Here's a good question.. - by Parias
Parias on 27/3/2000 at 06:23
Anybody out there still got a copy of Terra Nova lying around? If so, I could use a hand
Lemme get my system specs outta the way first:
Celery 433
Voodoo 3/3000 AGP
128 Meg of RAM
48x CDROM Drive
Creative Labs SB Live! (Emulates SB16 in DOS)
Razer Boomslang 2000 (not that it matters since I need to switch back to my crummy mouse for use in DOS..)
Aaand that should about cover it..
Anywho, here's my prob. I installed the game fine (tricked the DOS shell into thinking windows wasn't running so it wouldn't bitch), on full install. Sound config went off without a hitch. Ran the game and I get a page fault error with instructions to email it to the given addy. Since the game wasn't built for Windows in the first place, I decided to avoid making an idiot of myself and plugged in my older mouse, then went into DOS. Loaded up CD drivers, SB16 Emulation driver, and mouse driver, bringing me to a total of 514k of conventional mem, which should manage the game no problem. Switch over to the dir, confirm everything is still fine with the setup (sometimes my sound settings change from Windows to DOS, go figure), and run the game. Loads up, flashes a black screen, and returns me to the prompt with this rather confusing and hair-pulling error:
ERROR: Unable to allocate 0 bytes of memoryOr something close to that anyways. While I can't understand why it's bitching about not being able to use 0 bytes of mem, it IS frustrating, and my repeated minute changes to my Config.Sys and Autoexec.bat result in no changes. I tried disabling sound, just music, just SFX, nada. Delete and re-install from scratch using just DOS, still no change. ARGH!
Any clue as to how to get this old classic running on my beast machine? I'm grateful for any help
Inline Image:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif------------------
Parias
ICQ 1293359
"Don't yah be stickin them implants in mah belleh!"
ShadowJack on 28/3/2000 at 16:05
I'd recommend you try running Mok's (
http://www.billsworkshop.com/banshee/util/vesafx18.zip) vesafix tsr. I haven't gotten around to putting Terra Nova in working order since I upgraded the core of my system to an Athlon earlier this month, but with the earlier incarnation of my pc, I did have to run the vesafix program for Terra Nova.
Note: The program was written for Banshee cards, but that's just what the V3 is - a Banshee with an extra texture unit (I use a V3 2000).
------------------
Violence is the mark of the amateur.
Parias on 28/3/2000 at 22:43
Suh-weet, it works! Mucho appreciated
Inline Image:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif Although I do get some whacky colours while in the GUI.. doesn't affect the game engine though, so I shouldn't have too much trouble.. still, it does look wierd, any idea how to get rid of it, or is it just some thing that I'll have to live with? Heheh
Edit: Okay screw the whacky colour problem, smacking the "Intro" button and then skipping past it seems to make the colours behave. Sounds get a bit staticy here and there, but playing around with the sound drivers seems to help..
Once again, thanks for the assistance!
Inline Image:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif------------------
Parias
ICQ 1293359
"Don't yah be stickin them implants in mah belleh!"
[This message has been edited by Parias (edited March 29, 2000).]
ShadowJack on 29/3/2000 at 19:33
Oops, I had forgotten about the screwed-up pallette thing.
I just reinstalled TN and played around with the options a bit - you need to run "vesafix -6" to disable vesa 8-bit pallette support.
Of course, the reason I had to reinstall was a total bummer - my E: drive died, taking with it my entire mp3 collection, my dosgames directory (including my current TN playthrough save, near the halfway point), several music projects, and my download archives.
Inline Image:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/frown.gifBleh! to that.
On the plus side, I now know that TN will work just fine on a vanilla default Win98 install (except for the vesafix bit), even though I'm not playing it with sound at this point.
Note to self: Buy an external modem this weekend, so the currently homeless AWE32 can go in the (1) ISA slot in my new motherboard.
------------------
Violence is the mark of the amateur.
Parias on 29/3/2000 at 23:26
Thanks, that lil argument made the colours behave, no questions asked
Inline Image:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/smile.gifSorry to hear about your HD.. I know how much it can hurt to loose all that crap. Argh!
------------------
Parias
ICQ 1293359
"Don't yah be stickin them implants in mah belleh!"
Laurentiu on 30/3/2000 at 04:11
Do you know if there is a kind of vesafix for an ATI Rage Pro card? I have never been able to run this game, my monitor goes on stand-by as soon as I try to get in the game. Installation, intro movie, and custom mission editor work fine but I never saw the game itself.
ShadowJack on 30/3/2000 at 17:33
Saam:
I'd say Pariah meant the "Prevent MS-DOS-based programs from detecting Windows" checkbox in the Advanced Program Settings dialog of the PIF for the TN.BAT file. In my experience, it has never helped to get any program to work in a Windows dos box, but I'm sure it's useful for something.
Inline Image:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif TN isn't it, though - mine works perfectly fine without it checked. I did have to uncheck the "MS-DOS mode" box in said dialog, though - for some reason it defaulted to having it checked (and thus launching a pure dos session).
Laurentiu:
It sounds to me like your monitor just doesn't like the refresh rate your card is using when it switches to the in-game video mode. I don't have an ATI video card (
Inline Image:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif) but I did look through the support section of their website for a bit, and it looks like you need to run the "install.exe" program (in dos) to setup the refresh rates for the different dos video modes, as described on the OS/2 and MSDOS section of (
http://support.ati.com/technote/configm.html) this page.
Hope that helps...
------------------
Violence is the mark of the amateur.
Laurentiu on 30/3/2000 at 21:55
Thanks for your answer ShadowJack. Unfortunatley - still no success.
My monitor is PnP and was detected correctly by the install program, but still it didn't work in the game. I have also tried to set it to custom and enter myself the refresh rates but even after that it didn't work. It's also true that I could set refresh rates only for resolutions higher than 640. But I tested with a small diagnostic utility and 320x200 looked ok.
I'll give up, maybe I'll be able to run it on another computer, sometime.
