[DarkPoet]

I have been reading a number of threads here dealing with DOS games and their conflicts with XP. Which is what lead me to join this place.

To the problem:
I've played Fantasy General on Win95 and Win98 with no trouble in the past. However, now that I have this overwhelming urge to play it again, WinXP or maybe something else, won't allow me to launch the game.

It is a DOS game that it claims is compatiible with Win95. I've tried clicking on properties to check the memory tab, which doesnt exist on my version of XP for some reason, I have tried running it in an Emulator called DOSbox as well but upon launch I get an error "VCPI functions 0 not supported".

Here is my system info incase it helps:

1.7ghz Pentium 4
80gb Hard Drive
Windows XP Home Edition
512mb RAM
GeForce 2 MX
On-board sound

Thanks for your time,
DP

[DosFreak]

DosBox doesn't support protected mode games which Fantasy General is.

What's the error that you receive upon running it uunder XP without Dosbox?

[DarkPoet]

When I run it just with WinXP it will open a Command Prompt window for a few seconds and then the window closes and nothing else happens.

The game has 3 launch files.

FG
FGVESA
SOUND

The SOUND file launches immediately after the install and allows me to select a sound card. FG is the actual game file and FGVESA I think was graphics. But neither FG or FGVESA will launch.

Without the Emulator the game states I have 919k XMS but it requires over 5,000k XMS during the install. The Emulator gives me enough XMS. But as you say it doesnt support protected mode games.

So the question remains, How can I get it to run without an Emulator? And if I need an Emulator, Is there one other than DOSbox I could use?

The help is appriecated.

[DarkPoet]

Oh let me also add that I'm have DirectX 9.0 if that helps any.

[DarkPoet]

I thought I would try to run the game through the Command Prompt a lfew minutes ago but all I got was a black screen and it sat there for a long time before alt+tab out then clicked on the Command Prompt again to see the follow message:

C:\FG\EXE\cd...

C:\FG\

and that's all it does

[DarkPoet]

Turns out the real execute is Barena.exe Apparently I do have the memory fand program tabs. Before I was looking at the BAT files which the game instructions tell you use to launch the game.

Anyway. Now I get the follow error when trying to running the game

DOS/16M error [17] system software does not follow VCPI or DPMI specifications

How would I resolve this?

[DosFreak]

You cannot. VCPI is not supported under NT's NTVDM. To run VCPI under NT you'll need to use an emulator such as Vmware or preferabbly Connectic Virtual PC. I would mention Bochs but it isn't even close to the level of VPC or Vmware in terms of user friendliness, compatibility or features....but it is free. Oh, and of course DosBox doesn't support VCPI, DPMI, protected mode yet.

[DarkPoet]

At the moment with money being so tight and no CC to buy one of the certified ones I will try Bochs.

I will post back with my results. I'm hoping they'll be

[adamvjackson]

Or if you register, you can recieve a free 45 day license of Virtual PC. IIRC, VMware offers a free 30 day license, too.

[DarkPoet]

Virtual PC looked like it was for MAC users so I didn't try that.

Bochs was too hard to understand.

So I downloaded VMware Workstation 3.0 but it wants either a boot disk for the OS I want to run or an install disk. I don't have either for my current OS let alone what I need to use it for, which is DOS.

Guess I'm screwed