How about a WinXP tutorial?

Utilities for editing Keen:Galaxy and Keen:Dreams levels.
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ckguy
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How about a WinXP tutorial?

Post by ckguy »

My new computer has Windows XP and, as many have discovered before me, TED5 cannot run on that os.

Has anyone successfully used DOSBOX to get it working? Help would be greatly appreciated, even anything obscure, or I-think-this-is-what-I-did, but step-by-step stuff would be excellent.
Kdash
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Post by Kdash »

Yes, DOSbox has worked for me.

Do this:

1. Copy your files for Keen into Tededit's folder.
2. Drag the "Tedsetup.exe" icon onto the DOSbox icon.
3. It should run. It shouldn't come up with errors.
4. Drag the "Ted5.exe" icon onto the DOSbox icon.
5. Edit away!

That's exactly what i did, so it should work.
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Grandy02
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Post by Grandy02 »

After the last step it says "Not enough Extended Memory available!".

What now? :-(
Kdash
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Post by Kdash »

I don't know. It worked for me, so that's all i know.
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levellord
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Post by levellord »

There is a topic in this forum about altering Dosbox's configuration settings to make Ted work.
Fred Potatoe
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Post by Fred Potatoe »

Heres what I did (if I remember correctly).

1. Install dosbox (latest is 0.63).
2. Open dosbox.conf (found in (install drive)\Program Files\DOSBox-0.63\).
3. Find and change the the following:
Under the [dosbox] section change memesize to equal 64
Under the [dos] section change xms and ems to equal true
Under the [autoexec] section add a line like this: mount c j:\ted5 (replace j:\ted5 with the path to ted5)
3. Run dosbox.exe
4. Enter the command c:
5. Setup ted5 the way you would do it in dos

One problem with dosbox and ted5 is the writing to disk (carmackizing) is very slow.

HTH

Fred
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Grandy02
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Post by Grandy02 »

Thanks, now it works! :-D
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najawa
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Oh!

Post by najawa »

I guess I never read this before: I have Windows XP (eXPerience), and the eXPerience has been horible. I try to load TED 5, and leave wondering what the heck TSR's are, and how to unload them. Then I try to open DOS box, and navigate through it to open, and just fail. Now I can make keen 4-6 mods. Yay! Watch out peoples: I'm... just going, um... to work on my other mods.

"Finish what you start: Or you'll never finish." The Anti-Procrastinational Code.
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grelphy
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Post by grelphy »

Unless you've got a DOS (Real DOS, not an emulator) machine with Bill Gates's fabled 640K of RAM, don't worry about TSRs. They're programs that work in DOS kind of like device drivers, and they suck up RAM. But, unless you've got a miniscule amount, the problem is with your more advanced OS not allocating enough memory for the application to run, not with there not being enough memory.

If your problem is with DOSbox itself, I've found it to be a quirky program. Try running it in 16-bit (rather than 24- or 32-bit) color mode and see what happens, or, alternately, enable the fullscreen option in dosbox.conf

If the problem is with TED not starting/operating properly, try changing the memory settings. I'm afraid you'll be stuck with poor carmacizing performance whenever you use DOSbox, because so many precious CPU cycles go to emulating the PC speaker, and the CPU itself. =)
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Post by Stealthy71088 »

I cant usually hear keen sound on my speakers anyways though. That new fangled "sound patch" is useless on my computer for keen1-3. 4-6 sound sometimes works sometimes doesnt. Its pretty weird.
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grelphy
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Post by grelphy »

That little gem has to do with Windoze not properly emulating sound systems for DOS games Back in the good old days (wow, I didn't just say that, did I?), there were few enough sound cards that applications and games themselves usually included the drivers, rather than referencing some OS API. (In fact, the few cards there were were almost all 100% compatible with the Sound Blaster 16, so often one driver was entirely sufficient).

Then along came Windoze, with its support for dozens of different soulnd cards, and sound card manufacturers began implementing new features and completely annihilating the SB16 "standard."

AFAIK, if your computer has a SB16 compatible sound card, Keen sounds will still work, even with WinXP. And, of course, DOSbox does an excellent job of emulating 10-to-15-year-old sound cards. =)

Some newer computers don't even have a PC Speaker, which I regard as a blessing, but which prevents you from even enjoying the most basic of Keen sound effects.

EDIT: I noticed some potential confusion here. The "PC speaker" is a built-in hardware device used for BIOS error beeps and sounds in really, really old games. Keen 1-3 use the PC speaker for sound effects, and Keen 4-6 have it as an option. But most people who can avoid using it, avoid using it, as it usually does not have a volume control or mute option.
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XkyRauh
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hmm

Post by XkyRauh »

I think the problem is that most sound cards which are released today don't come with DOS-comptible drivers. If you can find DOS-compatible drivers, you should be able to get sound in Keen:Galaxy native in XP. The problem is that most driver downloads are just-for-XP.
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najawa
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Now what?

Post by najawa »

I have Dos box 0.61, and have gotton to the screen where it asks you to choose editing EGAGraph.ck4, or EGAGrpaphxt. No matter which I choose, It tells me the file GFXINFOE.ck4 is missing; what the heck is this?

-- NAJAWA --
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levellord
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Post by levellord »

Did you run tedsetup first? Do you have the GFX file?
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najawa
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Post by najawa »

Yes, I ran Tedsetup, but I don't know (not to mention don't have) the GFX file. Could someone give me a copy, and tell me what it does? Keen runs just fine as is. Not having this file never presented a problem before.

S.O.S

-- NAJAWA --
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