Lotus 3 game won't start under real DOS \ VOGONS

Lotus 3 game won't start under real DOS

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First post, by Atr3ju

Posted on 2024-06-30, 19:44

Atr3ju Offline

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Game works under extended memory with mouse & cd-rom drivers (XMC start), then sound is from buzzer but first i must throttle cpu speed to some 100 MHz.
But game don't run when i try use expanded memory EMC (emm386 & jemm386) with sound driver (sound blaster live emulation of sound blaster 16)

After a 100 +- attempts game run only 3 times with full sound support Adlib, Roland MT-32 and od course Sound Blaster port 220

Game run only from CD, install is not nessesary.
DOS 7.1

Game don't start when i try to launch E:\LOTUS
and write a error message something like this "overflow unexpected"

I'm must know why this game won't like a expanded memory with sound drivers.

Reply 1 of 7, by butjer1010

Posted on 2024-06-30, 19:57

butjer1010 Offline

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Overflow unexpected is error message i've received when i had bad RAM stick in my old pentium 233.... Could be also the cache jumper settings on motherboard????

Reply 2 of 7, by Azarien

Posted on 2024-06-30, 20:50

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Atr3ju wrote on 2024-06-30, 19:44:
first i must throttle cpu speed to some 100 MHz.

Down from what?

Reply 3 of 7, by ludicrous_peridot

Posted on 2024-06-30, 21:14

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Does this help? Re: Gameport devices changing PC speed?
It certainly helped me with the demo.

GA-G41M-Combo G41/ICH7 - Core 2 Quad Q9550 - DDR3 1033 - Radeon RX570 - YMF744 (Cobra) - X3MB (Buran)
Beetle/M/i815+ICH2 - Celeron 566Mhz - Opti 924 (Typhoon Media)

Reply 4 of 7, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2024-06-30, 22:02

wbahnassi Offline

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Lotus 3 requires slow CPU. I disable L1 cache (SetMul L1D) on my HP Z400 which takes it to 386 speeds, and Lotus 3 runs fine then. If I run it at full speed, I get the overflow error you got.

The only problem with disabling L1 is that it basically also slows down the PCI sound card's driver as well.. so if that driver isn't optimized, you will get audio glitches. For me the YMF744 DOS driver works fine with SetMul L1D. I don't know about the SBLive! DOS drivers.

Turbo XT 12MHz, 8-bit VGA, Dual 360K drives
Intel 386 DX-33, TSeng ET3000, SB 1.5, 1x CD
Intel 486 DX2-66, CL5428 VLB, SBPro 2, 2x CD
Intel Pentium 90, Matrox Millenium 2, SB16, 4x CD
HP Z400, Xeon 3.46GHz, YMF-744, Voodoo3, RTX2080Ti

Reply 5 of 7, by Atr3ju

Posted on 2024-07-01, 16:53

Atr3ju Offline

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OK... partially have the problem solved.

For full speed game i don't use sound blaster driver, only extended memory, use throttle program (1 - some % of throttle) and game runs in nice 60 fps, but without a music.

For some 10 fps speed with music & sound i use of course expanded memory with sound blaster driver but first i must use SLOWINT1.

Another thing about slowdown cpu speed or cache it's not good idea. Only Slowint1 work good but game speed is low.

I try CM, CPUSPD, THROTTLE, SLOWINT1, SLOWDOWN, CPUCACHE, SETMUL