Any Gamers out there?

theauthor1997 · Feb 7, 2023

Ghot said:
I dunno.
Only you can see your computer... I can only respond to things you show or tell me.
The install instructions I've given you have worked for numerous people.

Might try posting here...

Tech Corner - Links Corner Forum

The best analogy I can think of is the old Army .45 pistols.
None of them, aimed the same, and they had "fixed" sights.
More or less you had to figure out how yours aimed, to be able to hit things.

I've told you how to work the gun... you have to find why it's not working (aiming right), for you.

There's nothing else I can think to tell you. The ONLY weird thing I noticed... was those two patches.
You need to fiddle around with them.
With two patches there's only four possibilities.
Only patch A
Only patch B
Patch A first, then B
Patch B first, then A

And possibly redo either/both of the patches after one of the four options above.

I applied a few days ago, still waiting for admin approval to post on the site and that’s Surely what I’ll try to do. Thank you again for all you’ve done to help out tho. I’ll keep my eye out on this forum if anyone else posts or has any possible other insight too just in case!

johnlgalt · Feb 7, 2023

OK, running through the readme.txt - I also added the folder to Windows Defender exclusion list just in case before running the patches, and checked the box to make backups during the patch install. Also renamed the original RUKSHUK.exe to RUKSHUK,exe,old before copying the replacement.

Upon running the first time it asked to install DirectPlay, so I let it.

Then it asked for firewall access so I granted it.

And - it auto-selected my graphics card, but FCd itself on first run.

Ran it second time and was able to get to options to set graphics options, then created my player:

These screenshots are at 75% res because the full res ss were too big to attach here. But it's working perfectly fine here.

johnlgalt · Feb 7, 2023

Ghot said:
Here's everything you need, and the instructions...

LINKS 2003.7z

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

In fact... here's the rest of the old games I have, that work on Win 10/11....

Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

Zelda Classic 2.53.7z

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Windows XP's, built in games...

Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

BTW, a huge and belated thanks for these links, @Ghot - I extracted the XP games and they worked perfectly fine from the extraction folder, so great to see those again without needing to run a VM.

Links2k3 is working for me, I'll give the other two a shot later.

Ghot · Feb 7, 2023

@johnlgalt

I recommend windowed mode (in graphics settings), so you can do other things while you golf.
If game crashes, just restart it, and it will ask if you want to go back to where you were. I always say yes.

TIPS:

The F1 key brings up the Help screen.
After you get it figured out, to start a game choose: Play Golf > New Round
It also seems there is Online play available. See here...

Links Community | Links Country Club

Find links to the rest of Links 2001 & Links 2003 community.

www.linkscountryclub.com

And here's some settings pics. Ofc you can change any of them. But these are what I use.
I chose the Ominous Sky, because you never end up with the sun in your eyes.

In Options > Players, make SURE you turn on the "Putting Assistant". You have been warned.

Also, under Options > Players > Clubs, you can adjust the club distances.

Lastly, in the actual game screen, make sure to check all the settings and options along the bottom of the screen.
If you use the Classic Swing Gauge like I do... right clicking on it will let you change clubs if needed.

The only real Lessons I recommend are these...
1. How to swing the club
2. How to get out of a sand trap.

The rest is pretty easy to figure out.

There's four different swing gauges. I use the Classic one.

Easy = really easy, but a bit limited. (only involves mouse "clicking")
Classic = a bit harder, but far less limited. (only involves mouse "clicking")
PowerStroke and Real Time = sliding the mouse back and forth to swing. Both of these are ridiculous, IMO.

There's a pic included in the download, that shows all the courses I have. You can download any of them, free, here. Just Search for them by "name". These are all good high def courses, with no technical errors.

Links Corner - Course Database Listing

Links Corner provides support and free downloads for Microsoft Links 2003

www.linkscorner.org

Updated Courses pic. The ones with the YELLOW dots, came with the game. The rest are downloads.
A Course has a .crz file name suffix. Just drag and drop them in the COURSES folder in the installation directory.

Here's a text file with the download links for all the courses.
For some of the courses there are multiple downloads... these are the correct ones.

Courses - Links.zip

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Almost forgot. When you first start a new round, it will show a TIP with a "Don't show again...",
checkbox. There are about 10 of them. Make sure you check the check box.
After you see them all and check the box, they don't come back.
I haven't found any setting to turn them off.

