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First post, by Braca862

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Hello,

I recently downloaded the ISO of Chasm The Rift and installed it on my computer. Once I click on Chasm.exe, the demo plays, but for some reason, the keyboard does not respond. I press the Esc key to access the menu, but it doesn't work. Even with the patches, I still have this problem. Here are my specs:

Dell XPS t500
Windows 98 Second Edition
512MB RAM
1 Ghz Pentium III
Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold

Can anyone help me with this?

Reply 4 of 12, by dr_st

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Let's check first if it's a problem with the entire keyboard or just with Escape.

Try jumping directly to the first level by starting the game as follows:

chasm -warp 1

And see if you can move around, shoot, etc.

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Reply 5 of 12, by Braca862

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dr_st wrote:
Let's check first if it's a problem with the entire keyboard or just with Escape. […]
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Let's check first if it's a problem with the entire keyboard or just with Escape.

Try jumping directly to the first level by starting the game as follows:

chasm -warp 1

And see if you can move around, shoot, etc.

Okay, so here's what I discovered; after entering that command and starting at the first level, it turns out that while the keyboard still doesn't work, my mouse does! I can fire by left clicking, and I can move by pressing on the scroll button. That's just weird.

Reply 6 of 12, by dr_st

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Do you happen to have a game controller plugged in? Maybe for some strange reason the game defaults to it and disables the keyboard?

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Reply 7 of 12, by Braca862

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dr_st wrote:

Do you happen to have a game controller plugged in? Maybe for some strange reason the game defaults to it and disables the keyboard?

Nope, no game controllers are plugged into the computer. Is there any config file within the game directory to try to change this?

Reply 8 of 12, by dr_st

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Not as far as I can see. There is CHASM.CFG, but it is not human-readable.

Let's go back to the basics - is your keyboard PS/2 or USB? Chasm is a weird game; maybe they coded it specifically to work with a PS/2 keyboard only (if that's even possible). And try a different keyboard if you have such an option.

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Reply 9 of 12, by Braca862

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dr_st wrote:

Not as far as I can see. There is CHASM.CFG, but it is not human-readable.

Let's go back to the basics - is your keyboard PS/2 or USB? Chasm is a weird game; maybe they coded it specifically to work with a PS/2 keyboard only (if that's even possible). And try a different keyboard if you have such an option.

Yes, my keyboard is PS/2, and its the only one I currently have.

Reply 10 of 12, by dr_st

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OK, another idea - maybe there is a timing issue that prevents Chasm from accessing the keyboard properly when the CPU is too fast? Can you try to boot into pure DOS and slow the CPU speed with a Slowdown utility (such as MoSlo or Slowdown by Bret Johnson - both can be found online) to something around Pentium/486 speeds?

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Reply 11 of 12, by schmatzler

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dr_st wrote:

OK, another idea - maybe there is a timing issue that prevents Chasm from accessing the keyboard properly when the CPU is too fast?

I don't think so. The keyboard works fine on my 1.4GHz Tualatin.

@Braca862: Did you install the last patch for the game? It is supposed to fix issues with fast CPU's:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090410053211/ht … chasm_files.htm

"Windows 98's natural state is locked up"

Reply 12 of 12, by Limpem

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I know this is an old post, but I was having the same issue.
Although I didn't find what causes this issue, I did discover a workaround:

1. Install chasm
2. Patch chasm (download csmtcpip from https://web.archive.org/web/20090410053211/ht … chasm_files.htm )
3. Run fix.exe
4. Rename chasm.cfg to chasm.tmp (or any other name)
5. Run chasm.exe (will crash with an error)
6. Restore chasm.cfg
7. Run chasm.exe

I don't have a clue why this works, but I know it does.
I also created a simple .bat file to easily run chasm (since steps 4 to 7 need to be repeated after every reboot).

Attachments

  • Filename
    start.rar
    File size
    121 Bytes
    Downloads
    56 downloads
    File license
    Public domain

430HX/P1 233MMX/64MB/S3VirgeDX,Voodoo1SLI(King Shaman)/AWE32
440BX/CelTualatin1400/512MB/Banshee, PowerVR PCX2/AWE64Gold
645DX/P4Northwood 3,5Ghz(Oc)/512MB/Voodoo5500/Vortex2
875P/P4EE 3,4Ghz/1GB/GeforceFX5950/Audigy2ZS
Z97/i3-4370/16GB/GeforceGTX960/X-Fi