Posted July 05, 2017
high rated
After dusting off my GOG copy of RotH once again, and setting it up to run at my native resolution of 2560x1440, in Windows10x64, I encountered some configuration problems in doing so, and thought I'd share the very simple remedy for them:
The GOG installer for Dosbox sets the sb16 settings as follows:
IRQ=7
DMA=1
HDMA=5
But when you boot the game for the first time you will have problems running the initial videoclips and you'll note
1)that if you have a MIDI player (I use CoolSoft VirtualMidiSynth--highly recommended) set to the x330 port (standard) then all you will hear is Midi Music as the sound effects aren't playing at all--because they cannot because the sound card is improperly configured for this game by the GOG install routine.
2)The colors when the game runs look off, especially in dark areas, and
3) You will be unable to configure the game to run in any other mode besides Overlay.
4) You attempt to install the US version of the game and discover when trying to run it that it doesn't want to run!
Explanation and cure for all of the above: RotH just so happens to be one of those early, early DOS games hard coded to use specific sound blaster 16 settings. The problem is that it expects the DOS environment (dosbox) to be correctly configured for the SB16 *else* the user will have *lots* of problems getting the game to run without any of the above three consequences making it almost impossible to run the game properly and configure it as you like. Usually, this is not a big problem today--but back then it was common to see games hardcoded to use specific settings for the sound card and many early DOS games simply refused to run at all if the sound card was misconfigured--or you'd get the kind of problems I saw today with trying to run RotH.
Here are the settings the game expects for the SB16 in the dosboxROTH.conf settings file:
[sblaster]
*sbtype=sb16
*sbbase=220
*irq=5
*dma=1
*hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=49716
hardwarebase=220
goldplay=false
* = Required by the game. The rest I run as well but their settings may vary from these if you wish.
It's interesting to note that although the game includes an install.exe file, the purpose of which ostensibly was to allow the user to change things like sound-card/midi settings--for some reason it does not work at all for me. I note that when GOG ships a game with a settings configuration file, like the dosboxROTH_settings.conf file that ships with the game, GOG always includes an icon labeled "Change Settings" or something similar that allows you to run the settings file (like install.exe, in this case) to change the settings file separately if needed. But GOG provides no way for the user to run install.exe unless he hand edits the game shortcut himself...;)
At any rate, here's what simply changing the sound-card dosbox settings file completely and instantly cleared up:
1) All beginning introductory videoclips run perfectly
2) The crazy colors the game was putting out in dark areas disappeared and the game displayed correctly
3) I was able to run the game @my native 2560x1440 without a problem using *direct 3D** instead of overlay! (See note below)
4) US patch now runs without difficulty
Hard to believe such simple settings could make such a difference, eh? Actually, I had already been through this once a couple of years back but I had forgotten about it! Had me baffled for awhile there today, I can tell you! I have seen a few DOS games that even when you run the sound configuration settings and change them by that program, which you assume will allow you to play the game with different settings--that the game *still won't run* until it sees the settings it expects for the sound card! Crazy, but true!
Note: I use Dosbox SVN-Daum instead of the GOG version of DOSbox because it allows you to use direct3d and shaders, as well as a 64-bit version of dosbox.exe, which really make a nice difference in the display output, especially in games like this that can only be run in much higher resolutions if *scaled* up by your GPU hardware--the pixel shader HQ2x.fx, for instance, makes the game appear far less pixellated than is the case normally. It also has the effect of smoothing out scaled text, too. Definitely worth it, imo. It's *the* version of dosbox specifically made for gaming--surprised GOG isn't using it. Dosbox SVN-Daum is available here:
http://ykhwong.x-y.net/
Get the January 25, 2015 version as its the most recent and works very well with Win10x64, too. To get you started, here are the first few lines of my dosboxROTH.conf
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=2560x1440
windowresolution=original
output=direct3d
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper-SVN-Daum.map
pixelshader=HQ2x.fx
usescancodes=true
overscan=0
Just rename the GOG dosbox folder to "DosboxGOG" and rename the DosBox SVN-Daum folder to "Dosbox," and away you go! Hope this info will be of service for someone! This is a classic game, imo.
