Hi,

I have been trying to get A Final Unity to work under windows for a while now, and being a Trekkie, remember this game as being the best of the TNG ones. I've also been thankful to those who discussed their success, with programs like DosBox and VMSSound, but also felt sympathy for the trouble many people have gone through, in getting this game to work, so I wanted to share my experience.

My PC is a P500, with a M64 TNT2 card. I used a standard USB mouse, and the 2003 drivers from Nvidia for the video card. I avoided newer drivers since they didn’t install well. I also had DirectX 9 but don’t think this is of any consequence. Its not a new system, but new enough to ensure DOS games won’t run without a little trouble.

As for DosBox, VMSSound, and boot disk creation (bootdisk.com), I could not get AFU to install in anything above Win98. I tried limiting Virtual Memory, editing the config/autoexec files, booting from a floppy disk and loading a mouse driver etc. etc. but it never worked. If it does, yes, you could just try DosBox, or just VMSSound. BTW, I only learned of these programs, from the various posts, so again, its why I felt to write.

First off, I always knew I would one day want to go back to this game, and so I have kept a partition for Windows 98, in FAT 16 format. If you don’t have this, create one. This is by far, the best advice I can give. Don’t waste time trying to get yourself to believe your system is some kind of advanced computer. To get a simple program to run, make it easier on you, and make the OS simpler too!

Running in Win98, will help to avoid the dreaded 'Files 40/0' or 'Cant determine CD speed' message you see, since Win98 has config.sys/autoexec.bat settings, which if need be (but probably not), can be easily altered from within Notepad.

The benefit of Win98 is that its a relatively easy and light OS, so if troubleshooting is on the agenda, you get an idea of what its about. I've read many people trying to get this to work in XP, but the truth is, being a DOS application, the easier you're willing to make the game easier on the OS, rather than of convenience to you, the easier and sooner it will be before you run it. I had all sorts of installation trouble, but it installed without any hesitation in Windows98.

BTW, I should say that I always thought that as a last resort, I could go into DOS mode, load up mouse, sound and CD drivers (PS/2 mouse only) and get it to work. But I wanted to avoid this as getting sound blaster AWE32 drivers and mice (especially now with USB) to work in DOS was going to be long-winded. However, eager to play the game, I resorted to this early on, only to find I had more luck with Win98, so try 98 first. The message had something to do with EMS, but with a modern system and so much memory, its not worth trying to figure out what is happening.

Second, when you're in Win98, click the INSTALL file in the CD directory.

Check 'Prevent from Detecting Windows...’ Set the screen to ‘Full Screen’ Run the install program.

Third, you should find the install program runs smoothly. Select optimal installation, and leave the directory as default within C:, your FAT16 drive. Certainly don’t exceed 8 characters for the directory. After installation, go to settings for audio/video. Set as appropriate (you should be able to hear the sound test, but it helps if you know which card you have). For video, you can probably set 640 at 65k colours, but turn off VESA and don't maximise the screen if you think your system may be underpowered. Save settings and exit.

Fourth, after installation, click properties for sttng.exe in your local hard drive directory. Also check 'Prevent Program from Detecting...".

You should also click 'Full Screen' rather than 'Window' under the screen tab, and you might want to extend the XMS/EMS memory settings under the memory tab.

You should find that the game runs, and you may or may not have sound. If you do, see the step below. If not, download and try the sbbasic.exe classic sound blaster drivers for DOS. Uncompress the files into a directory somewhere where the FAT16 drive is. Not sure how this works, but I got sound after its installation, and a reboot never hurt anyone either.

Finally, if you find that the introduction and any full motion video runs with a lot of skipping (video and audio), or indeed ends up as a long blur, try using a slower CD drive. The problem I think, is either a sound card issue or a slow Cd-drive. But obviously, for an older game, I doubt if the latter was the problem. I used a 6x, but it was only by chance I had this in my system. Never thought it would be of use again!

Under Win98 you have the benefit of a mouse, no complicated memory issues and a sound card that will work without filling in the config/autoexec files. The game should work, or you will at least have far fewer problems getting it to run.

A few notes: If you change the CD drive after installation (e.g. to a slower one), you can edit the drive settings under the sttng.ini file in the installed directory.

If in Win98, you still have problems with the install program not wanting to install, you can download the newer installation program, which lets you install regardless of whether your system meets the requirements or not. I didn’t use this and I feel it best to let the game use what it was designed for, but if you need to, you can carry out the instructions here in the same way.

Hope this helps, Riker