🚀 go-pugleaf

}ric@radmic.com asked:
}:       I have an old game that I got when I had a 386SX/25 w/ dos 6.  It ran 
}: good and was a good game.  I haven't played it for years and thought that I'd 
}: give it a whirl.
}:       I now have a Pentium 90 w/ dos 6.22.  When trying to run it, and I 
}: don't even get to the start screen.  Fact is, I don't get to any screen.  What I get 
}: is a message that says "Divide overflow" and then the dos prompt.  

In article <51hbnv$qqo@csugrad.cs.vt.edu>,
dcraigg@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Danny Craigg) replied:
}This is pure conjecture, and thus may be completely off base.  That said, is
}it possible you have one of the buggy Pentium CPU's?  I'm probably way off
}base, so someone correct me if I'm wrong.

In article <51hvja$l8p@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au>,
pfg@yallara.cs.rmit.EDU.AU (Paul Francis Gilbert) replied:
}This a very old problem with DOS itself. Some games were written in the
}pre UMB days, when everything, including drivers was loaded in the main
}640Kb. Now, with the new managers for HMA, it isn't always that way, so
}the old programs can spit the dummy... giving an erraneous "Divide" error.

You're both wrong.  It's neither a buggy CPU nor the EXEPACK "Packed file
is corrupt" bug.  The Pentium-90 is simply too fast for the program!  Since
games need to run at the same speed no matter how fast the CPU, they include
a speed-detection routine at startup.  In the present case, the program is
clearly counting the number of timer ticks it takes to run a fixed number
of iterations of some action.  On the P5-90, it is finishing in less than
one timer tick, and thus trying to divide by zero.  If it didn't bomb out,
it would be unplayably fast....

The solution: try putting the Pentium into "slow" or "deturbo" mode.

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