DOSBox gives me error when trying to run dehacked EXE

[Hayden49]

I'm trying to make my custom deh's work in vanilla doom, I used this thread and doomkid's videos for help with converting my vanilla deh into a modified doom2.exe, but my converted exe gives me this error when I try to run the exe in dosbox. Any help with what I am supposed to do? I used a .bat file to run it all and used these parameters: "dosbox.exe redvblue.exe -file redvblue.wad" 

(RedvBlue.wad is the megawad im working on)

 

 

[smeghammer]

At a guess, the path to redvblue.wad needs specifying, or the .WAD needs to be in the directory from which you are executing redvblue.exe.

 

Spoiler

I should probably actually learn to use DOSBox...

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by smeghammer

[smeghammer]

Yeah, you just need to get the paths right.

 

I wanted to test by running the old Doom1 megawad 2002ado.wad...

Setup:

Spoiler

 

So, I first mounted my existing local doom directory (did not have classic DOS doom installed at all as I use GZDoom).

Z:\>mount c d\:Games\Doom

In here, I have many subdirectories with GZDoom, configs, IWADs, PWADs sorted by game and single or megawad etc. I also have a subdirectory of /oldgames/doom.

 

Once c is mounted to your DOSBox session, you can list the contents like so:

 

Z:>c: [enter] - will change to your mounted drive

C:>dir [enter] - will list the contents of the root of your mounted directory. You will see something like:

Directory of C:\.
.              <DIR>     10-12-21 12:00
..             <DIR>     10-12-21 12:00
IWADs          <DIR>     10-12-21 12:00
GZDOOM         <DIR>     10-12-21 12:00
OLDGAMES       <DIR>     10-12-21 12:00
WADs           <DIR>     10-12-21 12:00
        0 File(s)                0 bytes
        12 Dir(s)               xxx,xxx,xxx Bytes free

 

Next, I mounted an ISO of my old Ultimate Doom CD as the D: drive. Type z: [enter] to switch back to the z: drive, then:

Z:>mount d e:\ [enter]

 

to mount a D: drive for the CD, where e:\ is a LOCAL drive, mounted from an ISO of my Doom installation CD. Once this is done, we have a C: drive and a D: drive (which is effectively the Doom install CD) in the DOSBox session.

 

Switch to the mapped CD (d:) drive in DOSBOX:

Z:>d: [enter]

 

A 'dir [enter]' will list the CD contents.

 

Simply run the installer, choose the c: drive if not set automatically, and type in the path to install - which inside the DOSBox shell, is \oldgames\doom\. Note - This is an existing directory on the host filesystem.

 

(I discovered that I could not make a directory from within the DOSBox shell - possibly a permissions thing, but hey, I've been playing with DOSBox for about 30 minutes...)

 

 

Running a custom PWAD:

 

This is the key bit... 

 

Once you have doom (or another exe) set up in a particular folder (it might be the root of your mounted directory, but mine is not), you can use the command-line switch -FILE (for doom.exe) to pass a path to a custom WAD. In my case, this is /oldgames/doom, so cd to that:

 

c: [enter] - if you are not on c: drive already

cd oldgames/doom/ [enter]

 

I then run the doom.exe with the full path to 2002ado.wad as a CLI argument:

c:\OLDGAMES\DOOM>doom.exe -FILE c:\WADS\D1MEGA~1\2002ADO.WAD

Spoiler

Note that DOS only supports 8.3 filename patterns, so my local longform directory name is automatically reduced to the mapped path with the tilde, like so ..\D1MEGA~1\..

 

DOSBox supports TAB autocomplete, which is nice, so you can type the first couple of characters and hit tab, and it will autocomplete the directory or filename (it will cycle through all matching names).

 

Hit [enter] and the game will load, with the custom PWAD playing...

 

 

You will simply need to substitute your exe, CLI switches (if any) and path(s) and it should work fine.

Edited December 10, 2021 by smeghammer

[Hayden49]

@smeghammer Thank you!