[yauyunam]

Hi all,
Does anyone know if the CD “Counting at Bridge” by Mike Lawrence can be operated in the current Win10/Win11 Window environment? The CD was produced many years ago and I just want to check it before I purchase the CD

Many thanks

[yauyunam]

Anyone please

[pilowsky]

Why not contact the supplier?

[yauyunam]

pilowsky, on 2023-July-02, 05:58, said:

Why not contact the supplier?

Already tried but no positive feedback

[Stephen Tu]

Yes the old bridgebase "bridge engine" titles still work on windows 10/11.

[yauyunam]

Stephen Tu, on 2023-July-02, 08:19, said:

Yes the old bridgebase "bridge engine" titles still work on windows 10/11.

Thanks Stephen, but not sure what is bridge engine as I am IT dummy. Does it means the CD will be operated if I insert it in the PC and I don’t need to download the stuff called bridge engine. If that’s the case, I will the purchase the CD.

[Stephen Tu]

You should email bbi@bridgebase.com , as there was some mention of older Mike Lawrence CDs needing some patch for Windows 7/Vista, to see if the patches are still necessary/available for the currently shipping product.

You could also try Mike Lawrence himself at 77bridge@Michaelslawrence.com for clarification or to see if he has the patches.

Bridge engine is just the name bridgebase gave to their software platform for bridge authors to basically turn their books into interactive software being able to present bridge problems and step through play etc. and have users answer questions, pick cards, etc. So same basic software underneath, then authors customize each title to present what they want to teach. It's installed automatically from the CD.

[yauyunam]

Dear Stephen, many thanks and actually I had done both. For the email bbi@bridgebase.com I was prompted it was not a valid email address, and for Mr Lawrence he was very kind in replying not sure about it. That’s why I asked here. Thanks

[barmar]

bbi@bridgebase.com no longer works. We no longer sell or support any of the standalone Bridge Base software, just Bridge Base Online.

[yauyunam]

Thanks barman, so do you know if the CD works well in Win10/Win11
Thanks

[barmar]

yauyunam, on 2023-July-05, 22:45, said:

Thanks barman, so do you know if the CD works well in Win10/Win11
Thanks

I have no idea. And I don't have a Windows computer, or the CD, or a CD drive, so I couldn't test if I wanted to.

Stepehen Tu says it should, I have no reason to believe he's wrong. What happens if you try it?

[Stephen Tu]

barmar, on 2023-July-06, 16:57, said:

I have no idea. And I don't have a Windows computer, or the CD, or a CD drive, so I couldn't test if I wanted to.

Stepehen Tu says it should, I have no reason to believe he's wrong. What happens if you try it?

I only say it might, based on other titles using same underlying platform (e.g. Lawrence 2/1 CD, bridgemaster 2k), working on my windows 10/11 machines. But the note on Baron Barclay indicating a patch was needed for "Counting at bridge" early versions troubles me, as I can't find the patches anywhere on the net. So I would only get this if I could confirm your vendor takes returns if the software doesn't work. I think there is a fairly decent chance it will work, but get a money back guarantee in case it doesn't. If you get it and it doesn't work, before you return it, post what error messages you get, as there are some tech-savvy people here who might be able to figure out how to get it working. It might be just a matter of downloading some updated software libraries. Or running the app in say XP compatiblity mode or something.

[pdmunro]

Being unable to play CD/DVD software on Windows 11 has been a major annoyance for me. Prompted by your question, I decided to have another search for a possible answer to the problem. I found this suggestion to download VLC Media Player:
https://answers.micr...9f-a8c4ff21abf9

It works!! I have now played a couple of DVDs. Sorry, I cannot find my copy of Mike Lawrence's "Counting at Bridge" to test it on VLC Media Player.

[pdmunro]

I found my copy of "COUNTING AT BRIDGE 2 CD FOR PC ONLY" and it's working!

It seems the VLC Media Player recognises the disc. I then click to install an exe file. And away I go.

Thanks for reminding me of this. I wasn't ready for it when I bought it years ago. Whereas nowadays, I spend most of my time playing the robots and practising my counting.

But as Larry Cohen opines: "Counting -- Takes years and years to master." Larry Cohen, "Bridge Tips".

[Stephen Tu]

pdmunro, on 2023-July-08, 22:32, said:

I found my copy of "COUNTING AT BRIDGE 2 CD FOR PC ONLY" and it's working!

It seems the VLC Media Player recognises the disc. I then click to install an exe file. And away I go.

Good that it works. But VLC media player has absolutely nothing to do with it. VLC is a media player for playing video and audio files, you could use it to play videos off of a DVD for example, or music off of a CD. It is completely uninvolved with a setup .exe executable file, which just is an installation program that launches to install the counting at bridge software on your PC. Being able to recognize the disc, and being able to launch the installation .exe or say an installer .msi file, for random software discs, is just a matter of your PC's optical drive working, along with the driver software that handles communication between the drive & the operating system.


VLC is more for people complaining that they can't play DVD-video discs on their windows 10/11 (or older) machines coming without playback software installed. You don't need VLC to install software or just read/copy random data files off of a CD or DVD. You'd use it to *play* data files of various formats that contain video and/or audio, which can also be done with other software packages.

[pdmunro]

Quote

Good that it works. But VLC media player has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Yes, good to know. I was trying lots of things, including trying to run some old DVDs that Windows Media Player could no longer recognise.

That's the difficulty when things aren't working, you try multiple fixes. And at the end, you aren't sure exactly what strategy fixed what.

Anyway, having got through a few chapters of Lawrence's, "Counting at Bridge 2", I can highly recommend it. It addresses lots of issues, including both bidding judgement and inferring the holdings of the unseen hands.