Master_Xan

From the above: If that doesn't resolve it, let me know which method you ended up using (main method or alternative).

The creator of RebEd wasn't a native English speaker, didn't leave the source code behind, and hasn't been involved in years. Decades, probably. There is no new version of RebEd and there likely never will be, as it would have to be re-created from scratch. That said, I use RebEd on Windows 7 and Windows 10. I wrote up a tutorial to make it work and posted it here, on Steam's forums, and on GOG's forums. You don't need a Steam/GOG version of the game to make it work on Win7, but trust me it is worth the money to save the headaches and time it takes to make Rebellion work. Once you have Rebellion itself working, the tutorial will help you get RebEd working. Feel free to ask questions about the walkthrough, but please ask them on that post instead of this one so somebody else with the same question can find an answer easily. Good luck and enjoy.

I should have said so earlier, but I found this post useful. Didn't know about some of these shortcuts before. Thanks!

I actually did track down two Coolhand employees, but the means of communication I obtained were old. By old, I mean still technically active, but the guys were no longer checking them. At least, they never responded to me- totally possible they saw my messages and ignored them or never got around to answering. I even created a Twitter account, which I said I'd never do, just to try and reach one. But yeah, geir389 is right. Disney has shown they have the rights, and after releasing digital versions, they are unlikely to give out the code. Particularly since they aren't known for giving out code for other games. And they didn't do any upgrades to the game, so we don't even know they have the original source code.

If you have the Steam or GOG version of Rebellion, follow these directions to make RebEd work correctly. 1) Install Rebellion, if you haven't already 1b) After installing, DO NOT MOVE THE REBELLION FOLDER. 1c) Launch Rebellion. You don't need to play a game, just reach the main menu, then close. 2) Install RebEd Download 2b) Go to the folder you installed RebEd to. Make sure d3drm.dll is in that folder. If it isn't, copy it from your Rebellion directory and put it there. 3) To make RebEd cards work, we need to trick RebEd. Go to your Rebellion directory and create a new folder called "Trick". Now move the MDATA folder into Trick. 3b) At this point, Rebellion will complain about a CD and won't start. Step 4 fixes this. 4) You need to manually change some registry settings. If you don't know how to do this, find a tutorial like this one for the basics. In Regedit, search for "DllLocation". Make sure you find registry entries for Rebellion, then change the DllLocation entry to point to your main Rebellion directory. In the same registry area, you should see "TooBigLocation". This needs to point to the Trick folder. If you don't have those registry keys and/or have further problems, verify your registry settings against those listed by Jamison in this thread. Make sure your directory is correct (don't use Jamison's directory in Program Files if you installed Rebellion somewhere else). Also, only use ONE \ when editing the registry directly; two \\ are only used when making a .reg file. Congratulations, you're done! At this point, Rebellion and RebEd should work, INCLUDING LOADING CARDS. Read on if you are interested in technical details, or skip ahead to the Q&A section for troubleshooting problems. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you ever verify your game files, you will lose any changes made in RebEd! You can backup your changes using the Save Settings and Load Settings options. EDIT: If your RebEd doesn't work at this point, don't panic! The above steps work for me about 50% of the time, but there is another way. ALTERNATE METHOD: After completing all four steps above, go back to your Rebellion folder. Move the MDATA folder back into your main Rebellion directory, delete the Trick folder, and then copy your entire Rebellion folder. Go to another hard drive or partition and paste the entire Rebellion directory. Rename the folder to just "Rebellion". For example, if you installed Rebellion into C:\, then copy and rename the folder to D:\Rebellion. This will mimic the CD. Go back into the registry and change DllLocation and TooBigLocation to point to this new place (D:\Rebellion as an