The crash dump just shows some dummy values 'h' for all registers, not sure what that is supposed to mean? I'd expect some actual hex values?

Your graphics chip S3 928 and 805 are supported by the game, so that should be fine, though the 805 B step has some possible issues, according to the readme.
The only odd thing they list is to disable shadow-ram settings in the pc bios/cmos settings for the vga bios, as they use a memory manager (Pharlap) that has issues sometimes.

In my USNF box I have kept a patch floppy for v1.1, not sure if it is relevant too your problems...I would think the Gold version would include any early patches, but maybe it says in the readme files. Mine is a EA Classics release, and I have the Marine fighters expansion separate.
(I'll see if it works ok in DosBox, I don't have my older systems running at the moment.)

edit: Tested in DOSBox, minimal install - it worked fine so far (did not fly any, just tested startup & hw config stuff) - the v1.1 patch is just for SB16 sound clicking in some situations.

Probably the programmer never tested the crash dump facility without a debugger attached so never noticed they had the 'printf' syntax wrong 😁

I'd start by removing all os/drivers that didn't exist in '94, so boot from Dos 6 and use MS mouse driver. Also make sure any EMM386 is period correct. Its possible that is entering protected mode and something isn't set up the way it likes it.

Thanks for your help!
Rwolf; I would be very grateful for the 1.1 patch as I am using an SB16 on my 425, so it might come in handy. Could you post it as an attachment so future people seeing this thread can also get it?

Deano; Good thinking. I've made a 6.22 boot floppy to test this out an learned that 6.22 doesn't see my FAT32 hdd. So, now I'm going to set up a zip drive to install USNF on there. Will report back when I have some results!

Ok, I have added a zipped archive of my files from the floppy. One is the USNF11.exe patch itself, then a help file and a config file; not sure they were all related, but at least it's all there:

Note that the patch only works of a full installation, as a smaller installation leaves some files on the CD, which prevents the update from finding&changing them.
(I noted this since I only did a minimum installation to test the game in DOSBox)

In addition to the SB16 clicking it also adds support for CH Flightstick PRO, Forte VFX helmet, and supports RAM>16MB.
(Note that also with Marine Fighters, the game had problems with RAM>32MB, not sure if it got fixed.)

There is another bunch of related files at this fan-page: http://jkpeterson.net/fa/ufiles.php
(edit: I thought there was also a 1.14 USNF patch, but I see it was for ATF)

The patch info in the 'Marine Fighters' read.me indicates the patch to get rid of clicking in SB16 was included, so the v1.1 patch is not needed with this addon.

The one thing I cannot find is a large 'ATF digital music update' - a 13MB patch for several games by EA, referred to here:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970609145019/ht … w.janes.ea.com/

All EA file links are for ftp which archive.org does not keep copies from. Possibly old Gaming magazine discs can have copies too.

Thanks for uploading the patch!

So, i've been experimenting a bit:
-To not have to format my harddisk to FAT16, I've connected a zip drive and run it via palmzip.sys. It mounts as C:\ and gives me a drive to install to when using a dos 6.22 boot floppy. So, I installed from my scsi cdrom and tried to run:

Same crash, only with addresses this time.

-I've patched USNF on the zip disk setup to 1.1. No dice, still crashes.
-I dropped the ram to 16Mb, no effect.
-Taking my windows 95 boot floppy (dos 7) I also patched the USNF install on my harddrive (a CF card) to 1.1. Also here, same crash.
-I've taken out my other 486 (IBM ValuePoint 425) and patched the installation on the harddrive (also CF) in there, same crash.
-I've tried the USNF gold I found on archive.org and tried to run both USNF and Marine Fighters. For both, these display the Univbe splash and then just hang on that indefinitely, no crash info in displayed.

Not sure what is going on here. It's not the mouse driver, its not the dos version, not the memory. Maybe there is just something minor system incompatibility linked to these IBM systems (although they are very different ISA-VLB vs MCA) that USNF doesn't grok.

Do you need the UniVBE v5.0 from the game? I thought that was mainly for getting odd/incompatible cards to work with some games.
(I don't think I've loaded it in my DOSBox setup, as the builtin drivers are VBE compliant, with various old versions, but I don't recall how I originally used it back in the day.)

I think the games help files recommended using some VBE drivers that were older, or tailored to your card, if the included version 5.0 did not work. (I've no computer with a VLB bus, nor MCA, so I can't test those)

If you have a more common ISA VGA card to try, maybe it could be worth seeing if the culprit is the graphics card? I know the PS/2:s are a PITA to change hardware in, you need setup discs for MCA cards etc, but provided you can, it's one way. Not that it would be fun with a slower card, but it would at least give you a clue on what to do.

PS. I only installed my version in DOSBox with 8MB RAM allocated, which would be enough to not cut down on features in-game.

PPS. I found an old thread about UniVBE versions here, that might apply: Preferred UniVBE version for Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM T VLB (Trio64)

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, but I hadn't yet checked out the game's readme yet. One of the suggestions it had was to configure himem in a specific way. I made a DOS7 bootfloppy with the suggested config.sys and autoexec.bat and added my CDROM drivers.
This resolved the crashing behavior, but the game still didn't want to start and was complaining about univbe already running (which wasn't).
I tried different pathces to univbe, specifically to S3 cards, but nothing worked. As a last thing I dove into the IBM specific video drivers. It turns out the IBM's have a custom bios for the vga card that makes it compatible with certain IBM specific modes. Perhaps univbe doesn't support these bioses out of the box.
I found out that when I first run XVAVESA.EXE and then start USNF it actually runs!

Well... kindof. In terms of graphics it works fine, but I don't have sound. When I have the soundcard (Texelec resound MCA) installed, using the ingame hardware configuration performs an autodetect that hangs the system. When I remove the card, the hardware configuration runs and allows me to key in the address (220) irq (2) and dma (1) of my card. If I then switch off, put the card back in, and reboot, there's still no sound in the game. Iterating though configurations this way is tedious to say the least. If/when I find a winning combination I'll report back.

Using irq 2/9 is usually used by MIDI audio devices on ISA. Not sure about MCA setup, but irq 3/5/7 are more common for digital sound like old ISA Soundblaster cards.
Maybe the game only can support the old irq 3, 5 or 7 for digital sound? There is a separate config page for music where the Midi io 300/330 irq 2/9 could work.

Took me a while to get around it, but yep; sound works with IRQ3. It's buggy though, as I get a stack overflow when I watch the intro movies. Tried everything to resolve that (STACKS setting in config.sys, different IRQ's, removing other cards, etc.) but the game itself runs like a charm. I'd say, good enough! Thanks a lot for the help!