DOSBOX to be in new Sierra Collection releases? \ VOGONS

DOSBOX to be in new Sierra Collection releases?

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First post, by mr_btw

Posted on 2006-09-14, 18:39

mr_btw Offline

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Hi all,

I saw that Sierra is finally releasing their WinXP-compatible updates to their KQ, LSL, SQ, and PQ classics.

Look at the "Latest Releases" section on their site:
http://www.sierra.com/en/home/games.html

Now, the fine print in the KQ, SQ, and PQ games mentions DOSBox, as in the following (for KQ):

© 1984-1994 Sierra Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. King’s Quest, Sierra and the Sierra logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc., in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft and the Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Athlon is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. DosBox © 1989-2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. for more information go to http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

Anyone have more to say? Should we be expecting bug fixes too, or have the games simply been repackaged with DOSBox? Guess I'll find out soon enough since I have SQ on order from Amazon (currently scheduled to ship September 15, 2006).

Oh, and from the descriptions, it looks like we won't be getting ALL of the KQ and LSL games. The ones that were already compatible (Mask of Eternity and Love For Sail, for example) aren't included. I suppose that's fair...

Thoughts?

Reply 1 of 4, by iampiti

Posted on 2006-09-14, 18:53

iampiti Offline

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mr_btw wrote:

Should we be expecting bug fixes too, or have the games simply been repackaged with DOSBox?

Well, I don't think they're bothering to fix bugs in games that old.
Whatever they do, I think it's great they're including dosbox as part of a commercial product. It should make Qbix , Harekiet and all the other contributors very proud of their child.

Iampiti

Reply 2 of 4, by DosFreak

Posted on 2006-09-14, 20:13

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Avatar in the other thread brought up a good (but obvious) point about the Windows versions of the games. They are 16bit games which means that they will not work in 64bit Windows. To run these 16bit Windows games you'll have to use Windows 3.1 in DosBox, Microsoft Virtual PC, Vmware or Qemu.

Since these collections are including DosBox for the DOS games (not creating a port for them), it extremly unlikely that they will do anything with the 16bit Windows games and just include them as they were. I suppose the only solution to play these games for people unable or unwilling to use emulators is to use a service like Gametap.

heh. Since VU isn't showing the DosBox devs any love I wonder how many other companies are using DosBox without showing their appreciation. Gametap anyone? 😉

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Reply 3 of 4, by avatar_58

Posted on 2006-09-15, 07:13

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The funny part is Vista is due out in such a short time. Argueably one would opt for the x64 version to 'future-proof' their system, making this collection worthless if they don't include the dos versions to play in dosbox. The 16-bit windows games aren't going to be worth the money unless they have some sort of 32-bit wrapper or something.