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Always Use imgmount for Mounting Disc Images within Dosbox Staging

Do not mount DOS disc images in Dosbox Staging using Daemon Tools or other similar programs. Instead, use Dosbox Staging's imgmount command only.

If you do use Daemon Tools or other similar programs with Dosbox Staging, you will run into game compatibility issues like this. In order to reduce the future likelihood of running into said compatibility issues, use imgmount only.

Bring your own CD-DA

Thanks to @kcgen for implementing this feature and for the great documentation!

DOSBox Staging bundles a handy script to simplify the task of generating DOSBox mountable CD-DA content from public domain or Creative Commons-licensed YouTube chapters and playlists. This might be for listening with a DOS CD-DA player or perhaps using remastered/remixed tracks that can be swapped in for a games' original CD-DA tracks.

This script can be found under ./contrib/scripts/ directory (not part of resources). Check for the chapters-to-tracks.sh and playlist-to-tracks.sh scripts.

Hereafter a fun little example for Screamer. Simply follow this easy step-by-step guide to use our own CD-DA tracks with that game.

Disclaimer: please ensure you're not breaking any national copyright laws or YouTube's TOS. Canada permits time-shifting copyrighted YouTube content to local files for personal use under bill C-11, similar to how recording radio stations to media is also permitted for personal use.

  • First, let's install some dependencies. This example is using GNU/Linux, however HomeBrew and macPorts have these under macOS, ports have then on the BSDs, and pacman has these for MSYS2 on Windows:
# sudo apt-get install bchunk ffmpeg parallel
# pip3 install yt-dlp
  • Grab a copy of Screamer in the typical .bin/.cue pair format (check on GOG.com or Steam):
Screamer.bin
Screamer.cue
  • Now we will have to split that CD image into .iso (data) and .wav (audio tracks). This is where the little utility bchunk proves itself useful. Type in:
# bchunk -w Screamer.bin Screamer.cue track

This will produce the following set of files:

track01.iso
track02.wav
track03.wav
track04.wav
track05.wav
track06.wav
track07.wav
track08.wav
  • To keep things tidy let's put these in a directory called original for safe-keeping:
mkdir original
mv track0* original/
  • While we're at it, let's compress the .wavs to .flacs and generate a .cue for them:
# parallel flac --delete-input-file -8 {} ::: original/*.wav
# /usr/src/dosbox-staging/contrib/scripts/tracks-to-cues.sh original/

The original/ directory should now contain:

cdrom.cue
track01.iso
track02.flac
track03.flac
track04.flac
track05.flac
track06.flac
track07.flac
track08.flac

We can mount that new CD image using the IMGMOUNT command from DOS prompt:

C:\>imgmount d original/cdrom.cue -t cdrom
  • Now let's try using custom audio tracks from this 80s Synthwave Mix. If you open that YouTube video in your browser, you'll notice that each song is a chapter inside the video. So we'll use the chapters-to-tracks.sh script. To achieve that simply pass the URL to the script:
# /usr/src/dosbox-staging/contrib/scripts/chapters-to-tracks.sh "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QKQlf8r7ls"

This creates a directory named after the video name, with each track (as an .opus) inside. We now have a directory and .opus tracks.

  • Let's rename the directory to something more manageable:
# mv "Back_To_The_80_s_Marvel83_Edition_Best_of_Synthwave_And_Retro_Electro_Music_Mix" synthwave
  • Lets copy our Screamer .iso into this synthwave directory (note: the -l flag creates a hard-link, no extra disk space is used):
# cp -l original/track01.iso synthwave/
  • We can now generate the .cue for this just like we did with original:
# /usr/src/dosbox-staging/contrib/scripts/tracks-to-cues.sh synthwave

