There's also a hard hang with Duke Nukem II on the AWE64 and could also be related and I still don't know what it is. 🙁 Same 1993 era though, maybe something regressed.

check it in/use DOSBox

DOSBox on a '98 spec rig you kidding!?

is that your only pc? 😉

I believe they released a slightly newer version of Solar Winds to fix some bugs (v1.1 maybe?), might help in your case.

I beat it a couple times back in the day, and was playing through it again in DOSBox a year or two ago. Had a strange bug where my ship would zoom off to the left at greater-than-hyperspeed if my ship was pointing in a specific direction - made combat almost impossible!

My copy is version 2.0 according to the HELPME.DOC file. It has the same problem with flying off without reason. If there is a fix for it I'd like to know where.

did you search patches scrolls?

I did, and didn't find anything there... I'll see if I can remember to dig around for it.

According to the game, I have v1.1 but according to the helpme.doc, it's version 2.0.

I would like to see if this also happens in DOS mode, but I cannot because it just hangs as soon as I start the gameplay.

Autoexec.bat:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mode con codepage select=850
keyb uk,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys
SET SOUND=C:\SB16

Config.sys:

device=C:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:off /cpuclock:off /v
dos=high,umb,auto
device=C:\windows\emm386.exe noems
devicehigh=C:\windows\setver.exe
devicehigh=C:\oak\oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1)
Country=044,850,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys
;devicehigh=C:\windows\command\ansi.sys
FILES=45
BUFFERS=30,0
STACKS=9,256
;devicehigh=C:\usbaspi.sys
;devicehigh=C:\di1000dd.sys

Dosstart.bat:

C:\WINDOWS\CTCM
lh C:\mouse\mouse
lh C:\windows\command\MSCDEX.EXE /S /D:mscd001
lh C:\sb16\aweutil /em:GM /key-
C:\sb16\ct3dse on

I think I tried it on dosbox on this pc ages ago, and I couldn't reproduce the problem, but it didn't run anwehre near as smoothly.

robertmo wrote:

is that your only pc? 😉

Of course not, I wouldn't be using the internet on a 12-year-old pc. I'm just curious as to why it doesn't work on a pc it should be working fine on.

AdamP wrote:

lh C:\sb16\aweutil /em:GM /key-

Turn off GM emulation by disabling this string (replace it with "aweutil /s" command) and check again.

Maybe the game expects the sound blaster to be on IRQ7 instead of IRQ5?

I've tried setting the card to different combinations of resources in Windows, but none of them fixed the problem, and in some cases, created other problems. When I had the I/O set to 240, the game wouldn't initialise the sound card, and when I had the DMA set to 3, the game crashed with an invalid instruction error when it tried to play a sound (but it didn't hang the system). It worked fine on DMA 1 (apart from the hanging). Whether the IRQ is 5 or 7 doesn't seem to make any difference.

I still cannot run it in DOS mode. I tried disabling general midi emulation, but it still hangs when I get to the gameplay (but I thought Solar Winds doesn't use general midi).

Nope, Solar Winds just uses Adlib OPL2 FM synthesis music.

Adlib? The helpme.doc says it doesn't support Adlib and requires Sound Blaster.

When I have the low DMA set to 3, the game doesn't initialise the sound card (the other problem with DMA 3 was when that was the only DMA channel). Because the sound seems to work on some DMA configurations and not others, the hanging problem may be DMA-related (DMA is the usual cause for this type of problem), but I have no DMA conflicts. I have no idea why the game doesn't seem to work on other DMA chanels.

Perhaps the game simply doesn't work properly with this sound card?

It might be that it only supports Sound Blaster because it also uses the SB DAC for digital sound effects.

Why are you using a SET BLASTER= line with D1 if the card is on DMA 3? 😕

I set the card back to DMA 1 afterwards.

Now I think about it, pointing the finger at the sound card may have been a bit premature. I haven't tried playing the game with this card on any other system so it could be that there's some issue between the motherboard or chipset and this sound card (but I don't think so as no other game I have has this kind of problem).

Or there could be some problem with its Sound Blaster compatibility (it's supposed to be fully Sound Blaster compatible)?