DOS Games Discussion

[dosraider]

If you're reading this it means you have discovered a simple fact:
most dosgames will run poorly or not at all on XP (W2K).
Luckily there is help: Dosbox.
Dosbox will emulate a dos environment, so that the dosgames can run through it. It will handle all those dos instructions that XP refuses to execute.
--> It is a safe to use program, it will NOT harm your XP.

This is meant as a short intruction to help you on the way with that program, so that you can play most of those ol'gems in XP. It's not meant as an elaborate nor complete howto. If you need more explainations please use the Get Games To Work forum.

Before posting for help:
-> Read the dosbox readme.
-> Use the forum search, plenty games have already a topic with the needed solutions.


If you still need help:
-> Give your system specs (OS-HARDWARE).
-> State as clearely as possible your problem.
-> If you get an error message post it as correctly as you can.
-> Post what you did t'll now to get your game running.
-> Post your mount lines, command lines you use to get the game running, the setup choices you made .....
-> Please don't forget to post about WHAT game you need help for.
-> Full original game? Downloaded? ISO? Ripped one? .... Downloaded from one of our sites?


First steps:
-> Download the latest dosbox version from:
http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
For XP it's the Win32 installer that you need.
Run the installer, accept all the default params.

-> In Windows create a c:\games\
-> double click in the dosbox start menu items on dosbox.conf,notepad will open,
** If not do it manually (means that your file associations have been altered).

Scroll down the whole way t'll you see:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

You need to add two command lines, so that dosbox will start with a virtual C:\ mounted.
This is how it must look:
[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
mount c c:\games\
c:

Save and exit.
Run dosbox, if you done it all correctly this is what you will see:


**If you get an error message, you made some mistakes, check everything and correct where needed.

** If your harddisk is partitioned and you use another partition to store your dosgames alter the command line accordingly.
Example: if you use the E: partition, then create an E:\games and mount that as C:
mount c e:\games

Some facts you must understand

*IMPORTANT*
************************************
*Do NOT mount your real C:\ as C:\ in dosbox.*
************************************
Better safe than sorry.
Even if it's unlikely that something bad will happen, it will avoid cluttering up your real C:\ with all kinds of old dos files.

When dosbox sees a C:\ it is in reality C:\games\.
That dosbox C:\ is called a virtual drive, dosbox will handle it as C:\ whilst the read-writing is in your real C:\games\, that is where all your dosgames will be installed, saved and whatever.
When dosbox says you are writing in C:\doom\ windows will write everything to C:\games\doom\

Basic dosbox sound settings

The most compatible soundsettings in dosgames with a default dosbox configuration are:
Soundblaster or Soundblaster 16

Adress 220
IRQ 7
DMA 1
HDMA 5

Midi adress 330.

Handy dosbox keystrokes:

[Wally*Won_Kenobie]

Ok everyone wants to know how to use dosbox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net) and obviously cant be bothered reading the read me.

In this example I am going to use an L drive as the C drive and then the game example will be keen1 (Commander Keen 1)

What is Dosbox?!?!?!?
Dosbox is basically an x86 (286,386,486 ... ) emulator which I think has Free Dos installed with all the drivers for sound, video and game controllers that were around in the past. Its basically like virtual PC in a way but doesnt use that windows part.

Mounting the drive for use
Basically this means we want to virtually place the drive into your dosbox programs emulation system so then games are slowed down and then sound works etc.
Mounting the drive is a simple process
First you put your game into an easy to reach place such as C:\games in the windows environment.

Type these instructions below (remember this example uses L: and keen1)
mount l c:\games - This tells dosbox to place your folder as an L drive in dosbox. Should say successful. (If not successful then try again and make sure that c:\games exists)

Now type L:\ into dosbox and your drive letter should change from Z: to L:

Your L: is now your games directory
Now we open the directory of keen 1

type cd keen1 - This opens the keen1 folder which resides in c:\game (In windows) or L: in dosbox. When you are done type keen1.exe (may differ)

Running Games with Cds
To mount a DVD or CD drive into dosbox type
mount D "X:\" -t cdrom (X is the Cd drive letter)
and the following should come up
MSCDEX installed.
Drive D is mounted as CDRom
_____________________________________________________________

Now your games should run in dosbox.

[John The Ax]

I'd just like to mention something else that people would find useful. D-fend. It's a DOSbox frontend, so it can manage a myriad of options, and is extremely easy to follow, since everything can be done visually through menus rather than through a prompt system. It's still important to know how to use DB, though, since you'll rarely want to make all the installation files with it.

Regardless, it's like a MAME for DOS games. I love its managerial system - you can sort by genre, author, favorite... Great for handling copious amounts of DOS happiness.

http://members.home.nl/mabus/

[Elign]

Thank you so much Dosraider, Wally*Won_Kenobie, and John The Ax!

If this topic is no help to you, go ahead and make another topic with your specific DOSBox problems.

[dosraider]

Mounting a CDdrive or ISO in dosbox (0.72 and later)

CD drive mount:
mount d x:\ -t cdrom
x:\ is your real drive letter in windows.
CDdrive mounted with full hardware support as D:

ISO mount:
imgmount d x:\iso\image.iso -t iso
x:\iso\image.iso is the full and correct path to your image file.
Mounts your ISO with full hardware support as D:

Mounting multiple ISOs
imgmount d x:\iso\image1.iso x:\iso\image2.iso x:\iso\image3.iso -t iso
This mounts all those ISOs with full harware support as D:
Swith between the mounted ISOs ingame using CTRL+F4.
Sometimes you will need to do a ALT+TAB first, not always needed.
Sometimes it will only work with dosbox running in a window, not full screen.

Mounting a folder as CD
mount d x:\folder -t cdrom
x:\folder is the full and correct path where you stored the files.
Mounts x:\folder as CD but with limited hardware support, this will not work for many games. -(trial and error here)-


***********************************************************
Advisable is to always mount as D.
Several games will only work/find their CD if mounted as D, that comes from in the begin of the CD era when most CD Drives were configured as D.

Do not mix, meaning: do not mount your real CD as D and on top an ISO_imgmount as E, you ask for troubles.
Many older games will only look for the first CD, they will not find their CD if you double mount

***********************************************************
In fact most CD games will work better if you use an image (ISO) in dosbox.
You avoid CD Drive spinup, seek and read times, newer CD Drives don't work as the old ones. The old 2x 4x speed were always rotating, no full stops.

Making an ISO from an older gaming CD isn't difficult to accomplish.
Nero can do it, or several freeware programs.
One of those freeware progs is:
http://www.imgburn.com/
There are many others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_image_software