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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Complete Solution With Dosbox 0.72


B1G_D

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Copy the entire CD into a temp directory "XCOMCD" for example.

 

Neatly put away your CD.

 

Run the "install.exe" file from your hard-drive, choose optimal install and select sound blaster 220 7 1. It might work with SB Pro.

 

After installation copy the "SMK" & "MAPS" folders and the "MUSIC" from the "XCOMCD" folder to the folder you installed to, default "XCOMA".

 

Change what is written in the "XCOM3.CFG" file from pointing to the temp "XCOMCD" folder, to the letter of the drive you plan to mount to in DosBox. E.g. change " C:\XCOMCD\" to " C:\" DON'T FORGET the space at the beginning and DON'T FORGET the backslash at the end (Dos is a bitch right?).

 

Download the crack from the sticky and extract it to the "XCOMA" folder. Run the "Crack.bat".

 

When you run "Xcomapoc.exe" under DosBox 0.72 make sure you mount to a the letter which matches whats in the "XCOM3.CFG" file. For example if your "XCOM3.CFG" file says " C:\" then you must mount to the letter C. I recommend using the letter C in your "XCOM3.CFG" as this is the DosBox default and it makes creating shortcuts easier.

 

Let me know if this works for you. Good Luck!!!

Edited by B1G_D
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I think I may try this when I get home as I use the windows version instead of the dos box.

If I get the sound working correctly I will be sure to telll you, but does this fix all the sound or just the music?

 

All the sound works.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Copy the entire CD into a temp directory "XCOMCD" for example.

 

Neatly put away your CD.

 

Run the "install.exe" file from your hard-drive, choose optimal install and select sound blaster 220 7 1. It might work with SB Pro.

 

After installation copy the "SMK" & "MAPS" folders and the "MUSIC" from the "XCOMCD" folder to the folder you installed to, default "XCOMA".

 

Change what is written in the "XCOM3.CFG" file from pointing to the temp "XCOMCD" folder, to the letter of the drive you plan to mount to in DosBox. E.g. change " C:\XCOMCD\" to " C:\" DON'T FORGET the space at the beginning and DON'T FORGET the backslash at the end (Dos is a bitch right?).

 

Download the crack from the sticky and extract it to the "XCOMA" folder. Run the "Crack.bat".

 

When you run "Xcomapoc.exe" under DosBox 0.72 make sure you mount to a the letter which matches whats in the "XCOM3.CFG" file. For example if your "XCOM3.CFG" file says " C:\" then you must mount to the letter C. I recommend using the letter C in your "XCOM3.CFG" as this is the DosBox default and it makes creating shortcuts easier.

 

Let me know if this works for you. Good Luck!!!

 

Firstly thanks for this guide, it worked like a charm, until Im on the first mission in the Alien Dimension, then a few seconds into the mission the game crashes and dos box keeps freezes my system with the same error in control window non stop! Anyone have any idea how to fix this? If Im lucky I might be able to make a screenshot of it, but not sure since a major memory leak is happening when the game crashes. EDIT: Got the screenies, see below.

 

Thanks in advance for any help u guys might have.

 

http://www.gaiarejser.dk/xcom3-crash1.jpg

 

http://www.gaiarejser.dk/xcom3-crash2.jpg

Edited by MrShadow
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That did not work for me with Windows XP and SP2. On my old computer I had Win 2K Prof and Windows 98. It worked with Windows 98. I think it is the Dos Extender used by Apocalypse and I am still working on it.

 

I will give what I know, but as for now the game drops out whether it is in DosBox or started with the Command Prompt program that can be changed to accomadate dos games. It also just hangs there with the game. In the manual the game states it needs 8mB of memory in ms-dos, and if running in Windows 95 - 16mB because of Windows.

 

This link from Microsoft gives an idea of what some of it is about although it is about Windows NT for the most part but it still is about the config.nt and autoexec.nt files included with Winddows XP OS and setting the commands for the "_default.pif" file that starts up or includes the Properties for any ms-dos program. I guess different versions of config.nt and autoexec.nt can be used if stored in the folder a ms-dos program is in first, and different configurations used for each ms-dos program.

