0MHz DOS Collection 2024.03.20 Released

[riblad_om]

Just loaded up Blood and I don't think it runs well enough to be playable and should probably be removed.

[Bas]

https://www.area536.com/dosk8s/disks/blood.zip

Blood in a supposedly working setup. Haven't tested it extensively though.

[ItalianGrandma]

Would it be possible to map controller inputs to keycodes so your pad acts like a faux keyboard?

Yes, there is a setting in the core for this called something like "button/key remap for specific game". But as mentioned, by default this mapping will apply to everything across the whole core.

Now, if you specify a <setname> in the MGL file (i.e. add a line like '<setname>yourgame</setname>'), you can get around this, but it also means you have to put each of your games inside a specific folder in your games folder (i.e.

Code: Select all

media/fat/games/yourgame/media/yourgame

) and the main

Code: Select all

games/yourgame

folder has to have

Code: Select all

boot0.rom + boot1.rom

in it as well. Then, that specific button/key remap will only apply to that game, but this is a bit more tedious to setup.

That said, someone else earlier in this thread was working on a solution for specifying config files on a per game basis inside of MGLs, so that will probably be the most elegant solution.

EDIT #1: It just occurred to me that instead of having specific folders for each game, you could probably just make a symlink for the game that needs specific controls mapped and point that to the games/ao486 folder...going to try this out in a bit.

EDIT #2: The symlink method works! I did run into an odd issue, though…

I used Bio Menace as my test MGL and specified a “setname” for it and made a symlink to the games/ao486 folder that matched the setname. I also copied the ao486.cfg file and renamed it to bmenace.cfg (bmenace is my setname) and placed it in my config folder.

While this all worked fine, the weird part was that when I ran a Bio Menace MGL without the setname specified, the d-pad on my DualSense worked in the game menu right away. When I ran the game from the MGL with the setname specified, my d-pad does not work in the game menu. The config files are exactly the same and the only difference was that had a setname in the mgl and a differently named but identical config file??

[Emubastard]

https://www.area536.com/dosk8s/disks/blood.zip

Blood in a supposedly working setup. Haven't tested it extensively though.

Fair enough. It is a bit rough.

[limi]

If possible, a big improvement re: packaging would be to keep the configurations (MGL, CFG) separate from the game .zip files, maybe in a single zip for all game configurations as the size is very small. That way, frequent configuration changes (e.g. for bugfixing) can take place without one having to redownload the entire game.

This would break one of the major goals of the 0MHz DOS Collection: One game, one file, standalone setup.

The way to deal with frequent updates would probably be better handled by making a script for update_all that can diff and replace the MGL files. But the changes needed are rarely in the MGLs (unless something got renamed, in which case the VHD would need to be too), and more likely in the VHDs themselves.

[spark2k06]

To be more flexible, I am now experimenting with this other possibility:

https://github.com/spark2k06/Main_MiSTe ... 089bdaa570
https://github.com/spark2k06/Main_MiSTe ... 290ba3429d
https://github.com/spark2k06/Main_MiSTe ... d6193edd88
(WIP... I have been testing. I will unify and clean up commits)

It allows us to have different scopes of customised configuration:

• main

• audio

• video

• x86sys

In a customised path and base filename.

So we will be able to do something like this:

Code: Select all

<mistergamedescription>
    <rbf>_Computer/PCXT</rbf>
    <cfg path="/media/fat/games/PCXT/MGL/config" name="AlleyCat" scope="main,video"/>
    <file delay="1" type="s" index="2" path="/media/fat/games/PCXT/HDD/PCXT_CGA_Tandy_2.3.1.vhd"/>
    <reset delay="1"/>
</mistergamedescription>

In this case, we would be indicating that, in the path and base name indicated (AlleyCat), the configuration must be saved and loaded for main and video scopes. In case one of these scopes is not indicated, the core default will be used.

[lomdar67]

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that Monkey Island is the Special Talkie version with MT32 support. But it's not configured to use the MT32. Any idea how to set this up? I mounted the vhd file in Windows, but there is no config or anything and startig it with monkey.exe r1 isn't working either.

[virtuali]

But it's not configured to use the MT32. Any idea how to set this up?

