First post, by Agent of the BSoD
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So I've had this weird problem for a while now and recently figured out the optical drive was at fault. What's going on is related to Tomb Raider. Whenever I try to load level 3, the game will crash saying "Level 3 (D:\data\level3a.phd) is version -458722 (this game code is version 32)", where that negative number is seemingly random, sometimes negative, sometimes not.
System is Windows 98SE, but I'm running this in real mode DOS. The problem doesn't exist in Windows. I've tried messing around endlessly with my autoexec.bat and config.sys to no avail. When I finally ran out of ideas, I tried using a drive in another system just to see what would happen, and then it loaded the level just fine! So at that point, I concluded something was wrong with the drive I was using, so I ordered another one, only to be disappointed again with the new drive doing the exact same thing as the old one (different model and brand), and for the life of me, I can't understand why. It reads everything else correctly, it's just this game in particular that seems to be stumping it, but only in DOS.
I should also note that a possible workaround is to mute all sound in the game, then load the level. While this works, it's really inconvenient to have to mute everything to just turn it back on after the level loads, and I shouldn't have to do that anyway.
I know this game works fine in Windows, however I'd like to get it working in DOS as well, as it is a DOS game. (also because the Mystique patch doesn't seem to work in Windows)
So my question is, are there certain optical drives that just have weird problems that should be avoided, or am I just getting unlucky? Is there a way to solve this problem? I've Googled this to the ends of the earth and have found nothing.
Pentium MMX 233 | 64MB | FIC PA-2013 | Matrox Mystique 220 | SB Pro 2 | Music Quest MPU Clone | Windows 95B
MT-32 | SC-55mkII, 88Pro, 8820 | SB16 CT2230
3DFX Voodoo 1&2 | S3 ViRGE GX2 | PowerVR PCX1&2 | Rendition Vérité V1000 | ATI 3D Rage Pro