DOS Game - Privateer - EMS - NOEMS (DOSBox / VDM)

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I was following someone in Twitter that wanted to run a DOS game under ArcaOS, but says it is not possible because some non common EMM386 use.

The game is Wing Commander Privateer.

When I run it on DOS VDM it says:

Code: [Select]

C:\DGAMES\PRIVA1>priv
Protected mode driver is not responding to EMS function calls.
Make sure your EMS driver is not configured with the NOEMS option.
If it is, replace the option "NOEMS" with "RAM".

Even that DOSBox says Privateer is compatible, on OS/2 I get this error (Attached). DOSBox 0.74 for Windows gave me the same error.

There is an old OS/2 DOS games compatibility list that says about Privateer:

-Origin is up to their usual tricks.  This one uses a proprietary
  memory manager, so it doesn't run OS/2.

Any ideas if this game can be run on OS/2 VMD or DOSBox? or there is no way to run it?

Regards

[Mark Szkolnicki]

Hi Martin!

I'll have to look around on abandonware sites  or archive.org to see if I can find a copy.

I have the original Wing Commander running on DOSBOX - don't think I ever tried privateer.

Best!

M

[Mark Szkolnicki]

Hi Martin!

Hi

I was following someone in Twitter that wanted to run a DOS game under ArcaOS, but says it is not possible because some non common EMM386 use.

The game is Wing Commander Privateer.

When I run it on DOS VDM it says:

Code: [Select]

C:\DGAMES\PRIVA1>priv
Protected mode driver is not responding to EMS function calls.
Make sure your EMS driver is not configured with the NOEMS option.
If it is, replace the option "NOEMS" with "RAM".

Even that DOSBox says Privateer is compatible, on OS/2 I get this error (Attached). DOSBox 0.74 for Windows gave me the same error.

There is an old OS/2 DOS games compatibility list that says about Privateer:

-Origin is up to their usual tricks.  This one uses a proprietary
  memory manager, so it doesn't run OS/2.

Any ideas if this game can be run on OS/2 VMD or DOSBox? or there is no way to run it?

Regards

Hope your having a fine middle of the week - just finished my Corporate Tax Filing and Financial Statement, so finally have time to play at the start of a beautiful June day!

I have looked around and Privateer is obviously still a money generator - have to pay GOG for the privilege of running it, so lets see if this might help .............

Went to http://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=1301, and found something about the black screen you got:

D002-FFFF has to do with your sound card configuration. You probably have the wrong irq set. Both xms and ems should not be set to false. xms should be set to true and ems must be set to false. The CD version of Privateer had speech in all the cutscenes. The disk version had a speech pack, but that just primarily added speech to the in-flight communication, not the story's cutscenes.

to fix this, set your SB16 irq to 5. Should fix that problem. wow I had goosebumps when the game loaded up fine and everything lol.

Another post said this:

I got both sound and music at 3000 cycles, frameskip=2, sb16 (base=220 irq=7 dma=1 hdma=5), prebuffer=12. Privateer was installed with sound AND music on sb16. I'm running a 750mhz P3, NVIDIA RIVA TNT2, Labtec USB sound, and Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro (which also works, btw).

And this:

I had the same problems as described here, starting with the ems problem and continuing with the irq one... setting ems=false and setting irq to 5 (both in the dosbox.conf as well as in the install - maybe that was what you forgot, fancy-free?) made the game work, but the sound was all chopped up.

I then set music to General Midi and sound FX to sound blaster pro on irq 5 and after switching to full screen the sounds problem was fixed as well.

So it takes some fine tuning, but seems to run well in the end... Now my only remaining problem is that it is way too dark, but i guess thats a problem of my screen/grafix card and not dosbox

Nearly the whole thread is about comments related to D002-FFFF, which seems to be about the sound set-up, and getting the memory set-up right under DOSBOX. It seems the game is very finicky in this regard, and the actual DOSBOX set-up is extremely important.

If that helps somewhat, Martin, I will purchase the game and try it myself - it looks like an interesting game to run, if you actually can get especially the sound to work, which seems to be important and intrinsic to the game.

BTW I did enquire in the DOS VDM thread whether you knew if Trials of Battle was considered abandonware by Stardock? Any idea and Best!

M

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Mark.

I have looked around and Privateer is obviously still a money generator - have to pay GOG for the privilege of running it, so lets see if this might help .............

Went to http://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=1301, and found something about the black screen you got:

D002-FFFF has to do with your sound card configuration. You probably have the wrong irq set. Both xms and ems should not be set to false. xms should be set to true and ems must be set to false. The CD version of Privateer had speech in all the cutscenes. The disk version had a speech pack, but that just primarily added speech to the in-flight communication, not the story's cutscenes.

Thanks for the link. I will follow the recommendations and post back.

BTW I did enquire in the DOS VDM thread whether you knew if Trials of Battle was considered abandonware by Stardock? Any idea and Best!

I think I need to use definition of abandoware of the wikipedia first. Trials of Battle is consider abandoware for me:
- It is not being supported by Stardock
- It is not being sold by Stardock anymore
But Stardock is still around, and for what I know about it's owner, if he can me a buck with something, he will try to.
The game is owned by "ShadowSoft" and distributed by "Stardock", which make the thing more complex, and I don't know exactly what happened with ShadowSoft.

