Run All Old WC Games in DOSBox Walkthrough

Christopherger said:
Thanks a million AD, i will try this, sorry to be so ignorant, but where do I find the
DOSBOX.conf file? Is it in the DOSBOX folder in programs? I tried finding it last night but did not locate it, as I had suspected I needed to adjust its config......
thanks again for the help, much appreciated. I feel I am almost there, ....

one queston, I have read that ems should be false, (in Chris's first post in the playing old games topic...) but when I start the game up i keep seeing the message
Starting EMS so i wondered about that....
cheers
chris


It depends on the game. For most like wc2 and probably armada too EMS needs to be true.
 
Thanks again AD, and I found the DOS conf file in the DOS Box folder, was tired last night i guess. thanks and thanks for the word on ems. i will try that because the game is definitely trying to start it as start up happens. thanks again

:)
 
Christopherger said:
Thanks again AD, and I found the DOS conf file in the DOS Box folder, was tired last night i guess. thanks and thanks for the word on ems. i will try that because the game is definitely trying to start it as start up happens. thanks again

:)


Ususaly, games like wc2 will run without ems but you will not be able to get speech or other digital effects unless it's turned on.
 
I notice a number of different things to try, but I do not see a single person mentioning they have the original game's CD-ROM Deluxe Edition.

It's giving me a real pain. It may be the DOS programs it needs to run the way it's trying to make it run. APPEND.EXE and SUBST.EXE I could find with the rest of my stuff, but JOIN.EXE I had to find and download off a site.

Even with this, it glitches when trying to run the game with the ORIGIN.BAT file. If I try to run it directly from the WC.EXE, it won't have sound. If I try to use the INSTALL.EXE, it gives me trouble with trying to locate the game's own disc (which is in the drive).

With respect to the ORIGIN.BAT's readout after selecting to play the regular game, it displays:

APPEND already installed
REDIRECTED EXEC FAILEd -- "WC.EXE" CD="E:\ORIGIN\WC;E:\ORIGIN\WC\GAMEDAT;" DD="D:\ORIGIN\WINGCMDR"

This is really starting to bug me... Should I try to use C: for the 'Data Disk' ...? Does it even matter? I don't think it would...
 
Are you referring to WC2? I'm having some trouble following the problems you're describing here. It seems like you're jumping around. Can you start at the beginning and describe what happens until you encounter a problem? You should not need the disc at all. Do a full hard drive install and configure the sound, and you should be fine.
 
I've read through this entire thread, and am an advanced user. I have the WC4 double-sided DVD that came with a DXR card. (I no longer have the card, but I do have fond memories of WC4, which is my reason for installing it on my 1GHz Athlon Box. This machine has 512MB RAM, an nVidia GeForce 5200, and no joystick input.)

1) I downloaded DOSBox, the MPEG2 fix, and a couple other things that looked necessary.

2) I installed DOSBox, the Win95 WC4 fix, and I believe something else (so much stuff I forgot...).

3) I copied both sides of the DVD onto my hard drive (D: is set aside just for Games). The respective directories are D:\WC4DVD~1 and D:\WC4DVD~2.


This is my DOSBox.conf:

=========================================================
[sdl]
# fullscreen -- Start dosbox directly in fullscreen.
# fulldouble -- Use double buffering in fullscreen.
# fullresolution -- What resolution to use for fullscreen: original or fixed size (e.g. 1024x768).
# windowresolution -- Scale the window to this size IF the output device supports hardware scaling.
# output -- What to use for output: surface,overlay,opengl,openglnb,ddraw.
# autolock -- Mouse will automatically lock, if you click on the screen.
# sensitiviy -- Mouse sensitivity.
# waitonerror -- Wait before closing the console if dosbox has an error.
# priority -- Priority levels for dosbox: lowest,lower,normal,higher,highest.
# Second entry behind the comma is for when dosbox is not focused/minimized.
# mapperfile -- File used to load/save the key/event mappings from.
# usescancodes -- Avoid usage of symkeys, might not work on all operating systems.

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true

[dosbox]
# language -- Select another language file.
# memsize -- Amount of memory dosbox has in megabytes.
# machine -- The type of machine tries to emulate:hercules,cga,tandy,pcjr,vga.
# captures -- Directory where things like wave,midi,screenshot get captured.

language=
machine=vga
captures=capture
memsize=16

[render]
# frameskip -- How many frames dosbox skips before drawing one.
# aspect -- Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.
# scaler -- Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# Supported are none,normal2x,normal3x,advmame2x,advmame3x,advinterp2x,advinterp3x,tv2x,tv3x,rgb2x,rgb3x,scan2x,scan3x.

frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

[cpu]
# core -- CPU Core used in emulation: simple,normal,full,dynamic.
# cycles -- Amount of instructions dosbox tries to emulate each millisecond.
# Setting this higher than your machine can handle is bad!
# You can also let DOSBox guess the correct value by setting it to auto.
# Please note that this guessing feature is still experimental.
# cycleup -- Amount of cycles to increase/decrease with keycombo.
# cycledown Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

core=normal
cycles=3000
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

[mixer]
# nosound -- Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.
# rate -- Mixer sample rate, setting any devices higher than this will
# probably lower their sound quality.
# blocksize -- Mixer block size, larger blocks might help sound stuttering
# but sound will also be more lagged.
# prebuffer -- How many milliseconds of data to keep on top of the blocksize.

nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

[midi]
# mpu401 -- Type of MPU-401 to emulate: none, uart or intelligent.
# device -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.
# This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.
# config -- Special configuration options for the device. In Windows put
# the id of the device you want to use. See README for details.

mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=

[sblaster]
# sbtype -- Type of sblaster to emulate:none,sb1,sb2,sbpro1,sbpro2,sb16.
# sbbase,irq,dma,hdma -- The IO/IRQ/DMA/High DMA address of the soundblaster.
# mixer -- Allow the soundblaster mixer to modify the dosbox mixer.
# oplmode -- Type of OPL emulation: auto,cms,opl2,dualopl2,opl3.
# On auto the mode is determined by sblaster type.
# All OPL modes are 'Adlib', except for CMS.
# oplrate -- Sample rate of OPL music emulation.

sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=22050

[gus]
# gus -- Enable the Gravis Ultrasound emulation.
# gusbase,irq1,irq2,dma1,dma2 -- The IO/IRQ/DMA addresses of the
# Gravis Ultrasound. (Same IRQ's and DMA's are OK.)
# gusrate -- Sample rate of Ultrasound emulation.
# ultradir -- Path to Ultrasound directory. In this directory
# there should be a MIDI directory that contains
# the patch files for GUS playback. Patch sets used
# with Timidity should work fine.

gus=true
gusrate=22050
gusbase=240
irq1=5
irq2=5
dma1=3
dma2=3
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

[speaker]
# pcspeaker -- Enable PC-Speaker emulation.
# pcrate -- Sample rate of the PC-Speaker sound generation.
# tandy -- Enable Tandy Sound System emulation (off,on,auto).
# For auto Tandysound emulation is present only if machine is set to tandy.
# tandyrate -- Sample rate of the Tandy 3-Voice generation.
# disney -- Enable Disney Sound Source emulation.

pcspeaker=true
pcrate=22050
tandy=auto
tandyrate=22050
disney=true

[bios]
# joysticktype -- Type of joystick to emulate: none, 2axis, 4axis,
# fcs (Thrustmaster) ,ch (CH Flightstick).
# none disables joystick emulation.
# 2axis is the default and supports two joysticks.

joysticktype=2axis

[serial]
# serial1-4 -- set type of device connected to com port.
# Can be disabled, dummy, modem, directserial.
# Additional parameters must be in the same line in the form of
# parameter:value. Parameters for all types are irq, startbps, bytesize,
# stopbits, parity (all optional).
# for directserial: realport (required).
# for modem: listenport (optional).
# Example: serial1=modem listenport:5000

serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[dos]
# xms -- Enable XMS support.
# ems -- Enable EMS support.
# umb -- Enable UMB support (false,true,max).

xms=true
ems=true
umb=true

[ipx]
# ipx -- Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=false

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
mount c: c:\
mount d: d:\
mount e: e:\
=========================================================

I am frustrated because I get this error:

dosbox_000.png


I'm not clear on what my mistake was. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you
 
nchrisb said:
I've read through this entire thread, and am an advanced user. I have the WC4 double-sided DVD that came with a DXR card...

First off, the WC4 DVD *IS* the windows version. In XP itself (not dosbox)

set the compatability mode of the installer and install WC4. THen YOu need the patch from the CIC files section to get the video to play the MPEG2 video. http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/dxmci10.zip(Not the win95 patch. this is already the windows version) And then set the wc4 executable to either win95 or 98 compatability mode and that should do it. If you have powerDVD installed you might need to install this into your wc4 directory as well:http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/mpeg2dec.zip
 
AD said:
First off, the WC4 DVD *IS* the windows version. In XP itself (not dosbox)

set the compatability mode of the installer and install WC4. THen YOu need the patch from the CIC files section to get the video to play the MPEG2 video. http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/dxmci10.zip(Not the win95 patch. this is already the windows version) And then set the wc4 executable to either win95 or 98 compatability mode and that should do it. If you have powerDVD installed you might need to install this into your wc4 directory as well:http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/mpeg2dec.zip

Thank you for correcting me on the DOS vs. Windows thing. I played an even earlier Wing Commander before this one (WC2?), which was DOS-based. Partly because of that, I didn't catch the difference (despite blatantly obvious error messages, smooth installation, and strange gameplay behavior). :D Sounds like it should be even easier to install here.

This is completely off-topic, but later, another game I will try installing is Duke Nukem Atomic Edition.
 
I can play the game, with one problem: During the cinematic sequences, when I have to make a choice, I have to switch away from WC4 and back to it to be able to make a choice. On top of that, I can't make my choices with the mouse like I could when I played it years ago (this time, I can only make them with the cursor and "Enter" keys). I'm not sure what I did--or didn't--do for it to work this way, but it's extremely annoying.