We discussed this earlier here:

viewtopic.php?p=84516#p84516

I think all games in this collection assume Soundblaster for music, and they usually don't have a config utility from the original game so, as it is now, it would require a separate .VHD JUST to change what is usually a very small .CFG file, that's why we are discussing some alternatives: the main point is allowing to pass some data from the .MGL file to the Ms-Dos, so a startup file (autoexec.bat, for example) can replace the sound config files automatically, based on what it gets from the .MGL file.

Right now, what I usually do in such cases is take the sound config file for MT32 from the Top300 Dos collection and replace it in the .VHD for the individual game. Not ideal, because it's not easy to switch back to Soundblaster if I want to, but it's the only way, until a better method comes.

[Bas]

For DOSContainer I'm running into this exact same problem. The way I intend to solve this is by building multipe VHD's. It's a layered approach:

1. Generate bootable VHD with bare-bones OS.
2. Upload the payload (ie. the game itself)
3. Upload specific game config according to YAML manifest
4. Loop back to 1 as long as the manifest has configs remaining.

The special sauce will be in the YAML manifest for the game and the fact that I'll be looping over that. As it currently stands, my own pipeline rebuilds each and every DOSContainer VHD whenever a single change is committed to the games/YAML repo. That takes less than 5 minutes at this point. The VHD's now contain BAT-menus which.. well.. are ugly but needed because every game is different.

If I take those menus apart and add the config files they twiddle as a separate layer to the VHD-generator, I'll end up with an exponentially growing number of VHD's. I don't care though, because they're small enough. The result will be custom-cut VHD's that can be put on your MiSTer only as you want/need them.

My own reason for doing this: supporting PCXT and AO486 from the same base pipeline.

[Emubastard]

But it's not configured to use the MT32. Any idea how to set this up?

We discussed this earlier here:

viewtopic.php?p=84516#p84516

I think all games in this collection assume Soundblaster for music, and they usually don't have a config utility from the original game so, as it is now, it would require a separate .VHD JUST to change what is usually a very small .CFG file, that's why we are discussing some alternatives: the main point is allowing to pass some data from the .MGL file to the Ms-Dos, so a startup file (autoexec.bat, for example) can replace the sound config files automatically, based on what it gets from the .MGL file.

Right now, what I usually do in such cases is take the sound config file for MT32 from the Top300 Dos collection and replace it in the .VHD for the individual game. Not ideal, because it's not easy to switch back to Soundblaster if I want to, but it's the only way, until a better method comes.

This would be the approach.

I would have to identify what the sound config file is for every game that supports MT-32. Either make a separate VHD, or have some batch file logic that looks to see if an MT-32 "marker" disk or file exists in DRIVE A and copy the correct sound config file at run time to select MT-32 sound.

But originally the idea was just to get the games working and the assumption is that more people than not, are using MiSTer without an MT-32. Those that wish to use MT-32 can do what you're doing.

I would like to obtain an MT-32 for myself for testing but they seem to be sold out so that's a no go for me.

I think the Top 300 collection has identified all the relevant sound config files so that would make this a lot easier for me when I embark on this mission. Assuming I can ever find an MT-32 module to play with.

-Emubastard

[Bas]

You can use the local Munt emulation on the MiSTer. It won't be perfect but it'll work for testing. That said, games have many crummy ways to store configs and many conflate audio choices with video hardware setup and controller settings etc. It's a Heck of a job and boils down to custom work for each game, and a little luck when games share an engine such as Sierra adventures.

[riblad_om]

Is the audio in the FMV intro to Dune slightly garbled or is it just my setup?

[ItalianGrandma]

Can someone else test doing a "Button/Key Remap" in Ultimate Doom? For some reason, I can't get Up/Down/Strafe Left/Strafe Right to map to my controller. Right/Left works fine and it seems like the other buttons work fine. Not having this issue in any other games so far?

EDIT: After some further testing, I realized the Up/Down/Strafe Left/Strafe Right don't even work on the keyboard??

[MrX_Cuci]

Cool project. Any tuts on how to add your own games? Your are missing a few critical magazine hits.

