QBix/Harekiet: Is it possible to make DOSBox's EMS respond to Privateer's function calls in a way that makes it happy?

There are always ways....
but it's the vcpi that privateer wants and we don't see use for it especially as ems can be disabled in dosbox. (even much simpeler in the next version)

The use for it is to keep people from posting about it all the time asking for help 😉 Maybe it would be better to have XMS enabled and EMS disabled by default in DOSBox in the official release versions?

More trouble. Many games need EMS, and most games tolerate EMS. Those that don't are called "Ultima 7" and "Privateer". Oh, and I think "Comanche", wasn't it? It's a quite small number compared to the games that need EMS and those that don't bother, so turning EMS off by default would make it worse.

Ok MiniMax, we may be getting somewhere. I used Notepad to change the cycles in dosbox.conf to 4321, but the change was not reflected when I restarted DOSBox.
What would cause my editing dosbox.conf to not take effect when running DOSBox??? I appreciate all your help...

• Where have you installed DOSBox?
  C:\Programs\DOSBox-0.63 ?
• Where is your dosbox.conf located.
  C:\Programs\DOSBox-0.63\dosbox.conf ?
• How do you start DOSBox?

In other words, it's obvious that DOSBox is not using your dosbox.conf, but is instead looking somewhere else.

--I put DOSBox in C:\DOSBox
-- my config file is in C:\DOSBox\DOSBox-0.63\.

I haven't therefore launched it thru Start>Programs because it's not in C:\Program Files.
I have been launching DOSBox via the scroll up menu from the toolbar at the bottom of Windows. I'm guessing your next comment is going to be to put DOSBox in C:\Program Files, isn't it??
Should I delete it and re-download, or can I just move the directories? Will that make a difference?

The dosbox.conf file has to be in the same folder as the dosbox application (dosbox.exe). In other words, move your dosbox.conf to c:\dosbox.

Just put dosbox.conf in the same directory where dosbox.exe is located.

Alternatively, start DOSBox with the option
dosbox.exe -conf C:\DOSBox\DOSBox-0.63\dosbos.conf.

Note: You can create several config files - e.g. one for each game you want to run - and then start DOSBox with a game-specific config.

Hey,
My dosbox.conf file is currently in the same directory as dosbox.exe ; they are both in C:\DOSBox\DOSBox-0.63.
...and I'm not sure I am following that alternative way to start DOSBox; could you expand a little bit...?
If my .conf file is already in the same directory as my .exe, what would be your next troubleshooting step? (I don't know what to try next?

1. Search for, and delete, all the dosbox.conf files you can find.
2. Start DOSBox, and issue this command:
   Copy code to clipboard

   1Z:\>config -writeconf dosbox.conf
   

3. Exit DOSBox.
4. Search for the newly written dosbox.conf, and tell us where you found it.

I used Windows Search feature and deleted all files and shortcuts I could find; followed your instructions and got these results:

I don't know why it went here and not the DOSBox directory, but when I did the writeconfig command it put it in:
C:\Program Files\Common files\SYSTEM\Mapi\1033\95

I'm hoping this gets us closer to figuring this out..... what does this tell you?

What does it tell me? Nothing - I am utterly confused. *Appearently* this Mapi\1033\95 directory becomes your current working directory when you start DOSBox. I have no idea why.

I suggest you delete your copy of DOSBox, delete the C:\DOSBox\DOSBox-0.63 directory, and re-install. This time, let the DOSBox installer install DOSBox into the default directory, let it create all the short-cuts it wants, and then see if you and DOSBox can agree on where the configuration file should be.

--I went ahead and edited the dosbox.conf file where it was.(I didn't move it back to DOSBox)
--I changed EMS=false and cycles to 4321 and when I started DOSBox, it was running at 4321 cycles.
--When I typed "priv" at C:\wingco~1\privat~1 , I received the following error:
memory: original current used
'near 29516 28986 530
'far 376364 341020 35344
'high 3521872 3495840 26032

Fatal Error
Error Code: D002-FFFF
Program halted by code.
JEMM unloaded.

Right, Ok, I'll get rid of it and start from scratch. I'll report back as soon as I have done that with my hopefully new, successful results.
I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.... here goes nothin'!

MiniMax,
I re-installed it to the default dir ( Program files). Now the config file changes stick. ( I could change cycles successfully) though I still get the "Fatal Error D002-FFFF - Program halted by code--JEMM unloaded" like I mentioned in the previous response. What the heck is that now??

uhm that error is usually caused by wrong soundcard selection in privateer as far as I know

Terminal_ wrote:

I used Windows Search feature and deleted all files and shortcuts I could find; followed your instructions and got these results […]
Show full quote

I used Windows Search feature and deleted all files and shortcuts I could find; followed your instructions and got these results:

I don't know why it went here and not the DOSBox directory, but when I did the writeconfig command it put it in:
C:\Program Files\Common files\SYSTEM\Mapi\1033\95

I'm hoping this gets us closer to figuring this out..... what does this tell you?

Looks like maybe you were launching DOSBox from a shortcut instead of directly, and that is was setting that weird place as your working directory?

Also, I agree with QBix that the new error you're getting is almost definitely that you need to reconfigure the game's sound settings. I remember having the same problem when I was trying to get the Underdogs version working for a friend.

HunterZ or QBix,
As far as the sound card issue; I was never able to get into the game itself...how would I change those settings without being able to launch the game??

There's a utility for configuring the sound settings for the game that doesn't require running the game first. Look for other .EXE files in the game directory (maybe sound.exe, setup.exe, install.exe, config.exe - something along those lines)