NOTHING WILL WORK

Discussion of how to play Master of Orion II over a LAN.
DAN
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Joined:Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:31 pm
NOTHING WILL WORK

Postby DAN » Sun Feb 26, 2006 9:01 pm

hi there

multiplayer dosent work!

first: I have a XP2 SP2. The machine is powerful enough.
I followed all instrucions from:'lordbrazen':

Did the dos install: had a v1.2 CD then used the v1.3 patch from lord brazen then used the v1.4b22 patch from lord brazen. changed the orioncd.ini file to my install dir. then changed the autoexec2.nt file. mine looks like this:

@echo off
REM Load DOS mode CD-ROM support
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\mscdexnt.exe

REM Load DOS mode DPMI support
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\dosx_sp1

REM Set parameters for Sound Blaster Emulation
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3

REM Load DOS mode IPX support
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\nw16
lh %SystemRoot%\System32\vwipxspx

I know of the probs of 'dosx_sp1' but in my sys32 i have both:'dosx' and 'dosx_sp1'...I edit the autoexec2.nt file in both ways

My exact prob is: I start a new net game. inizialiantion works fine. the other trys to join... work fine. I see the change from '1 human has joined the game' to '2 human...' Then i can even go on and select my race and color..(all things that didnt work before i hadnt used the install guide a l.brasen!!!)

BUT THEN NOTHING HAPPENS

my conclusions are:

that a connection is established (since the change i can see from 1 to 2 human...) but there is something blocking me!!!

(Firewalls on both down)

I really think i did everything right,exept mayby one thing: I dont know how to do a 'super clean' uninstall of a DOS program(moo)
I belive that previous false installaions i did could be the reason,but to be honest i HAVE NO CLUE!

It's that I LOVE this game! and it was always a dream of mine to play moo2 once in LAN. Just now I have some time to 'lose' and I'm quiet despreat to make it now finaly work.

Sorry for my english..ma se volete possiamo anche parlare in italiano

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Lord Brazen
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Postby Lord Brazen » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:33 am

Hi Dan,

Welcome to our forum.

From what I can see, you are pretty close to making it work.

You can try uninstalling and reinstalling the game. I dont know if this will help.

To do a clean uninstall of a DOS game. All you have to do is delete all files associated with the game. In this case you need to delete the folder that the game is installed in & the desktop icon.

All you do then is reinstall the game following the instructions.

If it is still unstable, you can always try installing Kali or Hamachi (assuming both machines have internet access). Those should definately let you play a network game.
"Stars are holes in the sky from which the light of the Infinite shine through." - Confucius.

DAN
Posts:3
Joined:Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:31 pm

Postby DAN » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:08 pm

Thanks for prompt answer! and what an honor to get it from you :)

Well I will try that...but just for curiosity: dosent an dos Install affect the registry? A simple 'delete' is enough?

Where do YOU think is the problem? parodoxly I think it isnt striktly the connection but something else.

from how I under stood 'your' autoexec2.nt the only real fundamental line is: 'lh %SystemRoot%\System32\vwipxspx'
I could remove many lines:

Please correct me:
a)the first line refers to the CD-rom-I don't understand that, because i edited the orioncd.ini file to: C\:MPS\ORION2
b)the third line refers to the sound- I dont essentialy need it-no?

So my best clue is that the line refering to DPMI is my main problem-could that be right?

ALSO: I use a virtual CD-rom could that be a problem? - remember I changed the orioncd.ini file!

Thanks for your help and again sorry for my english...I give my best

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Lord Brazen
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Postby Lord Brazen » Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:34 am

Here are some answers to your questions.

Only windows applications use the registry. Most other opperating systems do not have anything like a registry. DOS is one of those. The actual settings for Moo2 are stored in files in the Moo2 folder.

The lines you are talking about in the autoexec2.nt file are mostly needed. There is no real advantage to dropping any that I can think of.

This line is for CD-ROM support. You can drop it if you copy the whole CD to the HDD.

