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Excising DOSBox

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I have a Steam copy of Doom, but of course DOSBox is installed alongside it. Since I'll be using Vanilla in genuine DOS, can someone tell me which files belong to which program?

EDIT: Also, can later IWADS like TNT be imported into Doom 2 with the -file parameter?

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You can play tnt.wad/plutonia.wad like Doom 2 PWADs, but it's better to use the doom2.exe that comes with them -- it is NOT identical to the one in Doom 2.

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chungy said:

You can play tnt.wad/plutonia.wad like Doom 2 PWADs, but it's better to use the doom2.exe that comes with them -- it is NOT identical to the one in Doom 2.


No need to do that. You can play tnt.wad and plutonia.wad with every port/engine as IWAD, cause that"s what they are. And doing so you can -file other pwads, of course. The differences between Final Doom"s doom2.exe and the regular doom2.exe are only of cosmetical nature (level names...).

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i remember that some levels from Plutonia crashes due some render and savegames size limits in the original doom2.exe and in doom95. don't know if id fixed that for doom2.exe.

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Not only should you use the Final Doom doom2.exe, you need to keep tnt.wad in a separate directory from pluntonia.wad, since it will always load Plutonia and there's no way of specifying the iwad you want. (Steam stupidly loads TNT with the -file parameter, meaning it gives the modified warning and uses Plutonia's text.) Either that or rig up something with batch files to rename Plutonia when you want to play, which is actually what I ended up doing in my Steam copy so I could keep the cloud sync for saves working.

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Seperate directories is always a good idea, so you can't accidentially mix up your savegames. It"s a long time that I"ve fired up one of those DOS-engines, but can't they use "-iwad" like modern ports?

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Could solve the save issue by renaming the files:

ren plutonia.wad plutonia.bak
ren *.tsg *.dsg
doom2
ren *.dsg *.tsg
ren plutonia.bak plutonia.wad
ren *.psg *.dsg
doom2
ren *.dsg *.psg
But I never bothered and just note the wad used in the save name. I wouldn't even bother with renaming the wad if I wasn't concerned with cloud sync (it doesn't come up too often, but it's a nice to have my saves available on other computers).

And no, no -iwad parameter.

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Ick. That's ugly... I'd definitely go for the directory split. Given that they're entirely separate IWADs, it makes sense to separate TNT and Plutonia as much as it makes sense to separate Doom 2 from Final Doom. You'll have a duplicate .exe, but it's really no worse than all the duplicate graphics/sprites/sounds across each IWAD, if you think of it. :P

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Hmm, feels like a time warp to good old DOSDAYS...

What about :

echo off
cls
choice /C:PT Plutonia or TNT?
if errorlevel 2 goto tn
if errorlevel 1 goto pn

:pn
cls
echo PLUTONIA ROCKS
ren *.psg *.dsg
doom2
ren *.dsg *.psg

goto exit

:tn
cls
echo TNT ROCKS
ren plutonia.wad plutonia.bak
ren *.tsg *.dsg
doom2
ren *.dsg *.tsg
ren plutonia.bak plutonia.wad

:exit
exit

...if I wasn't concerned with cloud sync (it doesn't come up too often, but it's a nice to have my saves available on other computers).

Nonono, not safe enough. When the internet is gone you won't be able to access your doom-data. It is better to have them with you on an USB-stick all the time. And to be really sure: have a second copy on a different device; maybe an SD-card will do... Right now I am thinking of having the doom-source-code tatooed all over my body, that should be sufficient to avoid a serious data loss .
;-) ;-) ;-)

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Ahhh, good old batch files. I used to write all sorts of cunning bat files to get utils like dmgraph to process hundreds of files "back in the day".

Minor suggestion for the last one

@echo off
instead of
echo off
Just to hide the "echo off" instruction too.

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yeah, sure, so it's same as

echo off
cls
But this one takes more processing time, because it consists of two instructions. But thas might not be so important these days...;-)

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chungy said:

"@echo off" doesn't clear the screen.


No?? OMFG! How good, that I did not use it.
Because I prefer a clear screen.

