Star Trek 25th Anniversary CD-ROM - Runs fine on DOS

[tk421]

I can confirm that the game Star Trek 25th Anniversary CD-ROM edition works fine in DOS on an emulated 486 PC in PCem.

My emulated PC specs:

AMI 486 Clone - DX4 100Mhz
no dynamic recompiler needed
8mb RAM
S3 Trio32, 2mb VRAM, Speed default
Sound Blaster 1.0
4x CD-ROM drive, PCemCD
3.5 inch floppy disk drive
40mb Hard Disk Drive
DOS 6.22
Windows 3.1

I installed Windows 3.1 to get the installer working right. I suspect win3.1 simply had better mouse drivers than DOS 6.22. Once I installed win3.1 installing the game was much easier and went very smoothly. I used memmaker to optimize memory usage. When I restarted my emulated PC in PCem I still had to load mouse.com in the c:\ prompt. In-game performance is comparable to Win95/98 performance on a Pentium PC.

I have tested this game on a much slower 486sx at 16Mhz with 4mb of RAM. There were significant performance issues even with the 4x CD-ROM drive, S3 trio32 and Sound Blaster 1.0 being left unchanged. Sound did not work well and even the in-game performance was sluggish. Anything less than 4mb was not enough for the game to start. This game would appear to be intended for much newer PCs. Changing everything back to the 486 DX4 at 100 Mhz and 8mb of RAM produced good performance for this game without having to re-install anything.

I hope this helps anyone playing Star Trek 25th Anniversary CD-ROM edition in DOS.

tk421

[harrison98]

I have this game installed and working fine on a Pentium 90 (HOT-557, 16 MB RAM, SB16, S3 ViRGE) in DOS 6.22.

You shouldn't have to install Windows 3.1. Maybe your DOS config files weren't set up right? If you need a DOS mouse driver, I highly recommend the open source CuteMouse. It uses very little memory and it gives command line options to change x- and y-axis sensitivity, which is super useful for PCem in particular.

By the way, according to the game box (the CD version), the game requires a 386/16 and 4 MB RAM at the minimum.

https://cutemouse.sourceforge.net/

[tk421]

I will test Judgement Rites when I get the chance.

Obviously I need to test cutemouse when I get the chance. win3.1 takes up quite a bit of memory.

I have just tested TIE Fighter DOS CD-ROM version. I was never able to get this working before, and in years past I was not the only one. Some time ago I wrote here that this game works fine on a Pentium 75 running DOS 6.22. I am pleased to write here that I have much better results now with TIE Fighter DOS on CD-ROM.

I just tried this newer game now. I finally got this famous Star Wars game working on DOS using an almost identical 486 DX4 config I used for Star Trek 25th Anniversary. I just bumped the RAM to 16mb. The S3 Trio32, more than Win3.1, seems to be the big factor in getting this old game working on a 486, and not being reliant on a Pentium 75.

As for the Star Trek 25th anniversary system requirements, I tested 2mb and 3mb of RAM simply because the manual stipulated a minimum of "560K free low memory and 1 MB free expanded (EMS) memory". Clearly 4mb of RAM is indeed the minimum.

Given the poor results of the 486sx 16, I felt no need to test the 386sx 16. Eventually I will do that test, but clearly a DX2, or better, will provide the best performance for that game.

That is two games that previously could not be run on an older 486 config on PCem. Now I think we have a solution here on this forum that fixes those problems and allows PCem users to reduce the system specs and maintain performance for both games.

Clearly the Pentium or DX4 100 with 16mb of RAM, 4x CD-ROM drive, the SB 1.0 and the S3 trio32 would work well for these two games.

I will update the old thread I made some years ago for TIE Fighter.

EDIT: I got Judgment Rites working fine on my DX4 with TIE Fighter already installed on it.

tk421

[salmawisoky]

Compatibility:
- The game has been tested and confirmed to work fine in DOS on an emulated 486 PC in PCem.
- The game was successfully installed on an emulated PC with the following specifications: Drift Boss
- AMI 486 Clone - DX4 100Mhz
- 8MB RAM
- S3 Trio32, 2MB VRAM
- Sound Blaster 1.0
- 4x CD-ROM drive
- 3.5-inch floppy disk drive
- 40MB Hard Disk Drive
- DOS 6.22
- Windows 3.1 (installed to facilitate the installation process).