Stunts Forum

I'm pretty good at PC and some file things, but i can't figure how to use pgarage. I have the game on E: drive, i tried it how it manual said. I'm pretty unpatient and have meltdown when i don't know something. And i'm not sure if there's any way to exceed the max cars limit or what's the purpose of pgarage. Can someone tell me how the hell is it supposed to work? Thanks alot.

Maybe @Cas can help. Pinging him.

I have never tried the program and cannot give specific hints, but the idea is that Stunts only allows you to have a limited number of cars (32 I think), so if you want to use more of them you need to move the files in and out of the game's directory, making sure that you never use more than 32 of them at the same time. Pretty Garage allows you to do that in a GUI instead of managing the files manually.

There is a Wiki with links, but asking in this forum is usually the best way to get help.

https://wiki.stunts.hu/wiki/Pretty_Garage

P.S. Probably a silly question, but have you made sure to remove the `#` character before the line `stunts=E:\games\stunts` ?

Welcome to the Forum, @stanceboyCZ ! @HerrNove is right about both the 32 cars limit and having to remove the # from the start of the stunts= line. You should also create a garage subdirectory in your Stunts folder (that's where your extra cars will go), remove the # from the first garage= line in the configuration file and change the path there to specify it, so that it'll look like this:

garage=Main Garage|E:\GAMES\STUNTS\garage

That should be enough to get Pretty Garage to work. (If not, let us know!)

ï've thought that the hashtag symbol was supposed to be in there

Quote from: stanceboyCZ on July 16, 2025, 07:52:44 PMï've thought that the hashtag symbol was supposed to be in there

Ouch, the hash means "This line is a comment, ignore it" !

I was trying to write the directory where i have the game and it doesn't work. And how does secondary garage works?

try:

cd games
cd stunts
md garage

Old DOS fashion always works.

You are using Linux-style separators (/) for a DOS path, which likely requires Microsoft-style separators (\). Also, "secondary" seems too long of a name, DOS only supports up to eight characters.

it says it cannot be written, maybe i am dumb

Looking at the screenshots, I think I see the problem: you are running the DOS version of Pretty Garage (pgarage.com) on DOSBox, while the E: paths in the config file are the "real" Windows paths (rather than the paths in the emulated DOSBox filesystem). The easiest solution, then, should be using Windows version (pgarage.exe) directly from Windows instead. (The DOS version could be made to work, but you'd have to change the paths to how they appear within DOSBox.)

but my pc is 32bit... and it's pretty slow, that's why i started playing retro games...(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b2/c9/b5/b2c9b5cc45c304a413dc1357a94c8d31.gif)

Quote from: HerrNove on July 16, 2025, 12:30:13 PMthe idea is that Stunts only allows you to have a limited number of cars (32 I think), so if you want to use more of them you need to move the files in and out of the game's directory,

Or you can have as many directories with Stunts as you want, btw.: STUNTS1, STUNTS2 etc. (I never used Pretty Garage (https://raceforkicks.com/projects/pgarage.php)).

Quote from: stanceboyCZbut my pc is 32bit... and it's pretty slow, that's why i started playing retro games...

And you use Wind0w$. Anyway, with that 32-bit CPU you can also play my games, including on Windows 98 (and maybe 95) - Skunks (https://matei.one), Simcar (https://matei.one/idxscr.html) (with a version that looks like Stunts (https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=3959.msg97901#new)) and maybe chess (https://matei.one/idxchess.html). In the games with cars you can have any number of cars, but somebody has to make them (the current ones are enough for me).

GNU/Linux recommendation for 32-bit CPU:

http://mirror.rosalab.ru/rosa/rosa2021.1/iso/ROSA.FRESH.12/lxqt/ (with some installation recommendations (https://matei.one/gnxros12.html))

(https://media.tenor.com/PFewIvY3zBUAAAAM/muppet-cute.gif)

https://matei.one/ - at the bottom of the page:

QuoteNo cookies®

Quote from: stanceboyCZ on July 23, 2025, 04:47:33 PMbut my pc is 32bit...

Oh, I see -- the pgarage.exe in the download is 64-bit! Though we might try recompiling the program with FreeBasic for 32-bit Windows, right now getting the DOS version to work is indeed the quickest option for you. For that, replace E:\GAMES\STUNTS in those two paths with the path of your Stunts folder as it appears within DOSBox. The window size in the DOS version is limited by what is supported by the DOS system, but I guess the 800x600 default should be fine on DOSBox.

I have a 64-bit CPU (Atom N455) and operating system and

Pretty Garage (https://raceforkicks.com/projects/pgarage.php) 1.1:

Quote./pgarage: /lib64/libncursesw.so.6: no version information available (required by ./pgarage)
./pgarage: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by ./pgarage)
./pgarage: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by ./pgarage)

Pretty Garage 1.2:

Quote./pgarage: /lib64/libtinfo.so.6: no version information available (required by ./pgarage)
./pgarage: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by ./pgarage)

i do have Atom too, but D525

Then your CPU is 64-bit. If you have 2 GB of RAM, you can install a 64-bit system. I recommend Fedora 34, which is not outdated. The problem with Fedora 35 is:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/SDL12onSDL2

QuoteTargeted release:  Fedora Linux 35
[...]
let's replace SDL 1.2 with sdl12-compat, which uses SDL 2.0.

