try downloading version 1.2.8 of sdl.dll
you can overwrite the sdl.dll in the dosbox directory and put that one there.

www.libsdl.org

if that doesn't work you can try upgrading your video card drivers.
Else you are out luck.

Eye of the beholder and pinball fantasies both run on dosbox.
Although I'm not sure wether pinball fantasies will run fast enough on your 566 mhz machine.

I went to the site, went to Download -> SDL 1.2, got lost there. I downloaded the .zip file listed under Source Code, but that's an awful lot of files. I thought I only had to download another version of the sdl.dll file, am I mistaken? Or did I look in the wrong place?

As for upgrading the video drivers, I have absolutely no idea how to do that. I got that Diamond cd-rom when I bought the computer (about 4,5 years ago) and have never used anything else. I don't even know how.

Well, odd as it may sound, Pinball Fantasies has run perfectly on this computer before. Only the sound didn't work, but that wasn't that much of a problem. It's just that at some point, it stopped working. I myself wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that my comp went from 64 Mb SDRAM to 256 Mb in June 2003, but people have assured me that can't be the reason.

You might check S3's web site (or your motherboard manufacturer's web site) for newer video drivers. It sounds like either the video chipset or the drivers are garbage.

http://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL-1.2.8-win32.zip

Well, I went to S3's site, and downloaded+installed what I thought were the right drivers for my card and OS. After having rebooted the computer, I now have made a little progress. The DOSbox window doesn't disappear anymore, nor do I get error messages.

But.

I do see a (horizontal) cursor blinking in the screen, but I can't type anything. I can click on buttons such as properties, font, and full screen, but that's it.

Do I still need to replace the sdl.dll file (thanks for the exact link, btw) or do I need to do something else from here?

Hi MissMix - I think you need to start over from the very beginning.

Forget about your game. As it is right now, I am not even sure that you are able to start DOSBox....

When you start DOSBox 0.63, should get 2 windows:

1) One titled DOSBox 0.63,Cpu Cucles: 3000, Frame Skip 0, Program: DOSBox with a lot of coloured output, and a Z\> prompt.

2) A simple windows titled just DOSBox and a message or two saying CONFIG:Loading settings from config file ......... and MIDI:Opened device:....

Do you get that?

Well, yesterday I updated those drivers, and then I got one single window that didn't disappeared, but now everything is like it was at first.

So yeah, now I get both windows again. But after a few seconds... *poof*, they're both gone. And the first window says that it fails rendering output again.

Okay... this is weird. I decided to change the rendering output to opengl again (since this seemed to get me the furthest yesterday) and look what happens now...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/elysian … osbox_error.jpg

Neither window disappears, but I can't do anything. Well, except for closing the window of course, and then the first window goes away as well.

edit: best replace the image with a link, so it won't screw up the page.... *ahem*

Have you tried the remaining rendering modes?

Surface, Overlay, OpenGL, ddraw...

PS - You card may not be powerful enough to run DOSBox. I think it's an integrated chipset (low budget).

Yes, I did try them all. Only the opengl and openglnb didn't give me the error.

Low-budget, eh? Well, could've expected that. Yes, it's an on-board integrated thing, and that's all the information I have been given about it. But if it's on-board, how on earth can I replace it? Wouldn't that mean that I'd have to wreck the entire motherboard for it?

But what I do wonder, then: how come I have been able to play a game like Pinball Fantasies perfectly well for a long time, and that now (without any important changes to the system) it suddenly says that I don't have enough memory?
Because that's the reason why I want to try the DOSbox in the first place: my computer suddenly seems to lack some sort of memory (even though I had it expanded from 64 Mb to 256 Mb about 1,5 years ago) and DOS games don't start up any longer. Eye of the Beholder II gives me the same error, and Monkey Island 1 gives me some strange "runtime error".

MissMix wrote:

Yes, I did try them all. Only the opengl and openglnb didn't give me the error. […]
Show full quote

Yes, I did try them all. Only the opengl and openglnb didn't give me the error.

Low-budget, eh? Well, could've expected that. Yes, it's an on-board integrated thing, and that's all the information I have been given about it. But if it's on-board, how on earth can I replace it? Wouldn't that mean that I'd have to wreck the entire motherboard for it?

But what I do wonder, then: how come I have been able to play a game like Pinball Fantasies perfectly well for a long time, and that now (without any important changes to the system) it suddenly says that I don't have enough memory?
Because that's the reason why I want to try the DOSbox in the first place: my computer suddenly seems to lack some sort of memory (even though I had it expanded from 64 Mb to 256 Mb about 1,5 years ago) and DOS games don't start up any longer. Eye of the Beholder II gives me the same error, and Monkey Island 1 gives me some strange "runtime error".

Regarding the video card upgrade, it may depend on mainboard manufacturer. I think modern mainboards just disable onboard video when another video card (plugged in a slot) is detected. Or maybe they need to be informed in bios (by disabling some value); or maybe you need to set a physical jumper. You know, your mileage may vary, as they say. Just refer to your mainboard manual.

