17 replies to this topic

[A. J. Raffles]

[Actually I'm not 100% sure whether this is in fact a DOSBox problem; please bear with me if it isn't.]
I'm trying to run Yes, Prime Minister in DOSBox 0.63 (using the "version 5" file, that is), and there are certain points at which the game will freeze. The game is based on your making a number of decisions, and the freezing occurs when you select specific replies. (One example for this is on Day #2, at the PRATS meeting at the Cabinet Office: if you decide to go ahead with the meeting and then try to "Persuade them to withdraw") The cursor disappears and DOSBox basically just ceases to react. There are no error messages and nothing to indicate that it has actually crashed, but I can't get it to respond either.
I tried changing between machine settings (I tried all of them, in fact), but that doesn't appear to make any difference: the game still freezes at the same points. Apart from that, the config file is in its initial state (except that I'm running DOSBox in windowed mode).
Other people at Abandonia do not seem to be having the same problem.

I can't give you an exact savegame, I'm afraid as the game only allows you to save at the end of the day (), but there is one savegame in the archive at Abandonia - "STEPHAN" - that starts on Day #2; I'm having exactly the same problems when I load that savegame as when I start a new game.

So might this actually be a problem with DOSBox that I could fix through fiddling with the settings a bit, or is it just my computer being strange again?

[Qbix]

I notice the graphics are a bit broken in the 0.63 release.
your version 5 release has good graphics.

Anyway I can confirm your bug in the currrent code and the 0.63 and 0.62 versions of DOSBox

The game appears to be doing some string magic while it hangs. ( the games searches for 0xA (end of line I recall) and the uses the next character (your answer?) as input for a calculation.

Attached Files

•  PV.zip   1.68K   92 downloads

[A. J. Raffles]

Thanks for replying.
One thing I noticed about the graphics, though, was that the intro screen (if you start the game through typing "YPM" instead of "GAME") never seems to show up properly. But I wasn't experiencing the graphics problems the review claimed I would, so I suppose you're right.

About that... erm... string magic thingy, is there anything I might do about it or is it basically a bug within the game?

[Qbix]

to be sure if it's a bug in the game or a discompatability of dosbox and the game, you should run the game in plain dos or win98 to see if the same hang up appears.

[A. J. Raffles]

Duh! Didn't think of that.
Thanks.

[A. J. Raffles]

More weirdness: although the game freezes for me at exactly the same points when I use the Windows 98 DOS mode or the command prompt, Sebatianos claims he never had those problems when he was running the game to review it. When he tried running it through D-fend, though, it did freeze.
Could it be something wrong with my computer, perhaps?

[Qbix]

After changing the cga code. I managed to get this image.

Attached Files

•  cga.png   1.96K   1 downloads

[A. J. Raffles]

Yes, that's the colour scheme I get when I run the game in DOS. You get used to it after a while. Actually I like it better than the magenta/turquoise one.

[Qbix]

That is quite special.
According to us (DOSBox devs) this should only be the case when running on real cga card.

(and you don't have that else you wouldn't be visting this forum or you must see everything in 4 colours (or 16 if you have a composite out))

So you got a special video card.
Not that it matters.

I found the red/green a bit odd when looking at the flag of Great Brittian.

[A. J. Raffles]

Oh, I feel special.
No, wait, it's just my videocard that's special. Dang.

[A. J. Raffles]

Right, here's that BIOS-thingy.

Attached Files

•  Vbios.bin   64K   24 downloads

[Qbix]

the feedback from wd:

They have a 3rd type of making the decision for int10/ah=0x0b,
they use the 0th bit of BH. That's why they get different results
than the other vga bioses i tested. But the implementation that
is now in dosbox is fine (though i wouldn't say the way the
laptop bios is going is wrong, just the result of imprecise
specification of int10).

[A. J. Raffles]

Qbix, on Nov 30 2005, 07:22 PM, said:

the feedback from wd:

They have a 3rd type of making the decision for int10/ah=0x0b,
they use the 0th bit of BH. That's why they get different results
than the other vga bioses i tested. But the implementation that
is now in dosbox is fine (though i wouldn't say the way the
laptop bios is going is wrong, just the result of imprecise
specification of int10).

Ah. Sorry, I'm afraid I don't really understand any of that except that my card seems to be a bit imprecise at one point, for whatever reason... But he's saying it's not a problem, right?

[Qbix]

uhm he says that the specs are a bit unclear about what is correct.

So both are correct, but produce different results. (although yours isn't that common)

[A. J. Raffles]

Qbix, on Nov 30 2005, 07:36 PM, said:

uhm he says that the specs are a bit unclear about what is correct.

So both are correct, but produce different results. (although yours isn't that common)

Ah. Right. So does that mean this will be the default colour scheme for me when I run CGA games?