Remembering the DOS DAYS!!! [Archive] - Team17 Forum

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HackerMan
26 Oct 2007, 07:24
Hey guys first and foremost. There are a few rules you must adhere to if you want to post in this thread...
This thread is about the good old dos days, namely 1981-1994...
Anything NOT related to dos, or dos games, will be considered SPAM.
and i would like to request that the moderators, delete any thing of that
sort.
Dont try be clever, and dont anyone DARE try to insult dos... Respect what started everything you pretty much know today...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well first of all, I MISS THE DOS DAYS...
Man oh man, nothing was more exciting than the day i recieved Space Quest 1, Police Quest 1, Kings Quest 1, and even ol' Leisure Suit larry 1....
The excitement, of interacting with a game, that in those days, were the absolute best, made by the industry leaders, the masters of dos gaming... SIERRA.
I remember the first day, i started Lemmings for the first time....
We were all blown away... wow, look at the colours, and rich Sound Blaster music and effects, it really was enough to bring the common gamer, to tears...
Talking about tears, How many games now-a-days, could actually bring you to tears???
I remember when Kings Quest 4 was previewed at some game show in the states, and 40% of the crowd, were in tears, when they heard the quality of the sound... (which they stated at the time, to being the closest thing to a hollywood movie)... King Graham was "ALMOST" on his deathbed, and the world cried out... SAVE GRAHAM... dont let him die... Now that was gaming, something that trully tugged at peoples emotions....
The last time i cried recently over a new game, was oblivion, and only because my pc's case dropped on my foot... hehe...

gramrnatze
26 Oct 2007, 08:07
They should bring back Commander Keen

quakerworm
26 Oct 2007, 08:23
the true glory of the dos era comes from the fact that you really had to know what you were doing to write quality code for dos. it was a big mistake to try to develop an operating system that is 'easy' to code for. we now have hordes of incompetent quacks who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a keyboard, much less to develop any of the top selling titles.
hardware access for games should have been kept the same way it worked under DOS, instead of being delegated to an unknown quantity of obscure drivers written by various third parties. when you had to send messages directly to the audio and memory access controllers to set up an audio stream, and then modify interrupt vectors just to know when to switch buffers, there was little chance of somebody who doesn't know how it all works writing any kind of an application. today, you see someone grabbing an off the shelf library to write a 3d game, and then complain that the frame rate is bad. well, if you looked at the library you are using and realized that you are computing the same thing a hundred thousand times per frame, maybe you'd be able to do something about it.
but coders today are entirely spoiled. they need their apis, their libraries, their operating system environments. give them a new system that works slightly differently, and they get confused, start complaining that it is too difficult to work with, and go to a more familiar and ever more resource hungry system. shame to their name.

MtlAngelus
26 Oct 2007, 08:25
Well the only DOS games I can remember, because I was too young at the time, were The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary and Designasaurus II.
The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary was just effing marvelous.
It had great puzzles and really awesome, altough maybe a little bizarre graphics.
I remember I was young enough that I had to ask my dad for help on some of the Math puzzles. :p
But I eventually learned enough to do them myself tho. :cool:
There was also Designasaurus II, which was also great. The thing with that one, is that to run the game you had to insert a code that you would get out of a cardboard code wheel thing... the code wheel thing basicaly had 2 layers, first one had dinosaurs and letters or numbers, and the second layer acted like a cover, so that when you were looking at one dinosaur, you would see a particular letter/number... Maybe there were 3 layers... or something like that I dont' remember too well. The thing is I lost that damn wheel, so I coulnd't play the game anymore... :(
There's also a couple of other games, but I vaguely remember them, vaguely enough that I don't remember the names...
I do recall Lemmings, I loved it to bits, but I didn't have it. I only got around to play it in my aunts computer... but only a couple of times, because she was allways bitter and wouldn't let us play with it. :(
I loved just detonating all the lemmings for fun, hehe.
But yeah, even tho I was rather young back then, I still loved that era.
Edit: Oh and we had a laptop btw, connected to a monitor for colours, because it was b&w... I remember it had a particular ritual you had to follow just to turn it on... it was really fun.

HackerMan
26 Oct 2007, 08:38
Hey Quakerworm you said it buddy, i could not agree more... :) :)
Hehe, you know what really rocks, i still have all my original dos games, and since the new release of the latest DOSBOX... i play them all, in their complete GLORY... Soundblaster sound, mouse support... running at the right frame rates... So everyday i live my dos days... So many guys are jealous.
Plus i dont blame them...
Here is a funny story, when i was really young, i still remember the release of THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND 1..... that was the worst day of my life...
Why? well i had a hercules monochrome computer with spectacular BLACK AND WHITE graphics... hehe. and Monkey Island 1 was the FIRST non sierra game, that REQUIRED a colour computer... so for years i was screwed...
Until the day came, that i finally got my first ega card... man that was exciting...
I still remember WORMS REINFORCEMENTS videos, lagging on my machine... hehe.
I remember when cd's didnt exist, mouse's were not around, and too have sound on a computer was almost UNHEARD OF... hehe those were the days...
What i really like to boast about, is i still have EVERY SINGLE great dos game. and can play them, in their original glory, whenever i want...
Guess what i was playing last night... DEATH RALLY... what a game...
remember old APOGEE... MASTERS of commander keen. wow.
I think i might start the commander keen series over again, this weekend. HMMM...

robowurmz
26 Oct 2007, 09:52
They should bring back Commander Keen
HEAR HEAR!
I have all the C.K games, all on their original floppies...man, those games made me who I am today! Also, Lemmings! I has the original! And WORMS for dos, that was awesome fun. Oh yeah, and who could forget STUNT? The BEST racing game in my opinion.
I was lucky, my Dad was in the computer business, so we had a really top-end Dos, with SVGA, and everything. Colour, 133Mhz (!) Processor!

Zero72
26 Oct 2007, 10:28
Oh yeah, and who could forget STUNT? The BEST racing game in my opinion.Huh... I think a friend of mine had that. I always had a hell of a time actually playing it. It had a track editor and everything?

Melon
26 Oct 2007, 10:34
Who can forget such classics as Lemmings, Lemminngs 2, Dune 2 and Jazz Jackrabbit? Thanks to DOSBox, they're currently my most played games, and have been for the past few months.
I only need to get a gold on the last level of the Sports tribe to get 100%!

Paul.Power
26 Oct 2007, 10:36
The Idiot's Guide to DOS was one of my favourite books* of the 1994-97 period, mostly for the jokes but, y'know, I learnt stuff as well. Still took me a long time to work out that "Bad command or file name" meant "Bad (command or file name)" and not "(Bad command) or (file name)", though ("Why doesn't it like file names?").
But yes, I had some fun games then (and some less fun ones - I could never get the hang of Prince of Persia) - Links: The Challenge of Golf and Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker being the two stand-outs.
When I got my new Windows '95 machine, it was a bit odd: DOS games wouldn't play sounds, so every time I wanted to take, say, Theme Park or Transport Tycoon for a spin, I'd be playing in complete silence. Odd that.
I still haven't got my head around DOSBox.
____
* Well, okay, probably not because at that age I could have read for Britain, so goodness knows how many books were competing for the "Favourite book" title.

