American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)
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Tiller Games...
http://www.wargame.ch/board/acwgc/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20931
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Author:  tciampa [ Tue Mar 13, 2018 4:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Tiller Games...

I don't even know where to begin to solve this disaster problem of Tiller making these major changes. I am not even sure that I will be able to play my games again. I did not have ALL OF MY MANY, MANY HPS games installed on my computer. I had the hablit of installing just those game for which I had opponents. Right now I have THREE of my three dozen + HPS games loaded on my Win10 computer. I can only play two of them.

First, my Gettysburg original disc seems to have "S**T the bed. I can't get it to even be recognized by my computers CD player. And while I have almost every one on a back up disk I DO NOT have a backup for it.....So now Gettysburg is off the menu. I now have only Tokruk, Market Garden, and Normandy 44. AND Normandy was recently installed and then I turned to HPSSIMS to fetch the patch and lo and be hold it has disappeared replaced with JohnTillerSoftware.com which I consulted and tried to patch and guess what...all I end up with is the NOT updated version 1.0 !!! 17 years I have been buying and playing these games including a decade ago play-testing scenarios for for a half dozen games back about ten years ago.

Now I am so disgusted to be faced with this mess that I may just give up the Tiller games....just to damn old to go through all crap...hundreds of dollars into these games and for years was well supported and easy to install and update. I don't have the stamina nor the patience to start all over again with a whole new paradigm on installing and fixing these games. I will hunt for something else to play and another club. Normandy will not work and I TRIED DOWNLOADING HIS NEW FIX ONLY to have Normandy not ge patched but also have my machine all screwed up.

Author:  mihalik [ Tue Mar 13, 2018 5:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

Hi, General,

While I can sympathize with some of your complaints, I have to say that I have gotten my money's worth out of the Tiller games, which is more than I can say for a bunch of games I
bought and found didn't work, were too hard to comprehend, or which I just didn't like.

In my humble opinion the Tiller games are the best on the market as far as playability, reliability and support, and while not perfect are the best tactical games I have played.

Hope someone at tech support can help with your problems. They have almost always helped with mine.

Respectfully,

Author:  krmiller_usa [ Wed Mar 14, 2018 7:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

Currently the HPS site is down, has been for some time.
According to a report I saw on another forum from Rich Hamilton they have a server problem and are working on it, not sure if he is still affiliated with HPS or not.
I do know that JTS has not provided HPS with the newest updates beginning in Jan. 2016 but they will help you update to the newer JTS updates.
These require a serial number to activate the game but if you go to http://johntillersoftware.com/Support.php you can contact their support team.
They can assist you in migrating to the downloaded JTS versions of your games.
It may take a couple days to receive an answer but I have always gotten a reply when contacting them.

I was able to move to the new versions of all of my Tiller HPS games, 40+ titles from the ACW, Nappy, and PzC games at no cost to me.
I don't have all of them installed but I did not have any problems with my pc during or after installing the updates for the ones I do so I'm not sure what type of issue installing the update would produce other than requiring a sn to activate after the update.
I also had a problem with my HPS NRC disk not working and Rich provided me with a link to download the JTS installation file.

So while I don't always agree with everything they do IMO the support of older Tiller titles is better than anything I have seen in 30+ years of buying pc wargames.

Author:  Christian Hecht [ Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

krmiller wrote:
So while I don't always agree with everything they do IMO the support of older Tiller titles is better than anything I have seen in 30+ years of buying pc wargames.


Damned right!

Author:  tciampa [ Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

mihalik wrote:
Hi, General,

While I can sympathize with some of your complaints, I have to say that I have gotten my money's worth out of the Tiller games, which is more than I can say for a bunch of games I
bought and found didn't work, were too hard to comprehend, or which I just didn't like.

In my humble opinion the Tiller games are the best on the market as far as playability, reliability and support, and while not perfect are the best tactical games I have played.

