Slight Delay When I Run Cd-rom Games, Why?

[Razors78]

I was playing a few CD-ROM games in dosbox 0.70 with my usual mounting.
Say if wanted to play Rama i mounted like this (F is my real HD and D is my real cd rom).

Mount f f:\games\sierra\ramados
Mount d d:\ -t cdrom
Then Ramados.exe starts the game and away I go. :)

Now to the little problem I have.
For instance, I was playing Rama & Psycho Pinball (cd rom versions). When in Rama I click forward, left, right or whatever, but there is a slight delay just like the cd has to think for a while before letting me doing those actions. And when in Psycho Pinball it sometimes is the same, when I load a table it takes a little while to load it (should load real quick). Just thought if there is a workaround for this "issue"? Increasing cycles doesn't seem to help anyway :(

[Scatty]

Try this little handy program - CD Bremse (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/CD_Bremse) - and set the speed of the CD-ROM to a fixed speed. Either to a slow speed so it doesn't have to speed up each time and responds quickly, or to a fast speed so it's always already speeded up.

[The Fifth Horseman]

The best workaround here is creating ISO images of those CD's and using them with DOSBox' IMGMOUNT utility. This way everything is loaded from your harddrive (and that means = fast).

[Razors78]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Scatty @ May 31 2007, 06:26 AM) 292263</div>
Try this little handy program - CD Bremse (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/CD_Bremse) - and set the speed of the CD-ROM to a fixed speed. Either to a slow speed so it doesn't have to speed up each time and responds quickly, or to a fast speed so it's always already speeded up.
[/b]

Thanks i'll try that program. I will let you know if this fixed the problem :)


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ May 31 2007, 12:57 PM) 292342</div>
The best workaround here is creating ISO images of those CD's and using them with DOSBox' IMGMOUNT utility. This way everything is loaded from your harddrive (and that means = fast).
[/b]

Ok, but exactly how do I mount say Rama for instance? I already have ISO images of that game, but I'm afraid I don't know how to use them, especially when it comes to disc swapping ;)

I really want to play that game using ISOS as you stated :)

[Scatty]

Try DaemonTools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5) for mounting ISO's, it's very simple to use and recognizes many ISO formats.

[Razors78]

Well, how do I start the game using those ISOS? And when the game tells me to change disc, how do I do that using those ISOS? A guide or something would be nice :)

[The Fifth Horseman]

Do not mount an ISO with any virtual drives if you want to use it in DOSBox!
Been there, done that, don't want to ever again: It may work, but will cause worse skipping than from the real drive.

DOSBox has its' own virtual drive and you should use this one.
As to how:
imgmount D c:\images\game.iso -t iso

Support for multiple ISO images has been added in v0.70 It works like that:
imgmount D c:\images\gameiso1.iso c:\images\gameiso2.iso -t iso
(You can mount more than two images, of course - this is just an example)

Once mounted, CTRL+F4 cycles between the images.

So if you have ISO1, ISO2 and ISO3 mounted in sequence, CTRL+F4 it will go from ISO1 to ISO2, next from ISO2 to ISO3 and when you tell it to cycle forward from ISO3, it will go back to ISO1.

[Razors78]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ May 31 2007, 03:09 PM) 292369</div>
Do not mount an ISO with any virtual drives if you want to use it in DOSBox!
Been there, done that, don't want to ever again: It may work, but will cause worse skipping than from the real drive.

DOSBox has its' own virtual drive and you should use this one.
As to how:
imgmount D c:\images\game.iso -t iso

Support for multiple ISO images has been added in v0.70 It works like that:
imgmount D c:\images\gameiso1.iso c:\images\gameiso2.iso -t iso
(You can mount more than two images, of course - this is just an example)

Once mounted, CTRL+F4 cycles between the images.

So if you have ISO1, ISO2 and ISO3 mounted in sequence, CTRL+F4 it will go from ISO1 to ISO2, next from ISO2 to ISO3 and when you tell it to cycle forward from ISO3, it will go back to ISO1.
[/b]

Yes! Thank YOU!! Mr.Horseman :D You have been such great help!! Now I can play all cd-rom games much better with no sound stuttering/skipping at all and no cd loading! Those ISOS are way better than running games from cd-rom ;)

Once again, thanks mate! :)

[The Fifth Horseman]

This also works for floppy images, in case you ever need to use any.

When using the BOOT command (for booter games), you can specify several images in sequence - it will work the same as with IMGMOUNT.