Omikron: The Nomad Soul – WinXP Problems
Omikron: The Nomad Soul: Problem running on WinXP SP2 and opening the Map freezes the game.
I had first played this amazing game on a Win98 system and reinstalled it on my WinXP PC on one of those ‘slow’ days. Goings were not too smooth on WinXP. Firstly, it appears that you need to use the US NoCD patch for the game to start properly, due to some SafeDisc issues. This patch can be downloaded from http://www.gamecopyworld.com. Secondly, the game sometimes freezes when map is accessed from player ‘sneak’. From my experience, it happens only when the power scheme selected is “Portable/Laptop” and this issue can be worked around by employing “Always On” power scheme from Windows Power Options.
Enjoy.
Act of God 
January 24, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Thanks for info! It’s my first time I play Omikron (better late than never) and encountered this annoying problem. I googled for it and landed here 🙂 I tried switching power scheme but problem was present regardless of these schemes. You made me think and try things… and I found another solution… funny fact is that what finally helped me was just running game in Win98 compatible mode. Omikron Right click -> Properities -> Compatibility.
Thanks! Now let me dive into Omikron. Greetings!
April 20, 2008 at 10:11 pm
I was trying to get this game running and had the same problems most everyone else did in WinXP. I tried the no cd crack, running in compatibility mode, finally rolling back my drivers did the trick to start it up. I used 94.24 nvidia drivers from tweakforce, a forum post of theirs showed up when I was googling around for answers on how to get this game to work.
The audio is still spotting, sometimes it won’t be there when I start up the game. And the map freezing is still there as well.
“Hopefully” I can just keep restarting the game until the audio comes on and there won’t be any point in the game where I absolutely need the map.
October 26, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Same glitch – crashing after looking at the map, found this post as well. In my case none of the above solved it. However, it pointed me in the right direction: besides selecting Win98 compatibility mode, I also seleced to restrict to 256 colors (same menu). This completely solved it, and seems to onfirm the above poste’s suspicion that the glitch is in fact related to NVidia (as so often is the case…)
November 12, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I manged to run the game in XP successfully, but the intro movies are totally screwed. It’s just a mess of colored squares, accompanied by a soundtrack. In any Windows video player they run smoothly though.
Can anybody give me a hint to the root of the problem?
March 2, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Anyone having problem with intro movies(crashing after start or whatever) under win xp…try http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/omikronthenomadsoul/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-42347332&pid=193073
“Solution:
go into your game directory, and then into the “FLIS” directory. There are three movies there; if you want to keep them around for any reason, rename them, otherwise you can delete them, either is fine. Create three new text files, and rename them to match what the movies used to be.
EIDOS.MPG
GAME.MPG
QUANTIC.MPG”
Works perfectly for me.
The only problem is still map freeze
March 20, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Game works fine on win xp sp3 (runnin’ the old athlon xp). But I have some problems with moving the game character. After pressing movement button (arrows – single push only!), character starts to turn ’round and round for a few (sometimes more than 5) seconds. The same goes after re-typing buttons to a different setup…
If anyone could help. Thanks.
April 3, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I have this problem when i launch the game: “RUNTIME.ICD error. Program will be closed”.
I tryed everything: nocd patch, compatibility mode.
What i can do? Thanks.
April 3, 2009 at 6:44 pm
I Forgot.
I’ve Win XP pro SP2 and a nVidia GF8600GT
April 5, 2009 at 10:48 am
I have the same exact problem, “RUNTIME.ICD error, Program will be closed.”
I have done the nocd patch from gamecopyworld.com, trying to run the game using disk cd 2, and compatibility mode. I’m on XP SP3, nVidia 7200 256 MB.
I see that in some other games for Xp fixes, it involves deleting an installed file from the hard drive, so I deleted the Runtime.icd file which does nothing for a fix.
April 8, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Damn!! I had to take back my PIII 800Mhz whit a W98SE installed… only because the “nomad soul” renderer is very bad!!
July 12, 2009 at 5:00 am
Toshiba Amilo Li2727, Core 2 Duo 1,7GHz, 2GBRAM, Intel graphic card, Vista Home Premium – Omikron works like a dream 😀 without any tricks, just compatibility mode
October 4, 2009 at 1:09 am
I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING TO GET THIS BELOVED GAME TO RUN USING *WINDOWS XP HOME SP3
*CORE 2 DUO 1.8GHZ
*1 GB RAM
*A.T.I. RADEON 4830 (SAPPHIRE)
WHY DOESN’T SOME ONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO PROGRAM RE-WRITE THE RUNTIME.EXE TO STOP ALL THIS CRAP FROM HAPPENING AND TO STOP ALL THOSE ANNOYING BLUE SQUARES ARTIFACTS AND OTHER CRAP!!
