It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Not that I don't appreciate the reset button, but just as I've mined my fill and I'm ready to go explore the galaxy, Dosbox crashes and (regardless of a saved game) I have to start all over.

Thank goodness SF2 doesn't suffer from this problem, but I'm trying to play the series through.
avatar
jeditoby: Not that I don't appreciate the reset button, but just as I've mined my fill and I'm ready to go explore the galaxy, Dosbox crashes and (regardless of a saved game) I have to start all over.

Thank goodness SF2 doesn't suffer from this problem, but I'm trying to play the series through.
This is a bug that still exists from the second edition of the game. I call it the "Miner's Bug". There was a coding change between the first and second editions of the game; even a "code wheel" color change, 1st ed. where black and 2nd ed. where purple. In the first edition, you could mine planets like "Heaven" and make lots of money fast! Apparently they thought that was a "bad" thing, and changed the code.

Think of it as a "limit buffer". It seems, you get a finite number of "scanning new terrain.." before it finally locks up, and therefore crashes the game. I remember calling EA to report this bug, but they didn't believe that there was a problem. I guess no one else was an extensive miner like me.

If you're careful to not over mine... you can avoid this bug, but it does exist. I did some serious testing on it back 20 years ago. Of course, there was no internet back then, so there was no one to tell... until now. 8)
Post edited November 29, 2011 by Foucter
avatar
jeditoby: Not that I don't appreciate the reset button, but just as I've mined my fill and I'm ready to go explore the galaxy, Dosbox crashes and (regardless of a saved game) I have to start all over.

Thank goodness SF2 doesn't suffer from this problem, but I'm trying to play the series through.
avatar
Foucter: This is a bug that still exists from the second edition of the game. I call it the "Miner's Bug". There was a coding change between the first and second editions of the game; even a "code wheel" color change, 1st ed. where black and 2nd ed. where purple. In the first edition, you could mine planets like "Heaven" and make lots of money fast! Apparently they thought that was a "bad" thing, and changed the code.

Think of it as a "limit buffer". It seems, you get a finite number of "scanning new terrain.." before it finally locks up, and therefore crashes the game. I remember calling EA to report this bug, but they didn't believe that there was a problem. I guess no one else was an extensive miner like me.

If you're careful to not over mine... you can avoid this bug, but it does exist. I did some serious testing on it back 20 years ago. Of course, there was no internet back then, so there was no one to tell... until now. 8)
That sounds like it. I'll be sure not to overextend myself.
I see II as an revised and expanded version of I so I disregarded I all together.
Is this the "Not enough storage for function" error?

Does the pre-EGA version of SF1 not suffer from this bug? Are there any other advantages/disadvantages to the pre-EGA version?

I've been playing the EGA version (which I own the original floppies for, but it's bitwise identical to the GOG version) in CGA composite mode instead of EGA due to the better animations and almost-as-good color+graphics quality, and I have been running into the "not enough storage" issue constantly (which is odd, as I don't remember encountering it back in the day). If the pre-EGA version doesn't suffer that issue and has no other disadvantages, then I'd be better off playing it.
avatar
HunterZ: Is this the "Not enough storage for function" error?

Does the pre-EGA version of SF1 not suffer from this bug? Are there any other advantages/disadvantages to the pre-EGA version?

I've been playing the EGA version (which I own the original floppies for, but it's bitwise identical to the GOG version) in CGA composite mode instead of EGA due to the better animations and almost-as-good color+graphics quality, and I have been running into the "not enough storage" issue constantly (which is odd, as I don't remember encountering it back in the day). If the pre-EGA version doesn't suffer that issue and has no other disadvantages, then I'd be better off playing it.
I'm convinced "not enough storage for function" is a DOSBox problem, because I never ran into it back in the day playing the EGA version.
avatar
HunterZ: Is this the "Not enough storage for function" error?

Does the pre-EGA version of SF1 not suffer from this bug? Are there any other advantages/disadvantages to the pre-EGA version?

I've been playing the EGA version (which I own the original floppies for, but it's bitwise identical to the GOG version) in CGA composite mode instead of EGA due to the better animations and almost-as-good color+graphics quality, and I have been running into the "not enough storage" issue constantly (which is odd, as I don't remember encountering it back in the day). If the pre-EGA version doesn't suffer that issue and has no other disadvantages, then I'd be better off playing it.
avatar
antherem: I'm convinced "not enough storage for function" is a DOSBox problem, because I never ran into it back in the day playing the EGA version.
Same, but I was younger and less patient back then and may have therefore spent less time mining.

I managed to acquire a copy of the pre-EGA version, and it doesn't seem to have the issue. It also looks exactly the same as the EGA version (except that it has all the animations that are missing in the EGA version) if you run with DOSBox in Tandy mode.
Tandy mode is the best way to play SF1--the way it was meant to be! The pre-EGA game will still crash on occasion though--I still own the original. It used to crash on me back in the day on my Tandy, so I always tried to remember to quit and back up the disks every now and then, so that I wouldn't lose as much work if it crashed.

It seems to crash even more often in DOSBox than it did in the original hardware.

