Funny you should ask that. I was just testing this recently. I got some really odd results.

Installer hates NT, as the install script tries to read a help file from the A: drive (!?) I had to install on Win98 and move the files over.

To run it in XP, I have to use NOLFB.COM, in the FGVESA.BAT file to start it up properly

Under NT (including NT4, Win2000, WinXP), no CD-Audio (including intro) is played during the game. So far, I know of no fix for this. (For those who ask; no SAPUCDEX does not help)

If you want to see the intro, there are actually two versions of the intro on the CD. One is a SMK movie that (is supposed to) play in synch with CD audio track #16. If that doesn't work for you (it doesn't for me) can use RadTools, to play the single-file version on the CD (1.SMK in the DAT directory).

The big question mark in this is your video chipset and it's VESA compatibility within XP. Hopefully it's like the GeForce3 and it's just a LFB problem and that your chipset has the same kind of fallback VESA mode as the GF3's.

If that's the case, putting NOLFB in the FGVESA.BAT file should get it working. It should look something like this:
C:\pathway\NOLFB.COM
cd exe
barena
cd..

NOLFB is also available at http://www.advsys.net/ken/build.htm

Thank you. It (sort of) works now. I still have 2 issues:

1) The mouse barely moves. I have to move it what should be several screens worth just to move to a button.

2) I haven't gotten this far, (I've only been to the campaign startup screen and quit) but I know that on the battle screen I won't be able to scroll reasonably without a slow-down utility. Does moslo work under XP? I may have found out the asnwer for myself by the time you respond, but I may wait for any suggestions you have on issue #1 first.

Also, we got very different results on the installation.

1) The installer didn't complain about a missing file.

2) The installer did warn me of a memory insufficiency, which I ignored, figuring if it really was a problem, it would announce itself later. If you want me to re-install to see what it was complaining about, I'll do that.

3) I get the audio for the intro just fine.

I seem to have thrown out the data card that must have included the installation and startup screen. I see that fgvesa.bat runs barena and that fg.bat runs barena with the flag n as part of the command line. As far as I can tell, I get the same results from each file. Do you know what the flag n is supposed to do?

Barking Iguana wrote:

1) The mouse barely moves.

Uh-oh. The curse of the "General" has returned. I noticed this in the demo of "Panzer General", although it wasn't nearly as bad as you have described it (it was, however, very annoying). There have also been issues where the mouse will become "stuck" in the top 1/4 of the screen.

2) I haven't gotten this far, (I've only been to the campaign startup screen and quit) but I know that on the battle screen I won't be able to scroll reasonably without a slow-down utility. Does moslo work under XP?

I believe so. Never been a big fan of these, since playing with them running is much like driving around with the emergency brake on. They hinder everything else as well as the thing you want hindered.

Doing some quick checks I've found that map-scrolling is indeed, very fast. However, it seems workable with some practice.

Also, we got very different results on the installation.
1) The installer didn't complain about a missing file.

I figured this one out. It's a compatibility issue where you can't use the right-click "Run with VDMS" with some SSI installers. When you run the "Fantasy General" install, it comes back with A and B options. Apparently this (somehow) is being interpreted as A: and B: drives. The solution is to just run the installer alone, then run VDMSound on the SOUND.BAT file in the FG directory before running the game.

2) The installer did warn me of a memory insufficiency, which I ignored,...

That should be fine, it's just that it wants more XMS memory than XP gives it by default. That's fixed by either using VDMSound GUI or by editing the .PIF file for the game's executable to give it more memory.

3) I get the audio for the intro just fine.

Interesting. Is it streaming from CD-ROM? Can you tell?

I see that fgvesa.bat runs barena and that fg.bat runs barena with the flag n as part of the command line

FG.BAT is supposed to be the "normal" method of starting up. The "n" parameter is to signify that there is no need for a VESA driver. The FGVESA.BAT is there as an alternate if FG.BAT doesn't work. You're supposed to run UVCONFIG to choose a VESA driver, which is placed in the FGVESA.BAT file so it is run when you start the game.

Note that UVCONFIG was meant for graphics cards of the time (1996) and for DOS/Win9x. It probably won't help in NT. If you are actually getting the visual portion of the game, you can disregard all the VESA stuff now.

I assume the sound is coming directly from the CD, because if I open the drawer, the sound stops immediately, even though the game does not.

Well, I give up for now. moslo doesn't slow down the scrolling and between having to move the mouse a mile to cross the screen on the one hand and having to lightning-fast move it on and off the edge of the screen in order to only overshoot by 100% rather than 300%, it's not worth it. I find myself getting too impatient to give adequate attention to the tactics.

It's a really good game. It's abandonware and there are folks at least considering makeing an open-source XP-friendly version. Or maybe somebody will eventually come up with a magic bullet that makes this and lots of old games easy to play on XP.

