Originally posted by Fretzke MadNews.

Do you know its "System Requirements"?

im sure theres no way to make it work with my SB Live.

If you are trying to run it on XP, the sound card is not likely an issue...

Now if i try to start it it just sends a message "SHARE may not be installed! Please resart your computer without SHARE!"

Well, that is not a good sign. SHARE was a command in DOS that "Installs file-sharing and locking capabilities on your hard disk". By chance, is your game in a directory or drive that is being shared on a network?

So how can i deactivate it / make the game run as if it was deactivated?

Do you start the game with a .EXE file or a .BAT file? If it is a .BAT file, what is the text in the .BAT?

I dont know the system requirements, but they shouldnt be any prob. I had this game runnin one one of my former pcs, if remember right you needed a 386 with around 20 mhz for it, less than 500kb standard memory and a mouse. The soundcard is not what i worry about. Sound of old games was nearly always jerky..
The mouse is one prob for me tho. Its connected per usb and of course the game doesnt recognize it. So just starting an old dos wont work. And yes, i try to run it on XP.

They game is started by a .bat which only calls two .exes. One for an intro and the game itself. No other commands. The intro works, but no matter if start the .bat or the game .exe the prog stops with the same error message. 🙁

The folder is not shared..

Originally posted by Fretzke I dont know the system requirements, but they shouldnt be any prob.

But that doesn't answer questions like: Does it need EMS? If so, how much? XMS? If so, how much? Does it require that you not have any kind of memory management.? etc...

I had this game runnin one one of my former pcs, if remember right you needed a 386 with around 20 mhz for it, less than 500kb standard memory and a mouse.

Hopefully, base memory is all it needs.

The mouse is one prob for me tho. Its connected per usb and of course the game doesnt recognize it. So just starting an old dos wont work.

Well, in Win9x it should work if you were able to run it within a command prompt (within Win9x).

The intro works, but no matter if start the .bat or the game .exe the prog stops with the same error message. The folder is not shared..

Then you are in a really bad place. Unless there's of a way of hacking the executable, it sounds like it simply isn't going to be NT-Compatible. About your only chance is to try DosBox and hope that this is a "real-mode" 386 game.

"Mad News" by Ikarion
http://www.ikarion.com/startseite.html?/madnpagd.html

http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/gameId,5556/

It might be a protected mode game. Fretzke will have to try DOSBox to be sure. Given that it is a 1994-95 game, it is likely that it might be a protected-mode game. Given that Nicht Sehr Gut now knows the maker of the game and the proper title, he might be inclined to investigate whether he sees similar issues as Fretzke, should he find the game at an abandonware site.

Note: There is a patch, the game might require patching.

Note: There is an Amiga version of this game that is legally distributed at Back To The Roots (BTTR - http://www.back2roots.org/Games/Files/Mad%20News%2C1/)
It may be easier to emulate an Amiga using WinUAE or otherwise, than trying to get the PC version working. But try to get the PC version working anyhow - this is what VOGONS seems to be all about.

The game surely doesnt need EMS, also it doesnt run under Win9x or command line. Dunno if it needs some protected mode, dosbox does not werk tho..
Thanx for the link to the amiga file, ill try to get this runnin as it seems the pc version is just completely incompatible to modern systems..

aren't all you main drives shared in win2k and up ?
something like an administer share ?

I disabled all sharing that i know of, especially the remote controll if you mean that. Anyways the game sends the same error message if i try to run it under Win98..

Originally posted by Fretzke I disabled all sharing that i know of,..

It probably isn't related. It was just a wild guess as I had never heard of a DOS game demanding SHARE before.