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[Red Fortress]

I'm totally new to this, have never mounted any ISO before.
From what I can gather from this forum Dos games (Anvil of Doom & Albion), can be mounted using Dosbox.

While the newer games (Dune 2000 & Shadow Man) need another mounting software (most of you seem to recommend Virtual CloneDrive).

Also I need a good unpacker, you seem to recommend the use RAR.

How ever that is the extent of my knowledge:
When I try to Download a game listed the cellar I get a list of files, what do I actually do with those files.
They usually include the following at minimum:

a file with the .nfo extension.
a bunch of files with .r plus a number (01,02,03...) extension.
a RAR file.
and a file with the .sfv extension.

sometimes they also include a bunch of other files variously named:
Fix
Crack
exe
covers
scans
Etc: Mostly in rar or zip format.

I'm completely lost, Im thinking that the first bunch (.nfo,.r01,.r02...) is the actual ISO and the rest are add-ons and patches?
How ever I have no idea what to do any of the files to actually get a working game, or even how I should go about mounting them.

Can some one please give a comprehensive tutorial on what to do.

[The Fifth Horseman]

From what I can gather from this forum Dos games (Anvil of Doom & Albion), can be mounted using Dosbox.

Yes.

While the newer games (Dune 2000 & Shadow Man) need another mounting software (most of you seem to recommend Virtual CloneDrive).

Yes. That or Daemon Tools Lite, whichever suits your fancy.

a file with the .nfo extension.

NFO is a regular text file, openable with Notepad. It stands for "info".

a bunch of files with .r plus a number (01,02,03...) extension.
a RAR file.

That's a multi-part RAR archive. Done that way either to bypass the filehost's size cap for individual files or to reduce how much you have to redownload if the download glitches at some point and you have to restart it.

and a file with the .sfv extension.

Checksum list, used to verify the downloaded files. Mostly redundant, as RAR format also includes checksum verification.

I'm completely lost, Im thinking that the first bunch (.nfo,.r01,.r02...) is the actual ISO and the rest are add-ons and patches?

Not quite, but pretty much so.

How ever I have no idea what to do any of the files to actually get a working game, or even how I should go about mounting them.

Download the RAR and any .rXX files, then unpack. If there is a "patch", "fix", "crack" or "exe", you should download that as well and read the instructions that should be inside the respective archive.

To mount the ISO (or IMG, BIN, IMG/CUE or BIN/CUE) image in DOSBox:
imgmount -t iso
Note that the path must be the full path to the image as it is located on your machine. Further, if the path includes any spaces you must enclose it in the double-quotes ( " ).
After doing this, you can use the virtual drive in DOSBox. Install the game, then apply any patches and then any cracks/fixes/etc as required.

[Eagle of Fire]

That's a multi-part RAR archive. Done that way either to bypass the filehost's size cap for individual files or to reduce how much you have to redownload if the download glitches at some point and you have to restart it.

Back in the days it was also commonly used to split an archive in several floppy size archives for transport from one computer to another. You will see this kind of setup often if you dabble with old games.

[Red Fortress]

Thanks Fifth Horseman, however I'm still having problems:
During the unpacking I get the message that some of the image files are broken.

I've tried a couple of different ISOs and always end up with the message (I'm using 7-zip to unpack, could that be the problem).

Some other Questions:
(1) I'm unpacking all the .Rxx files and the RAR file into one folder, is that correct?

(2) In what order should I unpack them, do's the RAR file go first followed by the .Rxx Files?

(3) What should I do with the .sfv file, do I just leave it out?

(4) Not a question but a problem with Forum, for some reason your reply post do's not show up when looking at this thread.
On the Forum it shows 0 Replies 5 Views.
The only reason I found your reply was that I had seen by clicking on your User page that you had posted a reply in the thread, and when I clicked on it your post appeared.
Moreover when I navigate to the thread using the forum, your post is not there, and it still shows zero replies.
This is really weird, must be some sort of bug.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by Red Fortress

Thanks Fifth Horseman, however I'm still having problems:
During the unpacking I get the message that some of the image files are broken.

Check which part of the archive it occurs on and redownload that part. Keep in mind that doing what you mentioned later could be causing this, so first try unpacking the files properly and only then go for redownloading.

(1) I'm unpacking all the .Rxx files and the RAR file into one folder, is that correct?
(2) In what order should I unpack them, do's the RAR file go first followed by the .Rxx Files?

You only unpack the RAR file. The rest will be unpacked automatically.

(3) What should I do with the .sfv file, do I just leave it out?

You can. Or you can get some checksum verification tool on your machine (personally I'm just using the one built into Total Commander) and use that with the SFV's to verify that the files you downloaded match with the ones provided by the uploader. The choice is yours.

(4) Not a question but a problem with Forum, for some reason your reply post do's not show up when looking at this thread.
On the Forum it shows 0 Replies 5 Views.
The only reason I found your reply was that I had seen by clicking on your User page that you had posted a reply in the thread, and when I clicked on it your post appeared.
Moreover when I navigate to the thread using the forum, your post is not there, and it still shows zero replies.
This is really weird, must be some sort of bug.

