DOS Games Discussion

Wishing Bubble · Member Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 12 Location: London

Hi, I have read a number of the postings on this site for answers to my problem, but can't find one. Can anyone please help me?
I have windows xp and have installed Sherlock Holmes and the Serrated Scapel. Everything install fine, I have music, but the mouse don't work. I'm not too sure if it's a mouse driver problem or my machine is too fast and that's why the mouse isn't working. When I use the keyboard the mouse moves once - either from left to right or up to down and vice versa - then I have to shut the program down as all mouse movement is kaput! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Happy

procerus · Expert Joined: 16 Sep 2002 Posts: 189

Is this a DOS game?

If the mouse were merely stuck in the top-left corner of the screen then there is a utility to fix the issue. But for the mouse to entirely fail implies a more serious problem. Sad

I don't think that Windows XP will take kindly to having a DOS mouse driver loaded. Assuming that Sherlock Holmes and the Serrated Scalpel is a DOS game our best option would be to use a boot disk. But that would require that your system is formatted using the FAT32 file system rather than NTFS (which is more likely).

Anyone know what happens if someone loads a DOS mouse driver in XP? Oh alright. I'll go and try. See you in a minute or two...

procerus · Expert Joined: 16 Sep 2002 Posts: 189

No surprise. CuteMouse (DOS mouse driver) does not work under XP here at least. There was a punch up over the COM ports and then CuteMouse claimed to have installed itself on COM1 which didn't work since my mouse is PS2 anyway. Shifty

So, assuming the game is a DOS game, your best hope is if your system is formatted using FAT32. Sorry. Sad

Wishing Bubble · Member Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 12 Location: London

Hi Procerus and thanks for the reply.

Yes it's a Dos game, and as I don't have the foggiest notion or technical know-how to have my system formatted to FAT32, then it looks like I'll not be playing sherlock holmes. Unless anyone else has any other ideas to get my mouse working within the game, with out formatting my system, I'd be truely grateful. Cool

Thunderdog · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2003 6:16 pm Post subject:

If you mean getting a drive FAT32, I can get you there. But System FAT32, I dont know....

Wishing Bubble · Member Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 12 Location: London

Hi Thunderdog and thanks for replying. Happy

I'm not sure what the difference is regarding drive FAT32 and system FAT32, it was a comment made by Procerus.

Anyways, I went back into the game and tried again. There is still no movement from the mouse but if I use the keyboard arrow keys the hand icon in the game moves in fits and starts, intermittantly, but when it does move you can't stop it. it shoots from one side of the screen to the other left to right, up to down, etc). Any ideas?
Thanks in advance to any for any help given. Happy

And if this is going to cause you guys a too many headaches Crying

, let me know and I'll just ditch the game and look for another.

Amro · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2003 12:01 pm Post subject:

NTFS is a more secure filesystem than FAT32. System FAT32 is the same thing as FAT32. It's how your File System is organized/works. NTFS has more options and is only compatile with NT technology (NT,2k,XP). I don't think there's a way of formatting your drive to FAT32. After all, why would you want to? Confuzzled

Try using the compatibility tab in the EXE's properties menu.

Fake Fargo · Newbie Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Posts: 2

When you install XP, you are given an option on what file system you want: Fat32 (Which is what used to be the standard) or NTFS (New Technology File System...the new standard) You are really suppose to use NTFS. If you want to switch though, you'd have to reformat the drive, and re-install a fresh copy of Win XP and when it asks you the question (NTFS or Fat32) you pick Fat32.

procerus · Expert Joined: 16 Sep 2002 Posts: 189

NTFS is a more secure file system.

But the only way to play some DOS games once you have installed Windows XP is to boot up with a DOS boot disk and then navigate to the game on the hard disk and then run it. Since MS-DOS can't read NTFS this will only work if you have formatted originally with FAT32.

As a DOS gamer I use FAT16 and FAT32 for my partitions. I've been using PCs for more than ten years on a daily basis and never lost files or an operating system due to a FAT (File Allocation Table) failure. FAT's real limitations are more due to partition size limits and cluster sizes (and consequent space considerations). When we get terabyte hard disks then the FAT system will finally be redundant. In the meantime I'm going to play some DOS games! Laughing

Kazer0 · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2003 11:41 am Post subject:

get partition magic somewhere and you can select fat32 when formattinmg. That helped me

486 player · Gaming Demi-god Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 1079

I still keep my 4y, untill it can't been fixed any more.