vCOMPAT

================================= Martin Kiewitz's vCOMPAT v0.35b ================================= Released on 15.09.2006 Written and (c) by Martin Kiewitz Dedicated to Gerd Kiewitz ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============ | FOREWORD | ============ OS/2 / eComStation's VDM is nearly perfectly emulating a real DOS session. Did I say nearly? Yes, I did. Some programs are too restrictive in their use of DOS APIs. And some MDOS-APIs do not behave 100% like in real DOS. Additionally some programs contain library bugs, so they won't run on faster machines even under real DOS (like e.g. Turbo Pascal CRT Unit bug). That's why I did this compatibility VDD. It hooks itself into the middle of several APIs and it contains a magical VM patcher, that is able to patch out some buggy routines on-the-fly, which means the user won't even notice that he got a broken program. vCOMPAT also contains code to patch out bugs in DPMI based (eg DOS4GW) games, so that they will run under OS/2 / eCS. This code is not absolutely failsafe and it *could* make a DPMI application crash, so if you experience a crash try to disable this feature. If you are using a DPMI application that is already working as expected, don't switch this feature on. vCOMPAT now also contains code, that will fix Sierra On-Line games. This will only work, when vSOUND is also loaded - and that prior to vCOMPAT. vSOUND will then send out notifications to vCOMPAT. vCOMPAT is fully compatible to OS/2 Warp 3, OS/2 Warp 4 and eCS. ======================== | vCOMPAT INSTALLATION | ======================== Simply copy VCOMPAT.SYS into your MDOS directory (e.g. x:\OS2\MDOS) and insert this line into config.sys: 'DEVICE=x:\OS2\MDOS\VCOMPAT.SYS' (where x:\ is your OS/2 / eCS boot-drive) It would be wise to insert the line after all other VDDs. If you are using vSOUND or the vCDROM replacement, you MUST specify vCOMPAT below those two drivers in config.sys! ====================== | vCOMPAT PROPERTIES | ====================== COMPATIBILITY_2GBSIZELIMIT (default ON): ------------------------------------------ If enabled, vCOMPAT will fake total and free disk space to a maximum of 2 GB. Some DOS applications get confused, when DOS reports more, especially some software installers. COMPATIBILITY_CDROM (default ON): ----------------------------------- If enabled, vCOMPAT will fix the behaviour of the CD-Extension APIs. This includes various fixes for CD-Audio, generic behaviour and some other CD-ROM specific things. vCOMPAT will automatically detect the new vCDROM replacement, disable this property then and automatically load one fix for IFS only. Everything else is already handled by the replacement. COMPATIBILITY_DPMI (default ON): ---------------------------------- If enabled, vCOMPAT will include work-arounds for DPMI applications. If Magical VM Patcher is activated as well, bugs in DPMI applications will get removed as well (this doesn't include bad CLI code). COMPATIBILITY_DPMI_ANTICLI (default OFF): ------------------------------------------- If enabled, Magical VM Patcher will also react on bad CLI-code and remove it on-the-fly. This will fix many, many games. Theoretically it could break applications, so don't activate until you need it. This property requires COMPATIBILITY_DPMI to be ON. COMPATIBILITY_DPMI_MEMORY (default ON): ------------------------------------------ If enabled, vCOMPAT will change some replies from OS/2 VDM according to memory status. Some states are not answered by OS/2 and while this being DPMI compliant, some applications go beserk. Indirectly this change affects Win-OS2 applications as well. This property requires COMPATIBILITY_DPMI to be ON. COMPATIBILITY_GOSIERRA (default ON): -------------------------------------- If enabled, Magical VM Patcher will react on Sierra On-Line sound driver bugs and remove them on-the-fly. This should fix almost any Sierra real-mode games. This property will only work, when vSOUND is loaded as well! COMPATIBILITY_JOYSTICKBIOS (default OFF): ------------------------------------------- If enabled, vCOMPAT will handle any calls to Joystick BIOS APIs. Normally OS/2 would forward this call to the real BIOS. COMPATIBILITY_MOUSENSE (default OFF): --------------------------------------- If enabled, vCOMPAT will make the mouse more sensitive. This feature is only meant for some specific games and shouldn't be active at any other time. COMPATIBILITY_MAGICVMPATCHER (default AUTOMATIC): --------------------------------------------------- Possible selections AUTOMATIC - VM Patcher will automatically patch out bugs in programs No notification will be made to the user ENABLED - VM Patcher will detect bugs and generate a PopUp accordingly. Choose ignore in that PopUp dialog to skip patching DISABLED - VM Patcher is 100% deactivated DPMI applications will only get analysed, when COMPATIBILITY_DPMI is set to ON as well. Currently the following bugs will get patched out: - Turbo Pascal CRT Unit Run-Time error 200 bug (Realmode and DPMI support!) - M$ C Library "Division by Zero" bug (encountered in some classic Lucas Arts games) - Clipper Timer-Unit bug - Sierra On-Line sounddriver bugs ("GOSIERRAv3" functionality) COMPATIBILITY_GOSIERRA must be enabled and vSOUND must be loaded! ============================ | vCOMPAT DPMI-Workarounds | ============================ Those will fix at least the following applications/games: - Sam'n Max - UFO Apocalypse - Many Win-OS/2 applications due MEMMANINFO in TOOLHELP.DLL ==================== | vCOMPAT