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• Weapons
• Cryo expansions
• Levels walkthrough
• Game structure
• Cheats and trainers
• FAQ
• Tactics and tips
• Opponents
• Vehicles and Transport
• New computers
• Photo gallery
• Movie gallery
• Sound gallery
• Desktop themes
• Game download
• Game manuals
• Game reviews
• The Book of Cataclysm
• Game controls
• Patches and mods
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There are two basic ways to run Syndicate Wars on a new computer:

• With emulators, which will run the original game in "virtual computer" inside your new PC
• With fanmade ports and patches, which would allow to run the game natively under new operating environment

Which way is better?

Emulators can work on wider range of systems. If your system isn't very popular, this may be the only choice you have. Also, if you will learn using an emulator, you may use it to run many old games - the virtual machine can execute any program. By running original game, the feel and gameplay will be identical to the time when the game was released. You will also encounter the same old bugs. But make sure your computer is fast enough to use virtual machine - emulating a computer inside another computer requires lots of resources, and usually gives speed decrease factor greater than 10 - this means your 3GHz CPU will be able to emulate only up to about 200MHz computer.

Code Ports are modified versions of the game code, changed to allow it to run on different systems. They allow the game to run natively on new OSes. This way the game can run at full speed of the computer you have. So ports do not require that much CPU or memory, and the graphics in ported versions is usually smoother and displays more frames in every second. Such versions are often made by fans, and they are not only prepared for new systems, but also fixed. This means the graphics may look better and old bugs may no longer appear, but also new bugs may be unintentionally created by the coders. The gameplay may sometimes feel different than in the original game.

Now, let's get to specific solutions.

Ported versions

Currently, there is only one fanmade port to modern operating systems. In particular, it runs on GNU, Mac OS and Windows, but it should also work on any system supported by the SDL library on the i386 architecture.

As part of the port, only modernised executable is provided. Game data from original Syndicate Wars CD are required to install it. Detailed description and downloads are available on the project page.

Project page

Using emulators

There is more than one solution for emulators. No matter which one you choose, you must do the following steps:

• Install the game on hard drive.
• Install Sound patch (see "patches & mods")
• Install Alternate DOS extender (see "patches & mods")

If you have an orginal CD disc, or full CD image, see this:

How to install game from original CD disc under new OS

Now, there are three basic ways:

• Run the game with VDMSound (for slow machines)
• Run the game with DOSBox (if your machine is at least 2.4 GHz)
• Run it using Ms Virtual PC (if you'll be able to install OS on virtual computer)