HackerMan
26 Oct 2007, 11:00
Now thats a classic, Prince of Persia....
Prince of persia 1 was AMAZING for its time, it had the most realistic moving character, people went as far to say, that it was the beginning of motion capturing... well in a sense...
Prince of Persia 2 was the first game Ever to have a TALKING intro, wow to hear a voice come from your speakers, was like science fiction... man oh man.
those were the days...
Prince of persia is still one of the greatest dos games, i just wish you had played it more, it really captivates you after a few levels.....
How many people made it to level 8, got stuck in that area, and all you had to do, was wait a few moments, and a mouse would run over a panel, and release you... that was like WOOOAH... check out the advanced ai... hehe
Stunts was and still is my favourite racing game of all DOS time...
It had replays, SOMETHING ALSO UNHEARD OF... the track editor gave you months of extended play, plus the crashing was really neat... I LOVE STUNTS!
DUNE 2... first RTS EVER, EVER, EVER... well there were the Crescent Hawk interceptor games (earliest mechwarrior style game)... But dune 2 set the world ablaze... Warcraft 1 followed very soon, but command and conquer dominated the market for many years... so big ups to DUNE 2... BRILLIANT.
Who remembers XCOM... the greatest turn based strategy game in the world..
Well Worms equals this statement too...
UFO enemy unknown.... Xcom Terror from the Deep.... Xcom APOCALYPSE...
those games gave me the great strategic mind i have today...
And Worms 1, the game that consumed my life.... without it... i would not be me.
Yo Paul.Power dosbox is really easy, google for the new version, and just read a help file, to easily set it up, with working sound, mouse, smooth framerates, full screen EVERYTHING!!!

yakuza
26 Oct 2007, 11:04
the true glory of the dos era comes from the fact that you really had to know what you were doing to write quality code for dos. it was a big mistake to try to develop an operating system that is 'easy' to code for. we now have hordes of incompetent quacks who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a keyboard, much less to develop any of the top selling titles.
hardware access for games should have been kept the same way it worked under DOS, instead of being delegated to an unknown quantity of obscure drivers written by various third parties. when you had to send messages directly to the audio and memory access controllers to set up an audio stream, and then modify interrupt vectors just to know when to switch buffers, there was little chance of somebody who doesn't know how it all works writing any kind of an application. today, you see someone grabbing an off the shelf library to write a 3d game, and then complain that the frame rate is bad. well, if you looked at the library you are using and realized that you are computing the same thing a hundred thousand times per frame, maybe you'd be able to do something about it.
but coders today are entirely spoiled. they need their apis, their libraries, their operating system environments. give them a new system that works slightly differently, and they get confused, start complaining that it is too difficult to work with, and go to a more familiar and ever more resource hungry system. shame to their name.
Yeah man, whoever invented the car is an idiot too, what happened to running to your destination? It surely would make the weak fail, and only the strong and fast would prevail.
I remember playing Sam & Max: Hit the Road, Jackrabbit and a few other games on DOS.

Paul.Power
26 Oct 2007, 11:09
Now thats a classic, Prince of Persia....
Prince of persia 1 was AMAZING for its time, it had the most realistic moving character, people went as far to say, that it was the beginning of motion capturing... well in a sense...
Prince of Persia 2 was the first game Ever to have a TALKING intro, wow to hear a voice come from your speakers, was like science fiction... man oh man.
those were the days...
Prince of persia is still one of the greatest dos games, i just wish you had played it more, it really captivates you after a few levels.....
If I didn't die before I reached the first guard, I died when I did reach him.
Also, Links had talking three years before PoP2 - "Looks like I hit the tree, Jim" :D

HackerMan
26 Oct 2007, 11:11
hey yakuza...
unless you are agreeing, i feel you kinda missed the point of what he was saying, in dos days, the coding was very specialized and specific, and if you didnt know what to do, it would never work...
Windows coding and stuff doesnt really allow the control that dos did.
Jazz Jackrabbit rocks, i have number 1 and 2, with all the extra add on packs.
So for jazz jackrabbit one, i think i have about 14 episodes... where the original release only had 4 i think...
Jazz Jackrabbit 2, i modded for windows xp, and i play it at 1024 x 768...
its really cool...
Sam and Max were probably one of the few games, that i was not crazy about, they were ok, but just lacked the enthusiam, that say Gobliiins had, or Goblins 2 or 3... or even the very underground hardly heard of GOBLINS 4...
which i have, its called Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth, or something like that...
Im the only person i know that has it... confused a lot of people cause it was not titled goblins 4...
HOW COULD I FORGET... yeah sorry Links... that ancient golf game had simple talking which came through on the internal pc speaker.... things like... birdie.... or four....you hit the tree jim... hehe
But i think Sound Blaster wise, Pop 2 was the first, crisp clear voices...

Melon
26 Oct 2007, 11:13
I remember playing Sam & Max: Hit the Road, Jackrabbit and a few other games on DOS.
Oh yeah! How could I forget all of the LucasArts adventure games! Day of the Tentacle! Monkey Island!
Games were so great in those days. Well, I'm probably looking back with "rose tinted goggles", but I do believe games just have something about them nowadays that don't make them as timeless as they once were.
EDIT: So for jazz jackrabbit one, i think i have about 14 episodes... where the original release only had 4 i think...
Nope, 6 episodes with an extra 3 for the CD version.

HackerMan
26 Oct 2007, 11:21
oh yes you right, but i do have a few more on top of that 9... Special releases made only for preorder customers... but im not sure if its 14, maybe its 12, one of them is just the mini game that jazz had, running the mazes to get the gems... but all of them, in its own episode...
Ill check tonight, and tell you on monday... im sure its around 12.
Day of the tentacle, wow... thats old MANIAC MANSION 2.... hell yeah...
Best thing about that game, was the SUPER LONG INTRO, with full talking voices, but even better than that, was that in the game, you could turn on the one computer, and guess what happens, it starts MANIAC MANSION 1, and is fully playable within number 2, very clever, very very clever for its time.
I might play that tonight....

yakuza
26 Oct 2007, 11:37
I just remembered one of the games I used to play but can't remember the name... It was a point and click adventure, and you started chained by your feet in a cave, upside down...

HackerMan
26 Oct 2007, 11:39
oooooooo geeez i think i know which game you talking about, man oh man, trying to go through my old memory banks... hehe. Im ashamed i cant remember... :(
Ok lets make a game out of it.... WHO CAN NAME THAT GAME... yakuza just spoke about???
This is my "Who remembers" section
Who remembers SYNDICATE... bullfrogs first bestselling game...
Who remembers Strike commander or even Wing commander...
Who remembers apogee's games, Commander keen, Monster bash, Jill of the jungle, EPIC PINBALL
Who remembers Theme hospital, Theme park, Civilisation...
Who remembers Ducktales
Who remembers THE BLACK CAULDRON... (made by al lowe, creator of the larry series)
Who remembers The Lost vikings...
Who remembers DUKE NUKEM...1,2,3... and then DUKE NUKEM 3d... what about doom, doom 2.
Who remembers The Legend of Kyrandia... 1,2,3.
Who remembers Crystal Caves, or Oilswell.
Who remembers Death Rally, or WACKY WHEELS...
Who remembers BLOCK OUT...
Who remembers SOKOBAN...
Who remembers Bubble Bobble (yes it started at arcades/but dos versions were released)
thats enough for right now... well WHO REMEMBERS??
Games were so great in those days. Well, I'm probably looking back with "rose tinted goggles", but I do believe games just have something about them nowadays that don't make them as timeless as they once were.
You know what you talking about!!! :) :) :) I could not have said it better... WELL DONE!