Here's what synthwave/ contains:

cdrom.cue
track01.iso
01-Marvel83_-_Synthetic_Nights.opus
02-Marvel83_-_Lost_Highway.opus
03-Marvel83_-_Roller_Coaster.opus
04-Marvel83_-_In_Between.opus
05-Marvel83_-_Venice_Beach.opus
06-Marvel83_-_Laguna_Hills.opus
07-Marvel83_-_West_Side_Story.opus
08-Marvel83_-_Flowers_of_Edinburgh.opus
09-Marvel83_-_Every_Evening.opus
10-Marvel83_-_Genesis.opus
11-Marvel83_-_NYC_Sunrise.opus
12-Marvel83_-_Closer_To_The_Sky.opus
13-Marvel83_-_East_Side_Highway.opus
14-Marvel83_-_2049.opus
15-Marvel83_-_Westlake_High_85.opus
  • Let's try it in Screamer! Edit your Screamer's config file that way (Note: lines starting with # will be ignored):
[autoexec]
#imgmount d original/cdrom.cue -t cdrom
imgmount d synthwave/cdrom.cue -t cdrom
mount c .
c:
cd screamer
screamer.bat

Enjoy your own CD-DA tracks in the game!

Note: Screamer does have an internal CD player allowing you to change tracks at will during a race. Press the ESC key anytime to open it.

Extra notes

If the songs you want to try are in a playlist (URL will contain list=...), then you would pass that URL to the playlist-to-tracks.sh instead of chapters-to-tracks.sh. The results are the same: it creates a directory with each song as an .opus file.

Keep in mind that instead of passing the full URL to the scripts, you can also use YouTube identifier. So instead of passing "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QKQlf8r7ls" just pass 0QKQlf8r7ls. The same applies to playlists: instead of passing "https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDA4YeAdyYq4M" just pass RDA4YeAdyYq4M.

[Reference] (contains further details and example)

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Corridor 7's CD Music Configuration and CD Check

  1. Using the command-line program called innoextract (innoextract Man Page), extract the two files Corridor7.cue and Corridor7.bin from your Corridor 7 GOG offline installer with the following commands:
# innoextract -I Corridor7.cue "\path\to\corridor7-GOG-offline-installer-here"
# innoextract -I Corridor7.bin "\path\to\corridor7-GOG-offline-installer-here"

Note: The -I switch only extracts the file specified after it and not everything contained in the GOG offline installer.

  1. Once extracted the .bin/.cue pair, mount Corridor7.cue thanks to IMGMOUNT command after ensuring that both Corridor7.cue and Corridor7.bin are in the same directory:
# imgmount d "\path\to\Corridor7.cue" -t cdrom

  1. Change to your D: drive and run INSTALL.BAT.

  2. At the Install screen, go to Change Install Type and select Full Install (6 megs). Leave Installing to Drive and Installing to Path to default values.

  3. Press F10 to install the game.

  4. After the game has been successfully installed, change the drive and directory to c:\corr7cd and run SETUP.EXE.

  5. Open Music Configuration and select CD Music. Configure your sound and controls to your liking.

  6. Press F10 to save all changes. You will now find yourself back at the DOS prompt.

  7. After ensuring you're still in the game's directory, run CORR7.BAT instead of CORR7CD.EXE.

Important: Do not run CORR7CD.EXE otherwise the CD Audio will not play at all. In addition, the in-game HUD will look wrong.

  1. At Corridor 7's main menu, go to Adjust Audio --> CD Music Volume and adjust to your liking.

Courtesy of the Corridor 7's README.1ST file:

CD Controls will then be available from the "Adjust Audio"
menu off the games Main Menu screen.  They operate like
standard "PLAY" "SKIP" and "STOP" buttons on a CD player.

The CD controls can also be accessed by "Hot Keys" from
inside the game (these come in handy if your sound cards
mixing functions aren't supported - you do not have access
to the "Adjust Audio" menu).  They are as follows:

ALT-P : Play.
ALT-F : Skip (advances to the next track).
ALT-S : Stop.

Extra notes

Be aware that the CD music only starts once you are playing the game. You will not hear any CD music in the main menu unless you return to the main menu by pressing ESC while you are in-game.

Lastly, on future playthroughs of Corridor 7 and before you start playing the game, make sure the game's .cue file is properly mounted as the D: drive. If you do not do this before running CORR7.BAT the game will not properly detect the CD from the D: drive. Should the CD be not detected, the following error message will be thrown Corridor 7 CD Not Found in Drive or MSCDEX Not Installed.

