Run All Old WC Games in DOSBox Walkthrough

no need to that dude, I fixed it. It was some problem with this 1994's version. I now have the original 90's wing commander and everything is fine.
but thx for your help guys.
One last thing: I think the problem was that my WC.exe file could't respond to the install.dat file, hell knows why. after some tries I noticed that it created a batch-file everytime I ran install.exe.
This batch file was called wing.bat. and with this I could play with sound, but he game was very unstable.

well, another problem solved so who cares, right?^^
 
didint want to start a completely new thread, but i have Armada on cd, can i play in DOSbox, with no problems? just wondering, my os is WIN2000 sp4
 
All of the original DOS Wing Commander games run in DOSBox with no problems (need a relatively fast computer for the later ones). Armada CD is pretty much just the floppy version copied to a CD as well (this is not the case for some games. Privateer CD had entire speech rerecorded for the entire game).
 
Hm, i have a question...

I run the latest DosBox for MacOS X (Powerbook G4) and when I push the A-Button for WC1/2 to activate the auto-pilot it raises the WC-internal Frame-Skipping. So I end up having Frame-Skipping to 4 but no auto-pilot. Does anyone have the same problem?
 
I can't imagine they'd map a function like that to a regular letter key. It sounds like you have some sort of function lock turned on. In the Windows version of DOSBox, you need to hold Control and F8 to up the frameskip.
 
Well, I got it. On an apple-pb, the a-letter is keymapped for print and scroll and another key. So I got to remap it with -startmapper. Thanks anyway =).
 
Problems installing Wing Commander 1 & 2

I'm hoping someone can give me some pointers here. I'm new to using Dosbox and all and recently wanted to play through WC 1 & 2, especially the Secret Missons which i never played before.

Anyway, I have the installation files in one folder and mounted the folder they're in as one drive (d), then I try and mount a C drive as my desktop. When I try and run the Install file, everything is fine, unti I get a request to pick the drive to copy the files from. When I try and type the letter, (D), nothing happens. It won't accept any input on either letter. Only when I hit escape does the program say 'Installation aborted by user'.

Am I doing something wrong? Did I mismount something? I'm trying to install from scratch, but this is the holdup.

I have DOSBOX (the latest), a Powermac 2ghz running OS X 10.4

Any help would be appreciated!
 
So what game are you encountering this with? Did you mount the D drive as type cdrom or floppy? The mount default is a hard drive type, and the installer isn't looking for that.
 
ChrisReid said:
So what game are you encountering this with? Did you mount the D drive as type cdrom or floppy? The mount default is a hard drive type, and the installer isn't looking for that.
Click to expand...

Actually, both WC1 and WC2. To be honest, with WC1 I found my old install files, but I copied them all from their original floppies into one directory so I think I did something wrong there, maybe deleted a file I need?

As to mounting, I only mounted it I think as a file: "Mount C \users\hdname\desktop\" I copied the files from the CD-ROM and placed them in a directory on my desktop.

How do you mount as a floppy?

I checked the intro in dosbox and unfortunately doesn't give an example of how to mount a CD when you're in OS 10.
 
Padawanmage said:
Actually, both WC1 and WC2. To be honest, with WC1 I found my old install files, but I copied them all from their original floppies into one directory so I think I did something wrong there, maybe deleted a file I need?
Click to expand...

You should be able to determine whether or not you overwrote any files or failed to copy them over. You need to add "-t floppy" without the quotes to the end of your mounting line when you're mounting the folder with the disk contents.

Padawanmage said:
I checked the intro in dosbox and unfortunately doesn't give an example of how to mount a CD when you're in OS 10.
Click to expand...

The commands should be the same in every version. Just add -t cdrom
 
was trying to get Armada to work but after typing the executable command,dosbox gives me error,"unable to find data tre please be sure you have a cd in your drive" anyone wanna go at this?
 
That's pretty simple. It's not finding the CD or install files. You have to get all the files to the hard drive and tell the game you've done a full install or be sure to mount the disc as a cd-rom.
 
WC2 special ops

Hi guys,

First, thanks for the detailed instructions throughout this thread. You've gotten me playing WC2 for the first time in probably ten years...

WC2 (deluxe edition CD) runs perfectly fine on DOSBox 0.65 with loadfix -32 and running the "CD" from my hard drive (I have a dual core 1.66 GHz laptop). However, when I try to play Special Ops 1 (haven't tried 2 yet...), the game freezes for 15-20 seconds every time going into and coming out of autopilot. This happens to a lesser extent (maybe 2-3 seconds) loading cutscenes, but didn't happen at all in the original WC2 on the same CD, with exactly the same config settings.

Is there anything I can do to fix this? It gets awfully annoying having to wait 30-40 seconds for each autopilot, especially on the hard missions that I end up dying 20 times on...

Thanks in advance!
 
ChrisReid said:
You should be able to determine whether or not you overwrote any files or failed to copy them over. You need to add "-t floppy" without the quotes to the end of your mounting line when you're mounting the folder with the disk contents.



The commands should be the same in every version. Just add -t cdrom
Click to expand...


I really appreciate the help you've given so far and I have been able to get the first game up and running.

Unfortunately, I have a new problem: Secret Missions. I recently purchased the WC CD-Rom Special Edition (WC 1 & 2, plus all the extras the went with them). I was able to install WC and Secret Missions 1 with no problem. But when I try and select 'Secret Missions' on the startup screen, it tells me "The Secret Mission Files are not present on your Wing Commander Game Disk". But I installed them.

