I was already able to solve the problem by setting section "Cap DOS timer frequency" - and everything works fine!!

So here is my Pandora Installation Walkthrough - i've tested it on 9 different systems now:

----------------------------------------------------------

Pandora Directive Windows XP Patch

Pandora Directive needs some tweaking to get to run under Windows XP. Don't try the Windows Version of PD. Instead, use only the DOS files. You need an installed version of VDMSound and the VDMSound Launchpad (both freeware).

That's how to install VDMSound (do this *before*).

Download
a) VDMSound 2.0.4: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/vdmsound/V … 86.msi?download

b) VDMSound Launchpad 1.0.1.1:
http://vdmsound.sourceforge.net/files/VDMSLau … ad.v1.0.1.1.zip
(unzip into your VDMSound directory and run INSTALL.BAT)

c) Hacked TEX4.EXE:
(can be found as attachment in one posting on the 3rd Page in this thread)

That's how to fix the game (do it step by step, anything else and the game won't run):

1. Install Pandora Directive from CD 1.

I recommend to install Pandora Directive with INSTALL2.EXE from CD 1 as it copies only necessary files for the dos version to your hard drive. But you can also use the windows version (SETUP.EXE) or the normal routine INSTALL.EXE (if it works).

2. Copy the patched TEX4.EXE in your Pandora Directory - overwrite the existing one.

3. Run Notepad (click on Start>Run and enter "notepad").

Open the file SOUND.INF in your Pandora Directory:

There is a section called [DIGI_BOARDS]. On *EVERY* line under this section until the space line, add ",1" at the end - except the last two. So it should look something like this:

------------------------------------------------------
[DIGI_BOARDS]
1) Sound Blaster 1.0 = 0xe000,0,1,1
2) Sound Blaster Pro = 0xe001,1,2,1
3) Sound Blaster 16 = 0xe018,3,3,1
4) Sound Blaster AWE32 = 0xe018,3,5,1
5) Microsoft Sound System {Microsoft Sound Sys} = 0xe00e,3,6,1
6) Ensoniq Soundscape = 0xe020,3,7,1
7) Pro AudioSpectrum = 0xe005,1,8,1
😎 Pro AudioSpectrum 16 {Pro AudioSpect 16} = 0xe006,3,9,1
9) Adlib Gold = 0xe008,3,11,1
10) ESS AudioDrive = 0xe01c,3,18,1
11) Gravis Ultrasound = 0xe025,2,19,1
12) Gravis Ultrasound Max = 0xe029,2,20,1
13) Roland RAP-10 = 0xe022,2,17,1
14) Sound Galaxy Nova16 = 0xe00e,3,21,1
15) SB 1.0 (No Verify) = 0xe000,0,1,1
16) SB Pro (No Verify) = 0xe001,1,2,1
------------------------------------------------------

4. Open Notepad and edit the file CONFIG.INI in your Pandora Directory. Change the following sections (this is the most important step!):

------------------------------------------------------
[DIGI_CONFIG]
BoardNum=1
IoAddr=0x220
DMA=1
Int=7
Volume=100
ReverseStereo=No

[MIDI_CONFIG]
BoardNum=12
IoAddr=0x330
DigiDrums=Yes
Volume=70

[SYSTEM]
LastPlayer=
Pass=1
------------------------------------------------------

Leave the rest.

5. Open Windows Explorer and go to the directory of Pandora (e.g. C:\PANDORA). VDMSound should now be installed already.

Right Click on the file PANDORA.BAT. Click on "Run with VDMSound" with the musical note on the side. Click "Setup a custom configuration". Click Next. Leave "Create a new configuration from scratch". Click Next. Click "Advanced".

Make the following settings:

a) Under "AdLib":
DISABLE the section by UNchecking the section "Enable AdLib (FM) Emulation"

b) Under "Soundblaster":
Make sure, "Soundblaster 16" is set in the 'DSP Ver.' section!
IRQ port should be left as "7"
as well as the (8-bit) DMA "1" and (16-bit) DMA "5".

b) Under "Compatiblity":
DISABLE the EMS memory by UNchecking the section "Enable expanded memory"
ENABLE the basic VESA support
ENABLE the low-level CD-ROM support
ENABLE DPMI support

c) Under "Midi":
DISABLE the section by UNchecking the section "Enable MIDI (MPU-401) emulation"!

