Since I can't replicate the "stuck mouse" issue, I must resort to "wild stabbing in the dark". Try configuring the game to run in silence. Reboot into "Safe Mode" and/or "VGA Mode" (press F8 at startup, right after the BIOS screen) and run it without VDMSound). Is the mouse still stuck?

Try using a different version of the DOS/4GW extender. There are several in a thread in Deep Thought.

Nicht Sehr Gut: Well, it didn't help. I rebooted to VGA Safe mode and started the game, and got to the menu screen, but the mouse was still stuck and I had to force reboot. Apparently, Windows overwrote all its settings and failed to find my network adapters or sound cards when I rebooted to normal mode again. Anyway, there was a virus involved too so it wasn't probably caused by the game or anything.

I'll try the dos extender thing later, when I get my computer working again.

Zephyr wrote:

Anyway, there was a virus involved too so it wasn't probably caused by the game or anything.

*smacks head* Yeah, I don't suppose that could've been causing any problems. 🙄

I finally reinstalled everything, but problems with Fantasy General persist. There seems to be no dos4gw.exe in the game directories, so I guess it's not possible to actually replace it?

Originally posted by Zephyr I finally reinstalled everything, but problems with Fantasy General persist.

Can we presume that you've purged the virus and that you're fully-protected now?

There seems to be no dos4gw.exe in the game directories, so I guess it's not possible to actually replace it?

It's probably embedded in the BARENA file.

Odds are, we'll need you to run a series of test to find out what's up with your VESA support.

Scitech has UniVBE v6.7 for DOS available at:
http://www.scitechsoft.com/products/enterpris … ree_titles.html

Download and install that. In whatever directory you place it, it will contain these files:
README.TXT
UNICENTR.EXE
UNIVBE.EXE
UVCONFIG.EXE
VBETEST.EXE

The only files you will using are the README and VBETEST.EXE.

Start up a command line and run VBETEST and try out some of the various video tests. If it locks up, Ctrl-Alt-Delete, then kill ("End Task") the command prompt.

When you start up VBETEST, it should come up with text like this:

OEM string: IBM SVGA BIOS, (C) 1993 International Business Machines Version: VBE 1.2 with 4096 Kb memory […]
Show full quote

OEM string: IBM SVGA BIOS, (C) 1993 International Business Machines
Version: VBE 1.2 with 4096 Kb memory

Select test to perform:

[0] - Interactive Tests
[Q] - Quit

You then select zero for Interactive tests:

Select color mode to test: […]
Show full quote

Select color mode to test:

[0] - 4 bits per pixel modes [3] - 16 bits per pixel modes
[1] - 8 bits per pixel modes [4] - 24 bits per pixel modes
[2] - 15 bits per pixel modes [5] - 32 bits per pixel modes
[6] - Text modes
[Q] - Quit

Then select 1 for 8 bits per pixel modes (it's also a good idea to test for 16 bits and 24 bits later):

Which 8 bit video mode to test: [0] - 640x400x8, 1 page, Banked+Linear […]
Show full quote

Which 8 bit video mode to test:

[0] - 640x400x8, 1 page, Banked+Linear
[1] - 640x480x8, 1 page, Banked+Linear
[2] - 800x600x8, 1 page, Banked+Linear
[3] - 1024x768x8, 1 page, Banked+Linear

Test modes like these to see what kind of response you get. The 640x480x8 modes are the most important as they are the most commonly used.

Also, if your game is installed on a FAT or FAT32 partition, you might try going to: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and grabbing the Windows 98 OEM bootdisk file. You just stick a blank floppy in your drive and double-click the boot98.exe to create a Win98 bootdisk. Delete the Drvspace.bin file off of the floppy and copy the VBETEST.EXE file from your UniVBE directory.

Now boot from that floppy and run VBETEST. I'm willing to bet that you will find that some tests pass that would not under XP.

Here. This program will make a report of all your vesa modes. You can redirect it to a text file if you want by running it this way -> CHKVESA.EXE >VESALOG.TXT
BTW: It is just < 2KB in size.

This is an example, on my card, run from within WinXP

CHKVESA V1.1 ¦ Copyright 1991 G. A. Monroe
------------------------------------------

VESA version: 3.0
BIOS identification string: "NVIDIA"

Bits/
Mode Type Resolution Colors Planes Memory Model BTS CRT
------ ------------ ------------ ------ ------ --------------- --- ---
0100h Color APA 640x400 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0101h Color APA 640x480 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0102h Color APA 800x600 16 4 / 4 Four-plane Yes Yes
0103h Color APA 800x600 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0104h Color APA 1024x768 16 4 / 4 Four-plane Yes Yes
0105h Color APA 1024x768 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0106h Color APA 1280x1024 16 4 / 4 Four-plane Yes Yes
0107h Color APA 1280x1024 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0108h Color Text 80x60 16 n/a Text Yes Yes
0109h Color Text 132x25 16 n/a Text Yes Yes
010Ah Color Text 132x43 16 n/a Text Yes Yes
010Bh Color Text 132x50 16 n/a Text Yes Yes
010Ch Color Text 132x60 16 n/a Text Yes Yes
010Eh Color APA 320x200 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
010Fh Color APA 320x200 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0111h Color APA 640x480 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0112h Color APA 640x480 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0114h Color APA 800x600 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0115h Color APA 800x600 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0117h Color APA 1024x768 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0118h Color APA 1024x768 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
011Ah Color APA 1280x1024 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
011Bh Color APA 1280x1024 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0130h Color APA 320x200 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0131h Color APA 320x400 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0132h Color APA 320x400 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0133h Color APA 320x400 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0134h Color APA 320x240 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0135h Color APA 320x240 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0136h Color APA 320x240 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
013Dh Color APA 640x400 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
013Eh Color APA 640x400 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0145h Color APA 1600x1200 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0146h Color APA 1600x1200 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0147h Color APA 1400x1050 256 8 / 1 Packed-pixel Yes Yes
0148h Color APA 1400x1050 >256 16 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes
0152h Color APA 2048x1536 >256 32 / 1 - unknown - Yes Yes

DOS/4GW Professional error (2001): exception 0Dh (general protection fault) at 3 07:0000000B TSF32: prev_tsf32 69FC SS 30F DS 30 […]
Show full quote

DOS/4GW Professional error (2001): exception 0Dh (general protection fault) at 3
07:0000000B
TSF32: prev_tsf32 69FC
SS 30F DS 30F ES 30F FS 0 GS 17F
EAX 2867044 EBX 2866DF4 ECX 0 EDX 0
ESI 284014D EDI 2866E03 EBP 2879A94 ESP 2879A7C
CS:IP 307:0000000B ID 0D COD 0 FLG 13246
CS= 307, USE32, page granular, limit 7FFEFFFF, base 0, acc C7FB
SS= 30F, USE32, page granular, limit 7FFEFFFF, base 0, acc C7F3
DS= 30F, USE32, page granular, limit 7FFEFFFF, base 0, acc C7F3
ES= 30F, USE32, page granular, limit 7FFEFFFF, base 0, acc C7F3
FS= 0, USE16, byte granular, limit 0, base 0, acc 0
GS= 17F, USE16, byte granular, limit FFFF, base 169F0, acc F3
CR0: unavailable

This is almost exactly the screen I have before DOS closes when I start any Steel Panthers game with Speedset.exe and a negative value. If I start VDMS sound without a value associated to speedset the games run fine... though too quickly. 🙁

Tried using another version of DOS/4GW? All of them are in Deep Thought.