Yep, I bought the same CD some time ago and haven't been able to get Menzo working in 2K/XP NTVDM or DosBox. Same error every time. So for me at least it's not a DosBox problem. Odd thing is that out of the 30+ times I've tried to get it working I could swear that it worked once, and I think it was under 2K/XP NTVDM too. Doesn't work now tho.

So there is no way to play this game at all??? I wonder what the problem is?? If there is no way to figure out whats going on, then that means I have a LOT of old but good stuff that I will never be able to use or play again.

thought that it run.
well mirekluza will know if it runs or not

Okay, Here's what I just did:

1. Added Gamefest Forgotten Realms Classics CD1 to Alcohol Virtual CD drive.
2. Installed Menzoberranzan using crappy installshield installer.
3. Ran game in Windows XP and it loaded to the main menu!
4. Disconnected emulated CD.
5. Executed game in Windows XP. Game drops back to desktop before loading.
Conclusion: Game requires CD

Next:

1. Opened Dosbox.
2. Mounted e:\games\menzoberranzan folder as C: drive in dosbox.
3. Executed menzoberranzan.
4. Received "unable to open resource file".
5. Checked debug output and noticed that menzoberranzan is looking for RES9 file located that's on the CD.
6. Tried placing RES9/10 from root of CD in menzoberranzan folder. No go.
7. Tried using mount to mount the CD in dosbox as D:. No go
8. Tried using mount to mount the CD in dosbox as K:. No go
(Don't bother placing RES9 in folder...doesn't work)
9. Tried IMGMOUNT on ISO of CD. No go.

Conclusion: Menzoberranzan will not run due to copy protection that Dosbox can currently not emulate.

Good luck finding a crack. I found one but it doesn't seem to work with this version of the game.

So my advice would be to run the game in Windows XP with VDMSOUND....unless you can find a crack, mabye use the floppy executable with the CD files?, or crack it yourself.

It's likely that the game didn't work in Windows for me before because some DOS games have difficulty finding the CDROM. In this case the emulated CD drive was J: and it seemed to find it just fine. So if you run it in Windows and get the same error try changing your CD drive letter.

The only output in the DosBox console is:

11545755: FILES:file open command 0 file RES5 11550156: FILES:file open command 0 file RES6 11557108: FILES:file open command 0 […]
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11545755: FILES:file open command 0 file RES5
11550156: FILES:file open command 0 file RES6
11557108: FILES:file open command 0 file RES7
11560610: FILES:file open command 0 file RES8
11564377: FILES:file open command 0 file J:\RES9
11565643: INT10:Set Video Mode 3
11632522: FCB:DOS:0x16 FCB-Delete used, result:al=255
11632606: FCB:DOS:0x16 FCB-Delete used, result:al=255
11633717: VGA:H total 100, V Total 449
11633717: VGA:H D End 80, V D End 400

The CD version of Menzoberranzan runs ok. I have just now tried it (disc 3 from Masterpiece collection).
This was how I mounted HD and CD:
mount c d:\dosbox
mount d h:\ -t cdrom -ioctl

Then I started installation (I chose the larger installation (30 MB), waited till it finishes and starts sound configuration. I set SB 16 (I had to change settings IRQ from 5 to 7). Then I started the game, watched intro, loaded provided save game. No problem at all.
I was not using any hacked version or crack. I was using DOSBOX 0.63 on WXP.

Mirek

DosFreak wrote:

2. Installed Menzoberranzan using crappy installshield installer.

IMHO this is your problem. I installed in DOSBOX (from Masterpiece Collection). If it is not possible in you case, then watch that you install in Windows with the same paths as when the game is in DOSBOX (both for HD and for CD !!!). Very probably the windows intaller sets a different path somewhere.

Mirek

mirekluza wrote:

The CD version of Menzoberranzan runs ok. I have just now tried it (disc 3 from Masterpiece collection). This was how I mounted […]
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The CD version of Menzoberranzan runs ok. I have just now tried it (disc 3 from Masterpiece collection).
This was how I mounted HD and CD:
mount c d:\dosbox
mount d h:\ -t cdrom -ioctl

Then I started installation (I chose the larger installation (30 MB), waited till it finishes and starts sound configuration. I set SB 16 (I had to change settings IRQ from 5 to 7). Then I started the game, watched intro, loaded provided save game. No problem at all.
I was not using any hacked version or crack. I was using DOSBOX 0.63 on WXP.