[Emubastard]

Can someone else test doing a "Button/Key Remap" in Ultimate Doom? For some reason, I can't get Up/Down/Strafe Left/Strafe Right to map to my controller. Right/Left works fine and it seems like the other buttons work fine. Not having this issue in any other games so far?

EDIT: After some further testing, I realized the Up/Down/Strafe Left/Strafe Right don't even work on the keyboard??

The game is configured to use the WASD key, SPACE bar to open doors, and a mouse. Sorry I don't know about using a controller but those are the keys.

[virtuali]

I would have to identify what the sound config file is for every game that supports MT-32. Either make a separate VHD, or have some batch file logic that looks to see if an MT-32 "marker" disk or file exists in DRIVE A and copy the correct sound config file at run time to select MT-32 sound.

That's an interesting idea: using the "file" and "index" parameter in the .MGL, we can just mount a floppy that might even be empty with a special Label (to be checked with the VOL command) or perhaps containing only an empty file named MT32 or something, to be checked with IF EXISTS, and if that file exists, the batch file might branch differently and take the MT32 configs from a folder in the single .VHD, and copy them to the active game directory.

Since there might be games that require some floppy mounted in A: it might be safer mounting the marker disk on B: instead, so it would be index 1, I really need to try that.

[Jools]

Hi, i made a quick shot for the 0MHz Logo, hope you like it.

Im actually not an owner of a MISTER – came here by searching for Analogue Pocket cores. I LOVE the AMIGAVISION-Project and would be very proud, if i could contribute to a similar project.

0MHz_logo_v01_2024-03-23.png (76.28 KiB) Viewed 1627 times

[ItalianGrandma]

Can someone else test doing a "Button/Key Remap" in Ultimate Doom? For some reason, I can't get Up/Down/Strafe Left/Strafe Right to map to my controller. Right/Left works fine and it seems like the other buttons work fine. Not having this issue in any other games so far?

EDIT: After some further testing, I realized the Up/Down/Strafe Left/Strafe Right don't even work on the keyboard??

The game is configured to use the WASD key, SPACE bar to open doors, and a mouse. Sorry I don't know about using a controller but those are the keys.

Yes, I actually figured this out shortly after posting

Sorry about the false alarm!

[virtuali]

And it works! Here's an example with Ultima 6:

ultima 6.zip

(3.64 MiB) Downloaded 20 times

I made two 160K floppy images, the one named MT32MARKER.VFD contains only one empty file named "mt32" at 0 bytes in length.

The two Ultima VI MGL files mount either the MT32MARKER.VFD or the SB16MARKER.VFD (we must mount something otherwise the .bat file will error out), as floppy B:

I edited the RUNGAME.BAT file, which will test if the mt32 file exits on B: and if yes, it will copy the sound config, located in C:\CONF\MT32, otherwise it will copy the file from C:\CONF\SB16

So now, we can launch either "Ultima VI" or "Ultima VI - MT32" from the Cores menu, at the cost of just 2 dummy 160K floppy images for the whole collection.

[ItalianGrandma]

Cool project. Any tuts on how to add your own games? Your are missing a few critical magazine hits.

Depending on the game, you should be able to just do the following:

1) Make a copy of an existing 0MHz game folder with VHD and the associated MGL (NOTE: make sure the VHD you copy is big enough for the new game you're adding) (ANOTHER TIP: If adding a CD game, use a VHD for another CD-based game as a template, i.e. Full Throttle)
2) Rename your game folder and VHD and change the reference in the MGL to point to your new game
3) Mount the VHD in Windows and navigate to the folder with game files (you should also be able to rename the drive in Windows too)
4) Remove all game files except for RUNGAME.BAT and add the files for your new game
5) Modify the filename at the end of RUNGAME.BAT to the bat/exe for your new game
6) Rename your game folder for the new game
7) Modify AUTOEXEC.BAT in the VHD root and change the references to point to your new game folder/files
8) Unmount the VHD and copy it back over to the MiSTer. Also move your new MGL over

From there you should be set! That said, some games may need different configuration settings to get them to work, but that’s a bit beyond the scope of this basic tutorial.

Basically, I try to find games that seem to have similar requirements to the game I’m adding and then use that as my template for the new game.

