VOGONS


Terminator Skynet problem

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First post, by Speed_399

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I searched for terminator skynet problems and I found a bunch of threads but no one contains my issue

I'm using DosBox 0.65 and D-Fend frontend

The problem is when I lauch the game it says:

Couldn't estabilish temporary directory.
Set the environment var. TEMP and try again.
(Ex: set TEMP=.\)

But I dunno how to solve this ... i tried to launch setting SKYNET.EXE -set TEMP=\. TEMP=G:\ and other tries and adding a TEMP= line in install.dat but nothing worked

what I have to do to solve this ?

ps. sorry for my english

Reply 8 of 117, by maxxus

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boy do i hope that's true..

running skynet in 640x480 is like the holy grail of my dos experience. i've gotten system shock to run in high-res on xp i think ( dont ask me how) and all of my other goals, except skynet/future shock in 640. on my first pc it will run in 640, but it's too intensive for that pc to do right. i built up an old p2 with 256 megs of ram and a tnt2/voodoo 2 combo, 300mhz and it tries to put the refresh rate too high and puts my monitor to sleep 🙁

i guess i should be glad it runs without any sort of obscure crashing though *nods* i played through probably 80% of this game back in the mid 90's and i would so love to play it again. oddly, future shock and skynet are the only two games that gave me a genuine sense of vertigo when standing on a tall structure.

anyway, i will wait anxiously for .66.

Reply 10 of 117, by CorvusMoore

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New member and didn't want to create a new topic when a few answers are present here.

I'm using 0.70 of Dosbox and trying to get SkyNET to work but its a complete no-go. I've looked through the Install document and made sure it matches to the directory mounted by dosbox but I get the error of "GAME, Error : SysInit (couldn't open archive) .

The most disturbing part is I do have the proper CD, but when I install the game through the auto-launcher and further promptings of the launcher, it never reads the game as installed. That includes the auto-launch program that gets installed in the game, it just dosen't seem to register itself as being on the system... when I try to run it without Dosbox about four lines come up on the window but it never goes any further, the No CD fix does nothing to help with this.

Reply 12 of 117, by wildweasel

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I had this error too, but I managed to fix it by manually editing the install.dat file in the game directory to point to the virtual directory instead of the real one. I spent a week trying to get past the SysInit error and only just today managed to figure that part out.

Anyway, after fixing the install.dat and configuring the sound, I was able to get most of the way through the first mission. Unfortunately, I can't get high-res mode to work without DOSBox crashing.

wwsig2-button1.pngwwsig2-center.pngwwsig2-button2.png

Reply 13 of 117, by Neville

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The bad news are that CorvusMoore has already checked his INSTALL.DAT. The good news is that SkyNET's SVGA mode works fine since v0.71.

skynet000by6.th.png skynet001kk3.th.png

Now seriously, I've had my share of troubles to get this game working, so my guesses are:

1) CD-ROM mounting. Have you tried all three methods?

2) The INSTALL.DAT file. Check it again, make sure everything is right, even the spelling and \ symbols.

3) Are you using any frontend? Frontends often mount games as C:\ by default, and that would contradict the settings in INSTALL.DAT even if you've placed the game on the right folder.

Let's imagine your game is in C:\DOSGAMES\SKYNET. Your mounting instruction shoul look like this:

MOUNT C C:\DOSGAMES

And your INSTALL.DAT should look like this:

[skynet] installpath=c:\skynet sourcepath=c:\skynet type=net_large […]
Show full quote

[skynet]
installpath=c:\skynet
sourcepath=c:\skynet
type=net_large

Note that I'm running the cracked version, though.

Last edited by Neville on 2008-02-15, 10:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 14 of 117, by CorvusMoore

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I'm not great with Dosbox, for me to get Blood working I just drag its EXE onto dosboxes EXE and they blend quite well. Same result with SkyNET always failed and its likely just an amatuer mistake I'm making when it comes to mounting.

But to confirm my Inst. for both entries is c:\skynet and thats the directory I mounted. Dos has always escaped me, the thing that really worries me though is how the game itself, both CD and the installed launcher don't detect the game, nor do the demo movies work, its quite worrying and yes it is the genuine article.

Reply 15 of 117, by MiniMax

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Amateur mistake - well.... When you drag the EXE onto DOSBox, the folder with the EXE becomes the C-drive in DOSBox. Then the EXE starts, looks in INSTALL.DAT and tries to find c:\skynet. But since the C-drive *is* (as far as anything that goes on inside DOSBox) in fact mapped to the EXE-folder (which is C:\skynet ??) the poor EXE is really looking inside c: + \skynet => C:\skynet + \skynet => C:\skynet\skynet on your real harddisk.

How much does it find there?

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Reply 16 of 117, by SysGOD

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ah the lovely INSTALL.DAT problem again...

you can also put a "." behind every line in the install.dat, so that it looks like this for example:

[skynet] fspath=.\shock installpath=. sourcepath=. type=net_large […]
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[skynet]
fspath=.\shock
installpath=.
sourcepath=.
type=net_large

and you can copy or mount skynet wherever you want without touching this file again.

"fspath=" is only needed if you have future shock integrated with skynet.

sysprofile.png

Reply 18 of 117, by swaaye

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So playing Skynet in SVGA is a lost cause, as far as I can tell. No matter what, within a minute or two of gameplay, DOSBOX itself will crash. I don't think I've ever seen a command line after it crashes; it just takes DOSBOX with it.

What I've tried so far:
-Various versions of DOSBOX, including 0.72, CVS, and daum cafe
-ET4000 VGA mode (SVGA doesn't work at all with this)
-S3VBE TSR (VESA 2 extensions cause the game to not see SVGA support)
-Normal vs Dynamic core (nothing but slower-ness)
-Overlay and Surface display modes
-no sound
-game patch (1.01)
-dos32a
-large vs small install
-complete install (videos off CD and relative/absolute paths in install.dat)
---side note here: this seems to make SVGA crash immediately upon mission load. It draws half of the screen and then poof gone.

😀