Armada Q&A

Sandoval

Spaceman
Hi, I've just recently decide to revive my childhood interest in the Wing Commander games and I'm new to this forum and website (which are excellent by the way, and I hope I can contribute some worthwhile conversation if nothing else). I've acquired a copy of Armada, one of the few WC games I never played way back when, and I was wondering if anyone knew of a good FAQ or just general play guide for this game online. I can't get the manual application to run, and though I expect I can figure things out largely by experiment, I prefer some introductory documentation. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Hi Sandoval and welcome to the CIC! Aren't you supposed to be dead n buried 6ft under on New Detroit!?

First off, you can goto here which has a lot of information about dosbox. There is a little updating needed because of the latest update to Dosbox so i'll give you some information here.

Download 0.72 of dosbox from here and install.

The next bit of information is what I do personally, its up to you how you wish to name things but here goes:

1 - Create a folder on your C:\ drive called DosGames
2 - Goto Start>Programs?Dosbox-0.72 and click "dosbox.conf"
3 - Scroll down to the end where [AUTOEXEC] is
4 - Add the following lines (May be different on your setup):
mount a a:\ -t floppy
mount c c:\dosgames
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
c:

This now gives you a virtual C:\ drive you can install your games on, as well as access to your floppy and CD drives. (If your CD drive is not D, change d:\ to appropriate letter.
example:
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
note that in dosbox, your drive would still be D:\ unless you change the initial "d" to an "e"
example:
mount e e:\ -t cdrom

5 - Above [AUTOEXEC] is [IPX]. Change so IPX=TRUE, you can join us with some multiplayer action!

No need to modify any other settings at the moment. Save and Exit.

Open up dosbox, and you are presented with the classic dos prompt. Insert your disks, navigate to the appropriate drive and install the same as in the old days.
Your Music card can now use General MIDI on port 330
Your Sound card should use SB 16 with A220 I7 D1

Once installed, goto the CIC Files Armada Section here and download the Armada Patch and Proving Grounds addon. Extract these direct to your c:\dosgames\armada directory (no need to go through dosbox), re-launch dosbox and let the games begin.


Should you have problems calibrating the joystick, point your browser to HCL's fantastic website and download the "Armada & PG - DosBox Patch (IPX & Joystick)". Ignore the fact its got a strikethrough. Extract these to the armarda directory as before. Now you need to edit the Dosbox.conf again. Navigate to [JOYSTICK] and change so TIMED=FALSE . This should help calibration issues.


Keep an eye on the General Chat area of the forums as we are having armada MP games now and then. You are more then welcome to join. Enjoy
 
Last edited by a moderator:
First off welcome to the CIC!

You should also check the Tech Support Forum as their are several threads dedicated to getting old WC games to run on modern machines.

You should also be able to access the Armada manual through the CIC. They have everything online.
 
Thanks to both of you for the assistance and welcome. I did manage to get the game to run without any problems, but was unaware of the tweaks needed for online play, so I've made those adjustments now. The manual you mentioned was just what I needed, so now I just need to get the swing of the game and I'll be glad to join in your sessions. I always try to search the forum before I ask, but I may post the occasional question about the game here in this thread.
 
Back
Top