[MiSTerTea]

Hi, This 0MHz DOS Collection release is great. There's a lot to love and I'm looking forward to see how this develops.

I'd like to share some potential issues that I've noticed with a few games I tried.

1. The Colonization package (Colonization.zip) file is around 155MiB most of which is the colonization.chd file which is not even used. This file only needs to be 3.6MiB. There is a Windows 3.x version of this game that came on a CD and has higher resolution graphics but this is not it.

Personally, I believe it's best to save as much storage space as possible for people who may not have 512MB/1TB MicroSD cards. As well provide an option for either the floppy or CD version of a game if possible.

I noticed that the 16 Color versions of Indiana Jones Last Crusade and LOOM where recently added which is awesome. Thanks!

---

1. The Space Quest III version is good however there is a version allowing the Sound Blaster for PCM/Speech (Which plays the "Where Am I" voice part in the intro).

Also for people who would like to use MT-32 Music and hear the Sound Blaster effects, there is a driver called MTBLAST.DRV which could be included. It's a very small file and would be much less of a hassle for people who grew up with the game and want to use it (either with the install.exe to change configurations or manually edit the resource.cfg file).

---

1. I'm not sure if this was discussed before, but the setup/install/configuration files are missing so sound options and such cannot be changed by the user without importing files or other extra work. I'm curious about the decision behind this.

I believe these setup files are small/tiny and serve a very useful purpose for those who want to change settings. As well, install/setup included is how the game 'shipped' and would be good to have even if just for preservation/nostalgia.

I believe that people who grew up with these DOS games would want this, as well, people new to DOS and are learning how it all works would be served better if these install/setup files existed for them to try out.

---

1. Kings Quest IV has a manual page/line/word lookup check at the beginning before the game can start.

This is fine if you happen to have your 36 year old game box nearby, but I would guess most of us probably would like to have an option of choosing between a version that is original and/or 'fixed' to allow getting right into the game.

---

1. Strike Commander has no mouse driver loaded.

I understand this was one of the most difficult games to get running in terms of conventional memory in the 640KiB area. However using LOADHIGH / LH actually loads the mouse driver correctly and there is still 624KiB available to run the game with a mouse. In fact it looks like Memmaker was used to optimize the system and then the mouse driver line was commented out of autoexec.bat

Why not enable mouse by default? I don't see a reason why this was disabled, but I also haven't played this game much and don't know about any potential quirks related to mouse functionality in game.

---

1. Space Quest IV has some trouble/glitching with the speech in the intro. I don't think this is specific to the 0MHz release but if someone is aware of a solution to this, it would be great.

I know that certain parts of this game are time-based and can be even impossible to pass at higher CPU speeds, but the speech works fine in other parts of the game so it may be related to something other than the speed.

Also there is a floppy version of this game which has a number of differences from the CD version and it would be good to have as an option.

---

Thanks for everyone working on this, it's truly amazing to be able to launch a DOS game from the MiSTer and get right into it without the autoexec.bat/config.sys fuss.

P.S.
The MiB/KiB units I mentioned above are the same as MB/KB from back in the DOS days where 1MiB = 1024KiB and 1KiB = 1024 bytes.

[limi]

So now, we can launch either "Ultima VI" or "Ultima VI - MT32" from the Cores menu, at the cost of just 2 dummy 160K floppy images for the whole collection.

Maybe using the support for the /shared drive in the core would be the better/easier way? That’s what we do for AmigaVision, it could just be a single file in that directory on the MiSTer SD card that lets the system know whether to configure for MT-32 or not.

[Bas]

Are you going to handle the slew of games that have multiple sound configs at all? Like MT32, General MIDI, SB(Pro/16) in different combinations? I've had this in some cases and the BAT-menu at startup gets really long supporting all those permutations. For instance Sierra adventures using SCI. They support many graphics options (Hercules, CGA 4-colour, CGA 2-colour, EGA, PCJr) and a whole slew of audio (PC speaker, Adlib, MT32, CMS Gameblaster, Tandy) and controls like mouse on/off, keyboard types Tandy/PC, joystick on/off. To do them all would generate 200+ unique configs. Not strictly all of those make sense, but still the list quickly gets longer than a boot menu comfortably permits and that's just Sierra's SCI games.

