Game Maker 3.0 games -- all won't start in pure DOS on newer systems (i3/i5/i7)

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zyzzle
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Game Maker 3.0 games -- all won't start in pure DOS on newer systems (i3/i5/i7)

Post by zyzzle »

This is a maddening problem. Any game make with Game Maker engine doesn't start on any newer core i system with onboard Intel graphics. There is something seriously buggy with the VGA code from the game engine. There is just a black screen when starting these games, nothing more. Things I've tried:

1. Running in DOSBOX-X works, ie "playgame configure" brings up config screen -- in VGA textfont, NOT system (9x16) text font! Then, I thought the config files were wonky, so I manually created one with no sound and VGA compatible. No workie in pure DOS. Then I re-ran DOSBOX creating a config file with no sound and "Simulate" as the VGA driver. This also doesn't work in pure DOS on newer systems.

2. All sorts of VGA utilities, such as VBEplus, univbe, etc. All of these also fail to make the games start. I'm talking NONE of the 100+ Game Maker games will start. Just a black screen, nothing more.

3. I think the problem might be that these games use a crazy 300x196 (?) VGA mode, inside of the normal 320x200x256 VGA screen (mode 13). The game manual is no help, and every option in "configure" just leads to the same behavior.

Any insight on getting these games to start? There's obviously something they're doing which isn't fully VGA-register compatible in the game engine or the onboard Intel graphics chipset of newer systems (I tried everything from i7-2600k up to i5-8250 and none work in pure DOS). DOSBOX is not good, because these games don't start up in fullscreen.
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