VOGONS


Reply 20 of 31, by collector

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Note that this forum is for DOS games on *newer* systems. For issues with old hardware ask in Marvin.
Marvin, the Paranoid Android

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 21 of 31, by C0deHunter

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blougaville wrote on 2017-03-20, 05:48:

Thank you for making these posts. I came here with the same problem and solved the freezing by using CTMOUSE v2.0a4!

This is how I got it work with my setup:

I am using MUNT to emulate MT32 music, so I usually have MUNT running in the background when my DOS gaming machine starts. Now the catch with this game is, that I have to *stop* MUNT before I run Monkey2.exe r1, otherwise the system freezes as usual.

So:

1) Stop MUNT before running the game (I am using Monkey2.exe r1 for MT32 emulation)

2) I downloaded and use CTMOUSE v2.0a4

3) SetMUL L2D

4) When the game start, after the main intro, and after meeting Largo LaGrande on the bridge, I press Start to run MUNT (I am running MUNT on a different machine, a laptop) and the game does not freeze!

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 22 of 31, by mockingbird

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keropi wrote on 2016-10-05, 10:01:

I forgot to report that the freeze issue was found and was due to the mouse driver... using CTMOUSE v2.0a4 worked fine for me , read about it in the SQ4 CDROM hacking thread: Post 440785

Sorry for the necro post, but I am having this issue with "monkey r" and an SB16 (Wavetable is populated). My PS/2 is hard-wired to IRQ9 (Asus 486), and I tried CTMOUSE 2.0a4, but I got the same symptoms as you. Horrid noise on any other option other than 'monkey r' as well. Just to clarify, I'm using the Ultimate Talkie Version as well in DOS.

I meant to explore the issue further, but the thread you referenced is no longer accessible.

Can you post any other pertinent information?

I can also try with a serial mouse and perhaps a different sound card to see if that fixes it.

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Reply 23 of 31, by keropi

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mockingbird wrote on 2021-12-22, 05:26:
Sorry for the necro post, but I am having this issue with "monkey r" and an SB16 (Wavetable is populated). My PS/2 is hard-wire […]
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Sorry for the necro post, but I am having this issue with "monkey r" and an SB16 (Wavetable is populated). My PS/2 is hard-wired to IRQ9 (Asus 486), and I tried CTMOUSE 2.0a4, but I got the same symptoms as you. Horrid noise on any other option other than 'monkey r' as well. Just to clarify, I'm using the Ultimate Talkie Version as well in DOS.

I meant to explore the issue further, but the thread you referenced is no longer accessible.

Can you post any other pertinent information?

I can also try with a serial mouse and perhaps a different sound card to see if that fixes it.

I cannot remember what I posted back then but in the end it was the mouse driver for me
serial or ps/2 or different soundcards made no differece
you have to find a mouse driver that works, ctmouse1.91 was not working for me on this specific system but 2.04 worked
just experiment with a bunch of mouse drivers and stick to the one that works

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 24 of 31, by mockingbird

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keropi wrote on 2021-12-22, 07:28:
I cannot remember what I posted back then but in the end it was the mouse driver for me serial or ps/2 or different soundcards m […]
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I cannot remember what I posted back then but in the end it was the mouse driver for me
serial or ps/2 or different soundcards made no differece
you have to find a mouse driver that works, ctmouse1.91 was not working for me on this specific system but 2.04 worked
just experiment with a bunch of mouse drivers and stick to the one that works

With all due respect, I am not convinced this is strictly a mouse driver problem. I tried all the CTMOUSE.EXE versions from 1.9x and onward, they do not solve the issue.

Maybe it doesn't like SB16 with a later DSP.

I'm re-capping my ES1869 and I'll see if there's any improvement with it.

By the way, when you managed to fix the problem, was the ordinary sound working for you (launching only monkey.exe without a switch)?

Thanks

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Reply 25 of 31, by keropi

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I do not remember any more details sorry , it's whatever you read on this thread
it's been ~8 years and I have not had the issue since I found the correct mouse driver for my systems - you need to find which works OK for you
if ctmouse is a no-go then try msmouse or even drmouse from DR-DOS - I started using it since a year or so and have no issues so far

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 26 of 31, by mockingbird

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keropi wrote on 2021-12-22, 19:46:

I do not remember any more details sorry , it's whatever you read on this thread
it's been ~8 years and I have not had the issue since I found the correct mouse driver for my systems - you need to find which works OK for you
if ctmouse is a no-go then try msmouse or even drmouse from DR-DOS - I started using it since a year or so and have no issues so far

I'm going to try the ES1869 - almost done re-capping it.

