VOGONS


First post, by TheCoop

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It's been a bit since I posted here, but I've got an odd issue.

I have the DOS versions of MW2 (the v1.1 IBM disc), GBL and Mercs. It took a bit, but I finally got the whole "mounting in DOSBox" thing figured out at long last. Because of that, I was able to finally play MW2 with music without having to install virtual drives, and without needing the cracked exes that I found on these forums a long time ago. I just mounted the MW2 CUE file in DOSBox, installed MW2 from the IMG file, and went right into the game without issues. However, that same method isn't working for GBL or Mercs.

I was able to get GBL and Mercs installed after mounting their respective CUE files in DOSBox, and the games do seem to run fine. But their music simply doesn't play. The music tracks are there when I fire up Media Player and whatnot, so I know the discs have them. But in-game, they don't come up. I've made sure that the mounted drive in DOSBox is drive D, that way the games are in the first CD-Rom drive. The games themselves are obviously detected fine when it comes to installation, or else they wouldn't have been installed. So I'm confused as to why the audio tracks aren't being read off of the GBL and Mercs IMG files, while the MW2 image plays the music just fine using the same install method.

I've tried looking around online, but I didn't find much of anything to help with this. I searched these forums as well, but I didn't come across any real help with the terms I typed in. I don't know if I screwed something up, or if the GBL and Mercs discs do something differently that would prevent the audio tracks from playing in-game. But, any insight would be much appreciated.

I should note, I'm using just DOSBox. No front ends, no side programs, just DOSBox 0.74-3.

Thanks for reading and for any help that comes my way.

Reply 1 of 9, by feda

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My GBL is working in 0.74-3 with music.
This is the command I'm using to mount my bin/cue:

imgmount d "d:\images\ghostbear.cue" -t iso -fs iso

Is your music configured correctly in setsound?
Was your image created correctly with audio tracks?
What's in your cue?
Maybe it would help to try bin/cue instead of img/cue.

Last edited by feda on 2023-03-23, 10:27. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 9, by xcomcmdr

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You don't need -fs iso in this command line.

Have you tried to check the in-game volume ?

What about a DOS CD music player ?

Reply 3 of 9, by TheCoop

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Thanks for responding, guys.

Here's my command line that I type into DOSBox... imgmount d c:\dosgames\gbl.cue -t iso (I've also tried it with the -fs iso added and quotation marks before and after the actual file location).

DOSBox finds the disc (which is how I got the games installed), so I know it's going to the right spot. But, no music. I've made the game image in both BIN/CUE and IMG/CUE formats with IMGBurn, and the result is still the same... no music. If I load the disc image into Alcohol 120%, I'm asked how the disc should be opened by Windows. And when I choose the audio CD option, Windows Media Player comes up and the first track starts playing. So yeah, the music tracks are all there for both the GBL and the Mercs disc images.

I should also mention that I do have all of the sound effects playing, and the volume sliders for the FX, music and whatnot are all set at 100% in the game. So audio-wise, the music is the only sound issue.

Now for some new news. I looked up some playthroughs, and... "found" some prebuilt packages for GBL and Mercs where someone set everything up so you just have to click a batch file to start the game. The first mission in GBL where you have to prove yourself against three enemies, has a screen that comes up telling you about the location you're at (a picture of a snowy landscape with "Planet: Alshain, TOD: Day, Temperature: -30 C). That screen didsn't come up with my repeated installs of the game, but it did on the playthroughs and the premade packages I found. There's also the image that comes and goes in Mercs before the missions start, which wasn't there for any of my installs of that game. Factor in that in the playthroughs and the packages, the music worked. I then remembered something similar happening with my install of Mech2 years ago, where the dropship image didn't appear before the level started, and their was no music playing. This got me wondering, is there a connection there? I mean, my Mech2 install was working fine, with music, and the dropship image appearing before each mission. And yet here was GBL and Mercs, with no pre-mission image and no music.

I deleted my installs for all three games, and installed them one by one using the imgmount technique in DOSBox. I did Mech2 first, and everything went smoothly. Started it up, heard the music, played a mission, and all was well. I reinstalled Mercs, and this time, I saw that pre-mission image come up when I did an instant action mission. Sure enough, the music started when the mission did. I played it a bit, and everything seemed to be fine. Then came GBL. When I installed it the first few times, I did it with the physical discs (and the swapping of them) that was required. I wondered if there was a way to do this install with the whole imgmount command, and after a little digging, I learned that you can mount two CD images and bounce back and forth between them using ctrl+f4. So, after a few failed attempts, I did it right, and installed GBL that way. Guess what? That snowy scene came up, the music started, and I did the trial.

I have no idea what happened or why, but apparently, there's some connection between those pre-mission images not coming up, and the music not playing. Something must have happened with all those previous GBL and Mercs installs, despite doing them several times and not getting the "can't find" CD-Rom error that other people have dealt with. But, after all of this nonsense and BS, I finally have all three games installed, with music.

Thanks for lending a hand, you two. This was a frustrating journey.

Reply 4 of 9, by feda

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TheCoop wrote on 2023-03-23, 22:30:

Then came GBL. When I installed it the first few times, I did it with the physical discs (and the swapping of them) that was required. I wondered if there was a way to do this install with the whole imgmount command, and after a little digging, I learned that you can mount two CD images

Huh? GBL is one disc...
I knew there were several releases of the old MW games, but I've never heard of GBL having two CDs.

Reply 5 of 9, by xcomcmdr

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Did you install the games in different paths ?

That's how I install them.

I have all three games, for DOS. The music always worked fine, without any particular setup. Both in DOSBox and on regular hardware.

This is very strange.

GBL should be on one disc.

Reply 6 of 9, by TheCoop

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To install GBL, you have to swap the GBL disc out and put in the Mech2 disc for verification, then swap out the Mech2 disc for the GBL one again. Originally, I did this with the physical discs, so that's why I said I installed it with the original discs.

And all three games were installed to their default folders each time in what DOSBox thinks is the C drive (the folder called "DosGames"). So they were in the "GBL," "MECH2" and "MERCS" folders. No different paths or settings.

Reply 7 of 9, by xcomcmdr

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Did you run the game SETUP program afterwards ?

Reply 8 of 9, by TheCoop

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I didn't. Didn't think I needed to, since the install process has you choose what to use for the music and SFX audio.

Reply 9 of 9, by xcomcmdr

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Yes, you are correct.

You did everything correctly, I've setup MechWarrior 2 / GBL / Mercs hundreds of times the exact same way with no issue whatsoever.

I don't know. 🙁