DOS Games Discussion

I did everything you said
when i go to mount d d: -t cd rom
it wont even start the game up is it because i have a dvd rom
and i tried to put dvd rom but it would accept it
it said it was illegal
i also tried your keen4 and but i still cant get it to run
it just keeps coming up C: keen 4
and thats it
so maybe I should just give up trying have been tryng for 4 days would of loved to of played these old disc
i have vista home premium
please help me get my games to rn

sue wrote:I did everything you said

Nope, I never said to do:

sue wrote:when i go to mount d d: -t cd rom

But:
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
Mind the \ , and is only valid IF your real CD drive letter under win is D
DVD or CD drive doesn't matter for dosbox, both work fine.


If you get as far as having c:\keen4\ in dosbox you can't be far away from running the game.
What you get when you type dir when dosbox shows the c:\keen4\ ?


In stead of saying 'it doesn't work' you would better give detailled info, tell us exactly all you've done to get where you are now, all you mount lines, EXACTLY, ALL YOUR inputs......
It's kinda hard to explain where you screw up without all those details.

sue wrote:I did everything you said

Nope, if you had your games would be running.

mount c c:\users\sue\dosgames
drive c is mounted as local directory c:users\sue\dosgames\
Z:\>c:
C:\>cd temp
C:\temp>install
then it comes up in blue writing commander keen 4
enter to continue esc to quit
I press enter and then get this
[X] flashing at me install commander keen
i press enter
then i get
please enter a drive or directory to install this game to
C:\keen
thats it

with the dvd drive thing
I get
Z:\c:
C:mount d d:\ -t cdrom
MSCDEX is installed
drive D is mounted as cdrom d:\
C:\>
I insert the disc into the dvd drive
D:\>install
illegal command: install
D:\>
thats all i get

My dvd drive is D

so i dont kinow what i am doing wrong

sue wrote: D:\>install
illegal command: install
D:\>

What do you get when you input dir when you're in D: ?
If there is no 'install' file on it dosbox can't execute it, don't you think?
And what's on the disk you put in?

If you installed Keen4 in c:\keen in dosbox, when you get your prompt on
c:\keen in dosbox input keen4e, that's how you start the game once it's installed.

Click ->
Don't mind the mount lines, they're mine.

I went to d
and put in dir
and got
directory of D:\
file *.* not found
D:\
the disc i am trying to install are lucas arts
sam and max
atlantis
day of the tenticle

i also downloaded captain comic with commander keen
and when i get to install it i get system does not support full screen mode and also comes up something about 16 bit

I just know it is something simple but just cant figure out what

Look to your CD when you're in windows, what files are there on the disk?

About captain comic, you should have a 'comic4.zip' downloaded, unzip all files in
c:\users\sue\dosgames\comic\
Run dosbox, mount if still needed c:\users\sue\dosgames as C: and input:

cd comic
comic



That's it.

sue wrote: illegal command: install

You are on the wrong side of the law now!! It's illegal to do that.

Wally wrote:You are on the wrong side of the law now!! It's illegal to do that.

Said by an illegal alien ...... Wally =>

i put in dosgames comic
i went to dosbox
and put in cd comic
and it came up
unable to change to: comic
Oh maybe i just should give up
i just cant seem to get it right
on the discs i have
the files are
hit the road atlantis
atlantis
dott demo
indydemo
samdemo
atlantis
bootdisk
readme
that is in computer dvdrom drive d atlantis

day of the tenticle
dott
dottdemo
indydemo
rebel
samdemo
bootdisk
dott


sam and max
wont run for me for some unknown reason
but i think i have already put them on the computer

sue wrote:i put in dosgames comic
i went to dosbox
and put in cd comic
and it came up
unable to change to: comic
Oh maybe i just should give up
i just cant seem to get it right

When your dosbox prompt is looking as C:\ input dir, you simply made a typo.
Don't panic.
And when asking help it's very useful when you would give more detailed info, as is:
Do you have the C:\ prompt in dosbox? .....
If yes, check whilst in windows if you have a
c:\users\sue\dosgames\comic\
If it isn't there and you mount c:\users\sue\dosgames\ as C: in dosbox, dosbox can't find it, don't you think? Beware of typos!!!

sue wrote: on the discs i have
the files are
hit the road atlantis
atlantis
dott demo
indydemo
samdemo
atlantis
bootdisk
readme
that is in computer dvdrom drive d atlantis

Those are probably not files but directories (folders), what says the readme? RIGHTCLICK on it whilst in windows -> open with notepad.
Also it's pretty important to enable file extensions in Windows in your folder options. Can mean a lot to us to know if there are exe, bat, com whatever files .....

