Running Frontier: Elite 2 in Windows XP

"Rabid_Si" <rabid_si@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:9t6gvc$o6u$1@uranium.btinternet.com...
>
> "c" <c@c.c> wrote in message
> news:jmmcvt0l27u9o74srjpq7pb1qr0su27km4@4ax.com...
> > on Sat, 17 Nov 2001 10:06:05 GMT, kinglemming wrote,
> >
> > >as title i was wondering if anyone has got frontier running in xp as i
> > >noticed on a friends machine who has xp when you run mem in the command
> > >line that you have all 640k of base mem available so in theory you
> > >shouldn't get the mem problems
> > >i would tried it myself but he wouldn't let me install frontier on his
> > >machine
> >
> > why not?  planning to trial a version of XP here sooner or later, if
> > no-one else has said anything by then I'll report back...
>
> XP = ZERO (literally) DOS support. AFAIK, -NO- DOS games/apps will run
under
> XP at all.
>

This just isn't true.

Frontier won't run straight off under XP as the DOS boxes don't have enough
base memory when EMS support is enabled. However, it's easy enough to sort
out.

Locate the "autoexec.nt" file in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32, make a backup, then
open the original in a text editor. A few lines down from the top you'll
find the following entries:


REM Install CD ROM extensions
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

REM Install DPMI support
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx


Now, add REM statements in front of the three commands, so they look like
this:


REM Install CD ROM extensions
REM lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)
REM lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

REM Install DPMI support
REM lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx


This stops some memory-eating stuff from loading every time you run a DOS
game. If you run stuff that needs these, you might have to take out the
relevant REMs.

Now, make a shortcut to your FRONTIER.EXE and edit its properties. In the
Memory tab, set Conventional memory to 600 and untick Protected. Set Initial
environment to Auto, Expanded memory to 1024, Extended memory to None, and
DPMI memory to Auto. Untick "Uses HMA".

With these settings I run Frontier under XP without significant problems.
Sound isn't available as the basic Soundblaster 2.0 emulation present in XP
doesn't appear to include an FM synth. Or if it does, I haven't had it
working in Frontier yet. If you really want sound, give VDMSound a shot:
http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/

Alternatively, emulate the Amiga version of FE2 using WinUAE (
http://www.codepoet.com/UAE ). You can run it smoothly in a window then, too
:-)


HTH

--
Paul Roberts
email: paul at pwroberts dot com
http://www.m3fe.com/
-=-=-=-

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