VOGONS


First post, by MKSheppard

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I solved my problem, but here it is for those who may come after me in the future -- hopefully I didn't mangle my explanations too badly:

The Problem

Installing Star Trek: Judgment Rites from the original 3.5" 1.44MB disk media is pretty tough to do as the installer program is a product of the era it was programmed in.

Judgment Rites' installer uses a fairly complex early 1990s era ARJ decompressor to extract the files stored on the disks; and you will run into the dreaded:

"[file] is not the same date/time, Skipped [file]"

error if you use stock DOSBox, which leads to this:

ST_JR_Error.png

The reason for this is that the stock DOSBox build doesn't support preserving the original date/time stamp for copied over files, via INT 21/57.

This is a very obscure DOS specification which was used very rarely, so it isn't supported by DOSBox.

This BTW, is why the DOSBox team says you should NEVER use it for anything other than games.

ykhwong's unofficial DOSBox build(s) support this INT 21/57 spec, so the Judgment Rites installer will now work correctly.

References:
VOGONS Link 1
VOGONS Link 2

How to Install JR

Here's the LINK to ykhwong's page to get his specialist DOSBox version.

Step 1: Copy all the files off your 11 x 1.44 MB floppies into a folder. (I called mine "JR_All".)

You should have the following 28 files in that folder:

DEARJ.EXE
DISK.001
DISK.002
DISK.003
DISK.004
DISK.005
DISK.006
DISK.007
DISK.008
DISK.009
DISK.010
DISK.011
FILE00.EXE
INSTALL.COM
MISC.ARJ
REACH.EXE
README.DOC
RITES.A01
RITES.A02
RITES.A03
RITES.A04
RITES.A05
RITES.A06
RITES.A07
RITES.A08
RITES.A09
RITES.A10
RITES.ARJ

This is because I prefer to image my original media as disk images, to preserve it; instead of using the original media for installs. DOSBox doesn't allow for switching floppy disk images -- luckily the JR installer will work with all the files copied to a single folder, unlike some other installers from that era.

Step 2: Load up ykhwong's DOSBox and mount your "JR_All" folder as a floppy drive, along with your usual folder that you use to represent your virtual hard drive.

Step 3: Making sure that cycles are set around 6000 to be safe; start up the Judgment Rites installer (INSTALL.COM).

Step 4: Wait.

Step 5: Wait some more.

Step 6: Wait even more. It will seem to hang around "Decompressing Sounds Part 2", but don't close the DOSBox window or give up. Eventually it'll move onto the next file to decompress.

Step 7: Wait some more.

Step 8: The README.DOC file says this (no joking):

Star Trek: Judgement Rites
Stardate 12/09/93 21:18
Readme and Addendum

2. Initial installation takes approximately 20 minutes to read all eleven disks. After this, additional installation processing will continue for approximately 1.5 hours. The computer will beep when it is done. You do not need to be present during the additional 1.5 hours processing.

Don't you miss the closing days of floppy disk based installers?

If all works, you should eventually end see this screen:

ST_JR_Setup.png

And from there on, it's a few choices onwards to a working stock floppy install of Judgment Rites.

Reply 1 of 9, by Dominus

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Good guide. Maybe someone can move it over to the dosbox section 😉

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 3 of 9, by collector

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Out of curiosity, would the original installer work if you replaced the UNARJ that shipped with the game with a later version? I think I have the floppy version around somewhere.

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 4 of 9, by MKSheppard

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I don't think so, because the darned thing is double ARJed.

It's really horridly complicated.

To wit:

RITES.ARJ contains DATA0.ARJ/DATA1.ARJ/DATA2.ARJ/DATA3.ARJ

so on so on, with RITES.A05 containing:

METH0.ARJ
NOMAN0.ARJ
NOMAN2.ARJ
SCOTTY0.ARJ

Holy recursive compression, batman!

Reply 5 of 9, by MKSheppard

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To install the the JR SFX Pack, which is on 5 disks...

FIRST, BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING:

ZIP UP and make copies of your stock Judgment Rites install. It took so long to install, you want to have a backup before you install the SFX pack!

OK, well with your backup done...follow the same procedure as before:

Copy all your files from the 5 x floppies to a folder that you mount as a floppy.

You should have 13 files named:

DEARJ.EXE
DISK.001
DISK.002
DISK.003
DISK.004
DISK.005
INSTALL.COM
README.DOC
RITES_CP.A01
RITES_CP.A02
RITES_CP.A03
RITES_CP.A04
RITES_CP.ARJ

As before, INSTALL.COM starts the installation procedure.

I ran ykhwong's DOSBox build at 8,000~ cycles this time around and everything worked.

As before, a lot of text scrolling and it will appear to hang on "Decompressing Sound Effects"; then you'll get this screen:

STJR_SFX_Install.png

This concludes your guide on how to correctly install the floppy version of Judgment Rites.

Reply 6 of 9, by ripsaw8080

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A few notes that may be helpful to anyone trying to install the game in DOSBox:

If you're going to use ykhwong's build, you can switch floppy disk images while the installer is running by mounting the next image file from the menu bar. However, with Judgement Rites' eleven disks it could become tedious, so the "all installation files in one floppy-mounted folder" method is more convenient (and it works in official DOSBox, too).

The ARJ behavior of skipping files with non-matching date/time stamps during decompression does not affect files that are fully contained in an archive file; it only affects files that are split across multiple archive files. It is possible to instruct ARJ to skip the stamp check using a command line switch. The installer is not including the switch when it runs DEARJ.EXE, but ARJ is flexible and you can put additional switches in an environment variable. Type the command "set arj_sw=-c" before running the installer, and the stamp check will be skipped. This allows the installation to run to completion using official DOSBox.

There is really no reason to limit CPU cycles during installation, unless you like waiting longer than you have to. With settings of core=normal cycles=max (105%) the installation time is 22 minutes on my system. I would usually suggest core=dynamic, but the installation time increases to 36 minutes on my system. I haven't investigated the cause of the degraded performance with dynamic core, but I suspect the CPU-intensive file "building" process (REBUILD.EXE) is causing frequent cache resets due to SMC or some other reason.

Reply 7 of 9, by MKSheppard

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There is really no reason to limit CPU cycles during installation, unless you like waiting longer than you have to.

I'd like to comment on this. There's a specific error that comes from running software too fast: Error 200.

I know about it because I've tried installing DOS games via Oracle's VirtualBox.

After so many problems trying to get Judgment Rites to install, I was taking no chances; since I could just zip it up when I was done.

Reply 8 of 9, by ripsaw8080

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There's a specific error that comes from running software too fast: Error 200

If I had encountered a problem running the install at max cycles, I would have reported that in my comment; and in fact I did mention that normal core is faster than dynamic core, which is atypical. In any case, the error you refer to does not apply to this particular game's installation because there are no programs made with Borland Turbo Pascal involved.

The notes in my comment were aimed more at others who have not yet tried to install the game than at yourself that has already installed it. I'm sorry if you don't think what I wrote is helpful, although I would disagree, but I will be glad to amend the information if you or others point out any inaccuracy.