Underworld on a New Computer

Dunbar2 on 3/5/2000 at 02:05

Quote:

Originally posted by James Sterrett:
Gothik -

I'd very much like to know what settings you are using to run the games (and what is in your system files, etc). I too have a P3-500 with an SB Live, and the sound won't work for me. 8(

All of this UUW talk got me to re-install UUW1 today. I'm running a PII-450 w/SBLive, Windows 98 SE and everything is working fine. If this helps, my autoexec.bat file contains:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
C:\PROGRA~\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
SET CTCM=C:\WINDOWS

Also you may want to make sure that you aren't having any problems with the "Creative SB16 Emulation" in the "System Properties" in your "Control Panel". Hope that helps out.

-Dunbar

------------------
Member of the SPCL

Gothik on 3/5/2000 at 03:43

Ok, are my settings and I'm running in the games in a DOS box, under Windows 98.

AUTOEXEC.BAT
Set blaster=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T16
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
(Plus the usual set con codepage stuff)

CONFIG.SYS
rem DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /testmem.off
rem DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=80
BUFFERS=40,4
(plus the usual set country etc)

For the UW shortcuts I have the following selected:
Program\advanced : Prevent MS-DOS programs from detecting windows -checked
Memory: Everything set to auto, plus the Protected & Uses HMA boxes checked.
In UWSOUND I have the following selected:
Sound: a Soundblaster
Speech: a Soundblaster at IRQ5

Now I rem'ed out the Himem & Emm386 programs and found out they were taking up the memory needed to run sound in UW2. The SBLive doesn't need them unless you're booting to DOS and if you're using a shortcut to boot to DOS, you can always re-enable them there.
You can't actually remove them entirely from config.sys as the SB Live will simply put them back there (I never had them there originally, but I found them after I installed the card).

With them gone, the SB Live will report an error on bootup (DOS Drivers not loading) but if you're playing the game in a DOS box it doesn't matter, the sound still plays.

Hope this is of help, post again if there's anything else you want to know, oh and tell me if you manange to get it working. The trick really is to have as little loading into conventional memory as possible.

[This message has been edited by Gothik (edited May 02, 2000).]

James Sterrett on 9/5/2000 at 20:59

Thank you both! I confess I haven't had a chance to try either set of solutions yet - things have been a bit berserk for me of late.

I do have fears about the loading into conventional memory, but I'll post back once I get a result. May take a while 8( but I've got your suggestions saved on my desktop.

Thanks again!

James Sterrett on 30/5/2000 at 02:38

I tried these things, and was able to get the game to run by setting up an alternate boot (in the Properties - Program - Advanced section). Without the alternate boot, the game crashed out with insufficient EMS. I could not get away with rem-ing out himem.sys and emm386.exe, either.

I still got the D012 crash on initiating conversation, and couldn't get any sound.

If I reboot to DOS via the Start menu, I presume all these things must be in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files in my root directory?

Finally, Underworld (I was playing UW1) ran very oddly; some motions were very jerky. Is this because a P3 is jamming the timing and display routines? (MoSlo did not seem to be needed; I fought a rat, and the game ran at the same pace as it did on an 486.) The mouse movement, in particular, was terrible (and I cleaned my mouse to be sure it wasn't that. 8)

I'm using a ctmousep.com driver I found on the net; the advantage to it is that it is free, and only 7k in size. Is it the problem? If so, can someone suggest a better one, and where I can find it? There does not appear to be a DOS-mode mouse driver on my system.

<whew!> 8)

Shadowcat on 31/5/2000 at 12:38

I just re-installed UW1+2 on my Win95 machine. I still have an old SoundBlaster16 sitting in there (along with the SB Live :) so audio is fine.

I have the re-release with both games on one CD, and I had problems when running them in the default manner; however, if you follow the manual's instructions for doing a full hard disc install, I found that everything works beautifully.

I created a boot disc in order to get enough sub-640K memory for UW2 to use sound.

If you're having problems with memory, you can also try using memmaker to modify your start-up files and get as much as possible into upper memory. (If you're doing this off of a floppy disc, do ignore the instructions to remove any floppy discs when you do the required reboots :)

Good luck!

Vakthoth on 22/7/2000 at 20:34

Well on my comp i can't even get the frikkin' thing installed. I have a p3-500 Dell Dimension, and the game is coming off the Ultima UW/Wing Commander 2 cd. Whenever I try to install it it will say either of these two general things:
1) Error copying file (I don't recall the file's name)
2) Not enough memory (I've had this problem trying to get a lot of games to work, including Falcon Gold and X-Com Apocalypse)

If any of y'all could help me I'd really appreciate it, 'cuz I loved UW more than anything in the world when I used to play it on my old 486.

Vakthoth on 22/7/2000 at 20:40