As for regarding required processing power or video card capabilities. The reason for all this is that your card may be enough for old real ms-dos games and 2D, but not for nowadays standards or DOSBox (where almost everything is virtualised/emulated) and thus, it doesn't rely on accesing hardware directly, at least in the way we know. And that's why we need heftier hardware to run even small pieces of software, because DOSBox EMULATES EVERYTHING. On the other hand, that's the key to its success/compatibility rate.

Right, so probably I won't be able tos uccessfully run DOSbox. Well, that I can understand.

But then I still don't get how games do run perfectly well at first, and then refuse to start up later. I have played Monkey Island 1 here without any problem, and then suddenly when I try to start up the game it gives me that runtime error. Pinball Fantasies has also worked before, but now it complains about not having enough memory. Eye of the Beholder II I never played before, and that game also lacks sufficient memory.

DOS games that I can successfully play on my computer: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, Lands of Lore (though that's a CD), and the Legend of Kyrandia.

How come that some games work perfectly well, where others have worked but now suddenly aren't satisfied with my (exactly the same) computer any longer? I just don't get it.

You may have changed something (in configuration or software) and you haven't noticed.

Also, different DOSBox versions may work not exactly the same for everyone. So testing a few versions (even older ones) may prove useful.

PS :Try doing a MEM command inside DOSBox.

I can't type anything in DOSbox.

Right now I tried launching it again, and I got the same weird occurance as on the screenshot I previously linked to: a lot of windows inside the "DOSBox 0.63,Cpu Cucles: 3000, Frame Skip 0, Program: DOSBox" window.

I wouldn't use DosBox for the games your trying to run....or at all really on that computer. You are using a Celeron which is basically a crippled Pentium 3. Low amount of Mhz and minimal amount of L2 cache.

You'd be better off forgetting about DosBox and running these games natively.

Yeah, I was afraid of that. I guess I'll just have to forget about DOSbox then. But thanks for the attempt, anyway. :)

But could anyone tell me, then, how come that some of the DOS games suddenly don't work any longer? And what I can do about that? Because I really wish to play Pinball Fantasies and Monkey Island 1 again...

Or if you can't help me, do you happen to have any idea where I could go with this problem?

@MM - Since you use Win98, there really is no need to emulate DOS - you have a perfectly good MS-DOS underneath Win98. Your only problem is how to get sound when running DOS. You can either go for cheap, cheap, cheap SoundBlaster card, or try to see if that VIA chipset on your motherboard will work with VIA's SoundBlaster emulator. The emulator is a real-mode DOS-driver that make the on-board sound chip appear like a real SoundBlater.

Restarting into MS-DOS is one way to gain control of your machine and make those games run again no matter what has happended to your Win98.

Another is to re-install Win98 and hope that it fixes whatever problems you have - both with Pinball Fantasies and with running DOSBox.

From what I understood, the problem isn't the sound on itself. At least, when I ran the setup for Pinball Fantasies and selected "no sound" the game worked perfectly well.
The problem seems to be the memory. Both with Pinball Fantasies and with Eye of the Beholder II do I get the error that there isn't enough available memory. Monkey Island I, on the occasion that it did work, had no problem with playing the sound and music.

Unless the lack of a decent sound card affects the memory as well, of course. I know too little of that, I'm afraid. I did hear from a friend that apparently, there is a set amount of memory saved for things like DOS games, but that often other programs installed are using up that memory. However, I once tried to run Pinball Fantasies by formatting my computer, and installing only 98SE and the drivers and programs needed for the computer to run. I then installed the game and reckoned it'd work now, but still it complained that I had insufficient memory. But all that was using memory was Windows itself!

Is there a way to increase this particular amount of memory, or to make sure that other programs won't use up this memory? And how come that games such as Sam & Max or Indiana Jones run smoothly, but others like Monkey Island I refuse to work? I can't tell the difference.

(Since this thread has now strayed far away from DOSBox I am moving it to the DOS forum)

I know very little about how Win98 allocates memory for DOS games. As far as I know, it is pretty good at getting out of the way when rebooting into MS-DOS.

What is the output of running mem when you reboot into MS-DOS?

Okay, now that I'm back to my own computer I can write down what MS DOS told me. I ran 'mem' and this came out:

------------------------------------
Memory Type.........|..Total.........|.....Used........|......Free

conventional................640k..............167k...............473k
upper.............................0k..................0k..................0k
reserved.........................0k..................0k..................0k
extended (XMS).....261,056k................68k........260,988k

total memory.........261,696k..............235k........261,461k

total under 1 Mb..........640k..............167k...............473k

maximum size of executable program:...............473k (484,448 bytes)
maximum size of available upper memoryblock:.....0k (0 bytes)

MS-DOS is available in the HMA

------------------------------------

Hm, I do remember Eye of the Beholder 1 saying something about needing at least 500k of free space before it shut itself down - perhaps Pinball Fantasies has similar requirements.

If the amount of available memory in DOS is too little, how can I increase this?