The Dosbox thread! Ha ha!

Wossack

Released 1998 by Gremlin Interactive Hardwar was/is considered the 'spiritual predecessor' to the classic Elite. An excellent freeform, space-faring game, which I unfortunately missed first time around, and only found ~5 years ago.



In a nutshell, the game takes place on the Saturn moon, Titan. A colony was abandoned hundreds of years ago when the mining company that operated there found it unprofitable (love the premise ) and after 200 years of isolation, a new 'civilization' comes about. Nice political tension is achieved with 2 rival gangs vying for power, and an easily corruptible and ineffectual police force - all explored in the single player campaign (which you can merrily ignore to your hearts desire :cool: )



Its your goal in the game to, well, do what you want really Players can trade (extensive trade system), hunt pirates as a bounty hunter or be a pirate. Scavenging is also possible, grabbing loot off of other traders that usually drop it at the first sign of pirates. There is also the campaign/story that you can follow, and will get messages about - eventually leading to your escape from the moon (apparently, never done it myself)



What I really loved about the game, is the living, and breathing environment that you're dumped in. Police fly around scanning people for illegal cargo, and defending against aggressors etc - traders, well trade - pirates, err pirate... you get the idea



The game also has a fully working transport system, monorails and taxis, which is a nice touch I must admit. Its the combination of all these features that makes a really immersing gaming experience.



Highly recommend it, and dont think it was on your list hamster (for shame! ) You'll want a joystick though, mine unfortunately needs a gameport, and my current pc doesnt have one (urgh) - so the screens are just random shots of a 5 minute game :rolleyes:

Pretty large community still around, considering, wiki here (been a while (2years?) since I last played, need reminders lol ) for links and further info etc. Apparently one of the original developers from the now defunct 'The Software Refinery' showed up in 2004 to fix some bugs and offer continued support - gotta love that :cool:

hamster

Wossack wrote:

Released 1998 by Gremlin Interactive Hardwar was/is considered the 'spiritual predecessor' to the classic Elite. An excellent freeform, space-faring game, which I unfortunately missed first time around, and only found ~5 years ago.

Pretty large community still around, considering, wiki here (been a while (2years?) since I last played, need reminders lol ) for links and further info etc. Apparently one of the original developers from the now defunct 'The Software Refinery' showed up in 2004 to fix some bugs and offer continued support - gotta love that :cool:

Nice game Wossack - I played it over 3 days over xmas 3 years ago. Yup, that game drips atmosphere. I did the first few missions and it was maddeningly addictive. I still remember the slow flyby hums from passing approaching craft and that constantly milky red sky. Remembering tunnels, and trying to scale the crater boundry walls. Could hook you in! Be careful!

But is that game running under dosbox like the others? I can't remember but I was sure it was a windows port - wiki seems to think so. Dosbox will find it tough for anything demanding around 1996+ If it's a dos port I'll add it to the updated list.

hamster

jimmythekidd wrote:

mmm this thread is a mad trip down memory lane,
hows the networking go under dosbox? I'll try it myself today anyways...
I'd love to set up a nostalgia lan and play some doom/duke3d/blood/c&c/anything else that supported multiplayer

That's not a bad idea....
Configuration of directserial/modem functionality can be setupin the dosbox.conf file. Go for an emulated modem on COM1 listening on port 23, then the following configuration can be used.

[serial]
serial1=modem listenport:23
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

phonelistsize=3
phone1=localhost:1023
phone2=xxxxx.dialin.net
phone3=192.168.0.1

Wossack

hamster wrote:

But is that game running under dosbox like the others? I can't remember but I was sure it was a windows port - wiki seems to think so. Dosbox will find it tough for anything demanding around 1996+ If it's a dos port I'll add it to the updated list.

you got me alright! couldnt find a version to run under dosbox

Ill have a gander and try a couple others - you stick up syndicate? loved it too :cool:

Wossack

The game itself is a Bulldog title, apparently coded by the coders just for fun. Apparently excels in multiplayer, but my version doesn't have the multiplayer option...



