«

[Salmoneaus]

Thanks for your willingness to help!

Here goes:

I unzip the .rar, leaving me with a Shannara folder. I've tried to run it in two ways.

Way #1:
Place Shannara in a C:\Games\Shannara folder.
Open DosBox
"Mount C C:\Games\Shannara"
Switch to the C: directory
Run "Shannara"

I get the music, I get to the main Shannara title screen, and then a black screen with a gray box says: "Can't find .\Restart.dat"

Then the game opens to the first outdoors panorama, and all the functionality is there. But when I try to save, it says: "Can't find .\Shannara000.sav". I don't play any further, even though I could, as the prospect of not saving doesn't appeal to me.


Way #2 (This actually works, once, when you do it, but then it stops working on the second trial)
Mount D C:\Games\Shannara (mount Shannara as a disc drive)
Mount C C:\Dosbox\
Switch to D: directory
Run "Install"
Install Shannara to the C: drive (which is really C:\Dosbox, another folder I made)
Switch to C: directory
Run "Shannara"
everything works fine. Even was able to save.

But after closing dosbox, and reopening, and even mounting the C:\Games\Shannara to D, and the C:\Dosbox\Shannara to C, and then running Shannara from C: or D:, I get the same error message:

"Cannot find .\restart.dat". If I run from the Virtual C, it then crashes. If I run from the Virtual D, I'm allowed into the game, but again with the "Can't find Shannara000.sav" if I try to save.

There you have it. Could you please tell me your mount method that worked?

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any input sir!

[Frodo]

Download Shannara to your desktop, and unzip it.
Drag & Drop Shannara.exe onto the DosBox icon. It should run fine.

[dosraider]

Originally Posted by Salmoneaus

There you have it. Could you please tell me your mount method that worked?

I've tested the game under XP and Vista, no problems.

If you want my mount lines, there you go:
Under XP:
mount c e:\games\
c:
cd shannara
shannara


Under Vista(32-64):
mount c "c:\users\my name\oldgames\
c:
cd shannara
shannara


And also the drag/drop method mentioned by Frodo.

No problems.

To repeat what has been said already many times:
Do not run install, simply unzip the WHOLE shannara folder and run shannara.exe.

BTW, the saves are stored in 3 files apparently:

restart.dat
journal.00x
shan00x.sav

Those 3 are the created files on current date/time.

Things that could go wrong with your game:

Uncompatible unarchiver?-( Unlikely, but....)- Try 7zip.
http://www.7-zip.org/
Be sure to select the whole shannara folder in the archive to extract.
Your OS? Write restrictions? Vista?
Dosbox version? I've tested the game under 0.72 and the new released 0.73.

[Edit]

Originally Posted by Salmoneaus

.... I unzip the .rar ....

Slip of the tongue? The AB archive is not a RAR file but a ZIP file.

[Salmoneaus]

Thanks for all your help guys. I'll try a few more things thanks to your input after work today:

1. Redownload the game, in case what I downloaded was corrupted.

2. The simple drag and drop method, shannara.exe onto dosbox

3. The time/date thing you said - that perked my ears. Where I work there is a pretty insidious virus that goes from OS to USB memory sticks that changes the system time to 2020 upon every restart (thereby screwing with the autoupdate of a lot of programs, including AVG). It disguises itself as msmgner.exe (trying to look like some kind of legit program), but Malwarebits blasts it. I'm our default "tech guy" at work (in the social services, and there is no techie for our 4 computers, so I run all the installs, virus protection, updates, and reinstalls if necessary, because I'm the most computer savvy - whether you believe that or not ;0 ). It is incredibly hard to "stop" this virus as it immediately goes from USB thumb drive when they are opened to OS, and from OS to USB thumb drive. With 20 employees or so, many using USB thumb drives and never all there at the same time, the virus spreads back around pretty quickly. Needless, it hasn't affected my vista machine to my knowledge, but I'll have to take a closer look, if those save files have anything to do with system date....

Anyhow, thanks for your help. I'll post the results of my efforts after I conduct them.

Cheers!

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Salmoneaus

3. The time/date thing you said - that perked my ears. Where I work there is a pretty insidious virus that goes from OS to USB memory sticks that changes the system time to 2020 upon every restart (thereby screwing with the autoupdate of a lot of programs, including AVG). It disguises itself as msmgner.exe (trying to look like some kind of legit program), but Malwarebits blasts it. I'm our default "tech guy" at work (in the social services, and there is no techie for our 4 computers, so I run all the installs, virus protection, updates, and reinstalls if necessary, because I'm the most computer savvy - whether you believe that or not ;0 ). It is incredibly hard to "stop" this virus as it immediately goes from USB thumb drive when they are opened to OS, and from OS to USB thumb drive. With 20 employees or so, many using USB thumb drives and never all there at the same time, the virus spreads back around pretty quickly. Needless, it hasn't affected my vista machine to my knowledge, but I'll have to take a closer look, if those save files have anything to do with system date....

Anyhow, thanks for your help. I'll post the results of my efforts after I conduct them.

Cheers!

All this has not to do a single bit with Shannara. Just try the hints given above.

[Japo]

Nice, but my favourite game from Legend is still Gateway 2 by far. :P

[ChibiKitsuneWarrior]

Oh, this is so awesome! As a fan of the book series, I'm really looking forward to playing this. <3 I wish that I'd found it earlier.

Isn't there another Shannara game that's text-based or something? >>
I thought I found one on here, but now I can't find it. D; Help, please?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Far as I can determine, this one is the only one there is.

[ChibiKitsuneWarrior]

Ah, I see. I must've been mistaken then. ^-^;;
Thanks for letting me know. ^-^

[bluestarultor]

I've come across what appears to be a full CD image. If someone could confirm this, I'd be happy to provide it.