-OR-

If you are having trouble with getting Pandora running with disabled Midi, then activate MIDI and make sure, "0x330" is set in the Base Port section.

In this case, you also have to change CONFIG.INI again:

--------------------------------
[MIDI_CONFIG]
BoardNum=1
IoAddr=0x388
DigiDrums=Yes
Volume=75
--------------------------------

Only do this if the disabling of Midi didn't work with your system. On some systems, this configuration doesn't give any music at all!

-> If you're having preformance problems then you also can set some stuff in the "Preformance" section. See information on the end of this text.

THEN:

Click Ok and Next.

Check "remember my settings" and -if you like- also "add a shortcut to my desktop".

And,
if you are lucky, your game will start right away!

If you have further problems:

*If your game is running in too low hertz frequency, try these utilities:

-> http://home.student.utwente.nl/r.mu...h/download.html
-> [url]http://www.informatik.fh-muenchen.d...98223/vbehz.htm[/url]

(include them in "pandora.bat" e.g.)

*If WinXP ist always crashing back to the Desktop while switching to another CD:

-> deactivate the AutoPlay-Function for CD-ROMs with mixed content (or deactivate AutoRun at all)

*If Pandora runs much too slow:

-> Under "Preformance" of the VDMSound Launchpad check "Cap DOS timer freuqency". If it's still too slow, also Check "Try to reduce CPU usage" and try it with med. or low usage. This is especially necessary for weaker machines below 1 GHz.

Originally posted by basti007 Thanks also to Jiri for his settings which made MPU-401 possible for me!

Eh? Is there a difference in his settings from the earlier tested configurations?

In one of the earlier configuration in this thread, MIDI wasn't disabled (just adlib!) - someone ment there, that MPU-401 wouldn't be possible - just normal FM synth (we had the BoardNum=1 there). Now i realized, that MPU-401 is possible in PD when deactivating MIDI at all (don't know how it works then actually - probably the MIDI then does apply to the WindowsXP own legacy/emulation drivers instead?)

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Eh? Is there a difference in his settings from the earlier tested configurations?

Yeah, working MPU-401, I also thought it was my discovery. It was, try to believe me, I swear. 😉 Or am I missing something? This thread is so looooong.

Basti wrote:

So here is my Pandora Installation Walkthrough - i've tested it on 9 different systems now

I´m still curious - can you (or somebody else) play this game in XP without crashes to the end?

On one system: Yes. The other one's i don't know whether the players have finished it, yet. Why shouldn't it work... To me it seems quite save... There is one crash though, which hasn't to do anything with XP anyway - accurs sometimes in DOS as well (in the Roswell Complex). I don't know of any other crashes at the moment.

But you should deactivate AutoPlay for CD switching, of course - This can sometimes cause crashes.

Why shouldn't it work...

I had some sudden crashes into the desktop without a notice and not at the moment of CD switching.

Sharon (writes in this thread): Jiri, my game crashes into the desktop without notice too.
But I have 2 types of crashes.
ONE: sudden crash
TWO: when i insert another cd

Silverfoxx:
showthread.php?s=&threadid=2233
second problem instability: when i was done talking to chelsea the game crashed (when i walked out the Ritz)

Originally posted by basti007 In one of the earlier configuration in this thread, MIDI wasn't disabled (just adlib!)

That was probably mine, as MIDI sounded very good, but AdLib was horrid.

someone ment there, that MPU-401 wouldn't be possible - just normal FM synth (we had the BoardNum=1 there). Now i realized, that MPU-401 is possible in PD when deactivating MIDI at all

You lost me here...

Originally posted by Jiri Or am I missing something? This thread is so looooong.

*heh*
Indeed. Part of the reason there's been no official entry for it in the "Problem Children" thread has been the lack of consistency.

This has been especially troubling when it comes to hacking the main game executable...no small thing for the average user and you can imagine the frustration of doing that and then nothing changing.

I´m still curious - can you (or somebody else) play this game in XP without crashes to the end?

What? Spend my time playing instead of troubleshooting all the time?....hrmm...an intriguing proposition.

