Getting GOG cd games to run on Retropie

[mitu]

@cyperghost Games requiring the CD is exactly the use case for the Dosbox imgmount program. There's no need to have additional TSR loaded in DOS since this is handled natively by emulation (Dosbox). In this case, I'm not sure if FakeCD would have worked, since the CD image is a music CD, not a data CD, so you can't copy its contents to a folder.

[cyperghost]

@mitu

music??

Well of course not.

The FakeCD programs were used to "share" CDs (to be political correct). One CD was sized to 650MB and more and full stuffed with video and audio of course. So the trick was to "reduce" size to 20MB or less. I know to that time (1994 or 93??) I was proud owner of a 1GB harddrive. WOW.... No I never have to delete ANY game anymore was my first thought ;)
But you know what happend. Fantastic soundtracks! Full grown videos!
Awfull! Most of the data was just waste of space and a kind of copy protection because CD burners were intended to be used for the mass market 5 years later.

Of course if imgmount is an option... Why not using it ;) I never get used to DOSBOX emulation. I remeber it as painfully slow.

[Squiike]

I only know how to access retropie from network. So the path i get is "\RETROPIE\roms\pc\HoMM" I used no program to copy HoMM to the PC folder.
When i start dosbox in retropie it has already mounted the PC folder as c:> Is that why the following did not work?;

I tried to type "imgmount d c:/home/pi/retropie/roms/pc/homm/homm2.inst -t cdrom"
and "imgmount d /home/pi/retropie/roms/pc/homm/homm2.inst -t cdrom"

I did try your .conf creating tutorial. Do i need both a homm2 folder in pc AND a copy in the pc-data folder? I had only in the pc-data.
I created a new folder called "pc-data" and followed all the steps. When i launched the heroes2.conf file something happens and it goes back to retropie. I am not sure how to create a .conf file so i opened a daggerfall conf file with notepad and inserted the text you listed. I tried to create both a heroes2 file that registered as .conf and a heroes2.conf (where i added .conf behind the filename), none worked.

Maybe i have an outdated version of something? my retropie dos folder for games is called just "pc" Also, im not using any programs. I only copied and pasted through windows network(is that "file share"?).

[mitu]

@squiike Yes, \\retropie\roms means file shares.
Download Notepad++ and use it to edit the file, instead of the Windows built int Notepad. When editing the .conf file, make sure you use Unix line endings (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8195839/choose-newline-character-in-notepad). The name of the file it's not so important, but it needs to have the .conf extension and the proper content.
You only need the homm2 folder in the \\retropie\romc\pc-data, make sure the name is lowercase - Linux filenames are case-sensitive.

[Squiike]

On format i have UTF-8
Settings -> Preferences -> New Document - there i changed it to unix.
When save as, there was alot of choices, on my 1st try i chose unix script file.

2nd try; took a daggerfall config file Edit-eol conversion - unix

Should i make a new .conf file in notepad++ or do i have to edit an existing one, if so, how do i save?

I think i remember reading somewhere about issues running .conf and .inst files with an un-updated version of dosbox or retropie?
I could try to make a youtube video to show what i am doing(wrong)?

[mitu]

@squiike You can create the file as a new one - create an empty .txt file in Explorer and then rename it, then paste the exact text I posted. Make sure the directories are correct - remember Linux is case-sensitive on file and folder names.
Can you show a screenshot with the \\retropie\roms\pc-data\homm2 folder ?

There is a log file you could check for errors, but you'll need SSH access to the RetroPie system see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Transferring-Roms/#sftp) ; each run has its log stored in /dev/shm/runcommand.log so any errors reported by Dosbox should be in that file.

[Squiike]

Sure :)
One picture has the destination as first shown. The other show a highlighted/clicked version. I'll try to read myself up on that SSH access.

