Dosbox... I Don't Get It, Must Be Lost

[Gary]

I just do not get it! And before anyone says so... yes, I have the instructions printed off, IN HAND, as I spent hours last night trying to get Master of Orion to work.

Dell system, flat monitor, XP system.

If I take this in STAGES, so as to ensure people HELPING me (without burning you out?)... anyone willing to tell me what's wrong with the DOSBox instructions? I started file DOSBox, subfiles CDrive, Downloads and Files. Pasted Master of Orion into CDrive. I wrote EXACT into autoexec.bat, as the instruction said:

mount c c:\DOS\CDrive
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
C:
CLS

Nothing. After hours (so much for 'directions for dummies, eh? :), using mount c c:\DOSBox\CDrive... I think it was... I actually got the C; prompt, rather than the Z: prompt.

But then, message stating something about not finding the freaking CD?!

With this XP crap... what... EXACTLY... do I need to type, per the above 'mount c c:...' blah, blah, blah.

And also, please feel free to THINK of me as ignorant! I am, CPU speaking! If you explain to me like I'm a child, I shall NOT get offended... I just want to play the damned game... can you people hear me crying?? :(

[Guest]

You made one small mistake - the 4 lines of commands have to be not in the file autoexec.bat ( :blink: ) but in dosbox.conf, at the end of the file, right after these lines:

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

[Gary]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Feb 15 2007, 06:01 PM) 279412</div>
You made one small mistake - the 4 lines of commands have to be not in the file autoexec.bat ( :blink: ) but in dosbox.conf, at the end of the file, right after these lines:

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

Sorry, my typo, probably not clear. I did open DOSBox.conf. I did scroll down to the bottom of the page. What was there is as follows:

[autoexec]
# lines in this section will be run at startup. (as you pointed ouot)

Under this, as per the print out instructions, I typed, verbatim, the following:

mount C C:\DOS\CDrive
mount D D:\ -t cdrom
C:
CLS

Anyway, did it EXACT, per the instructions. Nothing. Zilp, Nada, Nilch!
My guess is that it is something so EASILY obvious... but that with my NON-cpu background... I just don't 'see' it.

Would someone who has DOSBox actually WORKING on their 'XP' operating system (preferrably Dell?)...

P-L-E-A-S-E take a moment and try to walk me through this? When I do it exact, per above, then try to open Dosbox, it still starts with the 'Z' prompt. And when I 'stumble' thriough (not remembering how I got there!) to C:\ORION... I still cannot get it to open, even though MEM tells me I have god-zillion megs of expanded and extended available.

I truly think I am missing something, probably simple, that shall make me scream 'Duh!' at myself... assuming I ever get past this thing.

Very easy at this point: can someone please help me to get DOSBox to work? I have read all the posts, read how people who have asked THE SAME HELP eventually return and say 'Duh!' got it working, etc.

So, like, where are those people NOW? (and, like, won't you help? Don't you remember the frustration?)

[Data]

is it the Master of orion that can be downloaded here ?

Did you extract the files in the archive ?

Futher remove the last line from the autoexe.bat thing (cls)
and tell us what is written in the screen.

[jg007]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Gary @ Feb 15 2007, 05:18 PM) 279404</div>
I just do not get it! And before anyone says so... yes, I have the instructions printed off, IN HAND, as I spent hours last night trying to get Master of Orion to work.

Dell system, flat monitor, XP system.

If I take this in STAGES, so as to ensure people HELPING me (without burning you out?)... anyone willing to tell me what's wrong with the DOSBox instructions? I started file DOSBox, subfiles CDrive, Downloads and Files. Pasted Master of Orion into CDrive. I wrote EXACT into autoexec.bat, as the instruction said:

mount c c:\DOS\CDrive
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
C:
CLS

Nothing. After hours (so much for 'directions for dummies, eh? :), using mount c c:\DOSBox\CDrive... I think it was... I actually got the C; prompt, rather than the Z: prompt.

But then, message stating something about not finding the freaking CD?!

With this XP crap... what... EXACTLY... do I need to type, per the above 'mount c c:...' blah, blah, blah.

And also, please feel free to THINK of me as ignorant! I am, CPU speaking! If you explain to me like I'm a child, I shall NOT get offended... I just want to play the damned game... can you people hear me crying?? :(
[/b]

there is no need to go to that much hassle -

a) unzip all files to a directory, example c:\moor
b) start dosbox
c) enter 'mount c c:\moor' ( changing if you place the directory elsewhere )
d) enter c:
e) run 'install', selecting reconfigure hardware and select older soundblaster and ( at least on my dosbox setup ) irq 5 NOT 7
f) enter orion


should run no problems

mount c c:\moor just tells dos box to set the root drive of c to c:\moor so when you enter c: and then go to the c drive you are straight into the moor directory.

some programs required a cd rom to be in the drive so would require you to mount a seperate directory as the cd rom drive and then mount another directory as your c drive but no need here

it might also be a good idea to read the dosbox guide for further explanation of why it starts at a z drive. probably not the best place for me to explain :)

[Gary]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Data @ Feb 15 2007, 06:39 PM) 279418</div>
is it the Master of orion that can be downloaded here ?

Did you extract the files in the archive ?

Futher remove the last line from the autoexe.bat thing (cls)
and tell us what is written in the screen.
[/b]

Insightful question, THANKS! (thanks, thanks, thanks)
No, as I wrote, I pasted it from the old 'MPS' file. Believe it was the CD rather than the original floppy.

