Anhaedra on 21/12/2005 at 03:40
I removed NOLFB, but it still did the same thing... :(
Sypha Nadon on 21/12/2005 at 17:31
Okay, I think I may need a little help with this one. Recently, I got a copy of System Shock on eBay, brand new, factory sealed and everything. For the most part, I've been able to install most of my old games on my new computer without much hassle (my new computer being a Hewlett Packard with a 530J Intel Pentium 4 Processor, ATI Radeon x300 SE, and so forth). However, when I scanned the booklet that came with the game and saw that they had more pages dealing with how to install the game and troubleshooting then they did on actually playing the game, I knew this would be a tough nut to crack, a feeling that was confirmed when I came here and read the first post on this thread. I have a few basic questions that maybe will help me get started. If these questions seem stupid, let me just say that I've only ever used Windows 98 and Windows XP... Thus, when it comes to stuff like DOS, I'm totally clueless, having never really used those programs all that much before.
Okay, I began by downloading all those programs the first post suggested. The NOLFB.exe, the MOUSE2KV.exe, VDM Sound, the XP patch. However, I couldn't find any downloads on the link for Dos4gw.exe, so I had to goggle that and download it from another site. Once all those were installed and unzipped, I tried to install the game, as the first post suggested. Next, I placed the extracted nolfb.exe, mouse2kv.exe, and the patch in the SS2 main directory (I'm assuming that the "main directory" is the SSHOCK folder that appeared in my C drive. That folder has programs like GEN, DATA, SOUND, CDSHOCK, INSTALL, SSHOCK, and so forth). So far, so good.
Here's where I ran into my first problem. The instructions stated that when one extracts the Dos4gw.exe, it should give them a list of different versions to select, and that one should probably choose 1_97. However, whenever I run it, all I get is a black screen with a white cursor that I presume to be a DOS screen. This screen stays on my monitor for about ten seconds before it just vanishes (this seems to happen to some of the other above programs I installed... the reason for this, I am unsure).
Now, the CDShock.bat file... I see something in my directory called the CDSHOCK MS-DOS Batch File (1KB). Is this what you mean by that? When I go to edit it, I see these words in notepad:
@echo off
F:\cdrom\cdshock.exe
After reading some of the other comments here, I realize that I'm supposed to add stuff to this, no? Such as, for example, "C:\SSHOCK\CDSHOCK.EXE\NOLFB.exe" and so forth, and that I'm supposed to do this for NOLFB, mouse2KV, and Dos4gw.exe.
Anyway, I tried doing steps 8 and 9, though I had trouble with the System Shock 1 patch at first... it was a rar file, so I had to download something called winrar (phew!) and install that, which let me use it as an .exe. Obviously I knew nothing would work until I could solve my dos4gw.exe issues and edit the .bat file properly, but I was just practicing what I had to do for the future.
One final issue of interest: When I try to play the game through the VDM Sound shortcut, I get an error message with the headline "16 bit MS_DOS subsystem" and the following text: "VDMS Launchpad- CDSHOCK... The system cannot open Com1 Port requested by the application. Choose "Close" to terminate the application). A few other people on here seemed to have this problem, but it was kind of vague how they solved it... Something about BIOS or along those lines? Any help in this area or any of the above questions would be appreciated.
TheNightTerror on 21/12/2005 at 17:42
Just click Ignore for the Com errors. :p Also, if I were you, I would stop right now, copy the contents of the CD onto the hard drive, and reinstall the game from the hard drive copy of the CD. You'll get much better performance.
Sypha Nadon on 21/12/2005 at 18:22
Yeah, I've tried hitting "ignore" when that box comes up, but nothing really seems to happen. Also, I've tried installing it from the hard drive, but whenever I try that I get this "error" message: "Cannot install sshock from the hard drive. Run install.bat from the game CD-ROM.":confused:
TheNightTerror on 21/12/2005 at 18:42
After you click ignore, you have to bring the window back to the foreground. You'll probably get a Com2 error, ignore that, and you should be good to go.