SupSuper
26 Oct 2007, 23:26
Must... resist... DOS thread...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/supsuper/dosbox.png
Well, so much for that then.
Man oh man, nothing was more exciting than the day i recieved Space Quest 1, Police Quest 1, Kings Quest 1, and even ol' Leisure Suit larry 1....
The excitement, of interacting with a game, that in those days, were the absolute best, made by the industry leaders, the masters of dos gaming... SIERRA.I wish you wouldn't hyperbole so much. Sierra was fairly good in the old days, but they were more quantity than quality. The fact that only 3 Quest series from the dozens they put out are memorable shows that.
They did love the adventure genre, though LucasArts eventually butt in on the field with their shiny mouse-based SCUMM engine, making them quickly try to patch up their old keyboard-based engine to keep up.
I remember the first day, i started Lemmings for the first time....
We were all blown away... wow, look at the colours, and rich Sound Blaster music and effects, it really was enough to bring the common gamer, to tears...I wouldn't call the first Lemmings' music rich, it was just synthezized MIDI, but it was very charming. And the voices, oh the voices... nuts to you and your Links, Paul. :p
Talking about tears, How many games now-a-days, could actually bring you to tears???A lot. Not the happy kind of tears, though.
I remember when Kings Quest 4 was previewed at some game show in the states, and 40% of the crowd, were in tears, when they heard the quality of the sound... (which they stated at the time, to being the closest thing to a hollywood movie)... King Graham was "ALMOST" on his deathbed, and the world cried out... SAVE GRAHAM... dont let him die... Now that was gaming, something that trully tugged at peoples emotions....I was never a big fan of King's Quest, personally. It was very drama-y and boring to my tastes. Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry were much more entertaining.
Hehe, you know what really rocks, i still have all my original dos games, and since the new release of the latest DOSBOX... i play them all, in their complete GLORY... Soundblaster sound, mouse support... running at the right frame rates... So everyday i live my dos days... So many guys are jealous.
Plus i dont blame them...DOSBox is pretty sweet, it even tends to perform better than actual DOS sometimes. Though I never get why so many people have so much trouble with it, it works fine for me.
I still remember WORMS REINFORCEMENTS videos, lagging on my machine... hehe.I remember the Worms Reinforcements demo crashing on my computer. It saddened me. :(
I remember when cd's didnt exist, mouse's were not around, and too have sound on a computer was almost UNHEARD OF... hehe those were the days...I remember the whole sheer excitment everytime something new came out back then. HELL YEAH 3.5 FLOPPIES! SOUNDBLASTER CARD! SVGA GRAPHICS! CD-ROM!
HEAR HEAR!
I have all the C.K games, all on their original floppies...man, those games made me who I am today! Also, Lemmings! I has the original! And WORMS for dos, that was awesome fun. Oh yeah, and who could forget STUNT? The BEST racing game in my opinion.
I was lucky, my Dad was in the computer business, so we had a really top-end Dos, with SVGA, and everything. Colour, 133Mhz (!) Processor!If you still have the original Keen games, you can play them on modern systems with CloneKeen (http://clonekeen.sourceforge.net/).
And Stunts (aka 4D Sports Driving) was awesome for its innovation and the wackiest physics ever.
Who can forget such classics as Lemmings, Lemminngs 2, Dune 2 and Jazz Jackrabbit? Thanks to DOSBox, they're currently my most played games, and have been for the past few months.
I only need to get a gold on the last level of the Sports tribe to get 100%!Never managed to beat Lemmings 2, never got the hang of it. Gladly played through Dune 2 and Jazz Jackrabbit though. :)
Now thats a classic, Prince of Persia....
Prince of persia 1 was AMAZING for its time, it had the most realistic moving character, people went as far to say, that it was the beginning of motion capturing... well in a sense... (...)Prince of Persia was mighty fun, though also mighty easy to get lost in. And the timing puzzles were pure murder.
Stunts was and still is my favourite racing game of all DOS time...
It had replays, SOMETHING ALSO UNHEARD OF... the track editor gave you months of extended play, plus the crashing was really neat... I LOVE STUNTS!Stunts was also the only fully 3D game of its time, and an opponent that automatically adapted to the tracks you made. And the only racing game where you could do some really freaky moves.
DUNE 2... first RTS EVER, EVER, EVER... well there were the Crescent Hawk interceptor games (earliest mechwarrior style game)... But dune 2 set the world ablaze... Warcraft 1 followed very soon, but command and conquer dominated the market for many years... so big ups to DUNE 2... BRILLIANT.Dune 2 was the first RTS that defined that genre though. Mechwarrior was a whole different genre. Dune 2 defined the whole construct-buildings-gather-resources-build-armies system that most RTS use these days.
Who remembers XCOM... the greatest turn based strategy game in the world..
Well Worms equals this statement too...
UFO enemy unknown.... Xcom Terror from the Deep.... Xcom APOCALYPSE...
those games gave me the great strategic mind i have today...I wouldn't compare X-Com to Worms, whole different thing.
X-Com was and still is one of the most original strategy games ever. (also one of the most difficult for newcomers) Possibly why it still gets cloned to this very day.
Albeit the first one is still the best imho. Terror from the Deep was just the first with minor improvements. Apocalypse took it in a different direction, which wasn't bad but the new art style felt kinda drab, unlike the colorful X-Com 1.
Jazz Jackrabbit rocks, i have number 1 and 2, with all the extra add on packs.
So for jazz jackrabbit one, i think i have about 14 episodes... where the original release only had 4 i think...
Jazz Jackrabbit 2, i modded for windows xp, and i play it at 1024 x 768...
its really cool...How did you mod Jazz Jackrabbit 2 to run at 1024x768?
Sam and Max were probably one of the few games, that i was not crazy about, they were ok, but just lacked the enthusiam,Not like Sam & Max? Oh man, that was probably one of the wackiest cartooniest adventure games ever. How could you not enjoy it? :(
that say Gobliiins had, or Goblins 2 or 3... or even the very underground hardly heard of GOBLINS 4...
which i have, its called Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth, or something like that...
Im the only person i know that has it... confused a lot of people cause it was not titled goblins 4...Well technically, Woodruff and the Schnibble wasn't a Goblins game (though pretty similar) which is probably why it didn't sell well when it came out, but stretching the Goblins storyline even further would just be pushing it.
The Goblins series wasn't bad, but it was very puzzle based, many of them being teeth-grinding. It frustrated me.
Oh yeah! How could I forget all of the LucasArts adventure games! Day of the Tentacle! Monkey Island!
Games were so great in those days. Well, I'm probably looking back with "rose tinted goggles", but I do believe games just have something about them nowadays that don't make them as timeless as they once were.I'll admit some games seemed much better then than now, but it's not so rose-tinted after all. How many memorable LucasArts games are from the old days? Even old Star Wars titles like X-Wing are much more cherished than today's Star Wars titles.
LucasArts set a great standard for adventure games back then. Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, The Dig, all of them great in their own way. Until LucasArts went crap so all the writers went their own ways.
Nope, 6 episodes with an extra 3 for the CD version.Don't forget the special Xmas episodes.
Day of the tentacle, wow... thats old MANIAC MANSION 2.... hell yeah...
Best thing about that game, was the SUPER LONG INTRO, with full talking voices, but even better than that, was that in the game, you could turn on the one computer, and guess what happens, it starts MANIAC MANSION 1, and is fully playable within number 2, very clever, very very clever for its time.
I might play that tonight....I really hope you have the full talkie CD version of DOTT, and not the floppy version with only voices in the intro. The voiceovers throughout the game are pratically half the gaming experience.
I also suggest ScummVM (http://www.scummvm.org/) for those having trouble getting old adventure games running these days.
Who remembers SYNDICATE... bullfrogs first bestselling game...It was good, but what about Populous? That was damn popular.
Who remembers Strike commander or even Wing commander...Wing Commander, that series is popular like crazy. Never grew fond of it, personally.
Who remembers apogee's games, Commander keen, Monster bash, Jill of the jungle, EPIC PINBALLEpic Pinball isn't by Apogee :P The name should be a give away.
Played all of Commander Keen but none of the others. Keen was far enough to handle.
Who remembers Theme hospital, Theme park, Civilisation...Ah, the genre setters. Theme Park with its cartoony management sim style (and a rather crazy intro) and Civilization with its turn-based complex strategy. Microprose put out awesome after awesome back then.
Theme Hospital was also another of Bullfrog's fine games, though more of a Windows than DOS game. (both versions were released together)
Who remembers Ducktales Fun game, but the controls were horrible.
Who remembers THE BLACK CAULDRON... (made by al lowe, creator of the larry series)You can grab it for free off his site (http://www.allowe.com/More/download.htm), too.
Who remembers The Lost vikings...Geez, haven't place
Who remembers DUKE NUKEM...1,2,3... and then DUKE NUKEM 3d... what about doom, doom 2.There's no Duke Nukem 3. And Duke Nukem only really became popular with 3D, before it was just your average platformer. 3D Realms took it and turned it into a hilarious popular first-person shooter with DN3D, with an engine that even exceeded id Software's.
Who remembers The Legend of Kyrandia... 1,2,3.Great adventure series by Westwood, though the third game was a bit too slapstick humour for my taste, lacking the mystical charm of the formers.
Who remembers Death Rally, or WACKY WHEELS...Ah, Death Rally... opponent-bashing top-down racing for all!
Wacky Wheels was one of the best Mario-Kart-ish racing games out there, both in style and substance. Lots of options to mess with your friends, too. DEVIL MOONING!
Who remembers BLOCK OUT...Was that the 3Dish Tetris game? Didn't like it much.
Who remembers SOKOBAN...CGA box-pushing glory for all!
Who remembers Bubble Bobble (yes it started at arcades/but dos versions were released)Played it, loved it, and played it some more. Wish Taito hadn't turned it into a puzzle series with BAM though.