example). This doubles the size of your install, but it is still only 1GB so that shouldn't matter to most people. It does require a second drive or partition; hopefully that doesn't exclude anyone. Note that this second method requires the folder be named "Rebellion" and it must be in the base directory of a partition other than the one you installed Rebellion to. If after doing this it still doesn't work for you, uninstall everything and try again. This time, skip the trick method and go straight to the alternate method. Technical details and additional modding options #1) Do not use RebEd's Partial Installer, scan for SWRE, or Manual SWRE setup. These features don't work with newer versions of Windows. Additionally, you cannot change an entire sector's colonized status in the Galaxy Mapper, but in the upper left, you can select "Systems" and do each system's colonized status individually. #2) Below are some things you may wish to change which RebEd cannot modify: a) Ships' models in tactical combat. Details here. b) The AI Value setting can be changed with SWRE. c) If you want to change the time it takes non-ship units to go from planet to planet (like personnel, facilities, and fighters without a carrier), here is how: c1) Back up the GNPRTB.DAT file in case something goes wrong. (Find it in the GDATA folder of your installation directory.) c2) Use a hex editor, like this one to open the file (not your backup!) c3) Go to the hex addresses that correspond to the difficulty and side you want to change, then tweak the number however you like. For example, if you want units to travel twice as fast, change the default 64 to 32. (NOTE: single digit values, like 8, must be typed as 08. In Xvi32, use the Address -> Go To option to go directly to the address you put in.) Make sure to save the file when your edits are done. Empire Novice 00000032 Intermediate 00000036 Expert 0000003a Rebels Novice 0000003e Intermediate 00000042 Expert 00000046 Han Solo Novice 00000a5e Intermediate 00000a5a Expert 00000a56 d) A bug keeps you from skipping the briefings at the beginning of a new game. Renaming or deleting the files ALBRIEF.DLL and EMBRIEF.DLL will make the game skip them (AL is Alliance, EM is Empire). #3) If you do move your Rebellion folder, you just have to re-edit your registry settings with the new values. Likewise, you can put your MDATA folder anywhere you want, so long as TooBigLocation points to MDATA's parent folder and MDATA is in a different location than your Rebellion's main directory. Q&A * Rebellion won't start in step 1. FIX: First, verify the integrity of your steam files. If that doesn't work, you can either reinstall, or use the registry settings in step 4. * RebEd throws an error. (Any error: missing files, incomplete install, whatever.) FIX: Close RebEd entirely and make sure Rebellion is not running. Try again. If you get the same error, make sure d3drm.dll and vcl30.dpl are in your RebEd folder. If they both are, chances are very good there are mistakes in your registry. If you are absolutely sure there are none, then restart your computer to clear a weird cache error I sometimes got. If you still see the same error, verify your files' integrity or reinstall Rebellion. If you reinstall, don't forget to redo step 4! * When I do a tactical battle instead of letting the game automate it, the game crashes (or it crashes right after the battle completes). FIX: This has always been a little unstable. About 1 in 25 tactical battles crash for me. There is no fix, just save often. However, if you crash a lot, it usually means a 3d model for a ship got messed up. If you changed a ship model, restore the original model or verify your game files. If you didn't touch the models, one of your files could be corrupt- verify the game integrity. Additionally, if in RebEd you made it possible for the Alliance to build Imperial starfighters, or vice versa, that will also crash tactical combat. (Only starfighters do this, not capital ships.) * When I try to load a card, RebEd tells me I need a full install. What gives? FIX: Go back to Steps 3 and 4 above. Either you didn't move MDATA correctly, or your registry settings for TooBigLocation are wrong, or RebEd is being dumb and you need to use the alternate method. * When I load Rebellion, the first two videos play, but then I get a black screen with the mouse cursor and no sound. FIX: Uninstall and then Reinstall Rebellion. Make sure to change the registry again.

