Straight up piracy. Enjoy your closed thread, as soon as a certain mod becomes aware of it.

elszgensa wrote on 2024-03-18, 22:12:

Straight up piracy. Enjoy your closed thread, as soon as a certain mod becomes aware of it.

Rockstart made GTA 1 freeware years ago. So it's not piracy per se. The link is indeed forbidden according to the forum rules.

Thank you, I removed the link.

Yoghoo wrote on 2024-03-18, 22:41:

Rockstart made GTA 1 freeware years ago. So it's not piracy per se.

They did (but didn't allow mirroring), and then they un-published it so it's not available any more unless you have an old download. And either way, it's different from OP's version. Version A being available(-ish) doesn't mean you're free to steal version B. You may be allowed to patch A into becoming B though. Legalese, fun for the whole family.

There is a special taskforce in FBI and in Interpol for illegal downloading of old DOS games 😏

Just for clarity, have you tried this in DOS 6.22?

No, for now I do not really want to test it with DOS 6.22. I had to use floppy disks to install FreeDOS and transfer all the files, and I am not ready to go through that again.

However, I can install FreeDOS and MS-DOS in a virtual machine to test it.

I installed GTA in VirtualBox with FreeDOS and MS-DOS, both didn't work too but with different behaviors. So the three methods produce different problems, not very useful to diagnose the problem.

In the future if I install the MS-DOS on the PC, I update the topic with the result.

Hello,

I'm back on this subject. I tried it with MS-DOS 6.22, but it behaved exactly the same way. I should mention that when I play Prince of Persia, I get a black screen once I finish the first level. I mention this in case it is related.

Thank you

waulu13 wrote on 2024-03-18, 22:02:

1) When I try to run gta8.exe, it shows this intro,

and then the screen goes black and stays locked like that.

This is the note I wrote down some time ago when testing the game:

1The DOS installer of version 12.1 release doesn't work properly. It doesn't install...
2
3	GTADATA\AUDIO
4	GTADATA\F_LOGO0.RAT
5
6...hence the game doesn't work; gets stuck on a black screen after the logo videos.
7
8The Windows installer works fine.

You are probably using that release.

WD90C24 is too old graphics adapter to run it.

Try to use Vesa Fix Utility before start game.

Hello,

As for Prince of Persia, I just downloaded a different version, and it worked, so the issue is not related.

I was not aware of the 'WD90C24 VBE/VGA mode utility', so all of described above is without it. Once I have loaded the Vesa24.exe, I get the following message:

1Vesa Super VGA BIOS Extension version 1.2b
2Copyright (c) 1993 Western Digital Inc.
3WD90C24 (1F) card LCD installed
4with 512K video memory

There's another exe, VGAMode.exe which accepts the following parameters :

1Invalid command entered
2Legal commands are:
3 Mode #          Sets the (HEX) Video Mode
4 200             Sets Text Mode at 200 Scan Lines
5 350             Sets Text Mode at 350 Scan Lines
6 400             Sets Text Mode at 400 Scan Lines
7 VGA             Resets Video to 8x16 Font VGA Mode
8 COLOR           Changes the Video to color VGA mapping
9 MONO            Changes the Video to monochrome VGA mapping
10 CENTER          Toggles Auto-Centering
11 EXPANSION       Toggles Auto-Expansion
12 NORVERS         Toggles Reverse-Video
13 The Following commands are applicable ONLY to the CRT side:
14 NON-INTERLACE   Sets 1024x768 modes as Non-Interlaced 60Hz
15 INTERLACE       Sets 1024x768 modes as Interlaced
16 56              Sets 800x600 modes as 56Hz
17 60              Sets 800x600 modes as 60Hz
18 72              Sets 800x600 modes as 72Hz
19 13225           Sets the Video to 25 lines, 132 column text mode
20 13243           Sets the Video to 43 lines, 132 column text mode

I didn't touch that because I don't know what to do with it.

The game still won't start. Now, GTA8.exe doesn't even load the intro, I just get a black screen. With GTA24.exe I have the following message:

1DOS/4GW Professional Protected Mode Run-time    Version 2.00
2Copyright (c) Tenberry Software, Inc. 1995
3UVBELib(tm)/Ultra - Universal VESA BIOS Extension Linkable Library
4Release 5.3a (Jan 27 1997 - Build 117)
5
6Copyright (C) 1993-97 SciTech Software Inc, All Rights Reserved.
7
8Video Card: Paradise/Western Digital SuperVGA (WD90C24) with 1 Mb
9RAM DAC: WD90C24 Integrated 16 bit DAC
10Clock Chip: WD90C24 Internal Clock
11
12GTA24 v11.5
13(c) 1997 DMA Design Ltd
14
15Error 211.3: no suitable VESA modes available

eddman wrote on Yesterday, 13:43:

You are probably using that release.

Eddman, from the GTA24.exe output, I can see that I am using v11.5 and not v12.1.

MAZter wrote on Yesterday, 16:02:

WD90C24 is too old graphics adapter to run it.

Try to use Vesa Fix Utility before start game.

Mazter, I downloaded Univbe67 because it is listed as supporting the WD90C24. However, when I run univbe.exe, I receive the following message:

1No supported SuperVGA chip detected!

Thank you for the ideas so far. Please let me know if you think of anything else I should try.

waulu13 wrote on 2024-03-18, 22:02:

Inside the GTADOS folder : […]
Show full quote

Inside the GTADOS folder :

1) When I try to run gta8.exe, it shows this intro,

and then the screen goes black and stays locked like that.

That seems to be a cracked release, so the problem might be with the release itself.