Most simple solution: Make a copy of one of your images and format that.

Download Winimage and create a blank image.

So I've tried both suggestions and have not been able to resolve this issue. I copied one of the game disk images, renamed it, and then booted it with the other game images. I'm able to swap in the new image at the prompt to "init disk" in the game, but receive disk error when the command is executed. I receive the same error in the game when I use a blank image disk created with WinImage, and I was careful to format it as a 360k floppy. I noticed that WinImage does not create image files with the .img extension. Would this be an issue?

Thanks.

Too bad, Int 13/AH=05h is not implemented.

KQ2 uses that?? Shouldn't be hard to add.

Don't know if it uses that but if I was to format a floppy I'd do 😀

Just returning success might already be enough.

I see, so this could be implemented in a future Dosbox release?

maybe. Depends if somebody wants to put some time and effort in it and it shouldn't cause lot's weird side effects

(Deleted)

Can you patch and compile DOSBox?

There's a few things you could do.

Install an extra virtual floppy drive and mount the image there. VFD is very handy for that. Available for free at http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html

Does the game check if the image is formatted? Or does it just format the image no matter if it's already formatted and empty? Considering your issue I suspect the latter.

This problem could also be solved by hooking the disk read/write BIOS functions the game uses. If you have a formatted and empty 360K image ready then it should skip the formatting process anyway. But it may do some game unique stuff to the image that makes it valid for the game only. Normally hooking the functions and returning successfull completion of the function should do.

I'm also wondering if the error might be caused by you swapping the disks. Afaik DOSBox doesn't refresh the mounts directly. It could also be that DOSBox hasn't read in the new mounted content yet. How exactly do you perform the mounting? With the VFD driver you could mount it before you start the game and swapping wouldn't be required, unless the game forces you to use the same drive.

To start the game I type "boot kq211h-1.img(disk 1) kq211h-2.img(disk 2) kq2sav.ima(newly formatted disk created by WinImage). Dosbox opens all image files and the game is booted starting with Disk 1. I can swap the images with ctrl-F4. In order to save a game, I must type "init disk" for the software to create a save game disk. I must insert a disk into drive B. Since it asks for any disk with or without data on it, I assume it will format regardless of disk status. I've already tried mounting the image in the B drive before booting the game.

As far as "hooking," I'm not quite sure how to do that.

Never mind about the hooking. I ment writing a small program that simulates the disk functions the game uses for making a savegame disk. The game uses plain BIOS function calls for it. I wrote a little int 13 routine that simulates those function calls.

Run the attached program once before you boot the disks. You can make a bootdisk now and save games. You have to make sure the savegame disk image you use is of the right disk format and already formatted.

Thanks Salye]2! That relsolved the issue. I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. Nice work.