Trying to get Elite Frontiers to run

Thorbar

I've had a bit of nostalgia this christmas and I'm trying to get Elite Frontiers to run on my computer but I've run into a bit of a problem. In the readme it states that Elite Frontiers requires a lot of free conventional memory to run and suggests some changes to config.sys and autoexec.bat. I thought I'd run them by you lot before I changed them to make sure I wasn't shooting myself in the foot.

Here's the changes the readme suggests for config.sys:

In config.sys, try the following changes (back up the file first so that
the original version can be restored if there are problems):
DOS=HIGH,UMB,AUTO
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM
Change all other instances of DEVICE= to DEVICEHIGH=

And here's my config.sys with changes in bold:

DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM
DOS=HIGH,UMB,AUTO
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\TAISATAP.SYS /D:CD1
device=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1)
Country=044,850,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys
set files=40

Here's the suggested changes for autoexec.bat:

In autoexec.bat, in places where executable programs are run (for example,
"mouse", "keyb" and "doskey"), put "loadhigh" (or "lh" for short) in front
(e.g. "lh doskey"). A few programs won't work like this, but most
will.

And here's my autoexec.bat with changes in bold again:

@d:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG6\bootup.exe
@ECHO OFF
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H7 P330 T6
SET SBPCI=C:\SBPCI
rem - By Windows Setup - LOADHIGH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:CD1
PROMPT $P$G
PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\;C:\CDROM;C:\BRCD\COMMAND;C:\BRCD\BIN;D:\JDK1.3\BIN;d:\PROGRA~1\GRISOFT\AVG6
mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mode con codepage select=850
LOADHIGH keyb uk,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys

@echo off>C:\Windows\STARTM~1\Programs\StartUp\kak.hta
del C:\Windows\STARTM~1\Programs\StartUp\kak.hta

SET CLASSPATH=.;D:\JDK1.3\JMF\LIB\SOUND.JAR;D:\JDK1.3\JMF\LIB\JMF.JAR;D:\JDK1.3\JMF\Real\lib\rjmf.jar

So am I likely to feck up my computer by making these changes and does anyone have any suggestions for freeing up some more conventional memory? Thanks in advance for any help on the matter.

[edit]
At the moment I've got 599k conventional memory free and Elite Frontiers requires 765k do you think the above changes will make enough of a difference?
[/edit]

marauder

looks like you are running 98?
Best thing to do in these situations is to make a boot floppy with the settings you want and boot from it. That way if things get fuxxored then you can just remove the floppy and boot from the HDD as normal.....

TinCool

All that the changes are doing is loading drivers and exe's in to high mem. I'm a bit rusty on this, but high mem is a portion of memory above 640k that can be set aside (I think this is set by himem.sys) where you can load device drivers and other exe's such as mouse drivers so that they are not using up the valuable conventional memory.

Although I dont see how you can load himem.sys in to high memory as this is one of the memory managers which "manages" high memory. The rule of thumb should be, load dos in to high memory, emm386 and himem in to normal memory and all other device drivers in to himem.

To be honest, included this in your config.sys rather than what is suggested by the game manual.

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

and then loadhigh commands for any device drivers in your autoexec.bat

Again, create a boot disk that you can mess about with. Using the "mem" command will show you a breakdown of your available memory.

I remember I got Wing Commander working on my 386, that took many many days to get working as it's conventional memory requirements were astronomical.

halkar

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't convential memory is limited to first 640k? I think that 765k is what the game is looking for total free memory under 1Mb. Including convential and upper memory.

Try this for config.sys:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE noems frame=none I=B000-B7FF
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
BUFFERS=13
FILES=40

Devicehigh for any other devices there might need to be loaded.
Loadhigh for Autoexec.bat.
You don't need the CD rom for the game, run it from hard drive and don't load the cd rom drivers. The device is being loaded in your lines of Config.sys :
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\TAISATAP.SYS /D:CD1
but mscdex.exe is not being loaded in autoexec.bat:
rem - By Windows Setup - LOADHIGH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:CD1

TAISATAP.SYS in config.sys might be taking of your very very veeeery valuable few k of memory. :rolleyes:

Also check the msdos.sys file for the entries under options:

drvspace=0
dblspace=0

if they are not 0 then windows using memory even though if you are not using drive compression. So if you have no drive compression try changing them to 0, if they are already 0 leave as it is.

And of course backup any files that you are altering as these are vital for Windows to start, as suggested , the best option is to create a boot disk for old games. If all goes well , you should get over 780k free to run the game

Good luck, Frontier Elite is a great game, have fun

halkar

Originally posted by halkar
......DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off
......

Lol should be:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off


forgot to disable the smilies :rolleyes:

Thorbar

Thanks for the replies lads, with the changes to my autoexec and config files suggested above on a boot disk I was able to get Elite: Frontiers to run in dos but not in windows. The error its giving me is that I don't have an Expanded memory (ems) driver installed. I've given up on getting it to run in windows so I'm going to try and sort out my dos drivers for video/sound and mouse and just run it in dos.

DiscoStu

ironically its easier to get frontier running on 2k/XP