SDL 1.2 (used by DosBOX) is faster than sdl12-compat. You can still install SDL 1.2, but if the distribution has the other version included, this can be confusing. Also, if your computer is fairly old, the hardware (especially video) support gets worse in the newer versions.

https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/34/Spins/x86_64/iso/

i dunno, my pc is 32bit

https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/atom-d525.c1399

QuoteFeatures
[...]
Intel 64

The only problem is that you have a 32-bit outdated program, improperly sold as operating system. The CPU is 64-bit, it's faster than my Atom CPU and has 2 cores. It's a very good CPU.

https://www.howtogeek.com/693588/how-to-install-linux/

https://rufus.ie/en/

All you need is a 4 GB flash drive and you can use GNU/Linux and access the internet with it even before you install it. I can help.

@stanceboyCZ The processor might support 64bit instructions, but if you have only 4GB of RAM (or less) there is no advantage in installing a 64bit operating system, except running 64bit builds like the version of Pretty Garage that you downloaded.

The reason 64bit OSs exist is to access more than 4GB of memory. Installing a 64bit system with less than 4GB of RAM will make things worse: all software suddenly needs more memory.

It's easier to ask @Cas to supply a 32bit build of Pretty Garage.

https://www.baeldung.com/cs/64-bit-vs-32-applications-performance

QuoteTherefore, 64-bit systems are more suitable for complex and demanding modern software, like video processing,...

With a 64-bit operating system my Atom CPU runs well videos at 1280x720 from you**be (downloaded (https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/), of course), but I also have a computer with a 32-bit Pentium 4 CPU running at the same clock speed, 1.6 GHz, and I can't watch any of those videos with it. A laptop with a Pentium M CPU at 1.7 GHz is also useless for the videos encoded with VP9, although the games run much faster on it than on the Atom, so it depends.

https://matei.one/#performance

@stanceboyCZ I compiled pgarage with freebasic 32bits, if you can test it I appreciate it.

it works pretty well

And speaking of Bliss, the DOS version works pretty well, however the Windows version is 64bit, and my PC is 32bit.

By the way, is there an option to switch garages?

I managed it like this. :-\

Do you have an old 15'' monitor? At a resolution of 1024x768 the window of Bliss doesn't entirely fit on the screen. However, the best way to take advantage of Bliss is to take the tracks made by others. That's what I do.

Well, i do have Samsung SyncMaster 720N, and if i'm not mistaken there many models that are the same or similar

I also use a 17'' LCD monitor but I always keep it at 1280x1024. If you keep the resolution at 1024x768 the aspect ratio is wrong (1280/1024 = 5/4, 1024/768 = 4/3), besides the image not being clear and the videos I mentioned above not displaying properly.

Quote from: Erik Barros on July 25, 2025, 03:34:36 AM@stanceboyCZ I compiled pgarage with freebasic 32bits, if you can test it I appreciate it.

bro, my pc said it was malicious, like it has some virus or trojan

wtf?

I guess it wasn't approved by Micro$oft. Did Erik Barros pay the tax to Micro$oft?

As I wrote:

QuoteThe only problem is that you have a 32-bit outdated program, improperly sold as operating system.

Indeed something fishy about that .exe Eric Barros compiled: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/02dc0dcfc8f4894d7e1864e78a35783c1291724e4f133ef8b32643c5d8681a76/detection

https://threats.kaspersky.com/en/threat/VHO:Trojan.Win32.Bingoml.gen/

That's very, very likely a false positive. Antivirus heuristics can be trigger-happy sometimes, flagging innocuous things as suspicious based on vague patterns.

(I had a similar false-positive report for Cartography (https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?msg=60695) years ago -- in that case, I guess the antivirus didn't like the serve-to-localhost approach to the GUI.)

@stanceboyCZ @MiDiaN I compiled using the source code that already comes with the pgarage package, I used a fresh installation of freebasic32 and quickly tested it on Windows 10 and the defender didn't complain, I certainly didn't include any type of trojan in the package.

Edit:
I ran Kaspersky's dynamic test and it didn't return any problems. Certainly, some function is generating a false positive, but I don't even have the knowledge to analyze this.
https://opentip.kaspersky.com/02DC0DCFC8F4894D7E1864E78A35783C1291724E4F133EF8B32643C5D8681A76 (https://opentip.kaspersky.com/02DC0DCFC8F4894D7E1864E78A35783C1291724E4F133EF8B32643C5D8681A76)

To further underline the point, I have cross-compiled (https://www.freebasic.net/wiki/DevCrossCompiling) a Win32 Pretty Garage from my Linux system (so no chance that any hypothetical Windows malware could compromise the executable against my will). As I fully expected, VirusTotal (https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/cdd64c5114e4d31998a7e82cfb61219f966806edfebc772bca81f90d51453401) gives the same (bogus) BScope.Trojan.Bingoml flag from the VBA32 engine, plus another flag from MaxSecure (also bogus), for a score of 2/72 detections. These are all false positives; Erik's file is safe.

