[LakiSoft]

I knew fist think you guys would going to tell me is to update t latest version of DosBox but version i have is DosBox 0.74 which already run most of games. The thing is that i have read somewhere that onl problematic releaes of Shadow Warrior that won't run on regular DosBox are those initial versiosn v1.0 and v1.1 However for neither SW BETA 0.90 neither SW v1.2 works. It promts me to shitty random bunch of numbers and letter (probably hexadecimal stuff) in DosBox console prompt. What i am doing wrong? I know that most people could run 0.90 and v1.2 but i can't run even those, they give me same problem as v1.0 and v1.1 which requires some unique SVN versions of DosBox. On another hand Apha and Beta builds of Shadow Warrior works fine in DosBox but latest version i can run is Shadow Warrior Alpha 0.9. Again what i am doing wrong and how come other people could run 0.90 and v1.2 without any issues while i can't. And that worked back then when DosBox 0.72 was latest version, i have 0.74 and for me it doesn't?

Thank you for your time!

[Kerr Avon]

I don't know, but if you can't find the answer on this forum, then go to:

VOGONS.ORG

That's a great site for getting games to run, and it also has the official DOS forums.

[MrFlibble]

First off, get DOSBox SVN Daum anyway, it's not unique or rare or anything. I would not recommend the latest version as it still has stability issues, I've been using a build from November 2013 for a while and it's fine although pretty outdated nowadays. It will run SW v1.0 and v1.1 without problems.

NOTE: The SVN Daum website does not open for me so try the Wayback Machine snapshot instead. Here's the version I'm using: 20131117.7z

Gingis Khan, on 15 March 2019 - 03:24 AM, said:

However for neither SW BETA 0.90 neither SW v1.2 works. It promts me to shitty random bunch of numbers and letter (probably hexadecimal stuff) in DosBox console prompt. What i am doing wrong?

More info on your configuration please. How you mount your virtual disks, how the sound card is configured etc. Did you install the shareware v1.2 from a downloadable 3D Realms installer or get a preinstalled version elsewhere? If possible post your dosbox.conf file.

[LakiSoft]

@Kerr Avon Thanks for the link i will check it later!


@MrFlibble Thank you for sharing that DosBox versions with me, the link worked and i will test it soon.

Now speaking of SW v1.2 i did the following:

1.) Now i installed fresh copy of Shadow Warrior v1.2 Shareware

2.) First i made setup with no sound

3.) To don't get any conflicts i copied DOSBOX.EXE and SDL.DLL in SW directory

4.) Since i used default DosBox configuration and not any user custom one, i tried it and IT WORKED NOW!

5.) Also i tried enabling sounds in SETUP.EXE, i had some MIDI problems with WAV works great.

But why then did old registered v1.2 didn't work then when i tried it in past few years ago?

Also i did same method for Shadow 0.90 and this one still doesn't work? It is problem with BETA version itself? Or maybe i shall try it directly write SW $bullet.map in DosBox Dos promt so then may work? As i heard some uses have isse with Shadow Warrior Alpha 0.9, when DosBox can't handle the title screen but can actual game if batch command used to skip it?

Anyway small mistake, v1.2 shareware from fresg install works, but 0.90 doesn't work for some reason. I repeat that i used same methoh as in v1.2 Sw, i deleted SW.CFG and then made setup with NO SOUND, then run it like this: DOSBOX.EXE SW.EXE -fullscreen -noconsole -exit and it didn't work! It only gave me until Shadow Warrior red title screen with that ninja symbol and it freezed! And DosBox Console promot showed weird errors. Note i did same method in v1.2 and it worked. Why is this happeneding them with 0.90?

[MrFlibble]

Gingis Khan, on 16 March 2019 - 08:31 AM, said:

3.) To don't get any conflicts i copied DOSBOX.EXE and SDL.DLL in SW directory

Just to clarify things: you launch SW by drag-dropping it over DOSBox.exe?

This is really not a preferred method of launching DOS programmes with DOSBox. I would recommend to set up a virtual HDD and operate from there.

