Getting Xcom Dos Version To Work

[j'ordos]

Those of you who use windows and can't get the CE to work, or want the good old sounds back, here's your last resort .

 

first off, if you haven't got it yet, get the old DOS version

here are a few links you can try:

• http://gog-games.yw.sk/game.php?id=396
  

then you need to get dosbox. Detailed information on how to install&use it can be found here

actually, I believe that great thread explains everything you need to know, makes my job easier.

 

one last thing maybe, it's possible the game asks you for 'codes' in the DOS version. If you don't have the manual you can either :

look up the codes here : http://www.xcomufo.com/codes.html

or get the 1.4 patch which removes the copy protection.

 

Enjoy!

Edited January 18, 2007 by j'ordos

[j'ordos]

Here's another helpful post by 'anonymous coward' :

 

when you start dosbox, you have to 'mount' the the directory that X-COM is in. Then type in the name and start the program.

Example:

 

Z:\> mount c c:\xcom

 

Z:\> c:

 

C:\> xcom

 

Here are some basic commands to help you tweak your DosBox window.

 

CTRL+F7 - Lower Frameskip (smoother animation)

CTRL+F8 - Raise Frameskip (can get higher speeds, jerky animation)

CTRL+F9 - Close Dosbox

CTRL+F11 - Slow Dosbox down (If your computer can't take it

CTRL+F12 - Speed Dosbox up (Don't go faster than your CPU can handle!!)

 

My P4 1.5Ghz can get a speed of 4500, just enough to run the game. An AMD 2.8Ghz can easily get a speed of 11000, more than enough to run X-COM and TFTD.

 

Once you find the settings that you like, you can edit the configuration file to keep the settings when you start up DosBox. The file is called " dosbox.conf " and you'll have to open it with wordpad.

The important things you'll want to change are:

 

fullscreen=true (play with X-COM taking the full screen. It explains itself)

cycles=4500 (change this number to what works best for you)

frameskip=3 (if you needed to skip frames to get a faster speed, set this also)

 

To have Dosbox start up playing X-COM, put this at the end of "dosbox.conf". Change "C:\ufo" if your game is in a different directory!"

 

[autoexec] (

mount c c:\ufo

c:

ufo

Edited March 28, 2004 by j'ordos

[Robo Dojo 58]

I've noticed many people are having trouble getting sound for X-COM on Dosbox to work. So I have written a little guide to help you out.

First off, go to your dosbox directory. Open "Dosbox.conf" you should find this quote in there:

[midi]

# mpu401 -- Enable MPU-401 Emulation.

# device -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.

#        This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.

# config -- Special configuration options for the device.

 

mpu401=true

device=default

config=

 

[sblaster]

# sblaster -- Enable the soundblaster emulation.

# base,irq,dma -- The IO/IRQ/DMA address of the soundblaster.

# sbrate -- Sample rate of soundblaster emulation.

# adlib -- Enable the adlib emulation.

# adlibrate -- Sample rate of adlib emulation.

# cms -- Enable the Creative Music System/Gameblaster emulation.

#        Enabling both the adlib and cms might give conflicts!

# cmsrate -- Sample rate of cms emulation.

 

sblaster=true

base=220

irq=7

dma=1

sbrate=22050

adlib=true

adlibrate=22050

cms=false

cmsrate=22050

If you don't have those settings, change them to that.

Now, open dosbox.

Go to your X-COM directory, and type setup.exe , and press enter.

You should see a screen that looks like the attached image. Use the arrow keys, and choose "Soundblaster pro" Keep hitting enter until it asks to swap the stereo channels. Say no. When it asks you to "Choose Music Board", select "General Midi" and press enter twice. You should be done! X-Com sound should work perfectly now.

Edited December 12, 2003 by Robo Dojo 58

[Robo Dojo 58]

When you get DosBox working, you'll notice that many things run very slow. For example, you won't be able to pass days in the Geoscape with "5sec" anymore. That's not too bad, you can just use the "1hour" and "1day" buttons.

But when you play the battlescape, everything grinds to a halt. X-Com agents crawl around the screen, and bullets can take half a minute to shoot. There is an easy solution to that. Just go to the options menu. It looks like a big question mark. Change the speed settings to max. I attached a pic to help you out.

 

If you push DosBox too hard, the game will sometimes freeze. Slow down DosBox until it unfreezes again.

 

DosBox V .61 is much more efficient than V .60. You'll be able to run it about 70% faster than V.60, so get it!

Edited March 28, 2004 by Robo Dojo 58

[Shadow]

Hello there!

 

I know this is the 5.623rd question about getting X-Com 1 run properly, but I still have some problems...

