A great game called "Rocket Jockey" was published by SegaSoft in 1996.

Unfortunately, it came out just before widespread adoption of 3D
graphics cards and relied upon software rendering of graphics.   It
was a very innovative game, but the company that developed it (Rocket
Science) shortly went out of business.

I played it on my overclocked Pentium 166mHz and enjoyed it a lot. 
But turning up the quality of the graphics really slowed down the
game.

My new computer is a 2.2 GHZ Pentium running Windows XP Home.   I'd
love to try the game out on this machine and see what it looks like
with the graphics set at maximum.  Unfortunately, I can't get it to
run.

I was able to get it to complete the installation routine by using
Windows 95 compatibility mode.   However, when I try to run the
program, I get this error message.

********************************
Winsniff Performance Utility has Encountered a problem and needs to
close.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Error signature:
AppName:  winsniff.exe       AppVer:  1.0.0.1      ModName:
perfman.dll
ModVer: 1.0.0.1          Offset:  0000569c

Files in error report C:\winnt\temp\wer27.tmp.dir00\appcompat.txt
********************************

My request is for step-by-step instructions to get the game to run
under Windows XP on my new computer.  I spent about 2 hours Googling
for this answer and can't find it.

Some things I've already tried or ruled-out:

1)  Windows 95 compatibility mode.  Gives the above error message.
2)  Setting up some sort of dual-boot system where I can run Windows
95 on the machine.   That's WAY too much trouble to get one game to
run and I'm not sure my sound card, graphics card, etc will even work
with Windows 95.
3)  Finding another computer to run it on.

---

Request for Question Clarification by hibiscus-ga on 12 Nov 2002 16:19 PST

Can you list the contents of the file that is mentioned in the error message:
C:\winnt\temp\wer27.tmp.dir00\appcompat.txt

That might help in figuring out what is upsetting the program.

---

Clarification of Question by gary_theilman-ga on 14 Nov 2002 06:18 PST

I think we may need to give up on this one.

The original error message wanted me to send 'appcompat.txt' to
Microsoft.   In the message, it warned that the file contains
information about my computer, it's digital ID, my license
information, etc.   They promised that the information would go over a
secure connection, that it would be guarded carefully, never used for
marketing purposes, etc.

Naturally, I didn't send it.

The file is pretty long and looks like it's written in XML.   I can't
tell what information in it is okay to give out and what might be used
in a malicious manner.  Given my ignorance as to what Microsoft has
embedded in this file, I don't want to post it or mail it to a
third-party.

Since I can't provide the information needed to solve the question, I
guess this one will just have to remain unresolved.

Thanks for your consideration.

Yeah, it's often impossible to get the game to install on XP. However,
all that's really needed to make it run is a registry modification.

First, all the game files except deis1.isu and techsupp.dat are copied
directly from the CD, folder structure and all. The game itself pays
no attention to those two files and there are no compressed archives.
Step 1 is to copy all the files from the CD to your intended
directory.

Second, you create a text file in your favorite editor with the text below:
<begin file>

REGEDIT4 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\RocketJockeyV1.0]
"UninstallString"="C:\\WINDOWS\\uninst.exe -f\"C:\\Program
Files\\Segasoft\\Rocket Jockey\\DeIsL1.isu\""
"DisplayName"="Rocket Jockey v1.0" 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\Jockey.exe]
"Path"="C:\\Program Files\\Segasoft\\Rocket Jockey\\" 
@="C:\\Program Files\\Segasoft\\Rocket Jockey\\Jockey.exe" 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DirectDraw\MostRecentApplication] 
"Name"="WINSNIFF.EXE" 
"ID"=dword:32540d98 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Description\Microsoft\Rpc\UuidPersistentData] 
"ClockSequence"=dword:00001c3a 
"LastTimeAllocated"=hex:a0,49,a7,e1,5000,7c,5d,2a,51,99,d8,01 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Segasoft\Rocket Jockey\1.0] 
"Root directory"="C:\\Program Files\\Segasoft\\Rocket Jockey" 
"CD-ROM directory"="D:" 
"Installation type"=dword:00000008 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Segasoft\System analysis] 
"Clock speed"=dword:000000a6 
"Processor rating"=dword:00000056 
"Disk rating"=dword:0000005e 
"Memory rating"=dword:000000ab 
"Physical memory"=dword:02000000 
"Display device 1 GUID"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 
"Display device 1 name"="Primary Display Driver" 
"Display device 1 rating"=dword:000000d0 
"Display device 1 8-bit"=dword:00000001 
"Display device 1 16-bit"=dword:00000001 
"Display device"=dword:00000001 
"Sound device 1 GUID"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 
"Sound device 1 name"="Primary Sound Driver" 
"Sound device 1 rating"=dword:00000000 
"Sound device 1 16-bit"=dword:00000000 
"Sound device"=dword:00000001 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{a7c7a5b1-5af3-11d1-9ced-00a024bf0407}]

