Review of Games Using X, Custom build, or Daum

I have completed a review of the eXoDOS games using X, Custom builds, or Daum. With a collaborative effort with the Staging team on testing and code fixes we have managed to move all but a few over to Staging with either the same or better performance. Each game has been tested and compared between the current used fork and Staging as most of the time the original reason the game was on X or Daum had not been recorded anywhere. Any other discoveries or changes are discussed below.

eXoDOS.zip

As usual even though its not required for the changes, I have included the launch bat or .exo file in each games folder in my attached archive just for reference so that you can easily identify which game a folder is for.

Games with other changes

For these games on top of the conf and\or run.bat fix I discovered another issue and fixed it. The files required for the fixes are included in the above zip, the below are just descriptions of what I changed and why.

Arrakis (2000) - Run.bat edited to move functions of extra missions .bat into it as staging needed to do so

Boppie's Great Word Chase (1985) - This ima image works just as well as the .tc image which means the custom tc build is no longer needed for the game

Deep Red (1996) - Game can use Sound Blaster but wasnt doing so, files to change over included

Millionaire - The Stock Market Simulation (1982) - The issue with this game was actually copy protection related, weird that vanilla 0.73 would run it. Along with the Staging conf Ive provided files in the archive to replace our current copy with files from the TDC version and it works now outside of vanilla 0.73. For consideration here is an updated version that was also in TDC, version 2.1: Millionaire- The Stock Market Simulation v2.1 (1984)(Blue Chip Software) [Strategy, Simulation].zip

Molefest (2002) - Should have sound but doesn’t in any forks. Spectre programmer friend recompiled to fix the audio

Operation AirStorm (1994) - This game runs off a HDD image in real DOS. For the game to run in Staging a bit more conventional memory is needed. I have created a replacement Autoexec.bat and Config.sys that do so, inject into the HDD image and replace the current ones for game to work

PaybackTime 2 (1997) - Game crashed randomly but especially when shooting. Original game author has taken the time to fix the game code and Ive provided the new game files for the update and conf for Staging conversion.

Sooty and Sweep (1992) - Game was previously a Daum Dos boot image game but doesn’t seem to need any of that under Staging. Files from HDD image provided.

Spear End of Destiny (2004) - Game was running with pc speaker fx. Game file included to use sound blaster and cycles bumped to 55000 as per online advice due to the added content in the mod. This recommendation extends to the other game in the series Spear Resurrection as well, so it should also be changed to 55000. There is also a hintbook and manual available at https://www.areyep.com/RIPandMCS-EoD-HintManual-level1.html

Wizardry VI - Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990) - Provided new game setup file. Not sure what the settings were in the original one but I did a new one and it reduced the popping a bit and doesn’t hash match the old one. Custom build no longer needed as reduced sound popping in Staging is as good.

Other things worth noting

Backroad Racers (1993) and European Racers (1993): cycles may need reviewing
Eye of Typhoon, The (1996): couldnt figure p2 controls or how change main menu settings. P1 controls Q,W,A,S for attack and I,J,K,L for movement. Maybe user note, especially if figure out p2 controls? (BigJims ticket #5038 can help with this issue)
Hopang Man (1993): one screen with a thanks for playing message in between the main title and the main menu goes a bit fast but this is true on all forks
Staging guys figured out why Daum was less prone to flickering which has enabled many of these games to get off Daum
Karkoth's Keep (1983:) reduced cycles significantly so that intro screen between character creation and gameplay is readable
Operation Stealth (1990) aka James Bond 007 - The Stealth Affair (1990): delete exception.bat as well as it exists for MT32 in Daum
Palace of Deceit - The Secret of Castle Lockemoer, The (1991): added text file of commands in extras folder
Legend of the Purple Tit, The (1994): The game is a BBS Door game so this conversion may conflict with anything you did as part of your recent eXoDOOR work. This is one of the ones that needs a solution to system time being able to be changed
Gold of the Aztecs, The (1990): Not an X or Daum game but suffers flicker problem like other games we moved to Daum for that reason. As moving those to Staging I put this here with them

