Sounds like a path problem where the game can't find a file containing the Chinese characters. Are you changing the default directory to the install directory before running the setup?

1C:
2CD \WESTWOOD\MALCOLM
3SETUP

If you know what file contains the characters, maybe try copying that to the root of the emulated C drive, because the way you describe the problem suggests the game is looking for the file in the root, or maybe relative to the root. The log messages in a debug build of DOSBox should make clear what directory specifications the game is using when accessing files.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

Sounds like a path problem where the game can't find a file containing the Chinese characters. Are you changing the default dire […]
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Sounds like a path problem where the game can't find a file containing the Chinese characters. Are you changing the default directory to the install directory before running the setup?

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1C:
2CD \WESTWOOD\MALCOLM
3SETUP

If you know what file contains the characters, maybe try copying that to the root of the emulated C drive, because the way you describe the problem suggests the game is looking for the file in the root, or maybe relative to the root. The log messages in a debug build of DOSBox should make clear what directory specifications the game is using when accessing files.

After some testing it turns out that the game is looking for MALCOLM.PAK.

But I didn't change the default install directory. The fact that it works on a real machine but not in DOSBox seems to suggest it might be some bug, or at least different behaviors in DOSBox?

nightson wrote:

But I didn't change the default install directory.

I didn't say you changed the default install directory, I said "change the default directory to the install directory", which is the "CD" command in my example. Some prefer to use the term "working directory" instead of "default directory".

Ah sorry I totally misread your reply ( Was playing Overwatch 😜 ) .

No, I didn't do anything before running the setup. The game installer automatically calls setup.exe after installation is complete. I just tested it out, changed the working directory to the install directory and then ran setup.exe but got the same result. It seems that the only solution is copying MALCOLM.PAK to the root. Why it works on a real machine is beyond me.

Hmm, maybe that means an incorrect path was written into the setup files on the C drive. Do you see any setup files with a path in them that is "C:\" ?

ripsaw8080 wrote:

Hmm, maybe that means an incorrect path was written into the setup files on the C drive. Do you see any setup files with a path in them that is "C:\" ?

Can't find any 🙁

The problem with the setup and game programs is that they use the CDS -- an internal DOS table that DOSBox does not emulate -- to determine the current directory of the C: drive.

It puzzles me that the programs go through such trouble with the CDS, because there is a DOS function to get the current directory (INT 21/47), and they could simply use a filespec of "MALCOLM.PAK" to open the font file in the current directory.

The attached workaround program sets the current directory of the C: drive in the CDS to "." so that the programs end up using a filespec of ".\MALCOLM.PAK" instead of "\MALCOLM.PAK" for the font file.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

The problem with the setup and game programs is that they use the CDS -- an internal DOS table that DOSBox does not emulate -- to determine the current directory of the C: drive.

It puzzles me that the programs go through such trouble with the CDS, because there is a DOS function to get the current directory (INT 21/47), and they could simply use a filespec of "MALCOLM.PAK" to open the font file in the current directory.

The attached workaround program sets the current directory of the C: drive in the CDS to "." so that the programs end up using a filespec of ".\MALCOLM.PAK" instead of "\MALCOLM.PAK" for the font file.

Thank you Sir! The workaround works great!

May I ask why CDS isn't emulated in DOSBox? Is it so obscure that no game or program used it?

nightson wrote:

May I ask why CDS isn't emulated in DOSBox? Is it so obscure that no game or program used it?

I don't know of any other case where the CDS is used, so I can understand why no effort was made to emulate it. As I mentioned before, there is a DOS function to get the current directory, and that is what games and apps usually use. I can only speculate as to why the programmers for the game's Chinese version didn't simply use the DOS function, but the fact that they didn't really need to get the current directory anyway suggests a lack of familiarity with DOS.