A batch file or few lines added to an autoexec section will do the trick. To mount Corridor7.cue then to run CORR7.BAT is the easiest way to prevent the above situation from happening. For example:

[autoexec]
imgmount d path\to\Corridor7.cue -t cdrom
C:
CD CORR7CD
CORR7.BAT

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Create WAV Audio Files from a CUE/BIN pair with bchunk

Download page: bchunk - Windows Release

Note: The above release must be run from the Windows commandline, such as CMD or Powershell.

GNU/Linux users can simply install the bchunk package using their respective distros' package manager(s). bchunk itself can be run from the Bash prompt.

Usage: bchunk [-v] [-r] [-p (PSX)] [-w (wav)] [-s (swapaudio)] <image.bin> <image.cue> <basename>

Example: bchunk foo.bin foo.cue foo

  -v  Verbose mode
  -r  Raw mode for MODE2/2352: write all 2352 bytes from offset 0 (VCD/MPEG)
  -p  PSX mode for MODE2/2352: write 2336 bytes from offset 24
      (default MODE2/2352 mode writes 2048 bytes from offset 24)
  -w  Output audio files in WAV format
  -s  swapaudio: swap byte order in audio tracks

Usage

# bchunk -w quake1.bin quake1.cue track

The above command will generate multiple WAV files (audio) with filenames track02.wav through track11.wav from the provided Quake .bin/.cue pair. One WAV file per audio track. Also an .iso file named after track01.iso containing the game's data will be created altogether.

Important: should your newly created WAV files sound like static noise, delete them. You will have to add the -s switch to the above command to get proper WAV files.

For further information on how to use the bchunk command, check the online man page or simply type man bchunk from command prompt.

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Don't Play the DOS Ports of MK and SF2: Use Fightcade

Thanks to @MasterO2 for sharing!

Install Fightcade

  1. Download, install Fightcade, and create a Fightcade account.

  2. Create a Discord account and join the Fightcade Discord Channel. If you want some Fighting Game Discord channels to join, use this link as well:

  1. In your Fightcade installation, find and open the file below:
Fightcade\emulator\fbneo\fcadefbneo.exe

FcadeFBNeo.exe is your offline mode where you can play single-player mode for these games, as well as setup joysticks, controllers, etc.

Note: before opening Fightcade 2 or fcadefbneo.exe, make sure your joystick or gamepad is connected to your PC's USB port and is recognized by Windows. If you do not do this first, you will not be able to configure your peripherals. You can also play fighting games with your keyboard, though that is not recommended.

  1. After fcadefbneo.exe is open and running, press F6 and point the program to your ROMs folder by pressing ROMs Dirs.

  2. After configuring your ROMs directory, under Options, tick the Show Available checkbox. If your roms appear in the list, games will run correctly. If they do not, find the correct rom versions that will. Once you have made sure your roms are working and your controls are set up to your liking by pressing F5, close FBNeo.

Please note that Dosbox Staging and Fightcade cannot and will not provide those ROMs for legal reasons, so you must do that yourself. Do not ask about where to find ROMs in the Dosbox Staging Discord channel either.

  1. Open Fightcade 2 and log into your Fightcade account. Fightcade 2 has much better netcode than Fightcade 1, which is why you will be using FC2 for this purpose.

  2. Search for the game you want to play by using its romname and make sure that the room you join is for Fightcade 2 (FC2). Romnames are listed below in italics.

For example:

  • sf2ce = Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition
  • ssf2t = Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
  • mk = Mortal Kombat 1
  • mk2 = Mortal Kombat 2
  • umk3 = Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

In case of issues

  • When playing online with Fightcade 2, use a wired connection to your router, and not Wi-fi, because Wi-fi is subject to interference, and thus has high jitter. As a result, you will have a much more stable and consistent gameplay experience using a wired connection than with Wi-fi. Powerline Ethernet Adapters are also viable if your house / apartment / flat etc does not allow you to wire Ethernet cables to your router.

  • If you cannot connect to your opponent, make sure that TCP port 7000 and UDP ports 6000-6009 on your router are port forwarded correctly. Consult your router's documentation on port forwarding, or that page for instance.

