How To Fix Incoming + Incoming Forces (A Complete TroubleShooting Guide)

Your complete survival guide to two great games. I explain how to fix these broken ports, supply downloads and references for further help, and a guide on how to launch both games in near HD quality!

Incoming Forces (What is This Game?)

Unfortunately, Incoming Forces is actually a misleading title, as this is a bundle of two games!
Here is some evidence to those who are skeptical of buying this game, a photo of the options upon launching the game.


The first game ",Incoming," and it's sequel are included in this purchase, despite the fact that this game is titled just as the sequel ",Incoming Forces." So, the game you just bought should've actually been titled as "Incoming + Incoming Forces" That's what it's actually titled in it's installation folder as well.

As for what these games are in a descriptive sense, here are the wikipedia articles for both games.

Wikipedia Article for Incoming[en.wikipedia.org] Wikipedia Article for the Sequel Incoming Forces[en.wikipedia.org]

What Seems to be the Problem?

There seems to be a slew of problems associated with both of these games. I'll try to list the ones i'll be covering as best I can in this guide.

Incoming:
The "Please report exception code (c0000005) ADDRESS: (777af82b)" Crash
The "Create Surface for Z-Buffer Failed" Crash
Manual Resolution Setting
Missing In-Game Texture Fixes and Corrupt UI Elements
Run the Game in 60 FPS
My mouse doesn't work!

Incoming Forces:
Background Loop Error in Windows 8 and Above Preventing Windows 10 Users from Playing
Manual Resolution Increasing

Bonus:
How to Change the Camera Angle in Incoming
Information on Subversion: The Official Incoming Expansion Pack

Incoming: The "Please report exception code (c0000005) ADDRESS: (777af82b)" Crash

This crash seems to be relagated to a few isolated incidents. It appears that the steam version of the game doesn't encounter this failure as frequently as the GOG.com version does, but it is worth mentioning. Despite this, the issue will be addressed.

First off, it's always Good to check the Integrity of the installation, so...

• Right click on Incoming Forces, click Properties,
  
• Go to the Local Files Tab,
  
• Click Verify the Integrity of Game Cache,
  
• Follow the on-screen instructions to make sure that your game was properly installed.

The Steam version of the original incoming, as tested on my personal 64-Bit, Intel, Nvidia powered computer, the game should boot up without this error.

But, in the case that it doesn't, it may be because the altered steam version runs specifically for 32-bit computers, in any case, here is the GOG version of the .exe in a onedrive download below.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Atj3PymGaXXdvwDKV1xtu4xTUCKX

You'll have to extract the .exe using your favorite archiving tool, or right click it and select Extract All, then follow the on-screen instructions.

Take the new incoming.exe, and replace the incoming.exe at this source.
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Incoming + Incoming Forces\Incoming
This source may differentiate between computers, so it might be better to just...

• Right click on Incoming Forces, click Properties,
  
• Go to the Local Files Tab,
  
• Click Browse Local Files,
  
• Navigate into the Incoming folder
  
• From there, drag, or copy and paste, the new .exe over, and select to replace to original .exe

If this fix doesn't work, then please Verify the Integrity of Game Cache again to reset the installation.

Finally, if none of those steps work above, you are a very isolated incident, and I don't have a fix for you, as this problem has very little documentation on the internet.

Congrats!

Incoming: The "Create Surface for Z-Buffer Failed" Crash

This crash is often attributed to users attemtpting to run the game on AMD graphics cards. Fortunately, there is a well tested fix for this.

The fix was developed by a user named teleguy on the vogons.org (aka. DOSBOX troubleshooting website). Here's a link directly to the post[www.vogons.org], but for those who are lazy, here's a screen cap of the post.


Theres a download link at the forum post, but i'm also hosting the same file for download here.[1drv.ms]

After extracting it using your favorite archiving tool, or right clicking it and selecting Extract All, then following the on-screen instructions, use these directions to install the files.

Take the new atiumdag.dll file, and move it to this source folder.
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Incoming + Incoming Forces\Incoming
This source may differentiate between computers, so it might be better to just...

• Right click on Incoming Forces, click Properties,
  
• Go to the Local Files Tab,
  
• Click Browse Local Files,
  
• From there, drag, or copy and paste, the atiumdag.dll file into the Incoming Folder

Reboot the game, and the fixed driver should boot alongside the game, providing a very suitable fix.