You can put from the fringe or even from mellow rough that's near the green. You have to change the club to the putter ofc.

johnlgalt · Feb 7, 2023

That is Windowed mode - Just a screenshot of the entire Window. My displays are 4K, trying ot run 1280 * 960 full screen looks OK, not too skewed, but I changed it to Windows mode first thing.

johnlgalt · Feb 7, 2023

Ghot said:
@johnlgalt

I recommend windowed mode (in graphics settings), so you can do other things while you golf.
If game crashes, just restart it, and it will ask if you want to go back to where you were. I always say yes.

TIPS:

The F1 key brings up the Help screen.
After you get it figured out, to start a game choose: Play Golf > New Round
It also seems there is Online play available. See here...

Links Community | Links Country Club

Find links to the rest of Links 2001 & Links 2003 community.

www.linkscountryclub.com

And here's some settings pics. Ofc you can change any of them. But these are what I use.
I chose the Ominous Sky, because you never end up with the sun in your eyes.

In Options > Players, make SURE you turn on the "Putting Assistant". You have been warned.

Also, under Options > Players > Clubs, you can adjust the club distances.

Lastly, in the actual game screen, make sure to check all the settings and options along the bottom of the screen.
If you use the Classic Swing Gauge like I do... right clicking on it will let you change clubs if needed.

The only real Lessons I recommend are these...
1. How to swing the club
2. How to get out of a sand trap.

The rest is pretty easy to figure out.

There's four different swing gauges. I use the Classic one.

Easy = really easy, but a bit limited. (only involves mouse "clicking")
Classic = a bit harder, but far less limited. (only involves mouse "clicking")
PowerStroke and Real Time = sliding the mouse back and forth to swing. Both of these are ridiculous, IMO.

There's a pic included in the download, that shows all the courses I have. You can download any of them, free, here. Just Search for them by "name". These are all good high def courses, with no technical errors.

Links Corner - Course Database Listing

Links Corner provides support and free downloads for Microsoft Links 2003

www.linkscorner.org

Updated Courses pic. The ones with the YELLOW dots, came with the game. The rest are downloads.
A Course has a .crz file name suffix. Just drag and drop them in the COURSES folder in the installation directory.

Great advice, I picked random sky, but you're right - avoiding the sun would be a great thing.

I never really played this more than once or twice, so I've got a huge learning curve, and it will definitely take some time behind it - hence I'll be playing through the tutorial first.

Gotta say, though, it would be EPIC if someone were to take this game and give it the AI upscaling treatment for hte graphics for larger graphics - that window is soooooooooooo small lol!

Ghot · Feb 7, 2023

johnlgalt said:
Great advice, I picked random sky, but you're right - avoiding the sun would be a great thing.

I never really played this more than once or twice, so I've got a huge learning curve, and it will definitely take some time behind it - hence I'll be playing through the tutorial first.

Gotta say, though, it would be EPIC if someone were to take this game and give it the AI upscaling treatment for hte graphics for larger graphics - that window is soooooooooooo small lol!

Yeah it is... but, I can play golf and have the browser open at the same time (30" screen).

I found all these other things you can download, but I haven't tried them.
For example, I could download other golfers... like Sean Connery or even Mr. Spock. LOL

Links AniMasters...the next generation of golfer animations

The next generation of Links 2003 golfer animations. PGA Tour pros past and present. Custom anis of yourself made on request

www.linksanimasters.com

There's a serious community behind this game. Every day I find more stuff. ^^

I've been going through the downloadable courses for years.
The ones on that list up there are pretty much, all the good ones.

Also, make sure you have the "Top Cam" open all the time.
Except for putting, you just click the mouse in there to aim, allowing for wind and elevation, ofc.
Hidden at the very top of the Top Cam are zoom controls. On some holes, you'll need them.
And just like a window in Windows, you can grab the sides of the Top Cam window, to resize.

For example... here I'm allowing for wind and maximum club distance... in the Top Cam window.

Took me seven mulligans to get this pic... LOL

Then I click "Continue" and set the marker for my green shot...

And my shot from there, gave me this...

And I click Continue again, and.... use your mouse to move the red/white pole,
to aim the Putting Assistant.

On this green I could have made the putt without the Putting Assistant.
But some greens... have like 1-2 ft. mountains on them. LOL
See post #91

And the finale...

