VOGONS


DOS4GW and DOS32A

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First post, by programmm

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Okay here comes the question regarding DOS4GW. I downloaded the dos32a-912-bin zip and inside are binw\ folder where the dos32a.exe sb.exe ss.exe stub32.exe are located. This time I am not asking how to make the game 'Lands of lore guardians of destiny' work as I already did that, now the problem is that on a smartphone the game crashes too often. I get 'DOS4GW professional error' (will post screenshots soon). - it happens randomly at any time, usually during battles or when the memory gets loaded a bit more. It is Android - DosBox Turbo but I was able to get the error even on DosBox (PC) when I start the game from PC. The difference is that on PC the game cannot crash ingame, as PC too powerful, while on the phone it can.

http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/TOOLS:DOS32A

According to this here, let's forget about backing up the file, all is clear. In my case the game has a LOLG.exe as main file and it is 3KB. there is no external DOS4GW.exe but when I open lolg.exe in notepad there is some info about dos4gw so not sure if stored there but maybe it is...

C:\>cd\games\mygame
C:\games\mygame>set dos32a=c:\progra~1\dosbox\dos32a
C:\games\mygame>%dos32a%\binw\sb /r mygame.exe

Autoexec already has the command to mount the local drive as C:\ drive, so all files&folders are seen under C. Now I don't know should I put the dos32a-912-bin files that I downloaded anywhere on my phone, do I need the other files sb.exe ss.exe stub32.exe or only dos32a.exe? And it isn't clear how that should be having to use 'lolg -CD .' command to start the game and how %dos32a%\binw\sb /r mygame.exe has to look like in my case..

The question is for PC, I would just do the same on the phone, I don't understand where I need to put the files, which ones, how the command should look like in my case.

Reply 1 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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The simplest thing to do is launch the game executable with DOS32/A; this way you don't have to mess with stripping and/or binding extenders, whether or not an extender is already bound to the executable. Just copy DOS32A.EXE to the folder where the game's executable is installed and run the game in DOSBox with the command:

dos32a lolg.exe

Reply 2 of 8, by programmm

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That gives me 'DOS/32A fatal 3003. File lolg.exe does not contain any valid exec format.' Also I had to start it with -CD . but even without it I can't start the game

Reply 3 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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You could try stripping the linear executable out of LOLG.EXE (assuming there is one in there) and running that with DOS32/A ("dos32a lolg.le") or a different DOS/4GW ("dos4gw lolg.le"). The SB.EXE tool that comes with DOS32/A might be able to strip out the LE.

Reply 4 of 8, by programmm

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I don't know if it has such 'linear executable' nor do I know what it means.. here is the exe file, if you can tell me whether it includes such line or not. I have dos32a.exe sb.exe ss.exe stub32a.exe stub32c.exe sver.exe not sure how to run or which to run to make it DOS32A

Reply 5 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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Too small to be the main executable... maybe LOLG.DAT is the main executable. If you have a DOS4GW.EXE in the install directory, try replacing it with DOS32A.EXE (rename DOS32A.EXE to DOS4GW.EXE). If there is no DOS4GW.EXE then you need to find the main executable so you can replace DOS/4GW with DOS32/A using the SB.EXE tool.

Reply 6 of 8, by programmm

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You are right, I got confirmation that LOLG.DAT is the main. Now, can you tell me exactly where I need to put the files because that didn't get clear in the link which is why I started this thread... Edit:

SOLVED/TESTED- DID NOT WORK WITH DOS32A

My question was how to apply DOS32A to LOLG for GOG version but the way to do it is the same also for the non-GOG LOLG version which is on 4 CDs.

LOLG.DAT contains DOS4GW. In order to apply it, the following commands need to be used:

Let's say I have the game on C:\Games\Lolg (it is another drive but I mount it as C), the files from TOOLS:DOS32A link in dos32a\ folder, so after mounting the E drive as C: for example. I need to:

C:\> set dos32a=c:\(location of my dos32a folder) e.g if I keep them in C:\Dos32a\
separately from dosbox folder I need to set dos32a=c:\dos32a

Then again calling the SB file location no matter where it is. Let's say it is also in C:\DOS32A\ folder...

C:\GAMES\LOLG>c:\dos32a\sb /r lolg.dat

Make sure to have a binw\ folder inside the dos32a folder to make the switch to dos32a successful, as it asks for the file dos32a to be located in binw\ folder inside your dos32a folder

P.S they gave me a DAT file that likley had it, do you know if this is fixable:

Audio initialization failed.
Error type 10 code 5

Game failed to start under DOS32A with this error

Last edited by programmm on 2014-06-08, 21:19. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 7 of 8, by ripsaw8080

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Make sure the game's audio config correctly matches the DOSBox settings. It would be rather unusual for DOS32/A to cause issues with sound by itself. If your config/settings are OK then experiment with different amounts of limited or fixed cycles because it could be a sound hardware initialization issue related to timing.

I guess you're hoping that the alternate extender will make the game more stable when running it in DOSBox on your smartphone, but the odds are pretty slim that it will.

Reply 8 of 8, by programmm

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Applying dos32a worked the way I described in the upper post and both game settings and Dosboxturbo use SoundBlaster Pro 2.0, or the game wouldn't probably run even without dos32a. I don't think it is related to cycles. Yes, Im trying to make it crash less there but it is still playable without dos32a, just need to save more often and have the patience to start it more often.. Well, thanks for the help, even though it didn't work with DOS32A because of that Audio error.