Battle Of Britain (lucasarts '89)

[gruso]

I'm trying to get my beloved old BoB running in Dosbox (just in Windows at this stage). All the files are heaped in one directory, and I no longer have the original disks. Pretty careless to lose them after only 18 years, I know. It fires up ok, but then asks for disk 2 to be inserted. I thought running the BoB installer might get around this, but that asks for disk 2 as well.

Anyone solved this problem? Or, anyone using the Amiga version?

Cheers

 

[slaanesh]

One of my faves too. I collected these Lucasfilm games and have 1942, Battle of Britain and my beloved favourite Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and several of it's expansions!
I would expect SWOTL to not play very well but I'll give BoB a go tonight.
But most likely on my PSP <_<
That is until this new version of Doxbox for GP2X is released - of course!

 

[gruso]

Ah yes, I'm eagerly awaiting Pickle's new Dosbox release! Prince of Persia is thiiiiis close to being good.

Look forward to hearing how you go with BoB.

 

[Pickle]

Ah yes, I'm eagerly awaiting Pickle's new Dosbox release! Prince of Persia is thiiiiis close to being good.

Look forward to hearing how you go with BoB.

You can blame the F200 users and that darn touchscreen.

 

[gruso]

I can't very well blame myself, can I? :unsure:

(Greatly appreciate your effort, soldier on!)

 

[senquack]

Yeah, 1942 would be just fantastic, can't believe I haven't thought of trying it out. It was bundled with my first PC and I played it to death, good memories.

 

[gruso]

/offtopic

Since you're passing through Senor Quack, you're another person who deserves a big thanks for the hours of entertainment your work has given me.

/asyouwere

 

[gruso]

Alrighty, I've nutted out the solution (for some reason this always happens after I post my question on a forum). Here's the procedure.

- Unzip all files to new dir "bob"
- Extract \bob\pi.arj to new dir \bob\pi
- Extract \bob\screens.arj to new dir \bob\screens
- Create new dir \bob\flts
- Move all .flt files to \flts
- Copy all .pac files from \bob to \flts*

You should now be up and running!** Happy day.


* This is the lazy method. Some of the .pac files should be in \flts, others have to stay in \bob. I saw a long evening of trial, error and disk prompts ahead of me, so duplicating the files in each dir was a quickfix. They're only tiny files, so it's no biggie for now.

** So far I've started off several missions, shot at a few things, but no serious game progress. It's possible that another disk prompt will appear along the line, and more files will need to be moved. I'll report back with any updates.

Next mission... config files for the GP2X. More news as it happens.


==== Evening update ====

Damn. I'd forgotten about BoB's rather inventive radio cipher wheel - the game will pause during a mission and ask you to decode the radio frequency in order to continue.



Pwnt! But all hope was not lost. h34r: Once again, happy day.

I fired it up on the GP2X, no luck. It only gets as far as the graphics selection menu (which is just a text menu in DOS). I temporarily mapped keys corresponding to each option (cga, ega, vga, tandy), the only one that worked was Tandy, and all it really gave me was a screen full of vomit. I'll put those plans on hold for now, I'm happy enough to have it running on PC!

 

[Pickle]

I fired it up on the GP2X, no luck. It only gets as far as the graphics selection menu (which is just a text menu in DOS). I temporarily mapped keys corresponding to each option (cga, ega, vga, tandy), the only one that worked was Tandy, and all it really gave me was a screen full of vomit. I'll put those plans on hold for now, I'm happy enough to have it running on PC!

If your going to use tandy you need to change the dosbox.conf to specify tandy, otherwise you get garbage.

 

[gruso]

Ah, thanks. I'm new at .conf files, but getting there!

 

[slaanesh]

Another nice DOSBox tip:

As Pickle said you need to specify "TANDY"

CODE
[dosbox]
machine=vga


This is the usual setting however you would want to change it to:


CODE
[dosbox]
machine=tandy


Now seeing as the handheld versions have limited horsepower, I've found that playing CGA games work really well.


CODE
[dosbox]
machine=cga


There are some PC games that use "composite monitor" and produce some attractive 160x200 16 color graphics. A little known mode but quite pretty.

Call me a masochist but I actually like the 4-color CGA screens; programmers did some very inventive dithering effects to try and coax extra simulated colors.

Some CGA games that seem to work well and have nicely mappable controls:

QUOTE
Summer Games II, Winter Games, World Games, Pirates, Gauntlet 2, Defender of the Crown, Elite


I can't get Gauntlet 1 to work - well it starts, can select character but then the screen goes black. Bah!

Some EGA/VGA games that work well:
QUOTE

Gauntlet 2, Uridium, Time Bandit, Bubble Bobble


Note: This are all tested on the PSP. Waiting patiently for DOSBox 0.72 for GP2X.

I also had a look at the code - the Dyna Rec code is a 'C' based Dyna Rec as Zodttd said. I had a look at CrazyC's MIPS version for the PSP.

Writing a GP2X version for the ARM should be doable? I'll look into the speed difference between the dyna-rec and the standard core.

 

[gruso]

Good info, thanks. I reckon I'll be trying out some old CGA faves like Ace of Aces and Arctic Fox too.

Re: BoB - Even though I got around my initial problem, I'd still love to hear how it goes on the PSP (if you're so inclined).

 

[slaanesh]

I reckon I'll be trying out some old CGA faves like Ace of Aces and Arctic Fox too.
Re: BoB - Even though I got around my initial problem, I'd still love to hear how it goes on the PSP (if you're so inclined).

