marco-sacchi
commented
3 years ago This quite famous DOS games won't run:
- Lotus: I don't have it
- Lost Vikings: dont' run
- Cannon Fodder: run ok
- Alone In The Dark: I don't have it
- Chaos Engine: I don't have it
- Skyroads: run ok
This is part of the list I checked to see which games work with RLoader on DOSBox ECE r4444 (and almost certainly also in vanilla DOSBox):
# path executable setup cycles title RLoader
e:\3dkit kit.exe - 0 3D construction kit Ok
e:\3dkit2 3dmake.exe 3dsetup.exe 0 3D construction kit 2 Ok
e:\4dboxing 4dboxing.bat setup.exe 20000 4D sports: boxing Ok
e:\4ddrive stunts.com setup.exe 16000 4D sports: driving Ok
e:\abuse abuse.exe setup.exe 20000 Abuse Ok
e:\aladdin aladdin.exe setsnd.exe 0 Aladdin -
e:\alleycat alleycat.exe - 9000 Alley cat Ok
e:\another another.exe config.exe 20000 Another world Ok
e:\aoe aoe.com install.exe 0 Ace over europe -
e:\arcadevb av.exe - 6000 Arcade Volleyball Ok
e:\arkanoid start.bat - 9000 Arkanoid II: Revenge of DoH Ok
e:\awaves alpha.bat - 5000 Alpha waves Ok
e:\baron baron.com install.com 0 Red baron Ok
f:\batman batman.exe setsound.exe 20000 Batman forever Ok
e:\bchess chess.exe - 8000 Battle Chess (VGA - protected) Ok
e:\bchess_e chess.exe - 8000 Battle Chess Ok
e:\bcracers bcracers.exe setup.exe 16000 Bc racers Ok
e:\beach start.bat - 20000 Kings of the beach Ok
e:\bigtop go.bat - 500 Big top -
e:\blake bstone.bat - 20000 Blake Stone: Aliens of golds Ok
e:\blockout bl.exe - 20000 Block out Ok
e:\bodyblow bb.exe - 60000 Body blow Ok
e:\bootcamp runme.bat - 5000 Boot camp Ok
e:\boxing boxing.com - 0 Championship boxing Ok
e:\brothers runme.exe - 1000 The blues brothers Ok
e:\bthorne bthorne.bat setup.exe 20000 Black thorne Ok
e:\buckzoom zoom.com - 1000 Buck rogers: planet of doom Ok
e:\budokan budo.com - 0 Budokan the martial spirit Ok
e:\bushido bushido.exe - 500 Bushido: the Way of the Warrior Ok
f:\c&c command.bat setup.com 0 Command and Conquer -
e:\caesar caesar.bat install.exe 2500 Caesar Ok
f:\caesar2 c2.bat setsound.exe 0 Caesar II Ok
e:\carnage carnage.exe - 0 Carnage Ok
e:\calgames go.bat - 20000 California games Ok
e:\cannon cannon.bat install.exe 15000 Cannon fodder Ok
e:\cannon2 cannon.exe install.exe 15000 Cannon fodder 2 Ok
f:\carpet carpet.exe - 25000 Magic carpet Ok
e:\cd-man2 cdman2.exe - 0 CD-MAN 2.0 Ok
e:\cgames2 cgii.exe - 0 California games II Ok
e:\chess88 chess.exe - 0 IBM Chess Ok
e:\colonize colonize.bat install.exe 5000 Colonization Ok
e:\comanche comanche.exe soundset.exe 20000 Comanche: maximum overkill -
e:\coolspot spot.exe setsnd.exe 5000 Coolspot -
e:\crazycar crazycar.com - 0 Crazy cars -
e:\crimewav cw.exe - 15000 Crime wave -I had tried to use DOSBox-X too in the past, but if you just want to play old games maybe you should use DOSBox ECE or vanilla DOSBox without installing freeDOS (if I remember correctly you had freeDOS) because they have a memory manager that allows you to have almost all 640Kb of free base memory.
Interesting is that Doom and Command & Conquer will run. The list is bigger, this is just what I remember now. It might be there is something residential that cause the issues or some vector has been modified and DOS4GW will have a problem (something that some file managers can cause - like Norton Commander).
All programs in protected-mode work with RLoader because it is in real-mode and the resident part does not implement any changes to the interrupt vector table.
Other real-mode programs need required base memory to be free.
I will release an update in the next few hours with some minor improvements and startup parameters that will facilitate troubleshotting. Like display the memory status (through the mem /free command, and the insertion of the pause command at the launched program exit in order to view the output on the screen that would otherwise be impossible to read.
The solution I was thinking about is to write the resident part of RLoader (RLOADER.EXE) in assembly in order to minimize the size of the executable and leave more base memory free for the programs that are launched.
cyberluke
Hi, thank you for a great launcher. In order to use it, there is one thing a bit problematic:
These games run without issues if I exit RLoader, but inside RLoader they fail to run and you are returned back to RLoader menu. Did you have a chance to try any of these? I have like 622kb of free conventional memory. I tried EMS/XMS as well. One game (Cannon Fodder) prints that there is not enough memory to run inside RLoader. But it will run without RLoader right after I exit RLoader.
I tried to run it several times and use Pause key to get print screen for you. It happens on native machine as well as in DosBox.
This quite famous DOS games won't run: 1) Lotus 2) Lost Vikings 3) Cannon Fodder 4) Alone In The Dark 5) Chaos Engine 6) Skyroads
Interesting is that Doom and Command & Conquer will run. The list is bigger, this is just what I remember now. It might be there is something residential that cause the issues or some vector has been modified and DOS4GW will have a problem (something that some file managers can cause - like Norton Commander).
I think the only solution for this would be to have some BAT file automatically run after you exit RLoader. When you choose game, RLoader would overwrite this BAT file to contain launch information for that game and then exit itself. This way it would work on principle of simple BAT file launching a game, nothing resident in memory. Because as you said, it takes only about 11kb of memory (if I remember correctly)...so the problem might be in Borland compiler itself and the way how it works with memory. There might be some magic compiler parameter or some smart workaround on a code level. But right now it will run only a few games.