VOGONS


Harvester : swapping CDs

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First post, by Swifty

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I've been playing Harvester under DosBox 0.60, and it worked fine (although slowly); however, I must go on to CD 2, and the game doesn't seem to recognize it.

I've tried to copy the contents of CDs 1 and 2 in a directory which I've mounted as a cdrom, but the problem remains.

Is it a common problem with DosBox, or is it Harvester specific ? Does anyone have a solution to this ?

TIA,

Swifty

Reply 1 of 24, by Dark Knight ez

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erm... does the game allow multple cdrom support?
(as in: you can use two (or more) seperate cdrom drives to put the game CDs in)

if so... you could just put the cdroms in the cdrom-drives, and mount both cdrom-drives in dosbox.
worked for me when playing Gabriel Knight II. (also requires CD swapping)

... // bda. very bda!
... // but only if you turn godo into csah.

Reply 2 of 24, by xandman

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this happened to me when i was playing harvester through windows 98 dos, it worked fine up until swapping cds like yours did, i found the problem was i was using the dvd/cdr drive or that i was using a second drive installed on my pc,
try A: using the first drive if u aren't already,

B. playing it on a PC with a bog standard CDROM drive, [if thats possible] i did this by plugging in my old windows 95 comp and it fixed the problem, however i then got to the bit where u have to burn down te diner and i couldn't switch on the stove cos i couldn't find the correct pixel or something! can u help with this?

Reply 3 of 24, by Qbix

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DOSBox doesn't support swapping of the cdroms.

it remembers the cdrom totally when you first mount it and changing the cdrom doesn't change dosbox it's knowledge about the cdrom.

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 4 of 24, by eL_PuSHeR

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Can you mount a drive on top of itself? I am not sure.

If this is possible you should swap cd1 for cd2.

Mount it again with proper label, RESCAN

Reply 5 of 24, by Swifty

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Thanks for your answers.
I finally was able to get past this by pressing shift (to prevent autorun) opening/closing the cdrom drive; after several tries it worked...

xandman: the stove was a problem for me too; it's in the middle of the screen, but the hotspot is a tiny bunch of pixels at the leftmost part of the stove.

Hope it helps.

Reply 6 of 24, by Snover

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I've said since day one that caching that stuff is a Bad Thing, but nooo, nobody listens to me....*grumble*

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 7 of 24, by Finster

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Well, in fact dosbox should be able to recognize a cd change and automatically rescan the drive if a media change happens (if the cd-rom was mounted correctly). You can test that if you mount a cd-rom, do a dir and then insert another cd and do a dir. If it didnt show the new content then you did something wrong or dosbox is buggy 😀 Tested it in win xp, doubt that it'll work in linux though.

Reply 8 of 24, by icemann

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Damn. That rules out any of the Wingcommander games (3 and above) or 7th Guest *sobs*.

Two stones, two crosses, the rest is just icing. - 7th Guest

Reply 9 of 24, by Magamo

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I've had CD Swapping working just fine in Dos Box under Linux for a while now. I use supermount (to facilitate the changing of the media. As long as you mount the cd with the proper options in Dos Box (i.e. mount d /mnt/cdrom -t cdrom -usecd 0) things should work out just fine

http://supermount-ng.sf.net/

Reply 10 of 24, by Dark Knight ez

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might just be me...
but i thought the "-usecd #" has the same purpose as "-t cdrom",
just that it should be used in different conditions.
that is, i thought the "-usecd #"-tag was used when running the execute (telling it to use that specific cd as cdrom) and the "-t cdrom" just for mounting the cdrom anytime you feel like it, if you need browsing it etc.

i don't find the readme.txt along with dosbox clear on this matter.
enlighten me... anyone...?

... // bda. very bda!
... // but only if you turn godo into csah.

Reply 11 of 24, by Qbix

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-t cdrom gives "fake cd" support to directories. Including real cdroms

-usecd # use sdl lowlevel cdrom routines to support more lowlevel stuff.

