When I run CTmouse it says that version.

Just checked the version I installed on 86Box. It's the same one.

Just tried the regular mouse driver, too. Thought it had solved the problem, but sadly it locked up again. 😕

First confirm the mouse is causing the crash by playing the game without a mouse - If it still crashes then need to look elsewhere. If the mouse is causing the crash, cutemouse 2.0a4 is the version to try.

I’ll try that next if it fails again. But so far it’s looking likely to be the CPU. I tried Throttle, but those settings are too extreme. Too slow. Testing with CPUSPD, I’ve put it to 7/8 with the L2 disabled and FoA hasn’t crashed! 😄

EDIT: Also, that would explain why whenever I’ve tried using CPUSPD recently, it hasn’t made any difference. I’ve been typing everything in BAT files in uppercase. Looks like the switches for CPUSPD need to be in lowercase in order to work. 😅

Ahh, shite. It’s still frozen. 😩 When I tested it previously, it was with a basic DOS environment and I think I was using the regular mouse driver. Was testing just with EMS and CuteMouse 2.1. So, this time I’ll uninstall the mouse driver and play with the keyboard. See what happens.

Okay, I think I've found a sweet spot. Hopefully. Played through the intro and no crash. That was with CPUSPD set to7/8 with the L2 cache disabled and CuteMouse 2.0a, I believe.

Is there some sort of 'if' statement/command check you can do in DOS? And if so, how would I go about structuring it in my situation? Technically, I could add these commands to the autoexec file, which is where they originally were, and where they're only called once, but I don't feel as though they're necessary every time I load up DOS and will probably be only needed on a game-by-game basis.

I have commands set up so MPXPlay and EM1K are run, which allow me to daisy-chain my SB card to my Yamaha, but only if my SB is the primary card. The only time I really need this would be if I'm playing a game that uses redbook audio. Hence why I think it's better to add the commands in a game's custom BAT file. However, I don't want the same commands to run every time I quit and load the game up again. I just did that with the Alien Trilogy and now music plays, but not sound effects. It'd be great for it to check if the utilities have already been loaded/are loaded into memory, so it would skip over the initialising of them and move onto the next commands. 😀

Try setting an environment variable near the beginning of the batch file, i.e. "SET FLAG=1" and, at the beginning, check the flag with "IF A%FLAG%==A1 GOTO SKIP." The former will set a flag to tell the batch file that the commands were already executed, and the latter will skip the commands if already executed. When you no longer need the flag, "SET FLAG=" will remove the flag.

Harry Potter wrote on 2026-01-25, 19:04:

Try setting an environment variable near the beginning of the batch file, i.e. "SET FLAG=1" and, at the beginning, check the flag with "IF A%FLAG%==A1 GOTO SKIP." The former will set a flag to tell the batch file that the commands were already executed, and the latter will skip the commands if already executed. When you no longer need the flag, "SET FLAG=" will remove the flag.

Awesome. Thank you. 😀 So, would it be something like...?

SET FLAG=1
IF A%FLAG%==A1 GOTO SKIP

C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\MPXPLAY.EXE -SCS SBA -F0 C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\INIT.WAV -XEL
C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.EXE -F C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.INI
A%FLAG%

GOTO SKIP

SKIP
REST OF BAT
"SET FLAG="

You should swap the first two lines, as, as you have it, the flag will be set before the check, which would give a false positive. Also, I don't understand the line after EK1M.EXE. the label "SKIP" should be preceded by a colon to tell DOS that it's a label. Otherwise, DOS will try to execute the line. The second GOTO SKIP is unnecessary, as it will branch to the next line. Finally, the last line will kill the flag, thereby having the batch file execute the startup commands when they are already done.

Harry Potter wrote on 2026-01-25, 21:06:

You should swap the first two lines, as, as you have it, the flag will be set before the check, which would give a false positive. Also, I don't understand the line after EK1M.EXE. the label "SKIP" should be preceded by a colon to tell DOS that it's a label. Otherwise, DOS will try to execute the line. The second GOTO SKIP is unnecessary, as it will branch to the next line. Finally, the last line will kill the flag, thereby having the batch file execute the startup commands when they are already done.

Hmm, okay. The line after EK1M.EXE - I thought that was where I needed to set the flag once the commands were executed. ^^; And yeah, I forgot about adding the colon. I'm not quite sure I follow about the last line for killing the flag. Where would that line need to be placed instead?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-25, 20:51:

Awesome. Thank you. 😀 So, would it be something like...?

