Darn, will keep trying
Thanks so far
Any other ideas?

Are you sure the game is loaded using riva.exe? I recall there was some BATCH file to invoke it. I might be wrong, though. Do a dir *.bat command on your mounted C: drive.

I did the dir *.bat search, to no avail. I am positive I'm using Riva.exe, and there are no other .bat aside from Sound.bat, and Rivahelp.dat, which opens a manual-like executable, from which you can't launch the game.
However, I did find this error log:

ERROR:
Not enough memory to play <Shadows over Riva>!
%ld more bytes XMS/EMS memory needed. Call techncal support.
memory allocation of a %ld Byte block failed!
file:%s, line %d
Memory freeing of an invalid memory block failed!
file: %s, line %d
Unable to create administration table of the memory manager!
(%ld entries at %ld Bytes each)
Administration table of the memory manager is full!
memory allocation of a temporary %ld Byte block failed!
file: %s, line %d
Unable to find file HMISET.CFG.
Please start SOUND.BAT!
Error during copying file (source: %s, destination: %s)
No CD-ROM-drive installed. Sorry.
The MSCDEX version is too old. Sorry.
Unable to find CD-ROM-drive. Sorry.
Unable to open ALF-file %s!
Unable to open language definition file!
Language definition file %s is defective!
File %s not found!
File %s could not be opened!
VESA driver found: %s
VESA driver does not support the required resolution of 640x480 pixels!
The program will instead run in VGA resolution only.
VESA driver is missing. The program will run in VGA resolution only!

Curious, eh? I dunno why it requires Sound.bat, I've configured it with 220, 5, 1 classical values for IRQ, DMA, etc. Which where default values, anyway.
The game won't let me play with my current EMX/XMS, but I have em maxed in VDMSound, and I can't seem to be able to toy with them in DOSBox. The part that worries me regards the "File not found", since the installation has always ben "succesful".

I.
I own the original game, and I've only managed to run it with the original CD and my DVD drive mounted as D.

So, basically that means
1. Riva does not work with a copied CD or CD image
2. Riva does not accept any other CD drive letter than D:

Apart from that, it runs w/o any issues.

And you should set the SB settings to the one in your dosbox.conf. By default, DOSBox uses IRQ 7, not 5.

Ireng - EMS/XMS settings are determined by DOSBox. Maybe now would be a good idea to download one of the many DOSBox frontends that makes it easy to both see and change the DOSBox setup. That way I am sure you would have noticed that DOSBox is using IRQ 7 for the SoundBlaster.

And that files doesn't look like an error log. More like a small database of possible error message, with the game filling in the %s with the actual values. I bet it exists both on the CD and before you even try to run the game.

Ireng wrote:

What's the use to mount c as an empty folder?

What's the use to have clean clothes?
Eat from a clean plate?

I don't know so much about mounting either, but from what I do know and what other people have posted here, I'd suggest:

IMGMOUNT D E:\Images\Realms_of_Arkania_3.iso -t iso
MOUNT C C:\TEMPDIR <some directory on your hard drive to install it on>
D:
INSTALL <with options if necessary>
C:
DIR <to see if anything's there>
CD RIVA <or some other directory name if it was specified>
DIR <to make sure everything's there>
RIVA

and if it doesn't work, to tell where it doesn't work (which command line)
what they're trying to say is that maybe you have to install it on a hard drive, and maybe it won't like E:, and maybe it won't work with an image file, only an actual disk
it seems to me that what you're missing is the MOUNT C C:\WHATEVER and then INSTALL to that new virtual C drive
oh, and it's all capitals because I'm used to typing DOS commands that way, it's a habit

MiniMax wrote:

And that file doesn't look like an error log. More like a small database of possible error message, with the game filling in the %s with the actual values. I bet it exists both on the CD and before you even try to run the game.

I think that's the case, I know that's how DOS itself does it.

anyway, you also might want to post a list of every file stuffed into the image, with the directory structure

and if it doesn't work, to tell where it doesn't work (which command line) what they're trying to say is that maybe you have to […]
Show full quote

and if it doesn't work, to tell where it doesn't work (which command line)
what they're trying to say is that maybe you have to install it on a hard drive, and maybe it won't like E:, and maybe it won't work with an image file, only an actual disk
it seems to me that what you're missing is the MOUNT C C:\WHATEVER and then INSTALL to that new virtual C drive
oh, and it's all capitals because I'm used to typing DOS commands that way, it's a habit

I've tried to install it to my hard drive on C, and the Whatever folder. The only option left is to burn the image to a CD and see what happens.
Now to a little humor:
If you can read this, it means Shadows over Riva cannot be played. They have found me, and will trial me for my sins. Do not read about SoR. Do not download SoR. Do not even try to get interested about SoR. That, is my final warning.
The time has come to stop writing.
They are coming.

FYI My original Riva CD is a CD-XA, a mix of Data and Music tracks. So a simple.ISO may not be enough and you may want to try to rip again using the bin/cue format, then mounting with imgmount d c:\riva.cue -t iso allowed me to play with a plain DOSBOX 0.72 on Windows

My Riva comes from the Arkania trilogy and the version displayed when the game starts is 1.01. Hope that help 😀

I am done with this thread. 2 people has posted that the game works fine for them. So Ireng is either using an unauthorized copy, or s/he is too stupid to follow instructions. And as we all know, while you can fix ignorance, you can not cure stupid.

Well, I actually am a lil' stupid, but also am using a pirate copy. I didn't think there would be copy protection by the time they made SoR.
I mean, other ISOs have worked fine for me...

Game works perfectly fine for me, though an iso-only might not work as papazark noticed.

Ireng wrote:

Well, I actually am a lil' stupid, but also am using a pirate copy. I didn't think there would be copy protection by the time they made SoR.
I mean, other ISOs have worked fine for me...

I don't know if you noticed the thing at the bottom of every page:
"This site hosts no abandonware. There is no material that is knowingly illegal here."
which is easy to understand, but it doesn't come right out and say that we won't help you with pirated software, it's kind of an unwritten rule, except I'm sure I read it somewhere, maybe it's in the FAQ.
I believe if you can't buy something any more it should be free, but I don't believe in breaking that law, BUT what I think is secondary to the rules of the forum.
sorry 😖

Don't worry. Although I don't know how mny people agree with this tacit law, the latent danger of facing lawsuit demands from abandonware hunters such as Sierra is deterrent, and therefore I understand and respect any hesitation to deal with the issue.

oh, good, as long as we understand each other, but to make sure, you almost definitely will not get any help at all here, unless I'm mistaken, so you should contact someone personally (the little "pm" or "mail" links at the bottom of posts) or look elsewhere

general_vagueness wrote:

so you should contact someone personally

Bad advice, general_vagueness. Very bad advice. Stop acting like you know what you're talking about, please.

/me forwards all PM's on this matter to GV.

yeah, I felt a little iffy on that, I just thought someone might pipe up and say "hey, I'm willing to help, e-mail me" and I'd feel stupid, and I was caught up in the social aspect of it all... and now I feel stupid 😦
sorry, please disregard that part of my advice, I guess you should just look elsewhere, Ireng
all I think I can really say further is good luck
maybe this thread should be locked...

why the hell is that bad advice.
I PMed him, and I bet he can play it now.

You are our hero.