Anti-CLI | ==================== This code will fix at least the following games: - Alien Legacy (only with OS/2 eCS Nov 2002 or later kernel) - Boppin' - Comanche 3 - Death Rally - DooM, DooM ][ - Gabriel Knight (VGA) - Heretic - Hexen - Pandora Directive (may require new VDMA) - Psycho Pinball - Raptor - Strife - Syndicate Wars - Under a Killing Moon (may require new VDMA) It will also make some games to work "a bit more". This means that they may crash, but it's not the fault of Anti-CLI, but another bug. - Broken Sword - Gabriel Knight (VESA) - Gabriel Knight 2 - Leisure Suit Larry 7 - UFO: Apocalypse ==================== | vCOMPAT GOSIERRA | ==================== From 0.34+, vCOMPAT also implements GOSIERRA patching. This will make the following games work without any prior manual patching or changing sounddrivers, so actually letting people run those games directly from CD-ROM. Please note that vCOMPAT is removing bad code, that is not able to work on faster computers. For more information please read "gosierra.txt". This code was derived from the GOSIERRAv3 tool, that is currently available from various sources. I even improved the patches, because the previously ones had problems, when running in inaccurate DOS machines (e.g. Windows) and/or inaccurate virtual Soundblaster emulation. Please note that this feature is only available, when vSOUND is loaded as well! This feature will fix at least the following games. They are now 100% playable from original unmodified CD-ROMs. - Betrayal at Krondor - Castle of Dr. Brain - Conquest of the Longbow - Eco Quest 1 - Search for Cetus - Eco Quest 1 CD-ROM Talkie Edition - Eco Quest 2 - Lost Secret of the Rainforest - Freddy Pharkas - Freddy Pharkas CD-ROM Talkie Edition - Gabriel Knight 1 (VGA version) - Island of Dr. Brain - Jones In The Fast Lane CD-ROM Talkie Edition - King's Quest 1 SCI - King's Quest 5 - King's Quest 5 CD-ROM Talkie Edition - King's Quest 6 - Laura Bow 2 - Laura Bow 2 CD-ROM Talkie Edition - Leisure Suit Larry 1 (VGA-Edition) - Leisure Suit Larry 5 - Leisure Suit Larry 6 - Mixed-Up - Fairy Tales - Pepper's Adventures In Time - Police Quest 1 (VGA-Edition) - Police Quest 3 - Quarky and Quaysoo's Turbo Science - Quest for Glory 1 (VGA-Edition) - Quest for Glory 2 - Quest for Glory 3 - Quest for Glory 4 - Sid and Al's Incredible Toons - Slater & Charly - Space Quest 1 (VGA-Edition) - Space Quest 4 - Space Quest 4 CD-ROM Talkie Edition - Space Quest 5 - The Incredible Machine - The Incredible Machine 2 (soundcard is not detected, everything else works) - Willy Beamish - Willy Beamish CD-ROM Talkie Edition =================== | vCOMPAT HISTORY | =================== v0.1b - [+] Internal testcase release v0.2b - [+] First public beta release v0.21i - [-] Find1st-Patch is now only applied on CD-ROM access (bug is in original MSCDEX actually) v0.22b - [+] INT25h-Patch is now able to live with the "patched" INT25h done by IBM in their latest kernels (INT25h is supposed to be buggy, this bug was fixed by IBM, we are emulating it again) v0.23b - [+] COMPATIBILITY_CDAUDIO got renamed into COMPATIBILITY_CDROM It includes all CD-ROM specific fixes and a new one, that caused some installation software to believe that A: would be a CD-ROM v0.31b - [+] Magical VM Patcher hooks moved from VDM to VDD-space [+] DPMI Anti-CLI code included [+] DPMI Workarounds for application "bugs" (e.g. Sam'n Max and Alien Legacy) [+] Magical VM Patcher also removes DPMI Turbo Pascal CRT Unit bug v0.32b - [+] Another CD-ROM specific inaccuracy in VDM Thanx to Max Alekseyev for pointing this out [+] Support for vCDROM replacement (disabling of CD-ROM related patches, which will safe realmode-memory) [+] Reworked the realmode injector, uses VDD-space now and much less V86 memory now v0.33b - [+] Magical VM Patcher also removes Clipper Timer-Unit bugs Resulting in "division by zero" messages v0.34b - [+] Improved magical VM patch data (internal change) [-] Anti-CLI code now doesn't ring-0 trap anymore, if application sets a guard page in a memory block (experienced, when using Anti-CLI on Quake) [-] Theoretical stack corruption in INT 21h PREHOOK fixed [+] Implemented GoSierra patching into vCOMPAT ONLY AVAILABLE, WHEN vSOUND is also loaded! (removes sounddriver bugs from 99% of all Sierra On-Line real mode games on-the-fly) v0.35b - [+] New DPMI work-around: OS/2 doesn't fully answer DPMI memory information requests, but some apps don't follow DPMI standard correctly and go berserk (reporting "not enough memory"). Also changes Win-OS/2 behaviour. ffs. COMPATIBILITY_DPMI_MEMORY [+] If broken code is detected and the patcher is switched to ENABLED instead of AUTOMATIC state, the PopUp will now list "ignore and continue" or just "continue". "continue" will actually patch the program, where "ignore and continue" will not. [+] vDPMI workarounds now also work on OS/2 Warp 3 =========== | CONTACT | =========== There are several ways to contact me, but you only get this one: 'kiewitz@klinikum-konstanz.de' Official homepage for all my stuff: 'http://ecomstation.ru/kiewitzsoft/' ========================== | GREETZ AND DEDICATIONS | ========================== I'm dedicating vCOMPAT to Gerd Kiewitz, my daddy. I want to thank IBM for the great operating system called OS/2 and Serenity Systems for releasing eComStation. Special greetings to the IBM developer that fixed the INT25h bug :) Another special greeting to Sierra On-Line. I really love your old games, especially the talkie editions. - Martin Kiewitz