Go Back   Forums > Abandonia.com > Troubleshooting
Memberlist Forum Rules Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
Search Forums:
Click here to use Advanced Search

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 31-07-2015, 05:33 PM   #1
anubis266
Newbie

 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 2
Default SWITCHING FOLDERS IN DOSBOX

I have unearthed my old PC Bard's Tale 1 5.25 floppies and have pulled the contents into a modern PC. I did so to use my highly leveled up characters I made in the late 80's. Bard's Tale comes with 3 disks (PROGRAM disk, PICTURE disk, and CHARACTER disk). I now have these in 3 respective folders on my C drive (c:\bard1_program, c:\bard1_picture, c:\bard1_character).

I can launch Bard's Tale 1 in Dosbox just fine. However it's one of those games that requires you to constantly switch between the three disks while the game is running.

I see tutorials that allow you to mount several disk images in Dosbox and switch between them with the CMD-F4 key. But I don't have disk images of the original disks. Just their contents placed in the three folders listed above.

Is there any way to mount all 3 FOLDERS in Dosbox and switch between them as needed (much like the disk images)?

If this is possible, can someone give me a step by step tutorial on how to successfully mount them?

Thank you

EDIT: It should also be noted that all three folders have files with the exact same names, so I can't dump all of the contents into one folder.

Last edited by anubis266; 31-07-2015 at 05:36 PM. Reason: Incomplete facts
anubis266 is offline                         Send a private message to anubis266
Reply With Quote
Old 01-08-2015, 08:17 AM   #2
zirkoni
Game Wizzzzzzard
 
zirkoni's Avatar

 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tampere, Finland
Posts: 508
Default

There are a few ways I can think of how to do what you want.

Option 1: Mount one of the directories in DOSBox. When you need to switch to another folder, rename the original folder to something else and rename the folder you want to switch to as the original folder. Press Ctrl+F4 in DOSBox to reset diskcaching.

Option 2: Make floppy disk images of the original floppies and mount them in DOSBox. DOSBox doesn't support mounting multiple floppy images so you'd have to use another program like Virtual Floppy Drive to mount/switch the images.

Option 3: Make iso images of the folders. For example, Folder2Iso can do that on Windows. Then mount the images in DOSBox with imgmount and press Ctrl+F4 to switch between images. You can't save any changes to the images in DOSBox.
__________________
www.youtube.com/@zirkoni42
zirkoni is offline                         Send a private message to zirkoni
Reply With Quote
Old 01-08-2015, 09:43 AM   #3
Smiling Spectre
10 GOSUB Abandonia
20 GOTO 10
 
Smiling Spectre's Avatar




 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Cherkessk, Russian Federation
Posts: 2,078
Send a message via ICQ to Smiling Spectre Send a message via AIM to Smiling Spectre Send a message via MSN to Smiling Spectre
Default

Option 4: Put all files in one dir.
__________________
Smiling Spectre is offline                         Send a private message to Smiling Spectre
Reply With Quote
Old 01-08-2015, 12:14 PM   #4
zirkoni
Game Wizzzzzzard
 
zirkoni's Avatar

 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tampere, Finland
Posts: 508
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smiling Spectre View Post
Option 4: Put all files in one dir.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anubis266 View Post
It should also be noted that all three folders have files with the exact same names, so I can't dump all of the contents into one folder.
__________________
www.youtube.com/@zirkoni42
zirkoni is offline                         Send a private message to zirkoni
Reply With Quote
Old 01-08-2015, 03:23 PM   #5
Smiling Spectre
10 GOSUB Abandonia
20 GOTO 10
 
Smiling Spectre's Avatar




 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Cherkessk, Russian Federation
Posts: 2,078
Send a message via ICQ to Smiling Spectre Send a message via AIM to Smiling Spectre Send a message via MSN to Smiling Spectre
Default

*shrugs* Well, don't you think that it could be the same files?

But, oh, well, I'll research the issue further.

...Hmm, I wasn't able to found 3-disks version. There are only 3.5'' (one disk) and 5.25" (2 disks) around. And even 2-disks haven't double files.

Also, both versions can be installed on HDD with "install.bat"

Is your version different, anubis266?

I can guess that "Characters" is this third disk maybe, with saved games/characters? What are exact name of this double files? Are this, by chance, have *.TPW extension? In this case all of them are saved characters.
__________________

Last edited by Smiling Spectre; 01-08-2015 at 03:53 PM.
Smiling Spectre is offline                         Send a private message to Smiling Spectre
Reply With Quote
Old 01-08-2015, 07:47 PM   #6
Eagle of Fire
Friendly Fire
 
Eagle of Fire's Avatar

 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Valleyfield, Canada
Posts: 4,892
Default

Do you need to absolutely have the same drive? If you have any kind of option to switch drive when the game prompt you for a disk then you could use A:, B: and whatever letter which isn't C: and D: for the third one.
__________________
I'm on a hot streak... Literally.
Proud member of The Abandoned since 2005.
Eagle of Fire is offline                         Send a private message to Eagle of Fire
Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2015, 07:27 PM   #7
anubis266
Newbie

 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 2
Default

Thanks for all the advice. The duplicate files were indeed the characters. I had tried dumping them all into one folder to start, but there were two corrupted characters (out of like 70), and just having them in my folder would not allow me to see any of my other characters. I deleted them and was able to access all the characters and the entire game from one folder.

It's good to know the folder renaming trick though. I might have to incorporate it for Pool of Radiance, because I can't get that disk switching problem to work now.

Anyhow, that's a problem for a different day.

Thanks!
anubis266 is offline                         Send a private message to anubis266
Reply With Quote
Reply


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
DOSBox screen captures scaled when [dosbox] machine=vgaonly Ohne Mitleid Troubleshooting 14 04-02-2011 01:03 AM
Forum Page Switching Sociopathic Old Suggestions 2 10-10-2008 11:08 PM
Switching to 7zip Archives Adamg Old Suggestions 45 10-02-2008 08:00 PM
XP, Folders and Read-Only Mighty Midget Tech Corner 4 23-11-2007 04:09 PM
I Need Help With Audio Stream Switching troop18546 Tech Corner 3 28-11-2006 12:53 PM

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Forum Jump
 


The current time is 02:13 PM (GMT)

 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.