dvwjr wrote:

A.) Five files from SYSTEM SHOCK version F1.5S, the nine (3.5") floppy-diskette release.

See attached ZIP archive. The files INSTALL.EXE, INSTALLE.DAT, INSTALLF.DAT and INSTALLG.DAT were directly copied from the first install disk (Id: SHOCK_00); the file SSHOCK.EXE was not present on any of the disks in uncompressed form, so I took it from the game directory on the harddisk.

dvwjr wrote:

B.) Complete directory/sub-directory listing of a fresh vF1.5S installation with dates, times and file-sizes.

The attached ZIP archive contains a file named FILELIST.TXT with the directory listing. Before I started the installation, I set the date and time to 01-01-2000, 00:00:00, so you can easily make out which files were created at which point during the installation.

dvwjr wrote:

C.) Your help in beta-testing both the patch program and the resultant patched vF1.5S of SYSTEM SHOCK on the following operating […]
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C.) Your help in beta-testing both the patch program and the resultant patched vF1.5S of SYSTEM SHOCK on the following operating system and sound-card combinations:

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11.) NTVDM - WinXP (SP2) (SP1)
22.) NTVDM - Win2000 (SP4)
33.) NTVDM - WinNT (SP6a)
44.) DosBox v0.65 with SoundBlaster 16 and Gravis Ultrasound emulation
55.) DOS - v5.x, v6.x, v7.x, v8.x with real SoundBlaster AWE32/AWE64

I could do some testing in DOSBox 0.65 and DOS v7.x (whatever version comes with Win98SE). I have an AWE64 Gold installed, but can also throw in a couple of other cards if needed.

Hope this helps...

P.S: Great project, I've been waiting for something like that! 😁

5u3,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I had also tried asking on the TTLG Shock forums, however no one seemed interested! 😮

I'll be working on the patches for vF1.5S this week, since I have already practiced on the vB3.0S (pirated Beta) and vF1.6S (orphaned floppy version on enhanced CD-ROM) it should be very much the same to modify the files you so kindly attached to your response. This should take care of the INSTALL sound-card selections for the English, French and German versions.

I very much appreciate the files, the file-listings and your generous offer to help Beta-test the results on both DosBox and real DOS wth SoundBlaster AWE64 hardware. I will contact you via PM on this forum with more details about the progress. It's not hard - just need to find the time after work... 😁

Again - Thank you very much for your response and effort,

dvwjr

5u3,

I sent the beta test update files in a ZIP attached to a PM. Your testing could confirm if the original Floppy-diskette vF1.5S will now work in all DOS or DOS emulation environments with these patched program and data files.

This new version will be vF1.5P...

Thank you again for your time,

dvwjr

Hi dvwjr,

Sorry for not answering such a long time - I was away from my computers for some days...

Got your message (thanks a lot!), will begin testing now 😁

5u3,

Please don't worry about time! I thought it would only take a week or so of evening work to correct the bugs -boy was I wrong. I cannot believe that the SYSTEM SHOCK floppy version EXE and Installer made it out the door from QA with the bugs I ran into under the NTVDM. It just worked out that those bugs do not show up under real DOS because of dumb luck.

The vF1.5P floppy version will not display the error message: '3004' not enough memory for email cursor on large DPMI memory systems, including the DOS window under Win9x. The Gravis Ultrasound should now work as designed as long as IRQs are <= 0x07. All of the AIL2 Miles drivers would have that same Dos4/gw DPMI restrictions when testing with the sound card portion of INSTALL.EXE, however the use of Dos32A DPMI client on the SSHOCK.EXE program would allow the user of AIL2 Miles drivers which support IRQs >0x07.

The only other thing I would like to change would to see if there is a later version of the LOADPATS.EXE program for the Gravis Ultrasound. The one included with the game is version 1.5 (45,280 bytes) dated 06/02/1994. I saw that a newer version dated 08/26/1995 (49,194 bytes) was included with "Under a Killing Moon". I wanted to see if there were any functional differences in the newer version of the LOADPATS.EXE program.

Take your time, thanks again...

dvwjr

I have a Loadpats.exe v1.9.

