if phil wants to look out later.

GOG Shadow of the Horned Rat still has aspect ratio issues, even dxwnd cant fix the vertical stretch, something akin to HOMM's GDI patch for the windows gold versions could work.
GOG 40k Final Liberation has Graphic and stuttering issues on win10.
The Retroism releases of Microprose games has issues on the Steam versions, 1942 has sound issues that were fixed here, but most of it were fixed thanks to Dosbox ECE builds.
The EA, GOG and maybe Future Steam release of Wing Commander 1,2,3 lacks the Windows version as optional, though Wing commander 3 can be patched to the windows version easily thanks to its Kilrathi Saga files + Dxwnd or Dgvoodoo2(older versions has Ps1/Armada black space skybox, recent versions has classic DOS Blue), 1 and 2 suffers from speed issues, WC1Windows was fixed thanks to Wcnews and the Free PCGamer release, Wing Commander 2 has issues on both DOS and Windows with crashes and speed issues, the wcfixes is open source for those who may want to give a try on it. (im using Phil's recommended config along with MUNT for WC2)

Thanks for this, I bought DN1+2 and they worked fine by copying game contents.

Blake Stone: Planet Strike boots fine, but as soon as loading is done it crashes. I'll try a few more things before adding it as a RED one to the document.
Has anyone else tried any Blake Stone games?

tried pinball dreams deluxe but after intros I get blank screen. screen still on. just blank
specs
intel p3 500mhz
soundblaster 16 isa
voodoo3 agp.
256mb memory.

edit....

oh wow. as I was typing this the table selection came up. just had to wait long time it.
for some reason its not showing credits before the tables. maybe thats why im getting blank screen.

got pinball fantasies running but had to switch dos cdrom drivers to XDVD2 to get it running without crashing blaming memory.
sounds great on soundblaster 16 1750... but only in pure dos mode.

Found my notes for some of the game installs. This is what I have for changing sound options in Dark Queen of Krynn:

"INSTALL.EXE hard coded to save the config file at “C:\DISK1\”; Move file to c: temporarily, run the installer, pick sound options, move the modified file back to original location"

Anyone able to confirm the steps? I think this may be based on an older version of the installer package so I don't know if the files have been changed since then.

I've managed to play Epic Pinball with the files provided by GOG. Tyrian, Stargunner and Mortal Kombat run fine as well.
With Jill of the Jungle I had problems, only episode 3 had music and sound, episode 2 had no music and episode 1 had no music and was on warp speed. I had to download another version which has a special intro screen that lets you pick each chapter; that version had no problems with any of the episodes.

I need to get CD-Rs to test Pinball Fantasies and World Rally Fever.

I forgot, my PC is Compaq Presario with a Celeron@700MHz, on board intel graphics and on board Allegro-1 sound system, about 320 MB of RAM.

Maybe I did not see it but Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist - the full blown Talkie version from GOG - runs just fine on original hardware. You can basically copy the whole contents of the GOG install to a CD/DVD-RW and then install on the original machine - I just drag and drop it - and it runs like a champ with full voice acting. I have installs of that on my Versa M/75, P/75, and 486 DX4-100 desktop.

This thread is quite ongoing for some time. Does anybody made some automated way to install or get GOG software on actual hardware with Windows 98 SE ?

I got the Freddy Pharkas Talkie to work on my NEC Versa M/75 using FreeDOS 1.2 by copying the install over to my E:\ partition over FTP (FTPServ and FileZilla on my linux box) and then editing the Resource.ini and Sierra.ini files to point to the audio files for speech. Supports WSS and works with speech as expected. So it seems, at least for thi Sierra Title, GOG is retaining all of the old drivers and information.

Another way, if you're using original HDD or smaller HDD, is to burn the current install to a CD-ROM and then run the installer and install to the preferred drive, I figure it should work as normal that way, but I have not tested yet.