 

In other words since Win 2K ms-dos things are stored in certain places in the Registry. In other words also, in the Windows/system32 folder of XP, one can find mouse.drv program - which I think makes the mouse work in ms-dos program. So far, I am using it as that, and it has not returned an error, although the game will not start so I can not say for sure. Instead of mscdex program for the CD-Rom drive (although my is a DVD and that may have something else to do with it instead of using an old Cd-Rom drive I may try next since I have a slot I can use) Windows XP uses mscdexnt program to use the DVD-Rom drive in ms-dos. That does work, just like in Windows. The sound card also works if set correctly and I use 16/32 AWE sound because I know that works, I am using it in Dosbox to play XCOM:UFO Defense.

 

So here is what I copied from the "Window" of the Command Prompt of ms-dos, although one can use Full Screen set by the Properties Right Click Menu of the Command Prompt program file to set it.

 

Apocalypse is svga instead of just vga, and although Dosbox does not state that as an option I put that there in DosBox, and it must be okay - as I said I am running ms-dos version of XCOM:UFO Defense so that is working.

 

But I am still messing around with the Windows XP commands to start up a ms-dos game, but so far, it just hangs but in DosBox the game bounces out. It could all be because of the DVD-ROM drive as if I set DosBox with more memory, it seems the DVD-ROM drive got slower or a drive speed could not be gotten to even install the game in DosBox. But then although I got 1gB in Windows showing as a FAT16 drive I added with Partition Magic, it only shows when installing the game on any partition of my 160gB Hard Drive as only having (since I have it divided into several logical drives) 110mB or so when asking what the memory is in ms-dos. I had to install the game with the "Standard" game install of only 60mB because of that. That is why I am leaning to it being a CD-ROM drive start-up problem either in DosBox or with the Command Prompt. It may be I try taking off the Ultra DMA transfer of the DVD-ROM drive next when I use ms-dos in Windows XP. It may have something to do with ms-dos not knowing about UltraDMA transfers used in Windows XP. That will make it sort of a hassle but I may try it just to see if it works.

 

Here are the files typed out in ms-dos (and even can be edit there also in ms-dos) that shows that config.nt and autoexec.nt files may even work without using DosBox, although in the end I think DosBox will be better because a player could slow down the game through DosBox. In Windows with ms-dos that probably can not happen, but someone may want to know how Windows XP actually makes ms-dos programs work through that OS. Maybe not.

 

Now I was in ms-dos when I copied this and was working in ms-dos with the Windows Command Prompt program and not Dosbox:

 

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

© Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

 

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>cd..

 

C:\Documents and Settings>cd..

 

C:\>cd windows

 

C:\WINDOWS>cd system32

 

C:\WINDOWS\system32>mem /c

File not found

 

Conventional Memory :

 

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex

------------- --------------------- -------------

MSDOS 12880 ( 12.6K) 3250

KBD 3296 ( 3.2K) CE0

EMM 176 ( 0.2K) B0

HIMEM 1248 ( 1.2K) 4E0

MOUSE 12528 ( 12.2K) 30F0

COMMAND 4208 ( 4.1K) 1070

FREE 112 ( 0.1K) 70

FREE 620704 (606.2K) 978A0

 

Total FREE : 620816 (606.3K)

 

Upper Memory :

 

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex

------------- --------------------- -------------

SYSTEM 253936 (248.0K) 3DFF0

MSCDEXNT 464 ( 0.5K) 1D0

REDIR 2672 ( 2.6K) A70

FREE 1392 ( 1.4K) 570

FREE 3600 ( 3.5K) E10

 

Total FREE : 4992 ( 4.9K)

 

Total bytes available to programs (Conventional+Upper) : 625808 (611.1K)

Largest executable program size : 619280 (604.8K)

Largest available upper memory block : 3600 ( 3.5K)

 

4194304 bytes total EMS memory

4194304 bytes free EMS memory

 

20971520 bytes total contiguous extended memory

0 bytes available contiguous extended memory

16711680 bytes available XMS memory

MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

 

C:\WINDOWS\system32> type config.nt

REM Windows MS-DOS Startup File

REM

REM CONFIG.SYS vs CONFIG.NT

REM CONFIG.SYS is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.