In any event, I downloaded the game from this site. To tired to try last night, but I intend to 'cut' the (existing) Orion file back out of the DOSBox (put it back in MPS file... just in case). Then, I plan on PASTING the download ZIP from this site into DOSBox\Downloads (windows) file, then extracting the DOWNLOAD game (MOO) into... er, was it 'CDrive'? (whatever the directions tell me to do).

I shall then get back into the downloaded DOSBox config.sys, scroll down, then make sure I have the 'mount' lines exact as they are in the directions.

Then... I hope... things might work <sigh>. Jeez, I truly loved these games as a kid, and simply 'fired up' at the thought of re-visiting them. Thus, the FIERCE frustration I am suddenly having :(

[Gary]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Gary @ Feb 15 2007, 09:55 PM) 279475</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Data @ Feb 15 2007, 06:39 PM) 279418
is it the Master of orion that can be downloaded here ?

Did you extract the files in the archive ?

Futher remove the last line from the autoexe.bat thing (cls)
and tell us what is written in the screen.
[/b]

Insightful question, THANKS! (thanks, thanks, thanks)
No, as I wrote, I pasted it from the old 'MPS' file. Believe it was the CD rather than the original floppy.

In any event, I downloaded the game from this site. To tired to try last night, but I intend to 'cut' the (existing) Orion file back out of the DOSBox (put it back in MPS file... just in case). Then, I plan on PASTING the download ZIP from this site into DOSBox\Downloads (windows) file, then extracting the DOWNLOAD game (MOO) into... er, was it 'CDrive'? (whatever the directions tell me to do).

I shall then get back into the downloaded DOSBox config.sys, scroll down, then make sure I have the 'mount' lines exact as they are in the directions.

Then... I hope... things might work <sigh>. Jeez, I truly loved these games as a kid, and simply 'fired up' at the thought of re-visiting them. Thus, the FIERCE frustration I am suddenly having :(
[/b][/quote]

DUH!!
I somehow knew it would be something simple. Tried the 'shortcut', using the old game from harddrive. YES, it works with the DOWNLOADED version, but not what I had. Had to tinker around a bit with the autoexec file, but it runs (been playing for hours! :)

Now, off to find Master of Magic! If everything works, I'll have to (gladly) send this site some support!

Gary

[wajid]

:kosta: Try VDMSound it works better

[The Fifth Horseman]

In fact, it doesn't. VDMSound's emulation is only partial and not always sufficient for some games to run.
DosBox on the other hand, while taking up more system resources also offers compatibility as good (or, sometimes - BETTER) than the real thing. You can run it in window or fullscreen as you like, and have full control over the program's speed.

[Gary]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Feb 16 2007, 01:16 PM) 279585</div>
In fact, it doesn't. VDMSound's emulation is only partial and not always sufficient for some games to run.
DosBox on the other hand, while taking up more system resources also offers compatibility as good (or, sometimes - BETTER) than the real thing. You can run it in window or fullscreen as you like, and have full control over the program's speed.
[/b]

Thanks to all you guys. A couple of things, if you don't mind:

1.) I am incredibly grateful! Can a donation be made to this site OTHER THAN via credit cared and, if so, how?
2.) How can I get the FULL SCREEN in play? As is, I simply have the game running in this 'little' DOSBox. Grateful even for that, but... having been given the preverbial inch, now I want the whole sha-bang! :)
3.) I'll re-check documentation here to see what I missed about the F8 andF12 keys speeding the game up... but anything obvious?
4.) Oddly enough, I have NEVER liked playing a strategy game with sound, music, whatever. So appreciate the thought...

Gary

[The Fifth Horseman]

1.) I am incredibly grateful! Can a donation be made to this site OTHER THAN via credit cared and, if so, how?[/b]
Helping the site out by reviewing games is one way of doing that.

2.) How can I get the FULL SCREEN in play? As is, I simply have the game running in this 'little' DOSBox. Grateful even for that, but... having been given the preverbial inch, now I want the whole sha-bang! smile.gif[/b]
Press ALT+ENTER when DosBox is running to switch between windowed and fullscreen modes, or open dosbox.conf and change line that says "fullscreen=false" to "fullscreen=true". And if you're at that, also change "fullresolution=original" to "fullresolution=640x480".

In the same file, the line "windowresolution=" controls how large Dosbox display is when running in windowed mode. I suggest about 80% of your desktop size as the optimum.

3.) I'll re-check documentation here to see what I missed about the F8 andF12 keys speeding the game up... but anything obvious?[/b]
CTRL+F7/F8 - increase/decrease frameskip. Minimal performance gain, usually.
CTRL+F11/F12 - increase/decrease the number of cycles Dosbox runs at. You can adjust the starting value as well as those by which the cycles are adjusted by editing dosbox.conf.

Another way to improve performance is to change the core mode to dynamic. In dosbox.conf, where it says "core=normal", change it to say "core=dynamic". You may experience occasional crashes when using Dynamic Core, but these are usually few and far between.

And of course, it almost always runs faster in fullscreen mode.

[Jeff The Ninja]

You could try to use a frontend like D-Fend. It makes setup easy so you dont have to slog through all the setup just so you can run a game. Its basically done for you.

[The Fifth Horseman]

In theory.
Personally, I find making separate Dosbox configfiless and corresponding shortcuts easy and convenient enough to not require frontends. All it takes is about 15 minutes per shortcut - two thirds of that time to dig through my icons archive for one to match the shortcut.