I've got the same problem with the fun but weirdly programmed game World Rally Fever.

VDMSound helps to pass most of the ambushes, but finally the game checks for a specific version of mscdex (2.6 I think), and fails...

I can't find any way to fool it.

Wow...that's annoying.
Anyone running pure DOS or Win9x that can give some information on MSCDEX and if it sets any environment variables or anything about its version?

nope, seems to be builtin in mscdex driver.

Mscdexnt for Windows 2000 must have another builtin version which is considered as elder 🙁

Exact error message is:

cd player error#1 (need mscdex 2.1).
(child error #11)

From Team17 support about WRF:

2.1 CD Player Error #1 (Need MSCDEX 2.1) (Child Error #21)

Check to see if you can access your CD-ROM prompt within MS-DOS. If this is not the case you will need to install some CD-ROM software device drivers. The instructions for how to achieve this should have been provided with the purchase of your CD-ROM drive or the computer system. However if this is the case then you will need to replace the MSCDEX program revision so that it is V2.1 or above.

Are you certain MSCDEXNT is being loaded?

Oh yes it is 😀

I've made a batch running mscdexnt before the game executable to check it: and the output tells that mscdexnt is already in memory. So, it is really loaded.

I've found a page on google, with assembly routines about mscdex version checking .
Such info would be interesting for patching the game and jump the check. However, I'm not interested in such a solution as I want to be able to play games without alteration.

Btw, I've tried to use SETVER to fool it, but no success 🙁

BTW, the optimal solution IS to alter the game as in a Win32 port. Since such is not possible then emulation is our only option. Unfortunately if an emulator doesn't work and a newer driver doesn't work (in this case MSCDEX) then modifcation of the game is the only option....unless of course you have an old machine/previous OS.

Yeah, yeah stating the obvious but what the heck.

Well, I'll wait for any pc virtualization proggie or dos emu under win32, which will be accurate enough to get it work 🙄

Just for information, I never managed to get the original game work under Windows 9.x/dos, except after some erm.. exe patching.

Sad but true: the game is incredibly fun, but the code seems to be $ù$^*ù (crap dos extender, or something). For sure T17 had a better coding team for their Amiga products, than for their early PC games ::D

Sounds like the only way you'll be able to fix the problem (at least in the near future) is by patching the shit. Sorry about that.

Got to drag this one up: WRF demo works fine in DOSBox as it doesn't call MSCDEX, however the full game doesn't.

I'm wondering if there's a hacked version out there that doesn't check for CD-ROM personally...!

Ice

flynn wrote:

Such info would be interesting for patching the game and jump the check. However, I'm not interested in such a solution as I want to be able to play games without alteration.

You've tweaked my curiousity. Could you post JUST the main EXEcutable file on this thread? I'd like to look at how this WRF is doing the MSCDEX version checks. I'm suprised that SAPUCDEX does not take care of the problem under WinXP/Win2K.

If you have the time...

dvwjr

It's not quite as simple as that... WRF seems to be built out of lots of mini-exe files that all seem to interelate to make the game work in the most annoying way possible! Every folder the game installs has an exe!

Anyway here's the very first one, rally.exe - if it doesn't contain anything useful let me know and I'll try uploading another!

Ice

Ice, you're SURE SAPUCDEX didn't fix the issue? Hell, that's worth telling SaPu about, too!

I'll play some more but I don't think I could get the game demo (let alone the full game!) working in XP/VDMSound, only in DOSBox.

Ice

Okay the full story goes like this:

The DEMO of World Rally Fever (available at http://www.team17.com) when run in XP or when using VDMSound starts but no the keyboard won't work on the main game menu, meaning you cannot use the demo at all.

In DOSBox it all seems to work, including the game, but I'm not getting any sound (I *think* I got sound working once but maybe I didn't!).

As for the full game, in DOSBox it won't find MSCDEX 2.1 so doesn't work. In VDMSound using SAPUCDEX it DOES clear the MSCDEX 2.1 error message but then says it can't find the CD (another in-built game error)! However I feel that even if I got to the menu, it probably wouldn't work (like the demo).

Bit of a mess really! I e-mailed Team17 but have heard nothing yet. If only someone could hack the game exe so it works like the demo...!

Ice

try mounting anything as cdrom in dosbox - the result -> mscdex will be loaded in memory

I have lines like these in the .conf files:

mount c c:\
mount d d:\
mount e e:\ -t cdrom

But doesn't help!

Ice

I got World Rally Fever working on Windows XP using some hacked files, but unfotunately it does require DOSBox as the WinXP DOS makes it run really slow and won't recognise the keyboard properly!

More details in the DOSBox forum over here: World Rally Fever works on WinXP if you do this...

Ice