Screenshots of the older configuration are useless; I need to see what it looks like after you added mine. Don't mix and match, just set it up exactly as I posted, and put those two drivers I had uploaded in C:\DOS2.

EDIT: Well, plus the sound related ones.

Also if the CD drive is detected as anything else than D:, then you'd probably have to edit the SIMON.BAT file.

If the CD is detected as, say, E:, then on the RUNVGA line change "/D" to "/E" and change "D:\" to "E:\".

eddman wrote on 2024-11-16, 22:56:

Screenshots of the older configuration are useless; I need to see what it looks like after you added mine. Don't mix and match, […]
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Screenshots of the older configuration are useless; I need to see what it looks like after you added mine. Don't mix and match, just set it up exactly as I posted, and put those two drivers I had uploaded in C:\DOS2.

EDIT: Well, plus the sound related ones.

Also if the CD drive is detected as anything else than D:, then you'd probably have to edit the SIMON.BAT file.

If the CD is detected as, say, E:, then on the RUNVGA line change "/D" to "/E" and change "D:\" to "E:\".

I was just simply showing what they were like beforehand as a couple of extra lines had appeared. But I'll grab some additional images in a sec. Also, I've set up the folders slightly differently. I'm not sure why it's 'DOS2', so I have mine as simply 'DOS'. And then in that I have 'DRIVERS'.

I created that folder myself, to keep the files that I add manually separate. I'm saying to use DOS2 to make sure there aren't any mistakes. If you put the files in another folder, then you'd have to change the paths in the config I had posted.

Here's a recording of the game working on my setup: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YPMqdwPlBec5 … U502bnRs_Q/view

eddman wrote on 2024-11-16, 23:22:

I created that folder myself, to keep the files that I add manually separate. I'm saying to use DOS2 to make sure there aren't any mistakes. If you put the files in another folder, then you'd have to change the paths in the config I had posted.

Here's a recording of the game working on my setup: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YPMqdwPlBec5 … U502bnRs_Q/view

Here's the up to date command files:

I also changed the drive letter in SIMON.BAT as well.

Now, whether because of all of that, or simply because I deleted the original SIMON folder I'd installed previously, and then re-installed the game whilst under DOS, those errors about there not being enough HDD space stopped. 😁 So I think it must complain about all of that if the game is already installed. After reinstalling it, the game now loads. 😁

So thank you and everyone else who has contributed and offered suggestions here. It's been much appreciated. 😄

The only thing I would like help with now, if it's possible, is to somehow get the onboard sound working...? Though I'm not sure if it'll make much difference regarding the music. During the audio setup, there's no option for General MIDI. So I'm guessing that was never an option with the original DOS/Windows version? And was more a thing with the Windows version and when later sound cards offered better MIDI support?

If your Soundblaster PCI is working correctly in Windows, then it'll hopefully have created a folder C:\SBPCI, which contains all the DOS drivers you need. If not, you can find them in the Vogons drivers library.

In there, you should find:

SBLEGACY.EXE - run this, and it'll tell you whether the correct hardware is present and functional.
SBCFG.EXE - this one will tell you which ports and channels the various sound devices are using, which is useful to know when setting up DOS games.
SBINIT.COM - this needs to be run after every boot to enable sound in DOS. You can simply add the line C:\SBPCI\SBINIT.COM to the end of your autoexec.bat file to make this happen automatically.
SBTEST.EXE - run this to do a quick diagnostic test, if everything's working you'll hear some sample sounds.
SBMIXER.EXE - this allows you to set the sound levels for digital audio and music

The DOS version of Simon the Sorcerer doesn't support General MIDI music. You can either use Soundblaster/Adlib music, which the SB PCI emulates rather poorly, or Roland MT-32 music, which for your setup will sound similar to General MIDI.

If you want to put the SB PCI in MT-32 mode you can type MT32 /ON at the DOS prompt. If you don't do this, it'll still play, but you'll hear all the wrong instruments. Note that this command will only work for games which just use the preset MT-32 sounds- any games which try to send custom patches (expecting a real MT-32) will sound very wrong!

