Warcraft II on Pandora, DOSbox?


batfastad

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Hi everyone

I used to play Warcraft 2 a long time ago and I'd love to get it working again. It was one of the few games that I actually bought for a PC, I was always a console gamer as my PCs were never up to spec for the games of the time.

So I've got a cue/bin image of the original CD.

I've seen various mentions of people playing Warcraft 2 on the Pandora but not many instructions on how to get it going.

I should point out I've never used DOSBox, ever, so I don't really know where to start.

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/53942-post-your-dosbox-successes-here/#entry865553

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/45830-merry-christmas-warcraft-2-dos-on-pandora/

It's a shame this blog post has gone... http://www.codejedi.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi/entertainment/gaming/pandora/20081221wc2dosbox.blog

Running in Qemu looks good...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CXRE36Yxb2k?feature=oembed
Code:
imgmount d "/media/pndsd0/pandora/appdata/dosbox-ex-ura/roms/Warcraft.2/WARCRAFT2.cue" -t iso -fs iso

But do I actually need to extract/install from the mounted cue/bin first, and then point the .bat to the .exe as per the example games?

Any help on this would be really appreciated!

An alternative is to try and find the PSX version and run it in PCSX but running the dos version would be better.

Cheers, B
 
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You're trying to mount BIN/CUE files as ISO files, does that work? Anyway, yes, you'll need to "install" it inside your DOSBox, just like in DOS days
 
You're going to need to create a DOS Drive (folder) on your SD card and mount it as "mount c /media/GAMES/dos.drive"

Then, with your ISO mounted, type "D:" and press enter, then "Install" and press enter

That'll usually kick off the install process of a DOS game
 
Great, that makes more sense.

Presumably that dos drive folder can be shared with other DOSbox games?

Though it might be a better idea to keep each separate.

Got it installed and working, sort of :D

I've created a custom profile in DBoxFE for Warcraft 2.

I couldn't figure out how to edt the "Autoexec" section in DBoxFE so I just edited the profile config directly, though make sure DBoxFE is not open as it appears to overwrite the config changes.

I moved the cue/bin to appdata/dosbox/images and added the following line to autoexec...


imgmount d "images/WARCRAFT2.cue" -t iso -fs iso

Then ran the install.exe from d, then ran c:\war2\war2.exe and it works. With sound AND music!

The point of a cue/bin is that it preserves the music track data, where an ISO doesn't. Also the version of Warcraft 2 I'm using needs the CD loaded to work.

The only problem I've got is that the controls are a nightmare and from reading around on here it seems very difficult to get a perfect mapping.

Just trying to get a colon character needed some finger skills.

The left nub controls the mouse, which is great, but it seems to get stuck in an invisible boundary box sometimes and I need to jiggle it to get it to move over. Also the mouse speed is a bit slow despite being set to maximum in Warcraft 2. Is there a config setting somewhere to speed that up?

I've re-mapped the X and B buttons to be left/right mouse clicks, which feels good. But I'll need to look at what keys are actually used in Warcraft as it's been so long since I played.

Also since I've got a 1GHz unit, is it worth bumping up the emulation CPU speed somewhere?

Any other advice for getting DOSbox nailed with Warcraft 2 would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers, B
 
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I've pretty much given up trying to get the controls right for WC2 in dosbox... Has anyone tried dos via Qemu? I'd be curious to see if mouse emulation works properly... Also, I can't remember if it's possible to use an external mouse with dosbox... Has anyone tried?


Would love to see WC2 playable as it was my fave game back in the day. :)
 
I'm thinking that trying the PlayStation version (SLES-00878 / SLUS-00480) might be the way to go as the controls will already be optimised for a console.

The downside is that I actually only like playing custom maps and I bet there isn't a way of loading a custom .pud on the console version.

The Qemu video above looks good. The cursor appears to move nicely and ideally I'd like to use the nubs.

Does anyone know if there's a Win95 image knocking around for Qemu on the Pandora? Or is like any old VM system and any Qemu image should work?

Cheers, B
 
I always thought that Warcraft 2 is a pure Windows-game. QEMU would be the way to go anyway.
 
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For qemu, you can use the dosversion of warcraft2. The nubs are working good. Just the touchscreen doesn't. You can also use an USB mouse.
 
I always thought that Warcraft 2 is a pure Windows-game. QEMU would be the way to go anyway.
The DOS version was out several years before the Windows directx version...
 
I've got a working Win95 Qemu image but Warcraft II just doesn't load. I ran through the setup without problems, though couldn't get the soundcard recognised so I've just had sound disabled.

J just get the DOS/4GW message then the window disappears and I'm dumped back to the Windows desktop. I've got the .iso mounted, well it's an iso converted from my cue/bin. Maybe I need to re-rip an iso and try that.

I have been mucking around with the various Dosbox ports that are around and have got some half-decent results. The nubs and touchscreen being the main problem.

I like the idea of running in Dosbox though as I can mount a bin/cue, giving me the CD audio. Performance definitely seems playable on the 1GHz unit, though the video cut scenes stutter a bit.

1) Dosbox with DosboxFE http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=dosbox.pickle

I've not managed to get nubsor touchscreen working to any satisfactory degree with Warcraft II. Nubs the cursor is stuck in an invisible box.

2) DosBox Ex v8 http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=dosbox-ex-app

Using nubs, the cursor is stuck in an invisible box. But the touchscreen is almost there, just moves a bit slower but touchscreen might actually be easier to play this anyway.

3) Dosbox 0.741 http://apps.openpandora.org/cgi-bin/viewapp.pl?/Emulator/Dosbox.inf

Seems to be a later version of Dosbox than the one in the repo? Even though this is from 2010?

This is probably the most playable.

