Getting MoM to run properly

[Catwalk]

Jtm offered (with one hand bent on his back) to type up something about how to get MoM to run properly. Until he gets around to it, feel free to ask questions here.

EDIT: Jtm awoke from the dead and posted a guide Enjoy!

Installing D-Fend Reloaded:
0. Install latest D-Fend Reloaded (includes newest DOSBox).

Creating profile in D-Fend Reloaded:
1. Open D-Fend Reloaded.
2. Click "Add", then "Add with wizard...".
3. In "Create new profile"-window, the emulation type should be "DOSBox" and the wizard mode "Only setup game automatically if ..." by default. Click "Next".
4. Locate your game directory and set "MAGIC.exe" as "Program to be started". Set "INSTALL.exe" as "Setup program". Click "Next".
5. In "Use auto setup template that only matches by filename" should read "Master of Magic". If not, search for it. Also in bottom, disable fullscreen (we will enable it later if desired). Click "Ok".
6. Now the profile should be found in the main window.

Testing the game playability: (optional)
7. Double-click the profile. The game should open in separate DOSBox window. You should see and hear the intro by now.

Editing the profile:
8. Right-click the profile created and click "Edit...".
9. In Profile Editor, you may rename the profile. For instance, "Master of Magic (Insecticide)" for Insecticide patch.

Better graphics (optional but recommended):
10. In Profile Editor -> Hardware -> Graphics, look for "Scale". By default DOSBox uses "Nearest neighbor upscaling with factor 2 (normal2x)"-algorithm for scaling. This doubles the resolution in windowed mode.
11. Set "Scale" to "high quality with factor 3 (hq3x)". This triples the resolution in windowed mode. You may also try other scaling algorithms. Personally I prefer this scaling with windowed mode.
12. NOTE: Once you've completed "Finding optimal CPU cycles"-section and want to play with fullscreen, you may change it here. When using fullscreen, you might wanna enable "Keep correct aspect ratio" as well.

Finding optimal CPU cycles:
11. Idea is to increase CPU cycles until "DOSBOX.exe" CPU usage is around: 80-90% for 1 core (40-45% for 2 core, 20-22% for 4 core et cetera). Why? By default the CPU cycles are set to 10000 and this makes the game too slow. Try combat and see for yourself. Note: If CPU cycles are set too high, then the game will begins to slow again because DOSBOX uses all CPU core resources.
12. Open the game by double-clicking the profile. Create new game and enter combat.
13. Open Task Manager and sort by name. Search for DOSBOX.exe and highlight it.
14. Need to know:

• If in fullscreen, switch to windowed mode clicking ALT+ENTER
  
• To see current CPU cycles, look at the Master of Magic window title.
  
• To increase CPU cycles in-game, click CTRL+F12. Increases by 10%.
  
• To decrease CPU cycles in-game, click CTRL+F11. Decreases by 20%.
  

15. Make sure you see both Task Manager and Master of Magic. When ready, increase CPU cycles until the DOSBOX CPU usage is around: 80-90% for 1 core (40-45% for 2 core, 20-22% for 4 core et cetera).
16. Once ready, write the optimal CPU cycles down and close the game.
17. Right-click the profile and click "Edit...".
18. In Hardware->CPU, set CPU cycles value to OPTIMAL VALUE.
19. You may enable fullscreen now.

Playing Master of Magic:
20. Simply double-click the profile in D-Fend Reloaded main window. Enjoy your game

[Nightrnr]

Great, Thanks Catwalk!

Well, I think I may have a unique problem with my system. It's not this computer (which I just use Dosbox), it's my old Win98 computer.
Specs:
Etower 566ir
566MHz Celeron
192MB ram (1x64MB, 1x128MB)
Has onboard video, but I added a PCI video card (Geforce mx4000). I like to use this computer for older games on my TV (play in comfort, you know).
Anyway, the main problem is: I can't load anything into upper memory (it's all in the conventional memory column). And I know to load things "Devicehigh:c:\..." in config.sys and "Loadhigh" in autoexec.bat and dos, but it still takes it out of conventional memory (ex. I type "LH mouse" and it blows 24k of system ram right out of the conventional column).

My Config.sys file looks like this:
Device=C:\Windows\Himem.sys
Dos=High,UMB
Device=C:\Windows\EMM386.EXE 4096 RAM

My Autoexec.bat I basically leave blank unless I'm trying to get my sound card to work in true Dos
(which I've never been able to do ever, I can load the driver and "SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4" and various other settings, but I think I'm missing a step)
Sound card is Crystalware CS4281
But without a way to load things in upper memory, that might not help me anyways (still want to get working one day for the odd game that absolutely needs a Dos environment).

Sound works in Windows, of course, and what I really need is a way to free up a little conventional memory.
I'm sitting at 569k after Win98 loads up (I need 583k for music/sound), with the major memory hogs being MSDOS 17k and VMM32 23k

I posted a plea for help on gamefaqs so here's a link there if anyone wanted to check for missing info that I may have left out (while it's still posted).
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/564960-ma...c/57367657

The thing is, I used to have Master of Magic working (used to have 597k free but something changed sometime after I upgraded my video card).

