hi i noticed you said FWIW what does that mean and when you said you ran it through DOS 5 was that a machine that's got windows on it and if so what
version of windows and was it a downloaded copy of flight simulator 3 or a retail copy
FWIW = "For What Its Worth"
I was on a DOS-only system - it doesn't have W98 (or even W3.1)
My main reason for testing in this configuration was to confirm that no extender/high memory is used by FS3.
All it wants is conventional DOS memory.
hi yes i tried restarting in DOS mode and tried to run the game but with no luck the version of flight simulator 3 I'm using is a downloaded version so maybe that's why its not
working maybe its a bad version I'm using I'm not really Shure
Hi, the error message could also be related to file compression.
Microsoft was known for compressing executables, so they would take up less space on floppies (and hard disk).
It might be that the decompression routine has memory issues, thus.
But that's just a wild guess. Not sure if that's the real reason.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
hi these are the 3 links I've been downloading and trying to use I've been trying normal dos and not dosbox
as i wanted to use the program in dos without having to use dosbox
REMOVED
i would be interested to see if these versions download work for you
Last edited by vetz on 2025-10-25, 11:29. Edited 1 time in total.
Jo22wrote on Yesterday, 05:52:Hi, the error message could also be related to file compression.
Microsoft was known for compressing executables, so they would […] Show full quote
Hi, the error message could also be related to file compression.
Microsoft was known for compressing executables, so they would take up less space on floppies (and hard disk).
It might be that the decompression routine has memory issues, thus.
But that's just a wild guess. Not sure if that's the real reason.
I doubt that's the case - I'm testing with the official Micorsoft Distribution diskette (which I bought new back in the day)
So far it's worked everywhere I've tried with a vanilla W98 install (604k conventional free) including with a "memuse" tool
to make the avail. conventional memory about 300k - as well with DOS with only 640k conventional RAM.
I suspect it's either something else loaded in W98 or a corrupt copy of FS.
Argh... I was assuming it was a legit download from somewhere, maybe
Microsoft had released some of their other DOS stuff like they did for
DOS itself.
I really don't condone distribution of "abandon ware" - but in the interest in figuring out what is going on,
Perhaps you can verify that it works on your own.. What do you have in the way of PCs and emulators available.
I still have a couple DOS systems, and a couple more that I can boot DOS
from floppy on... But I also test DOS stuff with:
- DosBox (native)
- DOS booted in DosBox
- DOS booted in Vmware Player
- DOS booted in PCEM
- W98 booted in PCEM
If you have a system/emulator that can boot DOS, you can get legit images
for a few DOS versions from DBDOS.ZIP on my site.
Then you just need to boot/mount (a copy of) the FS3 diskette and you
should be able to see if it actually works!
hi
thanks for your reply yes i should of mentioned there downloads sorry about that
I was wondering if you would have a legit copy of flight simulator 3 files you could send me
as I've looked on eBay and cant find a retail copy of flight simulator 3
and I didn't really want to use downloaded copy's of it
or if you know a web site I can download a legit copy of it
regards jude
thanks for your reply yes i should of mentioned there downloads ...
Actually you did - you started the thread with "I downloaded ..."
I just assumed that MS had released it (they did after all release DOS itself)
But - as it shows someone elses name at startup, I'm guessing they licensed it, and not developing that version in-house could not just "release" it.
I was wondering if you would have a legit copy of flight simulator 3 files you could send me ...
I have the same problem - I don't have rights to distribute it either. As a livelong software developer who made a good living
by selling my various tools - I tend to be more anal than many about respecting copyright, even on old/obsolete material.
What I *COULD* do is toss together a small program to CRC the disk image, and send it to you along with the CRC it calculated for
an image of my disk - this would tell you if your disk is exactly the same as mine (and original MS distribution copy)
There's no guarantee there aren't possible legit differences -- there might be minor differences in countries or versions...
I could CRC the files on the disk - an you would be able to see "how different" it is - I'd guess that if your is an English copy of
exactly the same version, most of the files would match.
Ok, give me a day or two - I want to do this on an exact copy of my original disk which will take me some time to make (as well as
write the CRC program)
Ok, I tossed this together:
---------------------------
Here is a little DOS tool to help compare two(or more) file sets.
I created this mainly to compare the content of floppy disks, so it does have
some limitations that may come into play comparing larger trees. (max 256files,
32k name buffer)
To avoid seeking back and forth excessively on the floppy, FCK reads the
directory only once and buffers it's information, then read/calculates CRC
for each file.
Please note that this was a "quick and dirty" tool that I woite in an hour,
it's not particularly pretty source code ... also please refer to my notes in
the "source code" section of my site before complaining about my style!
I have also included FCK.DVM, if you don't have a DOS system, you can run
on newer windown with DunfieldVirtualMachine (available on my site)
---------------------------
I included the above text, the C source code, a DOS .COM and a .DVM which runs
under my virtual machine (mainly how I run simple stuff in WinBlows)
You can get it from: dunfield.themindfactory.com/Drop/FCT.ZIP