Hope someone at tech support can help with your problems. They have almost always helped with mine.

Respectfully,


SO!d General Mihalik....HOW did YOU solve the problem. You seemed endeared to the HPS games as we all are...so have you gotten all the help you needed to convert all the games by using the new pactch(s)? A friend sent me one of the OLD patches for Normandy 44....and I thought that should work. I installed the game and then I downloaded his (apparently) archived patch (something I was not so smart to do)...AND guess what? I used to be able to patch an HPS in less THAN A MINUTE. And one hour later I still can't get that damn think to unzip properly to C:HPS/Normandy. It appears to download, I click on it and NORTON ERASES IT....EVEN WHEN I TURN OFF NORTON.....

And this is a story about trying to patch the ONE game with an original old patch from the now defunct HPSSIMS site. ONE lousy game...do you think I m going to do this for about 22 other games? I am pretty disappointed with Tiller and I used to be a devoted playtester for he and Rich. Why the hell couldn't he have just copied all the data from the old site and put it the way it had been...what is with this NEW and better modifications to all the old games....some obsession with piracy? Well am not up to this...I am too old, too stressed by being the only caretaker for a wife with Dementia, and not willing to have to fix something that "wasn't broke" and costed me hundreds of dollars of games over the years....in a word it SUCKS....I will find other games and other forums to play them...like Gary Grisby's games those of Matrix.

Author:  Christian Hecht [ Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

That Norton triggers a false alarm is neither new nor bad, rather to much protect than not enough. All you have to do is either add exceptions to Norton so that neither the folder you place the patch nor the game folder are auto-protected, or you contact Norton so that they take care of this false alarm.

Of course one can be upset about the troubles, but all comes for the continuing support of these games. Which other publisher cares for games made in the late 90's?

Now, if you still need any HPS patches, I think I have them all, so if you tell me what you need & your mail address I'll send them over.

Author:  mihalik [ Wed Mar 14, 2018 5:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

tciampa wrote:
mihalik wrote:
Hi, General,

While I can sympathize with some of your complaints, I have to say that I have gotten my money's worth out of the Tiller games, which is more than I can say for a bunch of games I
bought and found didn't work, were too hard to comprehend, or which I just didn't like.

In my humble opinion the Tiller games are the best on the market as far as playability, reliability and support, and while not perfect are the best tactical games I have played.

Hope someone at tech support can help with your problems. They have almost always helped with mine.

Respectfully,


SO!d General Mihalik....HOW did YOU solve the problem. You seemed endeared to the HPS games as we all are...so have you gotten all the help you needed to convert all the games by using the new pactch(s)? A friend sent me one of the OLD patches for Normandy 44....and I thought that should work. I installed the game and then I downloaded his (apparently) archived patch (something I was not so smart to do)...AND guess what? I used to be able to patch an HPS in less THAN A MINUTE. And one hour later I still can't get that damn think to unzip properly to C:HPS/Normandy. It appears to download, I click on it and NORTON ERASES IT....EVEN WHEN I TURN OFF NORTON.....

And this is a story about trying to patch the ONE game with an original old patch from the now defunct HPSSIMS site. ONE lousy game...do you think I m going to do this for about 22 other games? I am pretty disappointed with Tiller and I used to be a devoted playtester for he and Rich. Why the hell couldn't he have just copied all the data from the old site and put it the way it had been...what is with this NEW and better modifications to all the old games....some obsession with piracy? Well am not up to this...I am too old, too stressed by being the only caretaker for a wife with Dementia, and not willing to have to fix something that "wasn't broke" and costed me hundreds of dollars of games over the years....in a word it SUCKS....I will find other games and other forums to play them...like Gary Grisby's games those of Matrix.

Author:  mihalik [ Wed Mar 14, 2018 5:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

Hi, General,

First, I'm really sorry about your wife! I have known folks with dementia and I have seen how painful and draining it can be on those who love and care for them.

