No Keyboard -- Carmen Sandiego -- DOS

[houseisland]

Cleaning out old rubbish, I came across a box of DOS games. My kids who have never really had any contact with DOS or 5 1/4 floppy disks were intrigued so I set up a few games on my DOS box. The kids have been having a riot -- retro cool, extremely low-res graphics, very amusing.

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego (DOS) does not respond to the keyboard, however. I remember encountering this problem back in the days of XTs/286s, but I can't remember what I did to get around it. Maybe a mode command?

The system is a P Pro 200 @ 233 MHz, w. 64 Mb RAM -- AT board -- running DOS 6.22.

Any suggestions?

[GrandDad]

I probably can't be of much help but here goes ;
What OS you running on it ?
Would it be anything like this ;
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q138/1/56.asp&NoWebContent=1

Couldn't find anything else , but I'm sure some of the Old Timers may know . ;)

[freddy]

Cleaning out old rubbish, I came across a box of DOS games. My kids who have never really had any contact with DOS or 5 1/4 floppy disks were intrigued so I set up a few games on my DOS box. The kids have been having a riot -- retro cool, extremely low-res graphics, very amusing.

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego (DOS) does not respond to the keyboard, however. I remember encountering this problem back in the days of XTs/286s, but I can't remember what I did to get around it. Maybe a mode command?

The system is a P Pro 200 @ 233 MHz, w. 64 Mb RAM -- AT board -- running DOS 6.22.

Any suggestions?

it is just the one game?

can,t help with the games side ,,,,,but all others work?


ps: nip into the bios , and turn the cache off ,,,,,make em run "propper"



good luck


freddyy

[houseisland]

Hi Freddy,

So far the problem is limited to only the one game. The problem is not with the keyboard itself -- it works just fine. I can navigate to the program directory. I can run the command to start Where in Time, but once the app is started, there is no keyboard response.

There are other minor problems with some of the other games, which are mostly DOS 3.x era. They don't like the AWE 64 card, even though they claim to be Sound Blaster compatible. Some won't run at all -- problems with DOS version or processor and memory -- who knows?

Hi GrandDad,

The game predates the problem described in the KB. It is contemporary with DOS 3.x. It is on 5 1/4" floppies.

[freddy]

Hi Freddy,

So far the problem is limited to only the one game. The problem is not with the keyboard itself -- it works just fine. I can navigate to the program directory. I can run the command to start Where in Time, but once the app is started, there is no keyboard response.

There are other minor problems with some of the other games, which are mostly DOS 3.x era. They don't like the AWE 64 card, even though they claim to be Sound Blaster compatible. Some won't run at all -- problems with DOS version or processor and memory -- who knows?

Hi GrandDad,

The game predates the problem described in the KB. It is contemporary with DOS 3.x. It is on 5 1/4" floppies.


nice one 5 1/4 floppies ,,,,try the cache thing in bios , internal and external off,

might bring them down to a more sedate speed, also are all the keys correctly placed , in dos ,,,,there were no windows k/boards then ,,,,and summot sticks in my mind about country codes ,,,,,,but there again alsimers is kickin in at my age,

(ps : do it proper ,,,,turn the color off ,,,,,only rich ppl had color monitors then)


freddy

[houseisland]

No colour -- Yes, I remember the game running on a Commodore PC20, a lovely little XT with Hercules monochrome graphics and a 20 Mb hard drive. The monitor was amber monochrome.

[NooNoo]

Freddy may well be on the right track

What's in your autoexec.bat and config.sys?

I have a dos 3 manual lying around somewhere, and dos 2 and 5 errrr and 6.2 hmmmmm....

[TechZ]

HEy NooNoo is online same time as me, gives me a warm, safe feeling inside. Like I feel with my family.


Its Brown Nosing Day-Monday ;)

[houseisland]

Hi,

L1 and L2 cache disabled -- things run much more slowly, but the program does not respond to the keyboard.

Keyboard -- Liteon AT, non-Windows

Config.sys and Autoexec.bat: There are a lot of entries in both files, but even with these pared down to a minimum, the game does not run properly.

Config.sys
BUFFERS=15,0
FILES=40
LASTDRIVE=E
FCBS=16,0

Autoexec.bat
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\NET;C:\DOS;C:\UTILITY\NC
SET TEMP=C:\DOS

The system responds to the keyboard, but the game does not. Within the game, the pause key works, pushing function keys or repeatedly pushing alpha-numeric keys generates error beeps, and of course, the 3-finger salute works just fine.

I have removed the sound card and the NIC, and the problem persists.

I suspect that the cause may be that the system does not support the code page function. Whether this is the motherboard or the keyboard, though, I don't know.

mode con codepage prepare=((437) c:\dos\iso.cpi)
mode con codepage select=437

These two commands are not supported by CON.

[houseisland]

Noo Noo,

Thanks for the offer of the DOS manuals. I have most of the same.

I even have the Devil's DOS, the unspeakable version 4.x, and its unholy book book of rituals and observations.

[NooNoo]

As I suspected, there is no dos keyboard definition loading. You are trying to load a codepage without loading a country. you need keyb (http://www.computerhope.com/keybhlp.htm#03) Dos 6.22 supports mode con codepage.... so I wonder if you have properly installed dos, or just copied it?

The game may well be looking for a particular config.sys item, such as ansi.sys as well.

[houseisland]

As I suspected, there is no dos keyboard definition loading. You are trying to load a codepage without loading a country. you need keyb (http://www.computerhope.com/keybhlp.htm#03) Dos 6.22 supports mode con codepage.... so I wonder if you have properly installed dos, or just copied it?

The game may well be looking for a particular config.sys item, such as ansi.sys as well.

NooNoo,

The Tubby Toast is yours again! Brilliant!

Ansi.sys

I had forgotten about Ansi.sys, and Ansi.sys is the answer here.

Thanks

[NooNoo]

:cool: