How to get the past games to run on modern computers with DOSBox

With this guide I will try to explain on how to run the 4 past games with DOSBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/). Note that the sole purpose of this guide is to get the games to work with the official DOSBox builds, and not to add any additional flashy effects that may improve the visual quality of the game.

The first thing you need to do is to go to the official website of DOSBox and download it's latest release (currently 0.73), which is free. In the most majority of cases, you need to download the "Win32 installer" version. Note that this guide is mainly towards Windows users. While DOSBox is a cross-platform program, there may be differences in the mount commands.

When it's downloaded, it's time to install it where you see fit. But be aware of that the games of this guide will be installed in the same drive/partition, so be sure you got enough space (which shouldn't really be a problems as the games are relatively small).

After DOSBox is installed, go to the folder where you installed it and create a new folder called "Games".

It's important to know that DOSBox is an emulator, and as such a large resource hog for the CPU. One can speed up and down the emulation by increasing or decreasing the amount of cycles of DOSBox, and if a high amount of cycles run much slower than it should be, then your CPU is too slow. To increase the cycles press CTRL+F12 and to decrease them press CTRL+F11.

You can switch between fullscreen and window mode in DOSBox by pressing LEFT ALT+RETUR.

!IMPORTANT!
Every guide in here ends after creating a special config file for each game. The easiest way to run DOSBox with this specific config file, would be the following:
Go to the folder where you installed DOSBox, and right-click on the DOSBox executable and create a new shortcut for it.
Rename the shortcut to the game you want it to start. For example; Daggerfall.
Right-click on the shortcut and go into the properties and change the "Path_where_you_installed_Dosbox\dosbox.exe" to "Path_where_you_installed_Dosbox\dosbox.exe" -conf daggerfall.conf. Add an additional -noconsole at the end if you want to get rid of the second text window of DOSBox.

That's it. Feel free to copy the shortcut to your start menu, desktop or wherever you think it should be; and just double-click on it to run the game. You can also change the icon if you want. Daggerfall, Battlespire and Redguard have proper icons, so you can use those.

The config files may also be incompatible with eachother between the DOSBox versions. A config written for DOSBox 0.63 may not work with DOSBox 0.65.

DOSBox 0.73 won't make a dosbox.conf file where the program is installed, to make one you have to write config -writeconf dosbox.conf in DOSBox.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=6877259
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=6877868
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=6878724
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=6879793

How to install and run Arena

Free/floppy version

Even if you have the floppy version of the game, I do suggest you download the http://elderscrolls.com/arena/ because then you don't have to deal with 10+ year old floppies that may have errors, or have any need to patch it and so on. The free and floppy versions are identical when it comes to game content.

When you got the Arena106.exe file, double-click on it and select the Games folder you created where you installed DOSBox. If you're not using Windows and can't run the Arena106.exe file, then go to http://www.rarlab.com/ and get the RAR extractor for your OS. Be sure that Arena is located in it's own ARENA folder in the games folder.

To run Arena, start DOSBox and type the following:
MOUNT C GAMES
C:
CD ARENA
ARENA

Be aware of the Passwords.txt file that is located in the Docs folder. It contains all you need to know to get thru the manual protection of the game.

CD version

Create a folder in your DOSBox folder, called "ArenaCD". Then copy all the contents on the Arena CD to that folder (excluding the Demos folder if you want). The ArenaCD folder will work as a fake CD while playing the game in DOSBox, so you will never need to actually use the CD any more after this.

Now it's time to install the game, which is done in DOSBox so launch that program and type this:
MOUNT C GAMES
MOUNT D ARENACD -t cdrom
D:
INSTALL

The installer will ask if it's ok to install in C:\ARENA_CD and it's ok, so just press return. Then a small menu will pop up, and choose "Configure game". It's time to choose sound and music card. Pick "Sound Blaster pro or 16" for both, and then exit the menu. Now when the installation of the game is done, you can close DOSBox.

To run the game in DOSBox, type the following:
MOUNT C GAMES
MOUNT D ARENACD -t cdrom
C:
CD ARENA_CD
ARENA

Miscellaneous info

At default, DOSBox uses 3000 cycles, which is too slow for Arena. If you raise it to about 15000 by pressing CTRL+F12 multiple times, the game will be much more enjoyable. Note that the game will stutter at 15000 cycles if your CPU is too slow to handle it.

You can change the music card in the Arena install program to "General Midi or MPU-401", and it will sound better. To easily get to the install menu, just start Arena with the above instructions and then exit the game and type INSTALL.

It's a good idea to make a new config file. With Arena, not many changes are needed since the default options are usually good enough, so it's not really needed. But it will be required for the other TES games, so one may as well make one. So open up dosbox.conf (which is located where DOSBox is installed) with notepad.

The first line of interest is the one that says "core=normal". There's also another core called "dynamic", which is much faster and allow people to use a higher amount of cycles. If you feel that Arena is sluggish, then you might want to try it out.

The second line of of interest would be below the first one, and say "cycles=3000". This is the amount of cycles DOSBox will have when it starts. I think it would be a good idea to raise it to 15000 - 20000.

The last thing would be the last line; "# Lines in this section will be run at startup." After this line add the startup lines mentioned earlier. This way you won't have to re-type them every time you wants to run Arena in DOSBox.

Example; this is what the last lines would look like for the free version of Arena:
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
MOUNT C GAMES
C:
CD ARENA
ARENA

End it by saving the textfile as Arena.conf.

How to install and run Daggerfall

Betheda Softworks have now http://elderscrolls.com/daggerfall/. In the zip file they are also including their own install instructions which may be easier to follow. Just be sure you're using the latest DOSBox and that the input text is case sensitive, so be sure to write "Daggerfall" and not daggerfall or dAGGERFALL or anything else when you install it from those instructions.

Anyway, back to the old install instructions

The first thing we should do is to install the game from within DOSBox. So start DOSBox and write the following:
MOUNT C GAMES -freesize 700
MOUNT D X:\ -t cdrom (X being the letter of your optical drive where the Daggerfall CD is)
D:
INSTALL

If you downloaded the free Daggerfall, then just mount the unpacked DFCD folder as D instead of the second line. For example;
MOUNT D C:\DFCD -t cdrom -label Daggerfall
(C:\DFCD varies depending on where you unpack the dfinstall.zip file)

Now the installation should begin. Skip the sound settings in the beginning and go straight to the install. The default size is minimum, but change that to huge. Install it to the default path of c:\dagger. The installation will be quite slow because of the mere cycles of 3000, so press CTRL+F12 a couple of times to raise it to 8000 or so, or higher if you're sure that your CPU can handle it.

After this, it's time to configure the sound. For digital, select Sound Blaster 16/AWE32, port 220, IRQ 7 and DMA 1. For MIDI, select Sound Blaster 16, port 388 or MPU-401, port 330. MPU-401 is the better choice of the two, and I recommend using it, but may under some special circumstances not work (mainly for non-Windows users). After this the installation should end.

But not all the files were copied, so lets manually copy those. Write the following in DOSBox:
CD ARENA2
D:
CD DAGGER
CD ARENA2
COPY *.VID C:

After this, leave DOSBox in the background. We will return to it shortly.

Now it's time to download the http://www.uesp.net/file.shtml?dagger/files/addquest.zip and the http://www.uesp.net/file.shtml?dagger/files/dag213.exe. Unpack the quests into DOSBox folder\Games\DAGGER\ARENA2 and move/copy the dag213.exe file to DOSBox folder\Games\DAGGER.

As it is now, some of the files in the ARENA2 folder are writeprotected, and the patch doesn't like that, so we have to change that. Go into DOSBox folder\Games\DAGGER\ARENA2 and select all files, choose properties and make sure that "Read-only" is not checked, and then press ok, and you will change the writeprotection on all files.

Now go back to DOSBox and type the following:
C:
CD..
RESCAN
DAG213

The patch will start to install itself. Answer yes on all the questions. After the patch installation is done, you can exit DOSBox. It's time to do some editing with notepad.

Open Z.CFG in DOSBox folder\Games\DAGGER and make sure that both PATH and PATHCD say c:\dagger\arena2\ and then save the file. (you won't need the CD anymore).

Now open the dosbox.conf file which is where you installed DOSBox and do the following changes:
memsize=16 should be changed to 40. The game uses about 32-34 or so, but it's good to have a safety margin.
core=auto should be work just fine as the dynamic core is rather mature now. However, if you run with the dynamic core on a fast computer you should limit the amount of cycles cause I've seen the jitterbug otherwise. If you stumble upon any problem, then go to the normal core.
cycles=max runs just fine. If you want to run at some specific cycles I would recommend about 20000 - 30000. You should cap it there somewhere if you use the auto/dynamic core with cycles=auto limit 30000.

Then go to the bottom where it says "# Lines in this section will be run at startup." and add the following lines:
MOUNT C GAMES
C:
CD DAGGER
FALL.EXE Z.CFG

Save the config file as Daggerfall.conf and you're done with that.

If you have problems to get the mouse to work while playing, then press CTRL+F10.

How to install and run Battlespire

First thing to do is to create a bin/cue image of the http://elderscrolls.com/battlespire/ CD. Several different CD/DVD burning programs can do that, but if you don't have any or not sure if it can, get http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm, as it's a free program. http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/ is also free and works very well.

If you download and install MagicDisc, then choose the "Make CD/DVD Image" option in the tray menu. From there, choose the drive the CD is in, the output file (Battlespire in the DOSBox folder) and BIN/CUE as the output format. Then press OK. You can uninstall MagicDisc after this if you want.

Be sure that the Battlespire.cue and Battlespire.bin files are located in the same folder you installed DOSBox. Since you have these files in the DOSBox folder, you won't need the CD any more.

Launch DOSBox, and write the following:
MOUNT C GAMES -freesize 300
IMGMOUNT D Battlespire.cue -t iso
D:
INSTALL /F C

The game will start to install and after it's done press CTRL+F12 to raise the cycles to 10000 and type INSTALL. Now it's time to configure the sound and video. For sound pick "Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32" and autodetect it. After that it will ask if you want captions (subtitles) or not during the cutscenes, and choose whatever you prefer. After that go into the video configuration and select to bypass the internal driver. Then you can exit the install program, and exit DOSBox.

