jharper@triton.unm.edu (Jeff) (04/01/91)
I hope that I have not posted this article in vain. If someone knows the answer, please respond by either emailing me to the address below or posting. If there are enough requests, I'll try to get a summary posted if I get and answer. This article is a bit lengthy... I hope that I'm not the only one with this particular equipment setup. I have a EGA card emulating Hercules graphics to a Amber monochrome TTL monitor (I can list the brand names of the card and monitor if needed). I hope one day to be able to purchase an EGA or some color monitor but right now, I can't afford one at this time. What I'm trying to do is run Seven Cities of Gold (Yes, its an original copy) on my system. The game uses CGA so a CGA emulator program is needed. However, the game is self-booting (I hate this type) and the only way to run it is to cold start the machine. I know that there are many CGA emulators programs for Hercules (HGC) graphics cards available out there but I've only found one which will perform a simulated reboot for self-booting games. The only one I have found is SIMCGA version 4.0. Unfortunately, although I don't know why, is NOT compatable with EGA cards. Earlier versions of SIMCGA won't work either. Another CGA emulator I've tried is HGCIBM version 2.02. This program works great with my EGA card but unfortunately it does NOT have the ability to perform a simulated reboot. HGCIBM works great with non-booting games. I've tried just about every CGA emulator I can find located in the pd1:<msdos.screen> (???) directory at Simtel archive ftp site. Nothing seems to work with Seven Cities. I've tried running each emulator and then running a little program I have that performs a warm start. The game starts starts to boot and then it dies. (Some emulators install themselves into the extended memory of my machine. As far as I know, a warm start is not supposed to affect the extended memory of a machine. My system has 1 Mb of memory.) A normal boot of the game consists of a sequence where the games displays different colors of the Electronic Arts insignia and then cycling to the opening title sequence of the game itself. On my system, it cycles through the different shades of the insignia and then dies. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the game because it boots fine on my friend's machine (He has an EGA card and a color EGA monitor). I have not tried it on another monochrome system. Is there something avaiable out there (preferably at an ftp site) which will help? I'm quite desperate for any helpful information into this matter. I know that there has to be someway to get Seven Cites to work on my machine without having to go and purchase a color monitor which I cannot afford to do at this time. If you know the answer, please let me know. -Jeff jharper@triton.unm.edu -- ############################################################################### UUCP: ...!ariel!jharper # "...Oh boy." INTERNET: jharper@triton.unm.edu # SAM - Any QL episode ###############################################################################