I really haven't been looking for loadpats.exe so it's just dumb luck that it's in my RAD Game Tools collection folder.

Did a quick search of the DOS games folder on my external HD. Not too of many of my games using Loadpats and the latest version I have is v1.9.

UltraSound Patch Loader Version 1.9 Copyright (C) 1994 by Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd. All Rights Reserved. […]
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UltraSound Patch Loader Version 1.9
Copyright (C) 1994 by Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd.
All Rights Reserved.

USAGE: LOADPATS [options] NOTE: Items in brackets are optional.

Valid options are:
-H -? Display this help screen
-Mxxx Specify music volume where xxx=1 to 100 (Default: xxx=100)
-Iname Specify a different .INI file (Default: PATCHES.INI
-Q Disable all screen output
-V Verbose screen output
-L Enable UltraSound line in
Debugging options:
-8 Load patches at 8 bit instead of 16 bit
-16 Load patches at 16 bit instead of 8 bit
-F22 Load patches at half sampling rate (approx 22kHz)
-F44 Load patches at full sampling rate (approx 44kHz)
-MEMx Force UltraSound memory size. x=1-4 for 256-1024 respectively

DosFreak wrote:

I have a Loadpats.exe v1.9.

I really haven't been looking for loadpats.exe so it's just dumb luck that it's in my RAD Game Tools collection folder.

Could I please get a copy of your v1.9 of LOADPATS.EXE? I would like to see if they changed the -8 loading process as compared to v1.5. The output from the help looks much the same but there were some bugs in the v1.5 that I believe were corrected in one of the later versions.

Only the Miles AIL2 need LOADPATS for the Gravis Ultrasound, the AIL3 Miles drives do auto patch loading/caching but it is much harder to figure out the patch load process in the MDI and DIG driver files. Much easier to figure out in a dedicated EXE rather than a demand-loaded driver.

Thanks again for the info,

dvwjr

Here ya go.

DosFreak,

Glad to get the file. I just hope this obsession with dead software goes away soon... 🤣

Thanks again! 😁

dvwjr

🤣. Speaking of dead software. I just finished Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines and was looking around for my copy of Redemption.....I couldn't find it. I checked my Game Compatibility List and all I had on there was the demo.....but I remember playing halfway through the game when it first came out and I KNOW that I bought it. WTH. sigh.

If only the developers of Bloodlines (Troika) had half of your obession with fixing bugs......

DosFreak,

The major difference between v1.5 and v1.9 of LOADPATS.EXE is that the newer v1.9 you uploaded works both in Dosbox GUS emulation and the GUSEMU32 emulator. The original v1.5 that came with SYSTEM SHOCK will only load GUS patches with DosBox v0.65 GUS emulation.

Now I have to find out WHY? Also if there is a difference in how 16-bit patches are loaded so that they do not cross 256kB boundries...

Thanks again,

dvwjr

Alright! Haven't played around with GUS very much at all and I haven't played SS. So mabye SS will get me into using GUS more often. 😀

To bad there isn't a changelog with Loadpats.exe, the time imbedded into the executable was way back in '94.....Did Giles have any dealings with Loadpats?

DosFreak,

From what I can glean from old Usenet posts in Google Groups it appears that LOADPATS.EXE and the Miles AIL2 and AIL3 drivers for the Gravis Ultrasound drivers were probably done by a "Jayeson Lee-Steere". The GUS was so left-field for the sound card driver writers (HMI, MILES) that they dumped it back to Gravis to write the drivers. In some cases they just punted and used the API exposed by the Gravis written ULTRAMID Tsr to construct a driver. It seems that Miles/Jayeson Lee-Steere were the ones who actually made working DOS drivers (AIL2/AIL3) for the Gravis Ultrasound.

Too bad the Gravis Ultrasound did not have a processor which could support say 8MB of RAM for patch samples instead of only 1MB. That in combination with a set of drivers for DOS and Win95 could have let them bump Creative Labs off the top of the sound card heap in the mid-1990s...

Not to be.

After beta testing the changes to the SYSTEM SHOCK vF1.5S with 5u3 I am sure that the complete install program will need testing. I'll let you know when if you want to help test...

Thanks again,

dvwjr