October 13, 2009 at 3:17 am
If you’ve got an error when you launch the game, try to do that :
Step 1 : copy the files of the cd2 on your hard dsik
Step 2 : Delete the video files located in the file called FLIS
Step 3 : make an image of the files of the cd2 or engrave them on a cd
It should work. But it doesn’t solve the graphic problems !
And sorry for my english, I’m french.
October 23, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I found this game in an old box I had and installed it on my XP SP3 system. Everything worked except when the game froze when viewing the map. Anyway, I played this game 9 years ago on a Win98 system and got half way through it. I still had the saved game all this time. But I forgot what the hell I was supposed to be doing in the game. I like the music and the evironments. But hated the interface and the puzzles that had to be traversed. I tossed the game and will see what else in this old box that will.
November 21, 2009 at 3:38 pm
If you have more than one processor, this may be the problem. Run the game, then quickly access the Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del.
Under the processes tab, find and right-click on runtime.exe to bring up the context menu. Click “Set Affinity…” You should see a list of CPUs running. If you have more than one CPU with a check mark next to it, uncheck all but one.
From now on, your computer should only use one processor for the game, which is what Omikron was designed for.
This solution works for most older games, by the way, you just need to make sure you only do this for that particular game’s executable. Hope this helps.
December 15, 2009 at 4:44 am
Again, I have new computer and I had “RUNTIME.ICD error”.
I turned on compatibility mode and deleted movies (replaced them with empty files). And game seems to work fine. Anyone knows where save files are stored ?
December 15, 2009 at 4:46 am
I have C2D E8200 2×2,66GHx, WinXP, 4GB RAM (3,5 to be precise :)), Sound Blaster Audigy, Geforce 7900GS + most recent drivers. No problem.
December 15, 2009 at 10:22 am
Something I noticed in a posting i’d like to quote….
“Vij Says:
November 21, 2009 at 3:38 pm
If you have more than one processor, this may be the problem. Run the game, then quickly access the Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del.
Under the processes tab, find and right-click on runtime.exe to bring up the context menu. Click “Set Affinity…” You should see a list of CPUs running. If you have more than one CPU with a check mark next to it, uncheck all but one.
From now on, your computer should only use one processor for the game, which is what Omikron was designed for.
This solution works for most older games, by the way, you just need to make sure you only do this for that particular game’s executable. Hope this helps.”
Has anyone tried doing this yet and does it work or not? Has anyone found a true solution to getting this game to run on Win XP SP3, quad core processor. I want to try setting the affinity but am wondering if doing that will affect how the system runs afterwards.
December 15, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Changing affinity is totally safe for your computer, operating system and software. Don’t worry. I have Core 2 Duo and didn’t have to change it to run the game. The problem is people get RUNTIME.ICD error before they can change affinity, because the game crashes.
Anyway, I not sure if changing affinity will help.
December 18, 2009 at 10:42 pm
got it to work hiting control+alt+del seems to be the only thing I had to do then switch back to the game. the video behind the menu is all purple and stuff so started the game then exited and the menu appeared as it should normally.
So strange though considering the demo runs with zero problems at all.
January 8, 2010 at 8:26 am
Well, I get the game to load no problem BUT when I start the game there is no video. The audio plays and so does the game, but there is no video. I have a dualcore 6600 and nvidia 250gts. Im thinking cause my card is too new?
January 8, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Hello all !
I have the same problem : first the game loads perfectly (with or without CD crack), it even recognizes widescreen resolutions ! (1440*900). Sound is OK also. BUT when I start a game the screen does not display anything, then a white screen, then a pale blue. I can read subtitles and listen to the voices.
I tried to switch to the software renderer : I could see Kay’l and some effects, but this was not good-looking at all and the motion was so slow that my PC crashed.
I am pretty sure that the problem is due to Nvidia drivers. I already had to reinstall an old 186.81 version because the newest 195.62 does not support some OpenGL games based on Quake engine (KingPin in my case). There are 2 solutions : either switch back to a previous driver, or do some tweaking with nHancer.
