VOGONS


First post, by Ferromancer

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This was my favorite game for the IBM PS/2 286, until the poor thing went senile a few years ago.

They game *actually* runs in windows without a hitch, keyboard, graphics, and PC speaker all work like they're supposed to. Yes, you heard it, a game that has a time stamp of April 17, 2000 and runs just fine in windows XP SP2, with one major caveat...

This game was back in the day when programmers were too lazy to put in timers for their games, so the game is unplayable on anything faster than a 486. So I decided to run the game in DosBOX to slow it down to 4MHz.

So I fire it up in dos box 0.62 (using the D-Fend v2 front end), and the timing is perfect.

However, once you get past the menu and into the game, the keyboard stops responding. (the default controls are alt, z, and x, which don't do crap no matter how often you bang on them). Also, instead of the adorable tinny little sounds I'm used to from PC speaker, it comes out as a very brief *pop* instead for each sound.

I've tried a variety of permutations of the standard settings in the front end, different processor emulation, memory settings (you can set it to NO RAM! only conventional!), etc., and it runs exactly the same way every time.

Also, I think dosbox is pretty compatible with my computer, I got tempest 2000 to work without a problem (with just a little stuttering when things get bogged down), keyboard and sound works fine.

Here's a link to one lonely site that hosts it:
http://www.juegomania.org/creador/pc/d/30
It claims it works in DosBox.

Reply 1 of 12, by Ferromancer

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Here's a better link. That other one requires regristration, and it's in Spanish.

http://www.dosgamesonline.com/index.php?page= … ame=Joust%20VGA

Tried this version out too. Same results.

I attached it in case you're too lazy to download it 😁

Reply 2 of 12, by priestlyboy

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Yep, I was bored and tested it on Official Releases from 0.60 to 0.62 and the current CVS.
None of them worked as I could see it.
Basically a full keyboard lockout. Not sure why. 😕

Ieremiou
----------
Helping Debug DOSBox.

Reply 3 of 12, by Ferromancer

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Yeah, it's really baffling. Especially since the keyboard control in this game works fine in FRIGGIN WINDOWS XP of all things.

At least I can play tempest 2000, WOOT!

I somehow broke The Elder Scrolls Arena though. It was working fine in 0.61, till I tinkered with something, now the game doesn't even load in 0.62. *whine*.

Another question, if you set the computer to 10000 cycles, does that mean the game is running as if it were on a 10MHz machine? It's kinda confusing, since a game like Duke3D or Descent works better on a 100MHz or even 200MHz machine.

Whoops, I'm getting off topic.

Anyone else have problems with keyboard input on older games, that are otherwise stable?

Reply 4 of 12, by Qbix

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interrupt flag some how is of during gameplay.
if you turn it on (only once)
the game is fully playable.

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

Reply 5 of 12, by Ferromancer

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I figured the keyboard interrupt was probably turning off somehow... But um, how and where do you turn on this interrupt flag? 😕

Reply 6 of 12, by mirekluza

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Ferromancer wrote:

I figured the keyboard interrupt was probably turning off somehow... But um, how and where do you turn on this interrupt flag? 😕

Only in debugger (if you have a DOSBOX compiled with the debugger). Switched off interrupt flag is the immediate cause of the keyboard problems, but of course there is still a bug somewhere (the place where that interrupt flag is wrongly switched off, or where it is not switched on as it should...).

Mirek

Reply 7 of 12, by Ferromancer

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I guess I'll have to dust off my copy of MSVS 6.0 and compile a debug version.

Do you guys know the variable name of the keyboard interrupt flag? That would make things a little easier.

If I end up finding a bug, who would I report it to?

Reply 8 of 12, by Qbix

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well to debug it you need a debug version of dosbox

you can get it at http://mypixels.dk/forums

the bug is caused by the general interrupt flag to be disabled.
this is done around
0f7:c8cc
sti
some code
cli
some tight loops around the vga emulation

no sti....

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

Reply 9 of 12, by masgaster

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🙁 Does anyone know / Can anyone explain how to fix this keyboard problem? The link to that debugger isn't working and I probably wouldn't know too much about it anyway. I can follow instructions well though. I need my joust!

Thanks 😅

Reply 10 of 12, by rcblanke

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Hello Masgaster,

A workaround --> Here we go:

1. startup YKHWong's debug build of Dosbox CVS
2. mount joust's directory and start joust.exe
3. go through the game's menu and enter the game
4. now press <pause> on your keyboard -> the game freezes and focus goes to Dosbox debugger window
5. in the debugger window, press <enter> and type 'sr if 1'<enter> (without quotes)
6. press F5 to continue the game with working keys

Now, we can only hope some of the devs will really fix this bug in Dosbox!

Regards,

Ronald

Reply 11 of 12, by Qbix

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when I debugged at that time. I was unable to figure out what went wrong.

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

Reply 12 of 12, by trebor

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Ferromancer wrote:
This was my favorite game for the IBM PS/2 286, until the poor thing went senile a few years ago. Here's a link to one lonely si […]
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This was my favorite game for the IBM PS/2 286, until the poor thing went senile a few years ago.
Here's a link to one lonely site that hosts it:
http://www.juegomania.org/creador/pc/d/30
It claims it works in DosBox.

Well, not quite up to 'Champgames' port quality, but also one of my Favs when it was released.

I wonder if you had this one from Sharpless as well 😉