Originally posted by basti007 But you should deactivate AutoPlay for CD switching, of course - This can sometimes cause crashes.

or just hold down your left shift key until your CD finishes it's "Spin up" routine. Of course, that can get annoying...

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

What? Spend my time playing instead of troubleshooting all the time?....hrmm...an intriguing proposition.

Oh, those language nuances! It probably should have been: "Have you been able to play Pandora without crashing?" Or something like that. My question was not an appeal to play Pandora, I just wanted to know an experience of those who already did that. But Basti seemed to understand, you know, we foreigners sometimes understand each other better in English. 😁 😁

Originally posted by Jiri:

Ark is a specific problem - it is the only VESA game I can´t get running in DOS (it is the game for DOS and strange one, it was released with outdated engine at the time when games normally used DirectX and were written for Windows). Is it possible to tell exactly what VESA mode a particular game wants? I now presume Ark wants something like 640x480x24bpp. GeForce2 doesn´t have 24bpp modes and when I tried to add them with VBEPlus I was not succesful. 15bpp modes are also missing but I managed to add them with VBE15bpp utility.

Ark of Time works fine on DOS, if your video adapter BIOS is definately VBE2.0/VBE3.0 compliant and supports the required VESA mode 110h (640x480x15bpp) which Ark of Time needs to function. From your listed Hercules GeForce 2MX it look like they left that mode out. My Matrox G-450 PCI has that VESA video mode 110h.

I downloaded Ark of Time from HoTU to check out your problem, but found that it would not run in DOS v6.22 until I renamed the file included game file "Setence.dat" to "Sentence.dat", changed out the "Dos4gw.exe" version 1.97 for the "Dos4gw.exe" version 2.01, and added the below file: "DIG.INI" in the game sub-directory.

File: DIG.INI

1;
2;Miles Design Audio Interface Library V3.02 of 18-Jan-95
3;
4
5DEVICE      Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32
6DRIVER      SB16.DIG
7IO_ADDR     220h
8IRQ         7
9DMA_8_BIT   1
10DMA_16_BIT  5

Now the above DIG.INI file will let Ark of Time run with sound in WinXP via VDMSound, but you get NO video because the necessary VESA mode 110h (640x480x15bpp) won't display on my monitor under WinXP. Works fine on same PC under DOS v6.22, so there is hope.

Best of luck,

dvwjr

Thank you for an interesting info dvwjr. How did you find out what VESA mode is needed? VBE15bpp worked on my Geforce2 MX card, vesa testing utility reported that 15bpp modes were added but it did not help with Ark. Now I have an opportunity to test ATI Radeon 9200 and nVIDIA FX 5200 and results are quite interesting. Ark (both full original and ripped HOTU versions) works just fine with Radeon 9200 in DOS and also in Windows XP (I haven´t tested it with FX 5200 yet). I had only problems with low refresh rates (but I managed to change it by bios hack) and with corrupted Windows video display (maybe it is the same problem you are referring abouthere ) when returning from the game which was solved by installing the last Catalyst driver ver.3.7 instead of the driver that came with the card. When more testing is completed (and not just with the Ark but other games too), I will post some results here on Vogons. It seems that info about VESA support is top secret today - almost nothing in nVIDIA, ATI and card manufacturers materials, reviewers are interesting just in 3Dmark results and vendors usually even don´t know what VESA is - if you are asking, they start raving about pixel shaders, vertex shaders and such things.

Originally posted by Jiri:

How did you find out what VESA mode is needed?

Just camped out on Int 10h to see what Ark of Time was doing.

I will be looking forward to the differences you find with Video adapters and their ability to let the onboard video BIOS setup the various SVGA/VESA video modes. Your message leads me to believe that WinXP lets the default Pclk1? setting controls all VGA/VESA video modes. If the default BIOS setting of the dot clock could be bumped up, the probably all of the VESA 640x480 modes could be enabled for most video adapters without requiring any changes to OEM video drivers. Right now it seems that only the 640x400 and 640x480 256 color modes work, since higher color modes require a different dot clock setting on my Matrox G-450 video adapter.

dvwjr

dvwjr wrote:

Just camped out on Int 10h to see what Ark of Time was doing.

