Seems DosBox working fine and installrd and started Pandora - a million thanks to those who helped - see my previious thread.

Went through installation and all configurarations 100%. Played Intro & beginning of actual game on Disk #1. Got request to switch to Disk #2. IIRC Disk #2 wouln't start but I can't remember.

Returned next day. Again - installation and all configurarations 100% and same with Intro. But cannot even start "New Game".
I enter a player's name and then choose level of gameplay and then when I click OK I get a completyely black window and can't proceed.
Done this many times --- no go.
What the heck can have happened to stop it from starting whereas the into plays over & over again with no glitches?

Try suppressing XP's AutoPlay feature when you swap the disc -

Just press and hold the Shift Key when inserting it until the disc spins up.

I'll install the game later today and see how it behaves, but I don't recall any issues the last time I played through it.

If ***this*** is the error you're getting, try the fix here
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=9917

If that doesn't help, try the suggestions in ***this thread***.

There's also an installer you can try
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=13495

Very many thanx indeed for taking the time and energy and energy to reply and help – and so quickly.
I had to go out for a few hours and have only just now returned. So I'll try your suggestions in a few minutes.
incidentally thanks for pointing me to the excellent tutorial by Inferno. If you are in touch with her, please tell her that her detailed and accurate tutorial is extyrem,4ly good.

In the meantime - a couple of additional remarks ..............

AFAIK the autoplay on my #1 CD is not even functioning - or my computer has blocked it. When I insert the CD it does not operate.
I'll check that possibility though.

In the thread you linked me to, most of the probs are concerning the operation of DOSbox or its workings on Pandora.
But all that seems to have given me absolutely no trouble whatsoever. The sound adjustments worked first time with autosettings and test 100%. The other configurations work perfectly. The intro works fine from start to finish – every time I try it. The main and auxiliary menus come up as required etc.
BUT when I try to start a new game I am requested to enter a name. I can do this with no prob and pres <Enter>.But nothing appears in the rectangular box below – I seem to remember that the name (or names) were stored there when I tried originally. When I continue I go through 2 screens concerning which of the 2 game-levels to choose and then on OK I simply get a black screen and cannot even start the full new game.

To some extent it’s similar to the post I copied except there the screen goes black earlier than as described by me above.


I can't understand how it is that everything seems OK except for the very last step of accessing the full new game.

Did you try the Installer I linked to?
With the Installer, you don't need to use DOSBox, and you can either play the whole game from the hard drive (no CD's necessary) or copy everything to a DVD -- so you don't need to change CD's.

If you want to continue trying it in DOSBox, make sure DOSBox hasn't "forgotten" where your CD drive is.

You might try to post the exact error you're receiving - I installed the game under DOSBox (using the D-Fend Reloaded front end) and had no issues what so ever after the disc swap request.

Here's the game immediately after the swap -

The Pandora Directive - DOSBox

I did enter all the digital sound options manually (SB16, Addres:220 IRQ:7 DMA 1,5). Maybe yours don't match those used by DOSBox?

Very many thanks Jenny100.
No I haven't tried again by going to the trouble of using that installer.

Since I hadn't ever used DOSbox before, I first tried to do an install from the CD#1 disc using XP's Windows 95 compatibility mechanism.
This did not work for some reason. I'll try that again. But if that did not work I have doubts that trying to install from my HDD will work either - and I think it will take quite a long time to transfer all 6 CDs to my HDD.

AFAIK, I don't think "If you want to continue trying it in DOSBox, make sure DOSBox hasn't "forgotten" where your CD drive is.".
My CD drive is "F".
When I start DOSbox it takes me into F:\> as it should.
In any case, if DOSbox had "forgotten" where my CD drive is, how could the game have configured both audio systems absolutely correcly, also turned subtitles on, set the windows size, displayed the 2 menus correctly and operated both of them, played the Intro 100% with full music, speech, texts, video, etc. perfectly well? And only when it comes to clicking on 'start new game' and then only when being required to enter a player's new start game does it go berserk.

It's most likely your dosbox.conf file - post it in a reply and we can take a look at it.

You'll find the option to open it in notepad under the program items in the start menu.




Then you're mounting the virtual drive as F - (MOUNT F F:\ -t CDROM -IOCTL) the first specification is the virtual drive, the second the physical.

The game requires that you "point" it to the correct drive in the in-game options. Have you told it to look for disc 2 on drive F?

Very many thanks Inland AZ
I think that you have pointed the way to my problem.
I think I have created an incompatibility between my dosbox.conf file and the folders on my 'C 'drive.

I hope you're still at your computer in say half an hour? So to save you further time and hassle, I'll check and see if I can now work it out for myself --- I'll get back to you.
Cheers.

I'll be here - let me know.

I presume that you only need the autoexec.bat.

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
Mount C C:\Dosbox\Pandora
Mount F F:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -ioctl
F:
C:
CLS

Now the appropriate folder on my PC drive C is:-

On my PC 'C' drive........................

(C)
....DOSBOX
..........DosBox-0.73
..........PANDORA

Folder "DosBox-0.73" contains the DOSbox with 12 files
Folder "PANDORA" contains the P.D. CD#1 with 47 files

Doesn't look right to my eye -

Try it this way - (my last post)

Your prior post

It sounds like you copied CD#1 to your hard drive (and I'm not sure why).

Edit -

I think I see what you're trying to do -

Follow the instructions (exactly) as those documented at Glenn's Guides (it seems to be what you attempting).

Pay close attention to these:

mount e c:\pandora\pandora1 -t cdrom -label PANDORA1
mount f c:\pandora\pandora2 -t cdrom -label PANDORA2
mount g c:\pandora\pandora3 -t cdrom -label PANDORA3
mount h c:\pandora\pandora4 -t cdrom -label PANDORA4
mount i c:\pandora\pandora5 -t cdrom -label PANDORA5
mount j c:\pandora\pandora6 -t cdrom -label PANDORA6


Glenn's Guides

They may be similar to Inferno's, I'll have to go read them

Metzomagic (Steve) has and old set of instructions as well (looks like he runs it the same way I do - off the CD's).

Steve's XP Corner

Thanks very much for your invaluable help.
I'm packing in for today but will take your advice tomorrow.
Thanx again and cheers.

Don't give up on it, it's well worth playing (a classic).