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 09:43:

If your Soundblaster PCI is working correctly in Windows, then it'll hopefully have created a folder C:\SBPCI, which contains al […]
Show full quote

If your Soundblaster PCI is working correctly in Windows, then it'll hopefully have created a folder C:\SBPCI, which contains all the DOS drivers you need. If not, you can find them in the Vogons drivers library.

In there, you should find:

SBLEGACY.EXE - run this, and it'll tell you whether the correct hardware is present and functional.
SBCFG.EXE - this one will tell you which ports and channels the various sound devices are using, which is useful to know when setting up DOS games.
SBINIT.COM - this needs to be run after every boot to enable sound in DOS. You can simply add the line C:\SBPCI\SBINIT.COM to the end of your autoexec.bat file to make this happen automatically.
SBTEST.EXE - run this to do a quick diagnostic test, if everything's working you'll hear some sample sounds.
SBMIXER.EXE - this allows you to set the sound levels for digital audio and music

The DOS version of Simon the Sorcerer doesn't support General MIDI music. You can either use Soundblaster/Adlib music, which the SB PCI emulates rather poorly, or Roland MT-32 music, which for your setup will sound similar to General MIDI.

If you want to put the SB PCI in MT-32 mode you can type MT32 /ON at the DOS prompt. If you don't do this, it'll still play, but you'll hear all the wrong instruments. Note that this command will only work for games which just use the preset MT-32 sounds- any games which try to send custom patches (expecting a real MT-32) will sound very wrong!

Well, initially, I got this working. I was able to run the tests and adjusted the volume whilst in DOS, but then after adding C:\SBPCI\SBINIT.COM to the autoexec.bat, I've had nothing but issues and now it won't load at all. 🙁 Everything I've tried just makes the bat file revert back and removes any command I put in. To begin with, SET SBPCI=C:\SBPCI was left in the autoexec every time I rebooted. Now that goes along with the command to make it initialise the SB PCI. If I add those commands back and then restart in DOS, it comes up with errors saying it's not able to detect or initialise SB PCI.

I'm not sure exactly what's altering your autoexec.bat file (probably something to do with the Windows 98 drivers), but if you add the SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 , SET SBPCI=C:\SBPCI and SBINIT.COM lines back into autoexec.bat, then save the file, you can make it read-only by typing the following command at the DOS prompt: ATTRIB AUTOEXEC.BAT +R

This will prevent anything or anyone from altering the contents of the file. Next time you need to edit it again, you'll first need to unset the read-only status with ATTRIB AUTOEXEC.BAT -R

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 15:51:

I'm not sure exactly what's altering your autoexec.bat file (probably something to do with the Windows 98 drivers), but if you add the SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 , SET SBPCI=C:\SBPCI and SBINIT.COM lines back into autoexec.bat, then save the file, you can make it read-only by typing the following command at the DOS prompt: ATTRIB AUTOEXEC.BAT +R

This will prevent anything or anyone from altering the contents of the file. Next time you need to edit it again, you'll first need to unset the read-only status with ATTRIB AUTOEXEC.BAT -R

Okay, thanks. I'll give that a try. I did attempt to set it to read-only from within Windows before restarting to DOS, but it still ended up altering it. I'm guessing the setting in Windows has no affect once in DOS...?

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 15:51:

I'm not sure exactly what's altering your autoexec.bat file (probably something to do with the Windows 98 drivers), but if you add the SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 , SET SBPCI=C:\SBPCI and SBINIT.COM lines back into autoexec.bat, then save the file, you can make it read-only by typing the following command at the DOS prompt: ATTRIB AUTOEXEC.BAT +R

This will prevent anything or anyone from altering the contents of the file. Next time you need to edit it again, you'll first need to unset the read-only status with ATTRIB AUTOEXEC.BAT -R

Nope. Still keeps complaining the SBPCI environment variable not found. I really don’t understand why because when I tested it the first time this morning it was all working fine. 🙁

EDIT: And, despite making it read-only under DOS, it’s modified the bat file again. It’s duplicated SET SBPCI=C:\SBPCI and removed C:\SBPCI\SBINIT.EXE

You could try putting the commands into a new batch file, maybe C:\SBPCI.BAT, and then running that after booting into DOS. I'm not exactly sure why it's complaining about the SBPCI environment variable not being set though, especially if it's in there twice!

