Ignition - Dosbox [Working!]

mattrixk

@Spiky Are you able to control the game with a controller, or does it have to be a keyboard? Also, does it show up under the Ports menu, or PC/MSDOS/DosBox?

edmaul69

@mattrixk in any dosbox game, if you cant use a controller just use the dosbox keymap to assign the keys to a controller.

mattrixk

@edmaul69 Cool, that's something I'm going to have to look into. I haven't bothered messing with DosBox stuff because it just seemed quite complicated (especially compared to NES or something where you just put the roms in the correct folder and off you go).

edmaul69

@mattrixk once you decide to do it let me know. I can help show you several methods to set things up with .sh files. Even if you have want to use real floppies and cd's. Once you know how to set things up its not too difficult. I do a lot of copy and paste once i figured out everything. Dosbox runs pretty good as a whole. Quake is choppier than the port but the dooms run great. (I have both ports and dos versions. Of course ports are better with all the options they have, but im ocd so i have both of any port that has a dos version) even running windows 3.1 then running windows 3.1 games i didnt have a single game (out of 40+ games) with lag at all. And out of 70 dos games quake was a little slower but it actually might be normal with the setup it sees and Retro city rampage is slow at 60fps but runs great at 30fps. But other than that it was great.

mattrixk

Thanks for the offer @edmaul69. I'm not sure when I'll have the time to take you up on the offer. I have a few plans coming up. I want to install a fan and a power button first, then wire-up a hard drive and put it all into a case for easy portability. I know nothing about electronics and wiring, so it's going to be a lot of trial and error hopefully without too much property damage).

I also want to make a list of the Dos games and Ports I wouldn't mind getting working (Ignition and Streets of Rage at the top of the list, but there are probably plenty of others), but they all need to be able to use a controller rather than mouse and keyboard.

LS650

@Spiky said in [Dosbox] Ignition:

Create *.iso from game files

I'm not sure I understand this... can you exactly what you mean by 'create an ISO from the game files'..?

edmaul69

@LS650 you use a program likeMagicISO to make it. Its like a zip file. It is a single file that has several files in it. Iso files are an image of a disc.

edmaul69

@Spiky curious question why is your imgmount set to -t iso and not -t cdrom? There is no such setting as -t iso according to the dosbox manual. Im not sure if that has any effect on your issue you were having or not.

-t type
Type of the mounted directory. Supported are: dir (default), floppy, cdrom.

Spiky

@edmaul69 according to dosbox wiki (https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/IMGMOUNT) I see nothing wrong with my script, but I am not saying you can't be right too.

@mattrixk make sure you have plugged in both keyboard + mouse and joystick, then run DOSBox, press CTRL+F1 - that will start key mapping application. Use your mouse to press button on screen you wish to map, then press Add on screen and finally press button on your joystick to map it. It may sound confusing, but it's really easy and you have to do it only once. Check this if you have any problems: https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Mapper. Also little advice: most important keys besides arrow keys are SPACE, CTRL, SHIFT, ESC, ENTER and also don't forget about Y and N, as lot of games use those.

edmaul69

@Spiky according to the wiki you are correct.

edmaul69

@Spiky i can confirm making an iso indeed fixes the problem.

Spiky

@edmaul69 that is interesting, I though the problem was that exit command wouldn't work until I define name parameter. at least that's what I would expect after reading wiki https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Usage:

"-exit
DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application name ends. "

mattrixk

That's awesome info @Spiky, thanks for that. Do you have to map each game individually, or only do it once and it's the same for each game?

dudleydes

@mattrixk It depends. Some games are relatively straightforward. For example, arcade style games with movement and 1 or 2 buttons can use the same mapping. This may be insufficient for other, more complex, games and may need individual mapping, especially when considering the number of keys available to DOS.

There are many ways to do configure DOSBox but this is how I approached it:
How to configure USB game controllers in DOSBox
How to create a default (arcade) mapping for game controllers in DOSBox
How to configure DOSBox for individual games.

If you intend to use the DOSBox mapper, then I suggest you do it on the PC version and then copy the mapper files to your Pi. When I launch DOSBox from ES and press CTRL+F1 to launch the mapper, this is what I get:

Unable to see the mouse cursor, I find it impossible to exit DOSBox without a reboot.

mattrixk

Hmm, interesting. Thank you also @dudleydes for the info. Looks like I have some reading to do.

denisuu

Thanks Spiky it's working! I updated the first post with your instructions.

As soon as I turn the resolution or screen size up it's unplayable though, I guess I'll try overclocking.

Spiky

@denisuu good to hear that, I am happy I could help. I am also gonna overclock today, I will post results once I am done :)

denisuu

@Spiky

I updated the first post again, I used IMG burn to make the ISO easy as pi :p

I overlocked using these settings for the PI3: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Overclocking

arm_freq=1300
gpu_freq=500
core_freq=500
sdram_freq=500
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage=2
sdram_over_voltage=2

Now I can run the screensize on medium without any hickups. still can't higher the resolution though.

Spiky

@denisuu So I overclocked it to the same values, but honestly, I see almost no difference

edmaul69

@Spiky since i moved and my stuff hasnt arrived yet, can you try the -t cdrom with -c "exit"? The manual says with imgmount use cdrom with -t for iso. It says when you use -fs to use iso. So for whatever reason the manual and the wiki contradict each other.