How did you mount the cdrom?

Sorry, I meant to mention that as well. The following is the mount command for my cdrom in my dosbox.conf.

mount D /mnt/cdrom -t cdrom -ioctl

(If you can't already tell, I'm on Linux)

If you're trying to run the version from Home of the Underdogs, it can be pretty picky about its installation. Nonetheless, it can be made to run: http://www.the-underdogs.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46561 .

Or are you speaking of something else entirely?

Actually I bought the actual game back in the day so I'm using the original CD that it came on. I might give the Underdogs a shot, though I think in the end it may be more hassle than it's worth.

Really? That's quite impressive, considering how rare the game is, supposedly.

Does the install still create a directory named KRISALIS.CD in whatever directory you mount as C: ?

Does the demo at http://www.3dgamers.com/games/starfighter/downloads/ work? Maybe its readme has some insights. (That is, maybe you need a C:\GAMES directory too.)

I suppose you could also try the 3DFX patch from that site and see if that has any effect.

Hmm. I tried downloading those files but 3dgamers seems to have poor server performance right now. I'll check it out tomorrow maybe.

OK. Well, the good news is that I think I've figured it out, the bad news is that it still isn't working the way I'd like it to.

As it was with the link from the underdogs forum says above, the demo works on my computer. Downloading the underdogs version works but only if I create the KRISALIS.CD directory and put the SF3000v1.08 configuration file in it (which for some reason wasn't created by INSTALL.EXE as it was supposed to be) but luckily I had it from my CD installation (and for anyone else who might be reading this, grab the demo version and change the version number on it to match 1.08 and that should work as well)

Now, while the Underdogs version does work, it does not play movies or music (which makes sense because it was probably fixed so that it didn't need the CD anymore)

That being said, I read somewhere that the only copy protection for the game is that the game requires the CD to be in the drive when you play regardless of the installation type (so full installations will require the cd just as much as the minimal does) This makes me think that the reason my original CD version of the game doesn't work is because it needs the CD and can't read the protection off of it for some reason (it did used to work, by the way, and yes this is an original disc, nothing copied) I did create an ISO of the CD but there was no change there either.

The end result here is that the game will work, albeit without music or videos, when using the Underdog version. I would still prefer to get the original cd install to work, but that may not happen if no one can figure out the cd protection bit.

Any thoughts anyone?

Have you tried using the debug version of DOSBox to determine what files your version of Starfighter is trying to access? (ykhwong's CVS build from here works.)

The copy protection also might be a simple matter of the game trying to read the CD's volume label. Try using the -label switch with mount, and specify whatever name Windows Explorer gives for the CD.

(Is Star Fighter one word or two...?)

Being a Gentooer the debug version of dosbox is rather easy and simply requires a quick emerge. The output, while rather interesting, unfortunately doesn't really tell me anything. I've looked (and logged) the information that is put out just as it crashes but nothing seems to be informative, (in that there isn't anything that looks like errors or otherwise shouldn't be the way it is)

I also tried setting the CD label but also to no avail. It looks like the copy protection (if that is indeed the problem) is not effected by the CD label (or at least from what I can tell from the regular and debug output)

Just to show it with this message, here's the debug lines that came up just before the game crashes:

