DOSBox Daily - KDIKDIZD out of the oven and ready to go!

[adamastor]

Greetings, fellow Doomers.

 

This thread is aimed at those who enjoy, or are looking to, play DOOM through DOSBox, or one of it's many forks and builds.

 

Here I'll try and maintain a one stop-shop for all things DOSBox (with an emphasis on DOSBox gaming), from doing some archaeological work, by rediscovering EXE hacks and DOS-compatible source ports and programs, to sharing news and facts about recent developments on said area, as well as historical, or more obscure or hard to find ones as well.

 

So feel free to share any DOSBox related stuff here and, if it's useful (as it will surely be) I'll add it to the main post. In due time I'll try and add some useful guides and/ or tutorials aimed at newcomers looking to get started, and have a small helpdesk or some such, even though I'm no specialist on the matter myself, by any means.

 

Now then, here are some useful and/ or interesting download links:

 

Emulators:

Spoiler

DOSBox - the original DOSBox emulator.

 

DOSBox Enhanced Community Edition - regularly updated DOSBox fork with numerous patches and improvements by the VOGONS community.

 

DOSBox Staging - DOSBox fork with a focus on ease-of-use and DOSBox gaming.

 

DOSBox-X - DOSBox fork with many enhancements and a plethora of features.

 

Executable Hacks:

Spoiler

Doom-plus - siginficantly increases the static limits of the stock DOOM.EXE (v1.9).

 

UDoom32  - increases the heapsizeand further increases stock DOOM.EXE's (v.19) static limits.

 

Doom2-plus - significantly increases the static limits of the stock DOOM2.EXE.

 

Doom32 - an evolution of Doom2-plus that further raises it's static limits.

 

DOOM\ Heretic\ HeXen\ Strife128 - Gibbon's DOS ports of various Doom Engine executables which raise their limits even further.

 

SIGIL.EXE - SIGIL running on DOS, by the one and only xttl. Oh, yes...

 

NR4TL.EXE - No Rest for the Living running on DOS, also by xttl.

 

FastDoom - a port based on PCDoom which aims to run as fast as possible under 386/486 personal computers, by Viti95.

 

ACE Engine -a mod for vanilla DOOM II that adds features such as a DEHACKED parser, a fullscreen statusbar, a fog effect, and more, by kgsws.

 

Heretic-plus - significantly increases the static limits of HERETIC.EXE (v1.3).

 

Hexen-plus - significantly increases the static limits of HEXEN.EXE (v1.1).

 

S131mlk - adds freelook to the vanilla STRIFE1.EXE.

 

DOS-compatible Source Ports:

Spoiler

BOOM 2.02 - the original Team TNT classic. Useful for some BOOM-compatible (-complevel 9) WADs, obviously.

 

MBF 2.03 - Lee Killough's continuation of BOOM. Able to launch some BOOM and MBF-compatible (-complevel 11) WADs.

 

SMMU - fraggle's source port, derived from the MBF codebase.

 

MBF 2.04 - Gerwin Broers's unnofficial update of the original MBF.

 

Tartar - ludicrous_peridot's pure DOS source port.

 

MBF-SNM - Sakitoshi's build of MBF 2.04 which added both SIGIL, as well as No Rest for the Living  and Master Levels support.

 

Useful threads:

Spoiler

EXE hacking - originally started by uhbooh, it continues to be a haven for discussing EXE hacking knowledge in general.

 

Setting up DOSBox Properly - a great way to get acquainted with DOSBox configuration and setups, by Alex S.

 

Tools:

Spoiler

Novert - a tool for disabling vertical mouse movement in DOSBox games, such as DOOM, by Istvan Pataki.

 

VULD DOS launcher for vanilla mods, created by Jading Tsunami.

 

DeHacked 3.0a "Special Edition" - developed by xttl, it features support for both Final Doom executable variants (regular and anthology).

 

IWAD patchers and EXEs - DooMGate's repository of many different versions of the DOOM, DOOM II and Final DOOM executables. It also contains two distinct tools to allow for patching the IWADs to match said EXE versions.

 

Recommended PWADs:

Spoiler

SIGIL Vanilla Edition - a completely vanilla version of SIGIL, made by the_kovic (and Romero approved), that runs both in DOS as well as in Chocolate Doom.

 

Knee-Deep in Knee-Deep in ZDoom - a demake of the original PK3 for vanilla DOOM2.EXE. More that a mapset it's a techincal wonder, pushing the limits of what we thought was possible in vanilla DOOM, by esselfortium an co.

 

Doom Wadarcheology - project started by Endless that aims to rediscover and enjoy the classics, mostly WADs dating from 1994 to 2004.

 

BIG Vanilla Wad Pack (Maximum Doom the way 'Kid Did) - Doomkid's collection of PWADs, EXE Hacks, and all things vanilla-flavoured.