List of games included in above to move to Staging

Abaron (1995) Airball (1987) Airline Simulator (1996) Arrakis (2000) Backroad Racers (1993) Big Business (1990) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1990) Boppie's Great Word Chase (1985) Brany Skeldalu (1998) Casino Tournament of Champions (1995) City (1989) Colorado (1990) Conquest of Japan (1992) Corncob 3-D The Other Worlds Campaign (1992) Corncob Deluxe (1994) Crazy Brix (1999) Dactylus (1997) Davis Cup Complete Tennis (1996) Deep Red (1996) Dismal Passages - Part I - The Wicked Curse (1995) Dr Wong's Jacks and Video Poker (1992) Dvorak on Typing (1991) EXP - The Excellent Potato (1996) Eddy and Co (1995) Elkinloor (1995) European Racers (1993) Exobius (1995) Eye of Typhoon, The (1996) Falcon A.T. (1988) Fetiche Maya, Le (1989) Fourth Generation, The (1996) Frankenstein (1994) Gold of the Aztecs, The (1990) Haunted Childhood (2003) Hopang Man (1993) Hostage Rescue Mission (1989) Hugo (1994) Ice Kiss (1997) James Bond 007 - The Stealth Affair (1990) Journey to the Center of the Earth (1988) Karkoth's Keep (1983) Katapult (1996) Kingdom of Syree III, The - The Depths of Hell (1998) Life and Death 2 - The Brain (1990) Legend of the Purple Tit, The (1994) Matter of Time, A (1995) Millionaire - The Stock Market Simulation (1982) Molefest (2002) Monmallineun Tarokbeom (1996) NCAA - Road to the Final Four (1991) Operation AirStorm (1994) P-47 Freedom Fighter (1993) PC Futbol 3.0 (1994) PC Futbol 5.0 (1996) Pac Man (1982) Paddle, The (2002) Palace of Deceit - The Secret of Castle Lockemoer, The (1991) Panic! (2002) PaybackTime 2 (1997) Pilgrim Quest (1991) Pirate Island, The (1998) Pro Pinball - Big Race USA (1998) Pro Pinball - Timeshock! (1997) Psycho Killer (1993) Purple Saturn Day (1989) Puzzle Bobble (1994) RS-2 (1990) Rocks (1997) Rosemary West's House of Fortunes (1993) Sea War - Entscheidungsschlacht im Pazifik (1996) Shooting Langrisser 2 (1998) Sooty and Sweep (1992) Spear End of Destiny (2004) Speedway Manager '96 (1996) Spong (1993) Star Trek Borg (1996) StarBlade (1990) StarFight V - Hell's Gate (1999) Street Count 2 Plus (1994) Super Dog Story (1997) Super Jeopardy! (1991) Town With No Name (1993) Up Periscope! (1988) Video Blakjak (1991) Virtual Pool (1995) Virtual Snooker (1996) Vroom (1994) WarWizard (1994) Windsurf Willy (1989) Windwalker (1989) Wizardry VI - Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990) Bugs Bunny Cartoon Workshop (1990) Around the World - Christmas (1999) Facts in Action (1992) Gal Pani (1995) Gal Pani II (1996)

With the above actioned along with some previous tickets I had made I believe the only games left on X, X2, Daum, or Custom builds are:

On X due to Silmarils intro tone issue Transartica (1993) Ishar 2 (1993) Ishar 1 (1992) Bunny Bricks (1993) Storm Master (1992) Boston Bomb Club (1991) Metal Mutant (1991) Crystals of Arborea (1990)

On X due to required printer support Design Your Own Railroad Design Your Own Train EGA Mouse Paint FaceMaker - Golden Edition FBCOACH Funny Face New Print Shop, The Stare-EO Workshop Alf's Party Kit New Print Shop Companion, The (1989) Newsroom, The (1985) Newsroom Pro, The (1989)

On X for other reasons Cyber Riders (1992): https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/issues/3511 Best of the Best Championship Karate (1992): https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/issues/3208 Hound of the Baskervilles (1993): Currently on Daum but just as good on X so ticket created to move (#5100) Frank Bruno's Boxing (1988): Uses machine=amstrad which on X has StarFight III - Within the Darkness: Booted from HDD image which only X seems to work with. Issue for other forks is GUS related StarFight IV - Legacy: Booted from HDD image which only X seems to work with. Issue for other forks is GUS related

On X2 Jet Stream (1996): Booted from HDD image which only X2 seems to work with. Viper (1998): currently on 0.63 as only it could run it but X2 can as well. Ticket created to convert (#5099)

On vanilla Dosbox Deus (1996) and Time Warriors (1997): Currently using 0.74 and broken on Staging for alt launcher. One issue was fixed to run these in Staging but a cycles problem still exists. https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/issues/3512

On custom build of Dosbox Mike Gunner (1988), Pack Regalo Gun Stick (1989), and Cosmic Sheriff (1989): All use the gunstick build of Dosbox

On Daum Descent to Undermountain (1998): Only game left on Daum. There is a skip and lockup issue during intro on other forks. https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/issues/3635

So a total of:

28 games on X 2 on X2 3 on vanilla dosbox that either freeze on any other fork or crash Staging 2 on custom builds 1 on Daum

Everything else is on ECE, Staging, or vanilla 0.74

great work @Python-Exoproject , and much thanks to the staging team.

