Help me run Arena w/o DOSBox OR VDM! : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:15 pm

Use notepad to create .bat files.
When you save the file, make sure you select Save as Type: All Files

I don't know if the batch file will help you, though. I had a similar problem on my Win 98 system (no sound), and could never get it to work.

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:19 pm

Ok,I got it to work

Sound and all....

...

But it plays...quite fast...I don't know..I just made a quick random character (Redguard) for testing and i can run real fast...not ultra fast just a good bit faster than you would expect...Maybe its normal maybe not,but its good enough for me

Thanks all!

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:55 pm

Ok,I got it to work

Sound and all....

...

But it plays...quite fast...I don't know..I just made a quick random character (Redguard) for testing and i can run real fast...not ultra fast just a good bit faster than you would expect...Maybe its normal maybe not,but its good enough for me

Thanks all!
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=776241

Use the + and - keys to adjust speed in the game.

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:24 pm

Ok...all is well now =)

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:44 pm

Ive had trouble getting the game to run too, but Now Ive got it, thanks for all the tips... Id agree, this thread, or these tips should be pinned

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:54 pm

Bloody Awesome. Thank you very much! I had a couple problems, but I read more posts and they solved 'em! You gave me the eternal gift... an extra 30 FPS!

And I joined these forums just for this topic, too!

» Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:33 am

You know what? I think I'm going to go, right now, and compile the various ways of getting this game to work in XP. Then do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to PM it to a mod, and get them to pin it!

Of course, any direct links to useful threads would be helpful!

EDIT: Well, I went to the old forums to dig up the thread on getting the game to work in XP, but guess what? The "hardware problems" they had the other day screwed them up severely, and now I can't look through them... at all. I guess this means I'll actually have to look hard for this info, huh?

EDIT AGAIN: I'm done. I'm going to make a few changes, make sure it's all there, then set it to one of the mods.

EDIT AGAIN... AGAIN: OK, now I'm just talking to myself. I'm done the thing, yet none of the mods OR admins are online! None of them! WHY?!?

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:19 pm

After doing everything you said, when I run a.exe, I get a "Not enough EMS..." error

In the Memory tab of the executable, everything is set to 'Auto', including the EMS. I adjusted the EMS to the highest available value 16384, and then ran a.exe again, but still the same error...

Does anyone know how to fix this?

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:32 pm

After doing everything you said, when I run a.exe, I get a "Not enough EMS..." error

In the Memory tab of the executable, everything is set to 'Auto', including the EMS. I adjusted the EMS to the highest available value 16384, and then ran a.exe again, but still the same error...

Does anyone know how to fix this?
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=799784

What kind of system are you running on (specs)?

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:29 pm

I had the EMS problem whenever I tried to run the game through Windows 98. Could never fix it, though it worked fine when I restarted in DOS mode and played it that way.

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:48 pm

I had the EMS problem whenever I tried to run the game through Windows 98. Could never fix it, though it worked fine when I restarted in DOS mode and played it that way.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=801811

Yeah, sometimes Windows 98 can be a bit annoying about playing the game. When I was running it on a few 98 computers, one could run it perfectly, one kept crashing all the time, and one simply wouldn't let me play it. So if he's running on that, yeah, DOS mode might help a bit.

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:49 pm

When I try this, Arena starts, but immediately crashes. As far as I know I've followed everything to the letter here.

» Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:13 am

When I try this, Arena starts, but immediately crashes. As far as I know I've followed everything to the letter here.

Probably the same error as I have... (To check this; right-click a.exe > Properties > Program > uncheck 'Close on exit', then run it again...)

What kind of system are you running on (specs)?

Windows XP
Pentium III Xeon (800 MHz)
512MB RAM

I hope that's all you need.. (PM me if you need more information)

---

EDIT: I just googled for 'windows xp ems' and found something interesting:

A small percentage of Windows XP-based computers (including some popular Dell models) do not support Expanded (EMS) Memory ...

There's also a guide to enable it in the BIOS. I'm on a Dell, so maybe..

I'm gonna try this and let you guys know if it worked.

» Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:16 am

It didn't work for me..

Probable because I "may have a motherboard with a built-in network controller that conflicts with EMS memory"...

I hope you guys have better luck

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:56 pm

So...here's the question of the day. I try to run the program and I get a quaint little message that declares:
"EMM386 not installed - protected mode software already running"

:brokencomputer:

I don't have a dual-boot system, and I have only added the config.sys and autoexec.bat files and the others according to guide on the first page. I'm not running a Dell or anything like that, but I'm confused.

What the heck should I do about this? :swear:

EDIT: Come to find out my problem is a "Not enough EMS..."

*groan*

Still, what should I do?

EDIT...EDIT? AGAIN?: I have gotten it to work, but NOW I have a sound and black screen problem.... :swear: :swear:

I :swear: I will get this figured out...

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:56 pm

I have gotten it to work, but I have just realized how freaking dark my monitor is...what a piece of crap. I can't remember if there's a gamma key or not...

maybe I still have my arena manual around here somewhere...