Yes, right now I mostly buy original big box games on original CD. For GOG, burning CD did work fine, but I hate their installer. Even I bought some game on Steam or GOG, I end up sourcing a torrent copy of original disk (archive.org or some torrent website). This is completely legal if you bought the game on some of the stores. I would like to support GOG more, but don't like that old Win98 game requires Win10 and i7 for them 😀. As a software developer, this should not happen. It is just a lack of knowledge and laziness in their software department - demand to support some specific GUI library. For network I use open-source retro http gateway running on Win10, so networking and security is not an issue. Only if it would be possible to unpack their installer using 7Zip on Win32. My desktop consists of 4 computers from 1990 era to 2005 era with KVM switch. But that is just my GOG rant, you can probably ignore it 😀. BTW some fancy router such as RT AC87 is great 0 it supports attaching USB drive and running FTP server or even Samba share out of the box. It has good firewall and frequent updates as it is used mostly in hotels.

cyberluke wrote on 2021-08-18, 20:04:

Yes, right now I mostly buy original big box games on original CD. For GOG, burning CD did work fine, but I hate their installer. Even I bought some game on Steam or GOG, I end up sourcing a torrent copy of original disk (archive.org or some torrent website). This is completely legal if you bought the game on some of the stores.

No it isn't.

Well we are still waiting on some not lazy programmer to make some Gog/Steam downloader and retro system friendly convertor.. Its not rocket science, it simply need some framework and some scripts to use it.. for replication of manual tasks described in this thread and sheet. Gog will never do it, but community can... and with some donations (You know honest pay for honest work) it could work for both sides gamers/users and programmer.. There lots much less usable projects around.

Hello. Sharing my experience with titles from my GoG library that I haven't noticed in the linked spreadsheet. DOS games only.

- X-Wing and Tie Fighter just worked. I think need EMS.
- X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM and Tie Fighter Collector's CD-ROM worked after mounting the image. Tie I have actually installed (which involved a small bit of effort) while X-Wing just coppied
- Rebel Assault 2 just worked
- Syndicate Plus just worked. Here started setup from topmost game directory and then launched main game and mission disk from their redpective sub-directories
- Lands of Lore 2 couldn't figure out. Seems like one cant install nor burn CDs from GoG version. Could get sound work in the setup program, but game itself would keep complaining about failure to initialize audio.
- Daggefall just worked with minor config changes. However, on my system movement, monsters and mouse are way too jerky to be sure the game is running fine. Menus and videos show fine and game actually starts, so I think that it's my PC to blame.

Also some notes on games already present in the list:
- Ultima Underworld I and II - used mounted image to copy files over to HDD not unlike suggested in the spreadsheet, but what was instrumental (and I got that hint in one of the old threads here) was making sure read-only attribute was removed from the copied files. Also have glitches in UWI on character name entry, so have to start with empty name, but that's probably just me.
- Tyrion 2000 is marked all green in the spreadsheet but was crashing like wild for me with and without sound. Guess my PC is to blame.
- TES Arena is marked as perfect release. Installed and ran from mounted image build from GoG game filea, but the game would crash on my PC either during or after intro, with 0r without sound. Guess my PC to blame again
- Not sure that Hexen and expansion status is justified. Appreciate the note on compressed soundtrack, yet if one is good to go with FM or MIDI music installing is as easy as copying files.

Please let me know if the above has details useful for inclusion into the spreadsheet.

PS
Oh yes, couple of disappointments for me:
- Beneath a Steel Sky is a SCUMMVM version
- The Chaos Engine is a Win32 remaster

ludicrous_peridot wrote on 2021-08-23, 14:12:

- Not sure that Hexen and expansion status is justified. Appreciate the note on compressed soundtrack, yet if one is good to go with FM or MIDI music installing is as easy as copying files.

The CD music has fewer soundtracks compared to the other options for music playback. These soundtracks are actually recordings from a MIDI device that sound closer to the Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 and it's just there for convenience. Back then most users couldn't afford a real Sound Canvas due to them being very expensive and used the FM option for MIDI music instead unless CD music was there or had a wavetable synthesizer on their sound card.

I got System Shock (classic, GOG release) running on my DOS PC yesterday. It's already in the spreadsheet, but where the spreadsheet suggests burning an install CD from the .bin, I took the approach of transferring folders over. Since I made notes on the process, I thought I might as well share them here too.