(This Reddit thread (https://old.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/yuatk0/trojanmalware300983susgen_on_virus_total_should_i/) has a decent explanation about false positives on VirusTotal.)

https://matei.one/games.html#download

QuoteNote: If, by any chance, when you try to download the file, you get a message saying that something dangerous was detected, like a virus, and you can't download it, that means you should get a real operating system instead of the malware you currently use, because the file available above doesn't contain any of that. Proprietary software is designed not to help you in any way but to make you feel uncomfortable, so you should avoid it if what you want is to be able to use your computer.

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

QuoteVice President Brad Silverberg later sent another memo, saying, "What the [user] is supposed to do is feel uncomfortable, and when he has bugs,

Oops!  Sorry, it took me several days to get to this thread, but I see you've been getting quite some help already!  Yes, I normally work on these programs in GNU/Linux, then I compile them also for DOS and Windows and quickly test the ports. I know it's possible to build for Windows in 32bit, but the compiler by default makes it 64bit. Surely there must be an option to just do that.

Anyway, in DOS, if you try to use a long file name, results are unpredictable because it depends on what the DOS you have will do with them and DOSBox does not do the same thing as a true DOS and that's also different from a Windows 95/98/Me version of DOS. From what you show, it looks like it does manage to read, but when you want to write, it's not sure about which directory it should go to. It'd be better to stick to short file names when using the DOS port.

I'm not familiar with Windows restricted run settings. I haven't used that OS for a very, very long time and it never was my main OS, but errors and warnings regarding a program being safe or not are entirely a thing of Windows. Windows wants to control everything and doesn't like standalone programs so it's common for these things to happen.

About how to switch garages, on the right hand side, you can click on different garages and groups. The left mouse button will select one to go on the left panel and right mouse button will put it on the right panel. Then, you can select and drag cars from one side to the other. There's a difference when you're dragging from garage to garage (which moves actual car files) and when you're dragging from a group to a garage (which copies the files wherever they're located into the destination garage) and when you drag from a group to another (which copies the reference, but moves no files). Pretty Garage will try to prevent you from messing up, so if you're about to delete or overwrite files, it'll normally refuse to do the operation, but you can force it by holding down Shift.

maybe i am dumb, but i don't get it :-\  ::)

but is there any way to change garage in-game?

Quote from: Matei on July 23, 2025, 08:42:54 PMOr you can have as many directories with Stunts as you want, btw.: STUNTS1, STUNTS2 etc. (I never used Pretty Garage (https://raceforkicks.com/projects/pgarage.php)).

So you copy Stunts in several directories, named "STUNTS1", "STUNTS2" etc., then you copy whatever cars in each of them and when you want to change the garage you exit the game, enter the other directory and start the game again, although I don't do that because I don't need that many cars.

And:

https://raceforkicks.com/

Download Stunts 1.1 Standard from DOWNLOADS, start the game with ST.BAT and you can choose from 2 sets of cars when you start. I just found this.

Quote from: stanceboyCZ on July 25, 2025, 08:43:25 AMBy the way, is there an option to switch garages?

You use the list on the far right of the window:

(https://i.imgur.com/fzgeAjy.png)

Left-clicking a name on the list picks the garage of the left pane, and right-clicking picks that of the right pane. So, for instance, if you want to bring in cars from the main garage to your Stunts folder, you'd left-click "Stunts" and then right-click "Main Garage".

Quote from: Matei on July 29, 2025, 07:29:50 PMSo you copy Stunts in several directories, named "STUNTS1", "STUNTS2" etc., then you copy whatever cars in each of them and when you want to change the garage you exit the game, enter the other directory and start the game again, although I don't do that because I don't need that many cars.

Having multiple Stunts installs can work okay for some purposes. Personally, my main Stunts folder has lots of subfolders with tracks, replays and tools, and so using Pretty Garage to swap cars into and out of the game folder is more convenient than having to move, replicate or even symlink all of the other stuff.

Some time ago I made a compilation of all the available cars, it is outdated but has a lot of content, it uses the simple garage instead of the pretty garage, but it is possible to select everything in the menus.

https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=4312 (https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=4312)

I found a bus there (https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=4312), but in 213 cars I didn't find any truck & trailer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-trailer_truck), which of course, btw, I have (https://matei.one/) (besides the bus).

[edit] I found a car which looks like a truck in the compilation mentioned above, but it simulates a truck the same way the car which looks like a helicopter simulates a helicopter. [/edit]

As regards "switching garage during gameplay"... Stunts does not have a garage feature. This is something we've created ourselves by means of different garage programs. Stunts can only read cars from its local directory. But if you do use a garage tool and move cars from a garage to another and you're running Stunts from DOSBox, you can then press Ctrl+Shift+F4 and then go back to the Car section in Stunts and you'll see the updated car list.