VOGONS


First post, by DarkMatter

User metadata

I have a Pentium IV 1800 system and i am trying to run Star Fleet 1: The War Begins by Interstel (a 1986 dos text-graphic space simulator - think mainframe). I have tried running this game 3 different ways.

Attempt 1 (running the game executable from a shortcut in Win XP)
-----------
The game crashes when the player is promoted (after the first 2 missions are completed).

Attempt 2 (booting from a dos 6.22 game disk floppy)
-----------
Success!
The game will only run properly from the A: Drive (must be on a floppy disk) and a "real dos" environment to run without crashes. If these 2 requirements are not met, the game will crash out when the player is promoted (ie from Cadet to the Lt. JG after the first 2 missions are completed).

I have successfully played the game by first booting an old Dos 6.22 game disk, then running SF1 from a second floppy disk. When the player is promoted the game saves the "service record" info properly and no crashes occur.

But I dont want to have to use an old Dos 6.22 BOOT DISK! I would much rather have the convenience of DosBox running the game! 😀

Attempt 3: (Using DosBox 0.60)
------------
Unfortunately, DosBox 0.60 crashes as soon as 1 mission is completed. SF1 complains that a file on line 1622 (or something approx to this) isn't found.... *sigh*

I have DosBox running with the following config file alterations:

Fullscreen=true

and in the autoexec lines:

mount a c:\Games\SF1 .............<--virtual a: drive floppy
a: ............................................<-switching to the virtual a: drive
begin .......................................<-game executable for SF1

Can anyone help me out here? DosBox is the most unstable attempt yet, crashing after 1 mission (I dont even get a chance to complete a second mission for promotion).

Am I setting something up wrong? Would changing/configuring any additional parameters in "dosbox.conf" help the game run more stable? Or is Star Fleet 1: The War Begins one of those games that is "broken".?

Now that I think of it would using DosBox to play straight from the a: drive floppy work, instead of playing from a virtual drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

DarkMatter

Reply 1 of 11, by Dark Knight ez

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

try mounting the it as a floppy...
change the autoexec line like so:

mount a c:\Games\SF1 -t floppy

... // bda. very bda!
... // but only if you turn godo into csah.

Reply 3 of 11, by DarkMatter

User metadata

That helped a little...
I was able to complete 1 mission, return to the main menu and start mission 2 but at that point it complained about a file error on line 1522 and crashed. 🙁

Anyone else have any ideas?

DM

Reply 4 of 11, by Guest

User metadata

Sigh..
I tried the following autoexec lines:

mount a c:\Games\SF1 -t floppy

mount a a:\ -t floppy

and in both instances the game crashed after trying to initiate the second mission.

Any dosbox guru's out there have any other suggestions?

DM

Reply 5 of 11, by DarkMatter

User metadata

BUMP

No one able to help me with this? If its a limitation with DosBox 0.6, will it be addressed in a newer version?

DM

Reply 6 of 11, by Qbix

User metadata
Rank DOSBox Author
Rank
DOSBox Author

maybe it will be fixed maybe not.... there have been some fixes to the dos files routines which might help you.

But games that really run to run from a floppy are usually pain in the a** as dosbox doesn't support lowlevel diskroutines (well not all) (and can never support them)

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 7 of 11, by Guest

User metadata

I'm currently running into the same problem with the game. People on the Starfleet Homepage seemed to be having the same problem: http://www.extrastrength.com/starfleet/messages/553.html

It seems to me it's an issue of being able to properly disk write than anything else. Does anybody have any ideas on how to get this to run properly within DOSBox? I can play through the first mission just fine, but it gives me the "file read error" after that. I'm currently using DOSBox 0.63.

Reply 8 of 11, by Qbix

User metadata
Rank DOSBox Author
Rank
DOSBox Author

hmm well I will put it on the to do check list.
any hints on how quickly to reproduce the bug ? or are you willing to run a version of dosbox that creates a log that might help us track it down ?

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 9 of 11, by Dirty Johnny

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I can reproduce it easily, and would be happy to run a version of dosbox that creates a log for you to look at.

After looking at some more posts on the web, it seems that the program writes properly when used with FAT16. Other users have been able to run the program using old, FAT16 formatted flash cards.

Update: Using Win95 compatibility mode, I'm able to get the game to run properly up to when you go up in rank for the first time. In DOSBox, it will fail every mission.

Reply 10 of 11, by Dirty Johnny

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

bump

Reply 11 of 11, by The Pawn

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I wish i could say something to help you out, i loaded the game on my XP
folder called starfleet an ran the game from there works fine..saves everything..
I set the .exe for win98 compabitly an auto for every thing else
😮