Overseer DVD...again.

you get no video when you do not have a mpeg decoder setup in config, after that the only error you get is - error does not mean a error which you disregard

you need dvd express or elecard mpeg 2 decoder

further to my previous post, as I have a new pc now I installed overseer & I had power dvd already installed, started overseer & set dvd express in config & started the game. No video black screen with the menu down the bottom of page, now I then installed elecard decorder software & then set dvd express in config. I then had video until the menu comes up where the have the options of questions to ask. So if you have the blank screen only when asking the qestions that is normal for xp.

I must add previously the video was $#it on my old computer now its just like I'm playing a dvd movie. Cannot get over the difference, I think it might be with power dvd installed. I don't think my new video card has made the difference. Before the video had sort of grainy look to it & had green lines running across the video. I am playing overseer with a 20inch widescreen & it looks great.

plumgas wrote: No video black screen with the menu down the bottom of page, now ...had video until the menu comes up where the have the options of questions to ask.

That is exactly what I have. I guess it's working then. Has anyone set up a dual boot with 98 and got it working better than this?

I had 2 hard disks set up one with xp & the 98 , when I wanted to play tex I just booted to 98 & overseers works fine with no error messages & no video problems , however I had problems with pandora & UAKM due to too much memory so I went back to xp.

Now I have a faster pc I use dos box for UAKM & Pandora however with overseer there is no other option.

plumgas wrote:however I had problems with pandora & UAKM due to too much memory so I went back to xp.

What do you mean?

well I kept getting memory errors with 98 , at the time you posted a comment about trying to bind dos32 instead of using dos97, with some old games dos comes up with low memory when in actual fact you have too much. Win 98 does not like memory over 512. I was using 768mb Win 98 was also telling me I did not have enough memory to scan / defrag disk. I had to partition drive to 40gb & then the I could scan/defrag disk. Stupid when you think about the disk was only 80gb.

Anyway I have a new pc now. I was just mentioning the problems with newer pc & 98

I have read your posts that you use 98, sound like you have never had these problems. I was using jeffs multiboot & it was great on fat 32 with xp but I couldn't get the virtual drives working under dos.

btrayed2 said:

I wanted to ask everyone who can play Overseer in XP. When your in a questioning sequence, does your screen go black except for the responses? That seems to be the only real problem I'm having at this point and I'm wondering if that's just the cost we pay for playing in XP. If people are seeing the image in addition to the responses, then I'm still having problems with the setup.

Here is an example of what you should be seeing, leading up to, during and ending of a movie sequence:



Leading to movie sequence.






This screen is followed by a movie.





This screen is also followed by a movie with a reply.





Ending of a movie sequence.

yes thats exactly what I get also, I get the purple screen also, I was wondering why the screen is purple it used be black. I have a widecreen monitor maybe thats the answer.

I going back to play with the cd's as I don't get the crashes so much. (like at the Anasazi ruin catching the snake, after the movie sequence it crashes to the desktop.
its only the movie sequence that you get better video with the dvd apart for that the cd's are better as long as you have a cd image program to use.

plumgas wrote:well I kept getting memory errors with 98 , at the time you posted a comment about trying to bind dos32 instead of using dos97, with some old games dos comes up with low memory when in actual fact you have too much.

You have to understand the way memory works in DOS to figure out why programs whinge about 'XXkilobytes are needed for XX application'.

Basically, due to hardware limitations reaching all the way back to the original IBM PC of 1981, CPUs boot up in what's called 'Real Mode' - in fact ALL x86 PC CPUs, Intel, AMD, Cyrix, IBM (including all models) ALWAYS start up in this mode before the OS is loaded. This is to maintain compatibility with the programs written waaaaay back then. In other words, it is possible to buy a brand new PC from the store today, put in a DOS 1.0 boot disk (providing you have a floppy drive) and run things like office apps written in the early 80s. The reason for this legacy support was that in the early years, IBM were mostly responsible for the PC's development and use, and their primary consumer base was businesses using their office apps. Companies didn't want to keep changing the OS software all the time to keep up with new apps, when the old ones worked well, newer/older hardware notwithstanding. So, they decided to maintain legacy compatiblity so the old apps still worked.

As a result, the memory levels in DOS are extensions of the original 1mb IBM PC address space:

=======1mb=======
/////////////384kb//////////// <----- this area is used for mapping BIOS funcions
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
................640kb............. <----- this is the 640k of memory left for DOS apps

=======0mb=======

That 640k area is what all DOS programs operate in - which is why they complain when this amount of 'Conventional Memory' as its known, is unavailable. This is why putting more RAM into the computer is irrelevant to DOS. As far as Real Mode is concerned, your PC has 1mb of memory available. End of story.

Starting with Intel's 386 CPU, 32-bit registers were introduced giving PCs with it 4GB potential address space. The DOS4GW extender that comes bundled with the Tex games, allows access to 64mb of memory by repeatedly switching between Real Mode and what's known as 'Protected Mode' - a feature originally designed for multitasking and paging - to get a 'virtual' 64mb address space, while still operating within the laws of DOS by not really going over the 1mb barrier.

plumgas wrote:Win 98 does not like memory over 512. I was using 768mb Win 98 was also telling me I did not have enough memory to scan / defrag disk. I had to partition drive to 40gb & then the I could scan/defrag disk. Stupid when you think about the disk was only 80gb.

I'm not sure about that hard disk issue, but there are tons of pages on the internet detailing the 9x vcache bug and it's various fixes.

Try this:

Open the SYSTEM.INI file in the Windows directory
Go to the [386Enh] section
Add/edit this line:

MaxFileCache=4096

thanks for that but I also tried that before. Anyway thanks for your help but as I posted I have new pc now & I am not running 98 anymore.

I only mentioned 98 as the other guy wanted to know how overseer ran in 98.

Don't know if this will work with y'all or not, but did you try the win98 compatibility mode?