  • If your anti-virus and/or firewall complain about either Fightcade 1 or Fightcade 2, add them to your anti-virus' and/or firewall's exceptions list. Specifically, these files from your Fightcade installation:

Fightcade\Fightcade1.exe 
Fightcade\Fightcade2.exe
Fightcade\emulator\ggpofba\ggpofba-ng.exe
Fightcade\emulator\fbneo\fcadefbneo.exe
  • If you want to use Fightcade 1, Fightcade\emulator\ggpofba\ggpofba-ng.exe is Fightcade 1's offline mode and you will follow the same instructions to configure it as with Fightcade 2.

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Don't Run the DOS Ports of MAME: Run MAME for Your Host OS Instead

  1. Go to https://www.mamedev.org/release.html or https://github.com/mamedev/mame/releases, then download and extract the contents of the zip file to your host operating system. If you are on one of the many varieties of Linux, you can alternatively download and install MAME from the relevant package manager or compile it from source.

  2. Find the relevant ROM zip files for the games you want to play and place them in your MAME folder's roms subdirectory.

  3. Navigate to your MAME directory and double click on the mame64.exe file (or mame64 for Linux users).

  4. After the game selection menu appears, double click on the game you want to play. If your game does not run at all and displays error messages about missing ROMs, please read:

  1. Once the game has successfully loaded, you will see a summary screen detailing the arcade game's original system specs. Press Enter at this screen.

  2. As the arcade game's attract mode starts, press Tab and select the option Input (This Machine). Highlight the input you want to change, press Enter, then press the key you want to use for that input. After configuring your inputs, press Tab again to close the menu.

  3. For Player 1, press 5 (above the r key) to insert coins, then press 1 (above the q key) to start the game. For Player 2, press 6 (above the t key) to insert coins, then press 2 (above the w key) to start the game. For more keyboard help, visit MAME - Default Keyboard Controls.

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Patching Games

Final Doom: TNT - Evilution, Map 31 Yellow Key Card Bug - Official Fix from TeamTNT

For those unaware, here is some background about Final Doom: TNT - Evilution, Map 31 Yellow Key Card Bug.

Note: GOG.com addressed the TNT Map 31 Yellow Key Card bug in its own release of Doom 2 and Final Doom, so this fix is only applicable to the physical CD and Steam releases of Final Doom - TNT: Evilution.

  1. Go to Team TNT's official site to download the file tnt31fix.zip. That same file can also be found at IDGames or at this address as well.

  2. Extract tnt31.wad into your physical CD's installation or Steam's Final Doom installation where your original tnt.wad file is located.

  3. Open DOSBox Staging and change to the directory where you mounted your TNT folder. For Steam users, the file location is the base folder as detailed here.

  4. Run the following command from the DOS prompt:

C:\>doom2 -file tnt31.wad

Note: for not having to type this on every startup, create a .bat file with the above command. For Steam users, in your Steam installation, use a text editor (notepad, notepad++, etc.) to add -file tnt31.wad to the line mentioning doom2 or doom2.exe of your existing tnt.bat file.

  1. From now on, Doom II will display a message This version of Doom has been modified. Ignore it and press Enter to play the game.

Final Doom: TNT - Evilution, Map 31 Yellow Key Card Bug - Unofficial Fix

For those unaware, here is some background about Final Doom: TNT - Evilution, Map 31 Yellow Key Card Bug.

Note: GOG.com addressed the TNT Map 31 Yellow Key Card bug in its own release of Doom 2 and Final Doom, so this fix is only applicable to the physical CD and Steam releases of Final Doom - TNT: Evilution.

  1. Download Iwad Patcher: iwadpatcher-1.2-bin.zip (mirror #1) and extract its contents.

  2. Open the iwadpatcher1.2-bin folder, hold down the shift key and right-click within the folder.

  3. Select Open command window here.

  4. At the command prompt, type the following command in followed by Enter:

iwadpatcher -Oanynamehere.wad -VTNT_19ANTH TNT.WAD

Note #1: make sure that your unpatched TNT.WAD is present within this directory first otherwise the file will not patch.