Sadly I haven’t heard of a similar solution with The Nomad Soul. It is very disappointing not to be able to play. The only solution I have read is to install 94.92 or something : but it is really old now, and does not support the new Windows (I have Windows 7 x64, with an Nvidia Quadro FX770 on my laptop (pro version of 9600 M GT) and a Dual Core processor).
It seems that, while XP users have some issues but that can be solved, Vista & Seven users with modern Nvidia graphic cards are stuck. What should we do ?
– Is there a way to tweak the drivers in nHancer ?
– Is there a new, non-official renderer for the game ? (For example a DX9 or 10 renderer, as some can be found for old Unreal games) ?
Compatibility options and so on does not fix anything, imo this is just a Nvidia driver & display issue.
May 22, 2010 at 1:33 am
The only problem that I have with the game is when I enter a “shooting” part the game lags horrendously preventing me from moving any farther forward in the game. I played this game about a year ago and had it running nice and smooth. What could be the problem?
May 22, 2010 at 1:34 am
Oh yeah, and I’m playing it on an HP laptop with an nVidia 6400 graphics card.
May 22, 2010 at 1:39 am
Hmmm, strange, try to temporarily disable hardware acceleration and check if it helps
http://www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/dmc_turnoffhardwareacceleration.aspx
August 22, 2010 at 1:51 am
Games are made at certain times. Once the time passes – the game is no longer actual – I felt it when installed Omikron. I am certain it was a revelation ten years ago – it is still interesting now. But not interesting enough to waste time searching workarounds for all the bugs.
August 26, 2010 at 5:11 pm
im having a problem on my laptop,it always worked till i needed to reinstall the game,since then it keeps saying that problem with the send or not send it gives this
AppName: runtime32.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: msvcrt.dll
ModVer: 7.0.2600.5512 Offset: 00031b8d
can someone help me?gonna check this any day till a solution
August 26, 2010 at 5:12 pm
im having a problem on my laptop,it always worked till i needed to reinstall the game,since then it keeps saying that problem with the send or not send it gives this
AppName: runtime32.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: msvcrt.dll
ModVer: 7.0.2600.5512 Offset: 00031b8d
can someone help me?gonna check this any day till a solution
doesnt matter if i reinstall the game,keeps giving te same
November 8, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Maybe i found out why omikron is always crashing.
Normaly the game runs fine, but at the mecha-shooting stage in the police station the game always crashes at random points. I tried many things I read in the internet and the readme for example deac the screensaver, playing in 16bit/640×480/software mode but nothing helped.
So when triggering the graphic options doesn’t help, maybe the sound options does. So i deactivated the 3d-sound option and tada the game didn’t crash at the shooting stage.
I hope that’s it with crashes and not that this success is a one-time number 🙂
March 24, 2011 at 11:41 am
Hey so heres a really unusual problem I’m having with the game. It installs fine, starts fine, sound and video appear to work normally. However upon getting into the main menu after the start up cutscenes, I can’t access any of the submenus such as new game, load game, options, not even quit. I’m assuming the Enter button should be the button for accessing them, but it doesn’t WORK! =S never in all my years as a pc gamer have I encountered such a ridiculous problem as this, the enter button will even work for skipping the intro cutscenes, but not operating the menu.
I run on windows 7 32-bit
two processors (disabled one of them for it)
and I really don’t get it. Am I totally alone in this?
August 21, 2012 at 1:02 am
Hi! I’m geting other problem with Omikron The Nomad Soul. When I trying to run game using NO CD crack* (prob all possible to search in Web versions*) – it won’t works: game still asking for cd (in other hand putting always cd in CD-reader might cause it’s damage) Help!
August 27, 2012 at 7:08 am
More or less, Omikron The Nomad Soul has many, many issues with Windows XP. It wouldn’t run for me, as I kept getting the RUNTIME.ICD error, and I found no way of getting around that, and gave up on it. I already beat it once, yea it was fun to play, but now its all a memory.
April 19, 2015 at 8:44 am
Not sure if anyone still follows this thread, but Good Old Games, mostly known as GOG has released Omikron The Nomad Soul and it works beautifully. It’s been out for a while, but I saved a notification email when someone would reply to this article, so I just wanted to leave a final note that this solution, in my opinion has been solved.
Guess I’ll throw those 4 cd’s out cause nothing I can do with them since they won’t run on today’s technology.
June 22, 2015 at 3:57 pm
Wow…thanks..I follow G0G but didn’t notice this
June 22, 2015 at 5:11 pm
No problem. I hope you, and everyone else that reads this finally gets to play one of their favorite games again, thanks to GOG.
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