Hi!

I'd like to play an old DOS game. According to all internet sourcesm the game in question should run w/o any problems.

When I run the game, it tells me that I have not enough EMS memory. I configured the shortcut to make EMS available. When I use mem /c I get something like this:

    655360 bytes total conventional memory
    655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
    633872 largest executable program size

   1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
         0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
    941056 bytes available XMS memory
           MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

As you can see, I have lots of extended memory, but 0 bytes of it are available... changing the settings only allows me to alter the "total" memory, not the available memory.

In the config.nt file for the game I've the EMM=RAM line. And now, I'm stuck. I've no idea what I could do...
Any kind of help would really be appreciated.

Have you tried using DosBox? The windows XP "Dos emulator" really likes to b0rk things up from time to time (EMS memory being one of the things I could never figure out how to get to work properly). It also refuses to allow you to get sound out of a dos game...

DosBox

The game works correctly from the DOS prompt if you don't boot Windows XP?
(Just making sure the game actually works ok!)

I second DosBox.

Well, dosbox... I'll try to get it to work in dosbox again, but my first try suggested that it was slow as hell and after some time I simply got a black screen - nothing happened anymore.

The game should work ok, I just installed it from the original CDs.
Right now, my main problem is simply that I can't get XP to make some of the EMS memory actually available... it's there, just not available

Well, for one thing, you don't have any EMS available. Ram above the 1mb space is automatically assigned as XMS. A DOS memory manager can take the XMS and assign it as EMS; thankfully we don't need them any more! I don't remember how to do this (in XP) off the top of my head.

Edit:

Look here and here.

Um. yep. I know those links. I tried to google for help for days now

What is the game?

Post your config.sys or config.nt, especially the line containing the emm386 thingy.

EDIT:

Go to %windir% and edit the Memory properties of _default.lnk?

Star Trek: 25th anniversary CD

That's easy:
EMM=RAM

That's the only thing... there is no emm device to be loaded, you're supposed to set the memory via the properties of the shortcut.

In the shortcut, are you specifically telling XP you only have one meg of extended memory? Or is that just what you get automatically?

Edit:

Nevermind, this is the default behavior for XP.

Edit2:

I've set up a standard shortcut to command.com, specified Win95 compatibility, 640kb base memory, and the maximum amount of EMS and XMS (16mb each). I run the shortcut, checked my memory, and everything was groovy. I then fired up Day of the Tentacle, and it ran fine (although without sound).

Select the .exe, so it is marked in the explorer. Hit ALT+ENTER. On the upcoming dialog box, select the "Speicher"(Memory) tab. There you can enter EMS in some drop-down list.
Hit Ok.

Start by double clicking the .exe.

If you set the EMS in the .exe(or shortcut) but not start the game by directly using the .exe(or shortcut) and instead open a command prompt, then running the .exe from the command prompt will not utilize the settings you made. That's why mem /c does not report the EMS, because it's not set.

If you want to use a command prompt, you'll have to do a shortcut to "command.com" and set it like Sirocco described in his edit2.

Thanks. That's what I've done. as you can see in my first post, I do have EMS. The problem is, that none of that memory is available.
Regarding the exe / shell thing:
I changed the settings both for my shortcut for command.com and the exe in question. It doesn't change a thing.

At first, I only tried the startrek.exe settings. Since this didn't give me many debug options, I also configured a command.com with the same settings, including the same config.nt and autoexec.nt files.

Um no.
Both my command.com shortcut and my startrek.exe shortcut use the maximum possible ems that the properties/memory setting allow me to set. It just doesn't change a thing - no ems available.

The funny thing is, that the described steps above seem to solve the problem on pretty much 90% of the computers, and the other 10% seem to have the problem I'm encountering.

25th anniversary is supposed to run "out-of-the-box" in XP - the problem is, it doesn't work at all on my puter.

Weird, now that i checked it, i have the same problem on my XP machine.

[edit]
Actually, the following, seems to be bs. It pretty randomly works/works not and it even crashes the 'command.com' sometimes.
[/edit]

I fiddled around a little and found a "strange" solution:
Comment out ("REM") the EMM = RAM line in config.nt.
Run "cmd.exe".
Type mem /c
(gives a black screen)
Type mem /c again.
(now says there's EMS available)
Try running the game then.

The "strange" thing is, after commenting out EMM=RAM, if i run a command.com shortcut, there is NO TEXT visible, but entering commands seems to work, because if typing "exit" it closes... strange.

VDMSound should help!
It does not only enable DOS sound drivers for your XP dos box, it features also advanced memory settings. Maybe you can configure EMS in your VDMSound setup.

I have some sort of Star Trek thing I leeched off an abandonware site, and it ran fine for me with real DOS, and I didn't have to use EMS.
I normally run XMS, but didn't try disabling it as the game ran as is.

EMS means "EXPANDED" memory, reminiscient of those old boards that could switch memory banks in/out of a "memory window" in an 8088 computer, kind of like banked VESA display modes.

XMS means "EXTENDED" memory, using 32 bit pointers whether 16 bit segment : offset or flat, accessing the memory directly.

Thanks. I knew that. But, please believe me, when I tell you that the program doesn't run with the message that it needs at least 1meg of EMS.

I'll try VDMSound, thanks for the link

I really don't care for any type of dos emulation except for ntvdm's, which isnt really 'great' I guess, but for me, everything else is crap, solely because of the speed and lag, it really bothers me.

I'd stick with either getting it to run in XP or grabbing a dos boot disk, should be able to find something to make one online rather easily.

like maybe... http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_bootdisks.htm

I believe I've even used that once upon a time.

Good luck with your problem.