REM CONFIG.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a

REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

REM

REM ECHOCONFIG

REM By default, no information is displayed when the MS-DOS environment

REM is initialized. To display CONFIG.NT/AUTOEXEC.NT information, add

REM the command echoconfig to CONFIG.NT or other startup file.

REM

REM NTCMDPROMPT

REM When you return to the command prompt from a TSR or while running an

REM MS-DOS-based application, Windows runs COMMAND.COM. This allows the

REM TSR to remain active. To run CMD.EXE, the Windows command prompt,

REM rather than COMMAND.COM, add the command ntcmdprompt to CONFIG.NT or

REM other startup file.

REM

REM DOSONLY

REM By default, you can start any type of application when running

REM COMMAND.COM. If you start an application other than an MS-DOS-based

REM application, any running TSR may be disrupted. To ensure that only

REM MS-DOS-based applications can be started, add the command dosonly to

REM CONFIG.NT or other startup file.

REM

REM EMM

REM You can use EMM command line to configure EMM(Expanded Memory Manager).

REM The syntax is:

REM

REM EMM = [A=AltRegSets] [b=BaseSegment] [RAM]

REM

REM AltRegSets

REM specifies the total Alternative Mapping Register Sets you

REM want the system to support. 1 <= AltRegSets <= 255. The

REM default value is 8.

REM BaseSegment

REM specifies the starting segment address in the Dos conventional

REM memory you want the system to allocate for EMM page frames.

REM The value must be given in Hexdecimal.

REM 0x1000 <= BaseSegment <= 0x4000. The value is rounded down to

REM 16KB boundary. The default value is 0x4000

REM RAM

REM specifies that the system should only allocate 64Kb address

REM space from the Upper Memory Block(UMB) area for EMM page frames

REM and leave the rests(if available) to be used by DOS to support

REM loadhigh and devicehigh commands. The system, by default, would

REM allocate all possible and available UMB for page frames.

REM

REM The EMM size is determined by pif file(either the one associated

REM with your application or _default.pif). If the size from PIF file

REM is zero, EMM will be disabled and the EMM line will be ignored.

REM

echoconfig

dosonly

dos=high, umb

device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys

files=40

buffers=20

C:\WINDOWS\system32>type autoexec.nt

@echo off

-------------------------------------------------(line added)

 

REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.

REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a

REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

 

REM Install CD ROM extensions

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

 

REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

 

REM Install DPMI support

REM lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

 

REM The following line enables Sound Blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM.

REM The command for setting the BLASTER environment is as follows:

REM SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330

REM where:

REM A specifies the sound blaster's base I/O port

REM I specifies the interrupt request line

REM D specifies the 8-bit DMA channel

REM P specifies the MPU-401 base I/O port

REM T specifies the type of sound blaster card

REM 1 - Sound Blaster 1.5

REM 2 - Sound Blaster Pro I

REM 3 - Sound Blaster 2.0

REM 4 - Sound Blaster Pro II

REM 6 - SOund Blaster 16/AWE 32/32/64

REM

REM The default value is A220 I5 D1 T3 and P330. If any of the switches is

REM left unspecified, the default value will be used. (NOTE, since all the

REM ports are virtualized, the information provided here does not have to

REM match the real hardware setting.) NTVDM supports Sound Blaster 2.0 only.

 

REM The T switch must be set to 3, if specified.

REM I guess due to Microsoft only SoundBlaster 2.0 can be used - thus "T3" instead of

REM "T6" but in DosBox, I use "T6" as the Sound Blaster 16/32 AWE card it is and

REM includes because I know -- it works that way even with DosBox.

SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D5 P330 T6

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mouse.drv

 

REM To disable the sound blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM, specify an invalid

REM SB base I/O port address. For example:

REM SET BLASTER=A0

 

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

 

I ended there and 'exit' would return a person to Windows and shut down ms-dos.