1REM Skip executing SB commands if already loaded
2IF %EK1MLOAD% == TRUE GOTO SKIPEK1M
3
4C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\MPXPLAY.EXE -SCS SBA -F0 C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\INIT.WAV -XEL
5C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.EXE -F C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.INI
6SET EK1MLOAD=TRUE
7
8:SKIPEK1M
9REST OF BAT

And somewhere in your autoexec.bat to avoid unexepcted behaviour

1SET EK1MLOAD=FALSE

To avoid pulling your hair out at some point in the future when you want to update the SB initialisation commands and need to update 50 batch files, put the SB initalisation commands into another batch file e.g. SBLOAD.BAT, and do a CALL C:\SCRIPTS\SBLOAD.BAT from your game batch files. That way if you update SBLOAD.BAT it's automatically updated in every game batch file.

You should only kill the flag when you no longer need it. If you don't kill the flag, it'll be available the next time you run the batch file during the current session. I shouldn't have mentioned about killing the flag, and I'm sorry. 🙁 Also, the mentioned line is garbage: DOS will try to execute the line and return an error message. the SET FLAG=1 line sets the flag. BTW, you might want to change the names I gave you: they might be more descriptive.

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-01-25, 21:23:

And somewhere in your autoexec.bat to avoid unexepcted behaviour […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-25, 20:51:

Awesome. Thank you. 😀 So, would it be something like...?

Copy code to clipboard

1REM Skip executing SB commands if already loaded
2IF %EK1MLOAD% == TRUE GOTO SKIPEK1M
3
4C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\MPXPLAY.EXE -SCS SBA -F0 C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\INIT.WAV -XEL
5C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.EXE -F C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.INI
6SET EK1MLOAD=TRUE
7
8:SKIPEK1M
9REST OF BAT

And somewhere in your autoexec.bat to avoid unexepcted behaviour

Copy code to clipboard

1SET EK1MLOAD=FALSE

To avoid pulling your hair out at some point in the future when you want to update the SB initialisation commands and need to update 50 batch files, put the SB initalisation commands into another batch file e.g. SBLOAD.BAT, and do a CALL C:\SCRIPTS\SBLOAD.BAT from your game batch files. That way if you update SBLOAD.BAT it's automatically updated in every game batch file.

Perfect. Thank you. 😀 And that's actually a great idea about putting the SB initialising commands in their own BAT. It would certainly keep things more structured and organised.

Harry Potter wrote on 2026-01-25, 21:33:

You should only kill the flag when you no longer need it. If you don't kill the flag, it'll be available the next time you run the batch file during the current session. I shouldn't have mentioned about killing the flag, and I'm sorry. 🙁 Also, the mentioned line is garbage: DOS will try to execute the line and return an error message. the SET FLAG=1 line sets the flag. BTW, you might want to change the names I gave you: they might be more descriptive.

No worries. It's still all useful to know. I just didn't realise you were only giving it as an example. ^^; If it's garbage, what's the correct line? SET FLAG=0? And yeah, I was trying to think of some more appropriate lines when I typed out the example. Nothing came to mind, or would have been long winded, heh.

The mentioned line is garbage and I think unnecessary. The last line in your example batch file is how to remove a variable, but without the quotes.

Harry Potter wrote on 2026-01-25, 22:11:

The mentioned line is garbage and I think unnecessary. The last line in your example batch file is how to remove a variable, but without the quotes.

Ah, I see.

If you ever run low on hard drive space, you can use a compression utility such as PKZip or DOSRAR to compress your games and use batch files to decompress, run, update if necessary and delete the working copy of your games. You can also move games that fit to floppies or other removable media. A better idea might be to use DriveSpace or Stacker to compress your whole hard drive or the removable media.

Harry Potter wrote on 2026-01-25, 23:12:

If you ever run low on hard drive space, you can use a compression utility such as PKZip or DOSRAR to compress your games and use batch files to decompress, run, update if necessary and delete the working copy of your games. You can also move games that fit to floppies or other removable media. A better idea might be to use DriveSpace or Stacker to compress your whole hard drive or the removable media.

Wow. Thanks for the tip. 😄 To be honest, I suspect I won’t run out of space anytime soon. I believe the HDD I use for games is about 40GB…? Most max installation sizes for games are only around a few hundred MB. I think I’ve used up 9 gig so far. Nearly a quarter.

It’s my backup drive I’m more concerned about. The one for storing all of my CD images. Naively thought 80 gig would be enough. 😅