It works fine here. XARGON.BAT runs XRFILE00.BAT, which in turn runs XRFILE04.EXE (the menu) and XRFILE05.BAT after that. XRFILE04.EXE creates/modifies XRFILE05.BAT to run the selected episode and run XRFILE00.BAT after that, thus looping back to the XRFILE04.EXE menu.

You didn't mention XRFILE00.BAT, which is a necessary part of the batch loop. Please post the contents of your batch files for comparison.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

It works fine here. XARGON.BAT runs XRFILE00.BAT, which in turn runs XRFILE04.EXE (the menu) and XRFILE05.BAT after that. XRFILE04.EXE creates/modifies XRFILE05.BAT to run the selected episode and run XRFILE00.BAT after that, thus looping back to the XRFILE04.EXE menu.

You didn't mention XRFILE00.BAT, which is a necessary part of the batch loop. Please post the contents of your batch files for comparison.

OK, let's see...

XARGON.BAT:
@echo off
cls
xrfile00 %1 %2 %3

XRFILE00.BAT:
@echo off
xrfile04 xargon %1
xrfile05 %1 %2 %3

XRFILE04.BAT:
@echo off
xrfile04 xargon %1
xrfile05 %1 %2 %3

XRFILE05.BAT:
@echo off

There are xrfile01.exe, xrfile02.exe, xrfile03.exe, xrfile04.exe executables as well.

They appear to be the same. I used DOSBox 0.74, default settings, installed from the CD to C:\XARGON (the default), and the episode selection works. I can run all three episodes after executing XARGON.BAT, and after quitting they loop back to the menu.

Are you using non-default settings or installing differently?

It occurs to me there would be a problem if XRFILE05.BAT could not be created or overwritten. I tried making the file read-only as a test, but XRFILE04.EXE gives a runtime error in that case, not the same as what you describe.

Sorry, this issue seems limited to ykhwong's patched revision. I could have sworn I tried an unpatched .74 rev before posting this, but I must be mistaken about that.

Sorry, this code breaks the game in my build. I will have to get rid of it.

shell_batch.cpp

1@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@
2 	DOS_CloseFile(file_handle);
3 	shell->bf=prev;
4 	shell->echo=echo;
5+	Bit16u n=1; Bit8u c='\n';
6+	DOS_WriteFile(STDOUT,&c,&n);
7 }
8 
9 bool BatchFile::ReadLine(char * line) {

FYI, Kiloblaster (also by Epic MegaGames) uses a similar menu/batch loop, but appears not to be affected by the issue.

Jill of the Jungle and Solar Winds also uses the old Epic menu system