VOGONS


First post, by JayAlien

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Hi All, trying to run Beneath a Steel sky on original hardware (DOS 6.22, Pentium 100, 32MB ram, MT-32). As this game is now freeware I got one of the many ISOs available, and installed successfully.
When I try to first run the game I get an error:

Fatal Error
Previously installed software is neither VCPI not DPMI compatible

Is there a fix, workaround for this?

Apologies if this has been asked before,
thanks
J

Last edited by JayAlien on 2019-03-26, 01:29. Edited 1 time in total.

386sx25 SBP2 2M
P75(486) SB16 8M
P133 S3 Vir DX A64g 32M
P233MMX R128Pro A64 64M
Pii400 TNT2 Live! 128M
P3-1G V5 M80 256M
P3-1.4G R8500 A1 256M
A3200 9700Pro A2 512M
X6800 X850XT A2ZS 1G
E8600 X1950XTX Xfi 2G
QX9650 3870 Xfi 2G
i7-975 GTX570 Xfi 3GB

Reply 1 of 14, by doaks80

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What OS are you running it on??

k6-3+ 400 / s3 virge DX+voodoo1 / awe32(32mb)
via c3 866 / s3 savage4+voodoo2 sli / audigy1+awe64(8mb)
athlon xp 3200+ / voodoo5 5500 / diamond mx300
pentium4 3400 / geforce fx5950U / audigy2 ZS
core2duo E8500 / radeon HD5850 / x-fi titanium

Reply 2 of 14, by JayAlien

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Ach, I knew I'd omitted a vital piece of info. It's DOS 6.22, I edited my original question to include this info.

386sx25 SBP2 2M
P75(486) SB16 8M
P133 S3 Vir DX A64g 32M
P233MMX R128Pro A64 64M
Pii400 TNT2 Live! 128M
P3-1G V5 M80 256M
P3-1.4G R8500 A1 256M
A3200 9700Pro A2 512M
X6800 X850XT A2ZS 1G
E8600 X1950XTX Xfi 2G
QX9650 3870 Xfi 2G
i7-975 GTX570 Xfi 3GB

Reply 3 of 14, by doaks80

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What does your autoexec.bat and config.sys look like?

k6-3+ 400 / s3 virge DX+voodoo1 / awe32(32mb)
via c3 866 / s3 savage4+voodoo2 sli / audigy1+awe64(8mb)
athlon xp 3200+ / voodoo5 5500 / diamond mx300
pentium4 3400 / geforce fx5950U / audigy2 ZS
core2duo E8500 / radeon HD5850 / x-fi titanium

Reply 4 of 14, by collector

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Wrong forum. As per this forum's description

Getting old DOS games working on modern hardware.

Ask old hardware and driver/configuration questions in Marvin. Marvin, the Paranoid Android

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 6 of 14, by JayAlien

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Thanks for moving, I misunderstood the forum splits.

Here's what I have in config.sys and autoexec.bat

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\CTCM\CTCM.EXE
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
rem frontier DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM 1024
BUFFERS=15,0
REM ** FILES=30
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE=E
FCBS=4,0
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,12048 =C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DRIVERS\VIDECDD.SYS /D:OPTICAL
FILESHIGH=40
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
STACKS=9,256

SET SOUND=C:\SB16
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
SET CTCM=C:\CTCM
C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S /W=C:\WINDOWS
C:\CTCM\CTCU /S /W=C:\WINDOWS
REM ** C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
C:\SB16\AWEUTIL /S
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
REM ** C:\CTCM\CTCU /S
LH /L:0;1,45456 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS
SET TEMP=C:\DOS
DOSKEY
LH C:\DRIVERS\CTMOUSE.EXE /R2
LH C:\WINDOWS\MSCDEX.EXE /S /D:OPTICAL

386sx25 SBP2 2M
P75(486) SB16 8M
P133 S3 Vir DX A64g 32M
P233MMX R128Pro A64 64M
Pii400 TNT2 Live! 128M
P3-1G V5 M80 256M
P3-1.4G R8500 A1 256M
A3200 9700Pro A2 512M
X6800 X850XT A2ZS 1G
E8600 X1950XTX Xfi 2G
QX9650 3870 Xfi 2G
i7-975 GTX570 Xfi 3GB

Reply 7 of 14, by henryVK

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You could just troubleshoot your config by starting with a "clean slate" and then introducing your settings step by step to see which one causes the problem.

Also I found this reference card:

https://revolution.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2 … _sky_manual.pdf

It says:

"Beneath a Steel Sky uses a custom memory manager which should enable you to run the game without having to alter your machine set up or free up base memory. The memory manager will scan your memory set up and use any Base/Extended/Expanded memory it finds. If there is insufficient memory, because you have other programs running in memory, it will even use your hard drive as 'Virtual Memory'."