😕 If I only had skills that programmers have! It can be useful sometimes 😀 . But I´m not a programmer, just common computer user so my results probably are not as detailed and technical as you would have expected. My intention was just to check out what VESA modes and VBE versions are present, if refresh rates changes were possible and also test these cards with some known problematic games. Since this no more belongs specifically to Pandora threat (and I´m also getting a little tired of this thread 😀 ) I posted results here .

Originally posted by Jiri Oh, those language nuances!

I understood your point, Jiri. My point was that kind of testing would require me to actually play the game, not just the minimal playing we usually do for testing purposes. I guess the humor is lost in the translation.

...we foreigners sometimes understand each other better in English.

...which makes sense. I noticed this back in the Amiga demodisc days. The Spanish programmer might not know French, the French programmer might not know Italian, the Italian programmer might not know German, the German programmer might not know Spanish, but all of them will almost certainly know some English.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

I guess the humor is lost in the translation.

Not completely. I kind of thought it was the humor, but I was not absolutely sure. So now it is clear. Perhaps the problem was not in the translation but in the written form of communication, you know, no broadly smiling faces and such kind of things. 😁 Smiley would help.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

...but all of them will almost certainly know some English.

Yes. But it was not exactly what I meant (that many people know English). I noticed that foreigners do not usually use terms like mental laxative, therefore no need to ponder: What the hell is he talking about? 😁 Yes, I know, I know, we make many mistakes, so a great opportunity for misunderstanding still remains. 😁

Originally posted by Jiri Perhaps the problem was not in the translation but in the written form of communication, you know, no broadly smiling faces and such kind of things. 😁 Smiley would help.

I hate to use smileys. They almost never accurately reflect what I am trying to communicate. Besides, even when I am smiling...it doesn't really look like it.

Yes, I know, I know, we make many mistakes, so a great opportunity for misunderstanding still remains.

Ah...C'est la Vie!

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Besides, even when I am smiling...it doesn't really look like it.

"seriously thinking" Is it just Nicht´s or common problem? Immediately tried the mirror and compared to smiley: 😁 Yes, yes, really, slight differences can be found! 😁

Okay, I'm a new User so G'day all!!

I've only ever played Pandora Directive once, and I can't even remember if I finished it, and I have never even played Under a Killing moon, altho I have both games but they are my brothers.

right well, I have Patched both the tex#.exe files for these two games (Patched them myself with the instructions from another website) but I am still getting problems...

there is a constant click, almost like it skips audio every two seconds or so, I haven't gotten beyond the introduction movies because I am having trouble understanding it... (same problem occurs with another movie/game "The 7th Guest" altho, It's easier to understand, much less talking involved!)

and in Killing Moon only, I can't even get passed the introduction do to the fact that the Audio cuts out...

my files stands thus:

1sound.ini
2
3[DIGI_BOARDS]
41)  Sound Blaster 1.0                               = 0xe000,0,1,1
52)  Sound Blaster Pro                               = 0xe001,1,2,1
63)  Sound Blaster 16                                = 0xe018,3,3,1
74)  Sound Blaster AWE32                             = 0xe018,3,5,1
85)  Microsoft Sound System {Microsoft Sound Sys}    = 0xe00e,3,6,1
96)  Ensoniq Soundscape                              = 0xe020,3,7,1
107)  Pro AudioSpectrum                               = 0xe005,1,8,1
118)  Pro AudioSpectrum 16 {Pro AudioSpect 16}        = 0xe006,3,9,1
129)  Adlib Gold                                      = 0xe008,3,11,1
1310) ESS AudioDrive                                  = 0xe01c,3,18,1     
1411) Gravis Ultrasound                               = 0xe025,2,19,1
1512) Gravis Ultrasound Max                           = 0xe029,2,20,1
1613) Roland RAP-10                                   = 0xe022,2,17,1
1714) Sound Galaxy Nova16                             = 0xe00e,3,21,1
1815)  SB 1.0 (No Verify)                             = 0xe000,0,1,1,1
1916)  SB Pro (No Verify)                             = 0xe001,1,2,1,1
20

