[Moved]

You are on the right track. This is what I do. Notice that I am not using any frontends.

My main dosbox.conf (located in the DOSBox folder) contains several lines at its end, the part that autoexecutes commands, that is cleverly named [autoexec]
keyb sp 437
mount c d:\dosgames
c:

For instance, if I want to configure a certain game, I copy the dosbox.conf to the game folder and configure it accordingly for that specific game, setting fullscreen, machine type, core type and cycles for speed, etc. And I also modify [autoexec] section to suit my needs.

E.G.

[autoexec]
keyb sp 437
mount c d:\dosgames
mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl -label game1
c:
cd game1
game1

(The above example is for a game already installed from cd)

And last, I create a shortcut on my desktop with the following structure:

x:\path to dosbox\dosbox.exe -noconsole -conf "d:\dosgames\game1\dosbox.conf"

Name it and go.

COME BAAACKKKK.....

Ahem.

7th Guest runs like a dream for me via dosbox. Haven`t tried 11th hour yet.

OK. Finally got to installing, but I am obviously not getting the game installed because it says the CD is not in the drive and it indeed is. I am not sure why I can not get the installer to install? What am I missing.

Thanks

nitromike2006 wrote:

What am I missing.

Sorry - but our telepathic power are especially weak this month due to unusual amounts of Solar flares. So we can't really detect what your are DOING, and without that we can't see what you are MISSING.

So do us a favour, will you?? Tell us EXACTLY what you are DOING. And not in your own words. Tell us what you instruct DOSBox to do.

Good Point!

I am working on installing 7th Guest via the install.bat on Disc 2. I ran DOSBox 0.72 and setting it up as follows:

mount c c:\DOSGames\t7g
mount d d:\ -t cdrom (have tried both -ioctl and -mscdex together and separately)

Then I run install from D: and get an error message that states that Disc 2 is not in the CD drive, type "Y" to retry or any other key exits. No combination so far has cleared this error hence I can not install the game.

What I am missing?

I am able to install The 7th Guest without error, both from the original disc and an image made from it. The "MOUNT D D:\ -t cdrom" syntax appears to work OK when using the original disc, even for the CD audio. I can install with normal core (it's a real-mode game) at 3000 and 15000 cycles, so the installer doesn't appear very sensitive to CPU speed. I was curious about the error message you're getting, so I decompressed the INSTALL.EXE program (LZEXE compression). While I can see many error messages in the executable, the particular one you are reporting is not in there, nor in any of the other files in the install folder... so I'm stumped as to where it even comes from. Perhaps you have a different version than I do; the INSTALL.EXE I have is 43,389 bytes, dated 3/29/1993 3:39:12AM, is yours the same?

Here are two screenshots that should help with my problem. The first shows how I am mounting my drives under DB 0.72 and the second shows the error on top of the install after typing INSTALL at the D: prompt.

I didn't see the error message at first because it's stored in the executable as text mixed with screen color attributes. The message starts with "The first disk of..." in the install program I have, although that message doesn't come up during install. It's strange that this installer you're using refers to the second disk and then a bit later contradicts itself by referring to the first.

I downloaded a patch for The 7th Guest called T7GFIX3.ZIP that includes an updated version of INSTALL.EXE, 43704 bytes, dated 7/23/1993 6:55 PM. If I change to the install directory "CD \T7G\INSTALL" on the CD and then run the updated installer from the C drive "C:INSTALL", I get the exact same error you do, including the contradictory reference to both discs. Since this updated installer couldn't replace the one on the original CD, it seems it was only intended to be used to re-configure hardware choices in an existing installation. Perhaps you have discs that were "reauthored" with CD software to use the patched files instead of the original ones. However, if your discs are original, it's unfortunate that you have the problematic version of the installer. 😒

They certainly are original. Bought them from Amazon.com, so the question is how to get the game installed, despite the bad version? Would I install it on a DOS machine (real iron) and move the installed directory to DOSBox or how can I otherwise get around the problem?

Thanks,

The game is branded as Virgin rather than Trilobyte, if that helps.

You can get around the problem by "manually" installing. Copy all the files in the \T7G\INSTALL folder on disc 2 into an installation folder on your mounted C drive. Then create a file in your installation folder called GROOVIE.INI with the following contents:

1;
2;ini File for The Seventh Guest
3;
4;(C) Copyright 1992 Trilobyte, Inc. and Virgin Games
5;
6[main]
7VideoCard=VESA
8midi=SoundBlasterPro2
9pcm=SoundBlasterPro2
10svga=on
11ProgDir=C:\id\t7g\
12DataDir=D:\t7g\
13Recommended=SVGA
14CPU=486dx
15FreeMem=637
16CDbench=18636
17
18[SoundBlasterPro2]
19irq=7
20port=220
21xmi=sbp2fm.adv
22pcm=sbpdig.adv
23dma=1

Change the ProgDir and DataDir paths to reflect your setup. Now when you run the INSTALL.EXE in the installation folder, it should only reconfigure the settings rather than do a full file-copy install because the config file is there. The config data I've posted here is from the original install, so definitely re-confgure for the settings you want to use with the newer installer; but using this as a starting point should get you going.

I also have the same problem when installing the game using DOSBox. It's a newer 1997 version of the game that includes a Windows installer which installs the beta DX executable. It also has the original DOS installer under /t7g/install/install.exe. I can use the DOS installer under Windows XP to install, but in DOSBox I get the same thing as noted above. It's very very odd. I had to install in XP and copy everything over, but now I cannot get the CD-audio working.

If you want a non dosbox alternative that has a 100% guarantee of working if you can get a copy of the files. Trilobyte before they shut down released an updated files pack for the game that runs straight from windows, so no having to go through dos or dosbox for that matter to play of it.

The updated files mostly being in the way of gfx and sound drivers to allow it to run with more recent soundcards of that time. It may very well be the "beta DX version" your speaking of. If it is you wont need to use dosbox to play it. Just use the updated .exe file to play it.

Personally despite having that option available to use, I still prefer playing the older version via dosbox since the windows one is mega buggy + the sounds dont always work correctly. In dosbox its right everytime for me.