Code: Select all

lh %SystemRoot%\System32\mscdexnt.exe
This line is for the memory manager. It is required. Moo2 will not run without a memory manager.

Code: Select all

%SystemRoot%\System32\dosx_sp1
You need this line if you want sound. Leave it out if you want.

Code: Select all

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3
And these two add network support for DOS applications. The first line that loads nw16 probably can be ommited as it loads 16 bit netware support and I believe Moo2 uses 32 bit netware. The second line loads the 32 bit support.

Code: Select all

lh %SystemRoot%\System32\nw16 lh %SystemRoot%\System32\vwipxspx
In any case. I dont see any advantage in leaving anything out. You can experiment by removing the 'lh' from the beginning of some of those lines. It just loads the items into high memory. It may make things more stable. Who knows.

Try some of the compatibility setting under the properties of the game icon. Try "compatable timer hardware emulation". Try "Run this program in compatability mode for Windows 95". Try conventional memory on "protected". Also, try adjusting the idle sensitivity towards 90%. See what happens.

In the end, the underlying problem may be that your computers are to fast. Old DOS applications like Moo2 were never tested by their designers on computers like those we have today. A bug that is speed related would have never caused a crash 10 years ago as the computers back then where way slower.

On my machines, I have not had any trouble getting it to work over my LAN. My machines are 900MHz or slower though.

It does work for many people through Kali. Even those with modern fast machines. Kali does have a LAN mode that works without the internet however you need paid serial numbers for each LAN node. I beleive it would work better but can't say for sure.

I dont have any more suggestions...

Best of luck.
"Stars are holes in the sky from which the light of the Infinite shine through." - Confucius.

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Gusset
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Postby Gusset » Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:19 pm

LB, this was an incredibly informative post. Whether it helps me solve the problems running MOO2 on my own home LAN remains to be seen, but at the very least, I see some potential.

Thanks.

DAN
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Joined:Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:31 pm

Postby DAN » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:53 am

unfortunatly it didnt work..

what about an other 'memory manager'? I would try to use some other 'memory manager'? It's that I don't know what specs it sould have.
could you name some?
I found this site: http://www.thefreecountry.com/programmi ... ders.shtml


The fact of the pc being to fast sounds very plausible..would virtual pc solve this problem?

then I found this: 'DOS BOX' it seems to emulate dos environment - would do you think?

thank you very much for all your help!

e_scape
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Postby e_scape » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:28 pm

i have the same problem as DAN and dont know what to do :(

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Cabman
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Location:Zabrze, Poland

Postby Cabman » Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:01 am

The fact of the pc being to fast sounds very plausible..would virtual pc solve this problem?

then I found this: 'DOS BOX' it seems to emulate dos environment - would do you think?
Playing MOO2 over the Internet We all use dosbox almost exclusively. It works very well on many platforms and any hardware. I haven't checked if it works with LAN ( i'll do it today :) ), however i think there will be no problems.
Regards

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Gusset
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Postby Gusset » Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:25 pm

Playing MOO2 over the Internet We all use dosbox almost exclusively. It works very well on many platforms and any hardware. I haven't checked if it works with LAN ( i'll do it today :) ), however i think there will be no problems.
Regards
I have played MOO2 over a LAN using Dosbox. It works fine.

DJ
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Postby DJ » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:11 am

You should use Dosbox ! Its safe way to run MOO2 lan games.
Actually Dosbox is more stable then Dos-session in Windows.
Dosbox work faster then Dos-session in Windows.

Important put this lines into "dosbox.conf" file for speed up game:
frameskip=3
core=dynamic
cycles=auto

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Gusset
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Postby Gusset » Sun Dec 17, 2006 6:25 pm

Dosbox work faster then Dos-session in Windows.
I have to heartily disagree with this statement. Dosbox is an emulator, and as such is quite slow compared to a Windows Dos-session.

You can run MOO2 in Dos fairly well on a slow PC, such as my 200MHz Pentium desktop. The same PC can't even begin to run MOO2 in Dosbox at anything approaching a playable speed.


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