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First post, by Smiling Spectre

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I make quick investigate of Daggerfall on this site. There is numerous topics about it, but it seems, DOSBox still can't run it. CD is not recognized.

Every found topic with CD issue stops after "make daggerfall.exe z.cfg trick". It is, of course, allows to play the game - but it seems, that no one was able to run game as intended!

So I assume, there is something wrong with DOSBox - because Win, even WinXP haven't any problem with it.

I am almost sure, that it is something about that as DOSBox deals with file system on CD - no hidden protection - as I tried to make plain ISO from my Daggerfall: it is works, but only under Win.

Protection can have also something dealing with files itself, because there is actually two "unrecognizable" messages: if I use "original" disk, I receive message like "disk is not Daggerfall CD", but if it is any other disk, I receive "disk is wrong, insert another".

Can anyone investigate the case beyond this? (DOSBox developers preferrably 😀)

Reply 1 of 33, by Qbix

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well I don't own the game. I recently fixed a bug related to the cdrom label emulation (more like a quirk of real mscdex/dos not giving the same answer). You might want to try a cvs build of dosbox to see if that bug had anything to do with daggerfal as well.

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Reply 2 of 33, by Freddo

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Smiling Spectre wrote:

Every found topic with CD issue stops after "make daggerfall.exe z.cfg trick". It is, of course, allows to play the game - but it seems, that no one was able to run game as intended!

The trick allows me to play the game as intended, and it's been allowing me to play the game since DOSBox 0.65 and I also play it somewhat regulary. And I never really used the CVS versions much, only the official DOSBox releases.

Smiling Spectre wrote:

Protection can have also something dealing with files itself, because there is actually two "unrecognizable" messages: if I use "original" disk, I receive message like "disk is not Daggerfall CD", but if it is any other disk, I receive "disk is wrong, insert another".

Never had those messages myself. Seems to me like you're doing something wrong, but I'm not exactly sure what.

Reply 3 of 33, by Smiling Spectre

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Freddo wrote:

The trick allows me to play the game as intended, and it's been allowing me to play the game since DOSBox 0.65 and I also play it somewhat regulary. And I never really used the CVS versions much, only the official DOSBox releases.

Never had those messages myself. Seems to me like you're doing something wrong, but I'm not exactly sure what.

I will try to elaborate: of course I can (and do 😀 play Daggerfall with trick of "run exe with z.cfg". Problem is not with Daggerfall. Problem is with DOSBox - Daggerfall indicate this problem, that's all. 😀 I want from DOSBox maximum compatibility - ability of playing any game is only consequence of this. 😀

Qbix wrote:

I recently fixed a bug related to the cdrom label emulation (more like a quirk of real mscdex/dos not giving the same answer). You might want to try a cvs build of dosbox to see if that bug had anything to do with daggerfal as well.

Thank you for your answer. I used to take ykhwong build, but it is not update since november. Can you please say, where can I take "yours" build?

Reply 4 of 33, by MiniMax

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Search box - CVS

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Reply 6 of 33, by MiniMax

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DOSBox SVN Builds

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Reply 7 of 33, by Smiling Spectre

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wd wrote:

I want from DOSBox maximum compatibility

It's open source, feel free to maximize the compatibility.

😀 I cannot make it myself. But I can point to games, that have problems in current release. 😀 This is main purpose of most of my posts here. 😀

MiniMax wrote:

It seems, AEP is what I need. Thank you! 😀

Reply 9 of 33, by Smiling Spectre

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wd wrote:

I cannot make it myself.

Ah thought something like that.

I think, it was very obvious. 😀 If I could make changes myself, I'll post in other branches. "DOSBox patches" maybe. 😀

Just in case - something in your words make me feel uncomfortable. I hope, my words was not very arrogant? 🙁 I have difficulties with formulating my words even on Russian, and English don't make task easier. If I was wrong in something - I am sorry. Only idea, that I wanted to express was: "DOSBox is great, and I believe in it's authors potential - they can fix anything, if they have idea what to fix. Because I cannot modify DOSBox myself, I'll try to give help in form of bug reporting". Any other sense was unintentional.