I'm going to have a look-see at these when I get the spare time.

So it is. It would appear some folks had issues with the Steam version, while others had no problems. So if you're trying to get Rebellion to work on more modern computers with little fuss, you may have to try different versions and see which works best for you (GOG or Steam).

Stormtroopers are more iconic than other types, so they play a much bigger role in most representations of Star Wars. Particularly since Disney took over. I always viewed stormtroopers as Imperial marines in the tradition of other sci fi marine corps. They are numerous on Imperial ships and are used in boarding and landing operations. Regular army units are used as garrison forces, and are trained for that assignment. Navy regiments are specialized forces only used on ships or for special assignments where their higher-than-average technical skills are called for. Head cannon aside, regular army units basically don't exist in Disney's Star Wars, and navy troopers are simply operatives or officers of stormtrooper regiments. It simplifies things if you only have one branch of military forces to deal with, and Star Wars has never been into the nitty gritty military details.

Geir is correct on both the missions and the shields. Below are a bunch of tips for anyone looking at this. Look at a character's stats to see what they are good at. Lando isn't very good at espionage or combat, so it would be better if you used someone like Han or Chewbacca. The Rebels have many good espionage characters. Usually small numbers of highly-talented individuals will do better than huge swarms of mediocre characters. Always use decoys if you can. I'm not sure what the "perfect" ratio is, but I usually use 1 operative for 1-2 decoys, and I rarely have more than 9 total characters assigned to one mission. Infiltrators are basically worthless if the enemy planet has a general or an orbiting fleet. They simply can't get through. Note that a general with no troops is nothing to worry about. You can look at the statistics of enemy units in the encyclopedia, or by right-clicking the unit itself. Each trooper regiment has a detection rating; for example, Imperial Fleet Regiments are better at detecting missions than most other Imperial troopers. Fighters also have detection ratings. If you haven't successfully completed an espionage mission, you won't know the characters on the planet. You may know some, but even orbiting a planet will not reveal the full, current status of enemy characters. For your specific instance, the Empire may have additional units running espionage on their own planet, which can detect your missions. Running missions against any planetary target that is protected by an enemy fleet is dangerous. Ships in orbit give a huge boost to detection. To break through a gencore shield, you need units with bombardment rating. Many ships do not have this, particularly early in the game and particularly Rebel ships. Look at the ship stats, all the way at the bottom iirc. You can do multiple bombardments a day with no penalty, and if you are right on the edge of overcoming the shield, then some bombardments will destroy things and some won't. Make sure you bombard military targets only to increase your odds of taking out the shield generator (and to avoid public backlash). The best early Rebel units to overcome shield generators are Carriers stuffed to the gills with YWings. Support this with whatever other ships you can scrape up with a bombardment rating (Bulk Cruisers and Dreadnoughts may have some, I can't remember for sure). What's the best way for Rebels to bust through a fortified Imperial planet with orbiting fleets, troops, generals, shield generators, or other defenses? Ignore it and work on the other planets in that sector. If you can isolate strongholds, you can build up forces to take on your target. If you can liberate an Imperial world in the same sector, you'll get a huge boost to support throughout the rest of the sector, possibly starting an uprising on the fortified world you are gunning for and/or getting free intel from smugglers. Later in the game you can just smash through, but early on, Rebels lack the fleet strength to do so. If you simply must take out a fortified world, this is the order to do so: 1) Take out any fleet presence. Doesn't matter if it is just a troop transport, any enemy orbiting ships need to die. Ideally, you would use your own fleet for this, but if they have too much power you'll need to use very talented operatives instead. 2) If there is no fleet or you dealt with it, your next target is always enemy generals. Even if you fail to capture him, just injuring him is enough to negate his (usually massive) leadership bonus. Remember, they may send a replacement general (or reassign someone already on the planet) if you injure the first general. 3) After any generals are out, you have your choice between targets: shield generator or other planetary defenses if you want to bombard, enemy fighters if your fleet can't safely attack, or troopers. If the planet likes you more than your enemy, always take out enemy troopers, since you can liberate the planet for massive public support throughout the sector. Also take out troopers if you plan to assault the planet or your operatives have a difficult time completing missions. 4) If you are trying to liberate the planet by taking out troopers with sabotage, try and put a fleet in orbit. Your operatives can run missions from your fleet, even if all you put up there is a single Medium Transport. That will greatly decrease travel times. Having an orbital presence also makes it harder for your opponent to reinforce the planet, and when you do liberate it, your fleet has a chance to capture or destroy any units fleeing the world. 5) If you can't put a fleet in orbit, get your operatives to launch missions from the nearest world you control. That greatly reduces travel times. If you don't have a planet adjacent to your target, you can put a fleet in orbit of neutral planets and launch missions from there. If there are no nearby neutrals, you can orbit one enemy world and run missions targeting another. If you can't get at any world in a sector using one of these methods, you probably need to wait until you have a bigger fleet before trying to take your target.

I'd send it to ya, but I never had it myself. Hopefully one of the old timers will spot this, but it may be a few months. Not much traffic these days.

This was a common error, not just with Reloaded but for folks with the base game, too. I've had it happen to me. It can happen for a number of reasons, including (but not limited to) issues with ship textures. Unfortunately, I don't remember what the possible fixes are. It may take some searching through old posts, but it's on here somewhere. Try typing the following into Google: site:forums.swrebellion.com So an example might be "site:forums.swrebellion.com space crash" (without the quotes, obviously). That will provide results only from this site. If you can't find a solution, try reinstalling. If you neither find a solution nor get it working with reinstall, post back here with the following information: Your operating system (including whether it is 32 bit or 64) What version of the game you are using (CD or gog.com) If the battles work before installing Reloaded Your favorite Alliance ship (because why not?)

Hey! I'm still stalking this place. I may be the only one left, though. The site only works intermittently; not the best way to keep people coming back.

Solid find! I'm not sure why I didn't notice this back when you posted it (when did the server go down again?), but I've sent FB and Twitter messages. Awaiting response...

If you don't already know, GOG.com now has Star Wars: Rebellion (and several other LucasArts games). Check it out! Because the URL doesn't seem to work well in the URL tag (the double ## breaks it, I think), here is the link to the rest of the LA games at GOG: http://www.gog.com/games##sort=bestselling&devpub=disney&page=1

Woot!

Before installing the TC, copy your entire Rebellion folder. If you need/want to roll back, you can use the copy and won't have to reinstall. I *think* you can insert cards into a game-in-progress. Haven't tried in awhile and can't quite remember. There are installation directions with the TC. If you have a question about a specific one, feel free to ask.

