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First post, by Rekrul

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It was my understanding that in addition to GliDos, you also needed a DOS soundcard emulator like VDMSound to handle the audio in games like Tomb Raider on newer versions of Windows. In fact, the Advanced Tomb Raider Installer included both GliDos and VDMSound (as well as DGVoodoo). However, VDMSound is now dead as a doornail and I even recall reading that it no longer functioned properly on most versions of Windows due to changes made by Microsoft.

Has GliDos been updated to also include a DOS soundcard emulator to take the place of VDMSound? If not, how are people running games like TR1 on modern systems with GliDos?

I see that DOSBox is now the recommended way to run TR1. Does GliDos somehow work with DOSBox?

Reply 1 of 9, by DosFreak

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GliDOS was updated a couple of years ago to use DOSBox since most of it's user base was finally starting to use 64bit operating systems.

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Reply 2 of 9, by F2bnp

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Yes, GliDOS is wrapper and since it only works for DOS games, a 3rd party program is required for sound. VDMSound once filled this role, now it is DOSBox that's doing this, as well as making sure that the game runs fine on the OS.

Moving to x64, as DOSFreak says, basically killed DOS games running natively using NTVDM. Good riddance, DOSBox is far more suited for the job.

Reply 3 of 9, by Rekrul

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DosFreak wrote:

GliDOS was updated a couple of years ago to use DOSBox since most of it's user base was finally starting to use 64bit operating systems.

Does GliDos now include a special version of DOSBox, or do you just use the normal, official release? Or do you need one of the SVN versions that support Glide?

Reply 4 of 9, by DosFreak

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Just download the latest glidos and you can pick NTVDM,vdos32, or dosbox from the GLIDOS gui.

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Reply 5 of 9, by Rekrul

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DosFreak wrote:

Just download the latest glidos and you can pick NTVDM,vdos32, or dosbox from the GLIDOS gui.

Thanks for the information.

I've thought about buying GliDos a few times, but what stops me is having to use an online unlock service for each install. Call me stubborn or weird if you like, but I really dislike software that needs to be activated or unlocked remotely. This is the reason that I've never played Half-Life II and that I won't buy any modern games that require online activation. If I pay for something, I want to know that I can use it for as long as I have a system that it will run on.

If it was a one-time key or code, I would have no problem, but as I understand it, each unlock code is tied to a particular machine so that if I get a new system, I need a new code. I know GLiDos has been around for a while, but it's just the principle of not being able to install it until you go to the web site and generate an unlock code at the time of installation.

Reply 6 of 9, by Stiletto

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DosFreak, that doesn't answer their question of if the DOSBox included with GliDOS is modified.

Yes it is. From GliDOS 1.52 Glidos\Dosbox\README.TXT:

This is a copy of DOSBox updated to work with Glidos. The changes are to allow access to Windows named pipes from DOS programs, […]
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This is a copy of DOSBox updated to work with Glidos. The changes are to allow
access to Windows named pipes from DOS programs, and to allow DOSBox to receive
key-press Windows messages when not the active window.

You are free to change copy and redistribute this software according to the
rights specified in COPYING-DOSBOX and COPYING-SDL. For details of obtaining
the source see SOURCE.

SOURCE reads:

Source for DOSBox is available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/develop via svn. This release is based on revision 3 […]
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Source for DOSBox is available from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/develop via svn. This release is
based on revision 3520. To work with Glidos, the sources have been updated
to allow access to named pipes. The source changes are provided in the
file dosbox-glidos.patch.

Source for SDL is available from http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php.
This release of DOSBox includes an altered version of the 1.2.13 release
of SDL. The sources have been updated in two ways. One change is provided
as the patch file sdl-dosbox.patch; that is a change that was made by
the authors of dosbox and is applied in standard DOSBox releases. The
second change is provided as the patch file sdl-glidos.patch; that
makes apps responsive to Windows keyboard messages even when the app
doesn't have the active window. That behaviour is necessary for Glidos
to run games via DOSBox.

