VOGONS


First post, by RobinH

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Commander Keen runs as an XP DOS box but the screen flickers from side to side when Commander Keen moves and this is really hard on the eyes.

DosBox won't run it at all and gives me the message:

"Combing EGA1.CK4 and EGA2.CK4 into EGAGRAPH.CK4...
Can't rename EGA1.CK4!"

I've tried searching the FAQ but nothing shows.

Reply 1 of 9, by red_avatar

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Hmmm are any of the files read-only?

Reply 2 of 9, by RobinH

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Hi red_avatar,

Nice thought and I checked, but no none of the files are read only.

Since these files run just fine under Win98 and the game itself starts and runs just fine under XP apart from the eye warping judder when Keen runs around, I guess it must be something to do with the processing of the two files EGA1.CK4 and EGA2.CK4 under DOSBox.

Just where these files are is also not clear since they are not listed in the keen directory!

Reply 3 of 9, by Reckless

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Just dug this out. Had no issues installing or running Keen 4 under DOSBox. A file monitor didn't record access to the files you mentioned either.

Reply 4 of 9, by RobinH

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Hi Reckless,

Thanks for looking.

I'm running Commander Keen 4, hence the CK4 extension. Is this the same version as you had?

In case it helps anyone to figure out what is happening on my machine I've attached my copy of Keen4 as well as my DOSBox.conf as a ZIP file

Reply 5 of 9, by RobinH

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Woops!

Sorry Reckless I seemed to have missed the 4 after Keen in your post, but I still figure the files might help somebody.

Reply 6 of 9, by Reckless

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Downloaded your zip, ran up DOSBox (gulikoza's CVS build) and had no problems.

Reply 7 of 9, by RobinH

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Thanks again reckless.

However since it won't run at my end I need to get to the bottom of just what it is trying to do and why it doesn't like my installation.

Does it run ok when you use my DOSBox.conf

If not could you send me a copy of your conf file so I can compare the settings.

I checked whether I can read and write to the keen directory in DOSBox and have no problems.

Reply 8 of 9, by RobinH

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Hi Reckless,

downloaded your version of DOSBox and it gives me an "Illegal Command Error" when I run Keen4e

Reply 9 of 9, by RobinH

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Cracked it and boy was I dumb!

It runs a smooth a a baby's bottom when I change to the C: drive rather than calling the program on a path i.e. c:\keen\keen4e when on drive Z.

Thanks once again Reckless for trying to help!