Yes, it may fall on the "abandoware" category, but I prefer not to link it or share it to protect the OS2World site.

Archive.org and other places have the right to preserve it and individual people may download it for educational/research purposes under the US Copyright law fair use (Article 107), if you are on the US. Other countries will vary.

Regards

[Mark Szkolnicki]

Hi Martin!

BTW I did enquire in the DOS VDM thread whether you knew if Trials of Battle was considered abandonware by Stardock? Any idea and Best!

I think I need to use definition of abandoware of the wikipedia first. Trials of Battle is consider abandoware for me:
- It is not being supported by Stardock
- It is not being sold by Stardock anymore
But Stardock is still around, and for what I know about it's owner, if he can me a buck with something, he will try to.
The game is owned by "ShadowSoft" and distributed by "Stardock", which make the thing more complex, and I don't know exactly what happened with ShadowSoft.

Yes, it may fall on the "abandoware" category, but I prefer not to link it or share it to protect the OS2World site.

Archive.org and other places have the right to preserve it and individual people may download it for educational/research purposes under the US Copyright law fair use (Article 107), if you are on the US. Other countries will vary.

Regards

Thanks for the info.

I know you have explored this in the past extensively for links to various items, and the implications for OS2World, so would know the ins and outs of the copyright or property right issues involved.

I have two websites and am constantly patrolling both the people that want to link to them and the ones who have - and occasionally have had to both send warnings, and discourage the various parties involved.

So I know exactly what of you speak, Sir - I have looked fairly extensively, and could find no legacy retail copies for sale anywhere, so, bottom line, essentially people can look in a museum but not touch, unless for research / educational purposes, assuming it is acceptable in the jurisdiction involved, US or no.

Best to you, Sir!

M

[Mark Szkolnicki]

Good Morning Martin!

BTW, one other thing - are you using DOSBOX Front or some other DOSBOX GUI?

I'm using the 4.9.5 version of same, on top of DOSBOX 0.7.4, and find it very useful in quickly setting up DOS programs and games under DOSBOX. I like the fact that all the settings are present, under various tabs, so after loading the program you can quickly page through the settings and create a .CMD file to run the program, in minutes - I also find it useful to quickly modify games like Privateer that are not cooperating.

Your probably using it or something similar, however useful information for others if they are wanting to try DOSBOX, but are reticent about it being too complex to set up, game by game, command line wise.

Personally, I find that most games, once you have the mount setting right (points to where you have installed the game), just work under DOSBOX - if they don't, usually its the video perspectives that are wrong and need adjustment and occasionally the sound.

Trying to find the right combination of DOS VDM settings I've found has been a challenge many times - especially the SET BLASTER variable - doing Wim's testing, I have yet to find the right settings for sound under a DOS VDM on my test system - its the reason I'm interested in Privateer, as it seems sound is the biggest problem there - something of a troubleshooting challenge, which spending my life as a troubleshooter, is appealing.

Best of the day, Sir!

M

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Mark

BTW, one other thing - are you using DOSBOX Front or some other DOSBOX GUI?

No, I'm not using any. But it is on my list to give it a try to DOSBox Front 4.9.5 someday. Now, since you recommend it I'm more tempted to try it.

Personally, I find that most games, once you have the mount setting right (points to where you have installed the game), just work under DOSBOX - if they don't, usually its the video perspectives that are wrong and need adjustment and occasionally the sound.

Trying to find the right combination of DOS VDM settings I've found has been a challenge many times - especially the SET BLASTER variable - doing Wim's testing, I have yet to find the right settings for sound under a DOS VDM on my test system - its the reason I'm interested in Privateer, as it seems sound is the biggest problem there - something of a troubleshooting challenge, which spending my life as a troubleshooter, is appealing.

There was this program called eGamer, that helped us creating a DOS setting icon for a list of DOS games. I haven't used it on ages, but you may want to give it a try. eGamer 1.0

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

Warp 3 and/or Warp 4 came with a database of DOS games, and maybe other DOS programs so that you could install a DOS game and get a correctly setup program object. For example, I remember Simcity 2000 wouldn't run in a VDM, install it properly and it got an undocumented parameter, /mem(something, I forget) and it ran fine.
Just can't remember much about it now, anyone else?

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I reinstalled privateer (with its DOS installer) and configure it as "no sound", just in case.

Now it runs on DosBox. But it asks me to configure Joystick 1 and Joystick 2.
Joystick 1 worked fine, but I'm not still using two joysticks at the same time, and I don't know if it possible to skip the calibration on this game.


On DOS VDM I got the same error.

Protected mode driver is not responding to EMS function calls.
Make sure your EMS driver is not configured with the NOEMS option.
If it is, replace the option "NOEMS" with "RAM".

So, there is some progress with DOSBox, but not sure if this will ever work on VDM.

Regards

[Mark Szkolnicki]

Hi Dave!

Warp 3 and/or Warp 4 came with a database of DOS games, and maybe other DOS programs so that you could install a DOS game and get a correctly setup program object. For example, I remember Simcity 2000 wouldn't run in a VDM, install it properly and it got an undocumented parameter, /mem(something, I forget) and it ran fine.
Just can't remember much about it now, anyone else?

Don't know about a VDM, but Simcity 2000 (at least the DOS version) runs perfectly in DOSBOX.

M