depth. Maybe the movie will play well if I change color depth to 16-bit in system settings. But Win8.1/Win10 doesn't support 16-bit color... I'll try it in win7 VM.

[sunnysports]

I'm sorry this was a mistake. Using "JMain.exe -window" won't even enter a mission.

[sunnysports]

Sure. The movie plays perfectly with 16bit system color depth in win7 VM. :)

Update: "Timing/Suspend time stretch in movies" doesn't take effect. Maybe the avi file is not supported by DxWnd? It's in cinepak video tracks.

[Riitaoja]

The dxwnd main tab flag "Do not notify on task switch" usually helps if the game terminates on window minimizing.

[gho]

not this one ...

[sunnysports]

This flag doesn't help... I think "Win+D" problem doesn't matter too much, considering that in a game we often press "Win" by mistake, but not "Win+D" :)

[gho]

Here i see this strange effect: Win+D minimize all, then when you restore the game window the mouse is lost, no matter what you do the cursor stays fixed and the game doesn't listen to clicks. This should depend somehow on DirectInput, but it seems a different case from other games.

[sunnysports]

Movie is now perfect on Win7.
Now I use this "FakeFullScreen" profile with Honour & Freedom v1.2 (see attachment) and a dinput.dll proxy. I also use a SetRes.exe tool and a .bat file like this:

@echo off
cd /d %~dp0

REM Detecting screen resolution.
for /f "delims=" %%# in ('"wmic path Win32_VideoController get CurrentHorizontalResolution,CurrentVerticalResolution /value | findstr =[1-9]"') do (
    set "%%#">nul
)
REM Launching JMain.exe.
.\Tools\SetRes.exe h640 v480 b16
if "%1"=="demo"  (
    .\JMain.exe -demo
) else (
    .\JMain.exe
)
.\Tools\SetRes.exe h%CurrentHorizontalResolution% v%CurrentVerticalResolution% b32

exit /b

It automatically sets screen resolution to 640x480 and 16 bit color (16bit color only takes effect on Windows not later than Win7). If 16 bit color is successfully set, the game will play movie without problem. After quitting the game, screen resolution will be restored automatically.

[sunnysports]

And it seems that Win+D problem no longer exists.

[sunnysports]

Note:

1. In fullscreen mode, remember to check "Main\Position\Desktop", or the game will not launch on 125% DPI.
2. Check "Hide desktop background" to avoid possible blinking screen on Win+D.
3. Ddraw.dll proxy soesn't seem to work on some computers. Use dinput.dll proxy instead.

[Whatshisname]

Hey! Is this thread still active? I found something super interesting

So basically I have this other game under the name of "Militarism" developed under a company named "Nodtronics". And both of these games are really similar is some way. I recently had the game installed on an old computer (Just so i could play it for nostalgic sake) and for a game made in 2003 of course the updates wouldn't work. But there was a notepad file for it and upon clicking it, it said... (Check my attached images)

[sunnysports]

Yes. The game Militarism is successor of Honour & Freedom. Developed by Beijing Gold Human Computer Company Ltd. Many people don't know it's a Chinese game.

Chinese Title: 自由与荣耀2
English Title: Honour & Freedom 2; Freedom and Glory 2; Militarism
Released: August, 2001
(As of November 2001, version 2.0.2 CDRom (自由与荣耀2威力增强版) re-released by Beijing Epie Game Technology Company Ltd.)

This game has Korean version, Italian version, English version. English version known as Militarism.

[gho]

Very interesting.
isozone has a rip of the game, but I suppose movies and music are too a severe loss for such a game, not to mention the opportunity to emulate audio tracks (if present) with audio CD emulator. Some other web page reports that the game is free at fullgames site, but I'm behind a restrictive firewall now and I can't verify. I'm going to test the game ASAP, hoping that a free english full release is somewhere available ....
P.s. if you have "good hints" please take advantage of the PM service

[sunnysports]

Honour & Freedom 2 does not use audio tracks.. It use .adw file (compressed wav) as music.

The problem is graphic problem on my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti desktop.