OMG!!! do you have loadstar!?! Is it possible i can get a copy of it from you???

@FlynnUOGM: this is not abandonware exchange board...

Mirek

try disabling pcspeaker.

The error is misleading. They're not using the PC speaker at all. They are accessing the timer in an illegal way for benchmarking purposes. I'm currently investigating into this further.

(guestimation follows)

Basically they output E8h to port 43h upon launch and expect values back before they send other commands. If run in DosBox (modified to call counter_latch(2)), you'll see the game gets further but fails the irritating benchmark testing. Patching this check out results in game hang (with sound loop), leading me to believe they built this entire game off of expected timer failure logic (or something bad).

0b11101000 breaks down into:

0 - count in binary
001 - software triggable strobe
01 - counter latch
11 - ILLEGAL!

I just realized bits 7 and 8 being set to 1 is illegal for 8253 but not 8254! Maybe I can work on implementing this "read back" functionality.

PC XT had an 8253 Timer chip.
All PC AT I've seen have an 8254 Timer chip.
The 8254 is downward compatible to the 8253.
11xxxxxx is the Read Back command on the 8254.

Oh you were faster.

Hey everyone, im new here, and joined for exactly this reason SYSTEM TIMER 2 error.
It seems to be a problem with rocket science games in general, I get the error when trying to run loadstar
and ive been searching the forum and found 3 other topics one with Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, one with wingnutz and one with loadstar
all concerning this SYSTEM TIMER 2 error.

Vorte[x] it seems, you have an idea, any news ?

"Corncob 3D" (shareware download can be found by Google) has timer problem too - Message:

Error! Timer mode reset retries: 10

(It also has music problems but that is OT)

This fixes the timer problem in Corncob...

hmm timer 3 is used a lot.
Will test it for a while.

Armada also tries to read the counter status like the Dinosaur game. Maybe that is the reason why it is speeding.
On a Celeron 300 it runs at correct speed, in Dosbox it runs the faster the more cycles you give it. Maybe that is also the reason for the Multiplayer problems.

This patch implements status readback. It makes Armada speed independent. Poor Armada got completely wrong values from the timer. Maybe it helps the other games (I don't have them). Also includes the corncob fix.
Edit: No more crashing in Proving Grounds IPX Multiplayer.

Compiled binary is on my homepage, if somebody wants to try.

it doesn't help the horde. that still gets the vsync wrong.

For me the horde starts very relieable when cycles are above 12000 (normal & dynamic). In 0.65. Even if there has been a black screen for some time and I increase to 12000 it will start.

Great h-a-l-9000, the .exe fixed the timer problem in Loadstar, I was so happy, until i got this Fatal error: CD-ROM thread went to sleep

I must be cursed : )

Fatal error: CD-ROM thread went to sleep
Help me 😀

Does this come from the Dosbox status window or from the game itself?

Edit: n/m, I guess from the game...
Maybe you have to emulate a rocket to make rocket science games work 😀.