Incoming: Manual Resolution Setting

The video settings in the Incoming game are quite litterally the worst. There's no resolution settings, just specular and color. Here's how to generate the game in larger resolutions without using outside programs. This can fix display scaling problems.

For steam users, go to Incoming Forces in your steam library, and

• Right click on Incoming Forces,
  
• click Properties,
  
• then click Set launch options.
  
• type in, Or copy and paste, "-screenmode" into the diaolgue box.
  
• click OK
  
• And Run the Game
  
  You should be presented with a drop down menu like the one in the picture below each time you boot up the game. Select the desired resolution, and the game will boot into it.
  
  
  You will have to do this everytime you boot up the game, so what I do is hold the down arrow, and press enter once it stops scrolling through the options.

Incoming: Missing In-Game Texture Fixes and Corrupt UI Elements

Let's Face it, many of you after you got your game running again we're greeted to these atrocities...


Yuck! Missing textures, jagged edges, blurry textures, and a messed up UI! The arcade version looked better than this, but, thanks to dgVoodoo2, it doesn't have to be that way...

• First, download dgVooDoo directly from the host website using this link.[dege.freeweb.hu] The proper link to click should be along the lines of "dgVoodoo v#.##.# - for regular usage (released: # / ## / ####)" between the two only page breaks on the web page.
  
• Next, You'll have to extract the contents using your favorite archiving tool, or by right clicking it and selecting Extract All, and then following the on-screen instructions.
  
• After that, you should see two folders labeled 3Dfx and MS, alongside a application titled dgVooDooSetup.
  
• Copy the dgVooDooSetup.exe as well as the contents of the folder x86 within the folder MS (specifically the files D3Dlmm.dll and DDraw.dll as the others will go unused for Incoming).
  
• Paste these contents inside of the incoming folder located at C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Incoming + Incoming Forces\Incoming.
  This source may differentiate between computers, so it might be better to just...
  
  • Right click on Incoming Forces, click Properties,
    
  • Go to the Local Files Tab,
    
  • Click Browse Local Files,
    
  • Navigate into the Incoming folder
    
  • From there, drag, or copy and paste, the files over.
• It's from there, I introduce you to dgVooDoo, a software that boosts the resolution that Incoming can run at, as well as introducing antialiasing, vsync, sidebar options, and max custom resolutions! Make sure to run the program in administrator mode, or else the settings you configure will not save!
  
• To start using the software, first make sure to click the icon circled in the picture below to reassign where you save your configuration for dgVoodoo to. It can be saved wherever you feel like, but I have had conflicts in the past when I didn't save it in the same file directory as the original .exe, so play it safe, and save the configuration in theincoming folder.
  
  
  
• The settings you use are entirely up to you. The main things to configure are in the General and DirectX tabs of the application. You must set the graphics card to ATI Radeon 8500 in order to fix the UI. Glide is only used in very specialized programs, which Incoming doesn't apply to.
  
• Apply the settings, and exit the program once you're done.
  
• Run the game in HD GLORY!!!!

For those who don't feel inclined technically, here are the settings I use for my copy of Incoming...

This has reported to improve gameplay significantly for many, and this software is a miracle worker for old games running on Directx!

BUT, sometimes you might run into a different problem. After or before everything above your game might look specifically more like this on the main menu:


A user by the name of Fuchsia has reported that this might be related to incompatibilities with older laptops using Intel HD onboard graphics. In any case, he discovered switching off mipmapping in dgVoodoo fixes the problem (to do this, check the box that says "No Mipmapping" in the DirectX tab of DgVoodoo).

Incoming: Run the Game in 60 FPS

===WARNING: THERE ARE SIDE EFFECTS TO THIS, PLEASE READ THE COMPLETE SECTION===

This is PC Gaming Master Race quality tutorials right here! Even though the main menu runs the animations in the background in 60 frames per second (or 60 fps), the game itself is locked to 30 fps for some reason. There's a setting in the in-game options that resolves this though.

• Boot up the game like normal.
  
• Go to "GAME OPTIONS"
  
• Go to "VIDEO"
  
• Search for "FRAME SCALING: ON" (Refer to the image if this is unclear).
  
• Change the setting from "OFF" to "ON"
  
• Run the game!

The game now runs in 60 fps! But, the game clearly wasn't meant to run like this, despite the arcade version running in 60 fps. This causes the game to move twice as fast in nearly every aspect compared to what it shoudl! Symptoms of doing this contain...