Basically, you create a folder on your actual hard drive that you mount in DOSBox as the C: drive. The mount command can be added to the [autoexec] section of dosbox.conf so you don't need to do that manually every time. Here's what I use:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.
mount c /home/<username>/DOS/hdd1/ -freesize 600
mount d /home/<username>/DOS/cd/ -t cdrom -label Daggerfa
SET PATH=C:\;C:\TEMP;C:\UTILS;C:\DN;Z:\;C:\DJGPP\BIN;
C:\DEUTEX\;%PATH%
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\TEMP
#SET DJGPP=C:\DJGPP\DJGPP.ENV
#SET DOOMWADDIR=C:\MBF
C:

For Windows, you'd need something like E:\DOS\ etc. instead of /home/... where E: is the drive name of your HDD/partition. You can ignore the PATH and TEMP folder setup lines. That way, as you start DOSBox you'll go straight to the virtual C: drive that you have. But if you want to run SW straight away, you can add the following lines to your autoexec section:

cd SW
SW

That'll launch SW straight away for you as soon as you start DOSBox (assuming it's installed in C:\SW\).

[LakiSoft]

Thank you for your info, but i haven't actually used Drag 'n' Drop method, but i did those ones:

1st Method) Making BAT file which contains following: "DosBox.Exe Sw.Exe -fullscreen -noconsole -exit", without brackets of course

2nd Method) Using DosShell frontend utility for DosBox which i can just point out the directory where SW.EXE is and DosShell will do all mounting process fo DosBox all by itself alone, very usefull utility, i reccommend DosShell for easier using of DosBox. DosShell also asks for DosBox directory of course. It can even select which Drive Letter will mount to DosBox, default is C: of course, but i am just saying. Still i think this method have one complication, i think DosShell uses his own DosBox.Conf so it can conflict with some games such as Shadow Warrior, this is why i found first method more safe for this.

I still don't understand why Shadow 0.90 doesn't work, while v1.2 does, using very same method.

[Hendricks266]

Most of the SW betas and sharewares (through 1.1) require a newer version of DOSBox than 0.74, potentially from SVN. I don't recall offhand if the fix made it into 0.74-2, but that might be worth trying, as an official release.

[LakiSoft]

@Hendricks266 Thanks for reminding me. I think will give it a try to SVN version @MrFlibble mentioned in his post and provided download link. I will also check out that DosBox 0.74-2 as well.

Only missunderstanding i got is that, i knew that Shadow Warrior v1.0 and v1.1 requries SVN versions of DosBox, but i thought 0.90 works fine in regular DosBox just like v1.2 does.

In other words, i didn't knew 0.90 also belongs to that category of requring SVN DosBox as Shadow Warrior v1.0 and v1.1 do.

[Hendricks266]

Are you using the 0.9 that comes with crashfix.bat containing "sw.exe -level01"? That was my workaround for the DOSBox issue before the fix was implemented.

[LakiSoft]

I didn't knew that fix was ever invented until you told me now, so my answer is no, i haven't used it, but i can copy what you wrote in brackets and test it.

But i am talking about Shadow Warrior 0.90 BETA, not Shadow Warrior 0.9 Alpha. Sorry if i accidently confused them in my previous posts on this topic and this way confsued you as well. Sometimes i missspell what i write.

BTW, i tried DosBox SVN Daum version MrFlibble provided, and now both SW 0.9 Alpha and Sw 0.90 BETA worked fine with no any additional fixes added. This solved my problem. Thnak you guys for your help

[Hendricks266]

Gingis Khan, on 16 March 2019 - 10:14 AM, said:

But i am talking about Shadow Warrior 0.90 BETA, not Shadow Warrior 0.9 Alpha.

I don't understand.

[LakiSoft]

Hendricks266, on 16 March 2019 - 10:49 AM, said:

I don't understand.

i meant that Shadow Warrior 0.90 Beta (early 1997 leaked Beta) , i thought it will work in regular DosBox just like SW v1.2 works, but it actually requires special SVN version of DosBox just like v1.0 and v1.1 does, sorry for missunderstnading. I actually didn't knew that 0.90 also needs SVN Version fo DosBox, that is point of my story.

While i didn't meant to confuse you with Shadow Warrior Alpha 0.9 (the late 1996 version not Early 1997 beta i mentioned first) But any both Sw 0.9 1996 Alpha and SW 0.90 1997 Beta have same problem as they both freeze in title screen using regular DosBox, but using SVN versions fixes that problem. This what i meant, sorry for confusion, my english sucks anyway. Again fo too much confusion.

[Hendricks266]

Ah, that is one example of why you can't trust version numbers in prerelease materials. I always refer to builds by their dates.

[LakiSoft]

Yeah, good thinking. But for lazy ass like me it's easier to remember version numbers than actual release dates of builds I remeber how in past i even "renamed" or better say "nick named" some Early SW Build as versions "0.1", "0.2" "0.3" "0.5", etc.