[Edit]BTW, what do you use to unzip the files? The thing that comes with Vista is pretty worthless, you'd better install 7zip.
http://www.7-zip.org/
Freeware and a really good program, much much better then the included Vista unarchiver.
Be sure to unzip the archive to c:\users\sue\dosgames\comic\ , you must have some 54 files in the comic folder after unzipping.

okay i opened dosbox
it comes up
drive c is mounted as local directory c:\users\sue\dosgames\
Z:\c:
C:\dir.
directory of C:\
. DIR
.. DIR
4KEEN DIR
COMIC4 DIR
INDYJO~1 DIR
KEEN DIR
KEEN4 DIR
KEENKEEN DIR
TEMP DIR
4KEEN ZIP 729,773
ACCESS~1 DOC 694,272
COMIC4 ZIP 103,602
INDYJO~2 ZIP 672,359
4 FILES
10 DIRECTORIES
C:\




i INSERTED THE DISC ATLANTIS
AND OPENED THE READ ME FILE
THIS IS WHAT IT SAYS
Indy Talkie is a game that takes full advantage of your CD-ROM by
presenting the entire game with full speech and sound effects. A
Sound Blaster or 100% SoundBlaster compatible is required to enjoy
these features of the game. If you do not have a SoundBlaster or
100% compatible sound card, we recommend that you purchase one in
order to fully enjoy the benefits of voice and digital sound effects
in this game. The game also requires MSCDEX CD-ROM extensions 2.1
or later and either 550K free memory or EMS drivers loaded. The
game will run fine on a 16mhz 386, and will run with some slowdown
on 12mhz 286's. If you find that you are short of memory, you may
want to run MEMMAKER if you are running DOS 6.0. If you have
DOS 5.0, you may want to run both EMM386 and HIMEM and load as many
TSR's and drivers into high memory as possible.

THATS ALL I CAN FIND
I TRIED EVERYWHERE ELSE
I HAVE A ATLANTIS.EXE

THIS IS THE SAM AND MAX CD
READ ME FILE
I) CONFIGURATION FILE

REBEL.EXE, the Rebel Assault launcher / config-utility saves its settings
in a file REBEL.CFG on your C: drive inside a REBEL\ directory. It will
create this directory if it cannot find one.
III) RUNNING ASSAULT DIRECTLY

REBEL.EXE is the launcher utility, while ASSAULT.EXE is the game itself.
Under normal circumstances, you should not need to run ASSAULT directly,
but should instead type REBEL. ASSAULT does not pay attention to your
saved game and sound card preferences, but instead relies on command-line
switches for this information.

In a few cases, it may be desirable to run ASSAULT.EXE directly. For
instance, if you have a clone sound card which is set to an IRQ or base
address not listed in the config program, you will need to pass this
information to ASSAULT.

WINDOWS:

The CD-ROM version of Sam & Max Hit the Road will not run under Windows.
Sorry.


I am sorry i am hopeless at this
do you think i should just delete the whole thing and have another go
from fresh and see what happens
no matter what i do nothing seems to work

That readme is worthless, doesn't say much.

sue wrote:okay i opened dosbox
it comes up
drive c is mounted as local directory c:\users\sue\dosgames\
Z:\c:
C:\

Perfect. No problems here.

sue wrote: C:\dir.
directory of C:\
. DIR
.. DIR
4KEEN DIR
COMIC4 DIR
INDYJO~1 DIR
KEEN DIR
KEEN4 DIR
KEENKEEN DIR
TEMP DIR
4KEEN ZIP 729,773
ACCESS~1 DOC 694,272
COMIC4 ZIP 103,602
INDYJO~2 ZIP 672,359
4 FILES
10 DIRECTORIES
C:\

4KEEN DIR
COMIC4 DIR
INDYJO~1 DIR
KEEN DIR
KEEN4 DIR
KEENKEEN DIR


Sue's been busy .....
So things to try whilst on your C:\ in dosbox to get C.Keen4 running:
cd 4keen
keen4e
or
cd keen
keen4e

or
cd keen4
keen4e

or
cd keenkeen
keen4e
One of those should get C.Keen 4 running.

Things to try whilst on your C:\ in dosbox to get Comic running:
cd comic4
comic
Don't forget to hit ENTER after each line in bold.

Let me know how it goes with those, later we will try to get your CD games running.
In Windows, what's the Windows name of INDYJO~1 ?
And is there something in that folder?

i tried the
C:\ cd 4keen
C:\4keen>keen4e
illegal command: keen4e.

C:\4keen>cd keen
unable to change to: keen.

C:\4KEEN>cd keenkeen
unable to change to: keenkeen.

then i went back to C:\
and put in
C:\ cd keenkeen
C:\keenkeen>keen4e
illegal command: keen4e.
whatever i try it just keeps coming up illegal command

C:\cd comic4
C:\comic4>comic

it comes up with start up the advenures of captain comic
too much to write down
press other to begin

yes it works great thanks for that one

wonder if i have too many keens on their
maybe shoudl delete them and start again
because comic worked
i am so pleased

I couldnt find the indyjo~1
all i could find the was indyjones
and their are files in it
but i did try to download one off the internet
because my cd wouldnt play
thought i might be able to download it and then play it like comic
but it was only a demo anyway
so not sure if that is the indyjo~1 or not

Now, one running, so far so good, some more to get running...
Let's startover with C.Keen4 shall we?
Delete ALL the keen related folders in c:\users\sue\dosgames\
DO NOT delete c:\users\sue\dosgames\ , careful !

