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Alien Legacy CD version and DosBox 0.72 - SOLVED

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First post, by HorsePants

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Hi chaps,

I managed to get a copy of Alien Legacy (the budget CD version in a jewel case titled 'Sierra Originals' - not the original released boxed copy).

The game installs fine, I run setsound to configure the soundcard (all good) and then use the al.exe to run the game.

The game will not detect the CD in the drive. ("Place the Alien Legacy CD in the cdrom drive...etc")

I have tried every configuration that I can think of using dosbox and I've even installed the Dosbox debugger to see what I can find.

After running al.exe through the debugger there are 3 calls to MSCDEX on INT 2F that seem straight-forward enough:

150B (Test if it's a cdrom drive)
1500 (Read the number of CDROM drives installed)
150C (Read the MSCDEX driver version)

the game then craps out with the 'insert CD' prompt

Other bits of info that might help:

The CD label is reported as blank in both XP and inside Dosbox.
I have the CD in my D:\ drive.

Here is my DOSBOX (0.72) config:


[dosbox]
machine=vga
captures=E:\D-Fend Reloaded\Capture\Alien Legacy\
memsize=32

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=hq3x

[cpu]
core=normal
cycles=auto
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=48000
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

[midi]
mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=48000

[gus]
gus=true
gusrate=48000
gusbase=240
irq1=5
irq2=5
dma1=1
dma2=1
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND_OLD

[speaker]
pcspeaker=true
pcrate=22050
tandy=auto
tandyrate=22050
disney=true

[dos]
xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=US
…Show last 22 lines

[joystick]
joysticktype=none
timed=true
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=true

[serial]
serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[autoexec]
@echo off
SET PATH=Z:\
keyb US 437
mount C "E:\D-FEND~1\VIRTUA~1\"
mount D "D:\" -t cdrom -IOCTL

A quick search of the forums such as:
Alien Legacy not finding the CD

suggests the problem may even be linked to some sort of MSCDEX driver call (since removed by Microsoft) when the game was released.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions on this - including posts from ppl who own the CD version and have no problems (do you have the original boxed release?).

I have also attached a screendump of the Dosbox debug state while stepping through al.exe

I just don't have enough technical knowledge regarding picking apart dos programs to take it any further myself.

Also, if anyone can see anything obvious that I have missed, please do tell 😊

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Last edited by HorsePants on 2009-06-25, 21:05. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 19, by MiniMax

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> mount D "D:\" -t cdrom -IOCTL

Not sure if the upper-case version of -ioctl is recognized. Maybe try lower-case?

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Reply 6 of 19, by collector

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I just tried the game and cannot replicate the issue. It installs and runs just fine. I do, however have the first release, not the Originals version, but usually that makes little difference. Would the -label option help?

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 8 of 19, by HorsePants

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Hi guys,

I do use D-Fend reloaded, but I've tried running the dosbox exe and mounting my images manually with the same result.

I've also tried:

- making an ISO of the cd, installing and running off of that.
- setting the CD label to 'ALIEN' or 'ALIENLEG'.
- praying

to no effect.

Does the original have a different CD label? Any other ideas guys?
All my other DosBox games work perfect. I even have an ISO of TFX using CD audio working perfectly.

😕

Reply 9 of 19, by franpa

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Try DOSBox 0.73 >.>

heh someone had to start the flood of this suggestion 😜

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Reply 12 of 19, by rcblanke

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FWIW: My stand-alone version 1.1 CD - which works fine in DOSBox - has its label set to 'AL_CD_V110'. I tried making an iso image (works) and then resetting the label to '', resulting in the error you mention above. Maybe try making an iso image as well, setting the label according to your game version.

Reply 13 of 19, by HorsePants

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Setting the label to 'AL_CD_V110' fixed the issue.

Thanks for all the help - the sad thing is that this jewel case version of the game must never have worked, even on old DOS rigs.

Thanks Guys!

Reply 15 of 19, by red_avatar

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Reprints often run into such problems. Well, not "often" often, but it's a known occurrence :p. They compile the CDs and give it some new name without checking if the game actually checks the label. I've had at least three games with such errors including Tex Murphy Overseer - one of the discs was called "Dsic 5" instead of "Disc 5" resulting in the game not detecting the CD.

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