1CONFIG.ini
2
3[DIGI_CONFIG]
4BoardNum=3
5IoAddr=0x220
6DMA=5
7Int=7
8Volume=100
9ReverseStereo=No
10
11[MIDI_CONFIG]
12BoardNum=2
13IoAddr=0x388
14DigiDrums=No
15Volume=75
16
17[SYSTEM]
18LastPlayer=MAGOO
19Pass=1
20ChainInt8=Yes
21ChainInt1C=Yes
22WinMemReserve=0
23Label=PANDORA
24
25[PREF]
26Hints=On
27Captioning=Off
28WalkingSpeed=Med
29MouseSens=Med
30TiltCntrl=Norm
31WindowSize=7
32Rendering=High
33Auto428x324=Off
34CyberMouse=Off
35MPEG=Off
36ForceScaling=Off
37
38[VIDEO]
39Univesa=Off
40TransferRate=27982
41DirectDrive=0
42VGALetterBox=Off
43Brightness=0
44ScreenColor=0
45
46[CD_MAP]
47Disk1=E
48Disk2=E
49Disk3=E
50Disk4=E
51Disk5=E
52Disk6=E

and anyway I was told to go about loading these games Manualy, instead of using the "Run with VDMS" option, to do the following:

copy the vdms.ini file over to the directory of the game and create a bat file (this is a copy of the pandora one, the same sorta file for Killing moon):

1winpandora.bat
2
3dosdrv -i:c:\pandora\vdms.ini
4pandora.bat

1VDMS.ini
2
3[*.depends] ; Add here dependencies common to all modules (beware of circular references!)
4
5[*.debug]   ; Add here debug parameters common to all modules
6detail  = 256           ; 256 = no logging, 192 = errors only, 128 = warnings and errors, 0 = everything
7file    = .\VDMS.LOG    ; log in a file called VDMS.LOG in the current directory
8
9[*.config] ; Add here settings common to all modules
10
11[VDMServicesProvider]
12CLSID   = VDDLoader.VDMServices
13Path    = VDDLoader.dll
14
15[VDMServicesProvider.config]
16fixPOPF = 1             ; makes undocumented system call 2e:e8(0d,0/1) to recover from the PUSHF/CLI/POPF protected-mode cleared interrupts problem (Windows XP only)
17
18[MPU401 Controller]
19CLSID   = EmuMPU401.MPU401Ctl
20Path    = EmuMPU401.dll
21
22[MPU401 Controller.depends]
23VDMSrv  = VDMServicesProvider
24MidiOut = MIDI Mapper
25
26[MPU401 Controller.config]
27port    = 0x330         ; usually 0x300 or 0x330
28IRQ     = 2             ; usually 2
29
30[MIDI Mapper]
31CLSID   = MIDIToolkit.MIDIMapper
32Path    = MIDIToolkit.dll
33
34[MIDI Mapper.depends]
35MidiOut = MIDI Player
36
37[MIDI Mapper.config]
38mapFile = identity.map  ; translates between the MIDI devices selected in games and the one in your system
39
40[MIDI Player]
41CLSID   = MIDIDevice.MIDIOut
42Path    = MIDIDevice.dll
43
44[MIDI Player.depends]
45MidiOut = SysEx Indicator
46
47[MIDI Player.config]
48device  = -1            ; -1 = the MIDI mapper, 0 = first device, 1 = second, etc.
49
50[SysEx Indicator]
51CLSID   = MIDIIndicator.ActivityLights
52Path    = MIDIIndicator.dll
53
54[SysEx Indicator.config]
55led     = Scroll        ; the indicator led - can be either of Num, Caps or Scroll
56
57[DMA Transfer Manager]
58CLSID   = DMAController.TransferMgr
59Path    = DMAController.dll
60

