Author Topic: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?  (Read 4052 times)

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Offline Xivvers

DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« on: March 01, 2020, 02:13:46 PM »
Hello all,

I'm finally dipping into AGI after ages of meaning to. Unfortunately I've already hit a wall without even changing anything and I can't seem to find any info on how to fix it because of the odd error.

As a complete and utter newbie to this I was hoping someone might have some suggestions.

I'm using WinAGI and when trying to even run the Template game I keep getting this odd error where DOSBox claims it can't find smiley faces. When looking this up I can't seem to find anyone with info on this.

The extra template files were suggested in this forum post here http://sciprogramming.com/community/index.php?topic=1011.15. It uses a run setup for DOSBox and the Sierra interpreter files. It's likely I've completely lost myself from the word go. Oops.

Thank you very much for your time, everyone. And happy to finally jump in!



Offline Collector

Re: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2020, 05:49:07 PM »
Do you have any special characters or characters with diacritics in the path to your game? What is the contents of the conf?
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Offline AGKorson

Re: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2020, 08:35:56 PM »
You need to tell WinAGI where the DosBox executable file is; you are pointing to the Sierra RUN.EXE file instead. (I am not sure what that file even does.)

In the Platform Executable box, you need to instead select your DosBox program. (Looks like in your case, it's in the same directory, named "DOSBOX.EXE" [you have file extensions hidden, so I am only guessing that's the filename.])

What that does is tell WinAGI to run that instance of DosBox when you click 'run' from within WinAGI.

The next thing you have to do is to tell DosBox what DOS program you want it to run in order for your game to work. This is the same program you would use from within DosBox at the C:> prompt; usually it's the main AGI file (AGI.EXE), but it might be a loader file. Looking at your directory listing, it appears to be AGI.EXE (but again, you have extensions hidden; if your main AGI file is named "AGI" with no extension, you should rename it to "AGI.EXE" first [and I'm assuming it's not an encrypted version; if it is, then you have even more things to do to get it to work!])

In the DOS Executable box, you will type "AGI.EXE".

What all this means is that WinAGI will use Windows to start DosBox (by running the program you identify in the "Platform Executable" box, and then DosBox will run the program "AGI.EXE" (or whatever the file is that you named in the "DOS Executable" box).

Try that, and then if you still get errors, let us know and we'll try to walk you through the problem.

« Last Edit: March 01, 2020, 10:37:16 PM by AGKorson »

Offline AGKorson

Re: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2020, 08:46:54 PM »
One other thing, you should use the template games that come with the latest version of WinAGI (which it looks like you have); those older templates may not work. I got some help from Eric Oakford to update those old templates, since they had some legacy issues, and some of the syntax wasn't up to current standards.


Offline Kawa

Re: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2020, 05:24:21 AM »
Having file extensions hidden by default was a bad choice back in Windows 95 and it's still bad now, and that's one hill I'm certainly gonna die on.

Offline Collector

Re: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2020, 08:50:55 AM »
Having file extensions hidden by default was a bad choice back in Windows 95 and it's still bad now, and that's one hill I'm certainly gonna die on.

Agreed.
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Offline Collector

Re: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2020, 09:04:01 AM »
The Run utility is an old workaround for SGI Studio and earlier versions of Companion. You could run many DOS programs in Win9x, so you could run SCI DOS games directly from the IDE. The Run utility was a way to run a game
from the IDE on more modern versions of Windows. SCI Companion 3 and WinAGI can direct the game to DOSBox without external help so this utility is not needed
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Offline lskovlun

Re: DOSBox fails to find smiley faces?
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2020, 04:51:47 PM »
OK, so I'm no AGI expert, but all the code for AGI is in AGI(.EXE) and the data segment is contained in AGIDATA.OVL. These need to match, and if you're going to change them (I don't know whether WinAGI does this), you must have the right idea of which version it is. Now, the drop down box in one screenshot shows 3.002.149, but we have no data on your actual files. Could you give us the sizes of your AGI(.EXE) and AGIDATA.OVL files, please?

... I sure hope there's an adequate list somewhere once we get an answer  ::)


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