probably. did you try loadfix ?

If you cannot get anything else working, you can try and rez him with the magical hex editor. I use Winhex, but you can use the editor of your choice. Just don't try to do it with wordpad or notepad 😉

First, find and backup your Poolrad/save game directory. Next, find out which save game slot your game is, that you wish to try and rez your character, ie is it A, B, C, ect. And also find out which slot your dead char is in, first through eighth. In this example let's say my save game is A and my char is in slot 1. So I go to my save game directory and find CHRDATA1, CHRDATA means it is the A save game and CHRDATA1 the number means which character slot. So the data for my 1st char would be stored in CHRDATA1.SAV. Open it with your hex editor and you'll see a lot of 0's and letters. What you are looking for is offset address 10C and 10D, or decimally offset 268 and 269. My char was unconscious so the values read at 10C 04 and at 10D 00. Comparing this with my previous save game, I saw that my healthy char data read at 10C 00 and at 10D 01. So I changed the values starting at 10C to 00 and 01. I then went to address 11B or 283 and returned his health to max which was 60, so I put the hex equivalent which is 3C. I saved these changes and loaded up this save. And my fighter was up and fully healed again.

If you want him back badly enough you might give this a try. There are times your chars will be totally destroyed and this would be one of the only ways to get them back.

I also back up my characters before leaving on my next missions. Go into one of the training buildings and ask to train. At the character menu you can remove all of your characters from your party, then save your game in the next game slot. Exit the game, and look in your Poolrad\save directory, and you will see the names of all the party members that you removed there. Back up all of those to a backup directory. And if anything really bad happens to one of your chars, you can copy their data back into your save game dir, and from the training menu add them back into your party. Anyway, that is what I would try in your situation. Good luck!

Thanks a lot tempus2. I'm certainly not above resorting to a little cheating here and there if it's to overcome a technical issue like this. I'll have a look into the hex editing.

I did try the loadfix too, by the way. But yeah, I think this may be a problem concerning the PC itself rather than DOSbox.

Thanks!

Hi swabbleflange,

I took the liberty of googling your problem in google groups for you. The "Runtime 200" error was an error in the Turbo Pascal language runtime caused by the computer dividing by zero. It was usually encountered in programs with buggy timing loops that overflowed when executed on a "too fast" machine.

So one approach is to reduce the cycles of the dosbox VM, and see if that helps resurrect your friend.

It's also possible that you simply have a corrupt character. I've encountered this problem myself with a gold box AD&D game recently, namely "Champions of Krynn." I was running it on original DOS hardware, not Dosbox, but a much later computer than it was written for (a 1996 Pentium 133), and I lost a party with some kind of file corruption problem. Again, it may have something to do with timing, or just that those games were buggy.

I remembered you had mentioned a "skip the codewheel" backdoor when I was trying to get Pool of Radiance up and running (from the Gamefest compilation CDs) under Vista; I'm happy to see there's a similar "skip the codewheel" backdoor for Curse of the Azure Bonds (which I've just started this week, using my PoR characters). There was no hardcopy codewheel in the tiny little Gamefest box (and my codewheels from the Wizworks CD compilation and the old C64 version before that have long since fallen apart and disappeared), so I had printed out a PDF file with the Curse codewheel as the last page, and was today gluing the paper to an old file folder (just like when my spouse and I playtested board wargames many years ago, and had to mount everything on file folders and cardstock before actually playing) and then cutting out the 2 little circles. (I have a metal file fastener to use with them, but need to either use a utility/hobby knife or a 1-hole punch to cut out the little windows in the top circle.) Your backdoor sounds much easier. Thanks, tempus2!

I should update this then, as when I went to try Curse, I found that it didn't quite work as I had described above.
You have to use both bypass words in order for it to work in Curse, so the command line would be thus.

start.exe STING Wooden (that's start.exe(space)STING(space)Wooden capitalized exactly that way.

What I did was to make a simple txt file and put that command line in it. Then named and saved it as st.bat in
the Curse directory and then call st.bat from the Dosbox [autoexec] section at the bottom. Then the commands
that can be executed from inside Curse are as follows.