Reply 10 of 33, by MiniMax

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I don't think it was arrogant. wd just has a ..... direct way of responding.

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Reply 11 of 33, by Smiling Spectre

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I start to tinker with CVS DOSBox from January, 16th and Daggerfall after my posts (BTW, Qbix, my ATI x1650 get error now "Can't create ddraw surface" - official build haven't it). There is nothing changed.

Then I go to dagger.exe. As I cannot decompile it, I simply view it with text viewer. 😀 Amazingly, but it did the work!

Game have three checks (that I know of) for preparing CD:

1. Check for availability of z.cfg and string cdpath in z.cfg. Check for DAGGER\ARENA2\ path in cdpath.
2. Check for install.scr in the root of first found CD-ROM.

If 1 or 2 failed, dagger.exe says "Daggerfall CD not found".

3. Check for correct label of first CD. This is the root of problems! But I don't understand, why! %)

I tried to use real label countless times. It not work. But that time I accidentally notice strange string almost at the end of file: ART3 Daggerfa ". I tried to set label to "ART3 Daggerfa " - it works! Actually, works even -label ART3.

But my disk never has such label!! It was DAGGERFALL since 1998, when I first aquire it, and it worked on any DOS and Windows!

I don't understand it. %)

Reply 12 of 33, by Qbix

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ddraw stuff is related to sdl.dll. if you use the sdl.dll that comes with 0.72 it should be gone.

ART3 vs Daggerfall
that sounds fishy. Could you check the dagger.exe on the cdrom as well for those strings (not updated or installed)

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Reply 14 of 33, by Smiling Spectre

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Qbix wrote:

ART3 vs Daggerfall
that sounds fishy. Could you check the dagger.exe on the cdrom as well for those strings (not updated or installed)

Checked file on my CD, pirated ISO (it is DAGGERFALL too, and don't work too), several found rips and one or two cracked exes. ART3 presents everywhere. %)

My wild guess is - maybe some reseller accidentally change disk label in process, and no one notice it, because check not work under Win? And first, original disks was ART3 labeled? %)

Qbix wrote:

fixed

SDL issue? Thank you!

Reply 15 of 33, by Qbix

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the label issue was fixed. Wd found that it checked all strings (so ART3 and Daggerfa) against the label, but it seems that mscdex (unlike regular dos) doesn't change the casing of the label to uppercase. (which we did as we assumed that the label of the cdrom would be treated the same as regular drive labels)

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Reply 17 of 33, by UK_John

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To avoid the CD problem, why not play without it?!! After doing the huge install, just go to the CD and copy everything from the Dagger\Arena2 folder to the arena2 folder in your game folder. Then open Z.cfg and change the pathcd to show the same as the path above it.

Now instead of starting 'Dagger.exe' just start Fall,exe with the extension z.cfg

The easiest way to do this is to right click on Dagger.exe (to get the icon) and choose 'send shortcut to desktop'. Then go to the desktop shortcut and right click, choose 'Properties' and change 'dagger.exe' to fall.exe z.cfg'

Now just double click on your 'Dagger' desktop icon and you'll find the game should start.

If you want to use dosbox, rather than create the desktop shortcut, just mount the drive (no need to bother with the CD drive now!) and go to the dagger folder and type 'Fall Z.cfg' - and away you go! 😀

Hope this helps! 😀

Reply 18 of 33, by Smiling Spectre

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Thank you, UK_John, I know about it. 😀 Moreover - I played such way last couple of years. 😀 Problem was in DOSBox, and thanks to Qbix it was fixed. Problem is no more. 😀

Reply 19 of 33, by UK_John

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I thought that was the case Smiling Spectre, so I put it up here for others that may find there way to this thread. Plus, doing it without the CD as above makes it work better in DOSBox! (Although I use a front end called D.O.G., so that's how I use it!) For example, although the game plays at the right speed as in movement, etc in XP (with compatibility on), the 'look up' and 'look down' were just up and down. In DOSBox, with around 11000 cycles, up and down become 'gradual'