VOGONS


Might and Magic IV issues

Topic actions

Reply 20 of 69, by ChrisTOTG

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I have not had any problems with the floppy version of MM4/5... but I'd love to get the CD version running. The voices on the CD version are great.

I have been able to get the game to not run in 2 ways: 1. complaining about inserting the correct CD, and 2. as soon as I type XEEN<CR> it just hangs, without even changing into graphics mode.

Is there a way to get it working? Or even for me to send it to one of the devs?

Reply 21 of 69, by Kishus

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I too cannot get MM:WoX running from the CD (actually a collection of old RPGs, but Xeen was the reason for the purchase). I get the same issues per the other users on the various attempts. However, I can report that the demos for both MM5 and MM5:Darkside of Xeen run flawlessly in DOSBox, with sound and voices. Odd to say the least. The demos crash in VDMS for me. Not sure if this lends any help to finding a solution.

- Kishus

Reply 22 of 69, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Originally posted by Kishus However, I can report that the demos for both MM5 and MM5:Darkside of Xeen run flawlessly in DOSBox, with sound and voices. Odd to say the least.

Not really, it appears to be CD-related. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same issue that keeps TIE Fighter from running.

Reply 23 of 69, by Qbix

User metadata
Rank DOSBox Author
Rank
DOSBox Author
Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Not really, it appears to be CD-related. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same issue that keeps TIE Fighter from running.

Good guess 😀 CD detection is far from optimal. We are aware of it. But I don't know what the game tries to do. Maybe it's easy to fix. I don't know. ( I have no games that run from cd only. (Well maybe at my parrents but there i don't debug dosbox:) )

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 24 of 69, by icemann

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Well 7th guest, Syndicate and all of the wingcommanders (as far as I know anyway) require the cd to run.

Reply 25 of 69, by Gordolordo

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I'm getting the problem where I can get the MSCDEX options installed in DosBox, but the game claims I have a Music Cd in the drive. Anyone figure out how to fix this?

Reply 26 of 69, by Kishus

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Gordolordo wrote:

I'm getting the problem where I can get the MSCDEX options installed in DosBox, but the game claims I have a Music Cd in the drive. Anyone figure out how to fix this?

Thats the issue everyone is having. I did try copying the CD to a folder and setting that as the cdrom mount, didnt work sadly. My cd version is from the 'Ultimate RPG Collection Archives", not sure if all CD versions have this issue or just that one.

- Kishus

Reply 27 of 69, by icemann

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Maybe theres no support for games with cd audio yet?

Reply 28 of 69, by mirekluza

User metadata
Rank DOSBox Moderator
Rank
DOSBox Moderator

There have been support for CD Audio ever since CD support was introduced (0.58).
I tried it succesfully both to play audio CDs and the game with audio tracks (CD version of Dark Sun 2).
The problem must be elsewhere: unfortunately we do not know how the game check the CD. 🙁
Somebody should get the debugger enabled build of DOSBOX and debug it.

Mirek

Reply 29 of 69, by tfm

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

hi,

i am trying to run 'World of Xeen CD Version' in a DOSBox under win2k using VDMSound 2.0.4.
Whenever there is speech the playback only lasts for 1-2 seconds then stops. sometimes the remains of the speechsample are played some 30 seconds later, sometimes they never come. when i now try to exit the current screen (leaving the shop, for example) during this time the game will freeze; forever or until the computer decides to play the remains of the speechsample.
This does not happen, when i switch off sfx, as there is no speech then; but this also does not happen, when i switch off midi. Then speech does complete normally without freezing the game.
The same is for the intro; with sfx and midi on, you will only here 'inconc..', and when the scene should change, nothing happens for at least 2 minutes.
is this sound-freezing, what was earlier call the 'SB issue' ?
why does switching midi off help? and are there any fixes available?

thanks.

Reply 30 of 69, by Qbix

User metadata
Rank DOSBox Author
Rank
DOSBox Author

you run the game in a dosbox with vdmsound ?

are you referering the dosbox from dosbox.sf.net or the dosbox which comes with winxp ?

This forum is meant for the first one and not the second.

if you use the first. Don't run it with vdmsound.

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 31 of 69, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Originally posted by icemann Well 7th guest, Syndicate and all of the wingcommanders (as far as I know anyway) require the cd to run.

DosBox has support for CD titles, it's just certain CD games are implemented in a rather..."funky" way.

Originally posted by icemann Maybe theres no support for games with cd audio yet?

Definitely not the case. I've run a number of titles that play CD audio from within DosBox.

Originally posted by Qbix you run the game in a dosbox with vdmsound ?

He's probably referring to running it natively with VDMSound. People tend to fixate on game titles only and miss the forum title.

Reply 32 of 69, by icemann

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

tfm: Make sure you have the EXACT same sound settings that dosbox has for soundblaster by default, as I had the exact same problem you were having until changed the sound settings over to what dosbox uses (a change in irq mostly). Before that the game would freeze when speech was done in the exact same way as you described.

As soon as I changed the settings, all speech was done properly, without any problems. The game runs too slow for my liking for now, but thats no big deal to me really, as speed will get better with time.

Reply 33 of 69, by mirekluza

User metadata
Rank DOSBox Moderator
Rank
DOSBox Moderator

ICEMANN: SPEED problem: did you try to change cycles (CTRL F11/F12 - see README). It runs slow with default DOSBOX cycles, but IMHO it can be easily corrected by increasing number of cycles.

Mirek

Reply 34 of 69, by tfm

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

there was a misunderstanding; i did a search on the vdmsound forum and did not realize that i got here. the problem i posted indeed was referring to vdmsound run natively under win2k. but i took the chance to learn some more about dosbox.sf.net and am now running xeen with dosbox 0.58. first i had a problem with crashes when playing sfx like posted earlier on this thread. i grabbed the newest cvs-build and it seems to be ok now, although i haven't done thorough tests yet.

iceman: interesting still, if you had the same problem under dosbox, it could be the same solution for vdm.

about the speed; it can indeed be easily corrected by altering the cycles value. but i never get a natural balance of speed this way; which means: the game gets slower the more monsters/animations are visible, if you now increase cycles to have an acceptable speed in this situation, it will be far too fast, when there is only a single monster visible and vice versa.

Reply 35 of 69, by icemann

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

mirekluza: That was the first thing I did when it ran slow. Which sped it up to a totally fine speed and all, but sound skipping increases with each increase of the cpu cycles, so I generally don`t like to use it more than 3 times on a game.

Reply 36 of 69, by ChrisTOTG

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Maybe I'm missing something here... Did I read that someone has the CDROM version of XEEN running under DOSBox or VDMSound? Please put up your config info so I can try it out... I have been unable to get it to even load, let alone load with skipping sound.

Reply 37 of 69, by Gordolordo

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I think they did, but under Win2k was the OS he said he got it working on.

Reply 38 of 69, by ChrisTOTG

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Um... TFM, if you're listening, I haven't been able to get XEEN CD to run using DOSBox or VDMSound 2.04. Can you please post the details of how you configured VDMSound to make it work?

Or create a thread in the VDMSound forum & put it there 😁

Reply 39 of 69, by ChrisTOTG

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I always thought the guard was saying "BACK OFF" when you didn't have the town pass.