Playing vanilla .DEH-based wads / mods (DeHackEd) in DosBox

[Doomkid]

This is the easiest, fastest way to play .DEH-based Doom wads and mods in DosBox (or real DOS) as of late 2022. I figured I'd share this as a quick, simple and straightforward guide.

 

1) Download this .zip file: https://doomshack.org/uploads/DeHackEd_2020.zip

 

2) Place a DEH file (and its accompanying WAD file) in your Doom / Doom2 folder.

 

3) Copy CWSDPMI.EXE, DEHACKED.EXE, DEHPICK.EXE, DEHMAKE.BAT and DOOM(2).EXE to your Doom(2) folder.

 

4) Now, run DEHMAKE.BAT. Press Y when "Do you want to do this?" shows up. This will generate an EXE with the same name as the .DEH file.

 

5) To play, simply type:

NAME.EXE -file NAME.WAD, replacing "NAME" with the actual names (duh).

 

If multiple DEH files are present, DEHPICK will bring you to an easy-to-understand selection menu.

 

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UDOOM32.EXE and DOOM32.EXE are included in this zip, renamed to DOOM.EXE and DOOM2.EXE respectively.

 

For playing wads and mods, I recommend replacing the default DOOM and DOOM2 EXEs with these, keeping the old versions in a different folder as backups.

 

These programs raise the "visplane limit" as well as other tight limits that often crash the default EXEs.

 

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DEUSF.EXE allows you to merge the sprites/flats from DOOM(2) into your pwad, thus avoiding crashes. If you try to play a wad but Doom hangs at "Playloop State", it likely means the wad needs appending with DEUSF.

 

Copy DEUSF.EXE to your DOOM/DOOM2 directory and type "deusf -app mymod.wad" (inserting the actual name, of course). This will inflate the wad and make it completely vanilla compatible.

 

 

 

DEHPICK by JadingTsunami
DEHACKED by Tree, updated by xttl
DOOM2P by entryway
DOOM32 by xttl and ConSiGno
UDOOM32 by OpenRift
DEUSF by Olivier Montanuy
DEHMAKE / HELP.TXT by Doomkid

[prfunky]

Horray for easy to follow instructions!

 

[Astro X]

Try to read this tutorial without playing Doomkid's voice in the process.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

I personally prefer using the old MBF (for the sake of convenience) when it comes to Dosbox, but this is always good to know.

As always thanks Doomkid!

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

On 12/11/2022 at 9:17 AM, Doomkid said:

These programs raise the "visplane limit" as well as other tight limits that often crash the default EXEs.

This only applies to the udoom32.exe and doom32.exe, right? If I use dehmake.bat, it'll keep the vanilla limits intact. I heard that chocolate doom doesn't 100% replicate vanilla, so I wanna check my maps with the real thing.  

Imagine I test in dosbox and only then find out it's actually limit removing exe, hahaha

[Redneckerz]

21 hours ago, Sneezy McGlassFace said:

This only applies to the udoom32.exe and doom32.exe, right?

Yes. That's what DoomKid means with these programs, referring to UDoom32 and Doom32.

21 hours ago, Sneezy McGlassFace said:

 

If I use dehmake.bat, it'll keep the vanilla limits intact. I heard that chocolate doom doesn't 100% replicate vanilla, so I wanna check my maps with the real thing.  

Imagine I test in dosbox and only then find out it's actually limit removing exe, hahaha

It tries to be as faithful to Vanilla as possible, but it isn't Vanilla. See the FAQ.