Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth armageddon effect
 

Ok before I start let me first say that I purchased the game and have a valid DVD and DVD serial code. I am in the military and take my laptop everywhere. I will be deploying to Iraq very soon and don't wish to damage my DVD's and CD's by carring them with me. I have often and will in the past use no CD/DVD fixes to allow me to play my games wherever I go without having to haul and lose a bunch of CD/DVD's. I played this game for an entire day then began the research for a fix for the game. GameCopyWorld had a no DVD fix for it I downloaded and installed the fix. Now on either of my two saved games or on any game I start over I get an armageddon effect with all of my armies and buildings being destroyed about 5 minutes after i start the game. I haven't yet but will soon recopy my renamed data file over to see if it still does it with the DVD in. I read the threads with a similar problem occuring but they are all locked because people are trying to bypass the rules. If anyone can give me a clear concise answer on the best way to fix my problem your assistance would be appriciated.

The crack from GCW works fine for me (german game-version), no "Armageddon"-Effect here.
Are you trying to play the game online with this crack?
I remember C&C Generals. When you play this game online with a crack, all your building explode after a few minutes!

Armageddon effect
 

No i am not playing online, and wouldnt care if the effect was online only, as i will be in Iraq for most of my playing of the game.

yeah that happened to with C&C: Red alert 2 :D

Update
 

Ok I tried inserting the DVD I had the option to install but not to play. I clicked install and the game started without actually installing. However when I played either one of my saved games or started a new game I die after about five minutes. So I copied my old data file back over and tried playing again. again I died after about five minutes. I am in the process of uninstalling the game to reinstall it to see if it fixes the issue. but either way I cannot play the game more than about five minutes. I have registered the game, but have not played or even attempted to play online. Thank you for any help available.

I've got the same problem here. In another thread I've read somewhere that the effect only takes place in Act 1, but I'm experiencing it in Act 8, befote it everything went quite well. Your tips or a new crack would be much appreciated here.

Uninstall and re-install
 

OK I uninstalled then re-installed the game played the first four chapters today. I will try another crack tommorrow and see if it does it again but so far that seems to be the only common thread I can find between the armageddon effect and my game suddenly not working. I have used the gamecopyworld link for the English crack I will try another link next time to see if it works if anyone has any ideas or verified english cracks please let me know thank you for your time.

well you could always....
 

....buy the game!

But even if you can't do that, for whatever reasons, there was another thread spread around a couple of weeks ago that mislead everyone. Most are lucky they didn't have a new trojan from some of the advice. Good luck in finding something that works! Let a nigga know if you find sumthing out!

"Git Crunked"

Here is a fix which worked for me (it can be found an another thread here):

Fix problem:

1) Delete file Lotrbfme.dat from game directory
2) copy this string into blank !setup.reg file and load it
=================Cut=====================
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Battle for Middle-earth]
"Language"="english"
"InstallPath"="C:\\GAMES\\TBME\\"
"Version"=dword:00010000
"MapPackVersion"=dword:00010000
"UseLocalUserMaps"=dword:00000000
"UserDataLeafName"="My Battle for Middle-earth Files"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Battle for Middle-earth\ergc]
@="DZDD8NF64DBHYDFB0HLM"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EA GAMES\The Battle for Middle-earth]
"DisplayName"="The Battle for Middle-earth (tm)"
"Installed From"="C:\\121212\\"
"Registration"="SOFTWARE\\Electronic Arts\\EA GAMES\\The Battle for Middle-earth\\ergc"
"CacheSize"="3351006208"
"SwapSize"="0"
"Language"="English US"
"Locale"="en_us"
"CD Drive"="C:\\"
"Install Dir"="C:\\GAMES\\TBME\\"
"Product GUID"="{3F290582-3F4E-4B96-009C-E0BABAA40C42}"
"Region"="Europe"
"Folder"="C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\EA GAMES\\"
"Patch URL"="http://transtest.ea.com/Electronic Arts/The Battle for Middle-earth/Europe"
"Suppression Exe"="rtsi.exe"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EA GAMES\The Battle for Middle-earth\1.0]
"Language"=dword:00000001
"DisplayName"="The Battle for Middle-earth (tm)"
"LanguageName"="English US"
=================Cut=====================

3) Get file from DVD Disk - lotrbfme_inst.exe & run it
4) Enjoy


You just have to replace the bold text with your install directory.

Simply reinstall it from the original setup, it needs the correct information in the registry, otherwise everything explodes. if you for example just copy the installation directory of the game from another computer without actually installing it to your own pc, then there is of course no registry data and everything explodes. simply install it from your original dvd/cd again over the normal setup routine and it will work, with or without crack :-)

guess in your case something ****ed up your registry data, since even the autorun of the game wasnt able to detect that it was already installed, like you wrote.

finally fixed
 

ok here is the fix i finally got.

copy these two files to a seperate location for updates

LOTRBFMe.dat
game.dat

Download the crack and copy game.dat over the one in your installed directory. next delete LOTRBFMe.dat. This file is created when you first click on the lotrbfme.exe file. all you have to do if you get the armageddon effect is delete LOTRBFMe.dat and click on lotrbfme.exe it will automaticly recreate the LOTRBFMe.dat file to match your regestry and you will not have the armageddon issue. thank you to all that gave helpfull replies. oh and machine learn to read the very first sentence says i purchased the game.