I have a similar problem. After completion of a game I get error message "palette.cpp: 1023 (error reading video card palette information. . ." It is not too bad though, since my game is saved as complete. I just type 'playball' and get right back into the game without losing any data.

I know this thread is old, but curios if anyone ever found a work around for this. A setting in dos box or something?
Even though I have a legit copy, putting in the code from the book evertime the game crashes is annoying. For some reason my NeverLock isn't working on my dosbox version of the game. Works fine on my actual dos machine.

yes i am encountering the error too - it crashes at the end of the 9th innings for me every time i have played it - maybe i will try it in Dosbox-x and with the overlay setting or some other setting

Have you tried SVN?

When a problem occurs far into gameplay it is generally helpful to make a save that facilitates analysis. It seems the game is saved continuously while playing, so a backup of GAME.* files just before the error appears.

ripsaw8080 wrote on 2021-07-30, 14:51:

Have you tried SVN?

When a problem occurs far into gameplay it is generally helpful to make a save that facilitates analysis. It seems the game is saved continuously while playing, so a backup of GAME.* files just before the error appears.

i can do this, but what file in the game folder is the save file - when a game is played there is no way i can see to save it under a name myself, - it can save where its at when i leave teh match and so if i know what that file is then i would make a copy

There are multiple files named GAME with various extensions, hence why I mentioned GAME.* as the files to be backed up.

ripsaw8080 wrote on 2021-07-31, 04:33:

There are multiple files named GAME with various extensions, hence why I mentioned GAME.* as the files to be backed up.

thanks yes my mistake, i was looking in the wrong folder at the time 🤣 - yes i got the sve now - 9th innings and i only need to get another strike to end the innings

The problem is related to copy protection: UPSTATS.EXE inspects SHELL.EXE and aborts with the misleading palette error message if modification is detected. Perhaps the error message was made to appear innocuous so people who cracked the game might call tech support to report themselves. 😉

SHELL.EXE should have a file length of 743,490 bytes, a date stamp of 10-09-1994, a time stamp of 00:11:29, and should pass the checksum performed by BBCHECK.EXE in order to avoid the problem. If the game was installed using DOSBox 0.74 or SVN then date/time stamps will likely trigger the error, but some external utility such as TOUCH can be used to set the stamps to the expected values.

thanks for that insight - i have run BBCheck and it always states all the files are valid, also the version i installed of FSP BB 94 is not cracked

how exactly does dosbox change the Shell.exe? so installing it in an actual ms-dos environment on an old pentium would not cause this?

Please read the last sentence of my previous comment.

yes thankyou - i was curios how exactly time stamps come to be different when using dosbox
- i wonder if patching the game to version 1.03 might overcome this

Agathosdaimon wrote on 2021-07-31, 08:58:

i was curios how exactly time stamps come to be different when using dosbox

Re: Date & Time Mismatch?

thank you for that link - helps me to make sense of what yu were saying - so if dosbox changes these, and you are able to change it back using Touch like you mentioned, Dosbox wont just change it again?
i wonder if this issue causes problems on some other games, in particular regarding the copy protection schemes on some older games?

The modification stamp of files is set by the host OS when a file is created or written to, so executables usually have their stamps set only at installation, but in some rare cases an executable is written to after installation.

Some games concern themselves with the date/time stamp of files for whatever reason (example: B.A.D sound problem), but they are few in number.

Good news! - i just ran a exhibition game after installing the patches from the Sierra help pages and it didnt crash! it briefly showed a score screen (seemed too brief) and went back to main menu

🤣 - update, it actually did crash with the palette.cpp: 134 error when it went to start the next demo exhibition match (a random game will play if you dont touch the menu for a bit)