Questions about running TNM in DosBox

[mondello]

After a long battle to get an older version of TNM working on DosBox, I finally downloaded Build 6 off the website and I'm up and going.

Just a few things I'm running into and looking for some tips:

1. I got the wrestlers I want in my database, but it now prompts me every time I go to the main menu that I have exceeded the maximum amount of moves by 138. When I click How to Fix Maximums it doesn't do anything. Do I have to go through the moves 1 by 1 until I've deleted 138 of them?

2. During the ring intro's, I get "DMA buffer allocation failed" just before each wrestler's name is announced. Does this have something to do with entrance themes? I tried to plug an MP3 in as an entrance theme but it doesn't seem to want to work, and I still get the same error even if there is no theme attached.

3. What the heck is an 'enzuilariato' and why does every wrestler seem to do it?

Thanks.

[LillaThrilla]

1) Definitely want to cut that down for the sake of TNM's database stability otherwise it will eventually get corrupted and ruin your day. You can try using the Database Cleaner Plugin to find moves that aren't being used and delete them en masse otherwise you will need to delete moves one at a time. But since that is a Windows plugin I'm not sure if there's any way to get it to run. (It wont run in DOSbox and if you're using DOSbox I assume you can't get TNM7 to start from Windows otherwise.) Hopefully someone else knows? If not it might be a good question for Oliver.

2) Sounds like a problem with either entrance themes or maybe the Visualizer (that loads photos of wrestlers for their intros). But that's only a guess.

3) Enzulariato = clothesline/lariat to the back of the head.

[mondello]

Thanks for the response.

Do MP3's not play on the Dosbox version, because I couldn't get them to work. I'm supposing the music has to be in a certain format.

Yeah, I'm wondering about cutting the moves back. I really don't want to go through the moves and delete them one by one, and the Database Cleaner apparently won't run outside of a Windows environment. I have no idea how I got so many moves to begin with, so I'm guessing I'll start over from scratch and reload the wrestler database.

[mondello]

Wow, I just tried to recreate my wrestler database and again it tells me I'm 61 moves over the limit. I don't know how this keeps happening as I've never had a problem of too many moves in previous editions.

[LillaThrilla]

If you look at your database you'll probably find alot of redundancy in there.

[mondello]

Wow. I went through the long process of deleting 60 moves last night, then I decided to add one of the Old School export packs of TNMUK. Now I have over 100 more moves to delete. Now I have to work up enough motivation to do it.

[snabbit888]

You just need to come to terms with the fact that if you're importing wrestlers, this is going to come up.

[mondello]

Yep I know. I've just done this so many times in the past and never had an issue which is what is throwing me off. Maybe it was an issue in the past, but TNM just didn't tell me.

[snabbit888]

That's probably more likely it. Oliver added a feature that warns you about database issues in the newer builds.

Makes you hate some of the bad early export makers, doesn't it?

[LillaThrilla]

Jun 7, 2011 19:17:05 GMT -5 snabbit888 said:

Makes you hate some of the bad early export makers, doesn't it?

It doesn't help that a fresh copy of TNM7SE only comes with less than 400 moves in the database so TNMers are often left to come up with lots of additions on there own. And there really hasn't been an effort to standardize a list until just before SE came out. Even with that, Peter at TNMUK went over 1000 moves at one point because he was making exports for such a variety of styles including indys where they're cooking up all sorts of crazy stuff (half of it ripped off Japan). I think only the TEC / TNM 3:16 list and Peter's TNMUK list have ever been posted to try to make a standard list.

Then you add in the matter of lots of users being unable to agree on if a move should be called A or B. Plus the plethora of clips of just about every move by every name wrestler (US or Japan) on YouTube and extensive Wikipedia articles (which I swear have been edited in part by someone working off the TNM 3:16 list) didn't come around until the last few years so lots of people were flying blind for a long time especially if they only saw little or nothing besides the major US promotions.

(Holy tangent, Batman!)

[snabbit888]

The good thing is with a little bit of patience, it's easy to get your database up to where you want it to be. Every time I import wrestlers (I do it the beginning of every GCW year with the new debuts), I go to my moves and tag team databases and delete what I don't like or any new redundancies. Makes it easier to do if you do it as you go.

[mondello]

Yep, that's what I'm doing. Adding a few more wrestlers here and there and just deleting as I go. I've deleted over 100 moves today.

Ah, now I gotta delete 62 more.

[mondello]

Question.

If you import wrestlers, does it only import the moves that those wrestlers have in their moveset? I'm finding moves that I'm almost sure I deleted last night back in my database.

[snabbit888]

Jun 8, 2011 18:55:40 GMT -5 mondello said:

Question.

If you import wrestlers, does it only import the moves that those wrestlers have in their moveset? I'm finding moves that I'm almost sure I deleted last night back in my database.

New wrestlers you've imported probably brought the moves back in.

[stevemcqueen36]

How do you fix the maximums without auditing? I am aware that it would become unstable, but I am willing to take that risk. What files do I need to modify?

[tnmlyger]

Peter pointed me to this thread, and I'd like to clarify a few things.

1) DOSBox emulates DOS on a Windows system. A DOS program running inside DOSBox has no way of "breaking out" of DOSBox to use Windows functionality.

This means:
- TNM can't run its Windows-based plugins (aka everything with a graphical user interface)
- TNM can't play themes (modern way is Windows based, so that's out, and the original way which is still in there as a fallback can't happen because of limitations within DOSBox)
- You can't use Notepad to enter your comments after a card
- Even the ring intros in SE are based on Windows code for reasons of having to be able to use more than 640k of memory. Hence, these won't work and TNM may (or may not) be able to use the old fallback ring intro code from DOS.

2) The maximum number of wrestlers/moves/managers/... in a database aren't an exact science.

DOS programs have 640k of RAM to work with, of which a variable percentage will already have been taken up by system-specific software. Hence, no two computers in the world will be exactly identical after a few weeks of use. Hence there is no way to give an exact number.

Unfortunately, there is no way for a DOS program to be aware of exactly what amount of data DOS will store before it croaks. It may tell you "I've got room 'ere for 450 moves" but then you add the 397th one and DOS says "sorry, bro - you're done".

Without telling you to go crazy on the moves: If you're a bit over, at worst it'll start erroring out. BUT: There will be no data corruption. Use common sense.

What I recommend when you're over is to create backups via the built-in functionality every now and then (at least once a week) so you can always go back to a working dataset in case that "one export file you still need to import" ends up blasting 200 moves into your copy ;-)

Please do not (I mean it - just don't) edit TNM data files manually because unless you really know what you're doing, you will have caused your data to then rot away. Most files are indexed for quicker access, and TNM will read the index and then jump to the record it needs in the data file. Imagine how much fun you cause by adding an extra character or two here and there. All the later records will be off by x characters right away.

[jlamb]

So is the DMA Buffer thing a function of TNM running in DOSBox?

[tnmlyger]

It's a function of TNM being a DOS program. DOS plays MP3s using DMA Buffers. When not enough memory is available, you get said error message. From DOS.

[jlamb]

Awesome, thanks!