+ WC Privateer - Might be memory trouble

JSWY · Post by **JSWY** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 10:09 am

WC Privateer refuses to run on my Win 98 or DOS and spits back two different error messages.

Win 98 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"

DOS error: Something about program halted because of fatal error, though I assume from the message the game tried to get somewhere. It displays what I assume is something to do with my memory at the top of the screen.

Is this enough? Or should I post the contents of my Config.sys/Autoexec.bat files?

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 2:22 pm

Does your DOS config.sys contain a line like -
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM AUTO I=B000-B7FF

If it doesn't can you change any existing EMM386 line to look like this (if there is no such line then let me know and we'll write some new files).

In the DOS environment you're using what's the figure next to "Largest executable program size" when you type "mem /c /p" (without the quotes) at the command prompt and hit enter?

JSWY · Post by **JSWY** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 2:38 pm

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 16384 RAM D=64 FRAME=E000 /I=B000-B7FF

Thats what it looks like...

Win 98 Largest Executable: 597K

I'll post back in a mo with the Dos one...

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 2:53 pm

I don't think 597K is enough to run Wing Commander so it's unlikely we'll get it running in Windows.

However you could try the following.

Does your computer have more than 16MB of RAM? Try making a copy of your current Windows config.sys and removing the "16384" and the "FRAME=E000" entries and then reboot and try the game again.

DOS is a better prospect though since I think the Wing Commander games like at least 610K of free conventional memory.

JSWY · Post by **JSWY** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 3:17 pm

Funny Mem /c /p in win 98 now gives me 609K. In dos it gave something like 612K but gave me the same fatal error. I should note that the Line mentioned above is a choice option in a menu system on my config.sys file, I booted the system up using that and got 621K in DOS and the 609K above. I'm sure there's a way to free up some more...

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 3:29 pm

612K or 620K is plenty. It only needs so much room.

Can you copy down the error message and post it on here? We need more clues now.

JSWY · Post by **JSWY** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 4:48 pm

Dos error message:

Memory Original Current used
Near 29402 29160 242
Far 368300 346364 21936
High 7224064 7202640 21424

Fatal Error
Error code: D002-FFFF
Program halted by code
JEMM unloaded

The top part of that is a table...thats what it gave me, in Win98, it still gives me that one I posted earlier

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 11:07 am

Hi JSWY,

go here-
http://www.blacklance.org/loaf/tech/gamefaq.html
and select the game from the scrolling list. Try using the exact suggested lines for the autoexec.bat and config.sys for your game paying special attention to the himem.sys and emm386.exe lines.

If it still doesn't work then try without the sound and mouse lines to see if that helps.

Sorry this is such a protracted troubleshoot!

JSWY · Post by **JSWY** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 11:27 am

Its alright, thanks for the link, I'll try those out, I get my new comp soon and that will have XP on it, and there are planty of things on getting games to work with XP

Thanks!

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 11:46 am

Getting older games to work on XP is much harder than it is on Windows 98!

I've got XP installed on this machine too (and DOS6.22 and Windows 3.11) but I never boot it up since I personally prefer Windows 98.

Don't get me wrong, XP's a great improvement in many ways (better support for modern hardware, better stability, better "user-proofing", allows system roll-back and, of course, better support for future DirectX versions and therefore future games). But I play too many older games and I was on the original Windows 95 beta so know 95/98 inside out!

If you get the option get the computer's supplier (or whoever installs XP on the machine) to format the hard disk using FAT32 rather than NTFS. Then you can still use boot disks to play DOS games off the hard disk! (NTFS is a great file system otherwise, but DOS games are fun!).