VOGONS


First post, by MrFlibble

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I found what appears to be a playable demo of Prehistorik 2 (at least, that's what the readme says) at cd.textfiles.com: pre2.zip

However I can't make it run in DOSBox (0.74, Linux 64-bit). When I run PRE.COM it just shows the DOS command prompt cursor and nothing happens at all. I tried loadfix -25, setting machine to vgaonly, forcing normal core and max cycles, no effect.

DOS Games Archive | Free open source games | RGB Classic Games

Reply 1 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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This one has very twisted protection, and it may require floppy controller hardware that DOSBox does not emulate, not sure.

Try this: TYPE PRE.COM (seriously 😀 )

Also, see this thread: Knight Force copy protection

Reply 2 of 8, by konc

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Nice find! First time I hear about this.
You are correct, it doesn't run on DOSBox (0.74 Linux or 0.74-2 Windows). I tried it on a 386 with the exact same behavior. Then I just held shift key down to do a clean boot (MS DOS 6.22 with EMM386 and everything commonly ran on a 386 of that time) and...

IMG_20190320_205705.jpg
Filename
IMG_20190320_205705.jpg
File size
891.94 KiB
Views
1250 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

And after finishing 1st level you get

IMG_20190320_210233.jpg
Filename
IMG_20190320_210233.jpg
File size
57.11 KiB
Views
1250 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 3 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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It has the expected anti-debugger tactic of prefetch tricks, but for some reason cputype=386_prefetch is not enough to get it running. I'll investigate that later.

For now, I've attached the demo's executable with the protection wrapper removed, which DOSBox and other systems will find easier to digest, and it also facilitates nosing around in the game's code for anyone interested in that kind of thing. 😉

Attachments

  • Filename
    pre2exe.zip
    File size
    26.51 KiB
    Downloads
    83 downloads
    File comment
    unwrapped executable
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 6 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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The original form of the Prehistorik 2 demo is fixed in SVN as of r4201 when using the cputype=386_prefetch setting, but the unwrapped executable in my previous comment can still be useful for 0.74(-2).

Reply 7 of 8, by Calvero

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Nice find, indeed.
The overview map looks different, the font on the Enter code looks different. There's no audio.
Pressing left ctrl + left alt + w already shows a hidden credit screen.
It looks like they where also planning an EGA version.

Reply 8 of 8, by Akuma

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ripsaw8080 wrote:

It has the expected anti-debugger tactic of prefetch tricks, but for some reason cputype=386_prefetch is not enough to get it running. I'll investigate that later.

For now, I've attached the demo's executable with the protection wrapper removed, which DOSBox and other systems will find easier to digest, and it also facilitates nosing around in the game's code for anyone interested in that kind of thing. 😉

Good for its day, now not so much, I doubt you had any problems unpacking it 😉
On that topic, I have a small collection (300+) packers and unpackers if you want them.