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 17:23:

You could try putting the commands into a new batch file, maybe C:\SBPCI.BAT, and then running that after booting into DOS. I'm not exactly sure why it's complaining about the SBPCI environment variable not being set though, especially if it's in there twice!

Just trying to experiment now. I decided to completely remove the drivers for the onboard sound and delete the folders and then reinstalled them from Vogon’s archive. So I have for the Windows drivers and the drivers for DOS. That’s created a Dosdrv folder under C:\, and I’ve copied and pasted the SBPCI folder, and Autoexec.bat and Config.sys provided. The CD drive is set up wrong now, which I’ll need to deal with again, and the mouse doesn’t work, but it’s no longer complaining about the variables and environments being wrong. 😁 Performing a test has worked! I have a horrible feeling it’ll all stop working again though. 😅

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 17:23:

You could try putting the commands into a new batch file, maybe C:\SBPCI.BAT, and then running that after booting into DOS. I'm not exactly sure why it's complaining about the SBPCI environment variable not being set though, especially if it's in there twice!

I might have to try that next. I’m totally at a loss as to what’s going on. If I use the autoexec.bat and config.sys files provided by the SBPCI drivers folder, the mouse and CD drives don’t work, but the audio device does. No errors, no issues. I even tested it out with Doom. EMM396 is configured to be disabled though. However, if I restart the PC, and re-enable the use of the CD drive and mouse, the two command lines for the audio devices are removed - the SET BLASTER and SET SBPCI - and the audio device stops working once it boots into DOS. Complains about the variables/environment again. D:

These are what they’re currently like, a hybrid of the provided files and what I’ve edited them to:

And this is the provided config.sys with the drivers, which disables EMM386:

I think the SBPCI environment variable is supposed to indicate the folder where the SBPCI driver files are stored, so if you have them in C:\DOSDRV, then the line in autoexec.bat should probably say SET SBPCI=C:\DOSDRV instead. I can't see anything else that looks incorrect.

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 18:34:

I think the SBPCI environment variable is supposed to indicate the folder where the SBPCI driver files are stored, so if you have them in C:\DOSDRV, then the line in autoexec.bat should probably say SET SBPCI=C:\DOSDRV instead. I can't see anything else that looks incorrect.

Yeah, just tried that now. Also, the complete command for SET BLASTER is different in the one provided. It should be SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6. I swear the last time I changed SET SBPCI to DOSDRV, the bloody thing set it back to the SBPCI folder again. >_>

EDIT: No errors! 😁 I’m sure the bloody thing will change again next time though, but at least that’s given me more of an idea how it should be set.

Nah. Something else must be going on. It seems to be random. Again, those SET commands keep disappearing, and even if I re-add them, with the location of the drivers being set to the correct folder, DOS may load without reporting errors, but then if I try to perform a test or load the mixer, it gives me the usual error. My head hurts.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:08:

My head hurts.

I'm not surprised, you're definitely getting an authentic late-DOS user experience! A time when device manufacturers were starting to treat DOS compatibility as an afterthought, and also coming up with 'helpful' Windows-based driver add-ons that tried to do all the difficult work of DOS configuration for you, whether you wanted them to or not 😀

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:19:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:08:

My head hurts.

I'm not surprised, you're definitely getting an authentic late-DOS user experience! A time when device manufacturers were starting to treat DOS compatibility as an afterthought, and also coming up with 'helpful' Windows-based driver add-ons that tried to do all the difficult work of DOS configuration for you, whether you wanted them to or not 😀

I *think* the version I'm using is 4...? Would upgrading it to 6 help at all? Or would that cause more headaches? ^^;

Regarding that BAT file - would that be loaded automatically by DOS or would I need to load that manually each time?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:22:

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:19:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:08:

My head hurts.

