MOO...on XP...help guys

bonorye · May 25, 2003, 04:01

I'm running XP Pro guys, I've tried the EMS memory increase (2048 or whatever it is) and I just can't seem to get the game to run. I'll double-click the shortcut to the .exe file, the screen will go black for about 2 seconds and then it will crash to the desktop, no error messages. Help me guys, I miss playin' the good 'ol MOO.

vmxa1 · May 25, 2003, 04:32

I just finished another Moo1 game tonight and one yesterday on XP PRO SP1, so it should play fine.
This is a P-IV 3.06 with Radeon 9800 so any box should work.

Make sure that you uncheck the box for close on exit. This should allow you to see any msgs.
It is on the program tab in properties.

bonorye · May 26, 2003, 17:50

ok, i unchecked it.........now i get the DOS black screen and it says, "reconfigure hardware options". What now?

vmxa1 · May 27, 2003, 01:21

That is part of the install process. This is where you tell if/what sound if any you are using.
Use the shortcut to Install.exe and then select reconfigure. Try first with no sound. If it works, you can go back and try to add sound.

bonorye · May 27, 2003, 01:28

Awesome! I got the game to run w/out sound...now how about with sound? I know you said to play around w/the sound configurations until you get it, but just for reference how do you have yours set up? I'm using a SoundBlaster card...

BTW, thanks for replying so quickly to my problem, you're a Godsend.

Gilgamensch · May 27, 2003, 04:59

You'll need to find out your settings of the soundblaster:

IRQ, normally either 5 or 7
The base address: 220
Now I am not sure anymore, if there is midi:

That would normally be 330
And the DMA, which is either 1 or 5

The install will ask you for it.

To check by the way, you'll have to check in the device-manager and check for your soundblaster setttings.

vmxa1 · May 27, 2003, 13:42

For all the SB cards and emulations I have seen it is:
220, IRQ 5 and DRQ 1
330 and 388 midi.
DMA for 16 bit is 5.

vmxa1 · May 27, 2003, 13:45

I should have mention if I had not, that often the sound will not work on even SB cards.
The last two PC's I bought I went with out the sound card and used on board AC97. This mean not having 4 speakers any more, but I have not had any problem with Moo1 sound on either one.

bonorye · May 29, 2003, 05:35

ya, it's weird...I formatted my harddrive recently, and it originally had win 98 on it and then i upgraded it to xp pro. Sound was working fine then on MOO. But now since I've formatted the drive and done a fresh XP Pro install, it's made things different.

I'm still not able to find out the IRQ and address on the soundcard when doing device manager.

catullus · June 3, 2003, 07:18

Forget it.
No way XP will let a DOS program access the PCs hardware directly. So whatever IRQ the soundcard is using, XP will keep its hand over, and deny any calls to it. DOS sound (with the exception of PC speaker) is a no-go under NT kernel. Any sound must pass through the OS' Hardware Abstraction Layer.

If you still want sound, try playing MOO under DOSBox (http://dosbox.cjb.net/). Works nicely, but demands a somewhat fast computer.

C.

vmxa1 · June 3, 2003, 16:36

catullus that sounds good, but in fact I have had sound in all my DOS games on may 2 XP boxes with no special software (MoM Moo Alien Legacy Ascendancy and more).

bonorye you are correc the device manager will not give you those addess via properties. Select View and then resources by type. This will be of no real use as you will see things like IRQ for sound at 17. Not going to work for that old DOS app. You will have to use the standard SB settign and XP will emulate it (hopefully).

catullus · June 4, 2003, 03:19

I never knew, vmxa.
You are right, I really should read up on the OS. Seems the XP NTVDM does provide SoundBlaster 2.0 (8-bit) emulation on IRQ 5.

C.

vmxa1 · June 4, 2003, 14:26

This is the one benefit of having SB be so domaint in the early days. All games had to support it and hence so it Microsoft.

Daethar · July 9, 2003, 10:41

I'm having troubles with MoO2 in XP. Every time i want to start a game, multi or single, it says it cant find shipname.lbx. but none of my other computers have that file, and they work fine! what's going on?

vmxa1 · July 9, 2003, 12:05

I noticed that mine is all caps. It is SHIPNAME.LBX and was dated 10/14/1996. It is not part of the 1.31 patch.
So it sounds like an install issue.
I am on XP PRO.

Daethar · July 16, 2003, 00:21

Can't be an install issue. I have installed w/ three different disks on three different comps (one per disk) and each disk had a different version that it installed. Not one of them had the file!

Hell, my 5 year old computer runs it fine! But my XP machine just won't do it.

vmxa1 · July 16, 2003, 01:23

Here rename this to lbx and see if that solves it.

vmxa1 · July 16, 2003, 01:23

Note that it is in my directory and I am on XP PRO SP1 as well.

Ljube · August 16, 2003, 11:55

A sure way to run it in XP is to download a program called VDM Sound from this url

http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/

Then, install it, and right click the exe file and click "Run with VDM Sound". Success guarantied!

Daethar · August 19, 2003, 21:02

Well, a buncha crap was going on with my XP machine, but the shipname.sav file helped MOO2 to run when everything else settled. Thanks alot, I owe ya.