 

Doom Wiki's list of Vanilla WADs - an extensive list of vanilla-compatible PWADs. Keep in mind, however, that a few of these do require a lmit-raising\ removing EXE or source port to run properly.

 

DOSBox-compatible Doom Engine games:

Spoiler

HacX: Twitch 'n Kill - OpenRift's standalone repackage of Banjo Software's classic for DOSBox.

 

REKKR and REKKR: Sunken Land - another standalone, DOSBox, repackage by OpenRift, this time for the great REKKR, by Revae an co.

 

Harmony: MS-DOS Edition - yet another repackage by OpenRift, this time of Thomas Van Der Velden's recently updated ZDoom classic. Currently it's, unfortunately, unavailable, due to some legal issues, that will surely be ironed out in the near future.

 

DOSBox Online:

Spoiler

DOSBox Deathmatch Club - OpenRift's DM club's Discord server, focusing on DOSBox gibbing and fragging.

 

Luxtorpeda project - Discord server for Luxtorpeda, Boxtron, Roberta and the aforementioned DOSBox Staging fork.

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by adamastor
Extra, extra! KDIKDIZD, bx_e1, pagodia, Atonement and AR featured on this years Cacowards!

[OpenRift]

Just now, Mr. Kong said:

Greetings, fellow doomers.

 

Surprisingly enough, I really enjoy playing DOOM through DOSBox, and it seems to me as though others do to.

  

Nonetheless, perhaps due to the enormous abundance of amazing source ports, which offer a plethora of gaming possibilities, there really isn't a thread about playing the game in such a way at this day and age, at least to my knowledge.

  

Therefore, I'd like to propose having a small corner of Doomworld dedicated to just that, perhaps offering a monthly game club, a la DWmegawad Club, some friendly discussions about DOSBox gaming in general, or even some archaeologicall work, by rediscovering EXE hacks and DOS-compatible source ports and programs.

  

That's all. I hope that I got to some fans of good-ol' DOSBox gibbing and fragging, and that you'll consider creating this DOSBox Club with me.

*ahem* I wonder where you could host it?

[Gibbon]

It even looks authentic!  My first website on lycos back in '00 looked basically the same :D

[OpenRift]

1 minute ago, Gibbon said:

It even looks authentic!  My first website on lycos back in '00 looked basically the same :D

@THEBaratusII is to thank for making it and Razerback95 owner Kugee for hosting. ;)

[adamastor]

2 minutes ago, OpenRift said:

*ahem* I wonder where you could host it?

I actually knew about that, Rift. I was going to link it to your club if this took off.

It's not exactly what I had in mind here, but I'm sorry if it seems that way.

This would be more to share thoughts, knowledge, reviews, etc. More SP focused, I guess.

And to try and help newcomers as well.

[OpenRift]

1 minute ago, Mr. Kong said:

I actually knew about that, Rift. I was going to link it to your club if this took off.

It's not exactly what I had in mind here, but I'm sorry if it seems that way.

This would be more to share thoughts, knowledge, reviews, etc. More SP focused, I guess.

And to try and help newcomers as well.

All good, I'm just teasing.

 

 

[adamastor]

But it'd be pretty cool to have a consolidated topic for all things DOSBox dooming.

[OpenRift]

Just now, Mr. Kong said:

But it'd be pretty cool to have a consolidated topic for all things DOSBox dooming.

DOSBox Daily?

[adamastor]

1 minute ago, OpenRift said:

DOSBox Daily?

That's spot-on! Great title.

[Mayomancer]

There's still plenty of source ports to run on DOSBox as well! BOOM, fastDoom, DOSDoom etc

[adamastor]

2 minutes ago, Mayomancer said:

There's still plenty of source ports to run on DOSBox as well! BOOM, fastDoom, DOSDoom etc

Exactly, Mayo. That's one of the things that I find really interesting.

Particularly making them run and see how far they're able to go, in regards to playing more recent WADs, for example.

[Redneckerz]

All i wish is a custom DOSBOX build that runs (and can only run) Doom, yet can take advantage of all that DOSBox offers, like its various shaders for filters and what not.

 

Russian Doom has a DOSBox-RD build, but its primary for testing.

[adamastor]

2 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

All i wish is a custom DOSBOX build that runs (and can only run) Doom, yet can take advantage of all that DOSBox offers, like its various shaders for filters and what not.

 

Russian Doom has a DOSBox-RD build, but its primary for testing.

Maybe with that additional "Potato Mode" feature.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Mr. Kong

[xvertigox]

As a DOSBox (and DOSBOX-x) nut I'm fully down for a monthly DOS wad club. I never play Doom in DBX (I use Choco) but for this I would be happy to. I'm sure @Doomkid would be happy to point out some of the lesser known 90s releases too. Actually, come to think of it, he's already done that. Another extremely useful resource is my shovelware collection, its all extracted and ready to go. I personally prefer D!Zone out of all of them.

