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[afabbro]

I'm positively aching to play Panzer General on my laptop...but everything I've tried failed.

Mostly, it errors out on startup with "Failed to load @:\lib\drv\VESA480.dll"

It runs on a Dell Latitude D610 (Intel Mobile 915GM video). It does not run on a recent Dell XPS. I wonder if this is because the XPS's video card only goes down to 800x600, not 640x480???

Here are some things I've tried:

- Dosbox. Still get the VESA480.DLL error

- downloading a VESA480.DLL from the net and sticking it in my System32. Still get the "failed to load" error...likewise, putting it in \lib\drv in various locations doesn't make a difference

- I have VMware Workstation 5 running on this laptop and I built a Windows 95 VM. Still get the VESA480.dll error! Even if I run the windows VM in "dos mode". Does seem to matter what video mode I use.

Any other ideas!?!?

[Japo]

You should search the forum before starting a topic...

http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index...howtopic=15040

Edit PG.BAT and remove the line reading "univbe".

NOTE: The admins should fix the download, I think the game worked fine with previous versions of DOSBox but no longer with 0.70.

[afabbro]

QUOTE(Japofran @ Jun 25 2007, 09:54 AM) [snapback]296221[/snapback]

You should search the forum before starting a topic...
[/b]

I did, but no one mentioned VESA480.DLL ;-)

BTW, my PG.BAT does not have any line that says "univbe". I am installing it from a "20 Classic Wargames" CD. I'll try the download here I guess.

[afabbro]

QUOTE(Andrew @ Jun 26 2007, 01:17 AM) [snapback]296366[/snapback]

QUOTE(Japofran @ Jun 25 2007, 09:54 AM) [snapback]296221[/snapback]

You should search the forum before starting a topic...
[/b]

I did, but no one mentioned VESA480.DLL ;-)

BTW, my PG.BAT does not have any line that says "univbe". I am installing it from a "20 Classic Wargames" CD. I'll try the download here I guess.
[/b][/quote]

Sorry, confused sites, no download here ;-)

BTW, this fix did not work.

First, it doesn't appear in PG.BAT. But it does appear in PGV.BAT. Removing the call to univbe makes no difference. Calling pg or pgv makes no difference...doesn't run in dosbox, Win XP, or Win95 in VMWare.

That univbe line is the only difference in the two. Here's the .BAT file. Anyone have other ideas!?!?

@echo off
cd exe
rem --------------------------------------------------------------------------
rem .** game.bat
rem .
rem .** This is a batch file to load the Gravis Ultrasound in Native mode.
rem .** And start the game...
rem .
rem .** Author:******** Ralph Thomas
rem .
rem .** Revision:****** 1.0**** 1/24/94
rem .****************** 1.1**** 2/7/94**Fixed to accomodate the loadpats
rem .********************************** program detecting the GUS software
rem .********************************** revision...
rem --------------------------------------------------------------------------

rem Detect card

IF "%ULTRADIR%"=="" goto NO_GRAVIS
GOTO GUS_LOAD

:GUS_LOAD

rem --------------------------------------------------------------------------
rem If loadpats fails it means that the user has an old revision of the Gravis
rem software and will need to contact Gravis for an update to make this work...
rem --------------------------------------------------------------------------

loadpats
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO OLD_REVISION

goto RUN_GRAVIS

:OLD_REVISION

rem --------------------------------------------------------------------------
rem Set the environmental var to NULL so the sound installer will not "detect"
rem the Gravis
rem --------------------------------------------------------------------------

set ULTRASND=

cls
echo É�����������������������������������������������������»
echo º****** Gravis Native Mode Installation Error******** º
echo Ì�����������������������������������������������������¹
echo º**************************************************** º
echo º**ERROR: Native Mode is not Supported by Revisions** º
echo º******** of the Gravis Software Less Then 2.00****** º
echo º**************************************************** º
echo º******** Contact Gravis to Obtain an Update of****** º
echo º******** Their Software...************************** º
echo º**************************************************** º
echo º**********Voice (604) 431-5020********************** º
echo º**********Fax** (604) 431-5155********************** º
echo º**********BBS** (604) 431-5927 V32bis****************º
echo º**************************************************** º
echo º**********Compuserve: GO PCVENB (71333,350)**********º
echo º**********FidoNET: 1:153/978************************ º
echo º**********InterNET EMail: tech@gravis.com************º
echo º**********SBCNET: 13:900/3************************** º
echo º**************************************************** º
echo È�����������������������������������������������������¼
pause
GOTO NO_GRAVIS

:RUN_GRAVIS
cls
panzer.exe
goto END

:NO_GRAVIS
cls
panzer.exe
goto END

:END
cd..

[The Fifth Horseman]

I'd say your copy is missing a file.

What other EXE, COM and BAT files are in the game directory?

[Japo]

Now I see I've got that file in the LIB\DRV subfolder of the game folder (old games were self-contained). Maybe you don't have it or it's corrupt. Have you tried placing the file you downloaded there instead of SYSTEM32 or elsewhere? If it doesn't work I can upload the VESA480.DLL I have because it works in DOSBox.

By the way in DOSBox you'll be using Sound Blaster 16 so you don't need all that since it's for Ultrasound, you only have to run SOUND.EXE to configure the SB16 and PANZER.EXE to play. Both are in the EXE subfolder so you may want to use a .BAT to play but the only lines you need from there are:

@echo off
cd exe
panzer.exe
cd..

[afabbro]

QUOTE(Japofran @ Jun 26 2007, 12:32 PM) [snapback]296436[/snapback]

Now I see I've got that file in the LIB\DRV subfolder of the game folder (old games were self-contained). Maybe you don't have it or it's corrupt. Have you tried placing the file you downloaded there instead of SYSTEM32 or elsewhere? If it doesn't work I can upload the VESA480.DLL I have because it works in DOSBox.

By the way in DOSBox you'll be using Sound Blaster 16 so you don't need all that since it's for Ultrasound, you only have to run SOUND.EXE to configure the SB16 and PANZER.EXE to play. Both are in the EXE subfolder so you may want to use a .BAT to play but the only lines you need from there are:

@echo off
cd exe
panzer.exe
cd..

[/b]

OK! I think I have it...here are the steps I went through:

- You can download a version of Pg from [SKREEE]. That's the one I used here. I haven't tried my version from the "20 Classic War Games" CD yet.
- I unzipped it in C:\PG
- I put the VESA480.dll in C:\PG\LIB\DRV
- DOSBox does NOT seem to work in full screen for me, but windowed works so far
- I mounted it in dobox as "mount d c:\PG" - one of the BestOldGames tips was to mount it on D: so PG thinks there's a CD
- removed the univbe line in pg.bat (even with this removed, it won't work without the VESA480.DLL)

I'd like to try your VESA480.DLL, if you can make it available...perhaps full-screen mode will work then.

And I hope others find this of use, too! My favorite old game.



Sorry, forgot to add - using PG.BAT at all didn't work for me, but cding to the EXE directory and running PANZER.EXE works.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Link removed. At the current point our data informs that Panzer General is still sold - ergo, all links to downloads are considered forbidden.

[Japo]

I don't think the fullscreen problem is due to that file anyway if it works windowed. What's the problem, when you press Alt+Enter the image is small at the centre surrounded by a black background? Most likely fullscreen will work if you edit dosbox.conf. The easy way is enabling aspect correction I think ("aspect=true"), but I've got it disabled so that pixels aren't stretched and I've got "fullresolution" set to "640x480" instead.