Maybe you should not use any memory manager, but I would try eliminating the "NOEMS" setting first!

Reply 8 of 14, by JayAlien

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Thanks, you were right, it was the NOEMS that was the problem. Normally games that need it (ie frontier) will complain more explicitly, the error message here threw me off, didn't think it was memory related.

On another note, does anyone know if you can get the MT-32 sound AND speech? I have other games that work fine like this, but this game seems to ignore the speech if the sound is set to Roland. Being that there is only a SOUND card listed, rather than MUSIC and SOUND FX, I'm assuming not. No big deal, I can get music and speech if I select SoundBlaster using the AWE-64.
Thanks,
J

386sx25 SBP2 2M
P75(486) SB16 8M
P133 S3 Vir DX A64g 32M
P233MMX R128Pro A64 64M
Pii400 TNT2 Live! 128M
P3-1G V5 M80 256M
P3-1.4G R8500 A1 256M
A3200 9700Pro A2 512M
X6800 X850XT A2ZS 1G
E8600 X1950XTX Xfi 2G
QX9650 3870 Xfi 2G
i7-975 GTX570 Xfi 3GB

Reply 9 of 14, by red_avatar

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No, you can't and I find it ridiculous. The MT-32 simulates sounds so I think they didn't want to program it so only the non-simulated sounds play. The MT-32 music is so much better though. It IS interesting to hear how different the sounds ... sound using MT-32.

Wouldn't surprise me if ScummVM lets you do that though but of course then it's not simulated.

Also, I recall being annoyed at how QUIET Beneath A Steel Sky sounded on my IBM Aptiva. Even if I manually boosted volume, the game would reset the values and I could barely hear the speech. I thought it was specific to my IBM Aptiva but nope: I installed it on my HP Vectra VL 5/75 and it's exactly the same but this time on DOS 6.22 so it's definitely the game's fault. Both PCs use a Sound Blaster 16 though so maybe it's a card-specific issue.

Retro game fanatic.
IBM PS1 386SX25 - 4MB
IBM Aptiva 486SX33 - 8MB - 2GB CF - SB16
IBM PC350 P233MMX - 64MB - 32GB SSD - AWE64 - Voodoo2
PIII600 - 320MB - 480GB SSD - SB Live! - GF4 Ti 4200
i5-2500k - 3GB - SB Audigy 2 - HD 4870

Reply 11 of 14, by red_avatar

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henryVK wrote:

Hm, that's funny. I run it on my laptop which has an ESS688 and it seems comparatively loud.

Yeah, my later Windows 9X PCs didn't have that issue either but they had different sound cards as well. But for this "bug" to be there on one of the most common sound cards of the time is very peculiar. I should add: this was both for the disk and the CD version.

Retro game fanatic.
IBM PS1 386SX25 - 4MB
IBM Aptiva 486SX33 - 8MB - 2GB CF - SB16
IBM PC350 P233MMX - 64MB - 32GB SSD - AWE64 - Voodoo2
PIII600 - 320MB - 480GB SSD - SB Live! - GF4 Ti 4200
i5-2500k - 3GB - SB Audigy 2 - HD 4870

Reply 12 of 14, by Jo22

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JayAlien wrote:

On another note, does anyone know if you can get the MT-32 sound AND speech?

Hmm, Not sure, since I had played Beneath a Steel Sky roughly in the late 2000s the last time,
but the ScummVM interpreter supports the game and has MT-32 emulation buil-tin.
From what I remember, it also had speech the same time.

Speaking ofr the "real " DOS version, I'm not sure.
Maybe it can be modified, in a similar way like Silpheed got modified ?

Edit: I'm not surprised Beneath a Steel Sky has/had a complex memory managment.
If you consider what they had to go through on the "girlfriend" platform.. 😉

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 13 of 14, by JayAlien

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Using the Sound Blaster / Adlib option for sound makes it really quiet for me too. But to get the speech, seems this is my only option...

386sx25 SBP2 2M
P75(486) SB16 8M
P133 S3 Vir DX A64g 32M
P233MMX R128Pro A64 64M
Pii400 TNT2 Live! 128M
P3-1G V5 M80 256M
P3-1.4G R8500 A1 256M
A3200 9700Pro A2 512M
X6800 X850XT A2ZS 1G
E8600 X1950XTX Xfi 2G
QX9650 3870 Xfi 2G
i7-975 GTX570 Xfi 3GB

Reply 14 of 14, by Lazar81

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Hello. Don't know if this is still of interest... I also had problems with BSK in DOS 6.22. But I ran it without problems in DOS Mode of Windows 98. I also use NOEMS with emm386

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