For DOSContainer I'm working on a method to quickly pull and package those differences as binary diffs (looking at stealing rsync's algorithm for this). The philosophy being that all complexity goes into the build pipeline. The end user gets to simply pick and choose flat single VHD's which I'll be grouping into sensibly packaged collections. The game/app packager has an easy tool to quickly cycle through configs and pull the delta's into a zip. I'm also avoiding hard dependencies on MiSTer-specific features like the shared filesystem or injecting anything into the core's address space. Not the easiest road while going for "museum quality accuracy" at the same time, but one needs a hobby.

[limi]

Probably not. Maybe MT-32, but I don’t want to speak for Mr. Emu, who is doing the actual work.

Most people had a Soundblaster equivalent, that’s what’s going to trigger their nostalgia. Anyone that knows what a MT-32 device is can probably find their way around the setup menus and save that as their setup.

[nymous]

So, I've tried this pack. So far, looks good. Though I don't really like having "DOS Games"right in the main menu, so I moved the folder to _Computers. I also managed to run most games with my mt32-pi, but had to exit and run setup on most of them. Monkey Island, if anyone interested, should be started with "R1" key in the command line.

As to the games.

• Idk why, but I have full hang of my MiSTer with all Alone in the Dark parts. It even stopped responding to OSD button. Only power off did help.
• GTA asks for the disk. I've tried to insert it manually, but a no go.
• Warcraft II for some reason start Warcraft - Humans & Orcs. I've edited the MGL myself, it starts, but also keeps asking for CD. Dark Portal works right of the bat though.

Other than that, everything else was smooth. Hope to see more games in this pack. Personally wish to play Prehistorik 1&2.

[AmintaMister]

Are you going to handle the slew of games that have multiple sound configs at all? Like MT32, General MIDI, SB(Pro/16) in different combinations? I've had this in some cases and the BAT-menu at startup gets really long supporting all those permutations. For instance Sierra adventures using SCI. They support many graphics options (Hercules, CGA 4-colour, CGA 2-colour, EGA, PCJr) and a whole slew of audio (PC speaker, Adlib, MT32, CMS Gameblaster, Tandy) and controls like mouse on/off, keyboard types Tandy/PC, joystick on/off. To do them all would generate 200+ unique configs. Not strictly all of those make sense, but still the list quickly gets longer than a boot menu comfortably permits and that's just Sierra's SCI games.

For DOSContainer I'm working on a method to quickly pull and package those differences as binary diffs (looking at stealing rsync's algorithm for this). The philosophy being that all complexity goes into the build pipeline. The end user gets to simply pick and choose flat single VHD's which I'll be grouping into sensibly packaged collections. The game/app packager has an easy tool to quickly cycle through configs and pull the delta's into a zip. I'm also avoiding hard dependencies on MiSTer-specific features like the shared filesystem or injecting anything into the core's address space. Not the easiest road while going for "museum quality accuracy" at the same time, but one needs a hobby.

Yours is the perfect approach!

[virtuali]

Maybe using the support for the /shared drive in the core would be the better/easier way? That’s what we do for AmigaVision, it could just be a single file in that directory on the MiSTer SD card that lets the system know whether to configure for MT-32 or not.

I'll try that, the main issue is the MISTERFS.EXE takes a bit of conventional memory, which might cause lots of games to fail, so the batch file should mount the shared folder, copy the config to the game folder, and unload the MISTERFS.EXE before starting the game.

[Bas]

DR-DOS is better at freeing conventional memory than MS ever was. That may help.

[flynnsbit]

I think the Top 300 collection has identified all the relevant sound config files so that would make this a lot easier for me when I embark on this mission. Assuming I can ever find an MT-32 module to play with.

-Emubastard

Here you go for future reference to make it easier. 79 files with references: https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Aflyn ... &type=code

[virtuali]

DR-DOS is better at freeing conventional memory than MS ever was. That may help.

I tried the method of starting MISTERFS, copying the relevant files from the Shared folder then MISTERFS /u to unload it, and it seems to work fine.