[Squiike]

@mitu I have installed WinSCP and found the folder /dev/shm but its empty

Dont know if its important to this case, but when im in terminal i get error messages; lvl0: Error parsing XML file

[Squiike]

Wait...maybe i could just run it off Raspbian!?!

[mitu]

@squiike No. The video you posted is about a different thing - Windows emulation. AFAIK HOMM3 is Windows only, there is no DOS version. HOMM2 works with Dosbox - the GOG version comes with Dosbox to run the game, the same Dosbox you have in RetroPie. Ignore the video.
I have nothing else to add to my original instructions - /dev/shm/runcommand.log only exists after you run a game, it's empty by default. So if you want to see the log, then first run the game and then try to get the log file.

[Squiike]

@mitu Got it. I cant upload text files, sorry about the mess. I'll edit it better once i know how.

Parameters:
Executing: bash /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Start\ DOSBox.sh "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/DosBoxDaggerfall.conf"
DOSBox version SVN
Copyright 2002-2013 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.

CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/pi/.dosbox/dosbox-SVN.conf
ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0) nor (17:0)
MIDI:Opened device:none
One joystick reported, initializing with 4axis
Using joystick PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller with 29 axes, 17 buttons and 0 hat(s)

1 pc
2 dosbox
3 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/DosBoxDaggerfall.conf
4 bash /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Start\ DOSBox.sh "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/DosBoxDaggerfall.conf"

[mitu]

@squiike What does the DosBoxDaggerfall.conf file contain ? Can you paste the file's contents, surrounded by code blocks delimiters (```).

[Squiike]

@mitu Not sure how. I copied all and pasted. starting 1 on [sdl] and 66 on exit

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=overlay
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true

[dosbox]
language=
machine=svga_s3
captures=capture
memsize=16

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

[cpu]
core=auto
cycles=max
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

[midi]
mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=5
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=22050

[dos]
xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=none

[autoexec]

Lines in this section will be run at startup.

@ECHO OFF
mount C "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc-data/homm2"
imgmount d "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc-data/homm2/homm2.inst" -t iso -fs iso
c:
cls
heroes2.exe
exit

[mitu]

@squiike I see. I'm sorry, but I don't know why this doesn't work for you. However, the important line for the CD to work is

imgmount d "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc-data/homm2/homm2.inst" -t iso -fs iso

This will make the tracks in the music folder appear as a music CD in Dosbox.

[Squiike]

@mitu I tried to download another version. This time a free(not GOG). Same issues. I can run it from shortcut. But as this is free and half the size(about 200 mb) maybe others could try and post if they are successful :)

[removed link]

[Squiike]

@mitu Even though it didnt work, thank you for being patient and trying to help a noob out :) +1

[Squiike]

@mitu I actually managed to get Daggerfall to work. I have one guestion on Heroes2.

When i type; imgmount d /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/heroes2/homm2.inst -t cdrom

Heroes2 in pc folder is a new one i made now(not the one from last session) and the capital letters or lower cases are correct. I get "MSCDEX: Failure: Invalid file or unable to open. "
When i go into the folder in dosbox the homm2.inst is named HOMM2~1
Do i need to type that instead? so ....homm2~1.inst -t cdrom ?

Also, i do not know if i am able to make the ~sign on my keyboard in dosbox or console.

[mitu]

@squiike said in Getting GOG cd games to run on Retropie:

Do i need to type that instead? so ....homm2~1.inst -t cdrom ?

I don't think that's it, but you could just rename the file to homm2.cue and re-try with this name. But the command that worked was not as the one you tried, it was

imgmount d "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc-data/homm2/homm2.inst" -t iso -fs iso

[Squiike]

I managed to get another version of homm2 to work. So now i got both Daggerfall and Homm2. Homm2 lags abit but is playable. Anyone, feel free to PM me if you have the same issues i had :)

[mitu]

@squiike It would be nice to explain the setup here in the forums, just in case someone else wants to replicate it. PMs are not enabled in the forum.