Adding STING to the command line (first parameter) will:
Skip the Title screen
Allow toggling debug mode, press CTRL+D. Output is put in the DEBUG.txt file. While in debug mode:
Each executed Byte Code is logged to the debug file
Press CTRL+Z to dump the affects that each party member has
Press CTRL+C to exit the game straight away
Adding Wooden to the command line (second parameter) will allow you to:
Display the area map in all areas
Skip the copy protection, so you don’t need the code wheel.
Turn on “Free Training” when in a trainer, press J. This means:
You don’t pay the 1000 gold pieces
You don’t need to have the required EXP to train
Your character doesn’t need to be conscious
Training centers will train all classes
You will be given the required EXP to be the level you have just trained for
Pressing Alt-x or ‘-’ (minus) in combat will cause “The Gods intervene!” and kill all enemies
Thus you would type “start.exe STING Wooden” at the DOS prompt.
(copied from a source on the web)

A shame there isn't just a command to turn off the codewheel without adding the other perks.

The following link is to a Javascript online version of the Curse of the Azure Bonds codewheel: http://simeonpilgrim.com/blog/2007/11/01/curs … opy-protection/
If I keep that open in a separate window, I can toggle between that and Curse running in DOSBox, and click the buttons for the 2 runes instead of lining them up on the paper codewheel (and mousing over DOSBox in the bottom-of-the-screen bar in Vista often shows the 2 runes just large enough that I can usually guess which ones they are without actually toggling back to the DOSBox window to see them). It does mean having to be online when I load Curse of the Azure Bonds, but it also provides the help with the codewheel I want without triggering all the extra debug mode "help" I don't need. Thanks again, tempus2!

I just finished mounting and assembling my PDF printout of the "Curse of the Azure Bonds" codewheel; I used a 1-hole punch to get the outer 3 windows of each row opened up, and switched to an Exacto knife (and a really quiet half-hour after breakfast) to open the inner windows and make a small X-shaped cut at each center hole. Overall, I think I still like the online version of the codewheel I found (link in my previous post on this thread) to be much more convenient to use (I saved the link in my Favorites so I can get 1-click access to it whenever I need it).

Im posting this where ever I find this question. I worked through it earlier in the evening with the help of several posts in other forums of this site.

It seems as though editing the poolrad.cfg file does the trick, however it seems how this file is configured depends on the package which included the game. My version came in the Gamefest Forgotten Realms edition and required the following code to work:

E
P
C:\
C:\Poolrad\Save\
F

It is important to realize the entire game was installed to the C:\ directory. The default code in the Poolrad.cfg had both C:\ references set to C:\Poolrad. Although, the second reference may not need to be changed, I created the Save folder in the C:\Poolrad directory, making copying of the character data very easy - nice for backups.

Again, it seems that the code included in the .cfg file is dependent upon which version of the game you are running. If you have a different version check out -

viewtopic.p...highlight=

Thanks to the guys who figured this out back in 2007.

MattSA

Ok, let's see...
E
P
C:\
C:\poolrad\save
F

The "E" stands for EGA, so it's your monitor type; the P is PC Speaker (for sound, want it better? Configure DosBox to use tandy sound and type a T here); the first C:\ is the data folder; the C:\poolrad\save is the saved game folder, the "F" stands for full intro.
I don't really think the configuration file depends on your game version, mine came from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Collectors Edition and the file format is the same; which I edited by hand, since their installer is awful.

If you want 3-voice sound effects use the "Tandy" machine option with these settings:

T
T
C:\poolrad\
C:\poolrad\
F

It's a noticable improvement over the PC speaker sounds.

I've been over this thread, and others regarding the SSI Gold Box games. Sorry, but I'm still lost as to what's needed, so I'm reviving this thread.

I've installed the four Moonsea games. From Windows (XP SP3) they function fine. With DOSBox (through D_Fend Reloaded) I get the "PUT SAVE DISK IN E:" error. I know it's not the game .cfg files since it doesn't happen if I run them directly through Windows, only through DOXBox, and I've three separate installs of the games (E:\MOONSEA1 thru 4, E:\WIZWORX\(default) and F:\Realms\Moonsea1 thru 4). It also appears that the Savage Frontier and Dragonlance games have the same problem.

What within the DOSBox configuration needs to be checked/changed?

@ tempus2 - Thanks for the codewheel bypass post. Works great for Pool of Radiance, but I can't get it working for Curse of the Azure Bonds. Are you sure it's "STING Wooden"?

