Type "ver set 6" at the DOSBox command prompt, then "ver" to see that the reported version has changed.

Not sure that will solve the problem, though.

gave that a try, and while during the install, the version reported good, the game itself still does not work. once i tried to execute the game, it gave the version and the copyright, and then kicked right back to the prompt.

Another potential problem is that when i install the program, it says it does not detect the CD. when i try to run the game, the computer doesn't seem to try to access the dvd drive. I copied the all the files onto a cd, and installed the game by mounting the cd to a D: drive, and installing into my dosgames file mounted as the c drive. it ran off the CD for that, so i don't know why it didn't detect.

Make sure that you mount the D drive in DOSBox as a CD so the virtual MSCDEX driver is loaded, an important part of CD detection:

MOUNT D E:\ -t cdrom (as an example where the E: drive is the CD)

I copied the all the files onto a cd

This makes it sound like you are using a ripped version, which is an obvious source of potential problems.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

This makes it sound like you are using a ripped version, which is an obvious source of potential problems.

I would normally agree. I tried this game (using the same ripped version I guess) and it seemed like a fairly complete copy. It came with an full installer, sound setup, etc, etc. Install goes well, but when the main program is launched, only DOS/4GW seems to start, announces it version (1.97) and copyright string, and then quits back to the DOSBox prompt.

I tried DOS/32A instead, same problem.

I tried removing everything but DOS4GW.EXE and SGDOS.EXE (the main EXE), same problem.

Nothing in the DOSBox console.

I tried different cores, EMS, XMS, UMB, loadhigh's - same problem.

I guess you are both using the rip from HOTU. You may have noticed the cracked executable included in that version is only the Win95 one, there is none for DOS.

I ran it with the DOSBox debugger to see if anything interesting showed up in the console messages. With a D: drive mounted as a CD, at startup it tries to open the file D:\sinfo\sinfo14.smk, fails, and aborts. SMK is a movie file, which are apparently not included (it is a rip, after all). So, I think we're back to the rip being the problem here.

Maybe you can find a cracked DOS executable, but you're on your own for that. 😉

ripsaw8080 wrote:

I ran it with the DOSBox debugger to see if anything interesting showed up in the console messages. With a D: drive mounted as a CD, at startup it tries to open the file D:\sinfo\sinfo14.smk, fails, and aborts.

Nice work there ripsaw 😀 That would have been my next move, but I am really a novice when it comes to x86 coding. I am more at home with 6502 and 8080. Or I could have tried ProcessExplorer. It might have showed the failed access too.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

SMK is a movie file, which are apparently not included (it is a rip, after all). So, I think we're back to the rip being the problem here.

As usual.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

I guess you are both using the rip from HOTU. You may have noticed the cracked executable included in that version is only the Win95 one, there is none for DOS.

I ran it with the DOSBox debugger to see if anything interesting showed up in the console messages. With a D: drive mounted as a CD, at startup it tries to open the file D:\sinfo\sinfo14.smk, fails, and aborts. SMK is a movie file, which are apparently not included (it is a rip, after all). So, I think we're back to the rip being the problem here.

Maybe you can find a cracked DOS executable, but you're on your own for that. 😉

I would create a zero byte sinfo14.smk file and try it out.

or a differenet smk but not sure if you can use smk's that were encoded with a different version.

Making a SINFO folder with a zero-byte SINFO14.SMK file on the CD drive does allow the game to start up, although you're initially looking at an empty window. It's possible you'll get crashes or program wierdness at other points if you don't create dummy versions of all the other movie files it tries to display.

There is no need to beat this dead horse any more. I took an interest because it looked like a bug in DOSBox, but as ripsaw figured out, it was (again) caused by a bad rip.

Yeah, you are right.

Thanks, everybody. That got a bit over my head (programming has never been my thing), but i appreciate everyone's efforts to solve the problem. does anyone know of a good rip for this game?

well it still can be a bug in dosbox. not returning the wanted information for the game. The only way to be sure is to try the rip on a real pc (and maybe on an image with a booted dos in dosbox)

We don't do things like good rips here. Talk about that isn't allowed. This is a tech support forum. Not a warez forum

I suppose that is the only way to be certain, but I lean towards it not being DOSBox's fault in this case.

OP, this would be a correct way of obtaining this game: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem … em=170256584859

Ends in 7 hours, and it's going pretty cheap (as I write this...)

cool. thanks again.