Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

You can discuss anything about fan-made Commander Keen games here.
User avatar
Nisaba
Janitress
Posts: 1597
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 23:34
Location: The Outpost
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by Nisaba »

If I recall this correclty retropie doesn't support rpix86. Plus there is no key mapping support, which I need for my DIY handheld device. What do you mean by sweet spot? Trail'n'error?
And yes, no wm in use. Just pure retropie.
out now (link) : Image
gerstrong
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 1244
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 14:44
Location: Frankfurt - Germany
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by gerstrong »

Retropie has the Commander Genius still under experimental.

With these instructions you should be able to run it:

http://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.net/howto_keen9/
Having fun developing stuff...
User avatar
krivulak
Grunt
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 18:48

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by krivulak »

Eh, this is not the problem I am having. My problem is based on really poor memory management in DOS.
User avatar
krivulak
Grunt
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 18:48

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by krivulak »

Finally, I made some progress!
I managed to make enough memory to run Keen 9! QEMM was my tool of choice, it is awesome!
Well, it didn't make enough memory to run Terror From Outer Space, but that will change, I really hope so :)
User avatar
Levellass
S-Triazine
Posts: 5265
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:40

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by Levellass »

I have no such problems, can I ask you to test a mod of mine, just to see if it loads, to see if such errors may occur?
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
User avatar
Nisaba
Janitress
Posts: 1597
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 23:34
Location: The Outpost
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by Nisaba »

Ask me, ask me... :dead2
out now (link) : Image
User avatar
Levellass
S-Triazine
Posts: 5265
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:40

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by Levellass »

Nisaba wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 22:13 Ask me, ask me... :dead2
I'm pretty sure I already have you down as a eta tester for it... does your computer run into these sort of memory problems? For some reason mine doesn't, ever, despite not being top-of-the-line...
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
User avatar
Nisaba
Janitress
Posts: 1597
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 23:34
Location: The Outpost
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by Nisaba »

Levellass wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 22:23 I'm pretty sure I already have you down as a eta tester for it... does your computer run into these sort of memory problems? For some reason mine doesn't, ever, despite not being top-of-the-line...
Not yet, but I'll see what I can do. I could setup a very low powered test environment to simulate possible issues. By the way @krivulak: what kind of hardware are you using?
out now (link) : Image
User avatar
krivulak
Grunt
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 18:48

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by krivulak »

Well, I am using two computers right now to run it and neither of them can. It crashes while loading Trogg village.

First is Pentium MMX running on 166MHz with S3 Trio 2MB, 192MB of RAM and Windows 95.
Second is Thintune eSeSIX VLVI01 with VIA Eden ESP3000, 64MB of RAM and DOS 6.22 with QEMM97.
User avatar
Nisaba
Janitress
Posts: 1597
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 23:34
Location: The Outpost
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by Nisaba »

mmmhhh... original hardware. that's interesting indeed. maybe @keenmaster486 can help with all this...

in the meantime: have you managed to fire up any other mod yet?
out now (link) : Image
User avatar
krivulak
Grunt
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 18:48

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by krivulak »

Well, quite a few actually.
Image

All of those runs with lesser or bigger problems.
Keen Dreams Plus - OK
Terror From Outter Space - Running out of memory - often no music in bigger levels or the level doesn't load at all (Trogg village)
Keen0 - Can't say what mod is that, but I believe it was OK
Keen7 - OK
ValoKeen - surprisingly OK, but I didn't play it too long, only few minutes - didn't understand what I was supposed to do
Marooned on Mars on Galaxy engine - if I remember correctly - OK
KeenTEE - super alpha, so big part of the game doesn't work, but that's because it isn't programmed yet
Keen10 - to be true, I completely forgot about that mod, so I had to refresh my memory. But again, sometimes it shows "Insufficient memory for background music", but then the music works. Strange.
Keen8 - Running out of memory - often no music. I believe that all levels loaded, but sometimes sprites corruption happened.
AAMBA - Well, I don't like this mod, so I didn't play it too much. Ran though, if I remember correctly.
Atroxian Realm - runs out of memory when exiting first level and crashes hard, right into DOS prompt. But checkpoints work, much to my surprise!
CK1GOLD - OK
Buried in Oblivion - everything works except the castle level on island - while loading it crashes with message "ion"
CKxBM - OK
8ACUMUL - long time since I played it, but it was OK, if I remember correctly.

And yes, I am running it on "new" hardware, I repaired this laptop today, it was in terrible shape, but now it looks very nice. Pentium 1 at 133MHz, 90MB of RAM and Sound Blaster clone onboard.
Like I said, it is problem with memory. If I could somehow make Keen see any XMS (which I saw working only in DosBOX), it would solve all problems.
User avatar
Nisaba
Janitress
Posts: 1597
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 23:34
Location: The Outpost
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by Nisaba »

you've got ValoKeen up and running!? that's really surprising. it's one of the very extensive patched mods. I could have sworn that you won't be able to even fire it up without any crashes...

but again, @keenmaster486 is our hardware guy! (knock, knock... anybody there? yeah that's right, I'm looking at you!)
out now (link) : Image
User avatar
keenmaster486
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 542
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 18:29
Location: Tranquility Base
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by keenmaster486 »

Nisaba wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 23:10 but again, @keenmaster486 is our hardware guy! (knock, knock... anybody there? yeah that's right, I'm looking at you!)
Missed this until now.

I have the following working 100% on my pure DOS machines:

Keens 1-6
Keen Dreams
Mods:
Keens 7-10
Atroxian Realm
Valentines Keen
Keen Dreams Plus
Plus a whole bunch of others that I have forgotten about or don't play much.

Basically it all comes down to using the right memory manager. I use QEMM 9, with excellent results.
Last edited by keenmaster486 on Tue Oct 11, 2022 19:00, edited 1 time in total.
I flermmed the plootash just like you asked.
User avatar
krivulak
Grunt
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2015 18:48

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by krivulak »

Well, I do not. All my machines even with QEMM97 have still troubles running Keen9 (it doesn't look like it, but Shikadus second and third level crash), Terror From Outer Space crashes on loading few last levels and Atroxian Realm crashes right after first level...
User avatar
keenmaster486
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 542
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 18:29
Location: Tranquility Base
Contact:

Re: Trouble running Keen 9 Battle Of The Brains

Post by keenmaster486 »

Hmmmm. What do your autoexec.bat and config.sys look like?

I also do things like using non-TSR initializer utilities for my sound cards, to try to get as much memory as possible.

Sometimes I'll have menu options in config.sys, one of which is usually a bare-bones, no-frills option which leaves out things like DOSKey and the mouse driver. I can often get ~700K free conventional memory this way.

Edit: also, it would be helpful to see what the output of mem and mem /d look like.
I flermmed the plootash just like you asked.
Post Reply