Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
The Civ

QUAKE on DosBox

Recommended Posts

I've been trying to re-install QUAKE, but I wanted to specifically play it with DosBox for a change.
I loaded the disc into my drive, and loaded the install with Dosbox.
I select C:/ as the drive I want to install it to, and when it asks the directory name I want to copy into, I tried using the default QUAKE_SW. It told me that the directory did not exist, and asked if I wanted to create it, so I pressed "Y", but it then told me that the directory was invalid, and would not continue.
I tried some more directory names, but no matter what I used, it would tell me the directory was invalid and wouldn't continue.
Any idea on what I need to do?

Share this post


Link to post

Backslashes vs. normal slashes in file paths? Absolute vs. relative file paths? Wait, can a program launched in DOSBox install even anything on your computer outside of its DOSBox environment?

Share this post


Link to post

I'm not sure why you're using DOSBox to play quake. I'd rather get ProQuake or Quakespasm IMHO. It should make it easier for you to run and play quake on modern operating systems.

Share this post


Link to post

DOS tends to prefer you use backslashes instead of forward slashes for directories. That's all I've got based on what you've said is wrong with it. But yeah even the GL port that came with it is a better option. I've found the original SW version has some nasty colour issues on modern systems.

Share this post


Link to post

mount a folder as your c drive, then run the installer and let it install to something like c:\quake

its fun to have it running as original as possible again, but there are a lot of engines to play the game with so you wont need dos or a dos emulator.

Share this post


Link to post

Yeah that's also a thing ^

Make sure it doesn't say Z:\> at the left while you're typing.

Z:\> mount C C:\
Z:\> C:\
C:\> ... (now start putting in the inputs for installing)
MAKE SURE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE BACKSLASH NOT FORWARD SLASH

Good: \
Bad: /

Share this post


Link to post

Another advice:Don't play games that have sourceports on Dosbox, unless you are willing to have a hard time setting them up.
And also i recommend using a source port for playing Quake, ProQuake is a good one.

Share this post


Link to post
SavageCorona said:

But yeah even the GL port that came with it is a better option. I've found the original SW version has some nasty colour issues on modern systems.

The original GL version has a lot of its own problems.

Share this post


Link to post

The DeIce installer (and Quake's, by extension) doesn't like trailing slashes at the end of the specified directory, from my experience. If you want it to create a new folder, it has to have no slash, and it can only go one deep. So if you have a folder called Games, this might work:

C:\GAMES\QUAKE_SW
But this might not:
C:\GAMES\QUAKE_SW\
And this might also not, if you don't already have these folders created:
c:\GAMES\FPS\ID\1996\QUAKE_SW

Share this post


Link to post

Thanks for all the help. I'll try this out.
As for Sourceports, I know they exist, and I usually play with those.
I just wanted to blast through it in DosBox for the heck of it.

Share this post


Link to post
scifista42 said:

Wait, can a program launched in DOSBox install even anything on your computer outside of its DOSBox environment?


Why shouldn't it? Unlike VMs, it doesn't work with virtual hdd images, but has actual R/W access to a mounted folder in your computer. It even allows DOS programs to do stuff they normally couldn't, like e.g. writing to a NTFS file system.

In general, it's quite a different environment than a generic VM.

Share this post


Link to post
SavageCorona said:

Z:\> mount C C:\
Z:\> C:\
C:\> ... (now start putting in the inputs for installing)

This is bad advice. Do not mount your Windows C:\ directory as DOSBox's C: drive. You will almost certainly cause damage to your OS; instead, make a dedicated DOS directory or something similar to simulate a C: drive.

Maes said:

Why shouldn't it? Unlike VMs, it doesn't work with virtual hdd images, but has actual R/W access to a mounted folder in your computer.

VMs can do that too, rather easily.

Share this post


Link to post
chungy said:

VMs can do that too, rather easily.


If you mean writing to a network share, or mapping to a removable drive or partition on the host, sure. But at least OracleVM doesn't allow using a loose folder on the host as an actual bootable drive in the VM, nor auto-translating between file systems in the way DOSBOX does. I'm also fairly sure it doesn't allow you to use an active partition of the host directly as a VM's drive: it needs a HDD image wrapper with full emulated CHS access in order to boot. Once you get an OS up and running inside the VM, sure, you jump through several hoops to directly write to an external drive/share. But I think you can only have direct VM-drive access for stuff such as floppies, optical drives and entire HDDs, not just one folder.

Share this post


Link to post

VirtualBox supports all of that easily (no hoops), albeit shared folders with only a special driver on the guest side. Other hypervisors have a VVFAT mode which exposes a directory as a faked FAT32-format disk.

Share this post


Link to post

Like most dos games, Quake is extremely easy to run on dosbox... next to the mounting of a folder and lowering or raising the cycles it does not differ with running it on real dos.

I cringe when i read ; "dos games are difficult to run in dosbox".