I'm not surprised, you're definitely getting an authentic late-DOS user experience! A time when device manufacturers were starting to treat DOS compatibility as an afterthought, and also coming up with 'helpful' Windows-based driver add-ons that tried to do all the difficult work of DOS configuration for you, whether you wanted them to or not 😀

I *think* the version I'm using is 4...? Would upgrading it to 6 help at all? Or would that cause more headaches? ^^;

Regarding that BAT file - would that be loaded automatically by DOS or would I need to load that manually each time?

Do you mean the SB PCI driver version or the DOS version? A different version of the sound drivers may produce a different outcome, but Creative drivers can be notoriously finicky about which hardware they work with. If you're using Windows 98, then you've essentially got the last version of DOS as part of the package. If you've got a spare hard drive, you could always install DOS 6.22 on it and keep it completely separate from your Windows 98 install to prevent any automated tampering!

If you put the SB PCI initialisation commands in a separate batch file, then whatever's been altering your autoexec.bat won't be able to get at it. You can either run the batch file manually from the command line each time, or add a line to the end of autoexec.bat to run it automatically. The correct syntax is CALL FILENAME.BAT , replacing FILENAME with the name of your new batch file.

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:33:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:22:

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:19:

I'm not surprised, you're definitely getting an authentic late-DOS user experience! A time when device manufacturers were starting to treat DOS compatibility as an afterthought, and also coming up with 'helpful' Windows-based driver add-ons that tried to do all the difficult work of DOS configuration for you, whether you wanted them to or not 😀

I *think* the version I'm using is 4...? Would upgrading it to 6 help at all? Or would that cause more headaches? ^^;

Regarding that BAT file - would that be loaded automatically by DOS or would I need to load that manually each time?

Do you mean the SB PCI driver version or the DOS version? A different version of the sound drivers may produce a different outcome, but Creative drivers can be notoriously finicky about which hardware they work with. If you're using Windows 98, then you've essentially got the last version of DOS as part of the package. If you've got a spare hard drive, you could always install DOS 6.22 on it and keep it completely separate from your Windows 98 install to prevent any automated tampering!

If you put the SB PCI initialisation commands in a separate batch file, then whatever's been altering your autoexec.bat won't be able to get at it. You can either run the batch file manually from the command line each time, or add a line to the end of autoexec.bat to run it automatically. The correct syntax is CALL FILENAME.BAT , replacing FILENAME with the name of your new batch file.

I see. I have a second HDD, so it might be an idea for me to install DOS 6.22 on it. But yes, I meant the DOS version. I'm not sure if there is a newer/recent version of those audio drivers. But having DOS 6.22 on the second HDD, is it fine to have my game installs on there? Or wouldn't that be recommended? It is primarily for game installs and disc image files.

But I'll look at trying that batch file next. Thanks.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-17, 20:33:

sfryers wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:33:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-17, 19:22:

I *think* the version I'm using is 4...? Would upgrading it to 6 help at all? Or would that cause more headaches? ^^;

Regarding that BAT file - would that be loaded automatically by DOS or would I need to load that manually each time?

Do you mean the SB PCI driver version or the DOS version? A different version of the sound drivers may produce a different outcome, but Creative drivers can be notoriously finicky about which hardware they work with. If you're using Windows 98, then you've essentially got the last version of DOS as part of the package. If you've got a spare hard drive, you could always install DOS 6.22 on it and keep it completely separate from your Windows 98 install to prevent any automated tampering!

If you put the SB PCI initialisation commands in a separate batch file, then whatever's been altering your autoexec.bat won't be able to get at it. You can either run the batch file manually from the command line each time, or add a line to the end of autoexec.bat to run it automatically. The correct syntax is CALL FILENAME.BAT , replacing FILENAME with the name of your new batch file.

I see. I have a second HDD, so it might be an idea for me to install DOS 6.22 on it. But yes, I meant the DOS version. I'm not sure if there is a newer/recent version of those audio drivers. But having DOS 6.22 on the second HDD, is it fine to have my game installs on there? Or wouldn't that be recommended? It is primarily for game installs and disc image files.

But I'll look at trying that batch file next. Thanks. Also, would that batch file be located where the autoexec and config files are or in a DOS folder?