1[35d[M[47d 245451474: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 1500 BX= 0000 CX=000A
2[35d[M[47d 245453853: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 1510 BX= 000C CX=0003
3[35d[M[47d 245453853: MISC:MSCDEX: Driver Function 85
4[35d[M[47d 245453853: MISC:MSCDEX: Status : 0100
5[35d[M[47d 245454177: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 1510 BX= 000A CX=0003
6[35d[M[47d 245454177: MISC:MSCDEX: Driver Function 03
7[35d[M[47d 245454177: MISC:MSCDEX: IOCTL INPUT Subfunction 0A
8[35d[M[47d 245454177: MISC:MSCDEX: Status : 0100
9[35d[M[47d 245454513: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 1510 BX= 000A CX=0003
10[35d[M[47d 245454513: MISC:MSCDEX: Driver Function 03
11[35d[M[47d 245454513: MISC:MSCDEX: IOCTL INPUT Subfunction 0B
12[35d[M[47d 245454513: MISC:MSCDEX: Status : 0100
13[35d[M[47d 245454934: MISC:MSCDEX: INT 2F 1510 BX= 000C CX=0003
14[35d[M[47d 245454934: MISC:MSCDEX: Driver Function 85
15[35d[M[47d 245454934: MISC:MSCDEX: Status : 0100
16[35d[M[47d 245456171: PIC:0 mask 79
17[35d[M[47d 245456179: PIT:PIT 0 Timer at 120.00 Hz mode 3
18[35d[M[47d 245456183: PIC:0 mask 78
19[35d[M[47d 245456225: PIC:0 mask 79
20[35d[M[47d 245456469: PIC:0 mask 78
21[35d[M[47d 245456562: PIC:0 mask F8
22[35d[M[47d 245456573: SBLASTER:DMA masked,stopping output, left 1761
23[35d[M[47d 245456643: PIC:0 mask F8
24[35d[M[47d 245460784: DOSMISC:DOS:Multiplex Unhandled call 1600
25[35d[M[47d 245461094: DOSMISC:DOS:Multiplex Unhandled call 1600
26[35d[M[47d 245466676: PIC:0 mask F9
27[35d[M[47d 245466705: PIC:0 mask F9
28[35d[M[47d 245469780: PIT:PIT 0 Timer set without new control word
29[35d[M[47d 245469780: PIT:PIT 0 Timer at 18.21 Hz mode 3
30[35d[M[47d 245469784: PIC:0 mask F8
31[35d[M[47d 245469813: PIC:0 mask F8
32[35d[M[47d 245473843: INT10:Set Video Mode 3
33[35d[M[47d 245473843: VGA:Blinking 8
34[35d[M[47d 245687938: VGA:h total 100 end 80 blank (80/98) retrace (85/97)
35[35d[M[47d 245687938: VGA:v total 449 end 400 blank (406/441) retrace (412/414)
36[35d[M[47d 245687938: VGA:Width 640, Height 400, fps 70.086594
37[35d[M[47d 245687938: VGA:normal width, normal height aspect 1.000000
38[35d[M[47d 245730742: VGAMISC:Parts left: 1
39[35d[M[47d 255151076: EXEC:Parsing command line: exit
40[35d[M[47d 255151076: SBLASTER:DSP:Reset
41[?12l[?25hc

As a last note, regarding proper formation of the name, I've seen it listed as both Star Fighter 3000 and Starfighter 3000 and while the readme that is on the CD just says 'Star Fighter', I want to say that in most places I see it as one word: 'Starfighter 3000'

No unusual FILES: lines before all that mscdex stuff, then?

Maybe the unhandled 2f/1600 call (Windows presence check) ? That's where it starts to restore the normal system state.

I got underdogs version to work, even with 3dfx patch from 3DGamers (running with /no3dfx switch when 3dfx is not present) in DOSBox, WinXP (with VDMSound, DOS32A, with dgVesa to run in a window 😎 ) and working 3dfx on old Win98SE machine.
So I would suggest to try to run it with 3dfx patch from 3DGamers (with /no3dfx).

I'll attach it to this message, as I don't see many places where you can get that patch. 😀

I got underdogs version to work, even with 3dfx patch from 3DGamers (running with /no3dfx switch when 3dfx is not present) in DOSBox, WinXP (with VDMSound, DOS32A, with dgVesa to run in a window Cool ) and working 3dfx on old Win98SE machine.
So I would suggest to try to run it with 3dfx patch from 3DGamers (with /no3dfx).

I'll attach it to this message, as I don't see many places where you can get that patch. Happy

As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I did happen to get the Underdogs version to work, but there aren't any intro movies (not that I care a whole lot about these, but it'll be hard to tell if there'll be any other movies either) and there isn't any CD music (whether the CD is in the drive or not). That being said, I have tried both the 3dfx patch with both the Underdog version of the game and the CD version and there was no change (improvement or otherwise) in either. I did try the /no3dfx parameter, but still no change. As the game exits the same way regardless of whether the CD is in the drive or not, I'm thinking that it's a copywrite protection issue somehow.

I'm using DBGL 0.65. I saw the settings you were talking about. When ever I start the game it just goes to a black screen and sits there. I'm not sure how to set VDMSound, DOS32A, and dgVesa. I still play this on the saturn and I really want to play it on RISC OS again but I don't want to pay 21 bucks to play a 12yr old game. Any help would be great.

Hi all!

@alienjon: I get the same problem with the game which you got, except I didn't use DOSBox, but my retro DOS machine. Here are the specs:

400 Mhz AMD K6-III
64 megs of RAM
DOS 6.22
Original CD version of the game

I have tried himem.sys, himem+emm386 and qemm, none of which worked. Soundcard selection doesn't seem to have any effect. Also, I can reconstruct the problem with DOSBox 0.73.

This is really odd and I somehow doubt that it is memory related, because the game makes use of a fairly new version of the dos4gw extender (2.00). Actually I don't even think it's a kind of copy protection. Detection of the disk usually starts before any part of the game is loaded. I might be wrong, but otherwise I am totally clueless here.

locutus