I had the same problem with MOUSE.SYS loaded high...

On that note, do you know why loading MOUSE.SYS high (devicehigh= in config.sys) isn't much more preferable than these executable drivers? MOUSE.SYS obviously consumes 0KB of conventional memory when it's done this way.

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Reply 27 of 31, by mockingbird

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Well, I'm going to go ahead and call it a system stability issue. I'm almost completely certain this has nothing to do with mouse drivers (swapping sound cards did not solve the issue, BTW).

What I did was shorten the IDE cable between my controller and my CF card to around two inches (and destroyed a couple of IDE connectors in the process).

Then I wanted to use the serial port on my PDC20630 controller, but I do not think it's functional (to test a serial mouse). So I swapped it with my 20230 controller and set the IDE speed to '0' with jumpers on the card.

I hooked everything up, and the COM port works fine on this card, so I launched the game and it is stable (well I got a lot more into the SCUMM bar dialogues at the beginning of the game anyhow before I was comfortable enough that it was fine and quit the game).

Now I must mention that the Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 has a provision via a jumper to disable PS/2, and I did do that, so what I need to do now is start backtracking and testing exactly which step taken fixed the issue.

I'm almost certain this has to do with disk data integrity and being too adventurous with the 20630 settings (Speed '6' on the jumpers, DMA 8 with the driver -- I did not load the driver at all with the 20230 card installed). In fact, when the game did hang originally, the HDD indicator always went solid for a little and then turned off which alluded to that.

Unfortunately I don't have time to do this right now.

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Reply 28 of 31, by mockingbird

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For anyone who comes across this issue. I have tracked the problem down willy nilly.

It has everything to do with the mouse (and not at all with the mouse driver). With the PS/2 disabled on this Asus board via jumper, and a serial mouse plugged into my 20630 (I did get the com port to work, it was my IDC serial cable to DB9 connector that was my problem), the game works fabulously with a serial mouse and is quite stable.

Asus uses IRQ12 for the PS/2, so this new edition obviously has some issue which conflicts with that IRQ. There is a jumper JP8 nest to JP7 (PS/2 enable/disable) which the manual defines as "DMA selection", I might toggle that and see if that helps.

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Reply 29 of 31, by jskyboo

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keropi wrote on 2021-12-22, 19:46:

drmouse from DR-DOS - I started using it since a year or so and have no issues so far

What do you like about drmouse over ctmouse? Did you switch because of a mouse that didn't work with ctmouse or some program incompatibility?

Reply 30 of 31, by mockingbird

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jskyboo wrote on 2021-12-24, 04:33:
keropi wrote on 2021-12-22, 19:46:

drmouse from DR-DOS - I started using it since a year or so and have no issues so far

What do you like about drmouse over ctmouse? Did you switch because of a mouse that didn't work with ctmouse or some program incompatibility?

I'll give DRMOUSE.COM a shot (from DR-DOS 8.1) and report back.

I should also add that having the jumper set to enabled for IRQ12 for PS/2 causes no problem as long as I'm playing with the serial mouse.

I also e-mailed the author about this issue.

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Reply 31 of 31, by mockingbird

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Well, I solved the issue.

I thought to myself, what if it's this Cyrix 5x86 chip? So I replaced it with an Intel 486 DX2/66, but that did not bear fruit.

What did work for me however was loading CTMOUSE.EXE version 2.04A but with the /3 and /W switches. The first sets it to a Microsoft 3 button mouse, the second switch forces it to load all in conventional memory.

It's perfectly stable now with a PS/2 mouse (or at least, I got much, much farther along before I decided to call it good).

@keropi, I also found an old thread you participated in a while back on a different forum about this issue here.

I'm not sure if it's setting /3 or /W that fixes it, perhaps I'll run some more tests later... I am getting real tired of looking at that fat pirate's face and not to mention his accent and dialog.

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