Alright, I got Phantasmagoria to install in Dosbox and start a new game, but I cannot get it to switch disks. Any suggestions?

what did you try to switch disks?

The program presents a message box which tells me to enter the disk (in this case disk 5) and hit enter. When I do this, nothing happens.

Tried ctrl-f4 before that?

glyco0 wrote:

The program presents a message box which tells me to enter the disk (in this case disk 5) and hit enter. When I do this, nothing happens.

When wd asks "what did you try to switch disks?", the answer he wants to hear is: I read the README-file that comes with DOSBox and there I found out about CTRL-F4.

i tried CTRL-F4 repeatedly, but with no luck. Here is the bottom of my dosbox.conf file:

xms=true
ems=false
umb=true
# automount=true
keyboardlayout=none

[ipx]
# ipx -- Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=false

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# Note: all files are in the same folder as exe file.
# Also, all files are image files are in quotes.
#mount C C:\blackdahlia
mount C C:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos -freesize 20
imgmount e "c:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos\Phantasmagoria_1.iso" -t iso
imgmount f "c:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos\Phantasmagoria_2.iso" -t iso
imgmount g "c:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos\Phantasmagoria_3.iso" -t iso
imgmount h "c:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos\Phantasmagoria_4.iso" -t iso
imgmount i "c:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos\Phantasmagoria_5.iso" -t iso
imgmount j "c:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos\Phantasmagoria_6.iso" -t iso
imgmount k "c:\Phantasmagoria\SIERRA\scarydos\Phantasmagoria_7.iso" -t iso

c:
phcd

This is using v 0.71CVS. As you can see, I have mounted my disks, but none are loaded. If I manually load the disk, it does not work either.

Nah Phantasmagoria won't recognize the disks if you mount them in different drives. It's rather simply though to make it switch the disks in one drive:

First you install Daemon Tools or some other Virtual CD Drive in Windows ánd mount the first disk. Then you mount that drive as CD-Drive in Dosbox. If Phanta asks you to switch Disks, you exit Fullscreen and just switch to CD 2 in Daemon Tools. Phantasmagoria should recognize the new cd then (at least, I'm quite sure that's how I got it to work when I played the game.

what version of dosbox did you use? I was finally able to manually open the game and insert the disks manually through my cdrom, but it played a little slower.

I used a CVS between 0.65 and 0.70 I think and it would work just fine, aslong as you mount the virtual cd drive as a cd drive in dosbox so it would recognize the disk change.

Playing directly from the cd is a bad idea imo, I've experienced massive loss of performance on any game I tried to play that way.

You should do this:

imgmount E "C:\ISOs\Ph_1.iso" "C:\ISOs\Ph_2.iso" "C:\ISOs\Ph_3.iso" "C:\ISOs\Ph_4.iso" "C:\ISOs\Ph_5.iso" "C:\ISOs\Ph_6.iso" "C:\ISOs\Ph_7.iso" -t iso

Phantasmagoria will run fine in XP. It's a Windows game as well. Phantas2 will not, however....Win9x or DOSBOX for that one.

I rewrote the dosbox.conf file to load the disks all on one drive, like you suggested, and it worked. Trouble is, the program does not recognize the drive. I used CTRL-F4 to try and switch drives and no luck. Only by inserting the disk into the CDrom will it work. In fact, I had to copy the files from disk one to the game folder so that the game would even start.

I don't understand why you want to run it in DOSBOX. It will run perfectly fine as a Windows application. It might look better, too. Phantas 2 looks better in Windows than DOS. These are games that shipped with both DOS and Windows executables.

Mount the images with Daemon Tools and see if it works. I've beaten the game several times in XP.

It will run perfectly fine as a Windows application

Nice suggestion for all the people that don't/don't want to use windows, right?

What about switching Disks with Daemon Tools? Didn't that work?

wd wrote:

It will run perfectly fine as a Windows application

Nice suggestion for all the people that don't/don't want to use windows, right?

He never said anything about Mac or Linux. There's even talk of Daemon Tools, a Windows app. Considering that, and that the game may look worse in DOSBOX because at least the DOS version of Phantas2 meant lower color depth, it made a lot of sense to me, yeah.

Windows is by far the easiest way to play Phantasmagoria 1. If he's running an x64 Windows, he may need DOSBOX though. I would imagine it has 16-bit components.

If he's running an x64 Windows

Yeh and he didn't say that as well etc.

Actually Sierra games of that age in Windows XP aren't too stable and there's some issues. For one, you have resolutions issues meaning that I need to lower my resolution which I hate doing because then Windows re-arranges all my neatly arranged icons on my desktop and there's also reports of colour palet issues. I haven't tried it in VIsta yet though but I generally prefer Dosbox because it's self-contained. Meaning that if the game decides to crash it only takes Dosbox along with it, and doesn't bring down your entire OS.

If there is a choice, you are almost always better off with the DOS version of Sierra SCI games. Most of the bugs with the DOS version tend to be just speed issues, which are easily addressed with DOSBox. The Windows games tend to be rather buggy. With most there is little difference aesthetically between the two. Also, don't forget, 64 bit Windows will become more and more common.