Melon
26 Oct 2007, 23:30
That must win an award for largest single post ever, surely.
You sure love your DOS.

Alien King
26 Oct 2007, 23:49
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/supsuper/dosbox.png
I'm sure some of those don't really count as DOS games.
Although if TD is Traffic Department, then you rule. Especially when coupled with Wolf3D.

Paul.Power
26 Oct 2007, 23:49
I'm sure some of those don't really count as DOS games.
Although if TD is Traffic Department and Wolf is Wolfenstein 3D, then you rule.WOLF3D is Wolfenstein 3D, as Dan told me over IM.

Alien King
26 Oct 2007, 23:51
WOLF3D is Wolfenstein 3D, as Dan told me over IM.
I just noticed that one in his list, hence I changed my post.

farazparsa
27 Oct 2007, 00:06
I see The Incredible Machine in there, one of my personal favorites. ;) That's the only one that caught my eye, and I'm too lazy to read the rest, though I think I have most of them anyway. :P

quakerworm
27 Oct 2007, 00:15
I still haven't got my head around DOSBox.
if you'll need any help with native dos or dosbox, drop me a pm. that goes for everyone else, too.
Yeah man, whoever invented the car is an idiot too, what happened to running to your destination? It surely would make the weak fail, and only the strong and fast would prevail.
dos was equivalent of the car already. windows is the equivalent of a car that parallel parks itself. if you are going to drive the car, learn to actually drive it. if you are going to program, learn to actually program. and to stay with the allegory, walking is more like running a computer with no os. you can still do it, but it's a pain if you want to get anything serious done.

Paul.Power
27 Oct 2007, 01:15
if you'll need any help with native dos or dosbox, drop me a pm. that goes for everyone else, too.Never mind, Dan's got me up and running.
*listens to the theme from Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker*
:D
walking is more like running a computer with no os. you can still do it, but it's a pain if you want to get anything serious done.
The nice thing about walking is that you don't need to parallel park.

quakerworm
27 Oct 2007, 02:27
by the way, if you are using dosbox, i strongly recommend finding some sort of a file manager. something like norton commander or volkov commander should work nicely. make sure to add commands to mount drives/directories and start the commander to the autoexec portion of dosbox config. it makes life easier.

SupSuper
27 Oct 2007, 04:22
That must win an award for largest single post ever, surely.
You sure love your DOS.And you're only seeing the trimmed down version for the 15000 character limit.
And I'm a PC person. Gotta know my DOS.
I'm sure some of those don't really count as DOS games.
Although if TD is Traffic Department, then you rule. Especially when coupled with Wolf3D.Well yes, technically, there's QBASIC (though that includes a game), CWXCED, and some games have different versions. But if it makes you happy, the GAMES subfolder has about 30 more games to make up for it. I have no idea why they have their own subfolder, really.
And yes, TD is Traffic Department. And yes, there is a game actually called Wolf (not Wolfenstein). Look it up.
I see The Incredible Machine in there, one of my personal favorites. ;) That's the only one that caught my eye, and I'm too lazy to read the rest, though I think I have most of them anyway. :PI like keeping the first TIM around, it has a much different feel from the latter games. Maybe it's the score thing.
You can have fun guessing which game is which out of obscure 8.3 naming if you want, I might give something out for it. :p

robowurmz
27 Oct 2007, 09:03
You can have fun guessing which game is which out of obscure 8.3 naming if you want, I might give something out for it. :p
Lemmings? Still the full name, no cutoff there...
OOH! I spy SIMANT there...I had that!

Paul.Power
27 Oct 2007, 10:10
I like keeping the first TIM around, it has a much different feel from the latter games. Maybe it's the score thing.
Not to mention an entirely different set of puzzles from every other game in the series :p.

FutureWorm
28 Oct 2007, 00:14
i had a mac back in the days when you plebs were using dos
does anyone else here remember glider, crystal quest, or marathon? oh man those games were where it was at

AndrewTaylor
28 Oct 2007, 00:38
I like keeping the first TIM around, it has a much different feel from the latter games. Maybe it's the score thing.
I like it because it makes things that look like rickshaw contraptions rather than things that look like delibaretely zany cartoon machines. Also it didn't have Mel Schlemming in it.
Most of what I did with the later versions was build elaborate machines to kill that guy. I fed him to the crocodile that the previous version was also better for omitting.

quakerworm
28 Oct 2007, 01:25
why hasn't anybody re-done tim in 3d with proper physics? (and no, garry's mod doesn't count.)

FutureWorm
28 Oct 2007, 03:48
I like it because it makes things that look like rickshaw contraptions rather than things that look like delibaretely zany cartoon machines. Also it didn't have Mel Schlemming in it.
Most of what I did with the later versions was build elaborate machines to kill that guy. I fed him to the crocodile that the previous version was also better for omitting.
killing mel schlemming is the whole point
i mean i'll admit that he distracts from the rest of the game a bit because he's so much fun to murder, but how can you not love it

Nugget
28 Oct 2007, 08:47
Jazz Jackrabbit 2, i modded for windows xp, and i play it at 1024 x 768...
its really cool...
Oh, I think that was one of my first games! I had so much fun... :rolleyes: :nostalgia:

AndrewTaylor
28 Oct 2007, 10:28
why hasn't anybody re-done tim in 3d with proper physics? (and no, garry's mod doesn't count.)
Because it'd be impossible.