 

First of all, I use the good old DOS-Version because I really dislike the sounds of the CE´s version. I don´t care about the movement speed of the units (they seem to be normal on 3 or 4 just like on my 386 in 1994) even the shots flying around with superhyperlightspeed on 1 don´t care. The only problem I have is the mouse or cursor lagging and sticking on the screen borders in battlescape for some time. And the scrolling speed (even set to 1) is way TOO fast to play properly.

 

I tried nearly all available cpu- or speedbrakes like Moslo, Turbo, Bremze, DosBox etc. but none of ´em make the game run *really* good. MoSlo makes the mouse lag more than without, Turbo is the same, Bremze is no good and even DosBox causes problems. DosBox would do really well, the game speed is slowed, the mouse don´t lag, scrolling is just fine, but there are still problems with the sound. And yes, I read the postings in all the threads and read all FAQs about DosBox, but still the sound is off. Oh, most of all, the music! The music works! With cycles about 1100 to 2500. At this speed the game is too slow. Setting the cycles higher for the game run smooth (about 11000 to 16500) the music does hang and stutter...

 

Isn´t there a way to replace the soundfiles of the CE with those of the old DOS version? Or can I modify them manually?

 

Thanx for your patience!

 

Hoh, I forgot: The same problems occur with X-Com TFTD. Is there a CE version? I got my Ufo Defense CE from a pawnshop.

[j'ordos]

There is no way to replace the sounds of the CE with the sounds from the DOS version. You'll have to stick to the CE, or get used to playing without sounds&music :whatwhat:

 

There is a CE version for TFTD and it does not fiddle with sounds, so I suggest you get it

[ShadowHawk00]

I have a problem i have the games tftd and ufo-eu on CD so i have no way of playing the game with dosbox. Does anyone have clues about how to do it?? Dosbox does not know my CD-rom drive btw and i have tried to copy all the data to the directory and edit the batchfiles to use that dir but none have worked so far

[Shadow]

@j'ordos: Aha. Thanx for the fast response, i´ll have a look around for TFTD CE!

 

@ShadowHawk00

 

I have the UFO:EU CD too and it works fine without CD...

I copied all files from CD to HD, removed the read-only protection (don´t know the right word for), executed setup.bat for sound and started ufocd.bat.

No problem. Maybe you have to change the ufoc.d file? The only entry is UFOCD .

Or just execute the geoscape.exe in the directory called UFOEXE!

 

I didn´t install the game by installer and didn´t use cdsetup.bat.

 

Perhaps this can solve your problems.

[Whitewashed]

I use 10000 cycles in DOSbox when playing TFTD, I get sound, music that doesn't lag and it's smooth enough to be playable.

 

You can also mount the CD-rom in DOSBox in case you have the game on CD.

 

I: is my CDROM so I start dosbox with the parameter -c "MOUNT I I:\ -t cdrom" this way DOSBox recognizes it as a CD-rom and not just another HD.

[Guest The Dude]

I tried a lot of the stuff mentioned in here, and I came to this:

 

Dosbox 0.60 -> dos version works with music, but no sounds

Dosbox 0.60 -> version '14', exits, 'unhandled cpu opcode'

 

VDMSound -> version '14' with crappy sound&music. Exits to winXP when pointing a base location

VDMSound -> dos version works with music&sound, but way too fast.

 

I'll try to run VDMSound and Moslow at the same time, that would solve it.

[j'ordos]

1.4, do you mean the CE by that, or just the patched DOS version?

[Guest Guest]

I think it was the just the patched one, but the setup was completely different. Now I can't get dos version to work with dosbox anymore, but I have the CE with bugfix too, and it works fine. I wanted to get the dos version to work as well, I bought it in '94? or something.

 

I'm downloading Aftermath now. Is that any good?

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Aftermath: It depends on your tastes. If you can get by the dummed down strategic portion, and annoying soldiers, it is actually a really good game. Plus, I loved its story. It isn't the same old "Aliens are 100% evil and they want to enslave us." story.

 

I want to get dos to work too, but that seems to be one of the only Xcom games I can't get to work on XP. I miss those sounds...

[Guest Coldstone]

One thing I found out when trying to run XCom in DOSBox is that the default Soundcard Settings in DOSBox (DMA1 and IRQ7) would cause XCom to freeze immediately upon start. Changing DOSBox to run at DMA3 and IRQ10 (read the README with DOSBox or just look over the conf file), then setting XCom to run at that fixed the problem. Full sound and music on my end.

