VOGONS


Realms of the Haunting not launching in DosBox

Topic actions

First post, by argan1985

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

So I thought I was going to dust off ROTH and play it again with DosBox, but it won't work. I have installed everything, set the sound correctly (let it autodetect), and everything works fine, til I run roth.exe. It just throws me back to the dosprompt, no error messages, nothing. Anyone else have the same problem? I noticed that if I try to run it directly from the CD, I get that "Please insert ROTH Boot CD" error message, and if I cancel it, it starts running, but as expected without sound. Any ideas?
I'm using DosBox 0.65

Some specs:
Intel PIV 2,66 Ghz
512mb DDR-RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6600 256mb DDR
Soundblaster Audigy

Last edited by argan1985 on 2006-08-13, 20:58. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 26, by argan1985

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

How do I create a CD image for ROTH? In layman terms, please? 😉

I have tried all three levels of CD-rom support also, but didn't help. Just one thing about that...when it asks me to specify the "label" of the CD, does it mean what the computer recognizes the label on the CD as? Because this CD is unlabelled.

Reply 3 of 26, by HoustonDragon

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

This might be somewhat silly, but make sure that you're using the REALMS.BAT file to start the game, and not just ROTH.EXE. (If you're getting annoyed with the Interplay registration popup, you can always manually edit the EREGCARD.EXE line out of the batch file)

However, I did find that you do need to enable -ioctl support under XP for the game to properly recognize the CDROM drive. Otherwise, it runs fine for me.

Reply 4 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi. I just download dosbox. I have the cd of Realms of the Haunting and would like to play it again. I have never had done dos commands. I installed the game under the windows 95 option.

I now have XP, SE. My cdrom drive is E:. How and were do I create the 'directory' "C:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame", and do I include the parenthesis?

😊

Reply 5 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I did the tutorial and have the directory set up and the dosbox. But when I go to E:\install, I recieve the following message:

Install and Setup vl-36 11130297 copyright 1996 Gremlin Interactive LTD
divide error.

The 'divide error' is the same message I receive when I attempted to install directly to my XP. Any suggestions will be most appreciated. 😕

Reply 6 of 26, by MiniMax

User metadata
Rank Moderator
Rank
Moderator

Please tell us the DOSBox commands you used for mounting your drives.

The 'divide error' could be due to the game being confused by the amount of free memory available. Try the command LOADFIX in DOSBox just before you start the installer.

It could also be the amount of free space on the virtual DOSBox drive. Look in the ReadMe for information on how to mount with the -freesize option.

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
_________________
Lenovo M58p | Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 GHz | Radeon R7 240 | LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40N | Fedora 32

Reply 7 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I typed in:

Z:\>mount C C:\dosboxstuff\roth and received the line:

Drive C is mounted as local directory C:\dosboxstuff\roth

Next was:

Z:\>mount E E:\ -t cdrom -ioctl and recieved the lines:

MSCDEX installed.
Drive E is mounted as CDRom.

Next was:

Z:\>E and recieved the line:

E:\>

Reply 8 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I tried the E;\loadfix and recieved the line:

64 kb allocated

Next I did E:\install and recived the same message as before.

Off to the readme.

Reply 9 of 26, by MiniMax

User metadata
Rank Moderator
Rank
Moderator

4 things:

  1. Make sure you clean out your C:\dosboxstuff\roth directory before you try the install program from within DOSBox.
  2. It shouldn't cause any problems, but maybe ROTH prefers to have the CD as drive D (just like in the good old days). So mount your real E: as D: and start the installer as follows:
    Z:\>mount C C:\dosboxstuff\roth -freesize 500
    Z:\>mount D E:\ -t cdrom -ioctl
    Z:\>D:
    D:\>install
  3. Do you know where your dosbox.conf file is?

    Put the mount commands at the bottom of the dosbox.conf file.
  4. What are your settings for CPU core and cycles? Look in the dosbox.conf file.

    If cycles are > 3000 try lowering them. Try changing to different cores.

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
_________________
Lenovo M58p | Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 GHz | Radeon R7 240 | LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40N | Fedora 32

Reply 10 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I did try the E to D command earlier, and got something like 'limited support in subdirectories, which was different from the line produced from mounting E to E:.