• Twice as Sensitive Controls
  
• Twice as fast enemies
  
• Twice as fast in-game movement with vehicles
  
• Twice as fast Firing Rates (For enemies and yourself)
  
• Twice as fast everything (excluding the menus)!

So, the game will be significantly harder without frame scaling. Good luck to those who can handle it!

===SO YEA, GAMER'S DISCRETION ADVISED===

Incoming: My mouse doesn't work!

I'm sure many of you are wondering at this point about the mouse cursor that sometimes appears on the menu when you move the mouse. You wouldn't be wrong if you said that this game has mouse controls, but they suck. They suck so bad, that the best way to play this game is with any other controller, such as an Xbox 360 controller or my childhood favorite the Microsoft Sidewinder.

The mouse controls suck because not only do they not use direct input, and instead rely on the general direction you're moving the mouse, as if you were emulatiing a joystick through your mouse, but it also requires you to do the following before booting up your game.

You must change the polling rate of your mouse to 125Hz.

Mice during the release of the game had incredibly low polling rates, so the software was designed around this. While alot of games don't bug out like Incoming does with mice of high polling rates, this was during a time where PC games were a sort of wild west in terms of compatibility. There was no standard engines or wrappers that handled mice for computer games like today.

Now, you must understand that this is really technical to do without a Driver Software assigned to your mouse. I have a Rapoo gaming mouse, and the Driver Software I downloaded from their website allows me to set the polling rate accordingly. It makes it super easy, but not everyone has a mouse like mine with dedicated software. Because the only way a mouse's polling rate can be edited is through driver software, to my knowledge, there is no feasible way for those with generic mice without dedicated mouse driver software to get the mouse working within Incoming. If you find a way, leave a comment down below.

Because the software for the thousands of brands of mice out there can vary substantially, I can't give a suitable tutorial on how to fix this problem. All I can say is find the software driver for your mouse on google, and hope for the best that it will allow you to edit the polling rate of your mosue.

Just remember, from my personal experience, and the first paragraph of this section, it's totally not worth it.

Incoming: Further Troubleshooting FAQ

• The game crashes to desktop after about 5 minutes of play. No error or anything, the game just closes instantly. Happens In the first mission, usually around phase 5 or 6.

  This appears to be tied to the GPU in some form, as confirmed by InconspicuousBlackVan in the guide's comments. He reported disabling G-SYNC for their NVIDIA Card may have also helped. Watch this video for how to do that. As with any GPU issue, also make sure to update your drivers as well.
  
  

• There are Sound Issues and/or Certain Graphical Assets are not loading Properly.

  On a GOG Community Discussion[www.gog.com], several users reported that moving the Incoming folder directly into C: drive (such that the game's directory was "C:\Incoming") fixed this issue with the GOG version specifically. A user HardnHeavy later explained that old Windows games from generally before Windows XP were often not able to deal with path names containing spaces or having folders longer than 8 characters. I have good confidence that the steam version has fixed this (its installation folder is "Incoming + Incoming Forces", and seems to work for me and others), but for the sake of completion i'm including the fix here. I don't recommend it though, because it makes it impossible to launch the title through steam without a launch path editor like SteamEdit[steamedit.tg-software.com].
  
  

• The Z-Buffer Error is still happening.

  The solution is to find an even older .dll that does work. Users have reported using "Catalyst drivers 13.2 b7 or older." when solving the problem (thus why they're the ones I included in the guide formally). I've found one user who said 12.8 works, and provided a download that the Torchlight community uses for the same reason[www.torchlightfansite.com].
  
  Another solution that is functionally worse is using DxWnd. The issue was reported on the SourceForge for the DirectX Emulator, and a solution was provided but its pretty hacky[sourceforge.net]. You'll need to download the provided .dll file[sourceforge.net], and download DxWnd[sourceforge.net]. As mentioned in the fix, place the .dll file in the installation directory for DxWnd, and replace if asked. Add Incoming to DxWnd and enable the setting "switch VIDEO to SYSTEM on fail" on specifically.
  
  A comment on this guide from Cloie (Sieonigh) included photos of settings that worked for them as well, and the fix may actually be integrated already without the dll file, but I don't have confirmation of that at this time. Cloie's settings seem to indicate that may be the case.
  
  
  
  

• Theres stuttering in the audio.