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At minimum Quake requires the QUAKE.EXE, the DPMI memory extender CWSDPMI.EXE and the /ID1 subfolder containing the files PAK0.PAK and PAK1.PAK. 1.06 Demo version comes with the following files:

Directory of C:\QUAKE_SW\.
.              <DIR>            28-01-2013  7:42
..             <DIR>            28-01-2013  7:36
ID1            <DIR>            28-01-2013  7:41
CWSDPMI  EXE             25,920 28-01-2013  7:36
DIR      TXT                  0 28-01-2013  7:42
GENVXD   DLL             17,408 28-01-2013  7:36
HELP     TXT              5,404 28-01-2013  7:36
LICINFO  TXT              9,311 28-01-2013  7:41
MGENVXD  VXD              9,883 28-01-2013  7:41
ORDER    TXT              3,869 28-01-2013  7:41
PDIPX    COM             26,511 28-01-2013  7:41
Q95      BAT                 65 28-01-2013  7:41
QLAUNCH  EXE            314,880 28-01-2013  7:41
QUAKE    EXE            404,480 28-01-2013  7:41
QUAKEUDP DLL             32,256 28-01-2013  7:41
README   TXT             19,087 28-01-2013  7:41
READV106 TXT              8,774 28-01-2013  7:41
SLICNSE  TXT             10,036 28-01-2013  7:41
TECHINFO TXT             76,067 28-01-2013  7:41
   16 File(s)           963,951 Bytes.
    3 Dir(s)        262,111,744 Bytes free.

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Xaser said:
Ick. That's ugly... I'd definitely go for the directory split.

What I do is have a batch file apply a DeHackEd patch that chooses the corresponding game (IWAD names are listed in the engine in order and if you rename these to junk the engine looks for the next option) on the fly, and a temp folder for the edited engine plus WADs and other possible files unzipped from elsewhere, which is deleted when I exit the game (or when I open the DOS window, in case a previous crash left the temp folder with junk in it).

If one uses vanilla regularly, one can customize rather juicy batch files to automate many things and use utilities or commands to enhance usage.

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myk said:

If one uses vanilla regularly, one can customize rather juicy batch files to automate many things and use utilities or commands to enhance usage.


Yes, good'ol batches can be quite powerful!
But when I have to handle many different doom games, I'd always prefer a single directory per game, each with it's own (dehacked, when necessary) engine and iwad.

I guess, the batch-method appeals more to programming and technical interested minds, while the dir-per-game-method is for collectors,
who want to have all their files lined up in proper manner :-)

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DoomGater said:
I guess, the batch-method appeals more to programming and technical interested minds,

Well, I'm not really one of those, although my participation in technical discussions here as a mod and vanilla enthusiast may have helped. I started with basic ideas to help myself use vanilla, but after years of watching many demos I started very basic batch files for playback and recording. The main purpose back then was to type less stuff each time I watched or recorded a demo. Later, I enhanced those and they grew in steps, adding flexibility and capabilities, as I found annoying limitations and made steps finding out how some things worked in batches. I fleshed them out to the point where I added automated functions (such as reading DeHackEd patches and par time edits, or detecting demo versions) and "new commands" to DOOM, using short switches, and even a help command that types the usage of the batch and lists all its new commands in case I forget how a batch file works, with pretty much the same format seen in DOS command help switches:

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When you want to run vanilla Doom, which is a version of Doom with unreproductible proprietary components and closed-source bugs, you're going to be confined to a DOS box and have to use old-style DOS methods to handle the files.

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myk said:

(...)The main purpose back then was to type less stuff each time I watched or recorded a demo. Later, I enhanced those and they grew in steps, adding flexibility and capabilities, as I found annoying limitations and made steps finding out how some things worked in batches.(...)

That sounds familiar to me, but I never did so sophisticated batches. Reminds me of my old "Doom Processing Unit", basically a VB6-frontend for several batches to intelligently process wads. Unfortunately, it never worked satisfying and had several severe conceptional errors. It startet as a small launcher and _should_ become a big tool for all doomers. Big Fail. Should better have sticked with the batches. That is a pure and solid kind of tool...

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Enjay said:

Ahhh, good old batch files. I used to write all sorts of cunning bat files to get utils like dmgraph to process hundreds of files "back in the day".



myk said:

The main purpose back then was to type less stuff each time I watched or recorded a demo. Later, I enhanced those and they grew in steps, adding flexibility and capabilities, as I found annoying limitations and made steps finding out how some things worked in batches


Mind sending me your batch files? So far this is the best I got:

doom.exe <s -record demo -maxdemo 999 -warp %1 %2 -skill %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

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I went to the trouble of putting my batch file on idgames. I don't really use it any more though - modern tab completion stuff makes it pretty obsolete for me.

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Thanks. It's been a long, long time now since I wrote it (predates the Doom source release, so it's at least 15 years old), but I do remember spending a lot of time enhancing it to support all the possible combinations.

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