The GOG installer for Dosbox sets the sb16 settings as follows:
IRQ=7
DMA=1
HDMA=5
But when you boot the game for the first time you will have problems running the initial videoclips and you'll note
1)that if you have a MIDI player (I use CoolSoft VirtualMidiSynth--highly recommended) set to the x330 port (standard) then all you will hear is Midi Music as the sound effects aren't playing at all--because they cannot because the sound card is improperly configured for this game by the GOG install routine.
2)The colors when the game runs look off, especially in dark areas, and
3) You will be unable to configure the game to run in any other mode besides Overlay.
4) You attempt to install the US version of the game and discover when trying to run it that it doesn't want to run!
Explanation and cure for all of the above: RotH just so happens to be one of those early, early DOS games hard coded to use specific sound blaster 16 settings. The problem is that it expects the DOS environment (dosbox) to be correctly configured for the SB16 *else* the user will have *lots* of problems getting the game to run without any of the above three consequences making it almost impossible to run the game properly and configure it as you like. Usually, this is not a big problem today--but back then it was common to see games hardcoded to use specific settings for the sound card and many early DOS games simply refused to run at all if the sound card was misconfigured--or you'd get the kind of problems I saw today with trying to run RotH.
Here are the settings the game expects for the SB16 in the dosboxROTH.conf settings file:
[sblaster]
*sbtype=sb16
*sbbase=220
*irq=5
*dma=1
*hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=49716
hardwarebase=220
goldplay=false
* = Required by the game. The rest I run as well but their settings may vary from these if you wish.
It's interesting to note that although the game includes an install.exe file, the purpose of which ostensibly was to allow the user to change things like sound-card/midi settings--for some reason it does not work at all for me. I note that when GOG ships a game with a settings configuration file, like the dosboxROTH_settings.conf file that ships with the game, GOG always includes an icon labeled "Change Settings" or something similar that allows you to run the settings file (like install.exe, in this case) to change the settings file separately if needed. But GOG provides no way for the user to run install.exe unless he hand edits the game shortcut himself...;)
At any rate, here's what simply changing the sound-card dosbox settings file completely and instantly cleared up:
1) All beginning introductory videoclips run perfectly
2) The crazy colors the game was putting out in dark areas disappeared and the game displayed correctly
3) I was able to run the game @my native 2560x1440 without a problem using *direct 3D** instead of overlay! (See note below)
4) US patch now runs without difficulty
Hard to believe such simple settings could make such a difference, eh? Actually, I had already been through this once a couple of years back but I had forgotten about it! Had me baffled for awhile there today, I can tell you! I have seen a few DOS games that even when you run the sound configuration settings and change them by that program, which you assume will allow you to play the game with different settings--that the game *still won't run* until it sees the settings it expects for the sound card! Crazy, but true!
Note: I use Dosbox SVN-Daum instead of the GOG version of DOSbox because it allows you to use direct3d and shaders, as well as a 64-bit version of dosbox.exe, which really make a nice difference in the display output, especially in games like this that can only be run in much higher resolutions if *scaled* up by your GPU hardware--the pixel shader HQ2x.fx, for instance, makes the game appear far less pixellated than is the case normally. It also has the effect of smoothing out scaled text, too. Definitely worth it, imo. It's *the* version of dosbox specifically made for gaming--surprised GOG isn't using it. Dosbox SVN-Daum is available here:
http://ykhwong.x-y.net/
Get the January 25, 2015 version as its the most recent and works very well with Win10x64, too. To get you started, here are the first few lines of my dosboxROTH.conf
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=2560x1440
windowresolution=original
output=direct3d
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper-SVN-Daum.map
pixelshader=HQ2x.fx
usescancodes=true
overscan=0
Just rename the GOG dosbox folder to "DosboxGOG" and rename the DosBox SVN-Daum folder to "Dosbox," and away you go! Hope this info will be of service for someone! This is a classic game, imo.