  Current workaround is creating a save and then loading it. Please reply below in the comments if there's a better solution for this.

Forces: Background Loop Error in Windows 8 and Above Preventing Windows 10 Users from Playing

The error with everyone who gets this game, and undoubtedly the reason this game is getting bad reviews for technical reasons, is because the game has problems running on Windows 8 computers and up. Upon running the game, the game just runs as a background process, unable to be closed without using the task manager, and hunting down the process (a picture below for no real reason)!
The fix is a cinch for this game.

• First, download winmm.dll from Sourceforge here[github.com]
  
• Next, extract the files using your favorite archiving tool, or by right clicking it and selecting Extract All, and then following the on-screen instructions.
  
• You should have the following files: libogg-0.dll, libvorbis-0.dll, libvorbisfile-3.dll, and winmm.dll.
  
• Take these files, and copy and paste them to the Incoming Forces folder. Replace any and all files of the same name with these new dlls. For me, this folder is located in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Incoming + Incoming Forces\Incoming Forces
  This source may differentiate between computers, so it might be better to just...
  
  • Right click on Incoming Forces, click Properties,
    
  • Go to the Local Files Tab,
    
  • Click Browse Local Files,
    
  • Navigate into the Incoming folder
    
  • From there, drag, or copy and paste, the new files over, and replace any files when prompted.
• Rename the winmm.dll file you added to the isntallation folder to win32.dll. This fix won't work otherwise.
  
• Reboot the game, and the launcher should come up. From there, you should be able to successfully boot up the game!

I hope this sections helps any and all with running Incoming Forces!

Forces: Manual Resolution Increasing

This is gonna sound weird, but like in an earlier section, dgVooDoo works with Incoming Forces. If you already know how to use the software from that section, that this is just a repeat of that article (except that you only need D3D8.dll instead of DDraw.dll and D3Dlmm.dll), but, for those of you who jumped to the last section because you're impatient, here's the jist of it...

• First, download dgVooDoo directly from the website using this link.[dege.freeweb.hu]
  
• Next, You'll have to extract the contents using your favorite archiving tool, or by right clicking it and selecting Extract All, and then following the on-screen instructions.
  
• After that, you should see two folders labeled 3Dfx and MS, alongside a application titled dgVooDooSetup.
  
• Copy the contents of the folder MS (Specifically the D3D8.dll for Incoming Forces as the rest go unused) and the dgVooDooSetup.exe.
  
• Paste these contents inside of the incoming folder located at C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Incoming + Incoming Forces\Incoming Forces.
  This source may differentiate between computers, so it might be better to just...
  
  • Right click on Incoming Forces, click Properties,
    
  • Go to the Local Files Tab,
    
  • Click Browse Local Files,
    
  • Navigate into the Incoming Forces folder
    
  • From there, drag, or copy and paste, the files over.
• It's from there, I introduce you to dgVooDoo, a software that boosts the resolution that Incoming can run at, as well as introducing antialiasing, vsync, sidebar options, and max custom resolutions! Make sure to run the program in administrator mode, or else the settings you configure will not save!
  
• To start using the software, first make sure to click the icon circled in the picture below to reassign where you save your configuration for dgVoodoo to. It can be saved wherever you feel like, but I have had conflicts in the past when I didn't save it in the same file directory as the original .exe, so play it safe, and save the configuration in theincoming folder.
  
  
  
• The settings you use are entirely up to you. The main things to configure are in the General and DirectX tabs of the application. Glide is only used in very specialized programs, which Incoming doesn't apply to.
  
• Apply the settings, and exit the program once you're done.
  
• Run the game in HD GLORY, DESPITE THE FACT THE GAME CAN ALREADY RUN IN HD NATIVELY!!!

For those who don't feel inclined technically, here are the settings I use for my copy of Incoming Forces (It's the same as Incoming, I know, but it works just as well)...

Bonus: How to Change Camera Angles in Incoming

In the main menu, there's often theatrical shots and thrid person camera angles of the action. Sometimes, you probably get jealous of those scenes and say to yourself "Geez, wish I could get some of those camera angles fro screenshots or something." Well, now you can! In - Game, there you can press the number keys on your keyboard (not the numpad or function keys) to change the camera angle.

