Try replacing DOS4GW.exe with DOS32A - I did that on my Descent 2 install, but I can't remember the exact error I was getting that led me to do so.

I believe that DOS4GW is compiled right into the binary, which is probably why I don't see the file in the game directory.

Try creating a dos boot disk and boot from that

Davros wrote:

Try creating a dos boot disk and boot from that

^^ hmm, didn't realize it was different than Descent 2. Try just running 'dos32a descentr.exe' which should(?) do the same thing. IIRC there's also a patcher available that replaces bundled in DOS4GW with DOS32A.

Note: I'm not *sure* this will solve your problem, just curious if it works.

Try to playing with EMM386 or replace it with JEMM386.

But this is whatever version of DOS comes with 98. It doesn't even call a mem manager in the config sys.

Early DOS extenders had difficulties not only with whateverEMMbleh, but sometimes even with HIMEM, too.

Make certain you have updated Descent to at least Version 1.4a. The following links have the Version 1.0=>Version 1.4a and Version 1.4a=>Version 1.5 patches:

http://www.dfiles.de/download/d1/patches/d1_14a.exe
http://www.dfiles.de/download/d1/patches/d1_15.exe

Avoid the Version 1.0=>Version 1.5 patch as it introduces problems with music after Level 7.

I tried 1.4a and it still didn't work. I also just tried booting from a 6.22 floppy but now I can't access my c drive. Possibly because it's a different version of dos than what I formatted the c drive from? Not sure.

6.22 supports partitions only up to 2GB.
What about showing us your config.sys and autoexec.bat?

Strange, never had any real issues with Descent 1 working in MSDOS, with or without the standard Microsoft memory managers.

Have you done a full memtest to see if the memory is working right?

So, it works under Win98, but not under Win98 pure DOS mode?

Did you try to start up Win98 DOS with startup files skipped (F5 at startup), as opposed to creating DOS 6.22 bootdisk?

dr_st wrote:

So, it works under Win98, but not under Win98 pure DOS mode?

Did you try to start up Win98 DOS with startup files skipped (F5 at startup), as opposed to creating DOS 6.22 bootdisk?

I suppose I could try that (I think it's called DOS Safe Mode or something).

I didn't mean that it doesn't work with 6.22. However if I can't access my drives with 6.22 there's no way to load the game since it won't fit on a floppy.

Fixed the problem. It was the fact that Win98 by default does not use any memory managers for DOS. As soon as I called HIMEM and EMM386, Descent started working. Interesting to point out that it broke other games though like operation neptune.

I also have problems with Jazz and Towers but apparently that's a CRT? bug. I'll figure that out.

Gahhhrrrlic wrote:

I also have problems with Jazz and Towers but apparently that's a CRT? bug. I'll figure that out.

Late PCI, early and middle AGP video chips DOS game compatibility test results

retardware wrote:

Gahhhrrrlic wrote:

I also have problems with Jazz and Towers but apparently that's a CRT? bug. I'll figure that out.

Late PCI, early and middle AGP video chips DOS game compatibility test results

I think CRT might be a misnomer or it's not as it seems. The bug I'm referring to is the programming language used to compile games like Jazz and Towers. Apparently there was a bug in the code that would cause the game to crash if the CPU was faster than 200MHz. How this relates to a CRT is beyond me but the fix involves some sort of patch which rewrites the exe files to fix the bug and allow them to play again.

CRT is the name of the unit in Borland/Turbo Pascal. It provides functions for screen handling , keyboard etc.
Something like stdio.h in C or iostream in C++. In this unit somwhere there is a loop which causes overflow error on fast CPU (well faster than 200MHz).

It seems that those games are created using Borland Pascal...

zyga64 wrote:

It seems that those games are created using Borland Pascal...

Certainly Jazz Jackrabbit was.

zyga64 wrote:

CRT is the name of the unit in Borland/Turbo Pascal. It provides functions for screen handling , keyboard etc.
Something like stdio.h in C or iostream in C++. In this unit somwhere there is a loop which causes overflow error on fast CPU (well faster than 200MHz).

It seems that those games are created using Borland Pascal...

...and there are various patchers for that too, with names like CRTFIX.EXE and PATCHCRT.EXE.

As I remember, it's some kind of CPU speed measuring loop. (Similar problem to why the first Unreal engine doesn't like it if your CPU's clock speed varies while you're playing.)