Tried it with the default memory setting, or somewhat below (8mb)?

Warlords 2 Deluxe (V2.1 anyway) definitely works with default memory settings (xms, ems enabled, 16 megs). I wouldn't recommend using anything above 32 unless the game specifically calls for it, as it breaks some older games that just don't expect to see that much memory. Very few DOS games benefit from >32 megs.

Thanks, that worked!

Just a side note: Some games even choke on 16MB of XMS/EMS. Realms of Arkania silently corrupts your savegames later in the game, which is especially annoying.

Sounds like those who maintain compatibility lists will want to also record recommended amounts of memory with which to run.

But how on earth can MORE memory be a problem?

if (can_allocate_more_memory)
screwUp();

???

Because lazy programmers assumed that nobody would ever have more than X kilobytes or megabytes or gigabytes of RAM, and thus some games only look at the first Y number of bits in the number representing the amount of RAM reported as available. If the real number representing the amount of available memory has more bits than what the game is looking at, then it will freak out and think there is some really small number available.

This is a simplifaction but the basic idea is true. Here's an oversimplified (to the point of being incorrect in a pedantic sense) example:
If a game expects that noone will ever have more than 1,000,000 bytes of RAM, it will only look at the 7 digits of that number. In a computer with 10,000,000 bytes of RAM, it will see 0000000. "Oh no, not enough RAM!"

(the reason this example is technically incorrect is that computers count bits, not base ten numbers)

Another game that just pops into my mind: It wants at most 4M, I think 8 was already too much. I forgot which it was, but it took me ages to get it working, until I tried 4M memsize just by chance... Another one likes 48M, but not DOSBoxens maximum of 63. Stupid game programmers... "oh, no one could possibly afford more that four megabytes of memory"

HunterZ wrote:

Sounds like those who maintain compatibility lists will want to also record recommended amounts of memory with which to run.

Yup, although I hate to go just by the recommendations in a game readme. I think I have a wish in the Wish list to "record" how much and what type of memory a game uses. This would be usefull for specific configuration files for each game and to know exactly how much memory you would need for the game on a real system.

Obviously there are more important things to worry about currently. 😉