Fallout

NastyButtler322

A lot of people have been trying to figure out how to run Fallout 1 in DOSbox. I know this because I was one of them, and saw that it was a common topic in a lot of other forums on the internet.

I spent all of yesterday to make this game work in DOSbox, so that I could play it on the raspberry pi, which allows for portability if I want, and I wouldn't have to do a bunch of crazy stuff with Android, like paying for DOSbox turbo. A lot of people think it can't be done on the Raspberry Pi. One guy said the game needs 2G of ram, even though pretty much nobody had that when the game released.

I've been playing Fallout 1 on Retropie on the Raspberry Pi for the last 4 hours. The audio is fine. The intro runs smooth. It runs just like it should. I messed my desktop computers operating system up doing it, but it was worth it.

If you want to run Fallout 1 on the raspberry pi, there are a few ways to do it. Most of the ways suck. But two of the ways do not suck. Before doing this, I highly recommend getting a copy of Knoppix to boot your PC from USB, because there are a few files needed to be downloaded (unless you posses the original copy of Fallout on disks or CD), and the sites or the compressed files caused my operating system to slow down to the speed of a turtle. Its the same risk taken when going to ROM sites and downloading games.

If listing the sites I downloaded the files from is ok, then I will edit this to include them. If not, then just google search for the files like I did. I found the files from posts in a couple of different forums that users posted links to download them. The files needed depend on which of the two ways you do this. There are other ways that are good I'm sure, I have no experience with DOSbox until yesterday. You may need to install DOSbox on your retropie system, if it is not installed already.

Make sure you have a keyboard and mouse connected to the raspberry pi when you start it once you get to that part of the process.

Way 1: The original copy of the game. This is the easiest way, no files are needed to be downloaded if you have this already, although the DOS v1.1 patch is recommended. If you need to download it, I recommend owning the game so I don't sound like I'm recommending stealing. I believe this is the set of files I downloaded that slowed my PC down. They were posted in a forum, one of the commentors a couple of years ago said that the link is broken, but they downloaded for me just fine. The link goes to a site that wants you to be a paying member for faster downloads. I just let it download for 40 minutes. It is a rar package with more rar and zip packages. These would not extract on my Linux distro after the first one extracted because of a password that is needed to extract the files. The password is excgamer. It is types like a website is with .com after what I said the password is. I had to use windows to extract these within a USB drive, but that is the only time I used windows.

In Knoppix Linux, I right clicked the ISO file and used ARK, or one of the other extractors to extract the contents to a folder that I labeled "D".
I then made another folder named "E".
I then copied both folders and pasted them into /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc
I also backed these extracted files up to a spare USB, so that I wouldn't have to go through having to find them, extract them, and messing my thumbdrive Knoppix distribution up again.
I also made a copy of my retropie card to another USB just in case, by using:
sudo dd if=dev/sdX of=dev/sdY bs=4M
sdX is the card you want to copy, sdY is the card that will be a copy. Change sdX and sdY to what ever your system labels the two cards as, and do not get the two mixed up or you will copy the blank card to the one you want to back up, and end up erasing it.
Luckily, I didn't need the back up. But you may want to, unless you have nothing on the card that would be a pain to put back on. Or if you just don't feel like it. Its up to you.
Next, I went into /opt/retropie/configs/pc
Once inside that path, open the file labeled dosbox-SVN.conf
Find the line that says memsize=xx (xx will be an actual number and does not actually say xx)
Change whatever number that is in place of what I typed xx to 32, so that it should now say memsize=32
Save the file and exit.
Shutdown your system, or unmount the microSD. My system showed the drive would unmount after getting the files and clicking the unmount button, but once I pulled the drive out a prompt displayed to let me know that it could not find the drive, like it was being used. I run retropie from USB, so I have yet to have an issue of just popping the USB out without unmounting, but I try not to anyway.
Start your Raspberry Pi up with Retro Pie. Go to the MSDOS,or IBM section, depending on your retropie theme, and start DOSbox from within there.
Because I am inexperienced with DOSbox, I did not know how to change the size of drive "C". So instead I mounted that folder labeled E.
type this in:

Z:

Push enter

Then type:

mount e /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/E -freesize 1000

If that didn't work, delete the " /" in front of "home", without the quotation marks. I can't remember if that was there or not. Also, the "/" right after E may have been there, but I think I typed it correctly up there.

Now if you are in E: , get out by typing Z: and pushing enter.

Now type mount d /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/D -t cdrom -label Fallout
If that did not work, then try the two things I said about the "/" when mounting e for this.

Now type:

dir

If all you seen is one item, its a directory. Type cd "directory name", without the quotation marks or the comma I typed to explain that.