I got a bit sidetracked and was trying some other games.
Pirates was to blame mainly and trying to Gauntlet 1 to work. I also gave Mortal Kombat ago, which worked but was a bit slow - though that's @ 222Mhz. I might ramp it up to 333Mhz and give it another go.

For Gauntlet 1 I've found the following clue on the DOSBox website:

QUOTE
You'll need to use Overlay/CGA/320x200 options to make it work


Overlay seems to refer to the SDL section's "output" item. ie. output=overlay
CGA seems to refer to the dosbox sections machine item. ie. machine=cga
320x200 I think (not sure) is the SDL section's fullresolution item. fullresolution=320x200

I've been trying to use the cunning
QUOTE
config -set "section item=value"

commands to set dosbox items whilst it's already started and running from .bat files

So for example, to set the machine
config -set "dosbox machine=cga"
however this doesn't seem to work. I think some settings may only be modified during runtime.

I wish there was good documentation in regards to these in-built commands. I might look at the source code

I will give BoB a go tonight.

 

[senquack]

/offtopic

Since you're passing through Senor Quack, you're another person who deserves a big thanks for the hours of entertainment your work has given me.

/asyouwere

Hey man thanks that made my day

 

[Pickle]

Another nice DOSBox tip:
Some CGA games that seem to work well and have nicely mappable controls:

QUOTE
Summer Games II, Winter Games, World Games, Pirates, Gauntlet 2, Defender of the Crown, Elite

I can't get Gauntlet 1 to work - well it starts, can select character but then the screen goes black. Bah!

Some EGA/VGA games that work well:
QUOTE

Gauntlet 2, Uridium, Time Bandit, Bubble Bobble




I also had a look at the code - the Dyna Rec code is a 'C' based Dyna Rec as Zodttd said. I had a look at CrazyC's MIPS version for the PSP.
e

Writing a GP2X version for the ARM should be doable? I'll look into the speed difference between the dyna-rec and the standard core.

Update: Hold on looks like it is included in the 0.72 source

Ive also have Airborne Ranger, Pirate, Covert Action, Duke1, Dangress Dave Haunted Mansion running at the moment. Well Pirates runs for a minute then crashes, havnt figured that one out yet.

 

[slaanesh]

I've tried the dynamic and normal modes on the PSP

The dynamic mode is faster - but I can't see anyway to display FPS or execution speed. Surely there must be some profiling information somewhere?

Yes, I had a look at the CPU specific files for the dynamic compiling core - someone with a knowledge of CPUs needs to know the differences between ARM and x86 to make this happen.

I reckon Exophase could probably whip it together very quickly but he's busy with Temper.

It would be a great learning exercise anyway.

 

[Pickle]

I've tried the dynamic and normal modes on the PSP

The dynamic mode is faster - but I can't see anyway to display FPS or execution speed. Surely there must be some profiling information somewhere?

Yes, I had a look at the CPU specific files for the dynamic compiling core - someone with a knowledge of CPUs needs to know the differences between ARM and x86 to make this happen.

I reckon Exophase could probably whip it together very quickly but he's busy with Temper.

It would be a great learning exercise anyway.

I've tried the dynamic and normal modes on the PSP

The dynamic mode is faster - but I can't see anyway to display FPS or execution speed. Surely there must be some profiling information somewhere?

Yes, I had a look at the CPU specific files for the dynamic compiling core - someone with a knowledge of CPUs needs to know the differences between ARM and x86 to make this happen.

I reckon Exophase could probably whip it together very quickly but he's busy with Temper.

It would be a great learning exercise anyway.

So did I and I have come to same conclusion. Looks like if someone knew ARM and x86 asm it would be an fairly simple task and probally not that time consuming either.

 

[slaanesh]

Okay so I tried Battle of Britain. I had it installed on PC so just copied that across and didn't need to stuff around with copying files into particular positions. I found my original box and used the manual as a reference for the controls.
I setup the buttons on my PSP - here is where the PSP has a nice advantage - two controllers!
The analog nub is perfect for the flight controls and the digital controller I set as the views - forward, left, right and down. I used the shoulder buttons for throttle, select and start for landing gear and flaps (not sure if I'll actually need these), X = guns, [] = cannon (I always play the Germans), A = auto pilot and O = map.
Okay so I set the PSP to it's normal 222Mhz speed with frameskip=1 and started it up. D'oh! I didn't set a key to select video mode but luckily you can start with this as a parameter and thus saving a precious key. So I start with "bob.exe v"

It started up all nice, that familiar splash screen with the Heinkel 111 bomber.


I select my beloved ME-109E and chose the first mission which was escort duty.


Straight into combat, away we go shooting down the britscher schwein-hund! After a few minutes of flying I bagged my first Hurricane. Hooray!
Speed was really good, smooth and utterly playable! I'd say full speed with sound though the sound is just the buzz of the engine, gunshots and explosions.
Awesomely playable and a great candidate for handheld DOSBOX I think. There are just enough keys on the handheld to bind to the original controls to make it fun.

One thing I haven't found how to do is mapping ALT-Key or CTRL-Key to a single command.
Or even how to map multiple commands to the same key.
Does the GP2X version allow you to do these things?

 

[gruso]

Thanks for the report slaanesh. I'd forgotten about the command line parameter to set video mode, that'll be mighty handy.

Anyway, today is a joyous day. Thanks to Pickle's new dosbox release I've got BoB running happily on the GP2X!! I used all the suggested config settings straight out of the readme, with the exception of video which I set to Tandy (I'll be trying the other modes as well though).

I've got a bit to learn about multiple key mapping, once I'm happy with the configuration I'll upload the files for all.