The "REM" are only 'remarks' and not commands as those files explain the comands one would use. Only the other lines would be used when starting up ms-dos.

 

If I get it running normally I will let anyone know. It is either the Dos-Extender used by XCOM Apocalpyse or the CD-ROM not running as it would in Windows due to ms-dos being ms-dos with ms-dos 16bit programs.

 

The link to Microsoft Reference which I guess was actually about forcedos.exe program is just included because in the list at the left is also the subdirectory down the listing page -- ms-dos.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/n...i.mspx?mfr=true

 

With the Command Prompt since I am not getting any errors when going to ms-dos, I assume that all those commands are working when starting up ms-dos. That does not mean that I will not use DosBox to slow down the game, but still I am working on getting it to start up the game. It drops out now, but since I am just foolin' around anyway, I will try a few more things just to see.

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The Error Message I get after taking off the DVD-ROM Drive DMA Transfer is this repeating over and over in a Command Prompt Window:

 

DOS/16M error: [17] system software does not follow VCPI or DPMI specifications

 

Repeated Error Message with Command Prompt after taking off DMA mode on DVD.

 

Oh, I think I will try XCOM:UFO Defense with the Windows Command Prompt Program just to see if it will work with what I think is happening.

 

Now, I may have something to go on, even if the DVD-ROM Drive does not seem to be starting up, but to me it seems to be the Dos-Extender used with the Apocalpyse Game, and afterall one can download the Source Code to DosBox also at the website for DosBox 0.72 also to see what is in there.

 

Well, back later after seeing if XCOM:UFO Defense starts up with the Command Prompt, although it may be faster than lightening without using DosBox.

 

This still gives an idea maybe on how to fix up DosBox so it responds better for this game perhaps sometime in the future.

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Yea!~ Freakin' Yea!

 

I installed the CD of the game though DosBox 0.72 whatever version it is. I used the "Standard" game setup because for some reason although I should have 1gB for ms-dos games, I only show 105mB so only the "Standard" game version can be installed because it gives a false reading for amount of harddisk space.

 

I let it install into the default directory or folder and had DosBox CPU cycles set to max.

This installed it correctly once it got the DVD-ROM drive speed and everything checked out. I setup the music card for 16/AWE 32 Sound Blaster card because that is the default for my Live! card, but I know that also can be used for like the newer card I have (ah - forget the name) because that is the default for those sound cards. I use the old Live! card 16bit card because the newer one (24bit) does not have the connections I need for music or midi, although I may not even use that as of lately. I suppose I could put in then the next card up from that - forget the name right now though.

 

It installed the game, I tested the sound for the card. It left in the Directory for the game, I type the name XCOMAPOC and off it went. Intro movie works, the sound works, and I "Esc" to the Opening Menu Screen. Now, I will see if the game crashes or whatever, but after all of that fussing with Microsoft's config.nt and autoexec.nt crap, I still think it has something to do with using EMM or something. But in DosBox the installation of the game went fine, and the setup I think is needed to make the game's install report that the game is installed correctly to start to play the game.

 

DosBox Conf file is (which I may change the Presound Setting and Expanded Memory is set to "false")

# This is the configurationfile for DOSBox 0.72.

# Lines starting with a # are commentlines.

# They are used to (briefly) document the effect of each option.

 

[sdl]

# fullscreen -- Start dosbox directly in fullscreen.

# fulldouble -- Use double buffering in fullscreen.

# fullresolution -- What resolution to use for fullscreen: original or fixed size (e.g. 1024x768).

# windowresolution -- Scale the window to this size IF the output device supports hardware scaling.

# output -- What to use for output: surface,overlay,opengl,openglnb,ddraw.

# autolock -- Mouse will automatically lock, if you click on the screen.

# sensitiviy -- Mouse sensitivity.

# waitonerror -- Wait before closing the console if dosbox has an error.

# priority -- Priority levels for dosbox: lowest,lower,normal,higher,highest,pause (when not focussed).

# Second entry behind the comma is for when dosbox is not focused/minimized.

# mapperfile -- File used to load/save the key/event mappings from.

# usescancodes -- Avoid usage of symkeys, might not work on all operating systems.

 

fullscreen=true

fulldouble=false

fullresolution=640x480

windowresolution=original

output=overlay

autolock=true

sensitivity=100

waitonerror=true

priority=higher,normal

mapperfile=mapper.txt

usescancodes=true

 