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 12 of 24, by xandman

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cheers - i tried that but i still couldnt find it - there are two more things that may be contributing to the problem tho.

a- it only seems to register certain verbs if an object is past over them - eg - you cant click on them to examine them - or even to make text appear down the bottom, unless u have an inventory object as ur cursor , but it highlights all the important objects so far - like the cake tin u have to pick up in the diner to cap the alarm, but it doesn't highlight the grease fryer without an object - this happen with u?

b - my mouse is really jerky, eg even if i move it slightly it wil skip like a millimeter of the screen rather than scrolling smoothly so its impossible to reach certain parts of the screen, inventory objects extend ur cursor but i still cant find that blasted stove, i tried using my win 98 comp where the mouse originally worked fine but its now stopped running the game completly, and its far too slow on dosbox [probably what it would be like if u tried running the game on a 286!] and it crashes eventually

oh wel - so can u just give me a savegame right after youve turned on the stove but b4 uve lit it with the matches - that would be great - plus include loadsav.des just incase cheers

Reply 13 of 24, by Mierdamakus

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Hi.
I have the same problem with Harvester. It doesn't recognize CD 2. I'd tried to mount the images of the CDs in folders, copy all the Cds in other folders and mount them as CD-ROM, but nothing. Could anyone help me please? 😢

Or savegames, someone who have a savegame at the beginning of CD 2 and CD 3, or near the beginning.

Reply 14 of 24, by Merrymaker

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You might want to try this:

1) Download DAEMON tools.

http://www.daemon-tools.cc

2) Make ISO images (or another format supported by DAEMON tools) of your game CD's with the program of your choice.

3) Mount the image of the install CD with DAEMON tools.

4) Mount the virtual CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive created by DT as a CD-ROM in DOSBox.

5) Install and run the game in DOSBox.

Videos seem to get a bit more stuttery, but I'm not really sure if just a case of my computer running out of steam. DOSBox image mounting seems to do a better job, but this has worked for me in the past when I have needed disc swapping.

When a game wants you to change the CD, just jump out of DOSBox (release the mouse if it's locked + maybe get out of full screen mode), right-click on the DT icon in your taskbar, browse to the mounted image, select 'eject tray' (dunno if that really necessary), mount the needed CD's image, return to DOSBox and away you go (I hope)!

Reply 15 of 24, by Mierdamakus

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No, it doesn't work 😢 I make the images with Alcohol 120% and mount the CD1 image in DT to use as CDROM in DosBox. When the game ask me for CD2, I change the DT image with the iso of the CD2, and came back to Dosbox, but it didn't recognize the CD2. Another way, please?

Reply 16 of 24, by Merrymaker

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Hmm... I just quickly tried Legend Mission Critical and disc swapping worked like a charm like I described. I've got Harvester as well (not installed though) and have tested that it works but I can't remember whether I was required to swap discs during my testing... Haven't had time to play it really yet.

Right now I'm in a crazy rush preparing for a seminar I've got to do tomorrow so I can't invest more time on this right now. I'll try to find the time, in a day or two, to do some testing.

Reply 17 of 24, by Mierdamakus

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ok, thank you very much, I'll wait for your help. If you want a Savegame just before end the first CD, I could send it you. Bye and thanks again.

Reply 18 of 24, by Merrymaker

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Ok. I triead your save game and got it to work after a bit of work... True enough the previous instructions I wrote didn't work for this game.

After some time of trials and errors with a dash of forum searching thrown in, I realized that I hadn't updated the directory cache after switching images in DAEMON Tools. 😅

So follow my previous instructions from step 1 to 5 and then do the following:

When a game wants you to change the CD, just jump out of DOSBox (release the mouse if it's locked + maybe get out of full screen mode), right-click on the DT icon in your taskbar, browse to the mounted image, select 'eject tray' (dunno if that really necessary), unmount the image, mount the required CD's image, return to DOSBox, PRESS CTRL+F4 and away you go! ... worked for me.

Last edited by Merrymaker on 2006-05-15, 15:09. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 19 of 24, by Mierdamakus

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Don't work 😢 could you send me a savegame after insert CD 2 please?