Looks like your browser is caching some of the pages. Clear the cache and refresh. You could also try viewing the forums by accessing the main index directly through http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/ instead of the forum frame on the main site.

[Red Fortress]

Okay, I think I've figured out what the problem was.
All of the .Rxx and the RAR have to be in the same folder, and I have to extract the RAR to that same folder, other wise it gets the error.

So from what I gather from reading your posts, now that the RAR is unpacked, I should mount it without unpacking .Rxx files as they will be unpacked automatically.

Also to double check; I should mount the folder with the unpacked RAR and all the .Rxx files, then when its mounted use the install from the RAR to install the game.

Correct?

P.S. Thanks for the heads up on the Browser Cache causing the problem, will clear it right away.

[dosraider]

Originally Posted by Red Fortress

Also to double check; I should mount the folder with the unpacked RAR and all the .Rxx files, then when its mounted use the install from the RAR to install the game.

No, you dio not mount the folder with the archive (rar,rxx) files and/or CD image, you must mount the CD image directly.
You must unpack the CD image and mount that as CD drive (pref D: ) in dosbox.
Also read:
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=20834

Let's say you have the CD image in
c:\users\your name\isos\ and the image is blood.iso then your mount line in dosbox would be:
imgmount d "c:\users\your name\isos\blood.iso" -t iso
If the CD image a BIN/CUE those two files MUST be in the same folder, for blood the mount line would be:
imgmount d "c:\users\your name\isos\blood.cue" -t iso

Installing the game is done in dosbox, input
d:
so that your prompt comes on D:\
Usually for dosgames the command is then install
If not do a dir /w/p and use your eyes and brain to see what you have and can use, sometimes (rare) it's setup, or you will have to work from a subdir on D: (not common, but it happens)

As it seems you're a newbie regarding dosbox (we all were once) reading some tutorials is also highly advised.
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/forumdisplay.php?f=90

[Edit]
Now that I think about it, and to make things simplier for debutants .....

Sometimes when you will unpack the CD images you'll get some extra files, namely *.ECM files and a UNECM.bat in stead of an ISO or BIN/CUE.
Nothing very complicated if you follow some basic rules:
All the files in that archive must be in the same folder, pref an empty one (you may NOT overwrite-use an older unecm.bat from another archive)
A temp folder or so will do fine.
Then you must run the unecm.bat in windows to unpack the CD image

ECM is an extra compresor that makes the files smaller for download (ISO -BIN/CUE don't compress very swell)

[Red Fortress]

Making an attempt:
1: Downloaded a DOS game ISO from the cellar.
2: Put all the .Rxx files and the RAR in a folder.
3: Put all the Extras, Cover, .SFV file, NFO in another folder.
4: Unpacked the RAR file, did not touch the .Rxx's.
5: Deleted the RAR file now that I have its contents.
6: The files I got from from the RAR, .ccd, .cue, .img.ecm files. An unecm Batch file, and unecm.exe.
7: Run unecm Batch (clicking on the unecm exe had no results).
8: It decoded the .img.ecm into an .img file.

So far, so good, hope all the steps where correct: What should I do next?

P.S. Can I now delete the .img.ecm, and the unecm batch & unecm exe?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by Red Fortress

So far, so good, hope all the steps where correct: What should I do next?

Run DOSBox and use imgmount to mount the image.

P.S. Can I now delete the .img.ecm, and the unecm batch & unecm exe?

Yes.

[dosraider]

Originally Posted by Red Fortress

.....ccd....

Eeerrh, no, that won't mount directly in dosbox with imgmount, imgmount is written to be compliant with ISO- BIN/CUE, not with a cloneCD image, best here is to mount the image in
http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html (or other CCD compliant virtual CD drive)
and mount the virtual drive as D: in dosbox
mount d x:\ -t cdrom
Will behave as a real CD drive D: in dosbox.
Replace the X:\ by the drive letter under Windows.

A second possibility is to rework the CCD image to a dosbox compliant image, pref a BIN/CUE. (Save in an other folder then the original, don't overwrite the *.CUE file! )
Several softs can do that, PowerISO ... etcetera ....
Or eventually use http://www.imgburn.com/ (or similar...) to create a BIN/CUE (or ISO if the CD isn't mixed mode**)from the mounted CCD image, works also.

**Mixed mode: (in short) music tracks are separate tracks, ISO can't hold them, for those you need a BIN/CUE and 'imgmount' pointing to the *.CUE file

[Edit]
Just popped up in my mind, I'm getting old, isn't it? Damn memory ....

That trick to alter the CloneCD image to a dosbox imgmount compliant ISO-BIN/CUE doesn't always work, if the game CD is protected (rare with dosgames but happens, current with later W9X games) you'll need the original CCD image.
For dosgame CDs it will work for 99% of the games, there are only a few exceptions, early copy protection were usually wrong sized clusters, faulty fat, hidden files or some other creative anti-piracy tricks.
Ah well, trial and error won't hurt you, no pain no gain.