Edit: Took another look and the Gold Box Collection CD, found an ST.EXE and START.BAT in both PoR and CotAB, and a STA.BAT in PoR. For this CD collection only the START.BAT is needed, and both are the same:

st
cd\
install 1 (PoR; install 2 for CotAB)

Neither the early floppy disk or the later Forgotten Realms Archive games have the shortcut ST.EXE or START.BAT files, so it's only good for the WizWorks Gold Box Collector's Edition to my knowledge.

Now if I can only get DOSBox to run them...

grogerson I sent you a PM here on Vogons about this. With a help file that will hopefully assist you some.

Thanks for the quick answer, tempus2. I'm posting my reply to your PM here for future reference when/if someone else has the same problem, and what was done to resolve it. I've read the PM with the following:

1. Already installed, twice from the CD, once from floppy. All three run.

2. Using XP, not Vista, so most of this paragraph is meaningless as far as my current knowledge goes (which isn't far). I *do* know about installing to any Program, Programs, or Program Files directories, or rather not to. That's why they're at E:\, E:\WIZWORX\ and F:\Realms\ locations.

3. POOL.CFG is already modified for the proper directories and settings. START.BAT is likewise edited to bypass the codewheel check. Run from Windows Explorer a DOS window opens and all functions are there. I can create characters, create parties, save, everything without that error showing up. With DOSBox I can't create or add characters or load games. It keeps wanting me to insert the save game disk. Apparently the save directory is not being recognized or found.

4. I'm still working to find where the .conf files are stored, since D-Fend Reloaded says:

# This DOSBox configuration file was automatically created by D-Fend Reloaded. # Changes made to this file will NOT be transferr […]
Show full quote

# This DOSBox configuration file was automatically created by D-Fend Reloaded.
# Changes made to this file will NOT be transferred to D-Rend Reloaded profiles list.
# D-Fend Reloaded will delete this file from temp directory on program close.

# Command line used when starting DOSBox:
# -CONF "C:\DOCUME~1\GARTHR~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Pool of Radiance.conf" -NOCONSOLE

Here's what the [autoexec] portion of the "Temp" .conf file looks like:

1@echo off
2SET PATH=Z:\
3keyb US 437
4mount C "C:\DOCUME~1\GARTHR~1\D-FEND~1\VIRTUA~1\"
5
6mount D "E:\MOONSEA1\"
7echo.
8D:
9cd\
10Z:\config.com -securemode > nul
11call START.BAT
12exit

Seems the main data file is located at C:\Documents and Settings\Garth Rogerson\D-Fend Reloaded\Confs\ as *.prof files. I can view (and probably edit) them with ConTEXT, but that's the only program I have that can.

What am I missing? Are there any alternate ways to get D-Fend Reloaded to work?

grogerson wrote:

3. POOL.CFG is already modified for the proper directories and settings. START.BAT is likewise edited to bypass the codewheel ch […]
Show full quote

3. POOL.CFG is already modified for the proper directories and settings. START.BAT is likewise edited to bypass the codewheel check. Run from Windows Explorer a DOS window opens and all functions are there. I can create characters, create parties, save, everything without that error showing up. With DOSBox I can't create or add characters or load games. It keeps wanting me to insert the save game disk. Apparently the save directory is not being recognized or found.

4. I'm still working to find where the .conf files are stored, since D-Fend Reloaded says:

# This DOSBox configuration file was automatically created by D-Fend Reloaded. # Changes made to this file will NOT be transferr […]
Show full quote

# This DOSBox configuration file was automatically created by D-Fend Reloaded.
# Changes made to this file will NOT be transferred to D-Rend Reloaded profiles list.
# D-Fend Reloaded will delete this file from temp directory on program close.

# Command line used when starting DOSBox:
# -CONF "C:\DOCUME~1\GARTHR~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Pool of Radiance.conf" -NOCONSOLE

Here's what the [autoexec] portion of the "Temp" .conf file looks like:

Copy code to clipboard

1@echo off
2SET PATH=Z:\
3keyb US 437
4mount C "C:\DOCUME~1\GARTHR~1\D-FEND~1\VIRTUA~1"
5
6mount D "E:\MOONSEA1"
7echo.
8D:
9cd\
10Z:\config.com -securemode > nul
11call START.BAT
12exit

Seems the main data file is located at C:\Documents and Settings\Garth Rogerson\D-Fend Reloaded\Confs\ as *.prof files. I can view (and probably edit) them with ConTEXT, but that's the only program I have that can.

What am I missing? Are there any alternate ways to get D-Fend Reloaded to work?

