If you can give a link, some of us can give it a try.

I found this one:

http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4demofull.zip

It plays the intro video, then it crashes back to DOS ("Exception 14 happened", followed by a lengthy error code). Hmm...

I downloaded the demo from http://www.wcnews.com/files.shtml#wc4

I'll try that demo post and see if I also get the same error.

EDIT: Still the same. Running WC4.exe from the second demo I downloaded comes up with this:

Running WC4DEMO...

Loading Wing Commander IV.
System RAM checks out OK.
Parsing command line.
Linking in video DLL.
WC4DEMO patch loaded.
Opening game sequence.
VESA Driver Present -- SVGA Possible
Looking for installed files.
Checking for disc 1.
Something weird in the CD change functions.

Followed by the same thing it gave me with the last demo, telling me to look in the readme for a possible solution.

It seems if it's installed to c:\wc4 then you get the "Allocated 0 bytes of Memory" error. If I put it in c:\wc4demo I get "Exception 14 happened" with dynamic core. With normal or full core the screen just goes black and dosbox closes after a few seconds. odd.

Yeah I've had no luck either doing various things. I tried installing from different folders and drives, but I can't get it to go.

The Wing Commander 3 demo downloaded from the same place doesn't work either. It starts out promising, giving you the machine speed test with the spinning ship, but then it just crashes with some exception error.

I'm guessing the full versions of both games don't exhibit these problems because I've never seen anyone complain about them before.

Wing Commander 3 demo you need to set DOSBox to lower than 8,000 cycles to get past the test.
Once you do you can just backup the .cfg it generates and package it with the demo to bypass the test in the future.

Xelasarg wrote:

I found this one:

http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4demofull.zip

It plays the intro video, then it crashes back to DOS ("Exception 14 happened", followed by a lengthy error code). Hmm...

Confirmed.

With core=normal, DOSBox dies after the intro.
Tried different cputype's. Did not make it work. Either the same crash, or total abort.
Choosing no sound card in SETUP makes no difference.

Solution: ems=false

You must have a much better config file than me because I changed ems to false and I still get the allocating 0 bytes of memory crash.

Works for me too. Damn, should have thought of Origin's crappy memory management in the first place...

I've attached my dosbox.conf, just add your mount commands to the autoexec section.

good call.

Unfortunately that didn't work. I still receive the allocating 0 bytes of memory crash and the game refuses to load.

On the plus side, I did manage to get 3 working. I wonder what's wrong with 4 though. I really want to track down a copy of the full version, but if I can't even get the demo working I don't see much point.

Thanks for your help though, guys. Much appreciated!

So you've tried a dir other than c:\wc4, and with ems=false?

Worked for me with install in C:\WC4DEMO directory and ems=false .

Fifth time with the demo was lucky. It works when run from the WC4DEMO directory. That should have been a no brainer because when you run it from any other directory it installs files into WC4DEMO. Stupid me!

This and also 3 seems to have issues with cycles though. Too many and the movies stutter, not enough and the actual game is slow. WCNEWS recommend 35,000, but that too still makes movies stutter. I guess you just have to lower them whenever a movie plays.

Thanks everyone for the help once again.

cycles=max should do that automatically.

15,000 cycles seems to work for the video in both 3 and 4, and 25,000 for the game. Max has smooth gameplay, but stuttering video. There is always the Windows patches for the full versions, or failing that I could drag out my old DOS machine.

Optimal setting for me seems to be cycles=50000. No stuttering video and very smooth gameplay, except while in very close combat/proximity to other ships.