[Puasonen]

One thing I found out when trying to run XCom in DOSBox is that the default Soundcard Settings in DOSBox (DMA1 and IRQ7) would cause XCom to freeze immediately upon start.  Changing DOSBox to run at DMA3 and IRQ10 (read the README with DOSBox or  just look over the conf file), then setting XCom to run at that fixed the problem.  Full sound and music on my end.

Interesting, what version of dosbox do you have?

[Robo Dojo 58]

I am also interested in the DosBox version that you have.

DMA-1 and IRQ-7 works fine on my computer. It seems that the DosBox sound FAQ may have to change.

[Whitewashed]

Strange, Dosvox freezes when I try to run the game but I haven't tried changing the sound settings. I use my old 486 to play it anyway, works better.

[Guest Coldstone]

Using DosBox 6.0, but it also did it in the earlier version (5.8 I think it was).

[Whitewashed]

You're meaning version 0.60 and the previous one was 0.58

[Puasonen]

Is the dos version officially freeware?

[j'ordos]

it'll probably never become freeware . But no, it' not abandonware yet I believe.

[XcomVic]

whooohoo!! it works!! cool stuff...

[Guest WadeDeadpool]

I keep getting an exit error cpu opcode problem. Any ideas?

[Guest WadeDeadpool]

Ok, I have a different problem now. The stupid thing just won't load. I get it to the part where I just hit enter and it should load up with the microprose logo, but it's black and won't load. Ideas?

[Jesus Escariut]

Okay guys I got sick and tired of playing with thoose HORRIBLE sound effects..... soooooooo i got the dos version and DOSBox 0.61 ... game ran great from the get go (powered it up to 8000) however i went to save and got a whole list of errors. I am guessing this was caused by the fact that DOSBox is unable to make new files? just a guess.

 

Any way... I was curious if anyone has had this problem in the past and what they did to resolve it... I am to tired to trouble shoot it myself *glances at time* .. yea I should be in bed.

[Jesus Escariut]

Okay I solved that nasty lil problem.

 

Turns out the french file that I got to "back up" my original copy never made the save folders "GAME_#" where # is 1-10 after adding GAME_1 i was able to succesfully save under save slot 1.

 

Hope this helps anyone that has this problem in the future.

[j'ordos]

Thanks J.E., I added a note to the link I tested and didn't have GAME_1 - 10, assuming that was the one you got it from

[Robo Dojo 58]

J'ordos: The anonymous coward post has something wrong. To use dosbox commands, you have to hold down Ctrl.

[j'ordos]

J'ordos: The anonymous coward post has something wrong. To use dosbox commands, you have to hold down Ctrl.

You're right, I never noticed that. It's fixed now, thanks

[giant1515]

quick question here. I've got the old dos version of the game running well enough now, but i'm still not getting sound. I've tried all of the options that I see here, but nothing seems to work. I don't even have the same options that I see on the sound part of this post above. It prompts for soundfx as soundblaster, then nothing comes up, it goes to music and prompts then for port and dma. that's it. This is a pretty old game version though. that might have something to do with it. any other ideas?

[Black Dash]

Have you tried dosbox?

[giant1515]

Yeah, I've got music now, but no sound effects, gunfire, dying aliens etc. The first time i installed dosbox it didn't plug in right for some reason, but once i reinstalled it I got music on the first try. now, for the missing sound fx....

 

Any ideas

[SupSuper]

you probably need to run the SETUP file to set the sound card settings (soundblaster, port, irq, dma) to the same one's on dosbox's config (default are port=220, irq=7, dma=1).

[giant1515]

That was it... i guess i accidentally set it wrong the first time.

 

Thx.

[Guest Praetorian]

I have Dosbox 6.1, the dos version of the game (still have the original 3 floppies), and the sound and music work fine. However, it runs slow (I didn't bump up the cycles yet, for fear of burning out my chip). This isn't necessarily a problem. The game's good enough to warrant the wait.

 

What IS a problem is that whenever I go to land at the first UFO crash site, Dosbox crashes completely.

 

Any ideas?

 

Praetorian

[j'ordos]

try downloading xcom instead, maybe the version got corrupted over the years. Or, if you're using a savegame, restart, as it might be the savegame that is corrupted.

[Guest Guest]

I have Dosbox 6.1, the dos version of the game (still have the original 3 floppies), and the sound and music work fine.  However, it runs slow (I didn't bump up the cycles yet, for fear of burning out my chip).  This isn't necessarily a problem.  The game's good enough to warrant the wait.

 

What IS a problem is that whenever I go to land at the first UFO crash site, Dosbox crashes completely.

 

Any ideas?

