@OldGuy -Thanks for the suggestion. Grimrock looks like the exact sort of game that I'd enjoy - a good old dungeon crawl. Mother's day is coming up and my boy's know that a gifted GOG game always makes their mama happy. I've added it to my wish list.
@Quenten - I think we're opposites on this. LOL I love my sleek new operating system but don't care for newer games that seem to be more about the graphics than the story. Of course, I really love CC3+ and would fight anyone who tried to take it away from me, so there are exceptions to my love for old software.
Posted By: ShessarI love my sleek new operating system but don't care for newer games that seem to be more about the graphics than the story.
Did you ever try playing games in your youth? Most of them didn't even have a story, or it was limited to a few sentences of background info. Storytelling in games have come a LONG way from those early days. (Although those old games were still fun )
I think nostalgia plays a big role in all of this though, I am always more favorable disposed towards old stuff from my youth, and not old stuff in general.
Oh, and Grimrock is a decent game, although that is one that does severely lack in story, but the gameplay is fun.
Posted By: Quentenonly Windows seems to get worse with each update after 3.11
Well, while I can always find several things that annoys me in every new version, I think the overall progress of Windows have been forward at average.
I must admit that i put down alot of hours trying to learn and create something after i bought it. But nothing good ever came out of that struggle. I put it on a shelf until CC3 arrived and after CC3+ was delivered i started to understand what to do. And i must admit that the youtube tips an tricks are better now than they was in 1995.
It really helps knowing the command line. When I made the 1st anniversary map for the atlas earlier this year in CC-DOS, I used the command line A LOT. Fortunately, the basic commands are the same.
Well, the thread derailed a bit from the original post, but I'm glad to see many people interested Those of you with working floppies (and a floppy drive to read them), please make sure you contact Simon and/or Ralf.
I was introduced to CC when I found a CD for this funny little mapping program attached to the back page of a D&D book (2nd edition DMG I believe). I had so much fun, even though it was quite limited.
Much later, when I heard v2 was available, I bugged my local gaming shop until they finally got a copy for me. It's been love ever since.
Who ever had the idea for distributing CC that way is a genius!
Looking for suggestions from people who've installed CC-DOS recently...
Out of curiosity, I recently bought a copy of Campaign Cartographer 1.2.
The floppy disk was initially unreadable, so I recovered the files with PC Inspector (which claims to have read everything successfully, after a bit of effort). I then attempted to follow the procedure in the PROBLEM.TXT file (intended for use when the installation batch file failed for whatever reason) in DOSBox:
1) Make a directory called "CC" under the C drive
2) Make the floppy drive current and run the "LICENCE.EXE" file
Unfortunately the LICENCE file hung up rather than working as expected, perhaps because there was some sort of copy protection information on the floppy which wasn't transferred to the virtual floppy I mounted in DOSBox.
In any case, I ignored this and continued with the steps in the PROBLEM.TXT file:
3) Copy all the files from the floppy to my CC directory
4) Run CCINST
This appeared to run successfully (decompressing lots of files) until it exited with "RESULT - (17) INSUFFICIENT MEMORY". It's not clear why this would happen, since I believe the DOSBox default configuration exceeds the specifications for free memory, FILES and BUFFERS listed in the Campaign Cartographer manual.
Regardless, I continued with the next step from PROBLEM.TXT
5) Run CCSETUP
I set the display to 800x600 SVGA (VGA Type 6 [Ahead VGA Wizard Deluxe], default aspect ratio, large text), the printer to "No plotter or printer available" and the Export Format to "BMP Format" with all the default options. The Maths CoProcessor setting defaults to "Present" and the "Mouse or Tablet" setting to "Mouse with its MOUSE.SYS or MOUSE.COM loaded".
I then ran CC to run the program.
Based on a very brief test, this appears to have given me a partially working version of Campaign Cartographer 1.2 - I can draw lines, erase and so on, but many commands (e.g. load, save and start new map) don't work, giving me a "...CC can not understand that!" error.
My first guess is that this functionality is disabled (or not present at all) in my installed copy, since I haven't entered the licence key printed on the floppy anywhere (presumably this should have happened through LICENCE.EXE, but that failed to run).
Any suggestions welcome (particularly help on how to get LICENCE.EXE to work... though it's possible that the problem is just that the version I recovered from the floppy is corrupted :))
I don't really know about those setup errors, but I've noticed that when I run the program if I just issue the command fcad I get the same issue as you with CC not recognizing many commands, but if I start it by issuing fcad setup instead, it works (fcad setup is the command line in my cc.bat file.) The readme mentioned that setup.fcd must be licenced though, so I guess the failure to license this may then cause the loading of it to fail.
I'm running it under MS-DOS 6.22 myself, so I don't know if DosBox might be an issue or not.