Gnork
28 Oct 2007, 11:38
Here is a funny story, when i was really young, i still remember the release of THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND 1..... that was the worst day of my life...
Why? well i had a hercules monochrome computer with spectacular BLACK AND WHITE graphics... hehe. and Monkey Island 1 was the FIRST non sierra game, that REQUIRED a colour computer... so for years i was screwed...
Until the day came, that i finally got my first ega card... man that was exciting...
Erm... I remember playing Monkey Island with a nice amber Hercules screen, and it had no problems with that. The intro tune was awesome!!!
I'm still missing Xenon 2 in your list.. the nice space shoot-em-up which could be so easily hacked with Norton DE.EXE, changing 2 values from F0 to 49 or something like that, and you could shop for free in the weapons shop to load yer spaceship with hilarious stuff. Good that someone made a worms map from the graphics.
And what about Caveman Ugh-lympics? where u had to make fire, throw cavewoman as far as you could and other keyboard demolishing things?
Mission Impossible 2, with the elevators and nasty robots trying to fry your ass...
Outrun - do we need to say more
F1GP the cool race game running on your DX2/66 with the nasty engine sound blasting through those ugly broken white 80W corner rounded Trust speakersets - there must have been many Vobis pc's around with that setup those days...
... and the list continues
btw. syndicate rocked. Bring it on enemy - and there u stood with your guys loaded to the teeth with miniguns, shooting the whole damn place to pieces and forgetting to send this 1 guy to follow one nasty mofo who would fry your ass from the backside.
btw2. prince of persia was too cool to be true. I assimilated the game engine and the maps so much, that it became a time trial race to finish the game within the hour.My personal record was around 56 - 58 minutes, which was unbelievably fast (taking every jump at once with almost no errors / hesitation throughout the whole game). But that was only after playing it for weeks, what? months! having to struggle over and over again with those nice little traps. yeah, I remember that mouse running over the switch :) And the nice sssschglllck sound when you fell on some of those nice spikes...

bonz
28 Oct 2007, 12:12
My all-time favourite DOS-era games (in no particular order):
Wacky Wheels
Doom II
Duke Nukem 3D
Day Of The Tentacle
Rise Of The Triad
Stunts
Command & Conquer
Fatal Racing
Worms 1
Monkey Island 2

Plasma
28 Oct 2007, 12:33
crystal quest
I never thought it to be all that great though.

quakerworm
28 Oct 2007, 17:13
Because it'd be impossible.
you really think so? i know that freedom for objects to roll every which way would make it a bit difficult, but it should be ok if you throw in a few pipes/gutters to fix that.

FutureWorm
28 Oct 2007, 17:35
I never thought it to be all that great though.
oh yeah? screw you
crystal crazy was even better yet

farazparsa
28 Oct 2007, 19:07
Anybody remember Stunts? Sort-of a guilty pleasure but I still play it. :p
Because it'd be impossible.
Funny how we transfered Worms to 3D...

[UFP]Ghost
28 Oct 2007, 19:26
Funny how we transfered Worms to 3D...
And now we realize it was a bad idea and that 2d is the way to go.

SupSuper
28 Oct 2007, 22:43
I found this free remake of Stunts (http://www.ultimatestunts.nl/) but don't like it as much.
My all-time favourite DOS-era games (in no particular order):
Wacky Wheels
Doom II
Duke Nukem 3D
Day Of The Tentacle
Rise Of The Triad
Stunts
Command & Conquer
Fatal Racing
Worms 1
Monkey Island 2
*high-five*
F1GP the cool race game running on your DX2/66 with the nasty engine sound blasting through those ugly broken white 80W corner rounded Trust speakersets - there must have been many Vobis pc's around with that setup those days...F1GP was fun. The only racing game where "trashing" your car means having it float right off the track. :p I also tended to play in Monaco because it's the only track where my car couldn't slide off into the grass. Slippery things, they were.
you really think so? i know that freedom for objects to roll every which way would make it a bit difficult, but it should be ok if you throw in a few pipes/gutters to fix that.TIM's physics were never fully proper though, or it'd really be impossible. The advantage of 2D is you can get off with a lot more simplified (and occasionally silly) physics and still have the game look like it makes sense. I dread to imagine how odd a cat sliding down a pipe or a vacuum sucking up a bowling ball would look in 3D.
Plus there's enough ponderous-pixel-perfect-positioning in 2D.

Kelster23
28 Oct 2007, 23:39
My favorite DOS games were Dangerous Dave, (you can still find that on Youtube), Commander Keen, Ken's Labyrinth, one that I think was called Novice or something, some game where you had to get all your mice on to one side of the screen, um..., I don't remember them all.
I had a old Windows 3 computer full of DOS games.

quakerworm
29 Oct 2007, 02:46
TIM's physics were never fully proper though, or it'd really be impossible. The advantage of 2D is you can get off with a lot more simplified (and occasionally silly) physics and still have the game look like it makes sense. I dread to imagine how odd a cat sliding down a pipe or a vacuum sucking up a bowling ball would look in 3D.
you wouldn't be able to have a cat slide down a pipe, but you'd be able to have slides for that. sure, you'd end up with a bit more specific set of tools for each type of action, but if people set up these kinds of machines in real life (even if it takes them a very long time) i don't see why it cannot be done in a game.
Plus there's enough ponderous-pixel-perfect-positioning in 2D.
grid.

HackerMan
29 Oct 2007, 05:59
Hey buddies, how was your weekend....
Yeah, lots of old dos fans still out there, makes me glad...
Umm first of all, someone said there is no duke 3.... yes there is, it was episode three, cause the originals, were split between 1, (also the demo)
number 2, and then number 3, i think was shrapnel city. I still have them.
duke nukem 2, was redone in vga, a few years later, but never number 1 or 3.
Yeah going back to jazz jackrabbit 1, there are 11 episodes i have, the 6 original, the 3 extra, the xmas episode, and the bonus level episode!
How could i forget TIM, i got Tim, the even more TIM, TIM 3, Sid and Al...
Man i love those puzzle games...
Yeah sorry, i didnt realise i put EPIC PINBALL under apogee's games, its clearly an "EPIC MEGAGAMES" title...
And how dare who ever it was, to say that sierra's games were quantity over quality, man oh man, thats the worst thing to say about sierra, THEY DOMINATED THE STAGE... in fact they pretty much BEGAN THE DOS GAMING ERA. No one can deny that, They were the industry leaders, because their games captured our hearts and minds, plus took some people years to finish their games. They were the starting point, of pretty much all... including online gaming.. YES ONLINE GAMING.... (but thats another story...)
Yeah also sorry woodruff and schnibble is actually a windows game... not dos... but is the unofficial Goblins 4...
Yes Blockout was that 3d tetris ripoff. But was good in its day.

bonz
29 Oct 2007, 21:51
I like Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (+all expansions) much more than the first one.
*high-five*
*low-five*

farazparsa
29 Oct 2007, 22:58
Yes Blockout was that 3d tetris ripoff. But was good in its day.
Refresh my memory, was that the one with the 2-Player Tetris and the "snake" slowly dying?

HackerMan
30 Oct 2007, 06:02
Refresh my memory, was that the one with the 2-Player Tetris and the "snake" slowly dying?
umm no... Blockout is like a 3d room, with the blocks moving toward the back of your monitor, starting right in front of your face, you could rotate and revolve the pieces, to fit them together, obviously trying to fill all the gaps, and when all the gaps had been filled, that layer would dissapear, leaving you space to carry on.... very similar to tetris, just in a top down 3d view.
It really was pretty advanced for its day...
Here is another classic, from QBASIC... "GORILLA", probably the first worm style game ever made... chucking banana's at each other.
Any one who has had a NOKIA cell phone/mobile phone, has had that stupid "SNAKE" game... can anyone remember where it first began.... well in QBASIC... it was called "NIBBLES"
How many people can remember playing Monkey Island....
The greatest adventure games to come from Lucas Arts...
I recently found the entire collection for a fraction of the original price, man i was happy. All 4 working in XP.... yee haa.

quakerworm
30 Oct 2007, 08:59
Here is another classic, from QBASIC... "GORILLA", probably the first worm style game ever made... chucking banana's at each other.
not even close. first graphical artillery games predate gorilla by a decade. non-graphical version go back few years further. gorilla is likely an inspiration to the worms' banana bomb, but little more. scorched earth and similar titles are likely to have had more influence on the game overall.

