HELP! Can't get 3 Sisters Story to run

[Verfluken]

Thank god I found this website, I'm hoping somebody here can help me. This is probably going to be a long post, because I want to list as much info as I can.


So, the other day I felt like pulling out a couple of old Dos games that I used to run on Win98, and they are both not working, doing the same thing. The games are 3 Sisters Story and Runaway City (yes, I know, but they're classics!).


So, I try to run the games in windows, and what happens is a window opens that looks like a dos prompt, and has a command line, which does all the normal things. Has a command line with the location of the .bat file, says "echo off" and the sound emulator copywrite info, which normally appears before the game runs. BUT the window just sits there, and the game never actually loads. Both games doing the same thing.

Now, what's also weird is that my computer lags down, and if i go to my task manager, it says that window is using 100% of the cpu's processing power. But I can leave it there while I go watch a movie, and it never actually loads.

OK, that's my problem, here's what I've done thus far:
First, got DOSbox. Tried running the program in that, and I get errors for 3 illegal commands (PMDIBM, J_adv1, PMDIBM). I emailed DOSbox themselves for tech support, and they told me I don't need to run it in DOSbox, the game will run fine in winxp if I turn on "compatiability mode". I tried that, didn't do anything different, then they told me they don't know what's wrong and I'm SOL basically.


Ok, second attempt, I found the FAQ on this website, and tried some things. I did find that all of the program files somehow had Read Only turned on, so I turned that off, but no change. One of the fixes said to right click on the exe file, click the memory tab, and turn all the values as high as they can go, but the file for this game is a .bat, and it doesn't have a memory tab. Only General, Compatibility, and Summary. I did go into the properties of every other file in the folder, and did the change to the memory tab in those. No change. Tried closing every other possible program, but that didn’t seem to make a difference. I tried rebooting into Safemode and running the game there (thinking maybe another program was conflicting) and it actually does the same thing in safemode which is just freaky to me.


Apparently I’m doing something wrong or not doing something, because both games are acting the same way, and I’ve been told they should work fine in winxp with compatibility mode turned on. HELP!


My system:
P4 2.6gig, running WinXP SP2
1gig of RDRAM pc800 non-ecc
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card (don’t think that’s the problem, because I get the same problem in safe mode)
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card (again, don’t think that’s the problem, get the same problem in safe mode)



Please help oh gurus of dos, you’re my last hope.

[Dosser]

Don't be offended if this thread is closed, there have been complaints about '3 sisters' posts before.

I don't think DOSbox is necessary, but fiddling with compatibility settings is. I think the main change necessary is clicking 'run in 256 colour mode' and 'run in 640X480 resolution' or something to that effect. Beyond that, fiddle with the version of windows you are compatible with: If not XP, try 95, 3.1, 2000 etc.

Do these by right-clicking on the .exe file: most of the settings you'll need are there.

[acai_looney]

I've tried what u sugested by changing the setting such as "run in256 color mode" and etc, but still can't turn it on. Then How? Tq.

[dosraider]

Three sisters, 2 versions: Dos and Windows.

Dos version: dosbox.
Win version: VPC2007+W98SE.

If you don't understand:
Buy an ol'W98 computer or play some more intelligent games.
Or watch a XXX video in stead.