problem saving a game in Civ1 DOS

[stwils]

I have no problem loading a saved game. Today I noticed I have 4 saved games and 6 empty places.

But I decided to start a new game. And when I went to save it (on my hard drive) there were the 4 saved games, but NO BLANK PLACES to save the new game. I would have to overwrite one of the 4 saved games.

So I lost one of my good saved games, and now still have only 4 saved games, but 6 blank spaces for new saved games (which only appears when I choose "load saved game.")

What can I do? Surely if there are 10 places for save games, and 6 of them are empty, I ought to be able to save a new game in one of the empty slots.

Advice please.

stwils

 

[GoldBerg]

you can use DOS commands like >>>

(you are in >>>)
c:\civ\ )

cd..
(changes to)
c:\

md cv060828
(makes a dir 'cv060828')
(for civ games of 28th august 2006 - creates a folder of that name)

cd cv060828
(you are now at)

c:\cv060828\

cd..
(switches you back to)

c:\

move c:\civ\*.map c:\cv060828\
(moves the map files of the savegames to c:\cv060828\)
move c:\civ\*.sve c:\cv060828\
(moves the sve files of the savegames to c:\cv060828\)
(all SVE and MAP files are now moved to cv060828 folder and you have free space for a new savegame - the 6 empty places are just reserved for 'automatic game saves' by CIV game...)


cd civ
(switches you back to civ folder)

civ
(runs civ again)

...
those were the days...

...
well...

if you are playing on a 286/386 IBM PC with (just) MS DOS you may use a tool
like (DOS) norton commander
to create a folder 'saved games' 'outside' the civ folder to copy/move the games to...

within windows ( 3.1 or 95, 98se, ME etc. ) you simply can create at c:\ a 'new folder', rename it for example 'aztecs small island' (or whatever fits) and move all the *.map and *.sve files to that (civ01.map and civ01.sve are 'together' ONE (1) gamesave/savegame)
but it's better to save all the old games to another folder to have free space for new ones.

when civilization came out around 1991 we just had 640kB RAM, in most cases no hard disk
and so we HAD to save the games to the 3.5" floppy disks 'of those days' that way... sometimes on the original (copied) gamedisk ...

...with harddisks (HD)
it's more economic to create folders (and subfolders) at HD like

c:\civsaves\cv060828\
c:\civsaves\cv060902\
...
and so on...

 

[stwils]

Goldberg, thanks but that doesn't really help me. I know nothing about DOS.

But it seems the real issue is why are there spaces for 6 saved games alongside the 4 saved games in the "load save game" option?

It seems there are room for 10 saved games, but I just can't find how to put another game in the save game menu. It just says click on the drive (c) where games are stored. And I click but do not get the chance to put my new game in and save it unless I overwrite one of the 4 saved games I already have.

Puzzled.

stwils

 

[GoldBerg]

...
It just says click on the drive (c) where games are stored. And I click
...

you did not understand what you have to do.
the game says -imho- clearly:

C:

Press drive letter and
Return when disk is inserted.

in 1991 you did insert a floppy disk into drive A:

then you would press at keyboard "A" to change drive.

if you have a partition D: you can press at keyboard "D" to change drive.


if you have a d:\ drive you can switch to d:\
if you have a a:\ floppy disk drive
put a floppy disk into and save files to a:\

if you are able to edit filenames

change (within) c:\civ\

civ1.sve to -for example- civ5.sve
and
civ1.map to -for example- civ5.map

to free space within CIV directory
for the files
you can save WiTHiN the games folder ... !

you (may) have to understand WHY the savegame option of this old DOS game is created the way it is (and nobody can change that game the way it is, the CIV code isn't change-able - the game is still copyright-trademark-saved)

so all you need is
to rename files ( many possibilities: extension edit , filename edit ... a.s.o.)
or
move files in another folder to free space in CiV game folder
or
write on another ( d:\ ; a:\ ; etc. ) partition / disk
to use a workaround like i did describe in my post before.

 

[Alex Johnson]

stwils, the reason is because CivDOS reserves 6 of the 10 spaces for autosaves. If you have turned the autosave feature off in the game then they will remain empty. For games you chose to save, you can only select the first 4, it won't even show you the option for the last 6. That's just how they chose to design the game.

You can backup your saved games or move them to "autosave" spaces. Open the command prompt in Windows. Also find out where your CivDOS game is on your hard drive by selecting Properties on the folder you put the game in. In the command prompt type "cd $" where $ is the Location from the Properties box. Hit enter. Now to copy one of your saved games to an autosave space, type "copy civil0.map civil4.map" and hit enter. Then type "copy civil0.sve civil4.map" and hit enter. You have just moved the first save game into the first autosave space. The save games you can write are 0, 1, 2, 3 (for manual saves) and 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (for autosaves). When you start CivDOS again and load a saved game you'll see the first and fifth save games look the same. You are now safe to overwrite the first save game because the fifth one will always be there (until you turn on the autosave menu option).

 

[stwils]

Thanks to both of you. I did not understand that the 6 spaces were reserved for auto saves - which I turned off.

But anyway, even though I could not find or create a new folder, I did put in a blank floppy in drive A. It saved my game perfectly! In the manual it talks about formatting a floppy, and I thought it meant formatting it in some special DOS way and so never tried using floppies.

Now I can save all my new games on floppies!

(If only I had known this earlier. Think of the saved games I had to overwrite and lost.)

But now I know, and I am so grateful to both of you.

Civ1 DOS is the best! (Now that I won't lose my saved games.)

stwils

 

[GoldBerg]

... ...
If only I had known this earlier. Think of the saved games I had to overwrite and lost. ... ...

...

but ...

i have saved 1000s of civDOS games
but just in 95% of all cases (at max.)
i view/play an old scenario again i did play years/months ago...

access a new game,
play it up to 2 or 3 days,
conquer the world / build things on nearly every single area and/or get bored -
play a new game a week later -
that's it (to me) ...