Kelster23
30 Oct 2007, 17:59
Ahh I forgot one!
Pickle Wars 1, 2, and 3.
I don't think I ever beat those. I remember they were really long games. And you had to kill alien pickles with 'salad shooters'

SupSuper
30 Oct 2007, 23:01
And how dare who ever it was, to say that sierra's games were quantity over quality, man oh man, thats the worst thing to say about sierra, THEY DOMINATED THE STAGE... in fact they pretty much BEGAN THE DOS GAMING ERA. No one can deny that, They were the industry leaders, because their games captured our hearts and minds, plus took some people years to finish their games. They were the starting point, of pretty much all... including online gaming.. YES ONLINE GAMING.... (but thats another story...)I meant their adventure games. They seemed to be coming out of their ears.
My turn. Who remembers:
Alone in the Dark
Blues Brothers
Cannon Fodder
Centurion
Destruction Derby
Ecstatic
F-15
Gods
Golden Eagle
Heroes of Might & Magic
Ironman
Jet Set Willy
Laser Squad
Mad TV
Master of Magic
One Step Beyond
Pang
Paperboy
Pinball Fantasy
Pushover
Raptor
Simpsons Arcade
Supaplex
Terminal Velocity
X-Wing

HackerMan
31 Oct 2007, 07:57
Oh yeah i see what you mean about their adventure games... oh well i suppose if it sells, kill the genre with 100 more titles... hehe..
Alone in the Dark - i have number 1,2,3 and new nightmare...
Blues Brothers - I have number 1 and 2... awesome 2d scrollers..
Cannon Fodder - I have number 1 and 2... still great war games!!!
Centurion - I actually lost my original or it was stolen? cant remember
Destruction Derby I have 1 and 2... still fun...
Ecstatic - Wasnt it called Ecstatica... not as good as alone
in the dark though... i still have number 1 and 2.
F-15 now this game was fun, but i rather play US Navy Seals.
Gods we spent many HOURS playing gods... pretty hard game.
Golden Eagle I really liked golden eagle... i dont have it anymore...
Heroes of Might & Magic - i got them all... 1,2,3,4 and the new 5...
Ironman Ironman still RULES... have u ever played... indy 500..
Jet Set Willy Now this i can't remember to well... hmmm
Laser Squad I dont remember laser Squad...
Mad TV hehe old Mad TV i still have it...
Master of Magic Old master of magic... i have number 1 and 2.
One Step Beyond Never heard of it.... Im ashamed...
Pang Hehe thats a classic.
Paperboy Who could forget Paperboy. i have number 1 and 2.
Pinball Fantasy I LOVE THIS GAME... Pinball fantasies... BRILLIANT.
Pushover The name does not ring a bell...
Raptor I still have raptor... better than tubular worlds...
Simpsons Arcade Still the best Simpsons game... (my surname is Simpson)
Supaplex I never really really enjoyed supaplex...
Terminal Velocity I still remember my computer lagging on full graphics! lol.
X-Wing X-Wing was one of the best Space flyers ever!

Melon
31 Oct 2007, 10:34
Jet Set Willy
That's one of the hardest games I've ever played, yet it's still addictive, in a frustrating sort of way. I've got a remake someone made that has loads of different versions of it, and even the original Manic Miner and another version.

franpa
31 Oct 2007, 11:50
There's no Duke Nukem 3.
most likely referring to Duke Nukem 1 episode's 1, 2 and 3 since there file names where duke1.exe, duke2.exe and duke3.exe

HackerMan
31 Oct 2007, 13:24
yeah the whole duke nukem thing has confused alot of people....
Because all the episodes of number 1, run independent of each other...
You did not need episodes 1 and 2... to be able to play number 3.
But if you want to be technical, then there was only 1. with 3 episodes.

Plasma
31 Oct 2007, 13:35
Cannon Fodder
Heroes of Might & Magic
Ironman
Jet Set Willy
Paperboy
Simpsons Arcade
X-Wing
I remember those only.
Actually, I still have the three X-Wing series games.

AndrewTaylor
31 Oct 2007, 15:39
you really think so? i know that freedom for objects to roll every which way would make it a bit difficult, but it should be ok if you throw in a few pipes/gutters to fix that.
Yeah, but if you do that, then you've no longer got a 3D game. You have a 2D game with corners. Plus, you have to figure out a way to let the user place objects arbitrarily in 3D (easy enough on the Wii), not to mention the fact that the "correct" place for each object would be that much harder to hit in 3D. You could put in anchor points so you can only place objects in certain places, but that ruins the whole point of the game.
Actually, I suppose it could work if you had platforms to place objects on, so you'd be making a machine on a table with maybe a shelf on or something. That'd mean you were back to placing objects largely in 2D. I think that could be made to work well.
But it wouldn't really be The Incredible Machine any more. It'd be... Well, it'd be Garry's Mod with objectives.
Funny how we transfered Worms to 3D...
Yes, that's the same thing.

quakerworm
31 Oct 2007, 15:49
But it wouldn't really be The Incredible Machine any more.
that's probably true, but it could still be a very fun game.

SupSuper
31 Oct 2007, 18:00
Alone in the Dark - i have number 1,2,3 and new nightmare... Really set out to create a genre, although there was this rather predictable feel in the first ones. (WINDOWS ARE EVIL)
Blues Brothers - I have number 1 and 2... awesome 2d scrollers..Personally, I didn't like 2 very much. It was too generic fantasy platformer. 1 was much nicer and funnier.
Cannon Fodder - I have number 1 and 2... still great war games!!!Making war fun every turn!
Centurion - I actually lost my original or it was stolen? cant remember
Destruction Derby I have 1 and 2... still fun...I preferred 2, it had more wacky physics and arena fun. But the series is still one of the first and best "crash stuff up" driving games.
Ecstatic - Wasnt it called Ecstatica... not as good as alone
in the dark though... i still have number 1 and 2.You're right about the name. It wasn't as good as AITD but it was... different. Rendered with spheres instead of cubes. It was also very bizarre and freaky sometimes...
Never got to try Ecstatica II though.
F-15 now this game was fun, but i rather play US Navy Seals.Never played Navy Seals. F-15 was a fun enough flight simulator for me, specially the ever-growing dead pilots. :p
Gods we spent many HOURS playing gods... pretty hard game.Hehe yes, a very hard platformer, but very nice graphics.
Golden Eagle I really liked golden eagle... i dont have it anymore...It's fun but I never quite figured it out myself. There's lots of puzzles and enemies and areas spread around but I never have any real sense of what I'm supposed to be doing. Damn you old games for relying on manuals so much!
Very nice graphics though.
Heroes of Might & Magic - i got them all... 1,2,3,4 and the new 5...Me too :D though 1 still has this whole classic cartoony charm about it.
Ironman Ironman still RULES... have u ever played... indy 500..Ironman was a very nice powerup-based racer. The cars looked so lively.
I've played Indy but didn't like it much. I mostly just drived in the opposite direction to smash up the opponents.
Jet Set Willy Now this i can't remember to well... hmmmProbably because it's a very, very old platformer (from 1983, as well as Manic Miner). Still fun though.
Laser Squad I dont remember laser Squad...Laser Squad is a 2D squad-based game by X-Com's designer, so it pretty much inspired it (and you'll find many similarities with it as well). You can consider it an X-Com 0.
Mad TV hehe old Mad TV i still have it...Very fun yet very hard. Quite a zany concept for a management sim.
Master of Magic Old master of magic... i have number 1 and 2.I didn't know there was a 2. 1 was very fun though. Kind of a blend between Civilization and Heroes of Might & Magic.
One Step Beyond Never heard of it.... Im ashamed...One Step Beyond was the sequel to Pushover (see below). Basically the same story with a whole different mechanic for the puzzles (platforms instead of dominoes), and just as good as Pushover.
Pang Hehe thats a classic.An extraordinarily hard classic for me.
Paperboy Who could forget Paperboy. i have number 1 and 2.I really liked 2 over 1, so utterly wacky, takes paper delivering to a whole new level.
Pinball Fantasy I LOVE THIS GAME... Pinball fantasies... BRILLIANT.One of the best pinball games of its time. :) Although 21st Century wouldn't stop pumping them out back then.
Pushover The name does not ring a bell...Pushover was also one of my first puzzle games. Made to advertise Quavers, it was one of the most original puzzle games (crazy dominoes!) of its time! Also very nice cartoony graphics/animation.
Raptor I still have raptor... better than tubular worlds...Never played Tubular Worlds. Raptor was a very fun top-down shooter though. Very nice music too. :)
Simpsons Arcade Still the best Simpsons game... (my surname is Simpson)Also one of my favorite Simpsons games, played it a lot in 2 player but I don't remember if I ever finished it.
Supaplex I never really really enjoyed supaplex...I liked it. Maybe because it was one of the first games my dad got me, and the colorful cartoons and puzzles really got to me.
Terminal Velocity I still remember my computer lagging on full graphics! lol.I still remember getting it with my first CD-ROM. :D So it was my first CD/SVGA experience, really cool, though it didn't lag for me. Also has awesome music.
X-Wing X-Wing was one of the best Space flyers ever!It's also one of the best Star Wars games ever!
That's one of the hardest games I've ever played, yet it's still addictive, in a frustrating sort of way. I've got a remake someone made that has loads of different versions of it, and even the original Manic Miner and another version.The only remake I know is Jet Set Willy Online and it's a rather zany concept.
I agree that the originals are incredibly hard, specially due to the very awkward controls which just helped making it more challenging.
I remember those only.
Actually, I still have the three X-Wing series games.I didn't know X-Wing was a series. Unless you mean the X-Wing, Tie Fighter and X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter games.