D-Fend Reloaded works, but the game is expecting to find everything in the same place where it was installed; example: if you installed it under c:\wizworx\somedir and then mount c:\wizworx\somedir as c:\ the game now will NOT find the folders it expects.
So...either a) install the game using DosBox and use ALWAYS the same mountings, e.g mount c c:\dos (which is what I recommend)
or b) make sure whatever you are mounting ends up looking the same under windows and DosBox (mount c c:\ so you can have the full structure of c:\wizworx\somedir or whatever perverse structure you used but this is NOT recommended at all).

As for the .conf file...look at the path you pasted: (shortened) "%temp%\Pool of Radiance.conf" temp files are meant to be TEMPORARY...hence the .conf will get erased when you exit the game, D-Fend Reloaded allows you to control a lot of DosBox aspects so, ideally, you don't need to edit the .conf file by hand for this game (or...the better option DO edit a .conf file you made by hand).

I don't even know why you're mounting two locations (with shortened long file names, nonetheless) since Pool of Radiance only needs one, it isn't aware of CD-Roms and such (unless you mean the "other" Pool of Radiance "Ruins of Myth Drannor"...that won't run under Dos or DosBox...and wasn't made or published by Wizard Works).

To sum it up, install the thing under DosBox (maybe without using D-Fend Reloaded) and keep the exact same mounting paths afterwards whether editing a D-Fend Reloaded profile for the game or a .conf file by hand. You may or may not require xcopy, as I recall that collection's installer was a hideous mess (basically a collection of .bat files).

bloodbat said it far better than I could. Your problem is that you're installing the game 1st through a XP dos window
and then trying to run it under Dosbox via D-fend. Start over and follow bloodbats instructions.

bloodbat wrote:

D-Fend Reloaded works, but the game is expecting to find everything in the same place where it was installed; example: if you installed it under c:\wizworx\somedir and then mount c:\wizworx\somedir as c:\ the game now will NOT find the folders it expects.
So...either a) install the game using DosBox and use ALWAYS the same mountings, e.g mount c c:\dos (which is what I recommend)
or b) make sure whatever you are mounting ends up looking the same under windows and DosBox (mount c c:\ so you can have the full structure of c:\wizworx\somedir or whatever perverse structure you used but this is NOT recommended at all).

OK, I reinstalled through DOSBox. DOSBox Guides, "60 seconds guide to getting your game to run in DOSBox" was also helpful. Unfortunately I found no .conf file created since there was no %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\DOSBox\ folder, so I created one and reinstalled.

I then created clones of the DOSBox-0.74.conf file, renamed one for each Gold Box game, and edited the [autoexec] section.

bloodbat wrote:

As for the .conf file...look at the path you pasted: (shortened) "%temp%\Pool of Radiance.conf" temp files are meant to be TEMPORARY...hence the .conf will get erased when you exit the game, D-Fend Reloaded allows you to control a lot of DosBox aspects so, ideally, you don't need to edit the .conf file by hand for this game (or...the better option DO edit a .conf file you made by hand).

I was aware of that. That's why I included the statement from the top of D-Fend Reloaded .conf file. That's why I wanted to find where the hard information was kept.

bloodbat wrote:

I don't even know why you're mounting two locations (with shortened long file names, nonetheless) since Pool of Radiance only needs one...

What you see is what D-Fend Reloaded did, not me. The trunkated file names are a result of basic DOS's eight character file name limit. Why, I have no idea...

bloodbat wrote:

To sum it up, install the thing under DosBox (maybe without using D-Fend Reloaded) and keep the exact same mounting paths afterwards whether editing a D-Fend Reloaded profile for the game or a .conf file by hand. You may or may not require xcopy, as I recall that collection's installer was a hideous mess (basically a collection of .bat files).

I've tried various alterations of the [autoexec] section, and various methods of getting D-Fend Reloaded to run the game. I've imported the DOSBox .conf file, used the Wizard to set up by the DOSBox .conf file or by the game's START.BAT. I even tried running straight from DOSBox. I still get the "PUT SAVE DISK IN F:". The [autoexec] portion reads:

1mount c "f:\wizworx\poolrad"
2c:
3call start.bat
4exit

What am I missing?

