I would use PKZIP with disk spanning.

I tried it without disk spanning and obviously it didn't work, but I will try it with and see if it does.

Is there a version that will run on Windows 7 that will make files the Windows 3.1 version can read? Or is it just a set of standard .zip files when using disk spanning?

Ultrax wrote:

Is there a floppy-friendly (as in, disk 1 image disk 2 image etc.) of any version of Duke Nukem 3D?

Only the shareware ones.

1.3D registered/commercial only ever came on CD. 1.4/1.5 were on CD and requires the CD to run. 1.5 had a few digital releases (still not floppies) but they're all pulled for World Tour by now, just mentioning that to be complete.

The only shareware copies I've been able to find have all been 7 MB ZIP files, and not split into separate disks. Is it a specific version of the shareware?

Any chance of you putting a NIC in the machine and copying the files via a network connection? Would save you a lot of hassle.

The floppy release of Version 1.3 shareware has filenames running from 3DDN13-A.ZIP to 3DDN13-E.ZIP. Source:

https://web.archive.org/web/19961222190001/ht … e3d/dukeftp.htm

Mirrors are still available:

http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/msdos/games/3drealms/
http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/files/index/msdos/games/3drealms/
http://ftp.gameaholic.com/pub/mirrors/ftp.cdr … s/duke3d/split/

It's interesting that this Apogee FAQ apparently has incorrect/outdated information about the floppy release, although it does look like some sites used filenames without the hyphens:

http://www.rinkworks.com/apogee/s/3.1.3.shtml

Still, it may help folks looking for other shareware titles that are split as well.

If you have the game installed on a computer somewhere, just use ARJ/RAR or any other archiver that will automatically split the archive into floppy-sized parts, and seamlessly join them on the other hand. PKZIP is the worst solution for it, since it has no sane, built-in way to manage multi-volume archives.

Ultrax wrote:

Is there a floppy-friendly (as in, disk 1 image disk 2 image etc.) of any version of Duke Nukem 3D?

Or is it worth it to just buy a ZIP drive and some ZIP disks off of eBay and stop bothering with it? The only problem would be I'd need a USB drive as well, as I am using a modern (2008) computer with no serial or parallel to connect the legacy drive to.

Any help appreciated!

gca wrote:

Any chance of you putting a NIC in the machine and copying the files via a network connection? Would save you a lot of hassle.

This is the better/cheaper solution than buying a ZIP drive, far less headaches than transferring via floppies. Not just for DN3D but anything else you want to transfer from your new machine to your 486. I've also had far too many instances of floppies written one on PC not being able to be read by a different one. No tears were shed by me when floppies became obsolete.

You can use e.g. ARJ to split anything you want to floppies. just use -v1440 as a parameter and the archive will be automatically split.

go to your game directory and do

arj a dn3d -v1440 -r -y

where dn3d is the name you want.

I put the shareware version onto a set of floppies and now I'm kicking alien ass 😁
Thanks for all the help and support.

Also, I will consider that. I have a parallel/serial card in the second ISA slot (there are only 2 on this 486) but it's not necessary (I rarely ever use those connectors, and the machine already has a set of them buit onto the motherboard.)

Would it work to take an old wireless router and use that connected to the network interface card? A whole new Wifi network, just for my 486 😁
iirc, Every computer connected to the router including its Ethernet ports, will show up in Windows Explorer under the Network tab, where I can add files there.

dr_st wrote:

If you have the game installed on a computer somewhere, just use ARJ/RAR or any other archiver that will automatically split the archive into floppy-sized parts, and seamlessly join them on the other hand. PKZIP is the worst solution for it, since it has no sane, built-in way to manage multi-volume archives.

Errr PKZIP has automatic disk spanning. I used to use it all the time before CD-Rs. Hardly the "worst solution"...

It is the worst solution, because all other DOS archivers managed it better.

Disagree. There were plenty of DOS archivers that didn't even have the option for split volumes or disk spanning.

Furthermore, after splitting with ARJ you still have to manually copy the files to each floppy individually. PKZIP will do it automatically.

The biggest problem with disk spanning is disk failure. You could use the DOS v1.1 client for PArchive.
http://parchive.sourceforge.net/#clients

A DOS client for v2.0 files might be possible, although it would probably be easiest via cross compilation. It would likely require some work to make sure autotools and either DJGPP or OpenWatcom cooperate with the latest source.
https://github.com/Parchive/par2cmdline

i was stuck in the same situation, wasted so much time with discs and errors.

I got a ide - > cf card reader for under $10 1gb cf card and formatted with fdisk to 504mb and fat. Plug to pc with a cf - > usb converter copy files.

Attach to your 486 hard disk controller card, configure in bios and play.
I got mine as a slave also on a 486 which has the 504mb limit

Plasma wrote:

Disagree. There were plenty of DOS archivers that didn't even have the option for split volumes or disk spanning.

I didn't mention those, did I? I guess I should have not said "all other DOS archivers", but rather "the ones I mentioned".

BTW, how does PKZIP distinguish the different volumes? Which filenames does it assign?

Plasma wrote:

Furthermore, after splitting with ARJ you still have to manually copy the files to each floppy individually. PKZIP will do it automatically.

Not true, ARJ and RAR both have an auto-detect option for multiple volumes.

Furthermore, it is actually good to create the split volumes on the drive, and then copy them to floppies. Floppies are notoriously unreliable. Would you want a faulty floppy in volume 7 out of 10 force you to start the whole thing from scratch?

dr_st wrote:

Plasma wrote:

Disagree. There were plenty of DOS archivers that didn't even have the option for split volumes or disk spanning.

I didn't mention those, did I? I guess I should have not said "all other DOS archivers", but rather "the ones I mentioned".

Well you just answered your own question. ARJ and RAR are not even close to "all other DOS archivers."

dr_st wrote:

BTW, how does PKZIP distinguish the different volumes? Which filenames does it assign?

It uses the volume label on the disk.

dr_st wrote:

Plasma wrote:

Furthermore, after splitting with ARJ you still have to manually copy the files to each floppy individually. PKZIP will do it automatically.

Not true, ARJ and RAR both have an auto-detect option for multiple volumes.

Furthermore, it is actually good to create the split volumes on the drive, and then copy them to floppies. Floppies are notoriously unreliable. Would you want a faulty floppy in volume 7 out of 10 force you to start the whole thing from scratch?

That might be a good idea today, when hard drive space is plentiful and new floppies are low quality and unreliable. It was an unnecessary and sometimes impossible step back when we actually needed to do this.

Now I think of it (bit late now). If you have a null modem cable you could have used interlink to copy the files over (I'm assuming MS-DOS 6 or better here) via the com ports. Not fast but it does skip the need to add an additional card to a machine.

treeman wrote:

i was stuck in the same situation, wasted so much time with discs and errors. […]
Show full quote

i was stuck in the same situation, wasted so much time with discs and errors.

I got a ide - > cf card reader for under $10 1gb cf card and formatted with fdisk to 504mb and fat. Plug to pc with a cf - > usb converter copy files.

Attach to your 486 hard disk controller card, configure in bios and play.
I got mine as a slave also on a 486 which has the 504mb limit

I almost went for one of those, but the limited read/write cycles of the CF card kind of ruined it. My 486 is used for other things than games, like word processing and basic webpage development 🤣
I am going to get one for my Pentium machine, however. No original hard drive and finding a good 2 GB IDE drive is a pita