Open keen4.zip you have downloaded from dosgames.com.
Unzip all files in c:\users\sue\dosgames\temp\ , you should get 3 files there, INSTALL.EXE, CK4SW14.SHR and FILE_ID.DIZ
Run dosbox and on your C:\ input
cd temp
install

This will start the keen4 installer.
You will get an install screen for C Keen4, alter the install directory (folder) to KEEN4
Let the installer run completely, it will leave you in C:\keen4
Input
keen4e

Here ya go, you can configure the game via the ingame configuration panel at your wish.( sounds-input methods- .......)
Next time you want to play Commander Keen 4:
Run dosbox and on your C:\ input:
cd keen4
keen4e
Once again, do not use the default Vista unzipper, it's worthless, but 7zip
http://www.7-zip.org/

Indy jones:
delete indyjones folder in windows, that's indeed that indyjo~1 in dosbox, as indyjones is more then 8 chars dosbox shortens it.
Doesn't work anyway, so delete the stuff.
Let us first get CKeen4 running, then we will see how we get you so far to get Indy running.

Some things you must know
When I say C:\ prompt in dosbox it means you must see that C:\ thinghy, C:\ is the C:\ prompt
NOT c:\keen or c:\keenkeen
You can only go to a directory(folder) with cd xxxxx from C: , if you're not on C: you first must go back to it with
cd .. , cd+space+double point
there are other ways but that's the simpliest. Or restart dosbox.

When you get an 'illegal command'
Means your inputs are wrong, possibly typos or whatever,
input dir or dir /w and look at the listing what's in the directory. You can only cd to a folder that's listed, you can only do an correct input to run a game if the 'input name' is listed.

thank you for all your help
my computer died and is the repair shop for 2 weeks
so i have got another computer box to start all over again
till my computer backs and then i cant try what you said on it
but dont worry i am starting all over again on this new computer
already have downloaded dosbox and will do everything you have said
and see if i can get it working on this one
be in touch

You always can use an USB key:
http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11743
A 2 GB key us more then enough to run a lot of dosgames from it.
And when you get your compy back you simply can copy the whole thing on your HD.

Just a thought....

thanks
good idea never thought of it
will buy one tomorrow and set it up on there
let you know how i go

i know this sounds stupid
but i put dosbox on the usb key exactly as you said
and it works superb
i have got it ready to go on c:
so now i want to download the games
captain comic, keen4 etc
and my cds i have
do i do exactly the same thing i did before and make the new folder dosgames etc for the games
on the usb key
and then download the games to the dosgames folder?
I am a bit confused now as where to go next

When asking such things you should learn to post EXACTLY your paths.
As could be:
\dosgames\keen4\
in Windows or so, I can't answer you if you don't do that, you're the one behind the keyboard.
************************************************************
So I will presume you have on your usb key:
\dosbox 072\
\dosgames\
in Windows
and your \dosgames\ mounted as virtual C:
So you will see IN DOSBOX a C: when you startup dosbox.
Keep in mind that WINDOWS paths and DOSBOX paths aren't the same.
************************************************************
then you must for C.KEEN 4 :
Whilst in Windows create a \dosgames\temp\ on your USB key, unzip the 3 files from keen4.zip in your
\dosgames\temp\ ,
run dosbox and input:
cd temp
install
This will run the Keen installer,
Accept as path IN DOSBOX c:\keen\
The installer will leave you in dosbox C:\keen\ , input keen4e to run the game from there.
Next time you want to play, run dosbox and input:

cd keen
keen4e

************************************************************

For Comic:
Unzip whilst in Windows ALL FILES in \dosgames\comic4\
Run dosbox and input:
cd comic4
comic

************************************************************
And again:

dosraider wrote: Once again, do not use the default Vista unzipper, it's worthless, but 7zip
http://www.7-zip.org/

Did you?
Reason is you can create directly the needed subfolders with 7Zip. Simplifies things a bit.
*************************************************************
To repeat myself, because I know it can be confusing for someone who was never on the dosprompt:
When I post
cd keen or another cd whatever
It must be done from C: in dosbox, that's the C: prompt.

[Edit]
Maybe you should register on Dosgames site, I could give you some help via one or two PMs for Indy and Sam&Max, it's not obligatory, but I'm kinda restricted regarding those Lucasart games -(Indy and Sam&Max)- as those are protected games.
Just a thought..... as said, it's not obligatory.

i did register in the dosgames site
i really am having lots of trouble here
Ok
I downloaded dosbox on the usb
Z:\>mount c \
drive c is mounted as local directory\
Z:\>c:
C:\>

this is all i have
then i downloaded the zip 7
i downloaded the the game commander keen
but dont know where to unzip it
I have no idea how to make the
\dosbox 072\
\dosgames\
i have tried all different things but nothing works
I made a folder called dosgames
and unzipped the keen4 into that
but that didnt work either
i get
C:\> cd temp
unable to change to: temp

when i can successfully get comic and keen running
i can try my cds
but at the moment i cant seem to do anything right
I am sorry for being such a bother

C:\>

because i dont know where to put it
it is very frustrating have been at this on and off all day
dont remember how i got it going on the other computer
How do i create the
dosgames\temp\ on the usb key