 

Gemini, of Ancient DOS Games fame, has a cool mechanic with his patreon. If you are a patron you can request a folder in one of his shovelware discs to be "dug up" in an episode of 'Shovelware Diggers'. There's a bit more to it but that's the gist. I wonder if you could appropriate that concept and tweak it somewhat to work in a forum setting. Maybe as a bonus feature people could vote on folders in each month's(guessing the cadence here) thread. Then in the following month's thread there could be the spotlight wads that you're covering or whatever and then have a bonus shovelware diggers section with the previously voted folder/wad(s) and a selection for users to vote on for next month's. You could also mix and match folders from across discs to really ramp up the randomness. Just thinking out loud.

Edited December 29, 2021 by xvertigox

[adamastor]

2 minutes ago, xvertigox said:

As a DOSBox (and DOSBOX-x) nut I'm fully down for a monthly DOS wad club. I never play Doom in DBX (I use Choco) but for this I would be happy to. I'm sure @Doomkid would be happy to point out some of the lesser known 90s releases too. Actually, come to think of it, he's already done that. Another extremely useful resource is my shovelware collection, its all extracted and ready to go. I personally prefer D!Zone out of all of them.

 

Gemini, of Ancient DOS Games fame, has a cool mechanic with his patreon. If you are a patron you can request a folder in one of his shovelware discs to be "dug up" in an episode of 'Shovelware Diggers'. There's a bit more to it but that's the gist. I wonder if you could appropriate that concept and tweak it somewhat to work in a forum setting. Maybe as a bonus feature people could vote on folders in each month's(guessing the cadence here) thread. Then in the following month's thread there could be the spotlight wads that you're covering or whatever and then have a bonus shovelware diggers section with the previously voted folder/wad(s) and a selection for users to vote on for next month's. You could also mix and match folders from across discs to really ramp up the randomness. Just thinking out loud.

 

 

 

 

That's an awesome concept, and a great suggestion, vertigo. It could be a great way to have a kind of monthly game club, but have that random shovelware adventure angle at the same time.

[OpenRift]

2 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

All i wish is a custom DOSBOX build that runs (and can only run) Doom, yet can take advantage of all that DOSBox offers, like its various shaders for filters and what not.

Honestly yeah, having it be able to pass command line parameters would be a GODSEND. It could definitely thin the line between the emulation and the native OS, making things SIGNIFICANTLY more convenient.

[Redneckerz]

26 minutes ago, OpenRift said:

Honestly yeah, having it be able to pass command line parameters would be a GODSEND. It could definitely thin the line between the emulation and the native OS, making things SIGNIFICANTLY more convenient.

Just call it DoomBox :P Maybe this is a project for 2022?

 

Honestly it feels like the missing link between Chocolate Doom and plain Doom in DOSBOX.

[Master O]

2 hours ago, Mr. Kong said:

Greetings, fellow doomers.

 

Surprisingly enough, I really enjoy playing DOOM through DOSBox, and it seems to me as though others do to.

 

Nonetheless, perhaps due to the enormous abundance of amazing source ports, which offer a plethora of gaming possibilities, there really isn't a thread about playing the game in such a way at this day and age, at least to my knowledge.

 

Therefore, I'd like to propose having a small corner of Doomworld dedicated to just that, perhaps offering a monthly game club, a la DWmegawad Club, some friendly discussions about DOSBox gaming in general, or even some archaeologicall work, by rediscovering EXE hacks and DOS-compatible source ports and programs.

 

Now then, in order to get the DOSBall rolling, here are some useful and/ or interesting download links:

 

 

Emulators:

DOSBox - the original DOSBox emulator.

DOSBox Staging - DOSBox fork with a focus on ease-of-use and DOSBox gaming.

DOSBox-X - DOSBox fork with many enhancements and a plethora of features.

 

Executable Hacks:

Doom-plus - siginficantly increases the static limits of the stock DOOM.EXE (v1.9).

UDoom32  - increases the heapsizeand further increases stock DOOM.EXE's (v.19) static limits.

Doom2-plus - significantly increases the static limits of the stock DOOM2.EXE.

Doom32 - an evolution of Doom2-plus that further raises it's static limits.

Heretic-plus - significantly increases the static limits of HERETIC.EXE (v1.3).

Hexen-plus - significantly increases the static limits of HEXEN.EXE (v1.1).

S131mlk - adds freelook to the vanilla STRIFE1.EXE.

 

DOS-compatible Source Ports:

BOOM 2.02 - the original Team TNT classic. Useful for some BOOM-compatible (-complevel 9) WADs, obviously.