Mounting note, with a generic 'user made' game folder as an example;

Windows ;
Mount c c:\games\dos

If on a linux based os this mounts ;
Mount c home/username/games/dos

c:
cd quake

Share this post


Link to post

Ok, I've gotten everything figured out, and I've been working on the install, but I accidentally installed the shareware version that was on the disk.
When I went to install the full version, it told me that it "Requires a copy of Windows."
What does this mean, and what do I need to do?

Share this post


Link to post
chungy said:

VirtualBox supports all of that easily (no hoops), albeit shared folders with only a special driver on the guest side. Other hypervisors have a VVFAT mode which exposes a directory as a faked FAT32-format disk.


Not trying to be argumentative here, but VirtualBox doesn't allow me to do anything close to what DOSBOX is doing, which is, setting up a virtual machine from scratch which can let the guest mounting entire folders of the host as if they were actual hard disks.

Whenever I add a new virtual hdd controller (with any type of interface), I only get the option to add an existing virtual hdd file or create a new one. I can't even "divert" the VM to an existing partition or physical, dedicated hard disk. In fact, doing so would probably violate at least some definitions of what a hypervisor is/should be. The only exception seems to be CD-ROM and floppy drives, while even hardware such as network cards and COM/LPT ports needs some jumping through hoops to share between host/guest, at least depending on how much functionality you need.

Even if there's some 3rd plugin that allows me to transparently write-back to host folders just like DOSBOX does (working around the file system, too!) I doubt I could use it to e.g. boot a pure DOS VM using actual DOS, with a proper bootsector etc., or satisfy software requiring direct CHS disk access.

Then again, DOSBOX is designed to run DOS games with "vanilla" file and disk handling through nice, clean, BIOS functions, and little else beyond that. Therefore, it doesn't need a proper bootable drive emulation or even an actual DOS installation, for that matter. Its crossing over to the host system means that it's not a true, isolating hypervisor.

Share this post


Link to post
The Civ said:

Ok, I've gotten everything figured out, and I've been working on the install, but I accidentally installed the shareware version that was on the disk.
When I went to install the full version, it told me that it "Requires a copy of Windows."
What does this mean, and what do I need to do?

It means what it says. Even more specifically, you have the Windows version of the Quake CD, and you simply cannot run it under DOS. It may be possible to grab q101-106.zip and pak1.pak (from your Windows version) and "upgrade" it (using the DOS version), but i'm not 100% sure.

Maes said:

Whenever I add a new virtual hdd controller (with any type of interface), I only get the option to add an existing virtual hdd file or create a new one. I can't even "divert" the VM to an existing partition or physical, dedicated hard disk.

Yes yes. Because of the potential danger of adding physical disks to VirtualBox, it's restricted to a command line function only. That doesn't mean the functionality doesn't exist. (In fact, I think half of VirtualBox's features are command line only... heh.)

Share this post


Link to post

I don't really recommend the dos version of Quake for one explicit reason: If the framerate gets too high it starts skipping around very quickly and becomes unplayable. At 200000 cycles in dosbox at 320x240 resolution it is MOSTLY okay.. but if you get too close to a wall it sucks. If you lower it enough to avoid this completely the framerate just sucks in general. WinQuake and everything beyond that does not have this problem. You can see the problem in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFOYZ6O-Mg8

That said I have the game fully setup in dosbox with a batch script to get everything working (including an image of the cd it mounts for music), along with the necessary dosbox.conf tweak needed to get the sound working.

I don't know if it's ethical for me to simply remove the .pak files and cd image and distribute it, allowing you to simply put your own files in place. If somebody can affirm that as being okay I'm willing to zip it up and send it over.

Share this post


Link to post

pak1.pak are Quake episodes 2-4. If you only remove that file and the CD image, it'll be identical to the shareware version, and you'd be fine.

Share this post


Link to post

Very well. This is the Windows version of dosbox it is setup with.

https://www.mediafire.com/?8a25nj6l4ij4gsh

This is Shareware Quake 1.08.

Just extract and run Quake.bat

If you want music you'll need to navigate to data>quake and put your image in there, afterwards modify the quake.bat in that folder to reflect the name of your image file, of course while at it you can drop PAK1.PAK into the ID1 folder to get the full game.

Without an image the game will give an error about MSCDEX being unavailable, just hit esc to move past it.

I set cycles to 400000 and resolution to 640x480, it's mostly okay. You can tweak the value in the quake.bat inside the game's folder if you want to experiment with it to find what is most acceptable for you.

Share this post


Link to post
chungy said:

This is bad advice. Do not mount your Windows C:\ directory as DOSBox's C: drive. You will almost certainly cause damage to your OS; instead, make a dedicated DOS directory or something similar to simulate a C: drive.


Yeah I meant that as in "This is where you put in your own directory" sort of thing. I didn't expect him to actually put it in his C drive.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×