Still having both releases called 0.9 and 0.90 are really confusing. That makes me think why in first place they didn't called Leaked Beta 0.99 instead, just like they did with Duke.

[MrFlibble]

Gingis Khan, I'm not sure if it's going to help you anyway but now that Hendricks266 mentioned it I remembered that indeed I had some problems running the leaked 0.90 beta (that was a long time ago BTW!) and basically I had to use the command line parameters to go straight to any level, bypassing the title screen etc.

Gingis Khan, on 16 March 2019 - 09:28 AM, said:

2nd Method) Using DosShell frontend utility for DosBox which i can just point out the directory where SW.EXE is and DosShell will do all mounting process fo DosBox all by itself alone, very usefull utility, i reccommend DosShell for easier using of DosBox. DosShell also asks for DosBox directory of course. It can even select which Drive Letter will mount to DosBox, default is C: of course, but i am just saying. Still i think this method have one complication, i think DosShell uses his own DosBox.Conf so it can conflict with some games such as Shadow Warrior, this is why i found first method more safe for this.

I know DOSBox frontends can be useful if you don't want to mess with the command prompt, but to me it's just adding an extra non-transparent layer of settings between you and the emulation. There's nothing in dosbox.conf that cannot be changed in Notepad or any other text editor of choice, and you can make as many configuration files as you need for any game you want and launch it via the usual Windows shortcuts by simply specifying the intended configuration file. That way you have more control over the settings, at least that's how it seems to me

The first method you described, which is essentially almost the same as drag-and-drop, has the caveat that (IIRC) it will mount the current directory where the game executable resides as the C: drive, which may be undesirable in certain circumstances.

[LakiSoft]

@MrFlibble But thanks to you as you provided that SVN DosBox version (even if bit outdated) now i can run both SW 0.9 Alpha and SW 0.90 Leakded BETA without any problems

While i am too lazy ass to experiment with multiple DoxBox.conf files, i still apprciate your advice. But again as every lazy ass i will continue using my frontends and BAT commands XD

Again thank you for SVN DosBox, thank you very much, now everything works fine, including title screen, etc. From now on i will use this version for at least Shadow Warrior games/versons/builds. Really that SVN DosBox solved everything, again big thanks

[MrFlibble]

You're welcome. I actually use this version for a lot of stuff, it's quite okay in spite of being outdated. I found more recent builds of DOSBox SVN Daum overloaded with extra features and not really improving performance. The latest build is itself outdated too as it is from 2015 IIRC.

[leilei]

I personally use PCem for all these old betas but that's not exactly easily recommendable:

- BIOS ROM hunts etc (you're best off hunting for either a specific 430vx board or some easier obtainable intel chipset boards i.e. zappa) and then a decent video card's rom (One of several S3 Virge/Trio cards, or an ATI Mach64). Yeah it's gatekeeping general usability in a way, but no more than decent PSX emulators in my opinion.
- Gotta have a HDD image parititoned, and install a MSDOS or Win9x on there and pray your CD-ROM works. This process isn't common knowledge anymore. You can't mount a folder. You could get away with pure boot disks maybe...
- the dynamic recompiler doesn't like self-modifying code that much (the Build renderer especially) so your core i7 would need to go for a P166-ish with a slower PCI video card for 100%. (the upcoming v15 dynarec may fix this)
- The frankenbuild of the late 1995 prototype doesn't work on some older boards / CPUs for some odd reason

Also DOSBox 0.74-2 is nice and you might want to also try the Yesterplay ECE build. I haven't used Daum in years and do not recommend it as any solution, not even for shaders.

[MrFlibble]

leilei, on 23 March 2019 - 07:22 AM, said:

Also DOSBox 0.74-2 is nice and you might want to also try the Yesterplay ECE build. I haven't used Daum in years and do not recommend it as any solution, not even for shaders.

Yeah, I kind of fell behind with these new DOSBox developments. After a couple of times when updates to SVN Daum (back when it was still new/up-to-date) broke something for me or degraded performance, this discouraged me from trying out new stuff so I would stick with a build that more or less works (before that Nov 2013 version, I'd been using for a long time a veery old SVN Daum v0.71, and it was quite fine; but that was on a super old PC with a Windows 98 that was never updated or anything, not even connected to the Internet which kind of froze in time).

I should check out that ECE build once I get around to it.