SQ4 memory problem

[Unknown,Unknown]

I can’t get the CD version of Space Quest 4 to work on my computer. It doesn’t work at all in Windows (98 SE), and when I try to play it in DOS mode it says I need to free up more memory. This is strange because I can get SQ6 to work in DOS mode, which surely uses more memory than SQ4. So, I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Also, I can’t free up any memory in DOS because I’m really not all that familiar with the DOS interface.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: SQ4 memory problem)

First of all, are you trying to install the Windows version (setup.exe) or the DOS version (install.exe)?

When you say you’re trying to play in DOS, do you mean you quit to a DOS prompt? Or did you open a DOS prompt within Windows?

If you have installed the Windows version, what happens when you try to run it? (In other words, when you say “it doesn’t work at all,” what have you tried to do and what happened when you did it?)

-emily

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: SQ4 memory problem) OK, sorry for being a little vague. I can’t even install the programme in Windows, as the setup.exe freezes at a certain point. This also happens with other Space Quest games, so I’ve always just restarted the computer in MSDOS mode. I then installed the DOS version with with install.exe. SQ4 installs fine, and it seems all the files are there, but when I try to run the program it starts to read the CD and kicks me out, saying I need to free up memory. Only SQ4 does this.

Thanks for responding, however

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: SQ4 memory problem)

Try running the DOS game in Windows. Also, make sure that there is a line in the game’s RESOURCE.CFG file that says memoryDrv=ARM.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: SQ4 memory problem)

Well, it does run on the MSDOS utility in windows, but its slow as hell and the music doesn’t work, though it reads the CD sound perfectly. I also looked in the CFG file and it does have a line that says “memoryDrv = ARM.DRV”.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(Any other suggestions?)

Any other suggestions?

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Any other suggestions?)

Have you tried DosBox? With DOSBox, I can run SQ4 DOS version on my “ancient” Solo 1100 laptop. It’s a bit slow, but works.

It probably would work at speed on your desktop, though.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: Any other suggestions?)

Yes, I’ve tried DOSbox, but with the CD version of SQ4, when I try to run it DOSbox freezes up. I also have the older diskette version of SQ4, and I get get that to run on DOSbox, though it’s a little slow. But I want the speech capability that’s only on the CD, and everything I’ve tried doesn’t work. When, I restart in MSDOS mode and install it there, then try to run the programme, the game fails to launch, citing to little free memory. It does start to read the CD, so it’s hasn’t anything to do with the CD drive, I don’t think. Anyone else know how to free up unnecessary memory in DOS?

thanks for any help

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: re: Any other suggestions?)

Try adding the following two lines to both your CONFIG.SYS and your CONFIG.DOS files (open them in Notepad):

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM

assuming that you have Windows installed in a WINDOWS folder on your C: drive.

This should free up some memory for you. Also, you will need DOS drivers for your sound card installed, if you want to have the music in DOS, even when running DOS games in Windows. If you can’t find the DOS drivers, you can try playing it in Windows with VDMSound for Windows 9x. Keep in mind, however, that VDMS for Win9x is in very early development. You can find VDMS for Win9x and help with it here:

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=900 

[Unknown,Unknown]

(RE: Any other suggestions?) An old Win98 bootdisk I had from a few years ago I tweaked a bit and made a quick floppy image of it. Get it
Link: here(http://members.cox.net/ogdenwb/bootdisk.zip) 
.

Simply unzip the files into a directory and run the makedisk.cmd to make the floppy. With this setup, you should get approximately 638K (out of 655K) available memory. Of course, that memory quantity is w/o sound, mouse drivers.

Edit: I already posted and forgot this was Win98. The .cmd extension may not work in 98, I can’t remember. If not, simply rename it to .bat instead.

However, as collector said, you need to have sound drivers installed for DOS to utilize sound. The main point of this rather is to check that there now will be sufficient memory to run the game since you had problems with not enough memory available, and if so, to incorporate this config.sys and autoexec.bat into your own, which probably contain your sound drivers, et al. Disregard the SCSI drivers and Zip driver stuff. I had to have those in my old bootdisk to use a SCSI CDROM and Zip drive at the time.

Hope it helps…

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: RE: Any other suggestions?)

Thanks for the reply, but I still have some problems. I created the bootdisk and used it in rebooting my computer, and it succeeded and all, but now when I try to play SQ4 it begins without claiming I need more memory. However, it seems to freeze, or else it’s just really slow. The hand icon of SQ4 shows up on the screen as my cursor, and of course the mouse doesn’t respond, but the game doesn’t begin either. I’ve waited quite I while to see if it was just loading slowly, but it just remains a black screen with the yellow hand cursor; the Sierra logo never appears.
So perhaps the memory problem got fixed, but apparently something else is wrong with it now.
I’d still like to to go ahead and try to incorporate into my system the config.sys and autoexec.bat that your .cmd file creates on the bootdisk, in order to see whether the game really is freezing or not (I can’t really tell without mouse support). However, I have no idea how to do this. Could you be so kind as to explain it to more or refer me to a site where it is explained? Thanks for your help.

P.S. I did have to change the .cmd file to a .exe file for Win98, just to let you know,

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