[dosbox]

# language -- Select another language file.

# memsize -- Amount of memory DOSBox has in megabytes.

# machine -- The type of machine tries to emulate:hercules,cga,tandy,pcjr,vga.

# captures -- Directory where things like wave,midi,screenshot get captured.

 

language=

machine=svga

captures=capture

memsize=16

 

[render]

# frameskip -- How many frames DOSBox skips before drawing one.

# aspect -- Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.

# scaler -- Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.

# Supported are none,normal2x,normal3x,advmame2x,advmame3x,hq2x,hq3x,

# 2xsai,super2xsai,supereagle,advinterp2x,advinterp3x,

# tv2x,tv3x,rgb2x,rgb3x,scan2x,scan3x.

# If forced is appended (like scaler=hq2x forced), the scaler will be used

# even if the result might not be desired.

 

frameskip=0

aspect=false

scaler=normal2x

 

[cpu]

# core -- CPU Core used in emulation: normal,simple,dynamic,auto.

# auto switches from normal to dynamic if appropriate.

# cycles -- Amount of instructions DOSBox tries to emulate each millisecond.

# Setting this value too high results in sound dropouts and lags.

# You can also let DOSBox guess the correct value by setting it to max.

# The default setting (auto) switches to max if appropriate.

# cycleup -- Amount of cycles to increase/decrease with keycombo.

# cycledown Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

 

core=auto

cycles=max

cycleup=500

cycledown=20

 

[mixer]

# nosound -- Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.

# rate -- Mixer sample rate, setting any devices higher than this will

# probably lower their sound quality.

# blocksize -- Mixer block size, larger blocks might help sound stuttering

# but sound will also be more lagged.

# prebuffer -- How many milliseconds of data to keep on top of the blocksize.

 

nosound=false

rate=22050

blocksize=2048

prebuffer=6

 

[midi]

# mpu401 -- Type of MPU-401 to emulate: none, uart or intelligent.

# device -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.

# This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.

# config -- Special configuration options for the device. In Windows put

# the id of the device you want to use. See README for details.

 

mpu401=intelligent

device=default

config=

 

[sblaster]

# sbtype -- Type of sblaster to emulate:none,sb1,sb2,sbpro1,sbpro2,sb16.

# sbbase,irq,dma,hdma -- The IO/IRQ/DMA/High DMA address of the soundblaster.

# mixer -- Allow the soundblaster mixer to modify the DOSBox mixer.

# oplmode -- Type of OPL emulation: auto,cms,opl2,dualopl2,opl3.

# On auto the mode is determined by sblaster type.

# All OPL modes are 'Adlib', except for CMS.

# oplrate -- Sample rate of OPL music emulation.

 

sbtype=sb16

sbbase=220

irq=7

dma=1

hdma=5

mixer=false

oplmode=auto

oplrate=22050

 

[gus]

# gus -- Enable the Gravis Ultrasound emulation.

# gusbase,irq1,irq2,dma1,dma2 -- The IO/IRQ/DMA addresses of the

# Gravis Ultrasound. (Same IRQ's and DMA's are OK.)

# gusrate -- Sample rate of Ultrasound emulation.

# ultradir -- Path to Ultrasound directory. In this directory

# there should be a MIDI directory that contains

# the patch files for GUS playback. Patch sets used

# with Timidity should work fine.

 

gus=false

gusrate=22050

gusbase=240

irq1=5

irq2=5

dma1=3

dma2=3

ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

 

[speaker]

