Imperium Galactica

[Celerain]

This is the last of my old games that I have left. Got rid of the rest of them along time ago. I've searched through the entire message board area and can't find any information on how to get this game to work. Unless I've missed something or the information is under a different subject label, I'm at a loss. Can anyone help please?

[Celerain]

Here's a little bit more information on the problem with this game. I'm use the dosbox 0.73 version modified to open full screen with c: and e: mounted. I open the install file and the screen goes blank. The cover menu opens with the install button grayed out but the buttons for setting the sound (both manually and auto detect) function.

When I set the sound manually or auto detect and try to save the settings, the install screen closes and I get an error message...

External or internal error
error code: 2
Error address: 0003:07fc

Then I just get a cursor, no c: prompt or anything.

Here is something else. If I run the RTM.exe file the game runs just fine but I have no sound. The problem with that is, with this game I need the sound because the messages that come in are spoken not written out.

[dosraider]

OS?
Mount lines?
Original game?
Inputs?
Setup choices?

Details please.........

[Celerain]

OS is xp
mount lines is c c:\ and e e:\ -tcdrom
Original game: yes (not a copy)
Inputs: none except for keyboard and mouse
Setup choices: for the sound? (SB 16, 220,7,5)

[dosraider]

mount lines is c c:\ and e e:\ -tcdrom

EXACT and detailed mount lines.
EXACT and detailed install choices and inputs please.

Did you read and applied this http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5443 ?

[Celerain]

Exact wording for the mount lines:

mount c c:\olgames
mount e e:\ -tcdrom


I change to the (E) drive and type install, the game cover screen comes up. Buttons:

install (grayed out)
setup sound
auto detect sound
test soundcard
options
save and exit
do not save

When I do the setup sound (manually set sound information) I get a list of 3 sound cards to choose from:

Sound Blaster 2.0
Sound Blaster 16
Gravis Ultrasound

Choosing the SB 16 it then wants the base address which is 220h after which is the IRQ setting which is 7 after that is the DMA channel which is 5.
I know those settings are right because when I test the soundcard I get sound.

However when I push the save and exit button I get the error that I mentioned before.

The Options button only gives me a choice of changing my videomode during animations.

That's it. That's everything that I've done until I get that error message.

[dosraider]

mount lines is c c:\ and e e:\ -tcdrom

That my friend aren't mount lines.
What I ask from you is the EXACT mount lines you input.
Look at the howto to understand what I ask from you.

FYI: I also have the original Imperium game and it runs flawless in dosbox 0.73, animations, sounds, the whole thing runs flawless, so we can safely assume something is wrong with your inputs.
Thus: that's why I ask them.

I certainly want to help you, but I can't if you don't give exact and detailed info.

Also: you will probably need to answer a lot more questions so that I can pinpoint where it goes wrong when you try to install the game.
It will be a step by step process till we get to the point where things screw up.

[Celerain]

I will try to explain again what I do.

Start Dosbox program

When I get the z:\ I type:

mount c: c:\

Then I type:

mount e: e:\ -tcdrom

After that I switch to the E drive (cdrom) and type install. After the initial game screen comes up, I do exactly as I've explained in my post #6. I do nothing and have sone nothing else whatsoever. I can't get anymore detailed than that because I don't do anything else except for swearing at myself and my computer.

I really do appreciate the help. I really do. I just don't know what else to explain.

[dosraider]

When I get the z:\ I type:

mount c: c:\

That is plain wrong.
You are risking that your whole computer will lock up at your next boot up.
Do not, NEVER, mount your c: directly in dosbox, ALWAYS USE A FOLDER
If you make one slight mistake you can wipe files/folders that Windows needs to run.
Really, DO NOT DO THAT.
Start from scratch and follow these guidelines:
http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5443

Then I type:

mount e: e:\ -tcdrom

No, the correct mount line here is:
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
Mind the spaces, and the first letter is D, not E, always mount your cd drive as D in dosbox.

Next input:
d:
install

You will get an install screen, click on 'install game, this should be the result:




Hover with your mouse as in the next pic click on it and next hit enter, accept c:\imperium, you must get a screen indicating the files are copied to the harddisk:




Next step still in the install screen, click on autodetect sound, should detect SB with the appropiate settings, run a test, now you will see that you can save the configuration.
As here:


Save and exit, you will see a c:\imperium prompt.
input
imperium
to play.

Now if you close / restart dosbox and wanna play:
Mount your CD again as D and your inputs will be
That is of course if you have followed ALL the instructions !!!

cd imperium
imperium

[Celerain]

I am soooooooo sorry dosraider. I did not reallize I was missing that space in between the -t and cdrom. I also did not reallize that it made a difference as to what drive the cdrom was set at. That too I am sorry about and I want to thank you very much for teaching me how to correctly mount this stuff to get it working correctly. I guess I can stop swearing at myself and my computer. Well....I'll probably continue swearing at myself for being such an idiot. lol Take care and thanks again for the help.


Btw... Happy Father's Day if you're a father. If not, happy first day of summer. lol

[dosraider]

Euuurhh... did you get it working now ?????
Just wondering.