Mirek

Nope, already tried and just tried again to verify. Still doesn't work. Also if IMGMOUNT wouldn't work then Mount most likely wouldn't work since I've noticed more compatibility issues solved with IMGMOUNT than MOUNT.

But it worked for you so let's see if it works for Inteck.

mirekluza wrote:

DosFreak wrote:

2. Installed Menzoberranzan using crappy installshield installer.

IMHO this is your problem. I installed in DOSBOX (from Masterpiece Collection). If it is not possible in you case, then watch that you install in Windows with the same paths as when the game is in DOSBOX (both for HD and for CD !!!). Very probably the windows intaller sets a different path somewhere.

Mirek

Nah, shitty installshield just extracts the files and placed them in the Menzoberranzan (14 characters! Brilliant!) folder. Then it installs some shortcuts to the start menu.

To test if it was something harcoded into the game during install (only modified files in Date/time stamp are Info.dat and sound.cfg) I renamed the Menzoberranzan folder to "Menzo" and was still able to run the game fine in Windows.

As I said, I think it is a wrong path somewhere. Copy protection would look different. This just looks like the game is unable to find a file.
Mount HD in DOSBOX as identically with HD in Windows. (mount c: c:\ ). The same for CD ROM.
Have a look on your CD whether you are able to install from DOS. It took some minutes for game to unpack, but it was without any problems.
MOUNT with -ioctl is pretty good. I do not use IMGMOUT for CDs.

Edited: Rereading the mails I noticed Intec has the same (!) version as I have. So I cannot imagine that what worked for me would not work for him.

Mirek

"Unable to open resource file" means that the game cannot access CD. I got this when not mounting CD and starting the game
I think that the letter where CD is is in INFO.DAT (though I did not try to edit it).

Mirek

heh. Yep, I took a bathroom break and while sitting there the whole CD drive letter thing kept on coming back to me. why? Why? So I sat down and poked around. (Here's the odd thing, last time I looked at info.dat I could have swore it was full of gibberish...not CD letter in site!) So I open up the only other file besides sound.cfg to have a date/time stamp of today and whadya know! There it is "J:"!

So I setup dosbox to mount J: with no cdrom or ioctl just "mount J J:\", execute the game and it works!!!!!!

So to sum it all up.

1. Install game.
2. Copy ALL RESXX files from Menzoberranzan CD to the installed Menzoberranzan directory.
3. Copy CINE directory into Menzoberranzan directory.
4. Modify INFO.DAT and change drive letter to "C".
5. Open Dosbox.
6. Mount c e:\games\menzo
7. Execute menzoberranzan!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Still having problems with it 😢 . You say change the drive letter in the "info.dat"??? O.K. I'll try that, though I am still confused as to how it works in relation with the "mount" command in dosbox 😕 .

Since you do not have much experience, I recommend you to do it as I did it (mounting/installing in DOSBOX/setting sound/starting game). No need to copy or edit anything here.

Mirek

info.dat points to the CD for the files that are missing from the installation.

If you copy the files off the the CD that the game needs into the Menzo directory and then change the info.dat file to the drive letter of where you have menzo installed, then you do not need to worry about mounting the CD. Just about mounting the game directory into dosbox.

😳 Well....wait a second...... 😲 HOT DAMN!!! There it goes!!!!....It does have something to do with the file: "info.dat" and the way dosbox loads stuff....I was REALLY start to get worried. Thanks a LOT guys 😁 .

I remember Menzoberranzan used an old version of the DOS4GW dos extender, but the executables were two different files renamed with a .dat extension (I think). I will try later (I am at work now) to replace the stubs with DOS32A ones to see how it runs under DOSBox with "dynamic" core.

EDIT: Yeah, I did it. (Menzoberranzan v 1.00F Floppy vers.) There are three executables, namely, pm_sound.exe - code.1 and code.2 It works like a charm with DOS32A and "dynamic core" in DOSBox. 😎

i can get the game to start up just fine. doing what is outlined. i can begin the game with the 'party already created"

but what i can't do is create my own party. is this possible?