Note #2: do not put any spaces between -O and -V switches, since those are the instructions from the included readme.txt file.

  1. Delete the original unpatched TNT.WAD, and rename the new file created by the -O switch to TNT.WAD.

  2. Place your new TNT.WAD file into your physical CD installation, Steam installation or source port of choice such as GZdoom or Chocolate Doom (list of ports).

Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - Official DOS Patch

DOSBox' method uses the official patch released by Raven Software in 1996.

Note: If you have the GOG editions of Hexen: Beyond Heretic and Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, you will not have to follow these instructions, because GOG editions of both games are already patched. The physical CD and Steam releases are not patched, therefore these instructions apply to them only. For Steam users, the file location is the Deathkings base folder. Simply mount your Deathkings base folder in DOSBox Staging then run the patch from that mounted folder.

  • Files Location for Steam's Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel Release

The instructions below assume that you installed Hexen: Beyond Heretic 1.1 in c:\hexen, because that is where Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel's installer assumes Hexen: Beyond Heretic has been installed. Deathkings also requires Hexen 1.1 to be installed, and the Deathkings' physical CD itself contains a patch to upgrade Hexen: Beyond Heretic from 1.0 to 1.1 (in case you need it).

Courtesy of https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Deathkings_music:

1) Install Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel itself using DOSBox. The default folder will be C:\HEXENDK
but you can change this to whatever you want.

2) Outside of DOSBox, go to https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/idstuff/hexen/dkpatch and download dkpatch.zip
from one of the given links on the right side of the page.

3) Extract both PATCH.EXE and PATCH.RTP from dkpatch.zip into your newly created Deathkings directory. 
If you used the default Deathkings location, you will now have C:\HEXENDK\PATCH.EXE and C:\HEXENDK\PATCH.RTP
in this directory. If you used another location, place these two files in the Deathkings install folder you 
previously designated.

4) Back in DOSBox, go to the Deathkings directory the installer created, type the word "patch" without quotes 
or capital letters, and press enter.

5) The patcher will run and update HEXDD.WAD to version 1.1 and you will now be able to play Hexen's CD music 
correctly within DOSBox. (Now would also be a good time to back up HEXDD.WAD if you have not already done so)

6) To mount Hexen's CUE file within DosBox for proper CD Music playback, use:

imgmount d path\to\hexencuefile.cue -t iso

7) While still in DOSBox, go to your c:\hexen folder and open setup.exe. In the setup menu that appears, 
select "Choose Music Sound Card" and then the option "CD Audio". Press Enter to accept the changes. If 
this option is not set, Hexen will not play the mounted CD audio files.

8) Back at setup.exe's main menu, press Escape. When it asks "Quitting to DOS - Save Settings?", select "Yes" 
and press Enter. If you select "Save Parameters and Run Hexen" instead of pressing Escape, setup.exe will 
launch the base Hexen game and not Deathkings of the Dark Citadel.

9) Now return to your c:\hexendk folder and run hexendk.exe to play Deathkings of the Dark Citadel.

To reiterate: within DOSBox, you must mount the CD audio, set the "CD Audio" option under "Choose Music Sound
Card" in setup.exe and then run 'Deathkings of the Dark Citadel.' If these steps are not followed, Hexen's 
CD audio will not play.

If you face a timestamp issue involving updating Hexen: Beyond Heretic 1.0 to 1.1 where the game refuses to patch, read this, then install Deathkings using the above instructions.

Also, for Dosbox purposes, both Hexen: Beyond Heretic and Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel are cycles = max games, so adjust that setting accordingly.

Hexen - Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - Unofficial Non-DOS Patch

This is the unofficial way of patching HEXDD.WAD that does not require DOSBox and can be run within Windows 7 or higher.

Note: If you have the GOG editions of Hexen: Beyond Heretic and Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, you will not have to follow these instructions, because the GOG editions are already patched appropriately. The physical CD and Steam releases are not patched, so these instructions apply to them only.

Courtesy of https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Deathkings_music:

1) Download http://downloads.zdaemon.org/iwadpatcher-1.2-bin.zip and extract its contents.