You're mounting the wrong directory, so the game cannot find it's save game directory. The way you're doing it below, is causing your wizworx\poolrad directory to be seen as your C: drive.

mount c "f:\wizworx\poolrad" c: call start.bat exit […]
Show full quote

mount c "f:\wizworx\poolrad"
c:
call start.bat
exit

Try this, in XP not Dosbox, create this directory f:\dosgames . And then put this into the autoexec section of your Dosbox .conf file.

mount c "f:\dosgames" c: cd wizworx\poolrad call start.bat exit […]
Show full quote

mount c "f:\dosgames"
c:
cd wizworx\poolrad
call start.bat
exit

Take out that cd, call, and exit command above, the 1st time you run it to install the game. Since the game is not there yet and so won't work until it's properly installed. Then put those commands back in after it's installed, before you run it the 1st time. The game directory should end up looking like this from XP when you done.

f:\dosgames\wizworx\poolrad

Remember the game is looking for the save game directory to be at c:\wizworx\poolrad not c: Obviously edit and move the corrected files into this new installed game directory. This works for the rest of us, you're just not quite getting it yet, but you're very close now. Let us know how it goes.

grogerson wrote:

What you see is what D-Fend Reloaded did, not me. The trunkated file names are a result of basic DOS's eight character file name limit. Why, I have no idea...

You can override D-Fend's mountings, BUT read carefully what Tempus2 said, it should (probably) get you working IF you installed the game under DosBox.

Dos has a limit of 8.3 characters for filenames...so does DosBox, using file names longer than that is NOT recommended.

Thanks, tempus2 and bloodbat. I'm finally up and running with all the Gold Box games, plus Unlimited Adventures. Here's how I did it (or lesson learned). This applies *only* to 1) Windows XP using 2) DOSBox 0.74 and 3) D-Fend Reloaded as the DOSBox front end, and 4) using the Wizard Works Gold Box Collector's Edition CD.

**Important:** Use Notepad or some other text editor that does *not* allow formatting, otherwise the program will add code and make the game configuration file unreadable to the game.

1. I had to created a DOSBox folder in C:\Documents and Settings\%user name%\Local Settings\Application Data. It'll be needed to store the dosbox-0.74.conf file DOSBox will create later.
-- Note that the Local Settings and Application Data folders are hidden, so you must have "Show hidden files and folders" selected in the Folder Options "View" tab if you use Windows Explorer.

2. I created a folder f:\dosgames on my hard drive. This is important since this folder will become the C: drive for DOSBox.

3. I started DOSBox to open a DOS window, with the virtual drive Z: being the prompt. I entered the following:

1mount c "f:\dosgames"
2mount d "n:\" -t cdrom
3d:
4install

This started the CD installer program. I then installed the nine games on the CD to "C". Once installed I exited the program and DOSBox.

4. I returned to the folder I created in step 1 and made a backup copy of the dosbox-0.74.conf file outside the DOSBox folder. I used notepad to edit the original .conf file, adding this line to the bottom (the [autoexec] section):

1mount c "f:\dosgames"

I then saved and closed the file. This set DOSBox to automatically open with f:\dosgames set as the C: drive.

5. I renamed the copy of the dosbox-0.74.conf to Pool of Radiance.conf. I then edited the file, adding these lines to the [autoexec] section:

1mount c "f:\dosgames"
2c:
3cd wizworx\poolrad
4call start.bat
5exit

I then saved and closed the file.

6. I copied Pool of Radiance.conf into the DOSBox folder with the original dosbox-0.74.conf file. I renamed it Curse of the Azure Bonds.conf and edited it to read \curse instead of \poolrad. I repeated the process for the rest of the games, finally moving the Pool of Radiance.conf into the DOSBox folder with the rest of the game files.

7. I opened D-Fend Reloaded, then selected File => Import => Import conf file... I located the folder I created in step 1 and selected each game .conf file. I then ran each game to set up each game's configuration file. Oddly enough I didn't have to edit the game .cfg files...

8. Since D-Fend didn't create the data file, I had to edit each one as follows:
-- DOSBox settings: made sure "Close DOSBox when program closes" was checked.
-- Graphics: made sure "Start in fullscreen mode" as checked.
-- Starting: I had to add "exit" to the bottom of the Autoexec.bat tab, since D-Fend dropped it from the DOSBox .conf file.
-- Directories: set or created default folders for screenshots and data.
-- Program information (optional): I clicked on the "Download game information" to get the key information about the game, including some screenshots of, and notes about, the game.

Hopefully this step-by-step write-up will help the next DOSBox noob get through the "Insert disk 3" and "Insert save disk" errors...