Sierra original 720K floppies (KQ1, LSL1)

[jafir]

I’ve got a OG 5170 with 6mhz CPU and piggyback RAM. If the kryoflux stream files were to fall into my lap, I’m sure I’d be obligated to test it out.

[Stone]

Maybe something like SOFTiCE will help. But I think that only works on 386+ CPU's.

Softice requires Windows 95 or greater.

[Trixter]

Softice requires Windows 95 or greater.

The older versions don't require Windows.

[robbo007]

The older versions don't require Windows.

Correct me if I'm wrong Trixter but I think SoftiCE is only 80386 CPU I can't seem to 80286 version.

[Stone]

You are correct.

[jafir]

So on my old 5170, with 1/11/1984 BIOS and a 6mhz CPU, I was able to reproduce the problem. I booted up to DOS 6.22, installed the program, and when I ran it, it asked for the disk. I only have 5 1/4" drives installed currently, and I tried with both the 1.2MB drive and also the 360K drive, and the system locks up solid when trying to access the disk.

The system isn't completely stock, at the moment. It has an aftermarket IDE/floppy controller and also and aftermarket EGA card. That led me to believe that it wasn't an issue with the IBM controller. So I figured I'd try a newer, non-IBM BIOS to see if that would help. I installed the Phoenix BIOS shown at the bottom of this page. That SEEMED to fix the problem. I booted up and ran the software, and after a few seconds of scanning the floppy, the game started. Great, so it must be BIOS, right? Well, not exactly. I had to pull out a memory card to be able to reach the BIOS sockets. Since the memory configuration changed, the new BIOS setup detected just 640K, and because of that himem.sys wouldn't load. I put the memory card back in, and setup detected the correct amount of RAM (or maybe it remembered it from before). This time when it booted up, himem loaded, and once again the game wouldn't start. With the new BIOS, it doesn't seem to lock up hard, you can still soft reboot it, but the game never loads, the floppy light just stays on.

It seems that the game doesn't like high memory or perhaps himem.sys

I left all of the hardware installed, but just pressed F5 while booting, and the game will still run. I put the IBM chips back in, pressed F5 while booting, and the game still runs.

@robbo007 is your 5170 loading himem.sys? If so, can you try bypassing it when booting up?

[robbo007]

So on my old 5170, with 1/11/1984 BIOS and a 6mhz CPU, I was able to reproduce the problem. I booted up to DOS 6.22, installed the program, and when I ran it, it asked for the disk. I only have 5 1/4" drives installed currently, and I tried with both the 1.2MB drive and also the 360K drive, and the system locks up solid when trying to access the disk.

The system isn't completely stock, at the moment. It has an aftermarket IDE/floppy controller and also and aftermarket EGA card. That led me to believe that it wasn't an issue with the IBM controller. So I figured I'd try a newer, non-IBM BIOS to see if that would help. I installed the Phoenix BIOS shown at the bottom of this page. That SEEMED to fix the problem. I booted up and ran the software, and after a few seconds of scanning the floppy, the game started. Great, so it must be BIOS, right? Well, not exactly. I had to pull out a memory card to be able to reach the BIOS sockets. Since the memory configuration changed, the new BIOS setup detected just 640K, and because of that himem.sys wouldn't load. I put the memory card back in, and setup detected the correct amount of RAM (or maybe it remembered it from before). This time when it booted up, himem loaded, and once again the game wouldn't start. With the new BIOS, it doesn't seem to lock up hard, you can still soft reboot it, but the game never loads, the floppy light just stays on.

It seems that the game doesn't like high memory or perhaps himem.sys

I left all of the hardware installed, but just pressed F5 while booting, and the game will still run. I put the IBM chips back in, pressed F5 while booting, and the game still runs.

@robbo007 is your 5170 loading himem.sys? If so, can you try bypassing it when booting up?

Your are spot on. I just tried bypassing the himem.sys and the game loads perfectly. I do have an expansion RAM card in mine too. I have not tried to remove the card to see if its the extra ram thats doing anything also. Very strange!!

Thanks for testing.

[Stone]

It seems that the game doesn't like high memory or perhaps himem.sys

So, what is is about the 5170 that is behind this behavior? Or, can this also be reproduced on other machines?

[SomeGuy]

Compatibility issues with himem.sys were not all that uncommon. Some motherboards did require special support built in to himem. Just glancing at the help file, I see three himem.sys MACHINE type parameters specifically for "IBM PC/AT". Might try specifying one of those, try loading DOS "LOW" even with himem active, as well as testing with programs that use XMS.

[jafir]

OK. So more testing. I tried all of those machine types, at1, at2, and at3, and it would still hang. I tried dos=low with the same results.

So I started thinking what else uses xms? Smartdrv. I rem’ed that out in autoexec.bat and now it starts just fine with himem.sys running with no special options. I went back and added b- to the smartdrv (and removed rem) and now the game loads just fine.

Now I’m digging out a pentium (the only other machine I have with a 5.25” and new enough to have xms) to see if it has any similar behavior.