Hmm. My cc.bat file contains the line "ecad setup", and if I just run ecad I do indeed get similar behavior to what I see if I run the cc batch file (the only obvious difference is that if I use cc.bat the program starts up with a "Campaign Cartographer" splash screen).
I think the code was based on FastCAD - perhaps the terms of the licence mean that some parts of the program have to be usable even if it wasn't licenced from ProFantasy?
In any case, this suggests that the basic problem may be that I can't get LICENCE.EXE to run. The manual does suggest copying the original disk to a blank and using that for the installation, but they may have meant for this to be done using DISKCOPY rather than just copying the files (which is essentially what I've done). Unfortunately, I haven't (yet) been able to do a good enough data recovery on the floppy to get an image which I think I could use for the equivalent of a DISKCOPY...
You could try customer support. If it is indeed that file, perhaps they have a pre-licenced one to give you upon proof of ownership. Guess it is a longshot, being so old.
It turns out that the problems I described above were all due to the files I thought I'd recovered still being corrupt. After making another, more thorough, attempt at data recovery I successfully ran LICENCE.EXE from my hard drive, and now seem to have a fully working copy of Campaign Cartographer 1.2 under DOSBox.
CCINST did report CRC errors for a couple of files when it decompressed them, but the program appears to be working anyway, so I assume they're not critical. (The files in question are TIGACOM.COM - which I think is a video card driver I won't need in DOSBox - and NED.EXE - which may be a printer driver??)
In case it's of use to anyone else, the final procedure I used for a Windows 10 install was:
1) Write protect the floppy disk (using the sliding tab on the disk)
2) Put the disk in a USB external 3.5" floppy drive
3) Use data recovery software to get the files off the (25 year old) floppy
4) Save the recovered files to a "CC" directory (in my case "C:\ProFantasy\CC")
5) Start DOSBox and mount my hard drive (in my case by doing "mount C C:\ProFantasy")
6) Enter the following commands in DOSBox
C:
CD CC
LICENCE
(when prompted, enter "I AGREE" and hit return)
CCINST
CCSETUP
(I set the display to 800x600 SVGA [VGA Type 6 - Ahead VGA Wizard Deluxe -, default aspect ratio, large text] and the printer to "No plotter or printer available". The Maths CoProcessor setting defaulted to "Present", the "Mouse or Tablet" setting to "Mouse with its MOUSE.SYS or MOUSE.COM loaded" and the Export File Format to "BMP Format".)
CC
Interestingly, at no point did I have to actually enter the licence key printed on the floppy :)
Thanks for your comments, which definitely helped put me on the right track!
One last comment: I've now managed to recover a version of CCINST.EXE from the disk which inflates all the files without CRC errors. This means I should have a complete image of the Campaign Cartographer 1.2 floppy (and a guaranteed fully working installation under DOSBox).
Scanning up the thread a bit, in 2018 people were asking for anyone with working DOS floppies to contact ProFantasy.... so, @Simon Rogers and @Ralf , just in case you're still looking for the CC 1.2 floppy files, I have them.
Comments
@Quenten - I think we're opposites on this. LOL I love my sleek new operating system but don't care for newer games that seem to be more about the graphics than the story. Of course, I really love CC3+ and would fight anyone who tried to take it away from me, so there are exceptions to my love for old software.
I think nostalgia plays a big role in all of this though, I am always more favorable disposed towards old stuff from my youth, and not old stuff in general.
Oh, and Grimrock is a decent game, although that is one that does severely lack in story, but the gameplay is fun. Well, while I can always find several things that annoys me in every new version, I think the overall progress of Windows have been forward at average.
But nothing good ever came out of that struggle.
I put it on a shelf until CC3 arrived and after CC3+ was delivered i started to understand what to do.
And i must admit that the youtube tips an tricks are better now than they was in 1995.
Those of you with working floppies (and a floppy drive to read them), please make sure you contact Simon and/or Ralf.
Much later, when I heard v2 was available, I bugged my local gaming shop until they finally got a copy for me. It's been love ever since.
Who ever had the idea for distributing CC that way is a genius!
Looking for suggestions from people who've installed CC-DOS recently...
Out of curiosity, I recently bought a copy of Campaign Cartographer 1.2.
The floppy disk was initially unreadable, so I recovered the files with PC Inspector (which claims to have read everything successfully, after a bit of effort). I then attempted to follow the procedure in the PROBLEM.TXT file (intended for use when the installation batch file failed for whatever reason) in DOSBox:
1) Make a directory called "CC" under the C drive
2) Make the floppy drive current and run the "LICENCE.EXE" file
Unfortunately the LICENCE file hung up rather than working as expected, perhaps because there was some sort of copy protection information on the floppy which wasn't transferred to the virtual floppy I mounted in DOSBox.