Download the http://www.uesp.net/file.shtml?battle/files/batpat15.exe and unpack it in the DOSBox folder\Games\BATSPIRE folder. It's a runnable zip file, so you can unpack it with any program that can handle zip compression.

Open up dosbox.conf with notepad and do the following changes:
memsize=16 should be 63
core=normal should be auto
cycles=3000 should be auto
ipx=false should be true (with this you can easily play Battlespire together with others without any additional programs) See the IPX commands in the DOSBox readme.

And the end should look like this:
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
MOUNT C GAMES
IMGMOUNT D Battlespire.cue -t iso
C:
CD BATSPIRE
SPIRE

Save the file as Battlespire.conf and you're done.

When launching the game, an error will occur, but just press any key (with the exception of q) and it will load and run just fine.

And note that you will need a very fast CPU in order to run this game nicely in DOSBox. Few home computers can run this game decently on high settings in DOSBox.

How to install and run Redguard

You can only play the software version of http://elderscrolls.com/redguard/ in the current official build of DOSBox, so that's what we are going with here in this guide.

However, I really suggest you to follow http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/195-how-to-get-redguard-working-under-windows-xp/ to get the Glide version to work in Windows XP, or an http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/. If you try this, be sure to copy the Glide2x.ovl file to where you installed the 3DFX version of Redguard and launch the game with only ~15,000 cycles and increase it to max while it's loading.

Now things get a bit tricky. While Redguard is a DOS game, the actual installer is a Windows program. A 16-bit program which means it doesn't work on the newer 64-bit Windowses (since they lack 16-bit support). So lets put in the Redguard Install CD, start the Redguard installer and install the 3DFX version of the game. Do not install it into the DOSBox folder, but instead use the default install path or some other random place. It doesn't really matter as we will uninstall the game again shortly. After the install it asks for the sound setup. Just pick "No Sound" for now.

Now copy the installed Redguard folder into DOSBox\GAMES\. It would be a good idea to compress the Redguard folder with 7-zip or something else, and take a backup of it. And then maybe burn it on a CD and keep among your Redguard discs. So you have a "clean" install of Redguard, cause as I mentioned earlier, the install program won't work in future versions of Windows.

First thing to do is to create a bin/cue image of the Redguard Play CD. Several different CD/DVD burning programs can do that, but if you don't have any or not sure if it can, get http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm, as it's a free program. http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/ is also free and works very well.

If you download and install MagicDisc, then choose the "Make CD/DVD Image" option in the tray menu. From there, choose the drive the CD is in, the output file (Redguard in the DOSBox folder) and BIN/CUE as the output format. Then press OK. You can uninstall MagicDisc after this if you want.

Be sure that the Redguard.cue and Redguard.bin files are located in the same folder you have DOSBox. Since you have these files in the DOSBox folder, you won't need the CD any more.

Now, lets open DOSBox and configure the sound settings. Type the following:
MOUNT C GAME
C:
CD REDGUARD
CD SOUND
SETSOUND

You do not need to bother about the MIDI settings, as the game doesn't use that. When it comes to the Digital Audio, you have two options. Either pick the old original "Sound Blaster" (not Pro or 16) or the newer "Sound Blaster 16". With the "Sound Blaster" setting, you will get the sounds in mono. While in "Sound Blaster 16" you will get the sound in stereo, but unfortuntely in reverse. So left sounds are from the right and vice versa. It's something we have to wait for DOSBox to fix in future versions. Me, I prefer mono instead of wrong stereo. After this, close the sound setup program and then close DOSBox.

Time to open GAMES\Redguard\SYSTEM.INI with notepad and make sure that the animation_drive line says animation_drive=d:\. Edit it if needed, and save.

Now lets edit dosbox.conf with notepad and make the following changes:
memsize=63 (near the top)
glide=true (near the bottom)

And then this after the last "# Lines in this section will be run at startup." line:
MOUNT C GAMES
IMGMOUNT D REDGUARD.CUE -t iso
C:
CD REDGUARD
RG.EXE

Now save it as Redguard.conf and you're done. And then start DOSBox to play Redguard!

Very nice, Freddo :goodjob: Do you plan on stickying these?

While we're compiling guides it woud be helpful to link to these as well:

Alternate guides to Arena and Daggerfall

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=95645: Just an alternative install method and dosbox configuration. Note that Mech uses an older version of DOSbox in that particular guide.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=212018 and http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=212018&view=findpost&p=3801822: Both use the CVS version of DOSbox which allow for advanced scalers and pixelshading. Makes both games look significantly more pleasing to the eye. Also, Dagrooved does a great job of explaining how to tweak DOSbox performance and make it run the best it can on your machine.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=576146: Use DOSEmu to get the games to work, which is much less demanding of the CPU than DOSBox.

The Daggerfall Betony Demo

For those who do not own Daggerfall and would like to see what all the fuss is about: the guide to installing and running the Daggerfall Betony Demo may be found http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=380819.