It seems that there is no key that illuminates the game any more than it is...I'm just going to have to stock up on a cheap Wanderlight...groan.

*** For those of you who have the EMS problem like I did, go and rightclick on A.EXE, then go to properties.
Go to the memory page and ensure that ALL entries, especially EMS, are checked off as AUTO. The first time I did it, it didn't save any settings. I did it a second time and it worked.

» Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:13 am

Well, I've found a great strategy for running DOS games under XP, and decided to try it on Arena. I expected it to just fail, but found it to work perfectly... with one exception. To work the mouse, I'll need a special program or file, and the one that everyone seems to use is mousectl.com. Well, I think I could rig it up to work with the game, but my problem is that I can't find the blasted thing! Does anyone know where to get it? If I could find that, I'd be able to post a detailed tutorial on how to get Arena running without DOSBox or VDMSound. Thanks in advance!
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=681914

You can find Mousectl.com http://www.dentofacial.com/support/MOUSECTL.COM

» Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:03 am

You can find Mousectl.com http://www.dentofacial.com/support/MOUSECTL.COM
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=952476

Look at the second post!

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:27 pm

Hi, I got the game to run. But man is it dark, I cant make out what I'm seeing. Can anyone help with this? Is there a way to adjust the brightness in the game?

I've already tried adjusting the brightness and gamma for my desktop but I guess the adjustment doesn't carry over to the game.

» Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:44 am

So... nobody knows how to adjust the color and brightness in arena?

If there is a way to change it consider this a bump, If there isn't a way please tell me there isn't. I don't want to waste my time finding out how to get the color right if there is'nt a way to do so.

thanks

» Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:32 am

Hi

I did everything suggested in this thread, even changing the Arena.BAT settings.... and I'm still getting the "Not enough EMS" error. Can anyone help? I'm tired of playing this game in DOSBox and having it crawl after 5 minutes of play.

My specs: Athlon XP-M 2500, 512 RAM

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:51 pm

I wish I knew how to help you... I got the same EMS error on my Windows 98 machine and I could NEVER get it fixed. :/

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:57 pm

This is really great to have it running so easily.

Game still runs blazingly fast but I can managed, it better than the choppy-o-rama that is DOSBOX. Though whenever I use the - + keys to slow the game down, it goes from being silky smooth, to outright sluggish.

Also, anyone have any idea why the sound dies after a second? It works in the character creation and when the game properly starts you can hear a singly footstep then it goes silent. Music works fine though.

Thanks again for getting this to work so well.

Ty^

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:32 pm

And now, I've got a nice little tutorial, adapted both from what others have mentioned and from a method for getting another game to work. Thanks to Vampyre for getting me the mousectl program. Now then...

Rabish12's (that's me!) Guide to Arena in XP

First things first, click http://www.geocities.com/warezraver/DOSfiles.zip to download some essential files for this. You need these to get it to work. Once they've downloaded, extract the folder straight to your C: drive, so that it becomes C:\DOS\. Then click http://www.filelibrary.com:8080/cgi-bin/freedownload/DOS/h/56/pcmagut4.zip to download a zip file which include MOUSECTL.COM, and then unzip mousectl into the C:\DOS folder.

Next, go to the folder where you store Arena, and right-click on A.EXE. In the Compatibility tab, set it to "Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows 95". Next, go to the Memory tab, and set everything to "Auto". Now, Program tab and click "Advanced...". This hsould bring you to a menu where you can manually set the AUTOEXEC and CONFIG files for the game. If you unzipped the file above to drive c:, you should type in C:\DOS\AUTOEXEC.BAT next to where it says "Autoexec filename:", and type C:\DOS\CONFIG.SYS next to where it says "Config filename:".

Once you've finished with that portion, the game should work, but you may have to mess with the sounds to get them to go. My setting are:

SOUND: Sound Blaster Pro - IO:220 IRQ:5 DMA:1
MUSIC: General Midi or MPU-401 - IO:330 IRQ:2 DMA:1

I wouldn't worry about all the numbers and such, just know that Sound Blaster Pro tends to work best in XP, and that Midi sounds better than Sound Blaster Pro for the music.

Now on to the hard part: the mouse. The best way to do this is to go into C:\DOS\, right-click on AUTOEXEC.BAT, click Edit, and add the line

LH C:\DOS\MOUSECTL.COM 4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12

at the bottom. Now, the mouse should work in all of the menus.

This should work not only for Arena, but for most other DOS games as well. It's also rather convenient, as it doesn't need any foreign programs to let it run (all the stuff in the download are files from ordinary DOS). Enjoy

!
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=683208

Smegging Genious!
i just have to copy that onto a .txt file to look at later!
as long as you let me?

» Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Smegging Genious!
i just have to copy that onto a .txt file to look at later!
as long as you let me?
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=1048732

Go ahead, I don't care... as long as you explain to me what "smegging" means. :hehe: