Please list all commands you are using, including mount commands.

I am simply doing:

Z:\>mount a c:\syndicate

Z:\>A:

A:>install

The install program runs, I select the default options, click 'continue', and that's when I get the error

Thanks for the attention, I'm hoping another brain will hold the key here 😀

Well, you can try mounting the A: drive as a floppy type drive:

mount a c:\syndicate -t floppy

You must also mount a C: drive to install to.

What may be more important is what you have in your c:\syndicate folder. Is it installation files from a floppy? Pre-installed game files?

If you are trying to install the game from drive C:\ or A:\ without -t floppy you will get this. No useful information in the reference card, so other solution is needed.

Error during installation.
You must be logged to the floppy drive.
Please consult your reference card for details.

The game can't be installed if you use the -t floppy command while you are mounting the directory. By doing so you will get the following message:

The disk in drive A: ???????????
Please insert disk SYNDICATE 1 in drive A:

So that means that the label should be "SYNDICATE 1". Ok that can be done easily by adding another flag -label "SYNDICATE 1" to the mount command. However the problem is that the installer expects you to have the second disk in the drive with the label "SYNDICATE 2" so we are screwed again!

The only solution is to image the disks with WinImage as an .IMA or .IMG file format and imgmount those instead. You will need a floppy drive and the retail disks for that. Just run WinImage and in the toolbar you will find an icon called "Read disk". Click it while you have the first disk in the drive. Then go to "File" then "Save as" and save the file as disk1.ima. Remember to change the type from .imz to .ima. Repeat this process with every disk and you should be fine. Remember that the images must not be "Read only".

Second step is to compile or grab the most recent SVN version of DOSBox to have multi floppy support. After the installation you can use 0.74 to play the game.

Now follow me closely if you have done everything right. Here's what I did to install the game. I made a test directory in my C:\ drive and inside that I made another folder called INSTALL that has my floppy image files.

Run DOSBox SVN and run the following commands. First thing is to mount your C:\ drive. For my case that would be the test folder I just created earlier. The command will be the following:

1mount c c:\test

Next is to mount all the images at once. You will be able to switch the disks on the fly when the setup utility asks you with the Ctrl+F4 keyboard shortcut. Type the following command:

1imgmount a c:\test\install\disk1.ima c:\test\install\disk2.ima c:\test\install\disk3.ima c:\test\install\disk4.ima c:\test\install\disk5.ima -t floppy

Now switch to drive A:\ by using the same command and set the cycles to max to speed up the installation.

1cycles max

The only thing you have to do is to run the following executable:

1INSTALL.EXE

Default settings should be fine, so just choose Continue from the list and hit Enter. When the installer asks you to insert Disk 2 just press Ctrl+F4 and press the Space bar. Do this until you get the Installation complete. message then leave the installer and run the the following command to run the game:

1SYND

If you have done everything correctly the game should launch. I made a screen recording to you to just in case you are stuck. You can find it at this link: http://www.screencast.com/t/exVlGEAVa

Hope this helps. If you have any more questions feel free to ask and we will try our best to answer it.

You could also buy it from GOG.com 😀

🤣

P4R4D0X wrote:

The only solution

Virtual Floppy Drive is quite handy for this sort of thing too, I understand.

But indeed, throwing a couple of bucks at GOG to get it over with might well be the best solution of all.