VOGONS


First post, by gumpy

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I'm trying to Play Star Fleet I by Interstel in DOSBOX 0.74.

My problem is when I try to log back into the game after quitting by entering in my commander's name - I get the message "FILE READ ERROR. You must log in as MANAGER to work on or reset data files". Meaning that the commander log files are corrupted. So the commander log files are not saving right apparently. I tried resetting the data files and starting a new game - but I got the same problem when I tried to log in.

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Reply 1 of 9, by ripsaw8080

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I can reproduce the problem in 0.74, but not in SVN. The game uses FCBs for most file operations, and I suspect that improvements in DOSBox regarding FCBs have fixed the problem, but haven't really analyzed it.

I checked if files saved in 0.74 could be read with an SVN build, but got the same error; so it seems the save files are damaged, and starting from the beginning with an SVN build is necessary to get it working.

Reply 6 of 9, by awwwdrat

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I am using a laptop with windows 10. I have tried using the game in the C: location and I have an external A: drive but it does the same thing there too. I have noticed while starting a game, the SEQ.NUM file disappears. Somewhere along the way, the SF.PER file disappears too. Sometimes when you go to start the next game, it kicks yo out with a message saying line 1520 is missing. I checked the file folder properties and the read only box is checked. I unchecked it, applied it to all folders and sub folders, click apply and ok, but when I reopen the folder the read only box is checked again. I have used a copy of these files on an old laptop that only has DOS on it and it works perfectly on that. Thoughts? Help?

Reply 7 of 9, by awwwdrat

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Ok, DOSBox SVN-lfn makes this game work properly with 1 exception. If you press f10 during the game the screen freezes for a little while. But if you press the Alt key, it unfreezes and allows you to continue. Do not use regular DOSBox 0.74 for this game. Thanks.

Reply 9 of 9, by Buck_Rogers

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I feel silly, I posted a new thread today about this exact problem.

The only "fix" I had seen mentioned online is renaming TMP.DAT to SF.PER, TMP to SEQ.NUM after each mission, but as noted by others, some of these files simply disappear randomly.

I just downloaded DOSBox SVN r4088 and it appears to be working. I started a new game, entered a mission, cleared a quadrant of enemy ships, saved my game (which exits the game), restarted the game, it remembered who I was, remembered my saved game, and the starmap looks how I left it.

So I'd say, so far, this is a complete fix. I'm not experiencing the F10 freeze as stated above. Everything, so far, appears to be running perfectly.

I'll post again or edit this after I've played a few missions.

EDIT: How do I make the window bigger in DOSBox if the SVN build you downloaded doesn't come with a config or options file ??
EDIT 2: Nevermind I figured it out. DOSBox can generate a new config file