BTW, it's grandfather, has been that for a while now, and contrary to those weird foreigners we celabrate father's day the second sunday of June, not the third one.


Weird weird foreigners.

[AldeAl]

Euuurhh... did you get it working now ?????
Just wondering.


BTW, it's grandfather, has been that for a while now, and contrary to those weird foreigners we celabrate father's day the second sunday of June, not the third one.


Weird weird foreigners.

Hey dosraider,
I've been running Imperium Galactica in Dosbox 0.72 and 0.73 on a XP pro machine. I've got the original CD's and the 1.3 patch (US version). It's fairly stable until the Admiral and Grand Admiral rank. Then I get numerous hangs and freezes, most often but not always, occurring when going to the production and research screens. It occurs so frequently at the grand admiral rank it's nigh unplayable. I've tried adjusting the cycles and frame skips but I have not hit the right combination yet. Is your game playable at the Grand Admiral rank? If so what cycles and skips are you using and have you modified the dosbox config file? If so what's it look like?

Thanks,
AL

[dosraider]

The only changes I made in the dosbox conf file are the C: mount lines, that's all.

BTW, frameskip is pretty useless to avoid game crashes.
My cycles are set 'auto', as it was in the default config.

You would best try the same, you can reset the config to default in the dosbox 0.73 start menu items.

I don't remember any specific problems when running the game .... Can be you have a corrupted save game or so... maybe dirty/scratched CDs?
Test them first I would say.

Or try to create BIN/CUEs from your CDs and use imgmount in stead of your real CDs.

[AldeAl]

Well I'm running the original config file in .73 as I haven't changed it. I've copied the cd's to the hard drive and mount them as mount d c:\games\ig1\cd\ -t cdrom -label IMP1. Everything works pretty well until I hit the higher ranks and then the freezes start. The game is probably using more resources at that time as more is going on.

I'm running an Intel core duo 2.2Ghz with 1.98 GB ram in XPPro SP3. Your system may be beefier than mine. I've got 2 different games going with at least 6 different saves that I'm experiencing problems with so I doubt it's a corrupted save file.

I'll try reducing the cycles and watching the CPU usage in the Task Manager to see if I'm overloading the CPU. I'm fairly new to DOSBOX and really haven't learned how to optimize the settings yet.

Thanks,
AL

[dosraider]

I've copied the cd's to the hard drive and mount them as mount d c:\games\ig1\cd\ -t cdrom -label IMP1.

Nope, not a good idea.
That's really not the way to do things. You need a so called CD image.
Create a BIN/CUE and use imgmount in dosbox.
The BIN/CUE files are a couple, must stay together in the same folder, and don't rename them -(it can but ... not stuff for beginners)-.

Let say you save the image as:
c:\games\ig1\ig.bin and c:\games\ig1\ig.cue.
Your mount line for the CD then is:
imgmount d c:\games\ig1\ig.cue -t iso

No need to reinstall the game, and your savegames should still be valid.

Should you need a program to create a valid CD image:
http://www.imgburn.com/
Runs good in XP and Vista, creates images that are compatible with dosbox 0.73. And freeware of course.
Stick the CD in the drive and hit the 'build' option or click the 'create image file from disk' icon.
Rest is pretty self explaining, choose BIN in the pull down menu when you choose your 'destination', the CUE is created automatically.

Remark: you must point to the CUE file when mounting, not to the BIN file.

[AldeAl]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it tonight and see if the freezes stop. There's two CD's with this game. Do I need create a BIN/CUE for each or is one sufficient?

AL

[dosraider]

Hmmmm, you're really an absolute beginner, aren't you?
Not that there is something wrong about that, it's simply that sometimes it's hard to know how deep the explanation should be ....

So a bit more detailed:
Two CD images of course, makes four files,
Let's say you name the first one ig1 bin and cue, the second one ig2 bin and cue.
And mount them together, something as:

imgmount d c:\games\ig1\ig1.cue c:\games\ig1\ig2.cue -t iso
(Yes, indeed, one line, pointing to both the CUE files.)

You can switch between the CD images when the game ask you with
CTRL+F4

[AldeAl]

Thanks for the tip. It works much better now. Much faster transitions and more stable gameplay. Still an occasional freeze but a major improvement.

I guess you can say I'm a beginner. I haven't played on a DOS system since 1990.

AL

[jaza]

Hi I'm having the sameish problem.
I'm a totally noob when it comes to doxbox and all that.
OS: Windows XP
DoxBox: 0.65

Right so I followed the advice and wrote
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
d:
install

I then get the installation screen and can move the mouse, which I couldn't if I ran the windows set-up, the sound card auto detects fine but when I go to click install game I get the writing appearing saying something like 54megabytes needed and to chose my drive but no drive is present. DosBox then freezes and I cant do anything else.

Can anyone lend a hand?
It would be appreciated as I'm totally lost now and love this game.

Cheers.
Jaz

[dosraider]

First: version 0.65 is almost obsolete, get dosbox 0.73 and follow those guidelines:
http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5443