General talk:Playing DOS Installments under DOSBox

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Archive 1: 2006–2012

Arena Boxer Install

I'm having difficulties installing ARENA in Boxer on a Mac. When I move the Arena106 file folder to Boxer's isntall window, I get the message: “Arena106” is a Microsoft Windows game or application, which Boxer does not support." Help? — Unsigned comment by 82.26.131.23 (talk) on 14 April 2012

SOLUTION: The "Arena106.exe" file must first be expanded using a RAR file utility (odd, but it works). Amongst the resulting files, open "ARENA.BAT" using Boxer rather than "A.EXE" or there will be no sound. I realize that it has been several months since the question was asked, but I just came across both this problem and its solution today. — Unsigned comment by 68.84.92.114 (talk) on 23 September 2012

Oh, Excellent. I was having a similar problem recently. And, don't worry, while we typically have an issue with older topics being answered, yours is different, because you actually are saying something that constructively advances the conversation :) Snowmane^{(talk•email)} 22:31, 23 September 2012 (GMT)

Custom Dosbox/nGlide Install

(Moved from article. – Robin Hood↝talk 00:40, 2 October 2012 (GMT))

EDIT, October 2012 just completed Redguard on windows 7, with custom dosbox + nGlide 1.0

INSTRUCTIONS

• Install Redguard 3Dfx version normally
• Get this version of dosbox http://ykhwong.x-y.net/xe/dosbox_data
• Delete glide2x.dll file from dosbox folder
• Download and install nGlide
• Edit dosbox.conf (set memsize=63 and fullscreen=true and add this to [autoexec] section):
  • mount c c:\games
  • imgmount e c:\games\redguard\redguard2.cue -t iso

This way the fmv's work, obviously directory structure is relative. for the sound, open "setsound.exe" from within dosbox, disable midi and select soundblaster for digital sound.

I moved the above from the article since it involves a custom install of Dosbox from an unknown source. We prefer to use widely available/default installs, with customization instructions if necessary. Also, before changing the substance of a featured article (the star at the top right), it's usually a good idea to bring it up on the talk page first to make sure it fits in with the site's guidelines and there are no ojbections to the change. – Robin Hood↝talk 00:40, 2 October 2012 (GMT)

Cycle Speed

Under [cpu], set cycles=50000 Isn't that a little high? When my cycles are that high the game is very choppy.Thamoir the Great (talk) 22:42, 15 April 2013 (GMT)

It'll vary depending on the computer it's running on. I would just play around with the number until you get something that plays smooth. Elliot (talk) 22:45, 15 April 2013 (GMT)

I feel like that is very high still, My computer can run the game very well on 12000, I have a powerful computer at work that runs the game very well on that cycle speed as well.Thamoir the Great (talk) 22:53, 15 April 2013 (GMT)

Error on startup

I was able to run Daggerfall fine until I quit out of DOSBox. Now whenever I try to run the game using the fall z.cfg command it gives the following message:

Illegal command: fall.

Please tell I don't have to configure DOSBox and the game every time I try to run it.--Dotto88 (talk) 23:39, 16 September 2013 (GMT)

Did you enter cd\dagger first? You have to do that before entering fall z.cfg Iituti (talk) 21:16, 14 April 2015 (GMT)

Locking Arena's Frame Rate

Patch 1.06 to Arena added a Pentium slowdown that you activate by passing a -delay:# parameter in ARENA.BAT or using the +/- keys after the game's started (see the readme). The interesting thing about this fix is that it seems to lock Arena's frame rate, thereby locking the rate of things such as combat and movement (but not spell effects, which are always measured in seconds).

In DOSBox I find that passing -delay:2 locks Arena to about 12 FPS, which plays reasonably well. So long as you give DOSBox enough cycles (i.e. somewhere in the ballpark of 30000 for max detail), the frame rate will never fluctuate. So you won't have any dips outdoors or spikes whenever you drop below the floor. You can also freely adjust the detail slider without affecting the speed of the game (again, so long as you give DOSBox enough cycles).

Kirlian (talk) 06:25, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

Z.CFG

I found an incomplete document on Daggerfall's Z.CFG file here. Anyone have any info on the missing information? --3371-Alpha (talk) 02:53, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Broken link under Redguard section

The DOSBox Daum Cafe link leads to a 404 error as of 2020-05-28.— Unsigned comment by 69.168.118.28 (talk) at 02:19 on 29 May 2020

"fulldouble = True" - causes Arena to slow to a crawl

The recommendation under "Performance Tuning" suggests changing fulldouble=false to fulldouble=true. A note should be added that this setting should not be used in conjunction with "output=surface" or "output=overlay"; the default settings with Anthology and many packages. It causes a dramatic slow down when any section performs a fade-in/out sequence during startup and when speaking to NPC's. --Satribe (talk) 00:11, 22 November 2020 (UTC)