Gunmetal - DOS/4GW fatal error \ VOGONS

Gunmetal - DOS/4GW fatal error

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First post, by exofreeze

Posted on 2013-02-25, 13:12

exofreeze Offline

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Just got a copy of Gunmetal in today, and used MagicISO to create a bin/cue of it.

Mounted into 0.74 w/ the following:
mount c .\games\Gunmetal
imgmount d .\games\Gunmetal\cd\gunmetal.cue -t cdrom

starting up dosbox, switching to the d:, and running "install" returns:
DOS/4GW Protected Mode Run-time Version 1.97
Copyright (c) Rational Systems, Inc. 1990-1994
DOS/4GW fatal error (1004): syntax is DOS4GW <executable.xxx>

I searched that error on here, and no thread every resolved it. Almost every case was blamed on the OP not mounting correctly, or trying to run DOS4GW straight, and not the actual game file.

Using the debugger, this is the logfile export:

1MIDI:Opened device:win32
2         0: SBLASTER:DSP:Reset
3         0: IO:Read from port 0278
4         0: IO:Read from port 0279
5         0: IO:Read from port 03BC
6         0: IO:Read from port 03BE
7         0: INT10:Set Video Mode 3
8         0: VGA:Blinking 8
9         0: FILES:file open command 2 file CON
10         0: FILES:file open command 2 file CON
11         0: FILES:file open command 2 file CON
12         0: FILES:file open command 2 file CON
13         0: EXEC:Parsing command line: AUTOEXEC.BAT
14         0: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
15         0: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
16         0: EXEC:Parsing command line: SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 T6
17         0: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
18         0: EXEC:Parsing command line: cd ..
19         0: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
20         0: EXEC:Parsing command line: cd ..
21         0: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
22         0: EXEC:Parsing command line: mount c .\games\Gunmetal
23         3: EXEC:Execute mount.COM 0
24         3: FILES:file open command 0 file mount.COM
25        12: DOSMISC:DIRCACHE: Set volume label to C_DRIVE
26        18: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
27        18: EXEC:Parsing command line: imgmount d .\games\Gunmetal\cd\gunmetal.cue -t cdrom
28        21: EXEC:Execute imgmount.COM 0
29        21: FILES:file open command 0 file imgmount.COM
30        30: MISC:MSCDEX: Mounting iso file as cdrom: .\games\Gunmetal\cd\gunmetal.cue
31        36: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
32        36: EXEC:Parsing command line: c:
33        36: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
34        36: EXEC:Parsing command line: @cd Gunmetal
35        36: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
36        36: EXEC:Parsing command line: @cls
37        38: INT10:Set Video Mode 3
38        38: MOUSE:New video is the same as the old
39        40: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
40        40: EXEC:Parsing command line: @
41        40: FILES:Special file open command 80 file Z:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
42    246077: VGA:h total 100 end 80 blank (80/98) retrace (85/97)
43    246077: VGA:v total 449 end 400 blank (407/442) retrace (412/414)
44    246077: VGA:h total 0.03178 (31.47kHz) blank(0.02542/0.03114) retrace(0.02701/0.03082)
45    246077: VGA:v total 14.26806 (70.09Hz) blank(12.93341/14.04562) retrace(13.09230/13.15585)
46    246077: VGA:Width 640, Height 400, fps 70.086592
47    246077: VGA:normal width, normal height aspect 1.000000
48  61148289: EXEC:Parsing command line: d:
49 135282294: EXEC:Parsing command line: INSTALL.EXE
50 135282297: EXEC:Execute INSTALL.EXE 0
51 135282297: FILES:file open command 0 file INSTALL.EXE
52 135286425: FILES:file open command 0 file D:\dos4gw.exe
53 135288404: DOSMISC:Call is made for list of lists - let's hope for the best
54 135288601: DOSMISC:Call is made for list of lists - let's hope for the best
55 135288834: DOSMISC:Call is made for list of lists - let's hope for the best
56 135289105: DOSMISC:Call is made for list of lists - let's hope for the best
57 135289447: FCB:DOS:29:FCB Parse Filename, result:al=0
58 135289458: FCB:DOS:29:FCB Parse Filename, result:al=0
59 135289530: EXEC:Execute D:\dos4gw.exe 3
60 135289530: FILES:file open command 0 file D:\dos4gw.exe

…Show last 10 lines

61 135290745: FILES:file open command 0 file D:\DOS4GW.EXE
62 135290958: FILES:file open command 0 file D:\DOS4GW.ETX
63 135291851: BIOS:INT15:Unknown call BFDE
64 135291906: DOSMISC:DOS:Multiplex Unhandled call 1687
65 135291929: BIOS:INT15:Unknown call BFDE
66 135296564: BIOS:INT15:Unknown call BF01
67 135296565: BIOS:INT15:Function 0x88 Remaining 0000 kb
68 234281132: EXEC:Parsing command line: exit
69 234281132: SBLASTER:DSP:Reset

Interestingly, the game seems to run fine if I just run "gun.exe" straight from the cd drive, however it is impossible to save your game at that point.

Reply 1 of 3, by ripsaw8080

Posted on 2013-02-25, 14:36

ripsaw8080 Offline

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Joined: 2006-04-25, 23:24

The installer is also b0rked in real DOS and the NTVDM. You can get it to come up if you run it like "DOS4GW INSTALL", but then you're up against its buggy disk space calculation that doesn't seem to realize it's using 32-bit registers to do math with 16-bit disk parameters from INT 21/36. If you look inside the installer executable, there isn't a single file or directory name reference except the default install target of C:\GUNMETAL, so at best it could only copy everything to the target. My theory is that the DOS install program is an unfinished mess, and few complained because the Win9X installer (presumably) works. DOS had been marginalized by 1998, so the theory seems plausible.

In any case, you will have to manually install the game. The simple approach is to XCOPY the entire cdrom file and folder structure to C:\GUNMETAL and then create a SAVEGAME subdirectory. You can delete the files related to the Windows version of the game if you choose. It seems the game does not care at this point if the cdrom is available. You can probably leave certain elements on the disc if you edit the PATH.SNI file from "." to "D:\" (or whatever cdrom drive you're using), but it will likely require some trial and error to see what can safely be left there.

BTW, the game seems to work OK with the default memsize of 16, but I noticed that music plays in the first area if you increase memsize to 24, so you might want to go with more memory.

Reply 2 of 3, by exofreeze

Posted on 2013-02-25, 15:58

exofreeze Offline

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Posts: 388
Joined: 2007-03-19, 17:55
Location: Dallas, TX

Thanks for taking a look at this ripsaw. I had suspicions along those lines, but wasn't ready to jump in and start piece mealing this thing without getting an expert opinion first 😉

Reply 3 of 3, by DosFreak

Posted on 2020-08-19, 11:03

DosFreak Offline

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Posts: 13641
Joined: 2002-06-30, 16:35
Location: Milliways

Old thread is old, create your own.
Read the thread.

Closed.

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