this game only plays after it is first installed, and any subsequent attempt to run the game (by, in DOSbox, typing
"cd sosgame <enter> go") gives a "Error Program bug". This happens after quitting the game from the main menu.

How do I fix this?



Thanks in advance.

<Backstory - what I found out>

Since I found that Sign of the Sun plays better (after first being installed) in the Windows XP Command Prompt, in fact I didn't have this problem with the game running only 1 time only (mentioned in my original post) after installing it at the command prompt. But none of my screenshot takers (FRAPS/XnView) will capture screenshots of the gameplay when I'm running the game at the command prompt.

So yesterday I dug out my XP Home VMWare guest which I had saved as a .zip file, unzipped it, ran it in VMWare Player on the Acer, put a command prompt shortcut on the VM XP guest's desktop, insterted the Sign of the Sun CD into the host's optical drive, tried to install the game at the cmd prompt of the guest, but I got a DOS/4gw (2001) runtime error at the cmd prompt. I googled for a fix, fix told me do system restore, which I did, nada, fix then told me to d/l PC cleaner pro, which I did into the guest, scanned, but when I clicked the "fix all errors" button, it took to the registration page where I had to enter a unique number which I didn't have. This led me to give them my name & email, which I attempted twice, and it appears I have to buy this piece of junk (maybe) just to fix the errors it found.

I wouldn't be surprised if PC cleaner Pro offers to fix the Dos/4gw error for a price after it scans (and inserts in the scanning process) all kinds of junk on the guest OS?

So anyway something seems to be corrupted in the guest OS that's not allowing the game to install at the cmd prompt - how do I fix this?

Do I have to make a new XP guest and get rid of the current XP guest?

Did the compressing corrupt something after I first created the guest back on 9/11/11?

The whole reason I want to run the game at the guest's cmd prompt is so the screenshot taker in the host will capture the gameplay screenshots successully, as it did when I ran other games in other VMware guests.

Create a new guest (or restore one from a backup). The one you have may have the "inserted stuff" you mention and who knows what it all is. Don't ever install software you're not sure about. Fortunately you only did it inside a VM guest, which is easily replaced. You did make a backup before using it, didn't you?


More likely a problem with the game running on DOS in VMware.

Keep in mind that VMware and VirtualPC weren't designed to play DOS games, and may not emulate all the hardware on a DOS computer correctly. You may encounter sound card errors or other mysterious problems when running DOS games on them. DOSBox was designed for DOS games, but Sign of the Sun doesn't seem to have been tested on it.

Back to VMware,
you "might" find a solution to the DOS/4GW error if you follow the suggestions on this page (It's a Help file for a different DOS game -- or at least one that can be played in DOS) with a DOS/4GW error.
http://advsys.net/ken/buildsrc/
To find the post on that webpage, do a Ctrl-F to start a Find and use it to search for the word:
error

I'll quote it below for the benefit of anyone else who might be using this thread, but if you, Cruise02, intend to be a tech, you need to learn to do your own searches. Being able to find usable (and safe) solutions on the Internet is a very important part of being a tech. Anyway, here's the section you should be looking for:

So check your game folder and make sure it has that file. If it doesn't, you can look for the file in one of your other DOS games or download it from Ken Silverman's Utility page (link included in my quote).

For more about DOS/4GW errors, here's a more technical page that gets more into the nuts and bolts about what's causing it:
http://www.tenberry.com/dos4g/faq/err2001.html

Jenny, how did you find Ken's site? I kept trying in vain last night trying to fix the error - in the google search bar, I typed "dos 4gw error 2001" but I was led way off base, to that PC cleaner Pro. Why is this?

EDIT - Just checked the game's CD. Yes, it has the DOS4GW file, but it's kind of buried in E:\S_o_s\Sosdata. Does this tell you anything, Jenny? The only thing it tells me is that maybe it's buried too deep, it should be in the main directory - S_o_s? Or am I completely wrong about this?

I wonder how many student computer techs try in vain to fix a game/computer problem and have to be led by the hand like I do?

A search for
DOS4GW error
produces a lot of links with nothing to do with DOS games.

So search for
DOS/4GW game error

and one of the links you see is the Ken Silverman page.

You could try copying the DOS4GW from the E:\S_o_s\Sosdata the E:\S_o_s folder so it's in both locations.

Just as an FYI - nowhere is the game listed as being compatible with DOSBox.

Just deleted the old XP VM from VMWare Player and created a new XP guest, with VMWare Tools installed and activated the guest. Tried with the XP cmd prompt to go into D drive and install Sign of the Sun. Got the same error (crash) that I got last nite.

Just created a DOS 6.2 VM guest in VMWare Player (but I have to create this first) on my Acer.

I tried that this morning, same results - let me know how it goes for you.

So far, my config.sys has these files:

--Device=c:\dos\setver.exe
--device=c:\dos\himem.sys
--dos=high
--files=30;

and the autoexec.bat has:

--c:\dos\smartdrv.exe /x
--@echo off
--prompt $p$g
--path c:\dos
--set temp=c:\dostype command

MSCDEX.EXE should be in your C:\DOS folder after you install DOS 6.2.

There are different versions of MSCDEX for DOS and Windows 95/93, so it's better to use the one that came with your version of DOS.

You'll probably also need EMM386.EXE loaded, which should also be in your C:\DOS folder.

Have you checked the Gameboomers DOS FAQ at
http://www.gameboomers.com/Members/DOS.htm

Highlight "My DOS game needs more memory" on that page and you should see more info about how to load things in autoexec.bat and config.sys in DOS.

so where do I d/l the MSCDEX cdrom drive from? I could google - I did google and found these **this**, which tells what to get & how to put it into DOS,

and **this from microsoft, posted in VOGONS forum as a link**

This is on the Acer, I checked its device manager's DVD drive listing but it didn't list what type of drive it is except a slimtype DVD A DS8A4SH optical drive. Don't know if it's IDE (or other) or not, but I found these listings **here** that list this drive either as an ATA device or an IDE1 device.This tells me, I think, that DOS mscdex v2.23 driver likely won't work on this type of optical drive?

You don't download it at all.
After you install DOS it should already be in your C:\DOS folder.
You are installing DOS from floppies onto a Virtual Machine aren't you?

I didn't know this. I thought you had to d/l it. My mistake.



the only files thar're in my c:\dos directory are:

--attrib.exe
--chkdsk.exe
--country.sys
--country.txt
--debug.exe
--dossetup.ini
--drvspace.bin
--edit.com
--expand.exe
--fdisk.exe
--format.com
--keyb.com
--kryboard.sys
--mem.exe
--nlsfunc.exe
--readme.txt
--networks.txt
--qbasic.exe
--re....

Oh! I found it! The mscdex.exe file! Ok, how do I get it to recognize the Acer's optical drive (since I have to let you know it wasn't Virtual PC that I created this DOS VM in, it was VMWare Player v3)?





Yes, I bought a set of 4 DOS 6.2 floppy 3.5 diskettes from ebay back in Oct, transposed each floppy to a image file using WinImage and created the VM from these on the Acer.

I've decided to create a MS DOS 6.22 VM in Virtual Box, have made the floppy diskette images as *.iso images, yet I cannot get it to boot up - I've been trying in vain for about an hour or more.

Here is info on creating a DOS 6.22 VM in Virtual Box **here**

Just found this - explains more about creating a MS DOS VM in VB **here**

Floppy disc images should be .img files, not .isos.
CD images are .isos.