VOGONS


Iron Assault Problem

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First post, by MikeMurdock

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Okay I'm new and if this is not in the right area I apologize.

Anyway I tried to play one of my favorite dos games Iron Assault. I recently upgraded to the latest DosBox, but when I try running the game (after mounting it into my folder then running Iron) I get this

Cannot Open "Math.dat"

can anyone please help me? I want to play this game badly

Reply 1 of 20, by eL_PuSHeR

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[Moved to DOSBox Games/Apps. Section]

Write down all mounting commands you used and also read the readme file and guides on the forum if you haven't already done so.

Reply 2 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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The mounting Commands I used to try to get iron assault working once i installed it on my HD from the CD was the following

mount c c:\iron2

c:

iron

Once i did that I get the error

Cannot Open 'Math.Dat'

then refuses the game to start.

as of now i'm searching any topics that are related to this error.

Reply 3 of 20, by wd

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Use the latest dosbox version, and install the game inside dosbox. See the various guides.

Reply 4 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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I used one of the guides on here and the install went well ,but then when i ran the game the game froze into a black screen and i'm back to square one with the
Cannot Open 'Math.Dat'

I am using the latest dosbox version ,but i'm still having trouble

Reply 6 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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that was the one i followed to the letter, but still in my problem. I dunno why the game doing this. everything else is working it's just iron assault giving me this problem

Reply 7 of 20, by Jorpho

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I'm not sure how well you followed the guide. Most games do not expect to be run from C:\, which is what basically happens when you mount C:\iron2 as C. If you mounted C:\ as drive C when you installed the game from within DOSBox, then you need to do that again when you run the game.

(Of course, you shouldn't actually mount C:\ as drive C, ever, and if that's what you did, you should have mounted some folder like C:\games as drive C when you installed the game.)

Reply 8 of 20, by robertmo

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post your mount lines and what is written under every mount line
post what is written after you type "mount"

Reply 9 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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ere is the entirety of it

mount e "e:\" -t cdrom
MSCDEX installed
drive e is mounted as CDRom e:\

mount c "c:\iron3"
Drive C is mounted as local directory c:\iron3\

c:

iron

then the intro start and the sound just ... dies. after the intro it shows nothing.

So i tried moving the files needed for the game to the IRON_CD folder on my HD ,but I get the Cannot Open 'Math.Dat' error.. I have not only the original cd (though very old and with lots of scratches) I know i dled a rip of the CD from home of the underdogs which gave me in the first zip

IronAssault.ace
and IronAssault.c00 -.c13
along with a instruction about the rip

when I open the .ace in winrar i got the games\iron folder and the Iron_CD folder along with a install note folder. Here is the info inside the two notes

First note in the main zip
notepad files name: Iron Assault
note's information:
IRON ASSAULT CD-"RIP"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ripped by: EddyB43
Source: 20 Giant Games collection.

Install Instructions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extract the ACE files with directory structure (the x command instead of e
in DOS ACE programs) into the root of your hard drive. From here you can go
into the GAMES\IRON directory and run cdinst.bat to configure your controls
and sound card, and just run IRON.EXE to play the game.

The game can be burnt to CD and played like the normal bought game by just
burning the IRON_CD dir (it is hidden on a normal CD) and the GAMES\IRON dir
to the same locations on the CD - eg. the CD tree would look like this:

D:
Ý-GAMES
Ý Ý-IRON
Ý-IRON_CD (Hidden file attribute)

You can then use CDINST.BAT to install the basic games files to your HD while
keeping the movies on the CD.

and what was in the Install notes folder
INSTALLING IRON ASSAULT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just extract with folders to the root directory of your hard drive. The
IRON_CD & GAMES\IRON dirs can be written to CD and you can then run CDINST.BAT
to install configuration data from the CD.

Reply 10 of 20, by robertmo

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read the guide again:
"If your real CD-ROM drive is E:, then do a mount D "E:\" -t cdrom"

Reply 11 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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okay i'm about to give up. I did everything. even mounting e as a d drive NOTHING.. it either gives me cannot open math.dat or the game works for 5 seconds, the sound goes blank, the intro plays without able to exit and black screen

EDIT: well I got the one i dled in HOTU's working by putting everything on the CD and doing the mounting to d drive and a c drive ,but then I ran into a problem. I start the game and I get this

Reply 12 of 20, by Jorpho

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MikeMurdock wrote:

okay i'm about to give up. I did everything.

Y'know, if you're not going to tell us exactly what you did, a screenshot isn't going to help much.

Reply 13 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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-.-

i said i got it working now lease read the entirety of the post please but if you want it

i put in mount d "e:\"

then mount c "c:\games\iron"

but instead i put all of the ironassault zip into the CD and ran it from the CD.the game worked. no sound ,but worked. but when I start a game up. I got after the first screen my screenshot

Reply 14 of 20, by Jorpho

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How did you put the zip onto the CD? What is the directory structure on the CD? Is this a real CD in drive E, or what? Are you running iron.exe or are you using the .bat files? What is in C:\games\iron?!

Also, read Mr. robertmo's last post - even if you've burned files to an actual CD (and there's really no reason to do that), if something running in DOSBox expects a directory to be on a CD, you have to use "-t cdrom" when mounting.

I've had a look myself now and I've gotten it running just fine.

Reply 15 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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i use winrar to extract the games\iron folder and IRON_CD onto a real cd in drive e. (cause drive e is my real cd/dvd rom drive not a deamontools mount. the games\iron folder had the saved folders A-E for saved game files, the DIGI file folder for audio files, CDPATCH.EXE, INSTALL.EXE, IRON.EXE IRON.CFG, MODEM.CFG, STATUS.DAT, FILES.E , INSTALL.INF, STRINGS.TXT, CDGO.bat, CDINST.bat, and SETUP.BET and yes i did the -t cdrom I forgot to add it in my last post. the game works it's just that can't open GFX: base0_A.lz then it stops working. I looked into the IRON_CD folders and there are 3 base0_A.lz files

Reply 16 of 20, by Jorpho

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And are you using the .bat files?

Because if you don't, you'll get that error.

Reply 17 of 20, by MikeMurdock

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Well I tried CDGO.bat after doing my mount d "e:\" -t cdrom and changing the directory to games\iron and and the game started with music ,but then I get this problem when i press the start game button

Reply 18 of 20, by Jorpho

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Did you also have something mounted as C? Did you run CDINST.BAT to configure the sound card (address 220, IRQ 7, DMA 1) ? Is there something else you're forgetting..?

Reply 19 of 20, by robertmo

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i think of course you are not mounting c according to the guide too...

post your mount lines and what is written under every mount line
post what is written after you type "mount"