Its a futuristic racing game - pretty unoriginal tbh, but its a great laugh nonetheless. Ive not played it in at least 10 years but my fingers went the controls straight away - so thats some indication of how much I played it :rolleyes:



Your racer has different stats depending on the type etc. Each one has a minigun, missile launcher and a booster (speed boost). So makes the game that bit more frantic



Some ingame shots



Dosbox would unfortunately crash when I took the screens, so each is only about 10 secs into each one - but I think you get the idea

I think I got free with my Gateway 2000 386, though cant be certain (pretty sure the computer itself had a turbo button ) Have it running at its highest res, 640x480 with some slowdown when theres alot of other racers around you (a64 3200+1gb ram) but tbh, I think its aged very well. Sound effects for the minigun and the booster are excellent (original doom shotgun excellent :cool: ) and brought back great memories

hamster

Wossack wrote:

Its a futuristic racing game - pretty unoriginal tbh, but its a great laugh nonetheless. Ive not played it in at least 10 years but my fingers went the controls straight away - so thats some indication of how much I played it :rolleyes:

Dosbox would unfortunately crash when I took the screens, so each is only about 10 secs into each one - but I think you get the idea

I think I got free with my Gateway 2000 386, though cant be certain (pretty sure the computer itself had a turbo button ) Have it running at its highest res, 640x480 with some slowdown when theres alot of other racers around you (a64 3200+1gb ram)

Hi-Octane! I completely forgot about that! I think I came across it in summer 1995 running a 16Mb P120. I found svga then too slow. Plain vga was fine. That was fun - and pretty good.

Maybe we could get it faster by messing with the .conf file. especially the output setting. Possible options are surface (default), overlay, opengl or ddraw. 'surface' gives the the most crisp picture but needs also pretty much cpu power. 'overlay' is much more cpu friendly (when using core=dynamic), so is preferable.

That game reminds me of the early sunny summer mornings Think I played it from a PC Format CD. Great pick!

Wossack

cool, dosbox is completely new to me, Ill have a fiddle with it tomorrow

Ruu_Old

I've been playing Crystal Maze on the old computer, must get it on the newer machine and play via DOSBox.

Crystal Maze by Sherston Software was released in 1993, we mostly know it from the gameshow of course, hosted by the wacky Richard O'Brien. I have to get back into it.

Retr0gamer

I got Hi-octane free with my first PC, a gateway P100. Even at the time it was a terrible, terrible game. Not a patch on the console racers at the time like Wipeout, daytona etc.

hamster

Dos game of the day is Syndicate.
I got this in 1994 in a flimsy green cd card cover. Installed it and goggled at the sharp 640x480 vga graphics. The music was impressive and moody.

The intro is good telling the story of capturing a civvie by running him over and bringing the individual back to base and turning him into an agent with implants.


Starting out you choose a company and logo and start in Western Europe.

The map is interesting allowing you to view each individual corporation state - looking at the population figure under their control. I noted the population changed in real time.

The starting mission is quite easy - Assassinate a colonel that is stealing weapons from your organization. Take him out without alerting your presence.

At the end he came running of the building with no escorts. I came up ultra close and blasted his stomach out backwards (made darn pretty sure he won't be used for spare parts) and then set the car on fire. Hold off on the airstrikes this time.
Back to base with celebrations!

Afterwards read the mission briefing and see where you could improve. I think I killed a civvie - but he/she looked like an illegal non combatant - so that's fine.


In the lab, we're busy creating new hearts and kidneys - this will help our operatives deal with the tougher mission ahead. Already that call is coming in from Sweden to steal 2 scientists from a rival corporation and it's going to take more than a stomach wound to deal with that issue.


This game is as fresh as the day as it was born. The graphics as I said are sharp and responsive. I remember completing this and the last mission was tough! I didn't get the expansion pack American Revolt. Some of you guys might have got it?

A lot packed in 11Mb. All in All a wonderful classic!

Wossack

excellent! getting this

hamster

Continuing to have a lot of fun with Battle Isle 2 - haven't play this since August 1994. Here winter has set but the ice is not strong enough to cross the lake and the red enemy Titan Net has a skull shell bunker slowing down my forces near the top right. On expert mode - ranged attacks from mobile buggy units don't damage the enemy as much as you'd like.

hamster

A break from the Classics....

