Is this game copy icons to the videomemory from dosbox? Is this a possible error?

0xc000 is the rom (=read only memory) area of the graphics card, for vga
it contains the int10 routines and character codes etc. so this is surely not
something an application would write to.
There's nothing wrong in the debugger log besides the rom writes, what
dosbox version are you using? Did you install the game correctly?

I use 0.72 for Debugging and 0.73 for normal playing. The game is correctly installed and i try different options ems=false, machine=vgaonly, sound disabled etc. The game is broken since 0.65 and runable since 0.72(Play Intro, Loading Menu, freez). Is there a way to figure out, where dosbox freez ?

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The game is correctly installed

How did you install it?

As dosbox is hanging you'd have to compile dosbox yourself (doesn't matter
if with or without the dosbox debugger) with debugging enabled, and then
break in when it's hanging.

How did you install it?

From CD, full install.

I can break in debugging, when it hangs. The debugger is not responding after this time.

I find out that the game runs in qemu. Now I investigate the difference between the both system.

Hey nbx2001, can you tell me how exactly you got the game running in Qemu? I already tried DosBox, FreeDos via VMWare, DOs 6.22 via VMWare, Win98 via VMWare but nothing works...
And I don't understand what I have to do in Qemu to get this game running...
So I hope you can help me.

Best regards from Germany.
Mind....

i think, Colony Wars runs on all qemu versions (Win/Linux):

1. Install QemuManager or an normal qemu
2. Install DOS 6.22 (if FreeDOS work, i don't now)
3. Install mousedriver/ oakcdrom.sys for cdrom and mouse
4. Install Colonywars 2492 WITHOUT any Sound and you can play the game.
5. Install univbe (mostly on cd)
6. Play the Game

I have test any VM (VMWare, VirtualBox, VirtualPC, Dosbox) and only qemu run the game correctly.

The best way is, to recreate the game. I don't know if it runs in 20 years...

Best greatings from Germany 😉

Good news!

The ripsaw8080 has found the errors to the freeze. He has written a loader that makes the game playable.

Important settings are:

1core = dynamic
2cycles = max

Selects Sound Blaster, if you will be asked during setup.

It is possible that CW2492 not work for everyone, because this loader is written for the "Media Verlagsgesellschaft 1997" magazine version.

If you own the boxed version or special edition, you have to try this. Feel free to give personal feedback.

Have fun and a big thank you to ripsaw8080

ripsaw8080 wrote:

When the game copies the data from PAN_SVGA.DAT into the video buffer it specifies the size of the data in bytes, but the copy routine uses dwords, so the size should have been divided by 4. The fix program simply modifies the program in memory to use the correct size.

On real systems the bug would not cause an obvious problem because the upper memory past the video buffer is ROM or unused, and writing there does nothing. The game uses flat real mode, and it refuses to run if the CPU is in V86 mode because the modes are incompatible, so it would be impossible to have RAM in upper memory with this game because memory managers need V86 mode.

DOSBox uses the C800 upper memory segment as RAM for its emulated DOS to preserve more conventional memory for games; and the mouse driver handler is also there because some games don't like it being in the BIOS segment. When the bug causes the game to overwrite this RAM, it's only a matter of time before DOSBox dies, but the end comes quickly because the game calls the mouse handler that is no longer there.

The Fix doesn't work for me unfortunately. It's the same with or without the fix: The Screen turns Black after the Intro-Movie, but i can hear the Music Playing. 🙁 ... I use the CW Version that was included in the "Bestseller Games Collection 3"-Magazine...

Sounds like you may have a different version. The patch loader will only work with CW.EXE, 318,576 bytes, dated 6 March 1996, with a CRC32 of B4B4E9C0. However, it's quite possible the same issue exists in other versions.

If you have a different version, and it does indeed have the same issue, you may be able to correct it with a direct modification. In the installed copy of CW.EXE search for the byte pattern 68 00 E6 (there should be only one occurance) and change it to 68 80 39.

Thx a lot!! It works... It is another Version. My cw.exe is 318,480 bytes, dated 11 March 1996 and has a crc32 of DC6B2F4C and the patching offset begins at 0x000277D7. 😀