VOGONS


First post, by Agathosdaimon

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I have gotten the original disks recently for this game and am trying to install it with them - i set dosbox cpu to 386_prefetch and i mount the disk in a a drive (i have a usb floppy disk drive) and mount my virtual c drive - i can install the game but then when i go to play it, the game requests i insert disk_a and type the drive letter - however this doesnt work, i cant type any letter and nothing else happens

how do i get the game to actually recognise that i have the game in the disk drive?

also i dont understand how others have been able to just sit the disk contents in a folder called as Microprose specifically states in the technical supplement in the box, that they made the disks to have security protection on them - hidden files or something that dont get copied -is the some setting i require in dosbox for this to work?

Reply 1 of 12, by Agathosdaimon

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i have tried all this again but with SVN daum build and i get the same result mostly - only this time there is a little blip sound when i push a key at teh screen that asks for the disk_a - program still progresses no further

attached are the images of the dosbox program and the commands i give for it to use my floppy drive. the floppy disks instal M1 Tank Platoon with no problems at all

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Reply 2 of 12, by gdjacobs

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Microprose had copy protection on this title.
Microprose sims (f19, M1 tank platoon)

For those with a legit version who want to play on modern hardware (therefore not via unadulterated DOS on bare metal), you can try some of the copy protection defeat software from the period.
http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2014/12/t … -game-copy.html

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 3 of 12, by Agathosdaimon

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yes, i am aware of the copy protection - that is what my post is mentioning also - i have legit actual disks of the game -I just this past week got a nice boxed version that contains by Gunship and M1 Tank Platoon, It is compilation box called "ALLIED FORCES" - i hope you are suggesting i dont have a legit copy, because that is not how i like to roll, i actually like to only install teh games via the disks and cdroms and it is a particular sense of completeness and satisfication if i can get a game working without any other programs.

as well as the Allied Forces boxed set, i do have a cdrom version of m1 Tank Platoon one also - but i could not get that one working either and so thought that if i got the original disks it would surely work for me.

- i have however now just learnt about the cputype=386_prefetch setting and switching to this setting in dosbox has gotten the cdrom version now working! which is great. The floppy disk version though still i cannot get to work, - i have to conclude that either Dosbox itself or the USB floppy drive that i have does not recognise the copy protection on the m1 tp disk_A (i tried to make an image of disk_a to see if that might work, but the image making process could not complete, so clearly there is something unique to the m1tp disks)

and because people seem to rush to accuse others of not having legit copies here, i attached a photo of my 2 M1 TP game boxes and contents

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Reply 4 of 12, by gdjacobs

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I wasn't accusing anybody of anything. This forum does take a strong stand against license violations, but breaking copy protection isn't the same as condoning illegitimate distribution. I wanted to make clear that I'm only endorsing the legitimate use of cracks.

I suspect DOSBox is not being given the raw device access necessary to read tracks 38 and 39 from the floppy because of a limitation in Windows or potentially because of a limitation in the USB floppy controller. It may be possible to generate a raw disk image that incorporates the track data needed, but I think the most straightforward way to resolve the issue is to crack the binary. However, as you've got the CD version running (which obviously has the floppy check removed), you're probably okay for now.

Your copies of M1 look like they're in mint shape, btw!

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 5 of 12, by Agathosdaimon

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thanks - sorry yes i wasnt sure if your reference to "those with legit copies" was a veiled hint that i wasnt one - but all good. Yes my m1 Tank Platoon boxes are in good nick - the only thing missing from the Allied Forces box though is the fll M1 manual, which i would like to still get, though the manual n the cd box has all the contents, albeit in a much smaller and slightly harder to read format.

I am good with the cd version now, i just wanted to see if my purchase of Allied Forces could be usable to the same extent. would it be possible for Dosbox to get the "raw device access" to the floppy drive?

Reply 6 of 12, by krcroft

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Agathosdaimon,

Having a super clean no-intro deprotection for the floppy version would be fantastic.

A recently-joined member, FabulousFurlough, formed the Humble Guys, one of the largest cracking groups for DOS games in the late 80s and early 90s. He mentioned being interested in helping people with copy-protection issues.

He might be up for the challenge!

Reply 7 of 12, by Agathosdaimon

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thanks for your reply, i am not sure what that member might do, but i can say that i did look at some of the older dos game cracking programs and found that in rawcopy.exe it is listed there already and i tested it on my floppy disk installed version (i wanted to make sure that the actual game files are all in working order so as to rule them out as the cause of the insert disk_a error lock up) and it worked and m1 tankplatoon is playable by way of the floppy disk version, though i still feel a little unsatisfied that i couldnt just rely on floppy disks and the usb floppy drive and dosbox itself to do the job - that i had to use some extra program

Reply 8 of 12, by gdjacobs

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Well, I'm usually dissatisfied with any copy protection being inserted into a program. Just like in this case, it usually ends up being an inconvenience down the road.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 9 of 12, by krcroft

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gdjacobs wrote:

Well, I'm usually dissatisfied with any copy protection being inserted into a program. Just like in this case, it usually ends up being an inconvenience down the road.

Same. As an eight year old kid in '84, one of the first couple games I was given was a PC Booter - I can't even remember the game, but eventually that floppy went bad. My parents couldn't buy me another copy (wasn't in our local stores), and they weren't going to call up my uncle and ask him to buy me another copy. The trauma it caused me became a life lesson.

I soon learned how to make backups of all my games, except for those "special" disks that still wouldn't work when I copied them. Those copy-protected disks alway gave me a lot of stress when handling and playing them, and I'm sure I played them less frequently simply out of fear of damaging them. One of them was Thexder, and I loved that game.

Years passed; I moved up to junior high school which had a PC with a 1200 modem and Telix installed, so I learned the basics of BBS'ing with a friend. A couple years later I had my own 2400 modem. Some BBS's carried cracks, which finally allowing me to backup my original disks. The satisfaction of running a tiny .com file was like a magic fix that freed this diseased software from being trapped on that single floppy.

Reply 10 of 12, by Akuma

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Agathosdaimon wrote:

thanks for your reply, i am not sure what that member might do, but i can say that i did look at some of the older dos game cracking programs and found that in rawcopy.exe it is listed there already and i tested it on my floppy disk installed version (i wanted to make sure that the actual game files are all in working order so as to rule them out as the cause of the insert disk_a error lock up) and it worked and m1 tankplatoon is playable by way of the floppy disk version, though i still feel a little unsatisfied that i couldnt just rely on floppy disks and the usb floppy drive and dosbox itself to do the job - that i had to use some extra program

those floppies came with all sorts of nasty protections, from a practical standpoint implementing that in dosbox would be madness. the only way to use that floppy is to boot into ms-dos with all drivers and start it from there.
but if that means you only bypass the insert keydisk, i dont really see the point.

have you thought about cracking it yourself ? i can tell you how if interested. (no rawcopy or third party files)