For the sake of argument, I also tried SM2 and for some reason the sound is way off. The laser blasts sound like tinkles, for instance. I can guess that it was the wrong sound card settings. Is there a way I can change them?

Any help would be appreciated!
 
Padawanmage said:
I really appreciate the help you've given so far and I have been able to get the first game up and running.
Click to expand...

Great.

Padawanmage said:
Unfortunately, I have a new problem: Secret Missions. I recently purchased the WC CD-Rom Special Edition (WC 1 & 2, plus all the extras the went with them). I was able to install WC and Secret Missions 1 with no problem. But when I try and select 'Secret Missions' on the startup screen, it tells me "The Secret Mission Files are not present on your Wing Commander Game Disk". But I installed them.
Click to expand...

So for whatever reason, the install didn't take. SM1 has its own separate installation progam on the disc. Make sure it installs to the same folder that you're installing WC1 to. You have the option to play off the disc, and it sounds like this is selected (and DOSBox is not mounted properly for the game to read your disc). Make sure you don't bother with this, and you have selected hard drive as the preferred installation method.

Padawanmage said:
For the sake of argument, I also tried SM2 and for some reason the sound is way off. The laser blasts sound like tinkles, for instance. I can guess that it was the wrong sound card settings. Is there a way I can change them?
Click to expand...

Yes, the installation program for SM2 is called "Install2" instead of just "Install." Simulate a reinstall and pick Soundblaster.

Thom said:
WC2 (deluxe edition CD) runs perfectly fine on DOSBox 0.65 with loadfix -32 and running the "CD" from my hard drive (I have a dual core 1.66 GHz laptop). However, when I try to play Special Ops 1 (haven't tried 2 yet...), the game freezes for 15-20 seconds every time going into and coming out of autopilot. This happens to a lesser extent (maybe 2-3 seconds) loading cutscenes, but didn't happen at all in the original WC2 on the same CD, with exactly the same config settings.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a similar issue to the person above, but I don't think SO1 gives you the option of installing to the hard drive or not. If your SO1 could be set to run off the discs, and your DOSBox is actually configured to correctly stream theat data, you might be waiting for your CD-ROM to spin up and perform that process. Anyhow, I'd recommend a similar solution. Go in and reinstall the game (SO1's installer is called "Install1"). When it asks you about the Hard Drive installation, make sure you choose Save Time and not Save Space. How many cycles are you running the game at? There's a good chance you could fix this just by upping to 5500 cycles or so.
 
ChrisReid said:
That's pretty simple. It's not finding the CD or install files. You have to get all the files to the hard drive and tell the game you've done a full install or be sure to mount the disc as a cd-rom.
Click to expand...

how do you mount the disc as a cdrom? just make up a drive letter?
the whole game is installed, how do i tell it?
thanks for your help in the matter
 
Loozer said:
how do you mount the disc as a cdrom? just make up a drive letter?
the whole game is installed, how do i tell it?
thanks for your help in the matter
Click to expand...

You add "-t cdrom" to the end of the mounting command without the quotes. In this case it's probably be better to transfer the entire thing to the mounted hard drive and install from there so you don't need the disc at all though.
 
ChrisReid said:
This sounds like a similar issue to the person above, but I don't think SO1 gives you the option of installing to the hard drive or not. If your SO1 could be set to run off the discs, and your DOSBox is actually configured to correctly stream theat data, you might be waiting for your CD-ROM to spin up and perform that process. Anyhow, I'd recommend a similar solution. Go in and reinstall the game (SO1's installer is called "Install1"). When it asks you about the Hard Drive installation, make sure you choose Save Time and not Save Space. How many cycles are you running the game at? There's a good chance you could fix this just by upping to 5500 cycles or so.
Click to expand...

I actually never installed SO1 specifically - I assumed it installed together with the original WC2 - but apparently not, so it probably was running off the "disc" (simulated by my hard drive). Unfortunately, when I try to run Install1, everything is fine until it actually tries to copy files, when it gives me the message "Please insert your original Special Operations Disc 1" and won't continue. I've tried it both with drive d:\ mounted as the actual Deluxe Edition CD and the version copied to my hard drive with simulated cd-rom support, and either way it doesn't seem to recognize it. Was this installer not designed to work with the Deluxe edition CD, despite the fact that it's included on it??

I've been playing the game at 6500 cycles - I tried raising and lowering them, without much significant change in the long loading period.
 
update

Alright, I've tried a few more things to try to get SO1 to install. For some reason, Install1 isn't in the root CD directory, but in a separate WING2 folder (the root directory has various other installation programs, apparently for the original WC2 and some kind of document reader). In addition to that, all the files to copy are in a further GAMEDAT folder within that WING2 folder. Now, here's the problem... If I specify the root CD directory as drive d:, it doesn't recognize it as "the original Special Operations CD-ROM." If I specify the WING2 folder as drive d:, it DOES recognize it, but then can't find any of the files to install (that are in the GAMEDAT directory). If I specify WING2\GAMEDAT as drive d:, it again doesn't recognize the CD. As an experiment, I copied all of the GAMEDAT files into a new directory along with all the contents of the WING2 directory... that time, it DID recognize the CD and started copying... only to say that the files were "corrupted." (sigh)

Any insights?
 
Not sure about the corruption, but I would mount your D:\Wing2 as a "-t floppy" without quotes and see if that does it.
 
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