Touchscreen doesn't work. The right nub is good though, albeit a bit slow. I wonder if the mscroll, kscroll, m_mscroll, m_kscroll settings in the WAR2.INI file do anything to help that?

The downside is that when using the right nub to left click, the cursor jumps up and left slightly away from where it was.

  • Is it possible to configure the ABXY keys to be left/right mouse clicks in Dosbox?
  • Anyone had any more success than I have had in getting nub/touchscreen fully working in Dosbox?
  • Any newer versions of dosbox being worked on? It would be amazing to get the nub/touchscreen sorted in a proper PND.
  • Has anyone tried running the DOS version of Warcraft II in Qemu using just FreeDOS, no Win95?
  • Anyone know what might be happening to my Warcraft II under Win95 in Qemu?

Cheers, B
 
Warcraft 2 should work with qemu in drdos or freedos. Just grab yourself the images from the wiki and try. Nubs should work fine when using cutemouse or other driver.


I can try to do an imags without the datafiles, which you then just copy in from the shared folder.
 
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Hi i made a working DRDOS Qemu Demo Image for you,

I ever tried a Demoversion of this Game.

Maybe the Warcraft 2 CD is Copy Protected?

Qemu cannot Handle Copy protected CDs.

Used you Qemu Manager on Windows?(the easiest Way)

here the Image for the Demo,you can Test it,but activate Adlib Emulation and disable Network Settings.

I will make a Video then you can use this Settings for optimal playing.

But here first the Warcraft2 Demoverson Image :)

http://mcobit.openpandora.org/qemu-images/DRDOSWarcraft2Demoversion.rar

The MHZ must you Try,but on my Rebirth work it fine too with 900MHZ

With this Image for Qemu should you be able to setup your Full Version

http://mcobit.openpandora.org/qemu-images/DRDOSEmptyWithCDSupport.rar

if you can't enter ":" try pressing [shift] (or [left shoulder button]) + [Fn] + [;] or use Qemu Manager for Win.

Video here

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jmrmEZHQaB0?feature=oembed

Happy Trying :)
 
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Here is a pnd, that bundles qemu, a freedosimage and some scripts to autostart warcraft 2:

http://mcobit.openpandora.org/war2wrapped.pnd


You have to run it once and it will create a war2 folder in the war2wrapped appdatafolder and copy the image.


Then you have to copy all your files in your warcraft 2 installationfolder into the war2 folder, that was created in /appdata/war2wrapped/


Of course you would need to have some nocdpatch installed for it to work.


When you run the pnd again, it will start the war2 setup. Choose Soundblaster as digital soundcard and adlib as musiccard.


Then save and exit and war2 will start.


When you end the program, it will shutdown freedos and end the pnd.
 
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That is an awesome idea, a PND wrapper specifically for W2 :D

I've patched my Warcraft 2 installation with a nocd path. I have the original disks but this should make it easier on the Pandora.

I ran the PND then closed. Then I copied my WAR2 directory into the appdata directory and the setup runs.

But then on exiting setup I get the old error I remember from my DOS days...

Sector not found error writing drive D

Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?

Do the file systems/partitions of my SD card matter?

I've tried with a 16GB SD card which has a 15GB FAT32 and a 1GB ext3 partition. And also tried with a 4GB FAT32 SD card. I get the same behaviour on both SD cards.


When starting the PND I've noticed the following messages (I managed to press F8 to start interactive boot to give me time to write them down)...



Code:
C: HD1, Pri[ 1], CHS=   0-1-1, start=    0 MB, size=   3996MB

WARNING: using suspect partition Pri:1 FS 06: with calculated values   0-1-8 instead of 0-1-1

WARNING: Partition ID does not suggest LBA - part Pri:1 FS 06.

Please run FDISK to correct this - using LBA to access partition.    start 0-1-8, end 1151-15-48

D: HD2, Pri[ 1], CHS=  0-1-8, start=  0MB, size=  503MB

JemmEx v5.75 [05/21/11]

System memory found at cc00-e7ff, region might be in use

JemmEx loaded

Kernel: allocated 46 Diskbuffers = 24472 Bytes in HMA


FreeCom version 0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap [Aug 28 2006 00:29:00]

Is there anything of help in there?

Do I need to adjust my SD card partitioning?

Cheers, B
 
I think the first Problem is that the shared Folder is Size limited to 512MB


the second Problem is that the Shared Folder is not Writeable.


Mcobit when you copy the files first to the image should the.y run fromm the image directly


Copy the data first into image and run it fromm image.


sorry for write errors because my mobile phone.
 
Well, this works for me.


I stripped the videos from warcraft 2 though, so the size of the installdirectory might matter.


Is your war2 directory bigger zhan 500 mb?


The shared folder should be writeable as I can create savegames without a problem.


It might work, if you have to copy the data to the image, but that would make it a lot less convenient.


Also someing might be corrupted in the qcow2 image.


Please delete the Freedos.qcow2 file from appdata and start again.


Edit: did you try to recopy the datafiles?
 
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Hi everyone

My war2 directory is 19MB and permissions are 777 and root:root

I've tried re-copying the data files over.

Just tried deleting Freedos image and starting again and I get the same thing.

Are you sure it's nothing to do with those partition/FS errors I get when the FreeDOS image launches?

Cheers, B
 
I can't really say that. Only thing I can try is to redownload my own pnd and try myself ;) will do that now.
 
Ok, just reloaded the pnd and installed everything again. It works without problems even though I get the same filesystem warning you posted above.


So it seems to be your sdcard or the datafiles themselves.


You can also try to delete the war2.ini and try again.


Edit: You said your sdcard is fat32 formatted? How can it have permissions like 777 root:root?
 
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