Now.... you're an expert.

theauthor1997 · Feb 7, 2023

johnlgalt said:
OK, running through the readme.txt - I also added the folder to Windows Defender exclusion list just in case before running the patches, and checked the box to make backups during the patch install. Also renamed the original RUKSHUK.exe to RUKSHUK,exe,old before copying the replacement.

Upon running the first time it asked to install DirectPlay, so I let it.

Then it asked for firewall access so I granted it.

And - it auto-selected my graphics card, but FCd itself on first run.

Ran it second time and was able to get to options to set graphics options, then created my player:

View attachment 52094

View attachment 52093

These screenshots are at 75% res because the full res ss were too big to attach here. But it's working perfectly fine here.

Hey! So when you say you added the folder to the windows firewall exclusions, do you mean the download folder with the iso and patches, or the entire game folder itself?
I feel like when I tried to add the folder it wouldn’t let me, but it just let me add the exe for the game

theauthor1997 · Feb 7, 2023

theauthor1997 said:
Hey! So when you say you added the folder to the windows firewall exclusions, do you mean the download folder with the iso and patches, or the entire game folder itself?
I feel like when I tried to add the folder it wouldn’t let me, but it just let me add the exe for the game

@Ghot
Well after days of agony,, I GOT IT!!!
One lonely forum post explained it all and it’s super dumb. I had a wireless headset plugged into my computer. I just had to unplug it…

Apparently like doesn’t like Bluetooth dongles and refuses to launch.
I am officially in game and am ready to go!!!!
Thank you for all your help as well and I’ll use your settings tips for the game!

Ghot · Feb 7, 2023

theauthor1997 said:
@Ghot
Well after days of agony,, I GOT IT!!!
One lonely forum post explained it all and it’s super dumb. I had a wireless headset plugged into my computer. I just had to unplug it…

Apparently like doesn’t like Bluetooth dongles and refuses to launch.
I am officially in game and am ready to go!!!!
Thank you for all your help as well and I’ll use your settings tips for the game!

Congratulations...

Ghot · Feb 8, 2023

@johnlgalt

Here's one of those mountainous greens, I was talking about...

If anyone else wants to play with this game... see post #43, #84 and #87, for the details.

Almost got a perfect "RED" game. ONE crumby Par... all the rest are birdies or eagles.

johnlgalt · Feb 8, 2023

theauthor1997 said:
Hey! So when you say you added the folder to the windows firewall exclusions, do you mean the download folder with the iso and patches, or the entire game folder itself?
I feel like when I tried to add the folder it wouldn’t let me, but it just let me add the exe for the game

I did 2 things:

1) I added the entire Links installation folder to Windows Defender (not firewall, but rather virus protection settings) as an exclusion so Windows Defender would not monitor the folder while I ran the patches.

2) When hte Game ran for the first time, it asked to be excluded from Windows Firewall, which I accepted.

Ghot · Feb 8, 2023

johnlgalt said:
I did 2 things:

1) I added the entire Links installation folder to Windows Defender (not firewall, but rather virus protection settings) as an exclusion so Windows Defender would not monitor the folder while I ran the patches.

2) When hte Game ran for the first time, it asked to be excluded from Windows Firewall, which I accepted.

And how's your "game" progressing?
Did you download any of the other courses?

This is one of the better courses... TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course 2007

Course ID - 1769

Links Corner provides support and free downloads for Microsoft Links 2003

www.linkscorner.org

Years and years ago, I believe this was the 1st course I downloaded.
I recognized the name from the older game: Microsoft Golf 1999

It's a great course. Consistent physics, and by way of a tip... it has trees too tall to drive... over.
So considering wind, ground elevation and aim, is extremely important.
You get good at this course, and you will BE good at any of the courses.

Like here's an interesting hole at Sawgrass...

With my 1W, I can drive as far as the small yellow box on the right, Top Cam view.
BUT... I can't get "over" those tall trees at about the middle of the Top Cam view.

So, I have to lay up with a 3W, and because of the wind (lower left of screen), I have to "hug" those trees so I don't go off the fairway to the right.

And... I have to back off the power of the 3W a bit to avoid the sand trap (swing gauge).

I magnified the screen shot a bit so things could be better seen.
The RED line is the path I hope the ball will travel, assuming a little wind drift to the right.

mblack · Feb 8, 2023

Digital Combat Simulator IN VR

Ghot · Feb 8, 2023

If anyone else wants to play with this game... see post #43, #84 and #87, for the details.

I just added a text file (here and post #84), with the correct links to download all the courses that aren't included with the game.