[Solved] "Ecstatica" - issues with saving games in DosBox

AdamBeGood

Pi Model or other hardware: Pi4
Power Supply used: Pi Standard
RetroPie Version Used: 4.6
Built From: RetroPie website image

I am trying to play "Ecstatica" in DosBox and I have it running fine, until I save or load a game. When I do that the game just stops on the Pause Menu and I have to Ctrl+F9 to exit out of DosBox. I don't suppose anyone else has had this issue (assuming anyone else has tried the game...)?

How do I turn on logging on DosBox to try and work out what is wrong? I don't think there is anything wrong with the game as I tried it on a laptop and it all seemed to save and load without issue.

Edit: With further playing it seems to be likely to crash whenever I access the Pause Menu. All the files have 0777 rights, so that isn't why I am having trouble with loading and saving.

This game is too random not to have a save functionality, my first thought was that I will just persist without saving. It's too hard!

AdamBeGood

@AdamBeGood Do I need a specific build with debugging built in? I've read that as an option elsewhere.

AdamBeGood

I'm going to bump this as it's winding me up. I've tried installing different versions but they all seem to fall over on the save game issue.

There's a keyboard shortcut to save on Ecstatica II but not on the first game, so skipping the ESC menu isn't possible. DosBox save states isn't possible either, I don't think.

nemo93

hey @AdamBeGood let me try to give a hand right here! Please find my .conf file for that game at this location. I'm running on a pi4 as well and using the European version (multilang). Please pay attention especially to the [cycles] and [dos] sections to be sure they're the same. Also I do launch the game with CALL ECSTATIC.BAT. Game is running fine over here.

There's no logging facility per se yet if you run dosbox from command-line you might see some output which can be useful.

If still no success I'll direct you to a fork of dosbox to see if there's any improvement. Also do you mind me asking if you are able to run Ecstatica 2? I just can't pass the intro screen where it got stuck there.

AdamBeGood

@nemo93 Unbelievable! That has done it....Thank you so much, I am going to complete this game as a priority.

I changed Cycles from Max to 25000, EMS from True to False, and I was launching with ECST8MEG, not CALL ECSTATIC.BAT (I think I wasn't using the .BAT file because it didn't work for me previously - but this may have been for some other stupid reason that I then resolved).

What difference does the "CALL" make? Is that any different from just typing ECSTATIC.BAT?

I can run Ecstatica 2, at least past the intro. I haven't played much but I have started the game and kicked some imps in the shins. Do you want my .conf?

Edit: Does "CALL" allow a batch file to be called from within another one? Maybe that was my issue with ECSTATIC.BAT previously.

nemo93

Glad you got it working @AdamBeGood! I suspect limiting the Cycles count and disabling EMS are good suspects indeed. Whenever you got an issue running a game it's usually a good idea to fiddle a bit with those two first.

You're correct regarding the CALL command. It is used to call other .BAT files within a batch file. This without aborting the execution of the calling batch file, and using the same environment for both files.

Translated to our Dosbox case here this means that whenever you exit the game (ECSTATIC.BAT) the script will move to the next command which is EXIT. If you don't use the CALL command then Dosbox will not terminate after you exit the game and will be stuck endlessly without even given you a prompt. CALL works only with batch file obviously.

If you don't mind sharing your Ecstatica 2 conf that would be much appreciated :-) Thanks!

Feel free to add [Solved] in the title of your post if you're ok with that.

AdamBeGood

@nemo93 Thanks so much for all your help, it's good to know all this. I am definitely much better at getting DOS games to work than I was a few months ago, I wouldn't have attempted a CD game back then. Turns out it isn't too tricky at all.

I completed the game today, it's very short! I like it a lot though. Wish I'd persevered with it more when I first had it. I think it just seemed impossibly hard as a kid.

Here's the config for Ecstatica 2 - I do need to play it a bit more, but it seems to work: https://pastebin.com/489gXbqp

nemo93

Thanks @AdamBeGood! Enjoy more DOS games :-)

AdamBeGood

@nemo93 said in [Solved] "Ecstatica" - issues with saving games in DosBox:

Thanks @AdamBeGood! Enjoy more DOS games :-)

Feel free to ignore this utterly, as I should probably raise another post for this...

But does Ctrl+F4 for changing discs work on RetroPie? I have a few games where I have multiple discs mounted using IMGMOUNT and I am pretty sure I've got that part right. Ctrl+F4 does nothing... I am confused.

I just want a quick answer really on if you are using this facility and it is all good (and so the problem is on me - which I bet it is). Thank you!

Edit: Don't worry - from reading around, there is no way that Ctrl+F4 shouldn't work for this in RetroPie. I'll check what I've done and if it still doesn't work, I'll raise a post.

Further Edit: I was expecting a menu or somesuch but behind the scenes the disks were swapping! There is just no visual indicator. Command and Conquer is go! (and Wing Commander III). Sorry to bother you at all.

nemo93

@AdamBeGood You don't have apologize or be sorry for anything. Asking questions and seeking for help is what this forum is there for :-)

Under DOSbox, swapping discs around is not clearly indicated as you experienced yourself! Yet it does work flawless. Let me share a quick hint as well that could come in handy.

Some games do support natively multiple CDROM drives. Meaning you can mount the different "isos" images and assign these to different drives letters. As you mentioned Command & Conquer let's use this as an example below. Just add something like that in your [autoexec] section:

[autoexec]
imgmount d /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/isos/comcon/CaCCD1.iso -t cdrom
imgmount e /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/isos/comcon/CaCCD2.iso -t cdrom
mount c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/games
C:
CD COMCON
C&C.EXE
EXIT

Then no more disc swapping in-game :-) Other games where this is working which I've tested: Under a Killing Moon, Ripper (6 discs!!), Pandora Directive. I haven't tried with the Wing Commander serie so feel free to report back if you have some success!!

AdamBeGood

@nemo93 said in [Solved] "Ecstatica" - issues with saving games in DosBox:

@AdamBeGood You don't have apologize or be sorry for anything. Asking questions and seeking for help is what this forum is there for :-)

Under DOSbox, swapping discs around is not clearly indicated as you experienced yourself! Yet it does work flawless. Let me share a quick hint as well that could come in handy.

Some games do support natively multiple CDROM drives. Meaning you can mount the different "isos" images and assign these to different drives letters. As you mentioned Command & Conquer let's use this as an example below. Just add something like that in your [autoexec] section:
[autoexec]
imgmount d /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/isos/comcon/CaCCD1.iso -t cdrom
imgmount e /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/isos/comcon/CaCCD2.iso -t cdrom
mount c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/games
C:
CD COMCON
C&C.EXE
EXIT
Then no more disc swapping in-game :-) Other games where this is working which I've tested: Under a Killing Moon, Ripper (6 discs!!), Pandora Directive. I haven't tried with the Wing Commander serie so feel free to report back if you have some success!!

Interesting! And I guess that would work with three disks to accommodate Covert Operations also? Great tip!

Thanks again!

Edit - that didn't seem to work for me actually with Covert Ops.. but it may be something I am doing wrong here. That is quite likely. Everything works perfectly so I won't push my luck!