Right-click on your army units and select status. In the details it says what the unit's strengths are. War Droids, for example, are fabulous for invasions, but horrible for defense. You don't need the manual, but you will need to check what unit does what to avoid a lot of frustration. I don't think you need 3 times the strength of defenders when you invade. But you should have a General on your fleet (boosts your attack), you should capture, kill, or injure any enemy general on the surface, and you should use army units that are proficient at attacking. Additionally, a fleet in orbit will tell you what defending units are on the surface, but NOT what personnel are there. Espionage missions will inform you of enemy generals. If you right-click on a Gen Core shield generator and select status, it will tell you what its shield strength is. If you view the status of a ship (say, an Imperial Star Destroyer), it will have its bombardment value listed. To break through a planetary shield (as Tex said), you must overwhelm the shield. The combined total bombardment value of all ships in your fleet (including fighters!) must be the same or higher than the combined total shield value of all shield generators on the planet's surface. Admirals and generals effect bombardment success. As a rule of thumb, a fleet with an admiral, general, and commander will do slightly better at almost everything. Additionally, some ships and fighters have a 0 bombardment rating and can't help you break a shield. Rather than adding up all your fleet's bombardment values, you can just try the bombardment. If your fleet is right at the verge of taking out the shield, that shield may hold on some bombardments and fail during others, so it is best to try a few times just to be sure. If you can't get through after four or so tries, it is probably out of reach for your fleet. I'm sure you know this, but be careful bombarding planets with laser batteries, while Ion Cannons will reduce your bombardment effectiveness. The right-click status menu is available for every unit in the game. You will probably use it a lot to learn what personnel and other units are good at. Also, the link in my signature has a lot of information you may find useful.

It has been awhile, La Forge! Good to know you're doing well. I'm pretty sure there is a Firefox extension or two that allows you to download an entire site.

Welcome Crysonfell!

That says it was cancelled, but not what "it" was. Did they maintain the rights to Rebellion, and not LA? And if so, are those rights now gone? Seems so unlikely. Thoughts?

...don't you right click on personnel to bring up their options?

Not a bad concept, but I can't get excited about it. Author can't spell. What are the odds it actually gets out, and isn't stomped by Disney?

They won't ever make Windows open source. Too much of the old OS is still buried in the newer versions; it would be a huge security leak. I think even Win 8's kernel contains portions from way back. For the curious, Windows 7 is based on Windows Vista. Vista was born from XP, which was based off 2000, and the 2000 kernel came from NT. Which means portions of Windows 7 were actually built way back when NT was made. And what was NT based on? That is a redesigned kernel, but still shares code (and coding principles) with 95 and 98. WinME has no descendants, but was heavily based on 98, meaning anyone with ME's source could still find security holes. Even DOS is a no-go, as MSDOS functionality is still built into every Windows release. Windows 3.1 is the only OS they could release safely, but I'm not even 100% sure of that... Very good points about Raven. I've always figured if we got the code, it would be slightly under the table. We would need to use Jedi mind tricks to convince the bean counter that yes, much money was spent, therefore you shouldn't let it go to waste now. AKA we need a huge lucky break. But sometimes, stuff like that happens.

I did. Of the ones I could find, they seemed to share California in common, but different cities. Unless I can find more employees to correlate data with, that's a dead end. How did Raven manage to give out the code for Outcast and Academy? Also, while it may be very unlikely, there is always the chance that somebody has a copy, or that one of the original developers still has a contact or two who can get the code. My experience with big companies is that they don't throw away anything. The more paranoid about their property, the less they delete. LucasArts was big enough when the game came out, it surely was put into their backup policy, along with everything else. If LA was in charge of the code, my guess is there is still a copy on their servers, and it is backed up. Of course, there are not likely to be many employees who still know it exists. Especially since LA has few employees, period. Which gives me a new idea. Maybe I can leverage some contacts and find somebody in Disney, or one of the few LA employees left. I may not know enough people to go that route, but I can try. I'd bet I can get to someone in Pixar... but probably only an animator... but maybe through them to Disney... hm... Of course, this may take a large chunk of time... I shall ponder this.

So I've been making progress looking for Rebellion's source code, and I'm wondering if anyone can lend me a hand. Specifically, does anyone have a paid subscription to LinkedIn? I have found several members of the original Coolhand team, but can't find contact info for them outside of LinkedIn. Also, does anyone know where Coolhand was centered out of? As in, what city? If anyone can find anything, let me know. So far, I've found the following: LinkedIn for Doug Mogica, Scott Witte, and Hugh Sider An old email for Hugh (sent one, waiting a response... if he even still checks it) Several possible addresses for Doug