I have some other pressing translations to do, so of course I decided to do this one instead of ones to hand in and/or get money for 😀 I just ran through it without proofreading, so any errors are erroneous and I can't be bothered correcting them. [Edit: small fix because my accent wasn't being parsed]
Play them again, Sam...
It's already a problem for the computing industry - computer systems change so quickly that software quickly becomes obselete. Unfortunately, this also means that you can't simply run old software on a modern system, because contrary to what Intel and its cronies like to claim, their processors are no longer compatible with the 8086 from which they take their name. Here, however, we show you how to get those old classics running again...
Games were expensive - it's always been the case, particularly for IBM PCs. Still, we bought them, played them and then stuck them on the shelf. Looking at my game shelf (or rather shelves) today, I'm confronted with one classic after another. But the desire to once again play through one of these golden oldies, which gave you weeks of entertainment, quickly turns to frustration in the face of DPMI configurations, EMS memory, soundcard settings and other stumbling blocks. If only it would just run again! After all, software bugs are definitely not just a recent problem...
In many cases, old games refuse to run point blank. But a solution is usually found for such problems, and this is no exception.
In principle, there are several ways to get old games up and running again, e.g. emulation of a computer, distribution of a special driver or a new game executable (program file), be it from the original developer or a reverse-programmed version. Links to programs and information are given at the end of this article for your immediate perusal...
A new executable please...
First we'll look at the smallest of these, new program files. Because game companies keep a careful guard over their program code even decades after their release, this only happens rarely. In the meantime, a couple of companies are distributing their old games as open source or freeware (with iD Software and Revolution Software being the precursors of this), which makes it easy for dedicated people to port them to new hardware. In most cases it's enough to save the new program file (to the old data files?). In this case, configurations are rarely required. The advantage of this approach is that many programs will run on new hardware or at higher resolutions.
It's not just the original companies who create files like this, however. Some interpreter-based games (such as the old Lucasarts Adventures and their SCUMM system, or Sierra's classics) can be run trouble-free on modern computers using a new version of the interpreter. Some such projects can be found on Sourceforge, e.g. SCUMMVM for (but not by!) Lucasarts' Scumm-based games.
These projects are not explicitly supported by the companies, but thankfully they're also not impeded, so players can once again have the pleasure of hooking up with old friends like Indy, Guybrush, Simon or Larry. Detailed information on how well individual versions of the games are supported can be found on the relevant websites.
Personally I found SCUMMVM to be quite stable, running cleanly and perfectly suited to gaming. It's particularly gratifying that you can use the hardware display functions of a modern graphics card to reduce the blockiness of the games.
Of further interest is the fact that these old adventures can now be played on PDAs; the open source licence under which most interpreters are released, porting to these systems is easy. Indy on a handheld? Such dreams are close to becoming reality (check out the websites of the individual projects for more information).
Special drivers
Even in the DOS era, Microsoft and DOS compatibility never went hand in hand. The situation has only got worse with the release of more recent Windows versions. While programs could still access hardware directly under Windows 98 and ME, the structure of Windows NT (and consequently Windows 2000 and XP) means this is not at all possible. For old games, the resultant problem is that they can no longer access sound cards (or indeed other hardware such as mouse control, modems and to some degree even graphics cards). Windows simply quits programs that try to do this with an error message. In order to bring a bit more compatibility to Windows, a layer can be installed which intercepts these hardware calls and converts them to the appropriate Windows queries. Given that it's only very few modern soundcards are still compatible to the good old Soundblaster, it's a real necessity.
The best-known project for this is VDMSound, which in addition to the sound indicated by its name also provides joystick and VESA emulation. Despite being a pain to set up (an interface is currently at the beta stage), VDMSound nevertheless provides quite a good level of sound hardware emulation and many games run perfectly well with it. However, it does only emulate individual parts of a DOS computer which can lead to old games running too fast, nor can it take advantage of DOS memory settings or other such configurations.
Computer emulation
Which brings us to full emulation. Computer emulators provide the most freedom when it comes to old programs. They provide a complete virtual system, including memory, processor, graphics and sound card, motherboard and drives. It's most definitely the most extravagant was to bring an old game back to life, but it's also the most effective. The emulators fool the old games into thinking that they're being run on an old machine (as with the well-known C64 and Amiga emulators), and are well-developed. There are a number of these emulators available, both open source and commercial.
For gamers, by far the most interesting of these is Dosbox. At the time of writing, version 0.61 is available and is not just stable but fast as well. In addition to CDROMs, Dosbox allows directories on your hard drive to be mounted as drives, which allows players to set up several config files for individual games and convince these games that the hard drive is theirs alone. Dosbox emulates all the common soundcards of the era and an SVGA graphics card, allowing old programs to run in a window under Windows. It also provides hotkeys can to record sound and graphics or to increase or decrease the processing power (CPU cycles) of the emulated system - a great way to pause old games...
Dosbox is still at the beta stage and not everything is working yet. It is still stable, however (my small test of 80 old games over several days resulted in a single crash caused by a bad DPMS implementation). However, as is always the case with emulators, you need a fair amount of processing power. A 2GHz+ system is needed to play some old games at a comfortable speed.
In summary, Dosbox is a fantastic piece of software which (being free) should find its way onto many a hard drive.
Commercial emulators are naturally more developed, but also expensive. Whereas Dosbox provides a pure DOS emulation environment, many emulators go one step further and allow numerous operating systems to be installed in the virtual environment. VMWare, for example, works purely as a processor emulator - the user must have a licenced operating system available to hand and this has to be installed as well.
Commercial emulator developers also don't put too much stock in game compatibility. VMWare provides just enough soundcard emulation to output various system sounds - no FM synthesiser or MIDI port here. Still, commercial emulators do provide better system emulation. It's a matter of deciding whether it's worth shelling out for a licence to get (slightly) better emulation.
Conclusion
Old games are not passé: many modern games are derived from the game developer's early days, and anyhow, how many of us - truthfully now - still know the complete solution to one or other classic game? While testing the various emulators, there was more than one occasion when my friends and I had a "hey, remember when?" moment, including digging about for clues to puzzles.
To enjoy these games with a minimum of fuss, we recommend a combination of Dosbox, ScummVM and an AGI interpreter. They may not be error-free, but these programs give enough functionality for perfect gaming pleasure. In addition, they have helpful and active (and free!) user communities should you have problems getting a game to run.
In any event, we at Dlif.de hope you enjoy the nostalgia of trying them out - preferably with a couple of friends who remember the games as well.
(See original article for Links)
