There is an old chess game released by Sierra On-line named Power Chess. The issue with this game is, it uses both Win32 and DOS. Out of the 5 executable the game needs to load, 3 of them requires DOS - KING.EXE, QUEEN.EXE and RUN386.EXE. So is there any way that the game's 32-bit main executable PCHESS.EXE use DOSBox to emulate the DOS executables?
previously known as Discrete_BOB_058
I read your discussion at another web site:
https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/ge … 6dfc6/?limit=25
Running RUN386.EXE QUEEN.EXE at a command prompt works and outputs text of chessboard positions. Apparently, PCHESS calls these DOS executables, but I am not aware of a simple way to resolve your request.
However, Power Chess is based on a known engine, WChess. A web site source referenced below says: "In 1995 David Kittinger released his new DOS-Program WChess, also the engine of Sierra's Power Chess DOS-16bit WChess 1.06". So, it is possible to run the Power Chess chess engine in DOS, at least a very similar one, but the interface would not have the commercial grade features, such as 3d graphics. A forum post at a link below has information on WChess v1.06 for DOS.
Sources of information on Power Chess:
https://www.chessprogramming.org/WChess
https://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6573
http://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?t=47878
https://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9050&start=15
hail-to-the-ryzen wrote on 2021-11-10, 11:02:I read your discussion at another web site: https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/ge … 6dfc6/?limit=25 […]
I read your discussion at another web site:
https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/ge … 6dfc6/?limit=25Running RUN386.EXE QUEEN.EXE at a command prompt works and outputs text of chessboard positions. Apparently, PCHESS calls these DOS executables, but I am not aware of a simple way to resolve your request.
However, Power Chess is based on a known engine, WChess. A web site source referenced below says: "In 1995 David Kittinger released his new DOS-Program WChess, also the engine of Sierra's Power Chess DOS-16bit WChess 1.06". So, it is possible to run the Power Chess chess engine in DOS, at least a very similar one, but the interface would not have the commercial grade features, such as 3d graphics. A forum post at a link below has information on WChess v1.06 for DOS.
Sources of information on Power Chess:
https://www.chessprogramming.org/WChess
https://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6573
http://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?t=47878
https://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9050&start=15
That's some quite useful information. I am afraid it may not be possible to run this game. I believe if DOSBox had some way to configure something like the Environment Path Variable, this could have been possible.
previously known as Discrete_BOB_058
It is not recommended, but it is possible to install Windows 95 as a guest OS. Another option is to test in Windows 3.1 while in 32-bit mode, but that is not likely to work.
hail-to-the-ryzen wrote on 2021-11-10, 12:09:It is not recommended, but it is possible to install Windows 95 as a guest OS. Another option is to test in Windows 3.1 while in 32-bit mode, but that is not likely to work.
The game does work on Windows 98.
I see an user @huh2 on SF already made a way to link DxWnd to dosbox, at least for 2 games. He used BATs with dosbox linkers and configs to replace the DOS executables and the 32bit game would launch the DOS executables. Now it will be interesting if dosbox can 'Not' execute the 32-bit executable but Windows to execute, after launching dosbox because afterall the engine is the only DOS component. This part seems difficult, because PCHESS.EXE won't be loaded in DOSBox memory and if PCHESS.EXE is launched the second time from dosbox, even bad. This one's hard
previously known as Discrete_BOB_058