Some Win32s games run into the "Unexpected DOS error: 21" problem, and cputype=486_slow (or pentium_slow) usually gets rid of it.

For the virtual memory complaint, did you try increasing memsize? (in theory you don't need as much virtual memory with more physical memory)

Indeed, cputype=486_slow gets rid of the "Unexpected DOS error: 21" in "Deadlock: Planetary Conquest". Thanks for the tip.

I already tried increasing memsize with "Microsoft Golf 2.0", but the problem persists. My guess is that either:

1) The problem is another issue, and the error message kind of a generic one.

2) The game needs 32 bit disk access, which I'm told is not implemented under DOSBox.

A bit of investigation suggests that MS Golf suffers the same problem in Windows XP. (One page suggests solving the problem with a minimum page file size of 4 GB, but that seems a bit fishy.)

Ahhh... there you go, "Microsoft Golf 2.0" also needed the cputype=pentium_slow option... now it works with default memory settings:

I'll see if that was also the problem with "Fisher-Price Great Adventures: Castle".

EDIT: Nope, that one keeps freezing at the install assistant.

I don't suppose you see any unusual activity in the debug window of a debug-enabled version of DOSBox?

I use a regular build, I don't think I could decipher the output of a debug one.

The bottom part of the debug window shows file accesses in a fairly straightforward manner. Sometimes if you're lucky you can see if something is missing.

Of course, it might be easier to try to duplicate the problem in Win9x (or XP), in which case Process Monitor (a Win32 program) can be used to the same effect. Or maybe it's just some other emulation quirk, in which case that would just be a waste of time.

I'm willing to try a DOSBox Debug version. Can you tell me where to find an up-to-date version?

The Fisher-Price game and its installer seem to work OK with *only* the video and sound drivers installed in Windows 3. The installer is a Win16/Win32 hybrid, so Win32s may be a hangup, at least in DOSBox. Also, the game uses QuickSound, which may have problems with certain versions of QuickTime. So, I haven't nailed down the exact problematic element.

Edit: As I suspected, it's Win32s that gives the installer a fit. However, you can install Win32s after the game is successfully installed and it won't cause a problem because the game is 16-bit.

Thank you, I'll try that tomorrow.

EDIT: Yes, it does work on a barebones Windows 3.X setup.

Thanks again for the tips.

"The Daedalus Encounter" is driving me nuts... It works fine right after installing, but after running Windows again it loses the sound after pressing <SPACE>, which is used to play video in full screen. I've tried the usual tricks (memory size, cputype), plus updating the game to v1.2, but zero results so far.

Dunno what would cause the sound to cut out... try sbmixer=false, and maybe fixed cycles or a cycle limit.

If the movies are in QT or VFW format, did you install the latest drivers? Are you using a video driver color depth recommended in the game readme? I've seen some games install outdated QT components that b0rk movie playback. What I did there was use a clean install of Win3 with no QT, installed the game, then installed the latest version of QT and let it clean up old components.

TDE tries to install Quicktime v2.0.1, but fails. I installed v2.1.2 successfully afterwards. It tries to detect previous installations of QT and erase them, so I don't think it's a QT issue. I'm using the S3 drivers, a 640x480x256c resolution and the official SB16 drivers.

Could you reproduce the issue?

I'm not reproducing the problem you describe: sound not working when movies are toggled to fullscreen, even after restarting DOSBox and Win3.

I'm using default settings in DOSBox 0.74, WfW 3.11, S3 Trio 64/32 video driver version 1.70.04, SB16 driver + patch. I chose minimum install for the game, and did not try to install the included QT, installing QT 2.1.2 instead.

BTW, the movies look better with more than 8-bit color depth. The game worked fine with 32-bit color, but 16-bit looked about as good, so 32-bit might be overkill.

I'm going to try a clean install again, and see what happens.