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit] 
"View"=hex:2c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,\ 
ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,2c,00,00,00,2c,00,00,00,0c,02,00,00,6d,01,00,00,d8,00,00,\ 
00,78,00,00,00,20,01,00,00,01,00,00,00 
"FindFlags"=dword:0000000e 

<end of file>

Third, edit the directories to match your computer's setup and your
chosen location for RJ. Don't overlook the CD-ROM directory, or the
fact that it's listed twice!

Finally, save the file as <anything you like>.reg (File, Save As,
Files of type...All Files/*.* in Notepad.) and run it. With any luck,
you should be good to go! Good luck.

Sorry to say it, Gary, but the game doesn't get any prettier; the
"maximum" graphics settings were considered rather behind-the-times
even when the game was published, and of course they're laughable
today. The game's still Superfun, though, and there's still nothing
else like it.

Wow.   I didn't think I would get an answer to this.

I haven't tried the solution, but I'm sure it must work.

Thanks so much.  I'm not sure how to authorize the payment for an
expired question, but if someone will let me know how to do that I'll
pay it.

No need; I didn't even know that people outside Google could get
money. I just recently missed the game too much and dug up an old
machine For The Common Good. I've posted the info elsewhere, too, so
it wasn't exactly a personal favor anyway :)

I have tried this solution.  I worked for me.  The only thing that is
not working is the sound effects (the CD audio tracks still work).

Thanks sooo much... I was afraid I was going to have to dual boot XP
and win95 just to keep playing this great game.

This works fine to play the game. But what about the sound effects?
Could it be that the information in the registry file above is
incorrect, maybe by one number or a quote or something? I would really
love to play this game with sound effects, could someone help me?

greetings,
Grincer

I suppose 'Rocket Jockey' fans check this thread, I am looking for
fans / programmers who are up for the challenge in remaking a 3D
version of Rocket Jockey. If you're a fan feel free to check out this
Deviantart Club. Here I have a summary on how to get Rocket Jockey
running on XP with the multiplayer patch.
http://rocketjockey.deviantart.com/ (if you have ideas and want to
post them, just join deviantart)

Here's how to get the sound working. If you look in the DATA folder in
the game's directory, you should see, among others, folders named
SOUNDS, SOUNDS8 and SOUNDS16. SOUNDS8 and SOUNDS16 contain the game
sounds in 8-bit (low quality) and 16-bit (high quality) .WAV formats
respectively. SOUNDS is where the game actually reads its sound files
from - but at the moment, it's empty apart from four (common?) files.
What you need to do is copy the contents of one of the other two
folders (ideally SOUNDS16, but if it doesn't work try SOUNDS8) into
the SOUNDS folder, and your game should now have sound!

Have fun!

Just found my Rocket Jockey cd from back in the day and was trying to
get it to work.  I've done all of the above but when I try to play I
get the error "Cannot load pixmap 'segasoft'".  Any ideas on what is
causing this problem?

The only possible explanation I can come up with for this problem are:

- if you didn't copy the files on to a hard drive it might not work
- if you didn't use double slashes (e.g. d:\\rocket) in the regfile
when refering to the cd-rom directory or any other directory for that
matter
- maybe the file 'segasoft.bmp' in the directory d:\rocket\data\select\

If all of the above doesn't work, you could also try the Rocket Jockey
version that's available at Home Of The Underdogs:
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=2094

Maybe you could benefit from a summary I've posted on the following
website, on how to get rocket jockey running in XP with the
multiplayer patch.
http://rocketjockey.deviantart.com