• Axe and Fang?

    From Martin Kazmaier@1:340/1101 to All on Sun Nov 5 18:24:00 2023
    Is it possible to run this door stably? I'm wondering how well it would run under DOSBox. Has anyone tried it? Under normal circumstances, it crashes often with NTVDM errors on the host. It's a decent game as far as I can
    tell, I just haven't been able to play it that much. It's a MUD.

    ---
    Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp)
    (ports 22, 23, 110, 21, 119) (ssh: login bbs password shsbbs)


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    ---
    * Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (1:340/1101)
  • From Martin Kazmaier@1:226/18 to Jas Hud on Mon Nov 6 20:53:56 2023
    Re: Axe and Fang?
    By: Jas Hud to Martin Kazmaier on Mon Nov 06 2023 03:09 am

    Is it possible to run this door stably? I'm wondering how well it would run under DOSBox.
    Has anyone tried it? Under normal circumstances, it crashes often with NTVDM errors on
    the host. It's a decent game as far as I can tell, I just haven't been able to play it
    that much. It's a MUD.
    i used to run it and i dont remember it having ntvdm crashes. it doesnt look remarkable
    and you need to crack it or register it.
    okay i went into it and it appears to be frozen at the town square.

    I've got a key. Does anyone else have stability issues with this? I'm using a win7 32bit VM.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: -=[conchaos.synchro.net | ConstructiveChaos BBS]=- (1:226/18)
  • From Jas Hud@1:103/705 to Martin Kazmaier on Mon Nov 6 23:27:24 2023
    To: Martin Kazmaier
    Re: Axe and Fang?
    By: Martin Kazmaier to Jas Hud on Mon Nov 06 2023 08:53 pm

    look remarkable
    and you need to crack it or register it.
    okay i went into it and it appears to be frozen at the town square.

    I've got a key. Does anyone else have stability issues with this? I'm using a win7 32bit VM.


    yeah , me.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)
  • From Fzf@1:105/500 to Martin Kazmaier on Mon Nov 27 15:02:34 2023
    Re: Axe and Fang?
    By: Martin Kazmaier to All on Sun Nov 05 2023 06:24 pm

    Is it possible to run this door stably?

    It runs without locking up on actual 486 hardware under DOS 5.0 as long as SHARE.EXE is not loaded, no expanded memory manager is installed, and no multi-tasker or task switcher is involved. Any later version of DOS (at least the 6.22 I tested with) or anything that causes the CPU to be in enhanced mode or virtual 8086 mode crashes the game or locks up the system eventually. So... maybe?

    I'm wondering how well it would
    run under DOSBox. Has anyone tried it?

    I was able to get it running under DOSBox SVN as long as the CPU was forced into real mode. You can do that with these settings under the [cpu] section in a DOSBox.conf file:

    core=normal
    cputype=386_prefetch
    cycles=3000

    Set cycles to whatever value you would like but don't leave it in auto mode. I was unable to get a FOSSIL driver to work properly with the game and needed to let the game use its own I/O routines. With a locked rate at over 38400 the game tends to 'forget' to send data after a while, so leave it at that value maximum. Using DOSBox means it's going to need to be a single-node only game and you'll need to take measures to prevent two users from entering at the same time.

    I also couldn't get DOSBox-X to run this reliably even with the above settings. That may be a DOSBox-X problem as I've had some other stability issues with the last two releases.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (1:105/500)
  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to FZF on Tue Nov 28 10:14:00 2023
    . Using DOSBox means it's going to need to be a single-node only game and you
    l need to take measures to prevent two users from entering at the same time.

    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (1:105/500)

    How did you get Synchronet to call DOSBOX instead of dosemu when launching
    this game?


    * SLMR 2.1a * I used to have a handle on life, then it broke.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)
  • From Martin Kazmaier@1:340/1101 to Fzf on Wed Nov 29 12:14:00 2023

    Re: Axe and Fang?
    By: Martin Kazmaier to All on Sun Nov 05 2023 06:24 pm

    Is it possible to run this door stably?

    It runs without locking up on actual 486 hardware under DOS 5.0 as long as SHARE.EXE is not loaded, no expanded memory manager is installed, and no multi-tasker or task switcher is involved. Any later version of DOS (at least the 6.22 I tested with) or anything that causes the CPU to be in enhanced mode or virtual 8086 mode crashes the game or locks up the system eventually. So... maybe?

    I'm wondering how well it would run under DOSBox. Has anyone tried
    it?

    I was able to get it running under DOSBox SVN as long as the CPU was forced into real mode. You can do that with these settings under the [cpu] section in a DOSBox.conf file:

    core=normal cputype=386_prefetch cycles=3000

    Set cycles to whatever value you would like but don't leave it in auto mode. I was unable to get a FOSSIL driver to work properly with the game and needed to let the game use its own I/O routines. With a locked rate at over 38400 the game tends to 'forget' to send data after a while, so leave it at that value maximum. Using DOSBox means it's going to need to be a single-node only game and you'll need to take measures to prevent two users from entering at the same time.

    I also couldn't get DOSBox-X to run this reliably even with the above settings. That may be a DOSBox-X problem as I've had some other stability issues with the last two releases.

    Thanks for the extensive trouble-shooting. I'm not going to run it. It's a MUD, so definitely single-user only isn't going to be acceptable. Thanks!

    ---
    Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp)
    (ports 22, 23, 110, 21, 119) (ssh: login bbs password shsbbs)


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    ---
    * Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (1:340/1101)