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[vk0]

all the patch itself does is change some research stuff around and make some buildings less good.
self managening plants is default in the game and can be toggled on or off by pressing the "M" key while in the planet display for the current planet. It says which setting the planet is set to if you press the main info panel of the planet (the box that display current populationg and maximum population).

The reason you have to put the planets on this setting is that the AI is so unbelieveable dump it will heavily weaken you and build a bunch of crappy planets.

Guys, quick question...

I am a self-confessed noob - not just to abandonware but pretty much to the computers scene. Ascendancy is my first attempted download, and boy did I not do it right.

I have set up the files, and got DOSBox up and running, but when I type 'install' as the DOSBox command I get the reply 'Illegal command: install'. What am I doing wrong? Any advice appreciated.

Apologies if these is a separate technical help thread for stuff like this, but I play my 'noob' card once again.

JH

[BeefontheBone]

Well, you can't run install.exe without first navigating to the directory where it resides. Assuming you've followed the DOSBox tutorial (or figured out what it odes for yourself) and extracted the game to C:\Ascend (where C: is whatever you've mounted as drive C is DOSBox - in my config it's actually C:\DOSProgs\) then the command sequence you need to run it the first time is

cd ascend
install
<set up the game - autodetect should spot whatever DOSBox is emulating, the default being a standard SoundBlaster I believe)>
ascend

Hope that helps

Thanks for getting back to me Beef.

Well I've made it as far as being able to mount C: onto DOSBox (ie when I open up DOSBox it goes to 'C:' by default) - the last lines of my DOSBox config are:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
mount C C:\DOSBox\CDrive
mount D D:\ -t cdrom
C:
CLS

I have also extracted the game to the file marked 'CDrive', as instructed. In fact, when following the step-by-step tutorial, I was cruising until 'install' turned out to be an illegal command. Hope this explains my situation a little clearer.

Ascendancy was meant to be a dress rehearsal for my real Holy Grail - Mega Lo Mania! I'd be grateful as ever for your help.

JH

[BeefontheBone]

You should have a folder in C:\DOSBox\CDrive called ASCEND, containing (among other things) install.exe and ascend.exe (it's also worth running the patch included in the archive, too).

Actually, looking at my CD I think you need to run SETSOUND not INSTALL. Gah! Basically, DOS games used to have their own setup programs to tell them what hardware you had (DirectX and the OS tend to handle all this for you now, which is nice). DOSBox can emulate a number of hardware configurations, defaulting to a SoundBlaster IIRC, but the games still need to be told what it's emulating, in this case by running SETSOUND.EXE. They usually had SETSOUND, INSTALL, SETUP or something similar to do it.

OK, assuming you've got the folder in the right place, run DOSBox then type:

cd ascend
setsound
<you should get to set the sound options - autodetect should work fine>
ascend

That should do it. If you get problems, try typing

dir -w

That'll list the contents of whatever folder you're in (shown on the left of the DOSBox screen). If you're in your mounted C drive it should list [ASCEND] for the ascendancy folder - if not, you've not extracted the game to the right place. If you're in C:\ASCEND then it should list a few folders and some executables, hopefully including ASCEND.EXE and SETSOUND.EXE. If not, you've created the folder in the right place but not extracted the game data there.

[legolas558]

Here is the dosboxhere.reg file to have always available a DOSbox shell from the folder context menu, copy & paste into a file called dosboxhere.reg and launch it.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\DOSBox Here]
@="&DOSBox"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\DOSBox Here\command]
@="c:\program files\dosbox\dosbox.exe -noconsole -c \"@mount c %1\" -c "@c:\" "

Edit to have 'c:\program files\dosbox' as the folder path to Dosbox. I also advice you to edit the dosbox.conf file located in the DOSbox folder, this way (from the bottom):

...
[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
@mount c c:\

And yes, if you asked, here it is another cmdhere.reg, a very handy tool for windows xp:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command Prompt Here]
@="&Command prompt"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command Prompt Here\command]
@="cmd.exe /k cd %1 "

Enjoy the stuff and post any thanks if you have ...

You should have a folder in C:\DOSBox\CDrive called ASCEND, containing (among other things) install.exe and ascend.exe (it's also worth running the patch included in the archive, too).

Well, the plot thickens. I do indeed have a folder in C:\DOSBox\CDrive called ASCEND, but the only thing in it is another folder called 'ASCENDANCY'. When I open that, then I find 23 icons - although none of them are install.exe or ascend.exe.

Actually, looking at my CD I think you need to run SETSOUND not INSTALL. Gah!

This inspired me, so I tried punching in 'setsound' as a command. No joy. Same with 'setup'. However, 'SETSOUND' is one of the 23 things in the 'ascendancy' file.

In a burst of genius, I thought that perhaps I needed to get to the ASCEND file in DOSBox, and then type in 'cd ascendancy'. Well well well...absolutely nothing happened. ('Unable to change to: ascendancy.')

Icon of the day is :help: .

JH

When I open that, then I find 23 icons - although none of them are install.exe or ascend.exe.

Hold the phone...now I'm just confusing myself. Contrary to what I typed (above), there is actually an icon called 'ASCEND' in the 'ASCENDANCY' folder - but nothing for 'install'. Sorry for the mix-up.

:help:

JH

[vk0]

My ideas:

2 guesses:
either ascendancy is ascendancy.zip meannig you have to unpack it first, although not sure if your os opens zip as normal dirs or opens a wizard to unpack.
if this is the case, unzip it ofc.

other thing is that dosbox is a dos emulator (), and ascendancy is too long a filename for dos, so:
after having started dosbox and having c mounted to your c:\dosbox\cdrive, type this in:
c:
cd ascend
cd ascend~1
setsound (follow program guides)
ascend


ascend~1 is abit of a hassle to write so i suggest copying the files from c:\dosbox\cdrive\ascend\ascendancy to c:\dosbox\cdrive\ascend.

Success!

Yup, we're officially in business. The problem was indeed the fact that the DOS emulator couldn't access the ASCENDANCY file, so with a bit of slick cut-and-pasting I did away with that folder and put the contents in ASCEND. Worked a treat! Many thanks to vk0 and BeefontheBone for your help. Cheers guys. Mega Lo Mania, here I come...

JH