Wild guess, are you using a USB keyboard through legacy PS/2 emulation? Try a native PS/2 keyboard instead, or at least one of those passive USB-to-PS/2 adapters (the keyboard has to support that though - many new ones don't).

elszgensa wrote on 2024-03-05, 12:57:

Wild guess, are you using a USB keyboard through legacy PS/2 emulation? Try a native PS/2 keyboard instead, or at least one of those passive USB-to-PS/2 adapters (the keyboard has to support that though - many new ones don't).

Im using original mid 90's hardware, including a native ps/2 keyboard. The keyboard works fine the rest of the time, its just when this error happens when trying to boot simcity 2000 without the cd in the drive, it wont accept any keyboard input.

Even if i try to read a floppy in drive A: without a floppy disk in, i get a similar 'abort, retry, fail' option, but the pc happily accepts keyboard input for those.

KoniTec wrote on 2024-03-05, 14:18:

elszgensa wrote on 2024-03-05, 12:57:

Wild guess, are you using a USB keyboard through legacy PS/2 emulation? Try a native PS/2 keyboard instead, or at least one of those passive USB-to-PS/2 adapters (the keyboard has to support that though - many new ones don't).

Im using original mid 90's hardware, including a native ps/2 keyboard. The keyboard works fine the rest of the time, its just when this error happens when trying to boot simcity 2000 without the cd in the drive, it wont accept any keyboard input.

Even if i try to read a floppy in drive A: without a floppy disk in, i get a similar 'abort, retry, fail' option, but the pc happily accepts keyboard input for those.

I could reproduce the issue. sc2000.bat runs intro.exe, then sc2k.exe. It's this intro.exe that hangs - i.e. it's not a prompt waiting for input, but a hard freeze - in QEMU it doesn't even look right, the text is shifted all over the place. Run sk2k.exe instead (this might make willtv not work as intended, since the .bat is handling that too), or comment out intro.exe in the .bat and you should be golden.

Looks like Maxis implemented code paths for "no CD drive found" or "wrong disc" (says it couldn't find the CD and will skip the "in-flight movie" (intro), then let you play), but they somehow missed the "empty drive" case?

elszgensa wrote on 2024-03-05, 15:08:

KoniTec wrote on 2024-03-05, 14:18:

elszgensa wrote on 2024-03-05, 12:57:

Wild guess, are you using a USB keyboard through legacy PS/2 emulation? Try a native PS/2 keyboard instead, or at least one of those passive USB-to-PS/2 adapters (the keyboard has to support that though - many new ones don't).

Im using original mid 90's hardware, including a native ps/2 keyboard. The keyboard works fine the rest of the time, its just when this error happens when trying to boot simcity 2000 without the cd in the drive, it wont accept any keyboard input.

Even if i try to read a floppy in drive A: without a floppy disk in, i get a similar 'abort, retry, fail' option, but the pc happily accepts keyboard input for those.

I could reproduce the issue. sc2000.bat runs intro.exe, then sc2k.exe. It's this intro.exe that hangs - i.e. it's not a prompt waiting for input, but a hard freeze - in QEMU it doesn't even look right, the text is shifted all over the place. Run sk2k.exe instead (this might make willtv not work as intended, since the .bat is handling that too), or comment out intro.exe in the .bat and you should be golden.

Looks like Maxis implemented code paths for "no CD drive found" or "wrong disc" (says it couldn't find the CD and will skip the "in-flight movie" (intro), then let you play), but they somehow missed the "empty drive" case?

Oh wow, so its an original bug. Ok no worries, thanks for looking into it. I will do what you suggested and work around the issue.

Many Thanks

KoniTec