Plasma
31 Oct 2007, 18:11
I didn't know X-Wing was a series. Unless you mean the X-Wing, Tie Fighter and X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter games.
Yeah, that's what I meant.
I preferred the latter of the three. Mostly because I was less inclined to die on that one.

AndrewTaylor
31 Oct 2007, 18:36
that's probably true, but it could still be a very fun game.
I agree. Damn, I want to play this thing now.

HackerMan
1 Nov 2007, 09:07
Probably one of my favourite space flight games was WING COMMANDER 2...
with both expansion packs... now for its time, that was WOW!!!
The cool full talking, awesome video sequences, and non-stop addictive shooting action... man i think im gonna play it when i get home... HELL YEAH!

[UFP]Ghost
5 Nov 2007, 02:25
Question: would one be able to lets say install dos on a modern computer via partition and have it work well and run all dos games?

HackerMan
5 Nov 2007, 06:40
yes i suppose you could "maybe" do that... if you can ask quakerworm, im sure he should know. but why go through all that hard effort, just install DOSBOX... the latest version is 6... something...

quakerworm
5 Nov 2007, 07:14
Ghost;620846']Question: would one be able to lets say install dos on a modern computer via partition and have it work well and run all dos games?
yes, it can be done. you'd need to make sure that it is a fat32 partition, and you'd probably want a boot selector such as grub. only thing i'm not sure on is if dos will let you install it on a chosen partition, or if you'd have to play with partition table to make it work. [edit: i might try it some time soon, will let you know if it works.]
there is a simpler way, however. if you have a floppy drive and windows, in the floppy format menu, you can select 'create ms-dos startup disk'. that will create a bootable floppy with dos already on it. if you have a fat32 partition, it will be accessible from there. first fat32 partition will show up as drive c:
one thing that you will almost certainly have problems with in either of these cases is sound. most modern sound chips are not compatible with sound blaster or any of the sound chips of the dos era. so unless you have a card that is sound blaster 16/pro compatible, you probably will have to play with no sound or with pc speaker sound only.
but why go through all that hard effort, just install DOSBOX
dosbox emulates the cpu. that is nice in some ways, but also causes problems. biggest one is that dosbox is very slow. on my pc, i cannot get it past 8000 or so cycles. for most games, it will not be a problem, but i did have some trouble running duke, for example.

AndrewTaylor
5 Nov 2007, 11:41
yes, it can be done. you'd need to make sure that it is a fat32 partition, and you'd probably want a boot selector such as grub. only thing i'm not sure on is if dos will let you install it on a chosen partition, or if you'd have to play with partition table to make it work. [edit: i might try it some time soon, will let you know if it works.]
there is a simpler way, however. if you have a floppy drive and windows, in the floppy format menu, you can select 'create ms-dos startup disk'. that will create a bootable floppy with dos already on it. if you have a fat32 partition, it will be accessible from there. first fat32 partition will show up as drive c:
one thing that you will almost certainly have problems with in either of these cases is sound. most modern sound chips are not compatible with sound blaster or any of the sound chips of the dos era. so unless you have a card that is sound blaster 16/pro compatible, you probably will have to play with no sound or with pc speaker sound only.
Also many old DOS games weren't synced to the clock, so they go stupidly fast on a modern PC. I don't know if DOSBOX corrects for this.

bonz
5 Nov 2007, 11:47
Also many old DOS games weren't synced to the clock, so they go stupidly fast on a modern PC.
Hehehe!
A fun anecdote that might be related:
In Stunts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunts_%28video_game%29) you could actually get faster lap times by reducing/disabling the clouds and other background features.
:D

yauhui
5 Nov 2007, 12:15
how do you download games from the dosbox website?

Melon
5 Nov 2007, 12:17
You don't.
DOSBox isn't piracy central.

yauhui
5 Nov 2007, 12:20
how do i get dosbox games then?

Melon
5 Nov 2007, 12:29
Well I don't know what you're going to do, but I still had my original Jazz Jackrabbit and Lemmings 3 CDs and Dune 2 copied onto a CD which was copied from the floppy disc's I originally had it on.
I never lost hope that one day I'd be able to run them again.
I can't remember where I got Lemmings 2 from... I originally owned it, but it was on one of those amusing 8 inch floppies. Actually, I think it was spanned across 3 of those floppies. Man they sucked.

bonz
5 Nov 2007, 13:01
how do i get dosbox games then?
You buy them.

yauhui
5 Nov 2007, 13:23
my neighbour has a Stunts cd but the manual isnt there so i cant proceed! :(

quakerworm
5 Nov 2007, 15:23
Also many old DOS games weren't synced to the clock, so they go stupidly fast on a modern PC. I don't know if DOSBOX corrects for this.
dosbox lets you change the clock rate.

Cyclaws
5 Nov 2007, 15:55
my neighbour has a Stunts cd but the manual isnt there so i cant proceed! :(
Since when do people read manuals that come with games?

quakerworm
5 Nov 2007, 15:56
it might have copy-prevention codes that he'd need to run the game.

SupSuper
5 Nov 2007, 17:06
dosbox emulates the cpu. that is nice in some ways, but also causes problems. biggest one is that dosbox is very slow. on my pc, i cannot get it past 8000 or so cycles. for most games, it will not be a problem, but i did have some trouble running duke, for example.That must be some old CPU, mine goes up to 20000 cycles fine.
Also many old DOS games weren't synced to the clock, so they go stupidly fast on a modern PC. I don't know if DOSBOX corrects for this.You can control the emulated speed (cycles) if you need.

quakerworm
5 Nov 2007, 17:16
That must be some old CPU, mine goes up to 20000 cycles fine.
yes. my machine is a bit outdated, but the point stands. some games might not run very well on dosbox.
by the way, has anyone tried running 3.11 from dosbox?

farazparsa
6 Nov 2007, 00:33
Anybody remember the first Elder Scrolls game? I think I still have it on an old 3.5" floppy lying around.