I also found that in DOSBox it becomes more and more unstable the more you go down onto planets and get extra artifacts, minerals and life-forms. Life-forms don't get you much income anyway, so for stability, just avoid them all together.

It got to the point where I consistently couldn't land on planets anymore otherwise it would always crash when I tried to take off or when I tried to pick up an item. It did this in multiple attempts after re-starting from the beginning. I NEVER had this happen back on my Tandys (with the same exact copy of the game).
I think I just encountered this. I was filling my ship with cargo by repeatedly mining a planet, and when my cargo pods were approaching the 90% mark I started dumping the tons of lead I was finding outside the ship before boarding, so that I could get more valuable minerals.

After an iteration or two of this, I suddenly started finding small piles of Endurium outside my ship (on a planet that would not ever have it); naturally I'm not one to turn down free fuel with prices the way they are, so I grabbed it and boarded, went back out, grabbed more minerals, dumped lead, boarded, disembarked--and now there was a pile of 50 cubic meters of Endurium there. Holy cow! I grabbed it, boarded (ignoring the "no room" message since I could recover it later) and launched, and just as I started to maneuver, the game froze hard. I can only imagine that my ridiculously large pile of lead left outside the ship had somehow corrupted the game and produced the side effects of phantom Endurium and instability.

It's a shame too, I would have made a fortune selling that load.
I believe I'm encountering a variation of this.

I had to start over after the "Not enough storage for function" error made the game unplayable.

I avoided lifeforms altogether and even the useless artifacts.

I'm ONLY carrying artifacts that enhance my power. Currently I'm carrying the Rod Device, Shimmering Ball, Tesseract, Dodecahedron and Red Cylinder.

I picked up my first Black Egg, and now, at every planet I land on, the game freezes at "activating terrain vehicle".

I reverted to a saved game and jettisoned a couple of the other artifacts that were not essential, but same freeze.

I reverted to a saved game and sold the Black Egg at Starport, figuring I'll buy it back later. But, it's still freezing at "activating terrain vehicle". Sigh.

I'm going to revert to a save before I acquired the Black Egg (and several other artifacts, unfortunately) and see if I can play through, avoiding getting a Black Egg until I need it.

I think it is a bit more unstable in this DOSBox version.
avatar
radiogxray: I believe I'm encountering a variation of this.

I had to start over after the "Not enough storage for function" error made the game unplayable.

I avoided lifeforms altogether and even the useless artifacts.

I'm ONLY carrying artifacts that enhance my power. Currently I'm carrying the Rod Device, Shimmering Ball, Tesseract, Dodecahedron and Red Cylinder.

I picked up my first Black Egg, and now, at every planet I land on, the game freezes at "activating terrain vehicle".

I reverted to a saved game and jettisoned a couple of the other artifacts that were not essential, but same freeze.

I reverted to a saved game and sold the Black Egg at Starport, figuring I'll buy it back later. But, it's still freezing at "activating terrain vehicle". Sigh.

I'm going to revert to a save before I acquired the Black Egg (and several other artifacts, unfortunately) and see if I can play through, avoiding getting a Black Egg until I need it.

I think it is a bit more unstable in this DOSBox version.
I've encountered unknown crashes that make me think they were related to this. As someone who played the game religiously 30 years ago and never encountered such a problem, I too think it must be a DOS Box issue. Anyone know enough about DOS Box to know what to tweak?
I agree with everyone saying that they never hit a error or freeze when playing the game in its original format.
One way to clear up the "not enough room in storage" message is , for me, to launch off the planet, maneuver out of orbit then return to the planet. Try to go back to your last landing location and you might be able to find the same material you might have left behind. This seems to unlock the error so you can pick up items again. It will hit again however.
My error seemed to start after I found something called the "red herring" from a ruin. I had never heard of this item in the original game and it was worth a ridiculous amount, something like 32,000 mu (was more than this but you get the idea.
From trying to pick that up, I got the error. and since then I keep getting the message every so often. I do uninstall and reinstall the gog version and I now get the message from time to time. but I still believe the Red Herring had something to do with it. I forgot the planet that I was on but it was out of the home system and in a local system. (Yellow star)

Hope we can find some help for this fix.

Anthony
avatar
Milestugo: I agree with everyone saying that they never hit a error or freeze when playing the game in its original format.
One way to clear up the "not enough room in storage" message is , for me, to launch off the planet, maneuver out of orbit then return to the planet. Try to go back to your last landing location and you might be able to find the same material you might have left behind. This seems to unlock the error so you can pick up items again. It will hit again however.
My error seemed to start after I found something called the "red herring" from a ruin. I had never heard of this item in the original game and it was worth a ridiculous amount, something like 32,000 mu (was more than this but you get the idea.
From trying to pick that up, I got the error. and since then I keep getting the message every so often. I do uninstall and reinstall the gog version and I now get the message from time to time. but I still believe the Red Herring had something to do with it. I forgot the planet that I was on but it was out of the home system and in a local system. (Yellow star)

Hope we can find some help for this fix.

Anthony
Your are not supposed to be able to pick up the red herring. Its a joke. I remember trying to figure out how to pick this when I first played the game when it 'new'. I was a lot younger and I didn't get the joke until much later in life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring