BarracksDripBucket
1st Lieutenant
So looking on here and on GOG forums, it seems like a common problem in DosBox where inconsistent speeds require the player to constantly adjust the CPU cycles for it to remain playable. Pretty poor experience.
Over the past week I discovered a PC emulator called PCem - https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/
It emulates early PCs e.g. 286, 386 up to early pentiums. You can install DOS as well as Win95 in order to play games!
How would this differ to DosBox? Well the aim is to emulate the machine and not just DOS. So this includes accurate speeds and even goes as far as emulating BIOS!
Anyway I spent a little while setting this up today and from playing with different CPUs between 386 and 486 machines, I can verify what has been said. WC1 has no speed lock and as your the computer gets more powerful, the more unplayable it becomes.
I've settled on an Intel 486 SX 16MHz. Seems pretty smooth throughout. It does get slower/jerky when the missions get busy (asteroids plus 4 or so ships) but not the unplayable experience you get with DosBox.
I say potential solution because I haven't fully tested the game yet. Anyone else with some old saved game files want to help out and give it a try?
I could write a setup tutorial but theres a lots out there if you google. Also it requires BIOS roms, copies of DOS and/or Win95 which I'm sure aren't allowed to be posted here.
Btw, I am new here. I own all WC games on GOG but I've only ever played WC1, so I'm not exactly a fan (yet). I started it about 4 years ago but gave up because of the speed problems in DosBox. Hopefully one day I can play through all games in the series.
Over the past week I discovered a PC emulator called PCem - https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/
It emulates early PCs e.g. 286, 386 up to early pentiums. You can install DOS as well as Win95 in order to play games!
How would this differ to DosBox? Well the aim is to emulate the machine and not just DOS. So this includes accurate speeds and even goes as far as emulating BIOS!
Anyway I spent a little while setting this up today and from playing with different CPUs between 386 and 486 machines, I can verify what has been said. WC1 has no speed lock and as your the computer gets more powerful, the more unplayable it becomes.
I've settled on an Intel 486 SX 16MHz. Seems pretty smooth throughout. It does get slower/jerky when the missions get busy (asteroids plus 4 or so ships) but not the unplayable experience you get with DosBox.
I say potential solution because I haven't fully tested the game yet. Anyone else with some old saved game files want to help out and give it a try?
I could write a setup tutorial but theres a lots out there if you google. Also it requires BIOS roms, copies of DOS and/or Win95 which I'm sure aren't allowed to be posted here.
Btw, I am new here. I own all WC games on GOG but I've only ever played WC1, so I'm not exactly a fan (yet). I started it about 4 years ago but gave up because of the speed problems in DosBox. Hopefully one day I can play through all games in the series.