I thought we'd might have a look at some of the old Dos Emulators. If you use linux and get dos box working - then you can play mame, speccie and most of the old 8 bit machines going under it - even fellow for the 16-bit amiga (with a conroe cpu maybe).

Starting off with the Spectrum. Now I didn't have a speccie growing up. I had a c64 so I didn't try many of the old dos speccie emulators - anyone had any favorites (Fuse? ZX, Zxspin?) - so I had a look at World of Spectrum.....

I settled for RealSpectrum .097.26
- It supports perfect .trx files, as well as the usual snaps (.sna) and (.tap) and disk images.

I tried the Hobbit and then a snap of Maniac Miner. Very Nice and works perfectly under the DosBox. Two layered emulation.

Starquake loading with the correct squeaks and beeps.


I died on the first screen in Maniac Miner:


Dosbox perfectly handled these with ease. What Dos Spectrum emulator did you guys used going back in 1990s?

corkproducers

Duggy747 wrote:

You guys should try out the OpenGl versions of the classics Doom And Duke Nukem; vastly improved graphics while keeping the classic look at the same time, genius! A

JonoF is the port i use for duke 3d these days.
Has the best graphics, but not as efficent as the Rancidmeat port.

Have you tried the High Resolution Pack for duke 3D?

It changes all the textures to new high res textures, plus,
it makes everything true 3D, including enemies, weapons & inventory!
Totally makes duke 3D look modern!




Also have you ever played any of the Total Conversions for duke?


Man ive spent more time playing this game than any other PC game!

hamster

I recognise that room - That's the jacks at the back of the Cinema on level 1? Gawd! That's a long time ago. Yeah, I saw references to the High def pack - even downloaded and put it on long term storage - but didn't get around to it. Seems like Duke3D got the DoomsDay treatment - the textures look smooth and the aliens are perfectly 3D.
Let us know the complete receipe to install and we'll give it a swing.

hamster

Golly, it been over a week since I last posted an oldie... must post one up over the next few days.

corkproducers

hamster wrote:

I recognise that room - That's the jacks at the back of the Cinema on level 1? Gawd! That's a long time ago. Yeah, I saw references to the High def pack - even downloaded and put it on long term storage - but didn't get around to it. Seems like Duke3D got the DoomsDay treatment - the textures look smooth and the aliens are perfectly 3D.
Let us know the complete receipe to install and we'll give it a swing.

Ive setup a Duke 3D thread with everything you need to know:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=53527056

The HRP pack is easy to install as far as i can remember.
If you need any help intalling it give us a shout.

Oh and dont forget to download the latest version, Version 3, plus the 3.2 update.


I had syndicate wars myself, the graphics were excellent, but Syndicate seems to have better reviews.
Must get both again.

hamster

Good stuff! Must try that out this weekend.

Crowman

Hi guys,
Anyone here ever try this beauty...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova:_Strike_Force_Centauri

I fired it up at the weekend bought back some memories!
Runs great in latest Dosbox...
Ill get some screenies later in the week...

Crowman

Screenshots from TerraNova!

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LoGiE

I hadn't heard of this one before. Must give it go as it was apparently pretty good!

Retr0gamer

One of my friends raves about it. It got universally excellent reviews. Unfortunately just like all of the looking glass games such as system shock 1 and 2 it got ignored commercially and sold about 3 and a half copies.

Hamster, want to try Tomb Raider for me? Anniversary has given me fond memories and I want to see if it holds up today.

Crowman

Yeah Terra Nova's great.

I have a huge collection of original Dos games that I want to go through one by one and see how good DosBox handles them...

Isnt it weird that I have a Xbox 360 and decent PC yet i seem to get more pleasure out of re-living these games from yesteryear!

One game I'm defo trying soon is Shuttle...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle:_the_Space_Flight_Simulator_%28Virgin_game%29

hamster

Retr0gamer wrote:

Hamster, want to try Tomb Raider for me? Anniversary has given me fond memories and I want to see if it holds up today.

Yup, sure I'll dig that one up next.

hamster

hamster wrote:

Yup, sure I'll dig that one up next.

I tried Tomb Raider on Dosbox but getting a can't find PCI bus error. Not 100% sure yet but I think it's an emulated videocard issue. Check some more later.

bookiebasher

downloaded dosbox yesterday and this version is fab..played warcraft2 for a few hours yesterday and relived old memories..

hamster

Been awhile since I dug up a Dos game - but here's one.
Here is one of Retr0Gamer's golden oldies: Crusader No Remorse. I never played this Origin SVGA shooting/rpg-ish classic.


Graphics-wise look good - smooth walking main character with speech. The whole game is 55Mb installed. I started in the game on a telepod

and proceeded to blast my way into the complex. In my inventory I had a few items - one of which - I needed to use to open a door or somewhere...where I got killed due to the lack of bullets (I was getting used to the aiming system).


Maybe Retr0Gamer can add a bit here. Actually to get the game working I needed to mount the game on the "d" drive or 2nd mount to pose as the cdrom. Nice music to the game.

Fast and responsive - mouse control felt a little sluggish - the arrow keys felt smooth for walking the character.

Retr0gamer

Thanks for the memories there. Does the main character still control like a tank?

I got the sequel Crusader: No Regret and I think it was probably my first PC game I bought because I was amazed at the size of the boxes they came in. I was going through my gore phase then when I would buy anything that was really gory (like Fade to Black) and foolishly thought the Mortal Kombat series was good.

I rememeber this being totally over the top amoral fun. The game had loads of innocent workers and scientists milling about that could be killed in all manner of gruesome ways for no penalty. I preferred to see how many would get shot\immolated\disintergrated\microwaved in the firefights. All the scenery was fully destrutable so firefights were impressively kinetic. One problem with the game was that it relied on the old Doom approach of find keycard, open correponding door which meant you could sometimes become stuck for about 2 hours looking for a keycard that was disguised by the scenery.

Another thing of note was the amount of weapons and how gory the deaths were. The music was top notch in this game and it had some dreadfully acted cutscenes. The main character was also a real bad ass.

Sometimes I wish Origin never merged with EA

hamster

I notice slightly better management with dosbox version 0.71. I have been playing BI2 for 3 hours solid and it's rock steady!

What a game! Titan Net gets buckets of units - I have only just captured a factory.

hamster

I was messing with Eye of the Beholder again on the Amiga and I said to myself - hell I should try the DOS version and see the difference. You see, I originally had the Amiga version and always believed the dos version to be inferior. How wrong I was - especially when you consider the PC version was the original platform and the Amiga version was a port from the PC.

I tried it out on Dosbox this evening - very similiar as expected but -

* it is more responsive than the amiga version
* more colors - VGA's 256 colors as opposed to the Amiga's 16
* During hectic fight scenes I noticed mouse/movement lag when retreating.
* Extra soundfx.
* Works a beaut under dosbox.

Hard to believe it all fits in 1.96Mb. If I ever get free time again - this one is going into the to be completed section.



** Edit **

This snippet is nice from wikipedia: - so the Amiga version did outdo the PC ending.
Many players felt disappointed with the game ending, which is considered by many to be one of the worst game endings ever[1]. Once the eponymous beholder was killed, the player would be treated to a small blue window describing that the beholder was killed and that the adventurers ventured into the surface where they were treated as heroes. Nothing else is mentioned in the ending and there were no accompanying graphics. This was changed in the later released Amiga version, which featured an animated ending.

hamster

Not a game this time... but a good test of dosbox running a 2000 dos pc demo. Dosbox handles this without a sweat here.



Demo is by mfx.
Review on pouet.net

M@lice

Wow! Cool thread.

I'm surprised I haven't seen Civilisation here anywhere yet. It was the first game I played when I downloaded dosbox a while ago. What a Legend of a game!

Mezcita

M@lice wrote:

Wow! Cool thread.

I'm surprised I haven't seen Civilisation here anywhere yet. It was the first game I played when I downloaded dosbox a while ago. What a Legend of a game!

Ah, nuking the Americans. Those were the days........