16 bit MS-DOS Problem (old game)

#1 Novice_G

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Joined: 13-June 05

Posted 13 June 2005 - 05:18 AM

Hi all, I am new to posting on this forum but have been reading for a while and you all seem very knowledgable so here it goes...

My problem occurs from trying to play a very old game "Death Knights of Krynn" by SSI (1991).
When the game begins, quickly a message pops up that says ---

16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem
c:\games\*****\start.exe
The system cannot open COM2 port requested by the application. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

I don't have much expetise in PCs and as far as I am concerned I either don't have a COM2 port, or nothing is connected to it, so I have no idea why this message would come up,
I am using Windows 2000 pro OS
and for the record I can play "Champions of Krynn", the predecesor to this game (same gold box series) without any issues.
Any help you be appreciated or even anything to get me started in the right direction. Thanks in advance.

#2 DosFreak

Carpal Tunnel

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Posted 13 June 2005 - 08:14 AM

Don't have the game but it appears that either the program is trying to access the serial port or NTVDM thinks that it is....not really much you can do about it unless the program has a configuration program which can disable the access, which I doubt that it does.

You may want to try DosBox: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net

#3 Christianb

old hand

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Posted 13 June 2005 - 11:06 AM

Hi Novice_G,
Interesting. I'm not sure why your game would be acessing your com ports unless it supports some kind of multi-player, modem based, action. Is there a way you can disable that feature. If you can keep it from polling your modem then you might just be able to get it to work. However, DOS box is probably your easyiest bet. Other options include: Bochs, another emulator (VirtualPC or VMWARE), an old PC, using a DOS bootable floppy, or a bootable copy of FreeDos, but like I said Dos Box is your safest bet.
Cheers,
Christian Blackburn

#4 Novice_G

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Joined: 13-June 05

Posted 13 June 2005 - 04:52 PM

Thanks for the replys, I will give DOS-box a try when I get home tonight. As for why the program accesses the COM port, I am equally confused as the game definitely does not support multi-player, nor any modem based play.
I just assumed it would work in the same manner as the previous game I mentioned earlier played (ie. error free) since it was from the same company and the same box set.

Here is an abandonware site where the game can be located if anyone has a few minutes to check it out.
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4729

Thanks again.