2) Open the iwadpatcher1.2-bin folder, hold down the shift key, and right click within the folder.

3) Select "Open command window here" in the right click menu that just appeared.

4) At the command prompt that appears, type the following command and press enter:

iwadpatcher -Oanynamehere.wad -VHEXDD_11 HEXDD.WAD

Make sure that your unpatched HEXDD.WAD is present within this directory first or the file will not patch. 
Also, do not put any spaces between the -O and -V switches, since those are the instructions
from the included readme.txt file. 

5) After you have patched your original HEXDD.WAD, delete it and rename your new file
created by the -O switch to HEXDD.WAD.

6) Place HEXDD.WAD in either your DOSBox Deathkings installation directory
or the directory of a source port of choice.

Iwad Patcher 1.2 - Direct Download Links: iwadpatcher-1.2-bin.zip (mirror #1)

Omniscient: Another Program that Can Unofficially Patch Doom, Heretic, Hexen 1, and Strife IWADs etc without Using the Command Line:

Drag your Doom Engine-based IWAD onto the running Omniscient program's window and patch accordingly.

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Quake 1 - Enabling Mouselook

Note: Mouselook is not enabled by default in Quake 1 and also cannot be enabled via the game menu.

In order to enable mouselook, you must follow the instructions below:

  1. In your Quake 1 installation, open the ID1 folder. (For example: c:\quake\ID1).

  2. In your ID1 folder, create a new text file and rename it to autoexec.cfg.

  3. Open autoexec.cfg in a text editor (such as Notepad, Notepad++, Nano, Vim, etc).

  4. Type the cvar +mlook and save the file.

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Raspberry Pi

It's worth mentioning that prior to DOSBox Staging 0.78 it was required to set a fixed amount of cycles either globally (via dosbox-staging.conf) or per game/application on such device. Starting with release 0.78 a major performance boost allows for proper use of cycles = auto. This setting is now recommended and should work in most scenario. In case your game speed remains slow/fast then you have no choice but to set a fixed amount of cycles instead. Check for some config file examples.

Pi3B+

With DOSBox Staging on a Pi3B+ with no overclock (stock) it's possible to get up to 34000 cycles. Meaning a rough equivalent of a 486DX2 according to that page. Below a cpu setting working with majority of games. Feel free to look at the DOSbox' documentation for further details.

[cpu]
cycles = max 95% limit 34000

Again should a game be running too fast or too slow you'll have to rely on a fixed count of cycles. Good example with Wing Commander (1 and 2):

[cpu]
cycles = 4000

Pi4

Note: with DOSBox Staging 0.78 and above, performance on this device has been greatly improved. Therefore the below is no longer valid. It is left there for the record.

With DOSBox Staging prior to release 0.78 on a Pi4 with no overclock (stock) it was only possible to get up to 35000 cycles. Roughly the same as a Pi3 above. For most demanding games you could have relatively decent results by setting:

[cpu]
cycles = 35000

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Shortcuts

Shortcuts is one way to run DOS programs without having to type commands on each launch.

For that simply create a shortcut, as you would normally do in your particular operating system, with its target set as:

"<pathToDosboxExe>" "<pathToProgramExe>" -fullscreen -exit

If the program needs disk images (like .iso, .cue, .img, .gog) use this target instead:

"<pathToDosboxExe>" -c "mount c <pathToGameDir>" -c "imgmount d <pathsToDiskImages> -t cdrom" <gameExeName> -fullscreen -exit

You can change disk with: Control + F4

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Star Wars: Dark Forces' CD Check - GOG Release

Now you are probably wondering, "Why not just use a Dark Forces disc image and imgmount that, instead?" Unfortunately, GOG does not provide a Dark Forces disc image with this game's offline installer. Mounting the Dark Forces game folder as a cdrom allows you to bypass the CD check without having a proper disc image on hand to imgmount in Dosbox Staging.