61[DMA Transfer Manager.depends]
62VDMSrv  = VDMServicesProvider
63
64[DMA Transfer Manager.config]
65minDMAPeriod = 5   ; these regulate the frequency of DMA ...
66maxDMAPeriod = 15  ; ... activity (polling and updating)
67
68[SB Controller]
69CLSID   = EmuSBCompat.SBCompatCtl
70Path    = EmuSBCompat.dll
71
72[SB Controller.depends]
73VDMSrv  = VDMServicesProvider
74DMACtl  = DMA Transfer Manager
75WaveOut = SB Wave Player
76AdLib   = AdLib Controller
77
78[SB Controller.config]
79version = 4.15      ; 1.05 for SB1.x, 2.01 for SB2, 3.02 for SBPro, 4.05 for SB16
80port    = 0x220     ; usually 0x220 (can also be 210, 230, 240, 250, 260 or 280)
81IRQ     = 7         ; usually 5 or 7
82DMA8    = 1         ; usually 1
83DMA16   = 5         ; usually 5
84
85[AdLib Controller]
86CLSID   = EmuAdLib.AdLibCtl
87Path    = EmuAdLib.dll
88
89[AdLib Controller.depends]
90VDMSrv  = VDMServicesProvider
91WaveOut = AdLib Wave Player
92
93[AdLib Controller.config]
94port    = 0x388
95sampleRate = 11025  ; sample rate at which to output sound, 44100 = max (highest quality but highest CPU% too), 8000 = min
96
97[SB Wave Player]
98CLSID   = DSoundDevice.WaveOut  ; you can also use 'WaveDevice.WaveOut'
99Path    = DSoundDevice.dll      ; you can also use 'WaveDevice.dll'
100
101[SB Wave Player.config]
102device  = -1    ; -1 = the Wave/DirectSound mapper, 0 = first device, 1 = second, etc.
103buffer  = 75    ; how many milliseconds of audio data to buffer
104
105[AdLib Wave Player]
106CLSID   = DSoundDevice.WaveOut  ; you can also use 'WaveDevice.WaveOut'
107Path    = DSoundDevice.dll      ; you can also use 'WaveDevice.dll'
108
109[AdLib Wave Player.config]
110device  = -1    ; -1 = the Wave/DirectSound mapper, 0 = first device, 1 = second, etc.
111buffer  = 75    ; how many milliseconds of audio data to buffer
112
113[Joystick Controller]
114CLSID   = EmuJoystick.JoystickCtl
115Path    = EmuJoystick.dll
116
117[Joystick Controller.depends]
118VDMSrv  = VDMServicesProvider
119
120[Joystick Controller.config]
121port        = 0x201     ; usually 0x201
122minCoord    = 5         ; upper and left range trimming, 0 gives maximum range
123maxCoord    = 250       ; bottom and right range trimming, decrease to boost joystick sensitivity, increase if jerky
124pollPeriod  = 125       ; how many milliseconds should elapse between asynchronous joystick updates
125mapFile     = joy1.map  ; allows you to pick from various joystick configurations

I have also read that someone was having trouble with only 3/4 of the screen. I had that problem, all I had to do was readjust the monitor for the new video settings (it was off the bottem of the screen) and I have full screen again, and it changes between fullscreen "dosbox" (comand prompt) and windows XP.

I have also encounted the black screen and found that was because I had selected the wrong audio settings......

I hope this helps others, and I hope others can help me!

Originally posted by MagooChris there is a constant click, almost like it skips audio every two seconds or so, I haven't gotten beyond the introduction movies because I am having trouble understanding it...

Your problem is here:[code][DIGI_CONFIG]
BoardNum=3
IoAddr=0x220
DMA=5
Int=7
Volume=100
ReverseStereo=No[/code]
Stop using the SoundBlaster 16 for audio. While it is obviously superior to the 8Bit audio, it chokes unless it processes only very small snippets of audio. The best sound option for me was "SoundBlaster Pro" with "General MIDI" for music.

I ran into this problem back at the beginning of this thread.

(Patched them myself with the instructions from another website)

Which almost certainly got that info from here as it was WireKnight who discovered the NOP fix.

Manualy, instead of using the "Run with VDMS" option, to do the following: copy the vdms.ini file over to the directory of the […]
Show full quote

Manualy, instead of using the "Run with VDMS" option, to do the following:

copy the vdms.ini file over to the directory of the game and create a bat file (this is a copy of the pandora one, the same sorta file for Killing moon):
[code]
winpandora.bat

dosdrv -i:c:\pandora\vdms.ini
pandora.bat
[/code]

Why do all this? For crying out loud, just use a batch file and use the Launchpad to customize the settings for Pandora.

Might I ask where you got the instructions to fix this problem? It wasn't the Underdogs (again) was it?