Would you mind providing me a list of all games that need to be converted to staging (or any other dosbox build?) That way, when I edit the dosbox.tct I don't leave anything out. Thank you

The latest 0.82 alpha build of Staging has the Silmarils games properly playing the intro tone.

These 1990-to-mid-1992 games are AdLib-only. They do play sound effects, but they're through the AdLib's FM chip (and not the SB's DAC or DMA):

Boston Bomb Club (1991)
Crystals of Arborea (1990)
Metal Mutant (1991)
Storm Master (1992)

Here's the conf for them :arrow_down_small:

```ini [sblaster] sbtype = none oplmode = opl2 [midi] mpu401 = off mididevice = none [speaker] pcspeaker = off [gus] gus = off [autoexec] @echo off set blaster= mount c . c: mixer opl 300 r15 c25 mousectl -s 200 200 autotype f2 boston.exe / metal / crystal / storm ```

Where as these mid-1992+ games use the SB PCM/DMA and the OPL FM chip for music:

Bunny Bricks (1993)
Transantartica (1993)
Ishar 2 (1993)
Ishar 1 (1992)

Here's the conf for them :arrow_down_small:

```ini [sblaster] sbtype = sb2 [midi] mpu401 = off mididevice = none [speaker] pcspeaker = off [gus] gus = off [autoexec] @echo off set blaster= mount c . c: mixer opl 200 r15 c25 sb 200 mousectl -s 200 200 start.exe ```

Notes about the configs:

They all set an empty BLASTER environment variable to lets the game auto-detect the audio card (instead of getting confused by the environment variable) like @madbrain76 recommended, who was an original dev on these games.
Some of these have mouse control, but the driver is really slow/laggy. So I bumped up the sensitivity (using Staging's built-in mousectl).
The in-game music and effects can be pretty quiet (compared to that damn logo tone!), so I've turned those up with the mixer.

This is really cool @interloper98 as thats been an issue for ages and it will be great to get more games of X.

@exoscoriae this is part of the 82 alpha build, not the stable release 81.1. If you want to add the alpha build im happy to create confs using our template

notes in processing all of this:

BOPPIE I didn't replace any files for boppie, as the image we already had worked fine and I didn't see a reason to replace our old image with the new one.

Millionaire - The Stock Market Simulation (1982) - The 2.1 from TDC throws up a copyprotection check when PRO.EXE is run. Kept the files you sent over as they don't throw a shitfit

Eye of Typhoon - used my conf instead of yours, as I had already processed as ticket and moved it into staging along with the ability to redefine keys.

Lets hold off on alpha builds. when 82.1 releases, we will buimp these over.

For now, I'm moving thios to low priority as there are no actions I can take here.

When you say "no actions I can take" I assume you are referring to the Silmarils games?

For everything else:

Actions

Super Dog Story (1997): Seems this is one where another report was submitted and the game was updated for that other ticket before this one was processed. Looks all good, however one difference between the conf you created and the one I uploaded here is that you have cycles=max while I locked it in at 130000

Molefest (2002): Everything is good except I forgot to change the launched executable to the new one provided by Spectres friend. Edit the conf to launch mf.exe instead of molefest.exe

Backroad Racers (1993) and European Racers (1993): I suggested a cycles review but nothing changed, did you think the current cycles were good enough or missed it?

Legend of the Purple Tit, The (1994): I noted that this is one of the BBS games that needs a solution to system time being able to be changed. Currently every time you start the game it sets the time to a specific date in the conf which means you can never take a second turn as as far as the game is concerned its always the day of your first turn

Discussion

Boppie's Great Word Chase (1985): Looks like Boppie got updated at some point in January to replace the .tc image with the .ima file and switched to Staging. All I can assume is that my local sync had missed it somehow as when I did this review it was still using the .tc image on my end. All good though, at least its sorted.

Millionaire - The Stock Market Simulation (1982): Looks like even though it throws up the copy protection error version 2.1 continues to work. There is also a file in the zip called "Million.ex_" which when restored kills the game when the protection fails. So im pretty certain it is cracked, just the protection message was missed. Maybe someone might take a look at it and fix the crack?

exoscoriae / eXoDOS

Review of Games Using X, Custom build, or Daum #5148