The (user-entered) entry there states that dosbox 0.60 may have run the
game nicely, if you're using a different version just post your information there.

Actually the game runs fine in dosbox, dunno where your problem is, can walk around nicely.

yes, i tried dosbox 0.60. everything above too actually

hmm.. could i receive the version that you tried running? because i tried installing the game off the full images from the original floppies and it does not work. neither for me, nor for anyone else using the original floppy images

it is a multifloppy instalation (i hosted the images here for you). maybe dosbox doesn't support something that happens during installation?

No problem getting the game to work here; but consider the game's INSTALL.BAT file:

1echo off
2echo This will copy Dark Castle disks A and B to hard disk subdirectory C:\DC\
3echo If this directory does not exist, it will be created;
4echo otherwise the message "Unable to create directory" will appear.
5echo Press Ctrl-Break if you do not wish to continue.
6pause
7c:
8cd \
9md dc
10cd dc
11echo Insert Dark Castle A disk into drive A:
12echo Press Ctrl-Break if you do not wish to continue.
13pause
14copy a:*.* c:\dc
15echo Insert Dark Castle B disk into drive A:
16echo Press Ctrl-Break if you do not wish to continue.
17pause
18copy a:*.* c:\dc
19echo Hard disk installation complete.  To run Dark Castle, type "DC".
20echo Remember to insert Dark Castle disk A into drive A before doing this.

After copying everything on the floppies to the HD, it reminds you to keep the first disk in the A drive when running the game. There's also a heavily NOPed section of code in the main executable I have. It appears the poster has an uncracked version of the game with floppy-based copy protection intact.

as far as i understand the installation only copies the contents of both of the floppies on my hard drive, so there wouldn't be much of problem. and yes, i kept the floppy A in a mounted drive after installation, but this black screen after the first level still happens..

In your first posting you say it doesn't advance after the menu screen
(i really hope you didn't just press the wrong keys...), now you say it results
in a black screen after the first level. What's right? Did you alter something?

Maybe post a directory listing.

DOSBox does not support physical copy protection on floppy disks (erroneous sector ID, CRC errors, weak bits, tracks with different formats, etc.), and standard image formats don't contain the necessary extra data (teledisk or so might). Anyway, a crack is needed to play the game in DOSBox.

Edit: what is odd is that the original version of the game will not start up in DOSBox at all because of the copy protection; which does not fit with the poster's descriptions of not being able to get past certain screens...

wd wrote:

In your first posting you say it doesn't advance after the menu screen

please read again carefully, i said `it only goes into the main menu and then the first screen of the game`

ripsaw8080 wrote:

what is odd is that the original version of the game will not start up in DOSBox at all because of the copy protection; which does not fit with the poster's descriptions of not being able to get past certain screens...

it doesn't start via dc.exe, but when you launch dcovl.com it does .. but yes, most probably dc.exe is needed and it has that copy protection

ripsaw8080 wrote:

DOSBox does not support physical copy protection on floppy disks (erroneous sector ID, CRC errors, weak bits, tracks with different formats, etc.), and standard image formats don't contain the necessary extra data (teledisk or so might). Anyway, a crack is needed to play the game in DOSBox.

allright, thanks, i guess i need to find a crack for it. or put the image on a real physical floppy drive and use that in dosbox

or maybe wait.. do you think it would work if i mounted the image in a virtual floppy drive that supports copy protection (unlike dosbox) and then mount the virtual drive as floppy in dosbox, could that work? because that image is supposed to be 1:1 image containing all the data along with copy protection

The standard images you have contain all the data in the sectors, but not the extra sector info like sector ID, CRC, etc. needed for emulating copy protection systems; and DOSBox doesn't have support for that stuff, anyway. I tried booting real DOS in DOSBox using an HD image as the C drive, with the floppy image mounted as the A drive, and although it does provide some low-level support needed by the game, it does not satisfy the copy protection.

I see why you can't get anywhere in the game, as you're running an overlay program. DC.EXE is the main executable; INSTALL.BAT even tells you to start the game by running "DC".

please read again carefully, i said `it only goes into the main menu and then the first screen of the game`

Yes and this is, like i said (you read it carefully), different from a "black screen after the first level".

wd wrote:

please read again carefully, i said `it only goes into the main menu and then the first screen of the game`

Yes and this is, like i said (you read it carefully), different from a "black screen after the first level".

first in game screen, first level, what's the difference, you thought it would not get past the menu ...

ripsaw8080 wrote:

The standard images you have contain all the data in the sectors, but not the extra sector info like sector ID, CRC, etc. needed for emulating copy protection systems; and DOSBox doesn't have support for that stuff, anyway. I tried booting real DOS in DOSBox using an HD image as the C drive, with the floppy image mounted as the A drive, and although it does provide some low-level support needed by the game, it does not satisfy the copy protection.

I see why you can't get anywhere in the game, as you're running an overlay program. DC.EXE is the main executable; INSTALL.BAT even tells you to start the game by running "DC".

ok thanks for your effort, i will notify the image file creator that it doesn't contain all the needed data

first in game screen, first level, what's the difference

Past first level means I'd have to play through that thing to see if it gets
a black screen, as it worked fine (like for ripsaw) up to the gameplay action.

wd wrote:

first in game screen, first level, what's the difference

Past first level means I'd have to play through that thing to see if it gets
a black screen, as it worked fine (like for ripsaw) up to the gameplay action.

i really don't see where is this important or what are you trying to prove 😖

we try to fix non working games.
So knowing what doesn't work and how far we have to play in order to reproduce it is quite vital information.