[UFP]Ghost
6 Nov 2007, 03:21
yes, it can be done. you'd need to make sure that it is a fat32 partition, and you'd probably want a boot selector such as grub. only thing i'm not sure on is if dos will let you install it on a chosen partition, or if you'd have to play with partition table to make it work. [edit: i might try it some time soon, will let you know if it works.]
So if I make another fat32 partition will all my drives shift a letter or will it just continue from what i have?

quakerworm
6 Nov 2007, 04:04
Ghost;621071']So if I make another fat32 partition will all my drives shift a letter or will it just continue from what i have?
under windows, you have full control over which drives have which letter. under dos, it is automatic, and only fat32 partitions will show.
beware, though. you can easily partition unpartitioned space, but re-partitioning existing partitions without losing data is tricky. if you have a secondary partition that you can clear completely, you can divide it into two secondary partitions and reformat each. it is more difficult if you only have primary partitions.
i just got a better idea, though. i'm going to try installing dos 6.22 on a vm. you can download microsoft virtual pc for free now. that will let you create a virtual machine with any size/format disk that you want, and you'd have no fear of accidentally messing up your other partitions. also, since it uses your cpu rather than emulating one, it should run a lot faster than dosbox. i've ran w98 this way with no problems. any dos game you've got should run rather well, but again, you might have trouble with sound. [edit: apparently, vm will let you run sound blaster emulation, so you might get good sound as well.] i'll try crash testing it with diskworld 2. if that config doesn't run it either, i'm going to have to get an authentic x486.
edit: got 6.22 running. need to install w3.11 to get cd-rom support on top of that.

yauhui
6 Nov 2007, 10:14
Since when do people read manuals that come with games?
man!!! i didnt know F1 has a windshield that breaks less than 3sec after reaching 99mph.

SupSuper
6 Nov 2007, 19:07
yes. my machine is a bit outdated, but the point stands. some games might not run very well on dosbox.
by the way, has anyone tried running 3.11 from dosbox?I think someone on the DOSBox Forums did, works fine.
i just got a better idea, though. i'm going to try installing dos 6.22 on a vm. you can download microsoft virtual pc for free now. that will let you create a virtual machine with any size/format disk that you want, and you'd have no fear of accidentally messing up your other partitions. also, since it uses your cpu rather than emulating one, it should run a lot faster than dosbox. i've ran w98 this way with no problems. any dos game you've got should run rather well, but again, you might have trouble with sound. [edit: apparently, vm will let you run sound blaster emulation, so you might get good sound as well.] i'll try crash testing it with diskworld 2. if that config doesn't run it either, i'm going to have to get an authentic x486.
edit: got 6.22 running. need to install w3.11 to get cd-rom support on top of that.I don't get much use of my DOS VM (I got FreeDOS on it though since I don't know where I put MS-DOS) besides running the games simply too demanding for DOSBox. All the others don't seem to play quite like they used to. (or I just don't remember them that well)

[UFP]Ghost
6 Nov 2007, 21:59
'Lots of writing'
I'm going to try that also as I have virtual pc, if I have nay troubles i'll post.

franpa
7 Nov 2007, 04:08
how do i get dosbox games then?
uh, DOSBox plays DOS games, if you don't know DOS then leave this thread lolz.

quakerworm
7 Nov 2007, 04:48
got dos 6.22 and windows 3.11 running fairly smoothly on a vm. the only thing i still haven't gotten to work is mouse under dos. it works under windows, however, so it is probably just a driver issue.
if you haven't gotten virtual pc yet, you can download it for free:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspx
to get cd-rom support under dos, you will need to download a generic driver and add a couple of lines to your config.sys and autoexec.bat. instructions and links:
http://www.computerhope.com/cdromd.htm
i used the oakcdrom.sys and mscdex.exe from that site, and it reads images mounted with virtual pc just fine.
managed to run duke nukem 3d and discworld2 using this setup. former was too slow on dosbox, and the later refused to run all together. dw2 still hangs up occasionally, but i think i might have messed up the sound card settings.
virtual pc emulates sound blaster 16 on base 220, irq 7, dma 1 (8 bit), dma 5 (16 bit).

HackerMan
7 Nov 2007, 13:39
Hello people, HaK has finally returned...
Wow so my thread is still going..
Um to try answer most questions...
Dosbox is the answer to everything, as far as i know, i can speed up and slow down my games with dosbox, and they all work fine.. INCLUDING DUKE!
for people who want dos games... i still have them ALL. originals in original boxes.
If anyone wants my dos games, please package either your hot sister, girlfriend or wife, wrap her in bubblewrap, pop a stamp on her forehead,
and send her too me. Then i might be tempted to send my games...
Its nearly impossible to buy any now-a-days. Im so glad i kept mine, for all these years. Only NOW is it paying off... woo hoo.
Ps: i run duke3d atomic edition perfect with dosbox. Discworld 2 also runs, and it seems pretty ok to me. But i have not played it for more than 5 minutes... just tested it. and it worked...
Maybe you all just need, a fairly decent cpu, and the latest dosbox.

yauhui
7 Nov 2007, 14:15
umm just wana ask, why can i run Stunts without the dosbox? just open the "STUNTS.COM" file will do.

SupSuper
7 Nov 2007, 15:27
got dos 6.22 and windows 3.11 running fairly smoothly on a vm. the only thing i still haven't gotten to work is mouse under dos. it works under windows, however, so it is probably just a driver issue.I use the Microsoft Mouse driver included with DOS VM Additions (not included with the latest Virtual PC, you'd have to dig around for it).
umm just wana ask, why can i run Stunts without the dosbox? just open the "STUNTS.COM" file will do.You got lucky. Running DOS games in modern systems isn't impossible, just... rare. Compatibility isn't a linear thing.

quakerworm
7 Nov 2007, 15:34
umm just wana ask, why can i run Stunts without the dosbox? just open the "STUNTS.COM" file will do.
windows does provide some dos support, just not very good one. com files run best, because they are limited to a single code segment (up to 64k) and tend not to rely on dos environment too heavily.
Maybe you all just need, a fairly decent cpu, and the latest dosbox.
i definitely would need a faster cpu. mine is ancient. but i mostly had problems with discworld2 due to cdrom problems. mabye it is something they fixed in the latest dosbox. i'll try reinstalling it.
i still would like to build a dedicated dos machine on authentic early-mid 90's hardware. it would probably be the best way to run things.

HackerMan
8 Nov 2007, 09:05
yeah i agree...
Well my pc is not the holy grail of machines, and all my dosbox games work fine... this is all i got...
2.4 Celeron cpu (yeah celeron sucks but it works fine for me.)
1 gig of ram...
Xp pro...
80 gig hard drive...
Geforce 6600...
And the latest dosbox.. version 6... something.
And everything works fine, just make sure to set up all your settings, and that you have edited all the right files, to get dosbox 100% working...
From the official dosbox site, there are plenty faqs to explain all i have just said... its pretty damn easy though.. so noone should really struggle at all.
Alot of guys that experienced problems Speed/sound glitches...
was because (which im not sure why?) they selected the incorrect or simply worst sound blaster settings... these are the best settings...
Where possible ALWAYS choose Sound Blaster 16/32... if the game does not support that... then always choose SOUND BLASTER PRO...
then choose A220 IRQ 7 DMA 1...
That solved all my buddies issues... but get the latest DOSBOX!

quakerworm
8 Nov 2007, 18:22
latest dosbox is 7.2. and come to think of it, i might not have had cdrom properly configured.
at any rate, on my old hardware dosbox doesn't run quite fast enough for me. i get better speeds on a vm. but for almost everything else, dosbox is better.

SupSuper
8 Nov 2007, 18:41
Well the later the version, the better the performance.
And this is how you'd mount a CDROM on DOSbox:
mount d d:\ -t cdrom -ioctl

HackerMan
9 Nov 2007, 05:56
you are correct supsuper... you can add that line to the config file for dosbox, you can choose which letter you want to assign to your cd rom drive, and then after that, it is as simple as putting a cd in, and it will work.
I was jamming Theme Hospital last nite, with my original cd...
So dosbox 7 is out... hmmm. well that is definatly NEWER than what im using.
But for right now, ill stay with my version, only because everything works perfect for my requirements. (dont fix whats not broken)
But i would suggest to everyone, get dosbox 7. It must be the best.

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