Matrix Games - Bombing the Reich. Any good?

[Apocalypse 31]

I would check the forum over at Matrix...There are a few disgruntled people who are angry at bugs which were never fixed and the state the game is in.

Sadly, can be said about most Matrix games.

[Boggit]

I have Eagle Day to the Bombing of the Reich (BtR), War in the West (WitW) and Defending the Reich(DtR).

DtR is a completely different game to the other two.

BtR is a highly detailed game that can take an age to play. It has excellent attention to detail, but seeing results is slow as it has daily turns.

DtR is much faster paced, and is far, far easier to get into quickly. DtR deals specifically with the RAF night bombing campaign of 1943-45, rather than day ops as well. Both games play on 1024*768 screens - not great by today's standards, but they work fine.

Both are a challenge and both are fun in their own way, but offer quite different game experiences. Both play on a

I mention WitW as the air war is very streamlined, and has a number of similarities with BtR - plus you get the ground campaigns. It also supports modern screen resolutions.

They are all great games. For a tactical buzz, also consider Achtung Spitfire!, Over the Reich and Flight Commander2 all great air war games in desperate need of a new face lift to bring into the 21st century.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Thanks for the info guys.  I contacted Chris at NWS (Wasn't sure if he was still in business) and went with DtR. 

[magnus]

 I thought NWS only sold on EBAY now?

[jomni]

I have Eagle Day to the Bombing of the Reich (BtR), War in the West (WitW) and Defending the Reich(DtR).

DtR is a completely different game to the other two.

BtR is a highly detailed game that can take an age to play. It has excellent attention to detail, but seeing results is slow as it has daily turns.

DtR is much faster paced, and is far, far easier to get into quickly. DtR deals specifically with the RAF night bombing campaign of 1943-45, rather than day ops as well. Both games play on 1024*768 screens - not great by today's standards, but they work fine.

Both are a challenge and both are fun in their own way, but offer quite different game experiences. Both play on a

I mention WitW as the air war is very streamlined, and has a number of similarities with BtR - plus you get the ground campaigns. It also supports modern screen resolutions.

They are all great games. For a tactical buzz, also consider Achtung Spitfire!, Over the Reich and Flight Commander2 all great air war games in desperate need of a new face lift to bring into the 21st century.

Thanks I just realized DtR is a different game from HPS.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

It finally showed up today and I can't get it to work on any of my PCs.

I get a run time error: 429 ActiveX cannot create object error message.

I downloaded the .dll files from the HPS page but I cannot get Windows 7 or 8 to give me access to the system32 folder to copy them over.  I'm running as admin and I've given myself full control over the folder.  I've disabled my spyware/AV stuff.

I go through the command prompt as admin and try to copy the files over using old DOS commands and then registering the files with the regsvr32 command but nothing's working.  Any tips?

[Al]

It finally showed up today and I can't get it to work on any of my PCs.

I get a run time error: 429 ActiveX cannot create object error message.

I downloaded the .dll files from the HPS page but I cannot get Windows 7 or 8 to give me access to the system32 folder to copy them over.  I'm running as admin and I've given myself full control over the folder.  I've disabled my spyware/AV stuff.

I go through the command prompt as admin and try to copy the files over using old DOS commands and then registering the files with the regsvr32 command but nothing's working.  Any tips?

By chance I saw at the HPS website that DtR has been updated since your post.  You may want to check it out and give it another try.  Says it's been updated for newer operating systems.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I'll check it out, thanks.  After a few days of keyboard pounding rage, I was able to get the game running on Win 7.  I got it running in Win 8.1 as well but couldn't get videos to play so hopefully this will fix that. 

I ended up emailing back and forth to HPS and explaining my problems and solutions.  They said they would get back to me on how to fix the videos but it looks as though they fixed it (I hope) without responding. Rude!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The patch doesn't fix the videos.  It's very poorly implemented.  It creates a new .exe startup program but this new .exe has a different name than the original.  The patch install doesn't fix this so your desktop shortcut will start the old .exe program instead of the new now.  This is probably for the best since the new one gives an error message and dumps the game to desktop.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Big thumbs up to HPS. It took some time and quite a few attempts on their part but they were able to get the game up and running for me on my Win 8.1 laptop.

[Staggerwing]

What did the trick?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I don't know.  They ended up emailing me several versions of the complete game installer and all would crash to desktop with an error message but the latest one works and the videos now play.

[chemkid]

I have looked very carefully at this game, over a lengthy period. I have extreme interest in the genre..and wore out my Avalon Hill copy of Luftwaffe.

There is some good gameplay here...but there are some head scratching moments here as well..sufficient to put me off a purchase decision. The advise of reviewing the posts in their forum is pretty solid. I don't believe that there are likely to be additional improvements to the engine..and I also don't think the game is mod-friendly.

(my bold+underline)

...after all these years, seems like things are going to change someday...

www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3873362

[Asid]

Someone has started to mod game. 8)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3873362&mpage=1&key=&#3889538

[JasonPratt]

Thank God and/or Valve for Steam maybe?  :-*