MBF 2.03 - Lee Killough's continuation of BOOM. Able to launch some BOOM and MBF-compatible (-complevel 11) WADs.

SMMU - fraggle's source port, derived from the MBF codebase.

MBF 2.04 - Gerwin Broers's unnofficial update of the original MBF.

Tartar - ludicrous_peridot's pure DOS source port.

MBF-SNM - Sakitoshi's build of MBF 2.04 which added both SIGIL, as well as No Rest for the Living  and Master Levels support.

 

On the subject of Dosbox Staging, there is also a setting for its dosbox.conf that many will find useful for playing Doom and other DOS FPS-es:

 

raw_mouse_input

 

Set that value to true and it will make mouse usage much more responsive.

[adamastor]

1 minute ago, Master O said:

raw_mouse_input

I didn't know about that, as I've mostly use regular old DOSBox up until recently.
Thanks, Master O.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Since this is a DOS thread: 

 

I love DOS source ports. I semi - regularly play Doom 2 + and MBF.exe still. It's just cool.

[adamastor]

Just now, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Since this is a DOS thread: 

 

I love DOS source ports. I semi - regularly play Doom 2 + and MBF.exe still. It's just cool.

Same here.

I'm currently in a quest to play Sunlust through BOOM 2.02. It's awesome!

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Just now, Mr. Kong said:

Same here.

I'm currently in a quest to play Sunlust through BOOM 2.02. It's awesome!

Awesome! I want to say there's some more obscure DOS ports, so I think I'll take a look into that. I'll be sure to post them here.

[adamastor]

1 minute ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Awesome! I want to say there's some more obscure DOS ports, so I think I'll take a look into that. I'll be sure to post them here.

Great! Much appreciated, Dusty.

I'll add them to the original post when you do, and I'll add some more myself, such as ZDoomDOS, just because.

[OpenRift]

Also, be sure to throw SIGEXE and NRFTL on there under EXE hacks. Also note: SIGEXE's multiplayer doesn't work properly for Episode 5, sadly.

Edited December 30, 2021 by OpenRift

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Just now, OpenRift said:

Also, be sure to throw SIGEXE and NRFTL on there under EXE hacks.

Exe hacks are so cool. I'm excited for Community Trunk to finish as I plan to do some exe hacking on Doom 2 +. It's going to be really cool. Gibbon's also going to use a hex editor to change the par times in Sprinkled Doom.

 

I'm going to hex hack Doom2 +, as well as use Dehacked to change some strings. Probably will use Doom Patcher to fix some bugs too. I love nerding out about this stuff.

[OpenRift]

Hey @Gibbon so I kind of had a thought, would you be interested in working on a DOS-based front-end for Doom? Like the a DOS equivalent of ZDL? I came up with this concept a while back and given your retro coding fixation, I had a hunch you might want to work on something like this:

 

[OpenRift]

7 minutes ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Exe hacks are so cool. I'm excited for Community Trunk to finish as I plan to do some exe hacking on Doom 2 +. It's going to be really cool. Gibbon's also going to use a hex editor to change the par times in Sprinkled Doom.

  

I'm going to hex hack Doom2 +, as well as use Dehacked to change some strings. Probably will use Doom Patcher to fix some bugs too. I love nerding out about this stuff.

Very exciting stuff!! I'm very excited to see how Community Trunk turns out!

 

Also, which bugs were you looking to fix in your EXE via doompatcher?

[Dusty_Rhodes]

2 minutes ago, OpenRift said:

Very exciting stuff!! I'm very excited to see how Community Trunk turns out!

 

Also, which bugs were you looking to fix in your EXE via doompatcher?

Just little things:

 

Fix the "medkit you really need" messsage

 

Fix "ouch face" bug

 

Increase heap size to 32mb

 

Fix archvile fire location issue and SSG muzzle flash duration issue

 

Lastly, extend stack allocation size, because why not? It'll be fun.

[OpenRift]

Just now, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Just little things:

 

Fix the "medkit you really need" messsage

  

Fix "ouch face" bug

  

Increase heap size to 32mb

  

Fix archvile fire location issue and SSG muzzle flash duration issue

  

Lastly, extend stack allocation size, because why not? It'll be fun.

heapsize and stack size are already a part of Doom32, so you could just base it on that.

 

I do wonder if that archy fire location thing is purely visual or if would have any effect on demo recording..

[adamastor]

5 minutes ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Just little things:

 

Fix the "medkit you really need" messsage

 

Fix "ouch face" bug

 

Increase heap size to 32mb

 

Fix archvile fire location issue and SSG muzzle flash duration issue

 

Lastly, extend stack allocation size, because why not? It'll be fun.

That sounds great. We'll have to add it here when it's done.