About the error you're getting, it sounds like you're not doing things quite right. Copy the contents of the CD onto the hard drive, say, into a folder called SS1CD. Then, run 'install.bat', which you'll find in that directory. How were you trying to install it before?
Sypha Nadon on 21/12/2005 at 19:25
Okay, when I used to click "ignore" after the Com1 message I would bring the window back to the foreground and get the Com2 message... I just always assumed it was Com1 again and closed the program. I hit ignore again this time and brought it back to the foreground, and the game started up (without sound), but I only got as far as the screen where you start a new game by selecting levels and choosing a name... After that, it simply crashed with no error message at all, just took me back to my main screen. Still, it's a start.
I'm trying to remember how I installed it... I think when I put the CD into the drive, no installation menu popped up, so I opened the CD and installed it from there.., Wait, I did "My Computer", "System Shock CD", "INSTL", then I right-clicked on initial and selected "Run with VDMS". And I installed it from there. I'm pretty sure that's how I installed it, and after that the "SSHOCK" folder appeared in my C drive.
I think the error I described in my last post was because I copied the contents of the SSHOCK directory in my C Drive to my hard drive. Just now I copied the contents of the CD itself into a folder with a name like the one you gave me. However, I don't see any "install.bat" in that directory. What I DO see is 6 folders (with names like CBP, CDROM, INST and so forth) along with a number of programs such as ASK, BATCD, INSTALL, MEMSIZ, and ORIGIN, plus a few other thinks like SHOCK.PHX. I tried clicking on "BATCD" but that just brought me to a black DOS screen where nothing happened. I tried the "Install" program and it started to install but then I got this error message: "Install Info Error: file=:wrong number of params".
I still think part of the problem is because I haven't edited my CDSHOCK.bat file properly (whatever that is) and the whole dos4gw.exe issue.
TheNightTerror on 21/12/2005 at 20:54
Quote Posted by Sypha Nadon
I hit ignore again this time and brought it back to the foreground, and the game started up (without sound), but I only got as far as the screen where you start a new game by selecting levels and choosing a name... After that, it simply crashed with no error message at all, just took me back to my main screen.
Check the properties on CDSHOCK.exe, you should be able to stop Windows from automatically closing the inactive window. You might've gotten the 'salt the fries' error.
Quote:
I'm trying to remember how I installed it... I think when I put the CD into the drive, no installation menu popped up, so I opened the CD and installed it from there.., Wait, I did "My Computer", "System Shock CD", "INSTL", then I right-clicked on initial and selected "Run with VDMS".
That sounds about right, do the exact same thing with your hard drive copy of the CD, and it should work.
Quote:
I still think part of the problem is because I haven't edited my CDSHOCK.bat file properly (whatever that is) and the whole dos4gw.exe issue.
I wouldn't use dos4gw unless you're sure you need it. Personally, I've never needed anything except VDMS sound and mouse2kv.
Sypha Nadon on 21/12/2005 at 22:36
Okay, I'll give that a try and see what works.
Sypha Nadon on 21/12/2005 at 23:23
Okay, so what I did was created a new folder called CDSHOCK. I then opened the CD itself in the F Drive, copied the contents, and pasted them into the new folder. I then went into the install folder, right clicked on "initial", ran it with VDMS, went through all these screens, and set it up in a new directory.
It said to play the enhanced CD version open it with CDSHOCK. I found a folder called CDROM that had a program called CDSHOCK. Double-clicking on it proved to be fruitless: All I got was a black DOS screen that would vanish after a few seconds. So I tried running THAT program by right clicking and running it with VDMS, which got me this error message:
"Error code 5001
execution error
cannot run directly from CD.
Run executable from hard drive."
Oh yeah, thanks for the help so far TheNightTerror, it is appreciated.
TheNightTerror on 21/12/2005 at 23:32
No problem. :) And, you were supposed to use the CDSHOCK.exe file in your SS1 directory, (probably C:\Sshock), not the one in your SS1 CD folder. Try that, and see how it goes.
