I really like DOS and Win95/98 games, but as it turns out, running them is not that easy. Each game, or at least some of them, has its own installation nuances, and learning and remembering them takes time and mental resources. For example, to run Heroes of Might and Magic II, you need to know that you inside its folder you need to create a subfolder
Create the game directory
Copy the complete game content to the game directory
Create a subfolder CD
Copy the complete game content also to this folder
Create a Profile
Start program: HEROES2.EXE
Setup program: INSTALL.EXE
Add a virtual CD-ROM drive
Mount the subfolder CD as the virtual CD-ROM folder
Execute setup
Execute game
If you get a black screen on startup press a key
Is there a way to play DOS and Win95/98 games without learning and remembering all this things? I want to play games. For play, I already have play.
As easy as 1, 2, 3:
- Insert CD
- Install and set up (only gotta do this once)
- Run game
All that extra virtual CD stuff is entirely on you. Don't like it, don't do it (or do it in a different way).
And as for editing, there should be a pen to the top right of each post. But maybe that only shows up after n posts, not sure.
Last edited by elszgensa on 2024-12-20, 19:03. Edited 2 times in total.
You can buy them on GOG preconfigured likely not ideal configuration wise but they work.
There are copyright infringing way to do what you want but vogons isn't the place for that.
I really like DOS and Win95/98 games, but as it turns out, running them is not that easy. [..]
Jsx97, there used to be graphical environments and file managers.
Norton Commander, MS-DOS Shell, ViewMax, GEM, XTree Gold, PC-Tools Desktop etc.
Back in the day, most of us PC users didn't live in the stone age.
We didn't have to use command line and DOS commands all the time, even though modern media makes it look like that.
Personally, I have added Norton Commander to [autoexec] section of DOSBOX, even.
So I can use DOS commands whenever I feel like it, but it's not a must.
Best wishes,
Jo22
PS: There are many free Norton Commander clones and graphical shells for DOS.
Volkov Commander is popular, C64 fans used to use Star Commander.
Last edited by Jo22 on 2024-12-20, 19:15. Edited 2 times in total.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
Yeah, I create a text file for each game to remind me of all its peculiarities. I have hundreds of such files now.
Same here.
There's no way I could remember this stuff for every single title. But once I figure out the necessary steps, I always write it down in a text file. That makes revisiting these games a breeze.
jsx97wrote on 2024-12-20, 18:46:For example, to run Heroes of Might and Magic II, you need to know that you inside its folder you need to create a subfolder […] Show full quote
For example, to run Heroes of Might and Magic II, you need to know that you inside its folder you need to create a subfolder
Just to make this clear, this is not the proper way to run HoMM2. It is indeed an extremely convoluted way to do so, and whoever authored the advice you quoted did not make a proper DOSBox setup themselves, nor do they expect it from their audience.
For starters, if you want to play DOS games on a modern PC, you have to use an emulator of some sort, as native support of DOS applications has been dropped in Windows, and never existed in Linux or MacOS. But if you have an emulator, which basically makes DOS games think they run inside an actual DOS-powered PC, there is no reason not to set it up as such -- with a proper permanent virtual HDD drive and virtual CD-ROM, among other things. It only takes a little bit of learning, and is definitely miles easier than putting together and fine-tuning an actual DOS gaming PC from period hardware.
Many people seem to think that DOSBox is this little icon you drop a DOS EXE onto to make it play. In reality, when you do so, DOSBox mounts a virtual C: drive as the location of that DOS EXE -- but on an actual DOS PC, no one installs or runs non-system programmes from the root of the C: drive. It takes but a few lines in your dosbox.conf to set up a proper virtual C: drive where you will install your games and run them from. Just create a dedicated folder, name it whatever you want (e.g., DOSGAMES or whatever), and then you can add a simple MOUNT line in the [autoexec] section of dosbox.conf so that it mounts your DOSGAMES folder as the C: drive every time you run it.
Let's assume you want a virtual hard drive C: and a virtual CD-ROM drive D:, where you'll put extracted contents from an actual CD release (like the completely legit freeware release of Daggerfall, for example). You can create a folder called DOSGAMES on your actual C: drive of your PC, where all DOS-related stuff will go. Now, inside it you create separate folders for the virtual HDD and the virtual CD-ROM. Let's just call them "hdd1" and "cd". You can now edit your dosbox.conf and add the following lines into the [autoexec] section at the bottom of the file:
1mount c C:\DOSGAMES\hdd1 -freesize 600 2mount d C:\DOSGAMES\cd -t cdrom
This will mount your virtual C: and D: drives, ready for DOSBox to work with. The "-freesize 600" thing means that any installer that checks for free space on the hard drive will think you have 600 MiB free -- but you can put as many games as your real HDD permits into the hdd1 folder.
Now, going back to your HoMM2 example, if you had an actual DOS PC and a HoMM2 CD, you'd put your CD in the drive and install the game from there. Nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly nothing to specifically memorize. Here, you do sort of the same, putting the CD contents into the virtual CD folder -- although if you have the actual CD and your PC has a CD-ROM drive, you can mount your physical CD-ROM as a CD-ROM drive in DOSBox as well. You can also mount CD images as CD-ROM drives too, if you have them. So you don't really have to memorize some obscure and counter-intuitive steps to install and play the game, you just do the same perfectly logical thing you would do with a physical CD and a physical DOS machine to install and run it, except in an emulator and the CD is a virtual thing.