• Install the game on your modern rig
• Copy the /CDROM folder to your DOS machine
• Go into /INST and run INITIAL.EXE
• This will install the game to C:\SSHOCK

Note: The install will log your /CDROM folder path as the CD, and it needs to be present to run.

Optional - Enhance your classic install with this mod:

• Download Malba Tahan's mouselook/key mapping/high resolution mod here: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=1719.0
• You'll need to grab both zips (XCDSHOCK + XCDSHOCK206 update)
• Drop XCYB.CFG, XCDSHOCK.EXE and XCDSHOCK.BAT into C:\SSHOCK
• You also need to drop a copy of dos4gw.exe in. The mod changelog says it's no longer needed, but I needed it. Shrug.
• You can edit bindings in XCYB.CFG, but the defaults are good. (So far I just changed set mlook_vsens 40 to -40 to invert the mouse)
• Run the game with XCDSHOCK

And with that you'll have a very FPS-like experience in the original System Shock on original hardware. Use E to toggle between mouselook and interact. Right click attacks, and works in either mouse mode. Hit Esc during gameplay to access higher res modes in the normal video settings.

Plays nicely!

Hi all.

Wanted to share my experience with GoG distros of Interplay classic Star Trek games (both are green on the spreadsheet).

25th Anniversary I was able to install and run without burning an image, using SHSUCDHD instead.
To install to non-C drive I had to follow default installer options and then move the installed game to the desired location, afterwards simply used SETUP.EXE.
Also unless SMARTDRV was loaded digitized sound in the game had noticeable and game breaking pauses while they were loaded from the image.

Judgement Rites CD contents can be copied to the hardrive from CD image after installation, afterwards CD is no longer needed.
TREK2.CFG is a text file that contains all the paths and can be easily edited to allow that.
The second disk with "Making of..." feature can also be run from a harddrive after copying as no installation is required.

Both games did not run in Windows with sound, but worked well in DOS.

I wish that for old games, GOG would have an option to download the original beside their modified versions. I understand that they have their installers, but for some of us its quite annoying. And hell, what's easier than packing up original files having to do nothing to them?

ludicrous_peridot wrote on 2021-09-12, 18:26:

Hi all. […]
Show full quote

Hi all.

Wanted to share my experience with GoG distros of Interplay classic Star Trek games (both are green on the spreadsheet).

25th Anniversary I was able to install and run without burning an image, using SHSUCDHD instead.
To install to non-C drive I had to follow default installer options and then move the installed game to the desired location, afterwards simply used SETUP.EXE.
Also unless SMARTDRV was loaded digitized sound in the game had noticeable and game breaking pauses while they were loaded from the image.

Judgement Rites CD contents can be copied to the hardrive from CD image after installation, afterwards CD is no longer needed.
TREK2.CFG is a text file that contains all the paths and can be easily edited to allow that.
The second disk with "Making of..." feature can also be run from a harddrive after copying as no installation is required.

Both games did not run in Windows with sound, but worked well in DOS.

Have you tried running it in FreeDOS?

twiz11 wrote on 2022-04-20, 22:53:

Have you tried running it in FreeDOS?

I haven't as I don't have FreeDOS bootable anymore. I do have FreeDOS installation on my drive and am using programs and tools from there. When I was referring to running in Windows vs in DOS, I meant Windows 98 SE OEM booting into graphics shell vs stopping at command.com being loaded.

Talking about which - I have recently changed boot loader configuration in a way thay may allow to easily get FreeDOS back, so may eventually try running games in FreeDOS.

My first and absolute favourite games (after the era of Arcanoid of course) were MOO, Kings Bounty and Golden Axe, can't see them anywhere in the list. Goblins were nice for single pass-through, but above 3 i could played for ages 😀 I launched MOO from Steam couple of years ago, worked fine. Will try to find other two and launch them on the modern HW.

Anyone able to add entries for these to the spreadsheet?

daggerfall
quake
quake 3
half-life
thief
thief 2
Baldur's Gate
Starsiege: Tribes