DOS Games Discussion

I'm trying to run the 3dfx version of Monolith's Blood on a Voodoo2. The 3dfx patch was written for a Voodoo Graphics (Voodoo 1) card.

I'm running the game in MS-DOS 7.1 (Windows 98SE's full DOS mode). I've tried several different memory managers and configurations but that's really besides the point since the game runs fine and the crash I'm getting is graphics card related.

Despite my using a batch file to set up the game for the card -
"set BUILD_BRIGHTNESS=0.9
set BUILD_GAMMA=1.0
set BUILD_640x480=1
set BUILD_RESAMPLE=0
set BUILD_NOPAL=0
set BUILD_NOFOG=1
set BUILD_CONVTEXTURES=0
set BUILD_TRICOUNT=0
set BUILD_FPS=0
set BUILD_VERSION=1
set BUILD_MRED=200
set BUILD_MGREEN=200
set BUILD_MBLUE=255"

and a batch file to set up the card for the game-
"set SST_GRXCLK=90
set SST_FT_CLK_DEL=0x4
set SST_TF0_CLK_DEL=0x6
set SST_TF1_CLK_DEL=0x6
set SST_VIN_CLKDEL=0x1
set SST_VOUT_CLKDEL=0x0
set SST_TMUMEM_SIZE=2"

the game still crashes after a while with the message-
"Out of memory for current_texture_data in setGlideTexInfo"

This is a known issue but I wondered if anyone had come across a fix?

I am able to play the game perfectly well in VESA modes up to 1600x1200 just as I do with Duke Nukem 3D. But I'd love to get the old (and primitive) glide version up and running since I play Shadow Warrior that way!

Is Monolith Productions' or GT Interactive's technical support available any more?

I think GTInteractive is long gone. Monolith say that the 3dfx patch is an "alpha" and is "totally unsupported". Reading between the lines I think they're trying to blame 3dfx for the problem. Which is silly because it's definately a bug in their game code!

I think the only way to get it to work in glide would be to reinstall my Diamond Monster 3D Voodoo 1 card. I can't be faffed with that so I'll just play it at 1024x768 in VESA instead. It's what FastVid and UniRefresh were created for!

Thanks anyway, 486.

If you run it through windows, you could try OpenGL or another Glide.

I've tried it in Windows (you can tell I'm must be desperate, eh Kazer? ). Same crash. Though someone is making an OpenGL Windows version here-
http://www.planetblood.com/qblood/

Some people claimed they got the original working in glide on a Voodoo2 years ago. But I think perhaps they lied. Not to worry. I'm enjoying it anyway.

So will the OpenGL version look better but basically play the same way and all.

And didn't Blood use the same build engine as was used on Duke Nukem 3d and Rise of the Triad for that matter.

Yep. Blood used the Build engine. But like Shadow Warrior it was ported by 3dfx to run in glide.

That Transfusion version is a recreation of Blood using the Quake engine. Not sure if that can precisely recapture the atmosphere of the original. But this is increasingly happening with DOS games. They're being Windows idiot proofed.

Yeah some of them are, the advantage would be that some of the DOS games did have some issues getting to run properly even under dos. I can think of Ultima 7 as being one that I had to come up with a special tweak just for it to run on my machine