It's wild that we now have a generation of gamers who have only known installerless digital games and find the concept of running 'setup' unthinkable and too difficult to learn.
As others have suggested, the easiest way is to buy and install them via GOG. They even have their own launcher similar to Steam which makes the process about as a simple as it gets.
If you're talking about running games on retro hardware, then the easiest way is to use original media and just install the game the way its intended.
Things only get complicated when trying to run CD based games without the CDs.
It's wild that we now have another generation of gamers who have only known installerless games and find the concept of running 'setup' unthinkable and too difficult to learn.
FTFY, because I don't recall seeing a lot of installers/setups on earlier machines like e.g. the C64 either. Shit used to just work, then DOS happened and it didn't for a bit.
You're trying to run decades old software on a modern system; it not being easy is rather a given.
Actually, it isn't exactly easy even on period correct systems. Getting the games to run on DOS is more often than not a nightmare for less savvy people, and although Win 9x games are far easier to deal with, there are still a lot of cases of certain games just not wanting to play nice with the system, hardware compatibility being one of the usual suspects.
Still, I'd say it's easier to install and run old games on old systems. It took me a while to learn DOS memory configuration, installing Win 9x and details about different video and audio hardware but after that, it's easier to run the games in 86box than directly on the modern system itself.
Concerning running early Win95/98 titles on modern systems, I've found PC Gaming Wiki increasingly useful. It looks like Steam all too often does not bother providing any fixes for an old game to run, and many popular titles have community fixes readily available and documented at the PCGW.
It's wild that we now have another generation of gamers who have only known installerless games and find the concept of running 'setup' unthinkable and too difficult to learn.
FTFY, because I don't recall seeing a lot of installers/setups on earlier machines like e.g. the C64 either. Shit used to just work, then DOS happened and it didn't for a bit.
I wouldn't call the C64 an easy one. C64 required typing, for example. Not just for typing down the listings printed in game magazines.
Someone had to load the game from datasette or floppy via command, too.
Something like LOAD "*", 8, 1. Not complicated, but neither plug&play.
The idiot proof games were the C64 game modules. Unless they were inserted upside down somehow. Atari 2600 had this issue, too.
Early DOS games didn't have installers either. Everything had to run from the floppy.
Same with 90s era DOS games from shareware/freeware scene, they were simply run from Norton Commander by running the game EXE.
It were the commercial big box games of late 80s and 90s that gave users this annoying choice to select which video mode, sound card or input device they wanted to use.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
Personally, I have added Norton Commander to [autoexec] section of DOSBOX, even.
This!
In addition I suggest putting your entire DOS installation and library onto a USB drive. This requires some slight adaptation in the Dosbox config each time you move your drive to a new computer. You can now link and start DOS including a "graphical frontend" (e.g. Norton Commander ) directly from the USB drive.
Now you can set up games directly from within the Dos environment as it was originally done.
The final "trick" then is to build, maintain and keep this USB drive over a long time.
I understand that you still have to figure out an installation once, but at least for me this method has worked quite well. I am revisiting a lot of titles rather infrequently and this way has saved me a lot of trouble when I come back to a single game after several years. This way its also possible to keep files organized that I dont want to get rid of (for example that awesome Sim City 2000 map I created 20 years ago - still have it and sometimes just have a lock how things are downtown)
What you then basically build is anUSB drive DOS PC with graphical frontend that you can move to each new Computer (with slight adapttions). It still needs you to install each game properly, but at least only once. After that, it is almost like GOG Galaxy for your pocket. I think this solution is best if you are looking for a long term solution. (The solution works less well for games that need very specialized Dosbox config settings as you have to adapt those either manually or maintain several config files alongside. An alternative here is to manage a separate Dosbox e.g. for early speedsensitive titles)
In addition I suggest putting your entire DOS installation and library onto a USB drive. This requires some slight adaptation in the Dosbox config each time you move your drive to a new computer.
It is perfectly possible to make a portable DOSBox configuration with relative paths in dosbox.conf that will run from anywhere you want without any tweaks needed.
Same with 90s era DOS games from shareware/freeware scene, they were simply run from Norton Commander by running the game EXE.
Umm, I've always assumed that it's not a good idea to run applications from inside a DOS file manager (I use DOS Navigator, BTW), as it still remains in memory and may take up this resource from the game itself.
(The solution works less well for games that need very specialized Dosbox config settings as you have to adapt those either manually or maintain several config files alongside. An alternative here is to manage a separate Dosbox e.g. for early speedsensitive titles)
Here's a little trick for you: you can change most of the relevant DOSBox parameters like CPU cycles count or CPU type/core at runtime using the CONFIG command. You can thus write a BAT file and put it into the root folder and have it run your game with the modified parameters, then go back to the root and reset your config to default when you exit.
Here's a few examples that I use. Heroes of Might and Magic II (I have the GOG version and run it in DOSBox ECE):
1cd HOMM2 2mount -u d 3imgmount d "homm2.ins" -t iso -fs iso 4mixer cdaudio 35:35 5dos32a HEROES2.EXE 6cd..
