Custom wads in DOS

[terminus12]

Hey guys, I'm new here and I got a question. Does anyone know how to run custom wads in vanilla doom? I got it installed on an old DOS machine I have in my basement, I got ultimate doom, doom 2, and final doom (plus a plethora of other DOS games iD made). I've tried before but I couldn't get it to work, does anyone know how?

[GreyGhost]

Any particular custom wad? Whatever you're trying to run has to be compatible with the vanilla executable and if we're talking partial/total conversions or DeHackEd patches, the wad is likely to be accompanied by a batch file (.BAT) and the utilities required to patch the IWAD and/or Doom/Doom2.exe, which has to be done before the custom wad is played.

[terminus12]

nah no conversions, I was able to get theskymaybe running on my old computer somehow haha but mostly what I was thinking was megawads.

[myk]

If you wanted to play, let's say, NJDoom2 and you placed the WAD in your DOOM directory or folder all you need to type in the command line is:

doom2 -file njdoom2.wad

If the add-on requires more than one file, you add them consecutively:

doom2 -file mm.wad mmmus.wad

Make sure the extension (.wad) is there, or Doom won't find the files.

[GreyGhost]

Ninja'd by myk.

There's a list of command line options on the Doom Wiki that are worth making note of even if you only use a few of them on a regular basis. Options can be combined on the command line, so let's say you want to play NJDoom2 on Ultra Violence (-skill) starting on Map05 (-warp) with fast monsters (-fast), the command line will look something like this -

doom2.exe -file njdoom2.wad -skill 4 -warp 5 -fast

[terminus12]

myk said:

If you wanted to play, let's say, NJDoom2 and you placed the WAD in your DOOM directory or folder

so just anywhere in the directory? and thanks for the link greyghost, I already knew some of the commands like doom -skill 4 -turbo 256, but the link to all of them is nice cause obviously most people don't remember all of them.

[GreyGhost]

terminus12 said:

so just anywhere in the directory?

In the same directory you installed Doom2 into, otherwise you'll need to include the wad's path in the command line. Don't know how familiar you are with DOS commands, but the examples given also assume you've CD'd to the Doom2 directory or have added it to a search path in AUTOEXEC.BAT. If you don't want to clutter your Doom directories with custom wads, you could create a dedicated directory for them and add that to the search path.

[DoomGater]

So a "complete" command set in an unconfigures DOSBox could look like:

z:\>c: [ENTER]
c:\>cd games [ENTER]
c:\games>cd doom [ENTER]
c:\games\doom>Doom2.exe -file c:\games\doom\mypwads\bigbang.wad [ENTER]

[hex11]

You can also use one of the many "front-end" programs:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?dir=utils/frontends/

[GreyGhost]

If we're talking launchers, I'd recommend DoomShell. There's a slightly newer version here on the author's website, or lay your hands on a copy of the "3D Games Alchemy" CD which has Version 5.

[terminus12]

Thanks everybody, this should be good, I think last time I tried doing something like this I didn't know I had to type in the specific directory the pwad was in. And nah no game launchers this time, also I'm not running in dosbox either which it seems like some of these game launchers are for.

[Gez]

terminus12 said:

also I'm not running in dosbox either

Do you mean you're using an old computer with DOS, or a modern computer with Windows/Linux/Mac/whatever?

In the former case, the DOS shells should work just as well as in DOSBox; in the latter you should look into using a source port.

[terminus12]

Gez said:
Do you mean you're using an old computer with DOS

yup DOS 6.22 on my old computer