I haven't played BioForge for years, sadly (It always has trouble installing on my computer), but I do remember that room particularly well.

You're using the number from Dane's logbook, right? And when you're inputting the code and everything, you have the medbot with Cayman's arm by the palm reader, correct?

I don't remember having "that" much trouble in that room. You have to hit some buttons, I remember, but I know the main thing to do is having Cayman's arm in the palm reader while you reactivate his clearance (A now blue-skinned insane man just can't be trusted).

I was playing Bioforge last year on DosBox and remember that it was a biatch to get out of that room, but I did. I seriously doubt DosBox is at fault.

Consult a walkthough. I'm sure you're missing something.

You're using the number from Dane's logbook, right? And when you're inputting the code and everything, you have the medbot with Cayman's arm by the palm reader, correct?

Yeah, I've done this.. Whenever I enter the code (87106) it just keeps saying.. "Invalid Code. Palm print restoration denied". I have moved the arm in heaps of different angles thinking it might just be the way it is placed but no such luck. I guess it could be a matter of trial and error, but it seems strange that it hasnt worked yet.

Consult a walkthough. I'm sure you're missing something.

I've read a couple of different walkthrus but they werent much help haha.. I'll just keep at it.

OH snap... found this in the readme...

"Q: When I start the game, I only hear music and then the game locks up with
a character (Lex) just sleeping in his bed. What's wrong?

A: You may be running some caching software for your VLB or PCI controller
(Input/Output) card then is interfering with BioForge. Try making a boot
disk as described in the Install Guide to resolve this problem."

I'm stuck!

Ah! Oldskool error! I remember now, I got this a few times back in the day. Lol. Same ol' Bioforge. Anyhow, I have a radeon 9600xt vid card. I have no idea whatsoever as to what I need to do to bypass this sucker. ;(

You're getting this error when running in DOSBox? Hmm.. I didnt come across this error. I'm using 0.65. I thought the vid card etc was emulated within DOSBox so it doesnt matter what kind of actual vid card u have. I have attached my "dosbox.conf" file if u think that could help.

Still doesn't work. And for some reason when I jam the cycles up the game slows down. When I manually configer dosbox to auto detect cycling, it runs smooth as eggs.

Woah, nevermind. I used my config again, and noticed the sound irq was set for 7 in dosbox, but bioforge uses 5. I changed the 7 to 5, and everything works fine, runs smooth, and I just kicked that nursebots ass! DIZZAM! I'm playing bioforge again! After 10 years! Eff' Yeah!

Gratz on getting it working! Let me know if you make it through that bloody security door with the hand scanner.. I'm still stuck there! 🤣

Got past that. Lex's hand is too uber to work on the console. You have to disable the force bar on the holding cell with the nursebot in it, then find the other console in the security room that activates the nursebot controls. Have the nursebot move over to Caynan's arm, and pick it up off the ground (the closed pincer button). Move the nursebot as close as you can to the hand scan reader and then power it off (red power button). Read Caynan's logbook for the security code for the door. Then enter it in the security room console. It will say something about insufficient weight entered.

Exit the console and walk right behind the nursebot. You'll notice a square on the ground behind the nursebot. Stepping on this, with the security code already entered correctly, and the nursebot holding Caynan's hand up to the monitor will open the door.

If that doesn't work, no worries. I'm making a save at every fight, though im almost on 9th slot and will have to overwrite first.

Remember right when you open that door is a hallway. In the middle of the hallway is a little coridoor where the elevator is, and to the end of the hallway is a room with experimental test subjects encased in carbonite. 😜
This room is your target, but patrolling this hallway is a sentrybot (nasty bugger). You have to hide in that mid-hallway coridoor and wait for it to pass, then walk through.

If you can't get past the console for technical reasons, i've made a zipfile of my first 6 saves. By the sixth save, Dane was put out of his misery; Caynan is still alive, the unarmed guard in the top level was alive (last time I checked), and the guard in the Icarus top level bay is alive, though he's holding a logbook you might want to check out.

Sadly, I think I had put the combat on hard mode accidentally. Later i'm going to see if I can edit the save file with a text editor, maybe that could reset things.

I'm getting the same error. Arm is in the nursebot, on the palm reader. Monitor tells me that the code in Dane's log is invalid.

It's not dosbox - I'm running this on my retrobox.

Edit: A thought. Did Origin release a demo of Bioforge? If so, where did it stop? I ask this because my savegames are named 'demo?.im1' as opposed to 'game?.im1'

Unsure. Probably, considering they were pushing for the game so much.