If you see a lot of files, or once you are in the folder and you see a lot of files, then type:

INSTALL

select the largest installation option, it should only allow you to install the game to drive e.

Once it comes up to the sound configuration, select automatic, and yes to everything that comes up.

Once finished, you should only see a command prompt.

Type E:

Push enter

19.Type dir

Push enter

Type cd "directory name", with the directory name listed from dir like we did earlier

Type dir

Push enter

Type cd "directory name"

Type FALLOUT

Push enter

Enjoy

If you want the patches, then download the DOS v1.1 fallout patch, and replace the two directories in the DATA directory within the installed game in folder E with the two patched directories and files. Also, replace FALLOUT.EXE in the main game directory that already has it.

If you want to skip mounting everything every time you play, do this.

Put the retropie card back into your PC. Go to /opt/retropie/configs/pc within your retropie card. In the dosbox-SVN.conf file, scroll down to near the bottom to the part that says:

[autoexec]

Lines in this section will be run at startup.

Type this under what I just showed you, and under anything written there as a command to mount c

mount e /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/E -freesize 1000
mount d /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/D -t cdrom -label Fallout
E:
/INTERPLAY/FALLOUT
FALLOUT

You will have to put # symbols in front of these lines if you want to play other dosgames than fallout. ALSO, edit /INTERPLAY/FALLOUT to match the path to the file exactly if I mistyped something.

Save the file and exit

Unmounting the card

Pop it in and test it.

Way 2: This MAY not work. I got the game to start from doing part of this way, but I needed to do a few things that I listed above to know if it works or not, which I did not know until I figured out how to install the original copy of the game. It started, then stopped. If you got the game from steam, then locate the directory containing only the Fallout game files and copy it to a folder labeled E.

Get the fallout DOS v1.1 patch and replace the appropriate things that I listed right above this step.
Find the files HMIDRV.386 and HMIDET.386 and dos4gw.exe from google somewhere
Put those into the main folder of the game.

You MAY need to edit the Fallout.CFG file in your fallout folder. Change the value of "art_cache_size" to 5

That was recommended in a forum, but my art cache size is 11 and works fine. If it doesn't work, come back and try this.

Copy the E directory to /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc
Then go to:

/opt/retropie/configs/pc

Open dosbox-SVN.conf
Edit the line that says memsize=some number ( there will be an actual number)
Change it to say memsize=32

There should be no spaces within memsize=32

Unmount your retropie card and insert it into the Raspberry Pi
Start retropie

Get into DOSbox

Start DOSbox

Type:

Z:

Push enter

Type:

mount e /home/home/RetroPie/roms/pc/E -freesize 1000

If you are not in drive e, type E: and push enter.
If you are in drive e, then type dir and push enter.

If you only see one item listed, its a directory. Type cd "directory name" without quotes , and the name of the directory inplace of "directory name" if this is the case.

Once in the folder with the game files, type FALLOUT

Then push enter.

If something didn't work right for this other way, that is because it needs to be played around with more. Try the art cache edit I suggested. Maybe increase the memsize. You can also speed the frame rates up.

I am running retropie from USB on the raspberry pi 3. Either one of those factors may have to do with it running well for me too, since USB is 6x faster than microSD class 10.

Have fun!

obsidianspider

@NastyButtler322 said in Fallout:

Most of the ways suck. But two of the ways do not suck.

Most accurate Raspberry Pi advice I've ever read.

mediamogul

@NastyButtler322

If listing the sites I downloaded the files from is ok, then I will edit this to include them.

If these files are copyrighted works, or the sites themselves contain any copyrighted works, then it would certainly go against the rules. Other than that; nice guide. I might try this sometime soon.

NastyButtler322

@mediamogul the game iso is. Although the iso is a link to download on a forum posting, and not actually on that page. I'm not sure about the patch, and the three other files to make a purchased steam copy of the game run though. And thanks! I tried to remove any frustration for anyone interested in playing it on the pi.

mediamogul

@NastyButtler322

the game iso is. Although the iso is a link to download on a forum posting, and not actually on that page. I'm not sure about the patch, and the three other files to make a purchased steam copy of the game run though.

Even through six degrees of separation, links leading to illegal downloads should never be posted here. RetroPie can't afford any association with pirated material whatsoever if it is to survive.

ExarKunIv

nice guide.

i followed parts to get mine to work.

I do need to get me a USB stick so it will run better, but the fact i got it working is a very good start.
:)

Masquerade19

i had an issue...used the second way but when it goes to launch it says i need the cdrom of the game...any help?

Masquerade19

@masquerade19 actually i've already solved this problem on my own.... i forgot to put in the fallout folder the master.dat and the critter.dad