Running the Readysoft Dragon's Lair CD-Rom in Windows 95/98

If you want a better version of Dragon's Lair, which WILL work in Windows 95
you can pay a special upgrade price and get a new-improved Dragon's Lair,
Dragon's Lair II and Space Ace all in one deluxe pack for only $19.95. (You
must prove you've purchased Dragon's Lair from Readysoft.) The company
offering the new versions is Digital Leisure:
http://www.digitalleisure.com/index.html

But if you'd like to get your existing version of Dragon's Lair working with
Windows 95, here's what you do:

It's not easy. Many people have asked me this question.

There are two ways to run Dragon's Lair with Windows 95:

1. Run Dragon's Lair in Windows 95, but tweak the memory settings in the
shortcut
Conventional Memory Total = Auto
Initial Environment = 4096
Protected is not checked off
Expanded (EMS) memory = 12288
Extended (XMS) memory = 12288
Uses HMS is checked off
MS-DOS Protected Mode = Auto

My system has 32mb of ram. Dragon's Lair runs okay for me. Sometimes the
animation is jumpy. I mostly play Dragon's Lair on my CD-I, which offers a
far superior version.

If that doesn't work for you, you'll need to try the second method, which is
a bigger pain to set up.

2. Create a shortcut that takes you out of windows, boots to DOS, and loads
Dragon's Lair
You need to load the DOS drivers for your CD Rom and Soundcard

You need to make a Windows 95 shortcut that starts Dragon's Lair in DOS
mode.
In shortcut, you need to specify Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files which
will load the necessary drivers to run Dragon's Lair.  (I've had to do this
with many games.)

First, create a shortcut.

Then, right click on the shortcut icon and go into the properties.

On the Program Tab, for the Cmd Line, put D:\Dragon.exe (if your CD rom
drive is other than D, replace the letter with something else).

The Working directory would simply be the CD rom drive's root directory
(eg., D:\)

Make sure "Close on Exit" is checked off.

Click on the Advanced button to get to the advanced menu.

Make sure "MS DOS Mode" and "Warn before entering MS DOS mode" are checked
off.

Select the button "Specify a New MS DOS Configuration"

Then, fill in the autoexec.bat and config.sys lines in the appropriate
sections.
Here are examples of my autoexec.bat and config.sys files.  You can use them
in your own shortcut, but you'll need to replace the names of my CD rom
drivers and Sound card drivers with your own. You may need to change some of
the driver paths to your own.

My AUTOEXEC.BAT

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM
BUFFERS=10
FILES=60
DOS=UMB
LASTDRIVE=E
FCBS=4,0
DOS=HIGH
STACKS=0,0
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CD-ROM\CDMKE.SYS /D:MSCD000 /P:300 /A:0 /M:4 /I:10
DEVICEHIGH=C:\PROAUDIO\MVSOUND.SYS D:3 Q:7 S:1,220,1,5 M:0 J:1

My CONFIG.SYS

PROMPT $P$G
SET PATH=C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\CD-ROM
SET BLASTER=A220 D1 I5 T3
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
LH /L:1,23824 C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /M:4 /L:E /V
LH C:\DOS\SMARTDRV  /V

Then click OK to save the changes.
What the shortcut will do is exit windows (warning you first), reboot the
computer, run the autoexec.bat and config.sys files you've specified in the shortcut,
then run Dragon's Lair.  After you've finished playing Dragon's Lair, it
will go back to Windows.

Let me know how it works.  If you have any problems or questions let me
know.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Digital Leisure Technical Support recommends the following:

ReadySoft's Dragon's Lair and Space Ace

Unfortunately we believe that ReadySoft doesn't support their MS-DOS versions
of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace any more. The following are their instructions
to run the MS-DOS versions under Windows 95.
We (Digital Leisure) have released a three pack of Dragon's Lair, Space Ace
and Dragon's Lair II all remastered for Windows 95 called the Dragon's Lair
Deluxe Pack and are offering existing Dragon's Lair and Space Ace owners a
special price of $19.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling (reg $49.95).
If you are interested, see the "Place An Order" page.

The main problem that seems to occur with the old ReadySoft versions is sound
not playing especially with newer technology sound cards.

The new Digital Leisure versions in the Deluxe Pack are written for native
Windows 95 and don't have any sound problems.

Procedures for running the DOS versions under Windows 95

Your system must be setup for Expanded Memory. If you receive an error message
indicating there is no EMS present you need to edit the CONFIG.SYS file.

- go to the DOS prompt
- type "edit c:\config.sys"
- make sure you have these two lines:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM

- make sure the line that loads in EMM386.EXE has RAM after it and not NOEMS
- if NOEMS is present then just replace it with RAM
- save any changes made and exit to WIN '95
- restart your computer for these changes to take affect