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Dark Reign


Genre: Real Time Strategy, Strategy
Release Year: 1997
Developer: Auran
Publisher: Activision
Age Rating: 7+
Playability Status: Perfect
Tested On: Windows 7 x64
Availability: Copyright retained - Still sold

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Real time strategy games have always been popular on the PC. The combination of high resolution screens and super accurate mouse and keyboard control make for slick, enjoyable gameplay for armchair/office chair generals all around the world. Dark Reign is another fantastic example of the genre. Set in the distant future, the player must avert a civil war by mastering the tactics of two warring factions. Having done this, the player is then sent back in time to defeat both factions and save the life of the intergalactic peace loving boffin Alpheus Togra. It’s a convoluted plot, but that won’t matter as you get stuck into more than a dozen challenging RTS maps. What’s more, there’s an official expansion pack and for the creative, a full map editor. There are also dozens of user made maps and even a small but still active online community to test your tactics against.

Installing and patching

Installing Dark Reign should not present any difficulties, but patching the product is somewhat more difficult. At some point in the games history, the official patches split with the patches that the fan community was producing. For the curious, you can see the full list of patches and how they are applied by visiting this site.

Rather than try to figure out the patch situation for yourself, we strongly recommend that you download the entire Dark Reign 1.7 pre-patched bundle, that’s available from Dark Reign.ws (the definitive Dark Reign fan site) here. Strictly speaking (since this is practically the full game, minus video cut-scenes) you should only download this file if you have a legal right to play the game, for instance if you own the original retail CD. The game is still sold as a digital download over at Good Old Games (GoG) here, if you need to purchase a copy.

The game downloads as a zip file, you should copy the contents from the zip to the Dark Reign installation folder on your PC, overwriting files whenever prompted. There are no other installation steps to take once you have done this. In the Dark Reign folder you will see several executable files. In order to launch the game successfully, you will need to use the LaunchDR.bat file. By default this will launch the game in expansion mode, to play the original game, edit the batch file and change it to run “Dark Reign – Original Game.exe”. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can use our pre-made batch files below to launch the game or its mods and expansions. Since our hosts now demand we store all batch files inside zip archives, you will need to download the zip file below then extract the batch files into your Dark Reign folder.

Dark Reign launcher BAT files.

64 bit windows users only – Before playing Dark Reign, you may need to add the following files from the Dark Reign folder to your Data Execution Prevention (DEP) exclusion list:-

Dark Reign – Expansion.exe

Dark Reign – Original Game.exe

MOD – Auran Units.exe (if you wish to play this mod)

MOD – Edge of Darkness.exe (if you wish to play this mod)

MOD – Strata 7.exe (if you wish to play this mod)

MOD – Terrorist.exe (if you wish to play this mod)

A tutorial on how to add exceptions to Windows DEP is available here.

Windows Defender users note – The Windows Defender software may flag part of the Dark Reign download as potentially having a virus or trojan infection. We firmly believe this to be a false positive and you can safely configure Windows Defender to ignore the files. However if you want to err on the side of caution you can simply delete the files that are flagged, although you won’t be able to play various user created mods if you do delete them.

Multiplayer and more information

Don’t forget that Dark Reign still has a fan community that organises multiplayer games and provides an archive of maps and mods. Visit Darkreign.ws for more information and Dark Reign goodies.

 

14 comments

  1. ray craig says:

    still have the original games and expansion plus boxes loved this game along with dune and c+c

  2. Ray says:

    The Pre-made batch files link does not work =(

  3. AQ says:

    windows 7 64 bit, game freezes mid play in instant action mode. Have not tried single player or other game plays. Lost my CD, so downloaded the game from the above link, any assistance in this matter?

    Thanks.

  4. Martin Rayner says:

    Followed the procedure to the letter. Didn’t work for me.

    • BuckoA51 says:

      Care to elaborate?

      • Martin Rayner says:

        I’d have to go and re-install the program, download the mod files once more and then run through the whole process once again, so no. Perhaps another time. I usually try this once every six months or so when I get the urge to play DR, but just end up frustrated.

  5. Sam says:

    Anybody still playing DR? I wanna play..
    Mario, Poi, Goose, Napz, Hammod, Snoopy, .. where are you guys?

    Miss you so much :)
    –sam (The Samorai)

  6. Musmos says:

    where you can download easily DR i really love it so much please help me to download

  7. Magpie says:

    the website has gone offline permanently but the community (and the files) live on in discord

    https://discord.gg/fhgQwub

  8. goose en naps die ken ik nog wel ;-)
    mijn naam was D.O.N-MsA-

Leave a Reply to AQ Cancel reply

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