Are you both getting the saves saved as "demo"x.IMG?

All my saved, on any difficulty are "GAME"x.IMG.

(where the x is the save slot number)

whats the max size of your actual game cds?/isos?

My original game cd is 166mb.

Looks like that's the problem. My save games are all "demo.img"... Damnit. I was sure I had the full version. Oh well, time to hunt down a copy of the full version 🤣

Finished the game just now. I tried to kill as little as possible, let Caynan live, let the tower guard live, didn't kill the last marine guarding the icarus, yet I got the profile of the Berserker guy that craved violence. 😮; (Blake Rathman)

Imo, Blake's face looks the most like "Lex" (the player robo).

Dr. Escher's logbook password for the identity in my game was

80818. Might work again, might not.

If either of you has yahoo messenger, add "Raijin1999" to the list. Perhaps I can switch out certain files from the original game cd that can add/replace demo files.

Still though, a demo usually has an ending that states it's a demo ending. To just freeze like that is odd.

I got the exact SAME problem. I got the nurse bot (with Caynan's arm) to the palm reader, entered the code, but it still says that I got an invalid code.

Maybe it got something to do with my configuration.

In the settings, I told I had a Sound Blaster (220, 7 (IRQ), 1(DMA))

I'm using DosBox on a laptop running Vista.

CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 1.90 GHz
Ram: 2GB

Does someone know HOW to bypass this?

Just read this thread and I am glad that you both got through the problematic area. I was just talking to wd a few days ago about how improper it was to set the SB16 to I7 when in the real world the SB16 was I5, and the older models were I7 because games have issues with it. Funny that it came up in a thread so soon!

If you're entering the code in the book, it should work though. I don't see how a soundcard IRQ would cause it not to work, but if you're unsure you can tell DOSBox to use the real IRQ of 5 and see if it fixes the problem. Some games were hard-coded to look for an SB16 at IRQ5 only, since IRQ7 was the printer-port back then. I have just tried the area and been through it twice, but I run my copy of DOSBox as real as I can, including memory, cycles, and other things.

That brings up an idea! Some older games act like crap on auto or max cycles. Try using a normal or dynamic core and a specific number of cycles. If you can run the game at 15000 cycles or less, use a normal core. Faster processors can go even higher on the normal core. Case in point with using max and auto cycles is where Veil of Darkness will use only PC speaker sound even if you configure a soundcard, when there are too many cycles available. Full Throttle acts up after the main menu on max cycles and won't even start. Railroad Tycoon freezes after you make the sound and input choices, but going windowed and fullscreen again fixes the problem. Wolf3D won't start a new level after loading it without going windowed and fullscreen. There are a ton of others that I have logged as well, but for now, try a normal core and set the cycles somewhere around 10k~15k, and use CTRL+F11 and CTRL+F12 to find the sweet-spot, and see if the game will go past that area. If it does, this is just another game that hates auto or max cycles.

to use the real IRQ of 5

This game seems to use soundblaster ("native" irq 7) not sb16.

Only game I know that have the IRQ hardcoded is the Rebel Assault demo (not the full game), and it expects the Sound Blaster (including SB16) to use IRQ7.

Bioforge runs just fine with IRQ7 (and 5).

I'm not sure what the issue is here. The game runs perfectly for me with DOSBox 0.72 without changing any settings at all. Got the nursebot to get the arm and entered the code, and walked to the plate on the floor and it opened. No problem whatsoever.

Judging from mr_zen256's comment, it seems like it's a demo/abandonware issue, and not an issue with the full real game.

Oh, and the code is random. In my case it was 67920. You have to look in the logbook to see what it is, and not follow some walkthough.

I tried changing my IRQ to 5 (in my DOSBox configuration file) and I managed to get past that point.

So, it was the IRQ setting, after all. Or maybe, it was because I was using dual-core (I used another computer to try that IRQ trick).

And Freddo, I knew about the code. I used the code in my logbook, but it seemed that due to that glitch, the game wouldn't recognize it, even if the bot was close enough to the palm reader. I was stuck for months in this room.

Now, I wonder if it's due to my hardware (dual core), if it's a glitch in DOSBox or if this glitch happens on real DOS.

So is this the full version of the game? Did you install it within dosbox?
As Freddo said it works out of the box.

I installed it in DosBox, and yes, it's the full version.