# pcspeaker -- Enable PC-Speaker emulation.

# pcrate -- Sample rate of the PC-Speaker sound generation.

# tandy -- Enable Tandy Sound System emulation (off,on,auto).

# For auto Tandysound emulation is present only if machine is set to tandy.

# tandyrate -- Sample rate of the Tandy 3-Voice generation.

# disney -- Enable Disney Sound Source emulation. Covox Voice Master and Speech Thing compatible.

 

pcspeaker=false

pcrate=22050

tandy=off

tandyrate=22050

disney=false

 

[joystick]

# joysticktype -- Type of joystick to emulate: auto (default), none,

# 2axis (supports two joysticks,

# 4axis (supports one joystick, first joystick used),

# 4axis_2 (supports one joystick, second joystick used),

# fcs (Thrustmaster), ch (CH Flightstick).

# none disables joystick emulation.

# auto chooses emulation depending on real joystick(s).

# timed -- enable timed intervals for axis. (false is old style behaviour).

# autofire -- continuously fires as long as you keep the button pressed.

# swap34 -- swap the 3rd and the 4th axis. can be useful for certain joysticks.

# buttonwrap -- enable button wrapping at the number of emulated buttons.

 

joysticktype=none

timed=false

autofire=false

swap34=false

buttonwrap=false

 

[serial]

# serial1-4 -- set type of device connected to com port.

# Can be disabled, dummy, modem, nullmodem, directserial.

# Additional parameters must be in the same line in the form of

# parameter:value. Parameter for all types is irq.

# for directserial: realport (required), rxdelay (optional).

# for modem: listenport (optional).

# for nullmodem: server, rxdelay, txdelay, telnet, usedtr,

# transparent, port, inhsocket (all optional).

# Example: serial1=modem listenport:5000

 

serial1=disabled

serial2=disabled

serial3=disabled

serial4=disabled

 

[dos]

# xms -- Enable XMS support.

# ems -- Enable EMS support.

# umb -- Enable UMB support.

# keyboardlayout -- Language code of the keyboard layout (or none).

 

xms=true

ems=false

umb=true

keyboardlayout=none

 

[ipx]

# ipx -- Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

 

ipx=false

 

[autoexec]

# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

 

mount c M:\

mount d L:\ -t cdrom

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

Of course I use the ms-dos command to get to the game's directory and L: is the Drive Letter orginally of the DVD-ROM drive of course set to "D:" drive in DosBox and all of that stuff.

 

Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy!

 

I hope that Happy Feeling Lasts though, and the game actually runs good.

:D

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Okay, set the Prebuffer for the sound up to 20 and not too bad, so upped it to 24 now.

 

Game runs good although may be a little slow (but not really) with my 3.0gHz computer

 

So far, the game runs fine and the sound does not really stutter, but again I upped that value just to see.

 

Yippee-Yea!

 

And if downloading from Underdogs then find the sound files. That music is really needed and good in this game. It is errie and atmospheric.

 

XCOM Apocalyse is the same version of the game whether it states it is for ms-dos or Windows. This game was not changed for the Collector's Edition. I know I own both versions and it is the same version.

 

So far so good.

XCOM Apocalypse

 

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?nam...M%3A+Apocalypse

 

http://www.mobygames.com/search/quick?quic...M%3A+Apocalypse

 

Both versions (ms-dos or Windows) actually the same version. It runs in ms-dos better though, I guess, well, probably.

 

And do not forget XCOM: UFO Defense there also but all that I saw right now is the Collector's Edition which will run too fast, so get the ms-dos version and run that in DosBox also, by using that program and setting it right.

 

:D

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Okay, so far the game is running fine, although it wants to hiccup in DosBox sometimes like when the music hiccups or the DVD-ROM drive has to spin up to load up something. Otherwise, the only way to assure it would run smoother and again it is not all that bad at all, is to totally probably have DosBox in machine language or what is known as assembly language.

 

Otherwise it almost runs like normal in DosBox, but again one can download the source code at the SourceForge.net website and take a look at it since it seems to be platform independent. Well, perhaps later take a look at the source code and probably only being a beginner programmer, not acheive much in that department. But so far, even with a "Standard" game install and all and using the CD, the game is about running the best it can. I might try more "Prebuffer" with the sound like up to 40 or 50 perhaps, but still because of the way that DVD-ROM seem to not spin all the time, and the access time to acess the CD in the Drive it runs -- good enough to play the game. Another reason why critical routines like accessing a CD Drive needs to be like they are - in the fastest code possible to acheive smoothness in any program or game.

