I will test it later, when I arrive home from work, and I will post back. IIRC, it *should* work without hassle. Keep in mind that it requires EMS memory though. Maybe your mainboard isn't able to provide enough room for the EMS page frame. Try disabling any legacy hardware (USB, etc) or any other controller which you don't use (Raid), which may take up a needed memory address for the EMS page frame.

IIRC, it only needs EMS for the sound effects. Otherwise it runs fine without it.

I tested it over here on 2K and it works without EMS.

It's not a read-only problem either since I just set all the files to read-only and the game still executed.

Here's a dir list:

11/14/1992 06:00a 14,775 ADLIB.ADV
04/14/1993 03:43p 142,704 AESOP.EXE
04/08/1993 04:47p 102 CHARCOPY.DAT
06/03/2001 04:00p 139,264 CHARCOPY.EXE
02/07/2005 09:03p <DIR> CHARGEN
04/14/1993 11:20a 106,752 CINE.EXE
04/10/1993 03:21p 609,406 DARK.GFF
02/26/1997 01:50p 29 Eye.bat
04/14/1993 05:47p 4,405,066 EYE.RES
02/26/1997 01:50p 29 Eye3.bat
06/03/2001 12:28p 967 Eye3DOS.pif
04/10/1993 03:27p 1,135,264 FINALE.GFF
04/10/1993 03:27p 1,281,119 INTRO.GFF
04/10/1993 02:09p 713,460 LICH.GFF
02/07/2005 09:07p 0 list.txt
11/14/1992 06:00a 10,707 MT32MPU.ADV
11/14/1992 06:00a 8,434 PCSPKR.ADV
07/19/2001 09:49p 14,747 Readme.txt
02/07/2005 09:03p <DIR> SAVEGAME
04/11/1993 08:20p 4,853 SBDIG.ADV
02/27/1993 03:08p 3,904 SBLASTER.COM
05/26/1999 02:45p 9 SOUND.BAT
02/07/2005 09:04p 59 SOUND.CFG
04/01/1993 11:47a 33,372 SOUND.EXE
07/21/1992 05:25p 5,162 STDPATCH.AD
06/03/2001 01:45p 45,056 Uninst.dll
02/14/2003 05:14p 28,533 Uninst.isu
12/17/1992 04:46p 33,086 XVA.DRV
04/05/1993 04:22p 20,860 _charcopy.exe

Very strange, i have the same files as you do

I am using windows XP, also tried to set compatibility and put EMS to max, but the error message is very cryptic.

Perhaps i will try using VDMsound or something

also i hear its a dissapointing game compared to the first 2 installations ?

I enjoyed EOB1 and 2 more. 😎

EOB3:Assault on Myth Drannor just seems a cheap remake. Crappy sound effects (even with SoundBlaster).

DosFreak:

I have run this game with and without EMS. It runs a lot better when using EMS (needed for sound effects as you correctly say).

Ok i think i made a step forward 😀

I realized that uncompressing the zips and then the arj files by hand was not the way to go.

I changed some values in the install.nfo and made the install.exe use arj by himself.

So the game installed itself with the good old GUI rather than me uncompressing it all by hand.

Still, the game won't work. I am now greeted with a new error message.

AESOP inheritance limit exceeded 🙁

I tried to set memory settings for the aesop.exe file and maxed EMS memory on it but to no avail.

I am about to ask one of you to zip his installed eob3 dir and email to me... 🙁

any suggestions my friends ? I really want to play this half baked oldie 😀

Mine it's working perfectly under DOSBox. It's the Spanish version. 😎

AESOP inheritance limit exceeded

This error message is a due to a corrupted eye.res. I used the copy from the Underdogs site. "EoB trilogy" and had the same problem. Seems it is something odd with the packing of the files. The included installer/unpacker doesnt unpack eye.res,dark.res and lich.res properly because there is some problem with the date stamps between the different arj files (Or discs).

Use the installer to get past the "Error: Couldn't open output file for translation." error and after that manually unpack eye.res, dark.res and lich.res and replace those files.

The game could prolly benefit from a repack.