Assuming your mountpoint in Dosbox Staging for all your DOS games is mount c c:\dosgames and the Dark Forces' game directory itself is c:\dosgames\dark:

  1. In c:\dosgames\dark, create a file called DRIVE.ID and open it in a text editor. Type a single uppercase letter D in the file and save the file. Also make sure that you open file DRIVE.CD from the same folder in a text editor, add a single uppercase letter D to it, and save that file as well.
  2. In Dosbox Staging, mount your Dark Forces folder itself as a cdrom with drive letter D (either lowercase or uppercase) with the following command:
  • mount d c:\dosgames\dark -t cdrom

Note: You will see a warning message from Dosbox Staging, saying that mounting folders as cdroms has limited support. This warning message is normal, but you will still bypass the CD check regardless, provided that you confirmed that you already mounted the dark forces folder as a cdrom before you start the game.

  • At this point, you should now have the following two mount points successfully created and running:

  • mount c c:\dosgames

  • mount d c:\dosgames\dark -t cdrom

  1. While still in Dosbox Staging, go to your C drive, change directory into the darkforces directory, and run DARK.EXE, the executable for Dark Forces.

  2. DARK.EXE will display an error message, saying that it cannot find the CD and that you must press the Space key to scan for the CD drive.

  3. Press the Space key and DARK.EXE will then scan for the CD, finding it mounted as the D Drive that you just mounted previously.

  4. Dark Forces will then load as normal, first displaying the LucasArts logo.

  5. When you play this game in the future, make sure you mount the dark folder as a cdrom before running the game in order to bypass the CD Check.

For example, create a .BAT file with the following commands included (assuming you already have dosgames mounted as your emulated C drive in your dosbox.conf autoexec section):

z:
mount d c:\dosgames\dark -t cdrom
c:
cd dark
dark.exe

Essentially, the Dark Forces folder is mounted twice: First as the emulated C drive and second as the emulated CD drive with drive letter D to bypass the CD Check. You can still access all your other DOS games (if any) in your emulated C drive without issues.

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Ultima Underworld I & II - Fixing Mouse Movement Issues

For Dosbox-Staging 0.79 and beyond, use the command mousectl dos -r 125 in your dosbox-staging.conf file under the [autoexec] section or in a .bat file.

Ultima Underworld I & II do not work well with high mouse sampling rates, so the lower the mouse's sampling rate is set, the better.

For further explanation on mouse sampling rates, visit here.

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Using touch for Patchers That Require Specific Timestamps

Hexen: Beyond Heretic 1.0 to 1.1

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=176300#p176300

(Courtesy of Vogons user Rogo):

There actually is a solution without using unlicensed copies of the game(s). 
Raymond's initial idea was the right way to go. 
The patcher looks for the date 10-15-95. Using touch, the command would look like:

touch -d '15 October 1995' /path/to/hexen/*.*

The patcher still gives me an error using this method, 
but the hexen.exe and hexen.wad files were both patched successfully.

The specific command syntax needed can be either:

touch -d "1995-10-15" /path/to/hexen/*.*

or

touch -t 199510150000 /path/to/hexen/*.*

For further information on how to use the touch command's -d or -t switches, go here.

To read the same documentation at the Bash prompt, run man touch or info touch accordingly.

Windows users will need to read this and change all three timestamps, (Created, Modified, and Accessed), to the above date.

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Prevent macOS from intercepting DOS keystrokes

Open System Settings/Keyboard/Shortcuts and uncheck or reassign any shortcut that doesn't include the ⌘ Command key as DOS doesn't utilise the ⌘ Command key. You can also reassign DOSBox Staging's internal hotkeys behind the ⌘ Command key so they never conflict with DOS. More instructions on how to do that in keymapper section.

Screenshot 2023-11-12 at 9 53 56

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Force Touch Bar or media keys to operate as function keys when using DOSBox Staging on macOS

Open System Settings/Keyboard/Shortcuts/Function Keys and add DOSBox Staging to the list. Touch Bar now operates as function keys when using DOSBox Staging. You can access your volume keys etc by pressing the fn key to switch to media keys temporarily in DOSBox Staging. This functionality can also be enabled for media keys on normal keyboards by installing Fluor for macOS.

System Settings with Function Keys open

Fluor for macOS:

Fluor for macOS rules list open

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