Fallen Heroes Shareware [DOSBox]

[MrFlibble]

I've finally found some time to test the shareware verison of Fallen Heroes, following your most kind advice in another thread:

Short styled answer:
Get file heroes13.zip
Unzip all files (6 files in total) in dosbox virtual C:folder \heroes\
Now look in \heroes\ and unzip files that are in \heroes\fallen13.zip in same \heroes\
Stop unzipping stuff here.
In dosbox:
get into c:\heroes\ prompt and:
install
accept c:\fallen\
soundsetting digital and midi: autodetect +eventually test
screen detection accept .... aaarrrgghhh crap, forgot, but it's something SVGA 1024x768 256 colors
run with heroes1 from c:\fallen\

You'll get some 'illegal command' smartdrive on screen print errors but runs. Seems to call smartdrive...? WTF ????
Can avoid this by loading smartdrive 6.22 in dosbox, needs setver 622

But: works flawless in VPC2007/MsDos 6.22 , same install ritual.

To avoid problems, I'm using the official DOSBox v0.74 build. The installation routine works just fine (with both versions: FALLEN13.ZIP and HEROES13.ZIP - the HEROES1.EXE is slightly different ), so does the music, sound and VESA detection.

When I start the game with HEROVESA.BAT (as suggested by the supplied game manual), it goes to the intro/title screen just fine, plays the music and the animation, but after that it crashes DOSBox (meaning I get back to Windows). If I try to go straight to HEROES1.EXE, it crashes immediately after the "starting main program sequence" message. Once I was able to skip the intro fast enough to get to the main game screen, but it crashed there a fraction of second later.

I have tried playing around with the CPU and cycles settings, but to no avail. Also tried to replace the DOS4GW with DOS32A extender, but it then refuses to work altogether.

Here's the DOSBox config file I use:

Code: Select all

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper-0.74.map
usescancodes=true

[dosbox]
language=
machine=svga_s3
captures=capture
memsize=16

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

[cpu]
core=auto
cputype=auto
cycles=auto
cycleup=10
cycledown=20

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=20

[midi]
mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=44100

[gus]
gus=false
gusrate=44100
gusbase=240
gusirq=5
gusdma=3
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

[speaker]
pcspeaker=true
pcrate=44100
tandy=off
tandyrate=44100
disney=false

[joystick]
joysticktype=none
timed=true
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=false

[serial]
serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[dos]
xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=auto

[ipx]
ipx=false

[autoexec]
MOUNT C <path> -freesize 600
MOUNT D <path> -t cdrom -ioctl
VER set 6 22
SET PATH=C&#58;\;C&#58;\VC;C&#58;\TEMP;Z&#58;\
SET TEMP=C&#58;\TEMP
SET TMP=C&#58;\TEMP
C&#58;

[dosraider]

That's a while ago .....

If I remember swell smartdrive was the culprit in dosbox, you can put MsDos 6.22 smartdrive in dosbox and avoid problems. (setver! dosbox reports ver 5)

On the other hand simplest is to run it in VPC/MsDos. (Dos5 or 6)
Maybe even FreeDos 7, haven't tried that one yet.

[MrFlibble]

I figured the crashes were related to something with sound device selection. Maybe the game doesn't like how DOSBox emulated SB16. Anyway, it runs without sound and I'm not eager to test it further.

Thanks for the suggestion to take smartdrv from real DOS, it didn't occur to me to do that. I tried to find a smartdrv replacement in FreeDOS but it doesn't seem to have one.