But for now, I'm going to stick to the Civ/SMAC family, the HoMM family, and Imperialsim II. Though in a few weeks I'll probably be back looking for help with that Civ-cousin Master of Magic.

For MOM: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/

Barking Iguana wrote:

I assume the sound is coming directly from the CD,...

Well, that sounds like it's the CD, alright. Odd, since I can't get the streaming audio from the CD to work on mine at all.

Also odd that your mouse behaves differently. Only thing I didn't mention was that my CD version is 1.0 (despite having seen a memo that all CD versions were v1.1) . Mine is playable, it's just that the mouse is a little slow and I have no CD-audio.

Originally posted by Barking Iguana

1) The mouse barely moves. I have to move it what should be several screens worth just to move to a button.

I did not come up with the following "fix" for the "slow/sluggish" mouse problem with many SSI games. I have only tested this on the SSI game "Silent Hunter". It does work as attested to by Bob Rogers from whom I got the mouse tweak.

Here is the link to download the mouse fix for the NT/W2K/XP NTVDMs, MouseCTL.com which should be used with the following parameters listed below.

I put most all the NTVDM programs with VDMsound and LaunchPad in my setups, but with any DOS programs for the NTVDM "Autoexec.bat" or "Config.sys" entries I follow the 8.3 filenaming convention for DOS files and sub-directories, so I get the following for my LaunchPad "Autoexec" settings.

LOADHIGH C:\Utils\MouseCTL.COM 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

This seems to correct the "sluggish" mouse response that more than a few SSI games seem to display when running in an NTVDM. Give it a try, it helped me fix his SSI Silent Hunter version 1.31 mouse response.

This was for a 2.4GHz Pentium IV Dell 4550 PC (256mb RAM) running Win XP Professional (SP1) with the nVidia GeForce4 MX440 video adapter. You may have to use larger numbers for the MouseCTL.com parameters (there are eight!) if you have a PC slower than 2.4GHz in order to get the correct "feel".

Hope this helps,

dvwjr

I was about to mention that. If the reports from this forum (http://pub131.ezboard.com/bjpspanzers) are any example, it should work fine. I'm still surprised it does.

Hm, maybe Vlad can reverse-engineer it and integrate its features into MOUSESET. 😀

I wonder: could there be a Windows version of Fantasy General too?

You guys should really dig in and try to determine where the differences between you two lie. Take as long as you need. I'd like to see a resolution to this.

Stiletto wrote:

Take as long as you need. I'd like to see a resolution to this.

Yeah and that may be a while. Especially with the inconsistent problems.

So mousectl is supposed to be loaded in autoexec.nt? I'm trying that, but it's not doing anything. Do I need to restart Windows?

Also, is there any documentation on what each of the 8 parameters are?

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Yeah and that may be a while. Especially with the inconsistent problems.

Sorry about the lack of documentation. I found that the first three parameters had the most effect for this quite old DOS TSR from the early 1990s. As to its placement, if you are using VDMSound's auxillery program LaunchPad, you would put the statement:

C:\Utils\MouseCTL.com 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

in the DOS environment Tab "Autoexec.bat" section of the Advanced button on the (musical note) VDMSound Tab of the shortcut. I would recommend using the LaunchPad addition as it eliminates the need to muck with config files.

Let it do the work. Try the LoadHigh after you see if it helps.

dvwjr

Barking Iguana,

no. This is a TSR. This means that as soon as you close the DOS window you ran it in it is no longer loaded. You should create a batch file with the following in the directory of the game you want to run:

1C:\PATH\TO\MOUSECTL.COM 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
2GAME.EXT

Thanks, Snover. Now if I can stop the runaway scrolling, life will be complete.

The perfect way to play FG under WXP is connectix virtual PC. I gave up on running it under Wxp because of the lack of music. With CVP everything works, the beautiful music and it even plays in a window. I have already progressed to the third island 😀

I thought Virtual PC was a Mac-only thing. Where can I find it?

http://www.connectix.com

Download the PC trial. 30days.

I wouldn't recommend buying it JUST for gaming. Only buy it if you need it for other tasks as well. The only area where VPC surpasses Dosbox for DOS gaming is DPMI/486 games....and even then VPC has TERRIBLE sound support.

BTW, before anyone asks, SAPUCDEX does not help here.

Nicht Sehr Gut and Stiletto,

Greg (don't know the last name) who makes Throttle is working on a version of Throttle that will work with my chipset. He says the chipset is Ali M15x3.

My fg.bat now reads:

:begin old games hacks
:Long Live VOGONS!
cd \utils

:enable video with Ali chipset
nolfb

:fix SSI slow mouse problem
MouseCTL 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

:no working slow cpu hack at this time
:insert CPU decelerator to prevent runaway mouse scrolling

:end old games hacks

cd \fg\exe
barena n