• 1

  First Person View (Default)
  
  

• 2

  Fixed Third Person View (Camera is always behind you, and angles where you look)
  
  

• 3

  Objective Locked Third Person View (Camera is locked behind you, but always angled towards Escorts, Pickups, and Enemies,)
  
  

• 4

  Third Person View (no matter where you look, it will always view the same direction, seems to lock onto enemies as well sometimes)
  
  

• 5

  Destination View (Locks onto a fixed angle of Escorts, Pickups, and Landing Sites, but you can't see yourself)
  
  

• 6

  Fixed Third Person (Picks a random place to create a fixed camera point, similar to Resident Evil, except it's always at eye level).

Some demonstrations of what screenshots can be achieved using these are showcased at the bottom of this guide!

Bonus: The Incoming Subversion Expansion

So, more recently, I discovered that this steam release is not actually the complete version of the original incoming. That's right, there's a full on expansion pack available to the original release of Incoming. Here's a picture of it's original art (ignoring the Goodwill tag).



After much searching, you can find a description of the expansion, and the source of this picture, by clikcing this link to MobyGames.[www.mobygames.com]

<===You can either get the original copy of the expansion on ebay for around $10 to $20 USD (good luck it is exceedingly rare, and that screenshot is very old).


Or, you can get digitally, exclusively on Zoom. ===>

https://www.zoom-platform.com/product/incoming-trilogy

Incoming Trilogy is worth $5.99 USD. I haven't personally tested Incoming Trilogy yet. I have a user whom said they downloaded it and that it needed the same fixes above as well, but that it is real and that it might actually be more stable than the GOG or Steam versions. Zoom also, notably, has other games worth checking out exclusively, like Duke Nukem 1 and 2, or the DLC packs for Duke Nukem 3D!

Leave more comments if Incoming Trilogy is somehow superior is some way to the steam version! This version is advertised as containing full controller support!

Thanks For Reading!

Hope you all enjoyed the guide! If you hate the tile for Incoming Forces as much as I do, you can use my custom grid images as well. You can find the ones I made pictured below alongside all of the other community made ones here (please leave a like if you liked any): https://www.steamgriddb.com/game/3966


The original Incoming is the best Incoming, and I hope all of you have a good day! Don't forget to leave a rating of five stars, a thumbs up, and share it with your friends who are also fans of this game!

Sources:
For DgVooDoo and the AMD Fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OIoJbMiCok
For the Incoming Forces Fix: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Incoming_Forces

And here's some photos using all the settings and fixes mentioned above! The bottom one shows the fixed UI as well!

[FUS]

In case there's people who don't want to spend 5$ for the Incoming Subversion expansion, there are CD images available on Archive org.

[Con-Rez]

@Shiru, Thanks for the notice, i've fixed the link to the forum post and it's download, as well as providing an alternative download link hosted by me.

[Shiru]

Bruh, all the downloads for that z buffer issue are null at this point, i can't get the download for either. I tried finding my own version of the file but it still causes problems

[Kaeru Gaman]

sounds reasonable. thanks for additional information. :)
I will try out dgvoodoo if I want to play more.

[Con-Rez]

@Kaeru Gaman, Yea man. I just tried some alternatives, but they have issues working properly (dnc-compat [crashes on launch due to being software only] and ddrawCompat [UI not functioning correctly])

Games created at this time never followed a set process for full screen applications, so its always been hit and miss regarding functionality without external tools.

[Kaeru Gaman]

oh.... so you mean, you have no real solution outside dgvoodoo?
hm. well, thanks anyway.

[Con-Rez]

@Kaeru Gaman, I included the directions for manual resolution setting in case people were unable to use dgvoodoo. However, in the end, I recommend using dgvoodoo to set your resolution instead. You'll also find there the tools for switch between windowed and fullscreen modes, as well as aspect ratio control.

[Kaeru Gaman]

Hi Con-Rez!
thanks for your guide. I used the "-screenmode" option to use 1024x768, it really makes a difference...
but no matter what resolution I use, I always have a windows frame around it, the headline is just stealing a caption of the grafix... is there a possibility to get rid of this, to run true fullscreen no window?

thnx in advance.

[Con-Rez]

@StixsmasterHD4k, Hello, thanks for the comments. I've made the changes as requested. Please tell me when you make the 1k Texture Paks and the installation directions as well. That seems like a fun, optional mod to include on the guide.

[StixsmasterHD4k]

It does appear the sequel/Incoming Forces tho only uses DX8 code so you only need to install the D3D8.dll file and none of the others