trying to make Frontier first encounters work in dosbox
 

I am running xp servicepack2 on a dualcore system with two gigs of ram. O.72 version of dosbox

I can't tell people the error message i get because after the games intro the game crashes and dosbox freezes and I get an error message but with really large font size so it scrolls up and beyond my vision except for a few characters.

I know the review states that dosbox crashes but you just need to run the game again but that doesn't solve my issue.

I tried using loadfix and it states 64kb allocated.

I do not know if I need to change the dosbox.config file as i have no idea whats wrong.

When you say after the games intro you mean after the ingame animation or after the text?

So you ran firstenc and then got the text, then it crashed to dos and then you typed firstenc and pressed enter and then you pressed "Y" and it crashed again?

Are you running fulscreen mode (not that it should matter). What resolution are you using?

Have you tried downloading it again to see if there is download problem? I never tried it with latest DosBox version, but i know sebatianos made it run with an older version. so you oculd try the older version of dosbox.

It might be that the game uses EMS memory, it's been a while since i played it and i don't know if that has to be specified to dosbox or if it works automaticly.

Also i see some guys here found some file that makes it work in windows instead of DOS.

EDIT: I just tried it on a dual core processor. IT'S NOT WORKING!!!!! AAAARGH!!! SOMEONE HELP!

I remember i ran this one in dos box so i am shocked. The thing is that before the game didn't start (the animation) and it just kicked oyu out when you first pressed "Y". The game only started when you repeated this. I need to try it all on single core maschine although i dont' see why it would make a difference.

Ok I start it up and get the text and the y or n choice.
I press yes and I get the title sequence (the first time I played i did not crash right away when I pressed Y I still got the title sequence) and then the credits with the ship flying around planets when I press esc to skip the sequence it skips back to the title sequence. When I hit esc a second time it crashes.

THis happens in windowed mode and full screen.

My resolution in windows is 1280 x 1024.

The windows verson is using java and it sounds bad and the graphics are not really as crisp. So I prefer to run it in Dos / Dosbox.

I'm not totally green when it comes to dosbox but I am no expert either. So while I know how to change the .config file and things I do not know what corrections to make, if you understand my meaning.

There are only two games I haven't been able to tweak to get them to work in dosbox, FFE and privateer both similar games and its a disapointment.

well like i wrote above i tried and you are right it doesn't seem to work. i can't figure out why. i will try it on single core to see if that has anything to do with it.

but it definatelly worked in older versions as someone tested it for me back them when i didnt' use dosbox yet.

if you like privateer there is a remake available with cool new graphics

here: http://wcuniverse.sourceforge.net/

Has the version changed since FFE was first added? Because that might be the reason. Thanks for the effort of testing this.

Also thanks for the link to privateer is it pretty much a clone with improved graphics?

jj-ffe worked for me. i think its an opengl version.

see


http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/getting/getting.html

Not that i would know. i still didn't have the opportunity to test on single core. maybe today...

Well i never played the first one (couldn't get even demo to run propperly). but i believe the guys really made a remake as in game pictures in adventure screen seem like from the original one. Also there is a story to follow. There are also that cat race you meet (forgot their name). But i know the engine is good and i had tons of fun just exploring the universe and trading. it all ended for me in a mission where you i had to protect this huge ship. despite hiring good wingmen it was difficult to protect it. once i managed to keep it whole when an idiot wingman decided to send a final salvo to a crippled oponent ship. needles to say he shot through the shields of giant ship and destroyed their shields and them in the process.

but otherwise cool graphics and physics.


also i am thinking of giving this glFFE a try. it seems good.
only thing is does that shareware version get locked after 30 days? i remember playing the Elite 2 and then there was a cop that asked me for a code. since i didn't have it i got kicked out of the game. lame...



EDIT: No, single core has same problem... :-(

We are not talking about the JAVA version. I do not like it as the sound is terrible and the graphics are blurry compared to the originial. I am not putting down the work done on the java version I would rather just play the original.

Ok this doesn't make sense. Almost everyone has had difficulty getting FFE to run and the only sucesses are from years ago. This makes me sure that the files have been changed as I am also getting the shareware readme in the download from this site.