Clean the roth directories? Do you mean make sure the is nothing the respective folders.

Reply 11 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Is the data you wanted from the dosboxconf file

[cpu]
# core -- CPU Core used in emulation: simple,normal,full,dynamic.
# cycles -- Amount of instructions dosbox tries to emulate each millisecond.
# Setting this higher than your machine can handle is bad!
# You can also let DOSBox guess the correct value by setting it to auto.
# Please note that this guessing feature is still experimental.
# cycleup -- Amount of cycles to increase/decrease with keycombo.
# cycledown Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

core=normal
cycles=3000
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

[mixer]
# nosound -- Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.
# rate -- Mixer sample rate, setting any devices higher than this will
# probably lower their sound quality.
# blocksize -- Mixer block size, larger blocks might help sound stuttering
# but sound will also be more lagged.
# prebuffer -- How many milliseconds of data to keep on top of the blocksize.

nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

Reply 12 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok. Follow you instructions and mounted E as D drive. Same message=divide error

I have five disk for this game, does this perhaps impact the install. And I think I had to create and then use a boot disk with the game.

Reply 13 of 26, by MiniMax

User metadata
Rank Moderator
Rank
Moderator
Gypsysprite wrote:

I have five disk for this game, does this perhaps impact the install.

5 disks? Diskettes? Or CD's?

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
_________________
Lenovo M58p | Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 GHz | Radeon R7 240 | LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40N | Fedora 32

Reply 14 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Five cd disk. Here is a copy of the 'install script'. Perhaps the answer is here. I note there are several install components contained within.

Moderator edit: Removed the huge install info listing, since it is not relevant any more

Reply 15 of 26, by MiniMax

User metadata
Rank Moderator
Rank
Moderator

The only thing I spotted were these messages:

Message=ExpandedMemory
{
English=
"You should never get this message, as ROTH does not need any
EXPANDED memory to run. Contact the GREMLIN INTERACTIVE HELP LINE
and tell them what has happened. The address and telephone number are
on the back of the box."
}

Message=ExtendedMemory
{
English=
"ROTH needs at least 3072K of EXTENDED memory to run, at
present your system does not have enough free. The easiest solution
to this problem is to choose 'Create Boot Disk' from the main menu."
}

Expanded Memory Support = EMS
Extended Memory Support = XMS

So you should she ems=false, and xms=true in the config. But I don't believe this should affect the installer, only the game.

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
_________________
Lenovo M58p | Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 GHz | Radeon R7 240 | LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40N | Fedora 32

Reply 16 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

It was truly a strange install. My son was in his final year of college 14 years ago seeking a degree in electronic engineering. He convinced me I would be a dinosaur if I did not get a computer. I did and had to learn by trail and error. And trust me, there were tons of errors. I was saved only by the fact my old Acer had factory restore disks.

I recall that I had to play with the darn game, change a ton of stuff I did not understand until it looked it up on the net, and even then only grasp parts of it since I did not have the basics. I still have an old machine that purrs like a kitten on which 98 is installed. But I did so hope I could rise to the challenge on install it on this new computer. Thanks for your help and perhaps when I get a new pc this spring, Vista will allow this old dino some mercy..

Ps. You should edit my previous post down to just that which you think is germane.

Reply 17 of 26, by MiniMax

User metadata
Rank Moderator
Rank
Moderator

A wild guess.... Change the MIDI device in the config from

[midi]
device=default

to

[midi]
device=win32

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
_________________
Lenovo M58p | Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 GHz | Radeon R7 240 | LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40N | Fedora 32

Reply 18 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Well, you gave me food for thought. So I altered the dosbox conf file based on the site you posted. It is recommended to set core=dynamic cycles=auto and ems=false for better performance on videos

I than did the e;\install several times, and this time it did not shut down dosbox after the first try as it always did before. Ather about three attempts, it installed. I think the sound may not function, but that can wait the morrow.

Reply 19 of 26, by Gypsysprite

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I think I may do that too since I know midis can be a pain in the binary. Change it in the dosbox conf file..