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Battlecruiser 3000AD 2.09 in DOSBox

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First post, by jas4500

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I recently found a way to fix the long menu loading times when running Battlecruiser 3000AD in DOSBox. I saw some past threads about this problem, but no solutions, so I decided to share my fix here.

First you need to use a virtual machine to run the installer and apply the patch below:
https://www.fileplanet.com/62988/60000/filein … -intro-anim-fix

After installing the patch go to bc3k.bat and remove "/D1" to disable debug mode. I found that debug mode tends to cause more glitches and crashes than are already present in the game.

Then you need to copy and paste HDPMI32.exe from HX DOS extender into your install folder. It can be found here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/hx-dos/

When running in DOSBox, run "HDPMI32.exe -r " before running the game. If you get memory allocation errors or glitches when you open the systems menu while playing, then set the memsize in DOSBox to a value of 32 or higher (24 might work, but I haven't tested it).

Hopefully this helps for people who have had issues getting this to work in DOSBox.

Reply 1 of 3, by kjliew

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BC3000AD 2.09 freeware seems to have a broken DOS extender stub. This broken stub works from Win9x DOS box, but not pure DOS or pure DOS in emulation such as DOSBox. It is interesting to see if using HDPMI32.EXE would also get the 3Dfx version to run. The game seems to use stub EXE to decide which version to run. BC3000AD.EXE is just the stub.
BC3000AD.EXE -> BC3000AD.DAT (software version)
BC3000AD.EXE -> BC3000AD.GLD (3Dfx version)

To get the software version to run under DOSBox or pure DOS, DOS/32A also work by invoking the BC3000AD.DAT directly with DOS32A.EXE.
DOS32A.exe BC3000AD.DAT

However, DOS32A does not support Watcom/OVL which is required for 3Dfx version to run. If HDPMI32 would retain the game's internal DOS extender stub, then 3Dfx version might work without having to run it from Win9x DOS box.

Reply 3 of 3, by Xander75

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I kept getting general protection faults when running BC3000AD 2.09 freeware in DOSBox.

But i found a free open source DOS/32 Advanced DOS Extender that solved this problem here: http://dos32a.narechk.net.

Grab the DOS32A.exe from this package and put it in the BC folder. Invoke by typing 'DOS32A.exe BC3000AD.DAT'

No more GPFs for me

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