In any case, I ignored this and continued with the steps in the PROBLEM.TXT file:
3) Copy all the files from the floppy to my CC directory
4) Run CCINST
This appeared to run successfully (decompressing lots of files) until it exited with "RESULT - (17) INSUFFICIENT MEMORY". It's not clear why this would happen, since I believe the DOSBox default configuration exceeds the specifications for free memory, FILES and BUFFERS listed in the Campaign Cartographer manual.
Regardless, I continued with the next step from PROBLEM.TXT
5) Run CCSETUP
I set the display to 800x600 SVGA (VGA Type 6 [Ahead VGA Wizard Deluxe], default aspect ratio, large text), the printer to "No plotter or printer available" and the Export Format to "BMP Format" with all the default options. The Maths CoProcessor setting defaults to "Present" and the "Mouse or Tablet" setting to "Mouse with its MOUSE.SYS or MOUSE.COM loaded".
I then ran CC to run the program.
Based on a very brief test, this appears to have given me a partially working version of Campaign Cartographer 1.2 - I can draw lines, erase and so on, but many commands (e.g. load, save and start new map) don't work, giving me a "...CC can not understand that!" error.
My first guess is that this functionality is disabled (or not present at all) in my installed copy, since I haven't entered the licence key printed on the floppy anywhere (presumably this should have happened through LICENCE.EXE, but that failed to run).
Any suggestions welcome (particularly help on how to get LICENCE.EXE to work... though it's possible that the problem is just that the version I recovered from the floppy is corrupted :))
I don't really know about those setup errors, but I've noticed that when I run the program if I just issue the command
fcadI get the same issue as you with CC not recognizing many commands, but if I start it by issuingfcad setupinstead, it works (fcad setup is the command line in my cc.bat file.) The readme mentioned that setup.fcd must be licenced though, so I guess the failure to license this may then cause the loading of it to fail.I'm running it under MS-DOS 6.22 myself, so I don't know if DosBox might be an issue or not.
Hmm. My cc.bat file contains the line "ecad setup", and if I just run ecad I do indeed get similar behavior to what I see if I run the cc batch file (the only obvious difference is that if I use cc.bat the program starts up with a "Campaign Cartographer" splash screen).
I think the code was based on FastCAD - perhaps the terms of the licence mean that some parts of the program have to be usable even if it wasn't licenced from ProFantasy?
In any case, this suggests that the basic problem may be that I can't get LICENCE.EXE to run. The manual does suggest copying the original disk to a blank and using that for the installation, but they may have meant for this to be done using DISKCOPY rather than just copying the files (which is essentially what I've done). Unfortunately, I haven't (yet) been able to do a good enough data recovery on the floppy to get an image which I think I could use for the equivalent of a DISKCOPY...
You could try customer support. If it is indeed that file, perhaps they have a pre-licenced one to give you upon proof of ownership. Guess it is a longshot, being so old.
Success!! (I think)
It turns out that the problems I described above were all due to the files I thought I'd recovered still being corrupt. After making another, more thorough, attempt at data recovery I successfully ran LICENCE.EXE from my hard drive, and now seem to have a fully working copy of Campaign Cartographer 1.2 under DOSBox.
CCINST did report CRC errors for a couple of files when it decompressed them, but the program appears to be working anyway, so I assume they're not critical. (The files in question are TIGACOM.COM - which I think is a video card driver I won't need in DOSBox - and NED.EXE - which may be a printer driver??)
In case it's of use to anyone else, the final procedure I used for a Windows 10 install was:
1) Write protect the floppy disk (using the sliding tab on the disk)
2) Put the disk in a USB external 3.5" floppy drive
3) Use data recovery software to get the files off the (25 year old) floppy
4) Save the recovered files to a "CC" directory (in my case "C:\ProFantasy\CC")
5) Start DOSBox and mount my hard drive (in my case by doing "mount C C:\ProFantasy")
6) Enter the following commands in DOSBox
C:
CD CC
LICENCE
(when prompted, enter "I AGREE" and hit return)
CCINST
CCSETUP
(I set the display to 800x600 SVGA [VGA Type 6 - Ahead VGA Wizard Deluxe -, default aspect ratio, large text] and the printer to "No plotter or printer available". The Maths CoProcessor setting defaulted to "Present", the "Mouse or Tablet" setting to "Mouse with its MOUSE.SYS or MOUSE.COM loaded" and the Export File Format to "BMP Format".)
CC
Interestingly, at no point did I have to actually enter the licence key printed on the floppy :)
Thanks for your comments, which definitely helped put me on the right track!
One last comment: I've now managed to recover a version of CCINST.EXE from the disk which inflates all the files without CRC errors. This means I should have a complete image of the Campaign Cartographer 1.2 floppy (and a guaranteed fully working installation under DOSBox).
Scanning up the thread a bit, in 2018 people were asking for anyone with working DOS floppies to contact ProFantasy.... so, @Simon Rogers and @Ralf , just in case you're still looking for the CC 1.2 floppy files, I have them.
That would be great to have! Could you create a disc image of these?