 

Praetorian

You can ramp your dosbox cycles as much as you want without damaging your CPU - DOSBox doesnt change your actual CPU's speed, it just simulates different speeds for its own software emulated CPU. Play around with cycles and frameskip and you should get things running faster with no problems.

 

As for the crash bug - weird. Thats usually from running xcom native on win2k/xp - you shouldnt get it under dosbox.

[[Blehm 98]]

soemone at xtc managed to get the origional cd version to work without using any dosbox or anything:

(posted by Dragonhawk)

Pvt Emil Thorsell wrote me with a possible solution to the biggest problem facing the X-Com oldtimers today... UFO in XP! Here's what he said:

 

*****

 

Hi! I was reading your FAQ on all the UFO games and i got the answer to the problem with UFO: Defence or Enemy unknown not working on XP. I myself got XP and desperately searched for a way to play X-COM enemy unknown. And i found a way! First you right click on the exe file to UFO and then select "Select compability mode for" bla bla bla thingy and then i selected win 95. the other thing u must do is right click on the desktop and select properties then (sorry for my bad english, i come from sweden so its kinda hard) press settings and then advanced and then (i dont really know how to translate it from swedish to english) Wrong search or something adn then drag the tab there all the way down. and then i could play UFO. it worked ok except the interceptor screen... it ´goes alot faster there. check it out and u will see what i mean. goddbye and i hope this will help (if u understand my poor english =))

 

*****

 

Try this out, eh?  Let me know if it works.

 

And your English is fine. Thanks for your contribution Emil!

[[[Micah]]]

That works for very, very few people...

[[Blehm 98]]

oh, it does? Sorry! Edited June 25, 2004 by blehm

[Guest dethvildr]

ok i got a new one for u guys

u all seems to be nice persons so maybe u can help me

 

I got x-com enemy unknown on a cd its version1,4 and i also downloaded a version or 2 from the net

 

i disabled my direct-x accelerator as sugested everywhere and i got as far as getting the game to start and all sounds/looks nice....theres just this little detail :I GET 2 identical pictures

i have tryied all that i can think of but nothing helps

i havent seen any other place(and i searched alot !! ) WHERE PPL HAD THAT PROBLEM so im kinda lost now

 

btw i have an amd1800 running win98 and a ultra 5600 256 mb graphic

 

i downloaded aftermath demo and i was VERY disapointed so i wanted to give my loved x-com enemy unknown a new chance to work but it failed

 

if i cant get it to work in anyway im thinking of finding an old pc or even an amiga so i can play it again

 

damn why did they have to ruin the turnbased way of playing it,in aftermath ??

it doesnt give me the feeling i loved in the old 1

 

if any1 can help me plz ???

[j'ordos]

are you actually using DOSbox? And how do you mean you get two picures? You can try the CE version as well.

[dethvildr]

im not using dos box i only just heard about that 2 days ago and havent got time to try it yet

 

the 2 screens i have two identical pictures on my screen like the game is shown tvice.. i could maybe play it like this but i dont think its right...

 

and wat is the ce version ?

 

also heard about 1 called defence whats that ?

Edited July 13, 2004 by dethvildr

[j'ordos]

the CE version is the windows version of xcom, it works for most

xcom : ufo defence is the US release version, UFO : enemy unknown is the EU one.

 

I don't really know what you can do, check the properties and make sure the program is run in 'full screen' and not 'windowed'. Else you could try the CE version or DOSbox...

[dethvildr]

the weirdst thing happend yesterday

 

i was struggling to get dox-box to work... couldt make a \ so i couldnt do the line that says mount c c\:oldgames and therefore i just went out on my desktop and

opend the dos version of ufo so i atleast have that ready when i figured out how to make a \ ....then when i opend it, i just aswell try to start the game and bang !! it worked. But no sound so i tryid another icon... the 1 thats called go and contain a star or something on the it and al worked perfect

 

eccept the mouse is a little laggy or strange to move in most of the screens

and the scroll speed is little too fast in the missions even on lowest setting

But i can save,

i got sound ,and.... :happybanana: :happybanana: :happybanana:

 

im on the hunt for aliens again :uzzi: :fang:

 

THAnX for the efforts in trying to help me jordos

Edited July 15, 2004 by dethvildr

[Guest pelirojo]

alright I have tried to run the original dos version of ufo defense both on dosbox .61 and through windows. I can get both to run the game beautifully until i try to go onto a mission. The game asks if i want to embark on a mission and i click yes. THen nothing on both versions. If i hit enter a bunch i get a whole bunch of errors. If i continue to press enter, then the game jumps to the mission end screen. When i get back to the geoscape, I have more bases (x3). Help plz.