Yes, GliDOS's customized binaries of DOSBOX based off SVN r3520 and SDL 1.2.13, plus the patches against source SVN r3520 and SDL 1.2.13, are included. It was compiled 2010-02-06 and 2010-02-13 apparently.

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Reply 7 of 9, by DosFreak

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Rekrul wrote:
Thanks for the information. […]
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DosFreak wrote:

Just download the latest glidos and you can pick NTVDM,vdos32, or dosbox from the GLIDOS gui.

Thanks for the information.

I've thought about buying GliDos a few times, but what stops me is having to use an online unlock service for each install. Call me stubborn or weird if you like, but I really dislike software that needs to be activated or unlocked remotely. This is the reason that I've never played Half-Life II and that I won't buy any modern games that require online activation. If I pay for something, I want to know that I can use it for as long as I have a system that it will run on.

If it was a one-time key or code, I would have no problem, but as I understand it, each unlock code is tied to a particular machine so that if I get a new system, I need a new code. I know GLiDos has been around for a while, but it's just the principle of not being able to install it until you go to the web site and generate an unlock code at the time of installation.

I haven't purchased GliDOS for the same reasons.

You could use install and activate GliDOS in a VM (VirtualBox\Vmware) and then backup the VM.

Really if the only game you want to play with GliDOS is the glide version of Tomb Raider then you can do that with yhkwongs DOSBox build but you will not be able to use the high res textures.

I didn't play HL2 for years after it's release due to the steam requirement but just like any game you can easily make it offline which is what I did for that game and any game I buy off of steam.

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Reply 8 of 9, by Stiletto

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DosFreak wrote:

Really if the only game you want to play with GliDOS is Tomb Raider then you can do that with yhkwongs DOSBox build but you will not be able to use the high res textures.

Or:

[…]
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  • Supports TRX high-quality textures - much higher resolution than the original game (see Tomb Raider Xtra).
  • Restores PlayStation quality to the Full Motion Video sections FMV packs
  • Restores PlayStation extra audio tracks audio packs
  • Supports True3D via 3D monitors or red/blue anaglyph glasses

I understand you guys' grievance regarding a complicated licensing scheme, but please let's not have this discussion in Paul's own official support forums.

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

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Reply 9 of 9, by Rekrul

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Stiletto wrote:

Yes, GliDOS's customized binaries of DOSBOX based off SVN r3520 and SDL 1.2.13, plus the patches against source SVN r3520 and SDL 1.2.13, are included. It was compiled 2010-02-06 and 2010-02-13 apparently.

Thanks for the info.

DosFreak wrote:

You could use install and activate GliDOS in a VM (VirtualBox\Vmware) and then backup the VM.

In your opinion, which virtual machine is the best for running older games? Not just for Tomb Raider, but in general for games that work better under Win9x, etc.

I skimmed through the instructions for VirtualBox and it looks like it only supports 3D graphics acceleration on XP and up.

I also seem to recall that when I read about VMWare, people said you had to jump through some hoops to get the appropriate graphics and sound drivers (I think by downloading some add-on package and extracting them) and that it didn't support older versions of DirectX.

DosFreak wrote:

Really if the only game you want to play with GliDOS is the glide version of Tomb Raider then you can do that with yhkwongs DOSBox build but you will not be able to use the high res textures.

Or the PSX movies and sound...

DosFreak wrote:

I didn't play HL2 for years after it's release due to the steam requirement but just like any game you can easily make it offline which is what I did for that game and any game I buy off of steam.

But you still need to activate/authorize it online. It seems unlikely now, but what if Valve goes out of business or gets bought by another company? I know the president promised that if that ever happened, they'd release some kind of patch, but what if he's no longer in charge at that point? Plus, there's the changing system requirements. Because you need to run Steam, you need to meet the minimum requirements for it, which can change. It originally ran on Win98, but now it needs XP minimum. A couple years from now, it may need Win7. I could buy a retail, boxed copy of HL2, which states right on the box that it works on 98 and not be able to run it on anything less than a Win7 system.

Then there's the whole automatic update mechanism. Again, call me weird, but I don't really want software force-feeding me patches, which (if I understand correctly) can't be backed up for future re-install, only re-downloaded by Steam.