First post, by Faceless
Well a couple of years ago bought Toonstruck from Ebay and have never been able to play it, so I stuck it on a shelf and didn't really know what I could do.
Then I found DosBox which I love 😀 because I am a big fan of some really old games that can't run on XP.
When I first tried Toonstruck I was very dissapointed that it didn't work on DosBox and all I could do was wait until it was supported.
Then I read up (on these forums) about VDMSound and nolfb.com and my hopes were once again raised.
However this method didn't work for me, and also didn't work for other people on these forums. So I (and some of you) were once again left waiting for DosBox to support the game...
However I have discovered a way to play this game, perfectly, full resolution, full sound in all its glory 😀
Here's how I did it.
First of all you are gonna need a few proggies.
What you will need:
Microsoft Virtual PC from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/
Alcohol 120% (or any prog that can make ISO images. And I mean ISO, not BIN or IMG or NRG it has to be ISO as that is all VPC accepts) from http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/
The installation CD of an old OS (I used windows 98 SE).
STEP 1 - SETTING UP VIRTUAL PC
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Install Virtual PC. For people worried about speed emulating a PC there is no need. On my 2.4ghz the emulated PC runs at full speed.
Setup VPC with the defaults (or change things if you like, I used the defaults).
I will walk you through setting up and getting Windows 98 setup started (pro's can skip this).
First you must boot (in VPC) from your Win98 CD.
At the menu choose "Start without CD-rom support".
When its loaded you must run "fdisk" to set up your HD.
Enable large drive support when it asks.
Create a Primary Dos Partition but DO NOT use the maximum amout of space (it defaults to this). If you do this it will consume the entire free space on the drive which contains you virtual HD. Just set the size to about 500mb (Win98 uses about 250mb).
Once done reboot and this time from the menu (booted from CD) choose "Run Windows setup from CD". This will allow you to first format the drive (you MUST do this). Once done Windows will install and set itself up. Once done, you now have a fully working old OS inside XP running at full speed and with sound.
STEP 2 - CREATING ISO'S OF YOUR DISCS
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OK now you will need to create an ISO of your Toonstruck CD's. I have heard that running from CD's can cause crashes (I haven't tried so I don't know, but running from ISO's is perfect).
To do this download Alcohol 120%, make sure your Toonstruck CD is in the drive and click on "Image making wizard". Choose the correct source CD drive and whatever speed you want.
Clear all check boxes or just choose "normal cd" from the drop down menu. All checkboxes must be cleared or you wont be allowed to dump the disc to ISO format.
STEP 3 - RUNNING TOONSTRUCK
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Unfortunately, this is where the annoying problems come in (at least they did for me). They are nothing that will stop you from playing the game, they are just very annoying.
From the CD menu on VPC choose "Capture ISO", and point it to your ISO of disc 1.
The auto load menu will appear, click INSTALL.
Now you may run into your first "annoying" problem. You should see a dos installation screen that should be simple enough to understand. However you may find that you keyboard doesn't work. Unfortunately the only way to over come this is to close the install program and run it again. You have to keep doing this, and eventually the keyboard will work.
Once it does the installation will be effortless, everything will work fine.
I don't know if the sound on VPC is emulated (probably), or if it uses settings from your actuall sound card but here is what worked for me on the sound settings: Choose "Sound Blaster" with 220, 7, 1.
Once installed you are ready to run the game... however this is where the second annoying problem comes into play.
When you run the game you may find it crashes VPC and causes itself to reboot. All you can do is keep trying, the game will run its just a matter of chance. I would say it crashed about 3 times out of 5. I go to the installation directory and run toonstrk.bat (so far this hasn't crashed).
And there you have it, enjoy this great game, I certainly am 😀