Thanks for any help.
 
WC2 More EMS?

Hello all!

I am new to the forum and actually have an extensive post with an install issue for WC1...I wont bother re pasting it here.

Quick question for WC2; Everything works great, just no speech. It tells me during the startup that the ems is fully used before the "speech enabled" line that would show up in the old days on my Zeos...Can I increase the amount of ems available?

Thanks everyone!
 
nchrisb said:
I can play the game, with one problem: During the cinematic sequences, when I have to make a choice, I have to switch away from WC4 and back to it to be able to make a choice. On top of that, I can't make my choices with the mouse like I could when I played it years ago (this time, I can only make them with the cursor and "Enter" keys). I'm not sure what I did--or didn't--do for it to work this way, but it's extremely annoying.

Thanks for any help.

Maybe check the ALT+O menu to make sure everything is set to how you want it. I've never heard of having to alt-tab to make a choice. I also never used the mouse to make choices, just the keyboard. It's possible the option was removed from the game in the transfer.

ELTEE said:
Quick question for WC2; Everything works great, just no speech. It tells me during the startup that the ems is fully used before the "speech enabled" line that would show up in the old days on my Zeos...Can I increase the amount of ems available?

DOSBox gives you 16 megs of EMS, which is plenty. You have to make sure that Speech is turned on in the installer and that you have the correct IRQ specified. DOSBox defaults to IRQ 7 for Soundblaster.
 
I figured it out. It appears that the issue here is the sound configuration.
After countless, feeble attempts at the ems and loadfix tweaks, I finally decided to fiddle with the installation. Setting both sound and speech to SOUND BLASTER solved the problem.
 
Chris, thanks for the advice on WC2. I still cant seem to get speech. What does loadfix 32 mean? I'm afraid that reading old posts doesn't quite explain it all to me; that doesn't give you any more ems does it?

Also, a general question that I think falls under tech support, but possibly not. My copy of WC1 came in a box that said it included the secret missions, but I can't find data for them anywhere on the cd (wc1/ultima6 compilation). Could the box be mistaken? Is there a reliable source to obtain the SM1 and SM2 if my cd is lacking both?
I apologize if this is the wrong area for this question...
 
Loadfix reduces your memory by a bit. In original DOS memory was wasted my the CD and mouse driver. In DOSBox those don't take away memory as they are 'inherited' from Windows. But some software is confused now as there should be less memory available.
 
ChrisReid said:
Maybe check the ALT+O menu to make sure everything is set to how you want it. I've never heard of having to alt-tab to make a choice. I also never used the mouse to make choices, just the keyboard. It's possible the option was removed from the game in the transfer.

I looked through the <Alt>-O menu to try changing/fixing this issue. No dice. I would have to agree with you that the option was maybe clobbered during the transfer.

Now that I bring it up, the game is playing from the DVD and not from files and directiories copied onto the hard drive. I suspect that this is the cause, without having a solid way to prove it. :rolleyes:
 
Thank you for clearing up loadfix...

I guess I'm going to have to obtain another copy of the secret missions 1 and 2. I have located one, but it is for a PC but a rm/Tandy. Can anyone tell me if that will work on a normal pc? A few years ago, like a complete idiot, I tried to get a copy of Wing Commander running on a pc that was for an Amiga...I don't want to make the same mistake again!!
 
ELTEE said:
Chris, thanks for the advice on WC2. I still cant seem to get speech.

What did you set in the installer?

ELTEE said:
Thank you for clearing up loadfix...

I guess I'm going to have to obtain another copy of the secret missions 1 and 2. I have located one, but it is for a PC but a rm/Tandy. Can anyone tell me if that will work on a normal pc?

Wing Commander 1 was made for ten different platforms, but I don't think "rm/Tandy" is one of them. It's either regular DOS PC or Amiga there. Tandy computers were pretty much regular PCs with DOS. We'd need more information to make some sort of determination.
 
Hey guys, I'm trying to get WC4 (6 CD version) working through DosBox. Here's where I'm at. I can get WC4 working almost perfectly in DOS, including the flight sequences. The only downside I've noticed is that during the choices (i.e. "Ain't My Business" or "This Pisses Me Off") Blair's voice is extremely choppy while reading the lines. But that doesn't matter much as the rest of the dialogue during the FMV's sounds perfect.

The problem is this however. I can only run WC4 -through- the installer in DOS. When I finish installing it it gives me the option to "Save Settings and Run WC4" and that's the only time I'm able to play it. The walkthrough on the Tech Support page states that I can reload WC4 after installing by mounting the D: drive and typing wc4, but everytime I do this it takes me back to the installer.

In addition, I've tried copying the files to the hard drive and most of the times I try it gives me the error I'm including as a screenshot. However there was one occasion where they copied successfully and I navigated to that folder using the cd command, entered WC4, and THEN it gave me the same error when I tried to bring up WC4. As a result, I have to restart WC4 fresh each time I load up and there's no way for me to save my progress or anything.

So I'm real close here, it runs quite well through the installer. I just need help getting it running through my hard drive or straight off the CD or however else I can do this.
 

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