One other thing, when I load by "Step by Step confirmation I notice that it always loads "Dos=HIGH,UMB" first before Himem.sys, no matter what order I put that line in config.sys. Is that why I can't load anything in upper memory?

Sorry about the mountain of info, but I think that's everything.

Any Help would be greatly appreciated. I'm about out of ideas.

[I like Serena]

It seems you have everything configured correctly, so chances are that I won't be able to help you. But too often there is something simple that has been overlooked.

So what I'd like to see is the actual output of "mem /c /p".

And you mentioned that your config.sys "looks like this".
So if there's anything else I'd like to see the actual contents of config.sys and autoexec.bat. And while we're at it, win.ini and system.ini as well.
All these files pop up in Windows if you run "sysedit".

And I seem to recall there was a tool named "sysinfo" that makes a complete inventory of your system. The output of that might be useful too.

Just to see if there's anything there that you might have missed.

[Nightrnr]

Okay, I have some new info.

I apparently don't have any upper memory to utilize. In the totals column (not the used), upper memory shows 0 (zero, nada, zippo). Does that make any sense? I'll bet my problems would be over if I only had a little upper memory to work with.

Also, VMM32 only uses up 5k (as opposed to 23k) when I change "Device=C:\Windows\EMM386.EXE 4096 RAM" to "Device=C:\Windows\EMM386.EXE NOEMS" which gives me 597k free of conventional memory.

That's obviously a problem with Master of Magic though. It requires 2700 of free EMS (plug one hole, another leaks). Why does that take up so much when I want EMS?

I'm hoping I'm just missing something simple. But I think I've reached the end of my abilities here.

I Like Serena I'll try and get the files you're asking for, but shall I take a pic of them (opened in notepad) or do you want the actual files sent to you. I'm kind of new at this type of situation.

[I like Serena]

I Like Serena I'll try and get the files you're asking for, but shall I take a pic of them (opened in notepad) or do you want the actual files sent to you. I'm kind of new at this type of situation.

Preferably the actual files.
It's probably easiest to zip them and upload as an attachment to your post.

[Nightrnr]

Alright, here's the files. You can probably disregard the Autoexec unless you think you can get the sound working in true Dos. I admit that I don't really know what I'm doing there.

-Edit-
There, I attached my mem output as well (in a notepad file).

[I like Serena]

There are 3 entries that attract my attention.

And I just remembered there is also a program called "MSD" in DOS 6.x that can show you what the layout of your upper memory is and also if there is "something in the way". It also has an export to file option, I believe it is C> MSD /F <filename>.
If you could upload that as well?
This page shows how it looks and a bit of what you can do with it.

In AUTOEXE.BAT:
C:\WINDOWS\cwcdata\cwrdos.exe

Is this a driver for your soundcard?
Have you tried removing (or REM'ing) this line from AUTOEXEC.BAT?

In WIN.INI?
[programs]
SNDSETUP.EXE="C:\ROTT\ROTTINST\SNDSETUP.EXE"

To what sound driver is this related to?

In SYSTEM.INI?
[386Enh]
EMMExclude=C000-CFFF

Do you know what hardware is at this address?
It seems it needs to be reserved.

[Nightrnr]

You know, I think I have Dos version 7 (comes with Win 98 ). I did a search for that MSD file and I don't have it on my system. If I come across it online, I'll DL it (I assume it would still be compatible).

C:\WINDOWS\cwcdata\cwrdos.exe
Yes, this is my sound card driver. I've put REM in front of it before (and completely deleted it too), but it makes no difference in my conventional memory one way or the other. (Just read something and I'm gonna' try "SET SOUND..." with that and see what happens)

SNDSETUP.EXE="C:\ROTT\ROTTINST\SNDSETUP.EXE
This is from Rise of the Triad (a strange FPS game).

In SYSTEM.INI?
[386Enh]
EMMExclude=C000-CFFF

I have no idea, but I saw this memory range on an FAQ I was reading about freeing up memory. I wonder what would happen if I just deleted that line. Not the smartest thing to do, but I think you may have pinpointed what's getting in the way of my upper memory. It might have something to do with the onboard video card (which I don't exactly know how to completely disable; my Ram memory in windows shows 191MB instead of 192).

First, I'll try to find that MSD program. I have an old Win95 CD that might have it.

[I like Serena]

First, I'll try to find that MSD program. I have an old Win95 CD that might have it.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Diagnostics:

This program (MSD [ed]) was replaced with msinfo32.exe. This has similar features, but intended for more recent machines. It first appeared in MS-Word, and later was distributed with Plus! for Windows 95 and Windows 98. WinMSD became a loader for MSINFO32.

I also seem to recall that MSINFO32 was not immediately available.
I think that at first you could only get there through the Help/About screen of Word and Excel. It was called MSINFO32.DLL at the time.

So do you have WinMSD, MSINFO32, or Word/Help/About available?

[I like Serena]

Btw, did you already try to run from DOS 6.x instead of Win98?