Legacy Drivers

P

Proton

Spaceman
I'm trying to get Privateer 1 running in Dos with legacy drivers and am having some difficulty. I have a SB16 PCI sound card. The drivers got installed in C:\Program Files\Creative\Audio\Dosdrv, when I reboot into dos, I go to that directory and execute the sbinit file that is there which goes through fine, but when I type priv to enter the game, it does nothing. As far as I can tell, they are legacy drivers and not pure DOS drivers that I am using. My system specs are AMD Athlon 800 Mhz, 256 MB RAM, 128 MB Geforce 4 MX 440, Sound Blaster 16 PCI, 20 Gig HD.

Here is the autoexec.bat that the game uses:

SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H7 P330 T6
SET SBPCI=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\AUDIO\DOSDRV
PROMPT $P$G
PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:SSCD000

CLS
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
C:\WINDOWS\msg_priv.com

Here si the Config.sys that the game uses:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE I=B000-B7FF RAM 3072
DOS=HIGH
DOS=UMB
FILES=25
BUFFERS=25
LASTDRIVE=K
DEVICEHIGH=C:\SAMSUNG\SSCDROM.SYS /D:SSCD000 /V


Thanks in advance for any help/advice that I get
 
When you say "it" does nothing, you mean the game doesn't even run?

All I can see is that your BLASTER variables are set at IRQ 7, DMA 1, High DMA 7. Try using those numbers in the install program.

BTW, you are in a pure DOS boot and not a DOS window, right?
 
Yeah, I mean the game. What exactly happens is, when I type priv at the prompt, the curso moves down one line and the game never launches. I Have privateer configured to use sound blaster 16 with 220, 7, and 1. I can run the sbinit file and run the sbtest file and get sound, it's just when I go to launch the game after iniatializing the sound card that I run into problems and I am in pure dos.

Does Privateer not work well will legacy drivers??
 
I can only ever recall using my SB16 with IRQ of 5. Try changing that in your SET BLASTER and Privateer install program.

Actually, it might be a good idea to double check what your IRQ is in Windows, see what comes up.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
I can only ever recall using my SB16 with IRQ of 5. Try changing that in your SET BLASTER and Privateer install program.

Actually, it might be a good idea to double check what your IRQ is in Windows, see what comes up.
Click to expand...


I'm pretty sure that my IRQ setting is right, but I will double check. Do you think that I should change the amount of RAM in my config.sys, it's at 3072 at the moment??
 
There´s a missing "sbpci.ini" line in your config.sys. I´ll check that out at home and write it down for you. The good news? You WILL get your sound working.

BTW, with those configurations are you getting sound in ANY other DOS games (in real DOS mode)?
 
It ain´t sbpci.ini, but SBINIT.COM is what you need in your autoexec.bat. Just add the following line after the "set sbpci" line:

C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\AUDIO\DOSDRV\SBINIT.COM

Also, it is not the "set blaster" line in the autoexec who determines your sound card configurations in DOS. The REAL DOS configurations are listed in your "Control Panel", "System", "legacy sb pci" or something like that...
 
Originally posted by Proton
Do you think that I should change the amount of RAM in my config.sys, it's at 3072 at the moment??
Click to expand...
IIRC, that should be fine for Privateer, but if you want, you can try:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE I=B000-B7FF RAM 16384

It's not a good idea to go beyond 16MB as Privateer's digitised sounds don't play properly.
 
It does't matter anymore, I just found out that I can play Privateer with full sound on my laptop using myjemm. Thanks for everyones advice and help again.
 
Privateer Sound In DOS

Maybe you can help me too.

I play Privateer in DOS (DOS 6.2.2 not just a dos window) and have a Creative Sound Blaster PCI. I can get music to work, and sound sometimes works. But when you try and leave a planet the game slows down, many sounds are hideously wrong, and even on planets this happens when some people have specific lines to say.

I tried reducing my EMM386 to only use 16384, and even tried having less, but to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
How badly does it slow down? Apparently, if there is no joystick plugged in (even if the joystick is not the currently selected input device), the flight part of the game plays at half speed - including the music.
 
With Sound Effects turned on specific sounds slow the game down....

I.e. Changing the MFD ('[') will cause the game to really slow down untill another sound is caused. Firing a Mass Driver slows it down even more, yet firing other weapons or causing other sounds (like communicating with another ship) will bring the speed back up to normal.

Without Sound Effects turned on, the game itself runs fine, but the music runs at about half-speed while you are in space and in control of the ship (i.e. not autopiloting or jumping).

But thanks for the joystick tip, I will try that.
 
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