VOGONS


First post, by Zanthia84

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Hi!

I'm playing Countdown and have strange problems when I go to Black December Headquarters in Athens.

I have put together the catapult and put the rock in it and I wait for the guard to stop and when I pull the lever the game locksup completely.

In regular dos the guard should be knocked out. But this is the strangest part: Dosbox also locksup completely!

And I can't even Ctrl+F9 out of it. I have to shut it down with Ctrl+Alt+Del.

This game also locked up when I went to see Fountaine, but I had just saved before it so I later got past the part when it didn't lockup. I also had the lockup problem when going to see Rachel Akura but luckily I saved before it so I got past it too.

I think this is very strange, it seems the game and Dosbox lockup randomly in different parts of the game but if you saved it before the part you can continue the game when you restart dosbox.

Does anyone else have this problem and how did you solve it?

Reply 1 of 14, by Qbix

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sounds like memory corruption
try running loadfix before the game.

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Reply 2 of 14, by Zanthia84

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Thanks for replying. I read the readme and it says: loadfix -(size) (program name). Size as in kilobytes. What size should I use?

Reply 3 of 14, by Qbix

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try different values.
but don't go higher then 100

Water flows down the stream
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Reply 4 of 14, by Zanthia84

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I tried it with loadfix and it didn't help. I usually have gotten past the lockup parts by saving and restoring but it didn't help now.

Maybe someone could send a saved game after getting inside the Black December Headquarters, so I could continue the game, because these lockups are really frustating and I really like this game so I'd love to play it to the end.

Reply 5 of 14, by Zanthia84

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Btw Qbix, do you have Countdown?

If so, maybe I could send you my saved games and you could test the game and see if your Dosbox locksup when trying to enter the Black December Headquarters?

Reply 6 of 14, by Qbix

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uhm attach the savegame to you posts.
and tell what to do.

I got the game.

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

Reply 7 of 14, by Zanthia84

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Okay, I attached the zip file to my post. Unzip the savegame in the directory where you installed Countdown.

In the game restore the save and wait for the guard to come out.

When he stop walking, move the lever and then enter the headquarters through the doorway.

After that, tell me does the game work in your Dosbox.

Reply 8 of 14, by Qbix

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crashes reguraly as well
some rom writes it seems

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

Reply 9 of 14, by Zanthia84

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What do you mean by rom writes?

What is the a.zip and what does the "past oit" description mean?

Thanks for trying to help.

Reply 10 of 14, by Zanthia84

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Nevermind. I downloaded the save and unzipped it in the Countdown direcotory.

Thanks very much for the save Qbix, but the game locked up almost immediately.

How did you btw got past the catapult lockup and could you get past the Headquarters lockup?

And what does the rom write problem means?

Thanks very much for trying to help and merry Easter!

Reply 11 of 14, by pinkhitcher

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Hello, has this ever been resolved somehow? I'm playing Countdown as well. I managed to get past the catapult part but the game keeps crashing when I'm in the hallway of the HQ trying to avoid the guard to get to a hostage. Does anybody have a save after passing the guard in the hallway and making it to the hostage? Thanks.

Reply 12 of 14, by LoneLines

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Can you post a save game file just before the crash with instructions to reproduce it?

LoneLines list of workarounds for various games in DOSBox:
http://ADogsBox.jellofishi.com

Reply 13 of 14, by pinkhitcher

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I figured it out now. What I had to do was restart the game in DosBox and I had to choose No Sound. No more crashing after that.

Reply 14 of 14, by Hazekel

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Yes, I was just about to say that. The problem is the "Real Sound" does work in DOSBOX 0.65 but occasionally causes a crash. You need to select any sound other than Real Sound for that segment only. I did not notice any other crashes in the game. I am thankful that REAL SOUND is not compatible with DOSBOX (albeit this bug exist).