VOGONS


First post, by PoulpSquad

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Hello to the VOGONS community

I'm trying to run an old Windows 3.x game (Sid Meier's Civilization II) in Windows 3.11 (not WfWG).
I installed Civ2 from an imgmounted bin/cue (imgmount d "e:\dosbox\iso\sid meier's civilization ii.cue" -t iso -fs iso) and wrote a batch file:

@echo off
imgmount d "e:\dosbox\iso\sid meier's civilization ii.cue" -t iso -fs iso
cd c:\civ2
civ2.exe
imgmount -u d

I created a shortcut that points to said batch file. It mounts the image and changes directory, but when it tries to run Civ2 it
gives me the "This program must be run under Microsoft Windows." error message.
How can I do this?

Here are some details:
Dual Pentium 4 Xeon 3.8GHz
8GB RAM
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x86 SP 2
DOSBox SVN 3909 from EmuCR
Mount command: mount c "e:\dosbox\c" -t dir -size 512,16,64000,8000 -label msdos5

Thank you in advance for your help.
Cheers!

Reply 2 of 6, by PoulpSquad

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Thank you for your reply.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough with what I'm trying to achieve. Adding a shell= statement doesn't work, or I don't know how to do it. I'll try again:

I have installed Windows 3.11 on DOSBox so I can run a couple of Windows games (in this case, Sid Meier's Civilization II).
I made a bin/cue with Alcohol 120% from an original CD I purchased in 1996, so I can mount it in DOSBox with the IMGMOUNT command.
I then mounted the bin/cue at the prompt with IMGMOUNT and ran Windows. I ran SETUP.EXE from the emulated CD. It installed a bunch of files, Video for Windows and WinG. The game runs without a problem in 640x480x256 colors with cd audio and sound effects. MapEdit works fine also.
Now I'd like to write a batch file and replace the original shortcut in Civ2 program group with one to the batch file.

Said batch should:
-Mount the bin/cue
-Return to Windows
-Run Civ2

I don't really care if it closes Windows or not, although it'd be a nice touch 😀
I'm well aware DOSBox isn't Windows, I don't know how to solve my problem but I do know the distinction between DOS and Windows... I hope?

*edit*
I figured out I can mount a cue and have a batch call win.com with a path, in this case win.com c:\civ2\civ2.exe. Program Manager starts out minimized and Civ 2 is maximized! success!

Now I'd like to do the same thing inside Windows. Double-clicking on the Civ2 shortcut and have a batch mount the cue and run Civ2.

Reply 4 of 6, by PoulpSquad

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You are right, it is. But that doesn't work when I try to mount a bin/cue 🙁

I'm looking for a way to mount a cue and run a Windows program. So far I can either run a program (win c:\whatever\game.exe) or mount an iso with a batch and get the this program requires Windows error message.

Surely there must be a way to mount an image and run a Windows program from within Windows through a batch file?

Reply 5 of 6, by Dominus

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I'm not so sure about the Ms Dos promot in Windows 3.x to be sure whether that will run anything that is a windows program or whether the dosbox mount works in that. Did you try?

But, as I find myself it would be nice to have workable shortcuts for playing all games in one Dosbox session, it isn't always practical. So I just have shortcuts in my host for each game that needs special attention. So if you want to actually play Civ2 have a shortcut ready to start dosbox with that instead of having a shortcut in Windows 3.x in Dosbox...

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 6 of 6, by PoulpSquad

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Thank you for the tips 😀

Mounting the image in a DOS prompt in Windows works a treat, but it refuses to run any Windows programs from there (This program must be run under Microsoft Windows.).