World Rally Fever - Strange phenomenon involving the "pause" command \ VOGONS

World Rally Fever - Strange phenomenon involving the "pause" command

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First post, by Yesterplay80

Posted on 2016-09-10, 09:30

Yesterplay80 Offline

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I just accidently noticed something I just can't explain: Using the current SVN the game "World Rally Fever" always skips the third intro screen and the following intro sequence, no matter what settings I use. However, I just put a "pause" command at the beginning of the [autoexec] section of my config file, because I wanted to record the game and this gives me the time to press the keys for recording. And by doing so I accidently fixed the problem with skipped intro sequences, now whenever I start the game and press any key to continue, the intro runs just fine. I double checked the issue by commenting out the "pause" command and, as expected, the intro sequence is skipped again. Uncommenting it, the intro again runs fine.

This is my [autoexec]

1[autoexec]
2pause
3mount C GAME
4imgmount D "GAME\CD\WRF.CUE" -t iso -fs iso
5c:
6cd WRF
7RALLY.EXE
8exit

As you can see, the pause is started way before the game, so it shouldn't influence it at all, yet it obviously does. So mybe it's a bug in DOSBox? Does anyone have an explanation for this behaviour? Or a possible fix for it?

Last edited by Yesterplay80 on 2016-09-10, 09:40. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 1 of 10, by James-F

Posted on 2016-09-10, 09:39

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I get:
1. Team17/Ocean
2. Split.
3. Intro sequence.
3. Game menu.

Last edited by James-F on 2016-09-10, 09:47. Edited 3 times in total.

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Reply 2 of 10, by ripsaw8080

Posted on 2016-09-10, 09:41

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What happens when you run the game by typing commands instead of using the autoexec to run it?

Reply 3 of 10, by Yesterplay80

Posted on 2016-09-10, 09:55

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James-F wrote:
I get: 1. Team17/Ocean 2. Split. 3. Intro sequence. 3. Game menu. […]
Show full quote
I get:
1. Team17/Ocean
2. Split.
3. Intro sequence.
3. Game menu.

You obviously have another version, the GOG release has different intro screens. With the pause command I get
1. Microprose screen
2. Team 17 screen
3. Split screen (hehe 😀 )
4. Intro sequence
5. Game menu

Without it I only get
1. Microprose screen
2. Team 17 screen
3. Game menu

ripsaw8080 wrote:
What happens when you run the game by typing commands instead of using the autoexec to run it?

It works, just as using the "pause" command!

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Reply 4 of 10, by James-F

Posted on 2016-09-10, 10:03

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Looks like another SVN is in order. 🤣

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Reply 5 of 10, by ripsaw8080

Posted on 2016-09-10, 10:05

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Well, with PAUSE you have to press a key, just as you do when typing commands, so maybe the game gets confused when there is no key, er, "history", such as reading the last key on port 60h, keys recorded in the BIOS key buffer (even if already processed by BIOS), etc. If so then it is a weakness in the coding of the game, although it would be an unusual condition on a real DOS system.

Reply 6 of 10, by Yesterplay80

Posted on 2016-09-10, 10:10

Yesterplay80 Offline

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ripsaw8080 wrote:
Well, with PAUSE you have to press a key, just as you do when typing commands, so maybe the game gets confused when there is no key, er, "history", such as reading the last key on port 60h, keys recorded in the BIOS key buffer (even if already processed by BIOS), etc. If so then it is a weakness in the coding of the game, although it would be an unusual condition on a real DOS system.

That wouldn't surprise me, the game has several other flaws as well, mainly problems with sound and controller.

Btw., I just tried the latest official release, the old 0.74, it shows the same behaviour. So I can rule out a bug caused by any patch or update since then.

I'll just keep pressing a key the whenever I want to play the game, no big deal. 😁 At least we have a workaround if anyone else should encounter this problem.

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Reply 7 of 10, by ripsaw8080

Posted on 2016-09-10, 10:13

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There are programs that "stuff" keys into the keyboard buffer. If doing that fixes the problem then at least we'd have a better idea if it's related to the buffer or port 60h. The reason I'd be interested to know is that I'm not sure DOSBox correctly emulates the "before any keypress" behavior of port 60h.

Reply 8 of 10, by Yesterplay80

Posted on 2016-09-10, 10:13

Yesterplay80 Offline

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ripsaw8080 wrote:
There are programs that "stuff" keys into the keyboard buffer. If doing that fixes the problem then at least we'd have a better idea if it's related to the buffer or port 60h. The reason I'd be interested to know is that I'm not sure DOSBox correctly emulates the "before any keypress" behavior of port 60h.

Can you name such a tool? I'll gladly test it.

UPDATE: Found some! http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/keyb.htm
Will test immediately!

UPDATE2: So far I could only download the tool "key-fake.com", using that didn't help though.
UPDATE3: Found a BUFFER.EXE, tried to start the game with it by entering "BUFFER.EXE RALLY.EXE$e" ($e is the keystroke for ENTER). It starts, but the intro sequences are still skipped. Neither does

BUFFER.EXE $e
pause
RALLY.EXE

work, this starts the game as well, but again there are intros missing. So it doesn't seem to have to do with an empty keyboard buffer.

Btw.: Most of the intro sequences are EXE files themselves, so the problem probably sits in those directly.

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Reply 9 of 10, by James-F

Posted on 2016-09-10, 11:43

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EDIT:
My version of WRF behaves the same when started from the autoexec.bat.
I will try to solve this too.

EDIT2:
If I press any key during the first intro screen, it will not skip to following screens.
It seems that ripsaw8080 was right about port 60h.

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Reply 10 of 10, by Yesterplay80

Posted on 2016-09-10, 12:32

Yesterplay80 Offline

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James-F wrote:
If I press any key during the first intro screen, it will not skip to following screens.

Ah, that works here, too.

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