I J: Fate of Atlantis
 

I have the talkie version, but I'm not sure how to install the game. Doing it in windows and clicking on the exe files attempts to run the game, but really goes no where but sound configs.

I can just run it through the CD on DosBox, but it won't let me save and the screen isn't filled out completely.

Any advice?

Did you try to mount your hard drive and CD-Rom in DosBox and to install the game to your hard drive? Something like that below should do:

mount c c:\ (your hard drive)
mount d d:\ -t cdrom (the CD-Rom)
d:
(command to install the game, often install.exe)

Then, after the game is installed, usually the configuration program starts where you can set up the sound, memory etc. After that you can add the following lines under the [autoexec] section of dosbox.conf to run the game always you start DosBox, or just type them in DosBox each time if you prefer:

mount c c:\
c:
cd (game folder) (game folder is where you installed the game)
(command to run the game)

I did manage to get the game "installed." I just copied and pasted the folder from the cd to my hard drive. Bad idea? The sound works fine, but the graphics look like they could be better.

Is there a way to make sure I'm running the game in VGA (best looking, right?)? Like I said about the resolution, things looks a little crappy and distorted. The Last Crusade looks better.

Hmm, are you sure you actually have Fate of Atlantis and not Last Crusade? Indiana Jones - Fate of Atlantis only runs in VGA mode (320x200, 256 colors) as much as I know. Or maybe there's some incompatibility problem between DosBox and your computer.

Distorted in what way, exactly?

While Indy 4 can run in EGA mode (try it out by starting with "ATLANTIS E" -- type "ATLANTIS ?" to get a list of command line options), by default it'll run in VGA mode.

Copying the folder to the hard drive is not a good way to install.

Since I have the talkie version too, I just tried installing it and here's what I did:

(I have a folder called "oldstuff" on my D drive and my CD-ROM drive is Z in Windows). The above commands then start the installation procedure. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor down to "Sound Blaster & Compatibles / Adlib" and press Enter. Then move the cursor right to "Sound Blaster & Compatibles" and press Enter again. Accept the default port 220 (enter), IRQ 7 (enter). The press Escape and Y to save settings. In the menu that appears, press Enter to start the game.

If you later want to play the game again, just repeat the above commands (the game will then start immediately after typing "atlantis", as the configuration has been saved).

Yes, the box is quiet clear that it is FoA, though I have Last Crusade too.

Just the character models look a little too pixilated. The back of the box shows better screenshots and I can't remember what the game looked like when I played it when it came out. Maybe it is the resolution thing.


Will doing this install lose my saved games?

Just copy your save files elsewhere and then copy them back into the directory. They should work just fine.

Screenshot from the game, please. In DOSBox, CTRL+F5 saves a screenshot in the Capture subdirectory of whatever dir DOSBox has been installed to.

The game creates a folder (in my example: D:\OLDSTUFF\FATE). Copy your SAVEGAME.* files into that and you can use those.

Well, don't forget that the shots on the box are much smaller than how the game looks on the monitor. Of course, since the screenshots, compared by that, are in higher "resolution" on the box, you can't see the pixels as good as on the normal stretched out display of the game on the monitor, where they're larger and approach the eye more apparent.

<a href="http://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=atlantis000oq9.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8959/atlantis000oq9.th.png" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://img604.imageshack.us/content.php?page=blogpost&files=img504/8959/atlantis000oq9.png" title="QuickPost"><img src="http://imageshack.us/img/butansn.png" alt="QuickPost" border="0"></a>

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8...s000oq9.th.png

[img=http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8959/atlantis000oq9.th.png]


Sorry for double posts, thought I could edit original. I'll also have to say that the bottom part of the screen, about 2-3 inches is black and I can't get to it with my mouse.

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/3...s000wu9.th.png

[img=http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/3671/atlantis000wu9.th.png]

Doesn't look like I know how to post good SS...

But anyway, I'll try to describe what it looks like. Basically, Sophia's face is a single blue dot, for her eye. IDK, Last Crusade looked better. Like I said, I can't really remember how it "used" to look.

Thanks for everyone's help. I'll probably be posting more about other games soon enough.

Maybe this will help. Open the file dosbox.conf with Notepad, under [render] change the aspect=false to aspect=true.
That will stretch the resolution to it's original size, if your graphics card supports it.

Well the aspect=true really messed it up. I went through the scale variables though and found some different looks, none all that much better though.

I can't imagine that my current card wouldn't be able to render the game nice, but maybe there is just some oddity because the game is so old.

I'll just play it through the way it is and see if other games look bad. I know Kyrandia looked pretty good, so I'll be back for that one, I'm sure.

Well, if you use the abovementioned hint again and additionally also set output=surface to output=ddraw under [sdl], that should fix the messed up graphics.

It doesn't work this way. DOSBox only uses your graphics card to output the final image, not for all graphics.

The screenshots you've posted look pretty normal for this particular game to me (and Last Crusade didn't look better - run it and see for yourself)

Anyhow, try these settings:
[sdl]
fullresolution=1024x768
windowresolution=800x600
output=ddraw

[render]
aspect=true
scaler=hq3x

Horseman, that got the screen to be the right size, thanks, but the hq makes the colors look like oil paints. normal, 2x, and 3x look better.

Is it best to keep these settings for all my games? I plan on playing Kyrandia, King's Quest, and, of course, Monkey Island.

I usually use the default normal2x, and that's enough for all games I play. Dunno what the others are there for, they're, as you said, looking like oil paint and not really improving the graphics.

Yes, unless you're going to play a resource-intensive game (Quake, X-Com 3 etc), in which case it's better to change the resolution to the one the game natively uses, switch output to Overlay and disable the scalers and aspect correction.

hi im having trouble.
i have installed dosbox and my game works absolutely fine on it.
but when ive played the game and want to save where i am...i press f5...i type in whatever im saving and then click save...it keeps saying at the top "the game has NOT been saved"
i dont know what to do with it...i really want to play the game but dont want to do it all in one day.
please help. thanks

Check if in Windows the directory where you unpacked the game is set to Read Only.
If yes, uncheck that.

Also, remember you need full read/write/modify permissions in that directory - this might be a bit problematic in Windows Vista.

Indeed, if *IF* you're on Vista use a folder in
c:\users\your_name\ as virtual C:
There dosbox will have all the needed write rights.

For Fate Of Atlantis, you would be better using Scumm. Scumm was designed to play old adventure games like this. :)

what do i do in order for dosbox to know where to store my saved files?
im new at working with dosbox.

As you could read -(and obviously didn't understand, can happen)- it kinda depends of your OS and permissions how to solve some problems.
In fact it's pretty easy if *IF* we know your OS.
You hardly can expect us to give all the possible answers and tell you the correct mounts for all the possible OSses that are around on this big ball we call the Earth.

So be a nice chap and let us know what OS you're on ....
AKA: details please, and more details.

As can be:
Linux -(several)-, Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT,Win2k,WinXP, Vista,Win 7, MacOS, whatever and whatnots ....... etcetera etcetera ....

Follz, it's easier to use SCUMM for old adventure games. :)

DOS games typically store the save files in the directory the game runs from.
This is also true for Fate of Atlantis.
As long as you mount your games directory properly and have full read/write access to the directory you placed the game, there should not be any problems.

ScummVM or dosbox doesn't matter, if the soft doesn't have write rights, the game won't save.

You can also use ScummVM.