A few queries for Dosfreak

[Curley_Boy 0]

This is one for Dosfreak... (But I'd love to hear from anyone else with expertise in this area)

 

I've downloaded your NTGames spreadsheet, and from it's contents it seems you have managed to get some games working that I cannot even get to load. If you've addressed one of my problems below in the spreadsheet I'm sorry for asking again, but the cell labels for certain entries weren't big enough for thier content, and I couldn't find any way of enlarging them in Excel Viewer.

 

Here are a few examples that I want to query:

 

Blood, (I'm using Shareware v1.11) I can't get SFX to work properly (there are periodic slowdowns making it very difficult to play) I currently use VDMSound and Nolfb with this game.

 

Lemmings 2 the Tribes CD-ROM, I can't get this game to load at all (it just complains about it trying to access the hardware directly and this being not allowed). Is there anyway around this?

 

Tyrian2k, Music plays fine when set to MIDI 330 or FM Sound, but SFX simply locks the game when a level loads (it didn't used to though, I used to be able to get a level to load with stuttery SFX but it used to lock up fairly often even then). I use VDMsound for this also.

 

Worms and Worms: Re-enforcements (DOS CD-ROM), On your spreadsheet you say it just works. I've tried it in VPC,VDMSound and Native NT dos box, but I can only get either game to load to the main screen. If I try and launch a match the game locks up.

 

CD-ROM Audio tracks in DOS games: I've found a workaround for this (use WMPlayer to loop the correct track) but is there any way to get cd audio to work properly again, and without the long waits when accessing the drive?

 

Some Basic Config information:

 

I have WinXP Pro SP1

VDMSound

Dosbox (I'm using 0.56 atm)

VPC 4.36

 

** I also appear to have the expanded memory (lack of) problem in XP too, How do I workout which driver is taking up the area of memory needed? I've tried a DOS 7.0 boot disk and I could access expanded memory with that, (no device drivers loaded) so it must be one of my add-in cards.

[DosFreak 2]

Blood:

 

Can't help much there. We've hashed and rehashed Blood over in the VOGONS forum. Heck, we've even gotten GliDOS to work with the Glide version of Blood (Not much point tho). As for SFX all I can really recommend is to update your sound card drivers (In hopes to decrease latency) Try the XP Sound emulation (Although crappy you MIGHT have better results 1 out of every 100 games ),, also try decreasing the sound quality and modify the buffers in the VDMSOUND.INI. (For help with the VDMSound Buffer configuration, post in the VDMSound forums at www.vogons.zetafleet.com )

 

Lemmings 2:

 

I have "Oh No More Lemmings!". The floppy version. Your problem description isn't very helpful. Start a new thread on Lemmings 2 here and also post a VOGONS. I think I remember someone having this game there.

 

 

Tyrian2k:

 

Don't have this one either. I have the original Tyrian. I have to use Connectix VPC to play it under NT. I would say VDMSOUND buffers may help with this situation.

 

 

Worms:

 

You say you tried it in VPC and it still locks up. Odd, Very very odd. I used VPC v5.1 to test it...not sure if it doesn't work on older builds of VPC since I deleted my old results. As for it "just working" it did when I tested it. I'll retest tonight to verify.

 

 

 

CDROM Audio:

 

Try SAPUCDEX at VOGONS. That may help. It's an MSCDEX replacement that gives DOS programs that have CD trouble what they need. MSCDEX doesn't really cater to DOS programs as it should whereas SAPU is designed to.

 

Expanded Memory:

 

You will likely get a very small amount of Expanded memory but will probably not be able to get the full amount. The problem is that NT wants to place EMM at a specific address range and we cannot change it in NT. Under DOS you can reassign it but any changes to the CONFIG.NT in NT seem to not matter. As for telling you exactly what hardware is eating what. Just load up MSD from a DOS disk and start looking at memory ranges, then start disabling HD, Sound,USB, remove PCI cards....oh and check the EMM thread over at VOGONS.

 

Hope this helps....

[Christianb 8]

Hi Curley_Boy,

I've gotten Lemmings II the tribes working in Windows 2000. However I don't seem to be able to do that today. I think my current troubles are related to a change in partition configuration. I am still trying to run it on a Fat16 partition though. If you want help with this I highly recommend writing the folks at alt.lemmings (newsgroup).

Adios,

Christian

[Curley_Boy 0]

Ok update:

 

*I have fixed the Expanded memory prob under XP

*Got Blood working properly

*Improved sound quality in T2k a bit (but nothing to jump about at)

 

Here is a more specific description of the L2 problem:

 

When you insert the CD and run Install.exe in the L2 dir an error message appears with the title '16bit MS-DOS Subsystem': An application has attempted to directly access the hard disk, which cannot be supported. 'Close' or 'Ignore'.

 

I can choose Ignore and the install program continues but doesn't complete fully (it hangs during the file copy process). I also get the same error when trying to run the L2.EXE file directly from the CD-ROM.

 

It makes no difference whether I use VDMSound or native NT dos box with no additions.

 

**Christianb I've just tried to install L2 on my NT4 PC (which has a FAT16 partition and everything worked ok) Is it just the file system then that causes L2 the difficulties?

 

Worms / Worms Re-inforcements:

 

Install the game in a native NT dos box, run with VDMSound (without sound cards set up). Worms loads the intro movies but doesn't get to the menu. Re-inforcements gets to the menus but when you try and launch a match it hangs on the landscape generation screen.

 

**Dosfreak when you say 'it just runs' were you referring to native NT dos box or VPC5.1?

 

Anyhow thx for the help I'll post some of these msgs on VOGONS too see if ppl have any fresh ideas.

 

PS Sapucdex (I cant find any info on VOGONs.. where can I get hold of it?)

[Christianb 8]

Hi Curley_Boy,

Windows NT 4 is a totally different OS than Windows 2000. Okay so Win2K is based on the NT platform, but they were working on Win2K for 5 years and as you might expect not much is the same. Whatever the reason I'm glad it's working for you. Yes Fat16 is a requirement however there is more than that to toy with in Windows 2000 or otherwise if you want sound and speed.

Have Fun Playing Lemmings,

Christian