 

:D

 

Some players may not like that - but hey the DosBox is free, and it does play the game and access the CD in the DVD-ROM Drive.

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Ah, ya, if DosBox reported the harddisk drive space like Windows does, then I would have had enough room for a complete install, so that would be something to look at in DosBox, or why every logical drive I have reports in DosBox being only 110mB instead of what Windows show those logical drives. I mean my ms-dos FAT16 logical drive is 1gB and every other logical drive is at last 8gB and major ones 20gB out of the complete 160gB harddrive. It is the way they make harddisk from even a few years ago and cram the data on in smaller parts of the harddrive.

 

If that was fixed perhaps in DosBox then the complete game could be installed in DosBox, and also at Microsoft you can also download ms-dos 6.22 version of about 30mB and even make an A Boot Floppy in DosBox. Something to consider, but right now I would not know exactly how that would work and interfere with the commands from DosBox unless you just started the shell and left everything else false and then somehow were able to actually start real ms-dos version 6.22 in DosBox as another OS system that would not interfere with Windows or anything else, like a separate machine. But then DosBox slows things down, and that is very important but having some programs of ms-dos would also help like the complete commands of the "mem" program which does not exist in DosBox.

 

Well, something to think about with the source code download of DosBox, but it uses Makefiles and not really what I know, without learning all about that and I think it was programmed more with Unix than Microsoft VisualStudio. NET the only 2001-2 version I have as the rest is too expensive to consider without using another compiler and all of that.

 

Well, something to think about, if that routine could call the Windows's routine to get the amount of harddisk space Windows shows for the logical drive. Then the complete game could have been installed in DosBox, and that seems to be the best way to go, to get the game running with the xcom.conf or whatever it is file that forms after installing it and the "Setup" program to set the sound card that automatically picks out the correct sound card - which it did - in DosBox - or in my case with my Live! card - 16/AWE32 settings used in all games of X-COM.

 

Other work to do right now, and all of it would have been installed if the harddisk space would have been reported correctly in DosBox, and then the game would run even better although it is alright as of now with the "Standard" install and accessing the CD disk in the DVD-ROM drive.

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hello there,

i`ve been playing the game in dosbox recently and it works alright, although i had to install only the standard(60 MB) version of the game due to the problem that dosbox doesn`t recognize the right remaining disk space! (it only shows 105MB).

so i wanted to know what is the difference between the standard and optimal installation, is it only the loading times from the cd rom aren`t needed in the optimal version or is there something else?

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Less reading time is needed to gather the data files off the CD, which is very slow. Particularly noticeable if you were to play it on a computer that it was built for back when it came out.

 

 

The largest installation doesn't even put all of the files onto the hard drive. In fact, it leaves the movies and music on the CD. You can copy the movies over - they'll be incredibly choppy anyway on account of the horribly inefficient SMK player. The music can be copied over, but requires a bit of trickery to get the game to use it.

 

You can manually convert your partial install into a much fuller installation by just copying over the files that it did not copy. Maintain the directory structure and you should be fine.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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  • 2 months later...

I used a similar method under XP with SP2 and it worked. Original CD version, copied CD to a XCOMI directory and ran the install under dosbox. Got the "105M free" problem, so I used the dosbox "mount t t:\ -freespace 1024" to show 1G free so I could do the big 200M install.

 

Had to run the setup program directly in XP to set the soundcard values.

Then I installed the svga fix.

Now no matter what I did I couldn't get it to play from a dosbox cd pointing to the XCOMI directory, but it would run (with all the annoying pauses) when I pointed it to the real cd in my dvd. So I used the (free demo) Alcohol 52% to make an image of the CD, and mounted it with (free) Daemon Tools. Changed the CFG file to point to that drive, and cha-ching!

