Win32s extension does not work properly in Windows in DOSBOX. I once had a problem with Wizardry Gold, WD was able to make a version to run it, but I do not think the changes made it to CVS... They would probably slow things down or something similar... I do not know.

Mirek

mirekluza wrote:

Win32s extension does not work properly in Windows in DOSBOX. I once had a problem with Wizardry Gold, WD was able to make a version to run it, but I do not think the changes made it to CVS... They would probably slow things down or something similar... I do not know.

Mirek

Ah I see. Thanks. 😒

Yeah, I don't think we can expect DosBox to support WIN32, at least not for the near future. Remember Win32 was Microsoft progressing away from 16bit code for Windows programs to 32bit code.

Wasn't it also decided that the fix for the mouse issues in dynamic core in Windows would slow down DosBox? To play Win32 games you'd definetly need dynamic core. (Well I guess that's debatable depending on how fast the computer your running it on is and the type of game).

It would be cool to see Silent Thunder or Star Trek Borg (FMV) running in DosBox tho.....but they run fine in Qemu.

I do think that before 64bit is standard across most people's machines (This would be after Vista obviously so considering how fast DosBox development is I don't think it will be that long) that DosBox should try to support Windows 3.x fully. There are alot of fun little games out there that won't run on 64bit machines and it is a PITA to mess around with HD images and terribly sound quality with other emulators when you could just mount the host filesystem, boot Windows 3.x in DosBox and play your 16bit/Win32 game.

DosBox DOS games compatibility is steadily being whittled down further and further so I guess we'll need something else to keep our minds occupied. 😉

It'll be pretty sad that DosBox would be the prime emulator for both DOS/Windows 3.x programs since Microsoft can't even bother to support their own customers. (Well...obviously Home Users are not really Microsoft customers...more like consumers/sheep).

It'll be pretty sad that DosBox would be the prime emulator for both DOS/Windows 3.x programs since Microsoft can't even bother to support their own customers. (Well...obviously Home Users are not really Microsoft customers...more like consumers/sheep).

I think we are rather lucky that Microsoft didn't try to make a fully functional DOS emulator. The incentive to program something like Dosbox would have been much less and I'm sure there is no way that a Microsoft implementation of an emulator would have as much features. Think of the many sound devices supported; and now we have also direct serial pass-through, networked multiplayer, accurate CGA emulation, video capturing and so on.

as much as it pains me, perhaps running it on bochs or Quemu (does that work) might be an alternative if it doesn't work correctly in Dosbox.

Win32s extension does not work properly in Windows in DOSBOX.

Just as a personal experience -- Win32s extenstions did not work properly, period. There were a lot of limitations compared to full Win32 there that required developers to make ugly workarounds. With proper testing one could write relatively stable code but quite a few games were prone to GPFs. I remember the first time I've got Win32s SDK I could not even run FreeCell32, it crashed in S3 driver -- at least DOSBox is past that one 😉
Another common game library of that period -- WinG -- runs just fine. Now, if we can get QuickTime to work properly: for some reason the version that comes with Myst just refuses to play anything.

Quicktime is just evil. The transition from 16bit to 32bit (or some other version change) broke many of those MultimediaCDs which used Quicktime.

Did you know you can have installed both the 16bit and 32bit version of Quicktime? At least, it could be done for W98. Don't recall if I tried this for WinXP.

true, found that out myself back then 😀
Another thing which will break when MS will drop 16bit Support

I hate quicktime....and it sucks that so many old windows games need it. Thank god the XP-friendly version of Myst works with modern quicktime versions.

I have a few games which NEED their versions from the CD. They specifically won't run if they don't detect it. 😒 I've tricked them by installing both (it does work) but I shouldn't have to if the developers had chosen a better solution for showing video.

As far as 16bit Quicktime support.

Alot of those old 16bit games that require Quicktime work just fine in Vmware/VPC.

They work in Qemu too but obviously Qemu will be much slower.

Also it's really usefull to find the MAC versions of these games and run them under an emulator since there is much less playing around with emulated Windows/game configurations and just playing the game.

Different sound devices... That's why I love DOSBox! Not only it allows me to play Bubble Bobble by Novalogic, it also can make me taste old games in many different flavors...

The installed game absolutely didn't works. I tried compatibility mode on
DF.EXe/MOVPLAY.EXE etc. but always have a Fatal error.
So, i just step to \INSTALL\ALT31 and copied both of the files (DF.EXE
and MOVPLAY.EXE) and runs on WinXP !!!
Sometimes again had an error mess,but next time again started!!
The really strange thing that true: sometime runs with DF.EXE but next
time NOT!! Anyway when started, the game runs fine. With CTRl+F1 set
brightness/Save-Load working, etc.

avatar_58 wrote:

I realize I can't expect much from windows 3.11 from in dosbox, but if anyone can shed some light on my issue I'll be happy. 😁

I realize this is a very old thread, but I wanted to get the word out that this game now runs great in Windows 3.1 in DOSBox; I installed it this morning, and all is well. I love this game, and to see it running on Windows XP, well, I'm darn near ecstatic!! 😁