10 replies to this topic

[A. J. Raffles]

Hi Qbix!
I tried to play Origamo in DOSBox today on my PC at home (Windows XP and DOSBox 0.63), but DOSBox keeps crashing randomly. There doesn't seem to be any particular situation in which it crashes, but I've noticed that the cursor (which is lagging anyway) always seems to freeze before DOSBox crashes. The message I get before DOSBox exits is:

Exit to error: CPU:GRP5:Illegal Call  7

Do you happen to know whether that's a problem which will be fixed if I use a later version of DOSBox?

[Qbix]

The game crashes randomly for me as well in 0.65.
I noticed there is a setup utility. Maybe it helps if the sound setting gets changed.

[A. J. Raffles]

No, it doesn't seem to make any difference... So the error message doesn't actually say anything about the problem, then?

[Qbix]

no the error message tells the emulated machine executed code that isn't really code.
It doesn't tell how the machine got to the point where it executed the non-code.
I tried generating a logfile for it. But unfortunately after playing 40 minutes at 300 cycles it still hadn't crashed. (300 cycles is the max when in logfile mode).

[A. J. Raffles]

Would it help you if I tried to generate a logfile? I'm afraid you'd have to remind me again how to enable that, though, because I've forgotten.

I'm beginning to suspect the problem might lie with my mouse. Maybe it isn't fully compatible or something like that. I'll try if there's any way of playing the game without a mouse to see if it still crashes...

Edit: I think I've got it, but it looks like a bug with the game. For some reason, the game generates two cursors: there's the white cursor you use to play the game, but there's also the black cursor which also seems to continue to move in the background, even though it's not visible. When you click while the black cursor is outside the pattern you're supposed to fill, the two cursors are visible at the same time and the game crashes.
At least that's what it looks like to me. It might be something else entirely.

Edited by A. J. Raffles, 30 June 2006 - 08:41 PM.

[Qbix]

Could you make screenshot which shows the 2 mousepointers ?

I don't think it's specificly related to your mouse (at least when in DOSBox) as the crashes happen to me as well.

[A. J. Raffles]

I tried a couple of times, but I was too slow. I'll try again.

What I meant was that maybe it isn't my mouse specifically but the way the mouse is set up within the game (clearly something like the two cursors thing shouldn't be happening).

[A. J. Raffles]

Gah, I'm always too slow. I've tried a few dozen times now, but I can't create a screenshot. Sorry.

[Qbix]

I might have found something.
Do you want a test version based of 0.63 or based of 0.65 ?

Edit:
Well I found the area in which the game crashes. It has to do with the timing. Those are always hard cases to figure out. I can provide you a working dosbox with runs the game perfectly, but that will undoubably break some other game. (Trying to remember which game(s) needed the behavior that breaks Origamo)

[A. J. Raffles]

Hmm, but I suppose having two different DOSBox .exe files won't be much of a problem as long as I rename one of them, right? Or would the other files need to be exchanged as well?

Anyway: thanks for fixing it. Just out of curiosity, what was it exactly that went wrong?

[Qbix]

Well I haven't found the exact bug yet. I only found which part of the code plays a major role in triggering the bug. I still have to figure out why that part of the code is incompatible with the game. (when I disable the part specific part of the code then the game doesn't crash at my place).

The bug happens when you click your mouse button. I think it's related to the sound effect played, but It can be because of the animation as well.

The problem is related to the fact that they start a few timers in a short interval and dosbox sometimes behaves differently then game anticipates.