[j'ordos]

alright I have tried to run the original dos version of ufo defense both on dosbox .61 and through windows.  I can get both to run the game beautifully until i try to go onto a mission.  The game asks if i want to embark on a mission and i click yes.  THen nothing on both versions.  If i hit enter a bunch i get a whole bunch of errors.  If i continue to press enter, then the game jumps to the mission end screen.  When i get back to the geoscape, I have more bases (x3).  Help plz.

try to delete the contents of the MISSDAT folder and run the game again.

[Guest KeyOrion]

Ok here it is. I have the US version of X:Com UFO Defense with the original three High Density 3.5 floppy disks, and I'm running on a Pentium 4, Windows XP Home system. You can imagine the pain already.

 

I can easily get the game to run normally up to a point and that's including sound. The first screen where I have a problem is the Geoscape where it asks me where I want to put my first base. As soon as I decided where and move the cursor and hit enter, the game crashes, and I'm kicked out to my desktop with an error message.

 

Enter the search. I'm looking around the net for patches, and the few I found seriously did not fix the problem. In fact the problem remained. I get in, decide where I want my base and kicks me back out with an error message.

 

Then I decide ok, look for emulators. I find a nice little site which includes the DOSBox. I thought COOOOL, I could play all my old favorites. X-Com, Master of Orion, possibly even Pirates Gold. Which would be nice.

 

Ok, downloaded the DOSBox, and i get it to the C: prompt. After that I try changing directory, or using C:\XCOM or C:\XCOM\UFO. I'm pretty much computer illiterate and havn't used DOS based systems for nearly 10 years now. Any suggestions on how I can connect my pathway, because I'm at a dead end.

 

Why don't those companies be nice little people and give us working patches instead of going...."Patches? Patches?! WE don't need no STINK'N patches!"

[j'ordos]

Ok here it is.  I have the US version of X:Com UFO Defense with the original three High Density 3.5 floppy disks, and I'm running on a Pentium 4, Windows XP Home system.  You can imagine the pain already.

 

I can easily get the game to run normally up to a point  and that's including sound.  The first screen where I have a problem is the Geoscape where it asks me where I want to put my first base.  As soon as I decided where and move the cursor and hit enter, the game crashes, and I'm kicked out to my desktop with an error message.

 

Enter the search.  I'm looking around the net for patches, and the few I found seriously did not fix the problem.  In fact the problem remained.  I get in, decide where I want my base and kicks me back out with an error message.

 

Then I decide ok, look for emulators.  I find a nice little site which includes the DOSBox.  I thought COOOOL, I could play all my old favorites.  X-Com, Master of Orion, possibly even Pirates Gold.  Which would be nice.

 

Ok, downloaded the DOSBox, and i get it to the C: prompt.  After that I try changing directory, or using C:\XCOM  or C:\XCOM\UFO.  I'm pretty much computer illiterate and havn't used DOS based systems for nearly 10 years now.  Any suggestions on how I can connect my pathway, because I'm at a dead end.

 

Why don't those companies be nice little people and give us working patches instead of going...."Patches? Patches?!  WE don't need no STINK'N patches!"

 

the link in the first post includes a step-by-step guide how to run things in DOSbox, look there first.

 

Well, the bug you have is caused by running the DOS version on a windows system, and they did release some sort of a patch (which you have to pay for tho ), namely the CE version, which is made for windows, but is still not perfect.

[Guest Greyson]

Hi guys, I've learned alot about dos box and how to run xcom with it from this post. However here is the problem I'm having. The game runs beautifully just as good as I remembered it from 10 years ago. It is the original dos version that came out in 1994, the whole game runs fine like I said sound and all. But the problem is that I'm not sure if I installed the game correctly. Because I can't run it from the ufocd.bat executable in my c:\xcom folder, when I try it gives me an error of: Illegal command: ufoexe\black.

Illegal command: ufoexe\geoscape.

 

I used Dosbox to install the game, because I couldn't install from dos prompt on WinXP pro. Anyway the only way I was able to run the game was by mounting the c drive to c:\xcom and mounting the d drive to d:\, then I ran the ufocd.bat from the d: drive. Which is probably why it won't load my saved games, but what's funny is that when I saved my games all the appropriate files show up in the saved game folders. So the games are being saved but I can't load the games. So I guess what I'm asking is how do you guys install the game? I mounted c to c:\xcom and d to d:\, then I installed from the d: drive with the command of install c:\xcom. Well all the appropriate files show up, but like I said I can't run it from the c:\xcom folder. Can someone help me with this? It's been so long since I've played this and now that I've spent two hours on it after 8 or so years, I'm ready to start playing it again. Thanks for any help.