I use Avast so I am unaware of any problems caused by Norton.

I got the latest updates by sending a digital photo of all my disks to Rich Hamilton who then sent me a code for each of my 11 games (all ACW).

I experienced no problems installing the patches. But the games still work fine without the latest updates, as long as you and your opponent use the same version.

I never even bothered updating my Napoleon or Panzer Campaign games, as I just play them solo.

Yours,

Mike Mihalik

tciampa wrote:
mihalik wrote:
Hi, General,

While I can sympathize with some of your complaints, I have to say that I have gotten my money's worth out of the Tiller games, which is more than I can say for a bunch of games I
bought and found didn't work, were too hard to comprehend, or which I just didn't like.

In my humble opinion the Tiller games are the best on the market as far as playability, reliability and support, and while not perfect are the best tactical games I have played.

Hope someone at tech support can help with your problems. They have almost always helped with mine.

Respectfully,


SO!d General Mihalik....HOW did YOU solve the problem. You seemed endeared to the HPS games as we all are...so have you gotten all the help you needed to convert all the games by using the new pactch(s)? A friend sent me one of the OLD patches for Normandy 44....and I thought that should work. I installed the game and then I downloaded his (apparently) archived patch (something I was not so smart to do)...AND guess what? I used to be able to patch an HPS in less THAN A MINUTE. And one hour later I still can't get that damn think to unzip properly to C:HPS/Normandy. It appears to download, I click on it and NORTON ERASES IT....EVEN WHEN I TURN OFF NORTON.....

And this is a story about trying to patch the ONE game with an original old patch from the now defunct HPSSIMS site. ONE lousy game...do you think I m going to do this for about 22 other games? I am pretty disappointed with Tiller and I used to be a devoted playtester for he and Rich. Why the hell couldn't he have just copied all the data from the old site and put it the way it had been...what is with this NEW and better modifications to all the old games....some obsession with piracy? Well am not up to this...I am too old, too stressed by being the only caretaker for a wife with Dementia, and not willing to have to fix something that "wasn't broke" and costed me hundreds of dollars of games over the years....in a word it SUCKS....I will find other games and other forums to play them...like Gary Grisby's games those of Matrix.

Author:  tciampa [ Thu Mar 15, 2018 4:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

C. Hecht wrote:
That Norton triggers a false alarm is neither new nor bad, rather to much protect than not enough. All you have to do is either add exceptions to Norton so that neither the folder you place the patch nor the game folder are auto-protected, or you contact Norton so that they take care of this false alarm.

Of course one can be upset about the troubles, but all comes for the continuing support of these games. Which other publisher cares for games made in the late 90's?

Now, if you still need any HPS patches, I think I have them all, so if you tell me what you need & your mail address I'll send them over.


I just wrote you an email...thank you so much for the offer to supply me with some of the old patches. I persevered and I found out that my Gettysburg disc was NOT corrupted...the Auto install file was missing. So I thought I would try UN-installing it and then RE-installing it...which I did WITHOUT HOWEVER, stupidly not thinking to move or copy the old patch (no longer available from Tiller) to another folder first before uninstalling. So now I have the GB installed but stuck on ver. 1.0.

When I am in a better state of mind, I will visit the Tiller site and try to deal with the new change, send in photos, etc and "get over it"....thanks Christian for being so leveled headed and sympathetic as was others here. I panicked. And it was so kind of you to offer to send me patches...right now I am only concerned about GB so I can continue a game I had started with General Tom Phillips.

Much thanks...Tom

Author:  Christian Hecht [ Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

I just answered your mail and send the patch along with it.
In case you didn't get it spam/virus protection from you mailprovider might has stopped it. In that case I could upload the patch and you could download it.

Author:  dalelast [ Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tiller Games...

All,

After being down for awhile I see that the HPS site is back up and running.

As far as the sending in of photos are concerned I have always had a quick turnaround time getting serial numbers back.

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