 

Success, runs great under dosbox now! Music and sound effects work ok. Nowhere near the alien dimension yet though - workin on it. Man I forgot what a combination of fun and annoying this game was :D

 

Edit a few days later: Roughly once per game week, it's been hanging at the start of a mission with an "insert CD" box that I have to kill the session to get rid of. I dimly remember this happening once in a while when I first played it on Windows 98 too, so I can't say whether it's an artifact of XP/dosbox/Daemon tools. In any case, not using the CD is *so* much faster that I'm not gonna change anything - I'll just save before every mission.

Edited by blackadder
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  • 1 month later...

EDIT NOTE: I tried to use indentation for organization of what are typed commands and what are instructions but the forum killed them so * means it is a command but of course the * should never be typed as part of the command.

 

I did something similar to blackadder but I thought I would ellaborate as I have a fully functional, sound, music, and videos without any problems or choppy video. These instructions will tell you how to get the game functioning in XP using DOSBox and Daemon tools. The only things that are not in the instructions yet are how to become completely independent from daemon tools but I will append this later after I am finished with my disgusting chemistry exam later tonight ;p I wrote this because verbatim because it will work for ANY XP machine that is able to run the two below mentioned applications.

 

Specs:

DOSBox .72

Daemon tools 4.10

 

Verbatim

Instructions:

-Mount the iso for apacolypse into Daemon tools, note which virtual drive letter it was assigned

-Run Dosbox

-Mount the virtual drive into DOSbox, for example

* mount h h:\ -t cdrom

where h is your virtual daemon tools cdrom drive

-Mount the directory where you wish to install the game

* mount c c:\<whatever directory you want here> -freesize 512

(the freesize will tell the dos shell that you have 512Mb on this drive, it does not matter how much you really have as you need at least 200MB for the complete install)

-type in

* h:\

* install

-ignore any problems that the game will tell you about your setup such as errors with your cd drive

-When selecting which directory you are going to install it to remember that you mounted to your C drive under the directory you wish to install it. This means that all you should put is something like C:\XCOMA (where XCOMA is the subdirectory of whichever directory you mounted)

for example if we mounted c earlier as c:\oldgames then installing the game to C:\XCOMA will in reality install the game into C:\oldgames\XCOMA

-you may leave DOSBox running

 

-Now to get the movies and sound functioning properly in Windows open the directory where you installed the game. Run setup. We are running setup through windows rather than dosbox because dosbox has none issues with many users when running Apocalypse's setup.

Choose these options for sound:

Soundblaster 16/AWE32

Set Port:220

Set IRQ:7

Set DMA: 5

(The readme for dosbox says 1 for DMA but I have found this to be the incorrect setting for Apocalypse through trial and error)

DO NOT CLICK TEST

click ok

SAVE AND EXIT

 

-Now that the sound is setup properly we will setup the videos

Go to your physical cd or virtual cd rom drive and explore.

Copy the SMK folder to the directory where you installed Apocalypse.

 

-Now that we have our ducks in a row, How do we play the game?

To run the game open DOSBox and input the following, if you still have DOS box running skip to the last line:

* mount c c:\<directory where XCOMAPOC.EXE resides

where h is the drive of your virtual Apocalypse cd

* mount h h:\ -t cdrom

* c:

* xcomapoc

 

Cheers, poor yourself a cold one! :beer:

 

Note, the above can easily be automated by writing your own batch file or editing DOSBoxes cfg file. Also, you may want to adjust other DOSBox settings when running the game but I refer you to the aforementioned statement. If anyone knows how to become completely independent from daemon tools feel free to add it below mine or I will fix something up later tonight. B)

I will probably throw together something that will let you one click install (with your choses int he install like directories of course) and then something that you can one click start eventually.

 

P.S. If you want me to repost this as a thread of its own just say so and I will that way I can have OP and make changes more noticable when I automate getting Apocalypse to run for XP. LOL, I am currently playing TFTD and won't be playing Apocalypse for some time but I will get a good installer program setup for the community ASAP. It was a hassle getting all the settings correct but it is no biggy to automate it once you know what actually needs to be set etc. Input welcome as well.

Edited by Bad-Wolf
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