First post, by exofreeze
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So it seems the last time someone came on here looking for help running SimTown they were trying to use Mame...🤣.
I promise you that is not the case this time.
This game has been a huge headache. First I found that only the first release of the game is Win 3.x compatible. All releases after this had the Win31 directory removed, and only left the Win95 folder.
So I finally tracked down a copy of the game with the original 1995 date printed on the disc. It arrived yesterday, so this morning I immediately imaged it (bin/cue), loaded up a blank install of Win3.x I created by following dominus's guide, and installed the game. My copy of Win 3.x already has Win32s installed, and runs using the suggesting sb16 drivers and s3 video card drivers (640x480 @ 266 colors).
The game starts up, and at the front screen I can choose to start a new town or use a Starter Town or Fixer Upper Town. What I have found is, I can start a new town or pick a starter town, and things are ok. But the problems seem to kick in when I either place a building in town, or choose a fixer upper town (which already has buildings). For the record, the starter towns I have opened so far were just vegetation and roads. No buildings. So if I add a building or open a city with a building already placed in it, I get this vague error:
I have tried the following:
Under Dosbox 0.74 I tried 16mb and 32mb of ram. I tried changing the cputype to 486_slow. I tried limiting the cycles.
I then tried the DAUM SVN build, and went through the same switches as listed above.
I noticed the version of win32 packed with the game was older then the one recommended, so I then tried a clean install of SimTown on a fresh copy of Win 3.x, but this time I let it use it's version of Win32. No progress there.
At this point I decided to go the virtual drive route. I created a 100mb drive image, installed DOS 6.22 to it, and then installed Windows 3.11. After installing the sb16 and s3 drivers, I mounted the games CD using the DAUM build's IDE mount support with VIDE-CDD.SYS and MSCDEX.EXE. I thought that this would solve the problem for sure, however after installing the game, I got the exact same error message.
I have had one person hypothesize that the game simply does not work under Win 3.x, however it is worth noting that apart from the disc having a Win31 folder, the original boxes all specifically state Win 3.x support on them.
I have tried googling the topic, and can find no one else with the error... but I also couldn't find anyone else who was trying to play the game in Windows 3.x. The only errors I found online where in regards to RAM issues.
Just to be clear ahead of time, I am working on a Windows 3.x project. So while it is probably much easier for me to pursue a route that involves playing the game under Win95 compatibility mode in a modern OS, that would defeat the purpose of my project. My specific goal here is to see if I can get the game running under Windows 3.x, as it is supposedly capable of. Any assistance in accomplishing this, or even just determining what is causing this error, would be *greatly* appreciated.
