• If you would like to get your account Verified, read this thread
  • The TMF is sponsored by Clips4sale - By supporting them, you're supporting us.
  • >>> If you cannot get into your account email me at [email protected] <<<
    Don't forget to include your username

Playing old Star Wars games on the PC... HEEEYYYULLLLLLLPPPPPPP!!!

B

BigJim

Level of Cherry Feather
Joined
Jun 27, 2001
Messages
10,920
Points
38
Here's the piccie...

Finally having got sick of waiting for an old mate to return my copies of Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, I buy new copies for the measly sum of ten quid each. Having got over my disgust at the manufacturers not having a proper manual in paper form any more, I decide to play through each game in turn, which means going back to the original Dark Forces from 1995...

Here be the problemo. I can make it play by going in through My Computer and double-clicking the DARK file. I can't make the sound work however, as there seems to be some sort of configuration that needs to be done first and the game doesn't regognise my sound card or the drivers. Well even though it's 18 months old now my PC is still damn high spec, so the game looking at my card and drivers is like George Stevenson trying to comprehend that electromagnetic levitating train in France. So for all you PC whizzes out there, what the smeg do I do to make the game play with the smegging sound? I also need some help making the game permenantly installed on the PC, because I have a feeling it's only working by running the game off the disk at the moment, which ain't good for much if I want to save between missions.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
It probably would if they weren't speaking in what seems like Chinese to me. 😕 😕 😕 It's a bit like being on holiday in Spain, I only follow three or four words out of every ten. :cry1:

Thanks anyway mate.
 
Bascially, you have to tell Dark Forces 2 to use the emulated settings (don't worry what the settings mean - as long as DF2's setup matches what XP emulates, you should get sound.

It's been too long since I installed DF2, so I don't remember the exact config or install program. Check for INSTALL.EXE or CONFIG.EXE or SETUP.EXE (install and setup being your two best bets).

If you are serious about this, you may want to investigate old DOS gaming places like www.the-underdogs.org, places like that.. I personally have an old computer I have Windows 98 set up on just so I can play DOS games. (I also dabble with DOSBox, which you may want to research too)
 
It isn't DF 2, it's the original DF. The one where Kyle is strictly in the Han Solo groove, with no hint of Jedi-ness about him at all. It's the one where he starts off stealing the Death Star plans. It appears to have been designed in the days of Windows 3.1. DF 2 appears to have been written for Win 95, which should be okay. 3 and 4 both are compatible with XP according to their boxes.

It's been too long since I installed DF2, so I don't remember the exact config or install program. Check for INSTALL.EXE or CONFIG.EXE or SETUP.EXE (install and setup being your two best bets).
Click to expand...

They're there, but it will not install. It doesn't recognise the things I have. :cry1: What exactly does "tell it to use the emulated setting" mean? I know what it means in English but I don't in the least understand how to apply that to a computer.
 
My bad.

Under XP, you'll need DOSBox. Possibly with VDMSound.

It's kinda complex...
 
Cokecan said:
My bad.

Under XP, you'll need DOSBox. Possibly with VDMSound.

It's kinda complex...
Click to expand...


Two questions...


What is DOSBox?

What is VDMSound?
 
Jim,

DOSBox is an open-source project which attempts to emulate an old Intel environment on a newer computer, with new operating systems.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

VDMSound is a sound card emulator of older Sound Blaster (and other) sound cards for new sound cards like the Sound Blaster Live!.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/

DOSBox can be a bit fussy, but if you want to learn about computers.. fiddling around with it is a good way to learn!
 
Okay, I think I'm with you so far. Just to clarify for certain...

Are these free pieces of software which I need to download and once I have will Dark Forces run properly? Sorry to drag things down to the rem. ed. standard, but I need them to be that simple.😀 Also, what does "open source" mean?


*LATE EDIT* I think I've just downloaded them both. Fingers crossed...
 
Well I downloaded both and installed both. The game still refuses to install because it doesn't recognise the sound system. I can make it run by going into the game folder and clicking on the game's file, but there is no sound and I doubt it would remember things like save games anyway.

Anyone know what I'm smegging up?
 
Jim,

These are free pieces of software which should enable you to play DF properly. No guarantees though, as DOSBox isn't for the faint of heart. Requires some fiddling.

"Open-Source" is a philosophy of software design that makes software freely available at the discretion of the developer, who also makes the source code to the software available at the same time.
 
Well that's me buggered then. My idea of fiddling is whacking something with a 10lb lumphammer and hoping it works afterwards. Something tells me it'll need something infinitely more subtle to make this work.


*Hurls copy of DF in the bin and goes to find a bottle of mind-rotter whisky*
 
vampirecult said:
BigJim

I don't know if you play console video game systems. But they have a new game (or maybe it's coming out?) i'm not sure. But anyways it's

Lego Star Wars:the video game

it's going to be out for the Playstation 2 Xbox Gamecube and Pc

here is the website if your interested at all

http://www.lego.com/eng/starwars/videogame/default.asp
Click to expand...

I do indeed play consoles games; I own both a PS2 and a Nintendo Gamecube. Lego is kinda not my scene though mate. Thanks anyway. 🙂
 
Hmm.. you will definitely need a surgeon's scalpel instead of a sledgehammer...

Maybe start with Dark Forces 2... pretend you finished DF 1.
 
The following is not mine, it's cut and pasted from here: http://www.df-21.net/articles/install.html

I've not got a copy of the game handy to try this out on mate so hopefully whoever wrote this got it right. Hope it helps.

***************

If you get the message "An error occured while trying to read jedi.cfg", try typing "d:\install -xd" at the DOS prompt, (where d is the letter of your CD-ROM drive).

If this still doesn't work, you can still get Dark Forces working perfectly by installing it "manually". Follow the instructions below! If you encounter any further problems, please let us know in the DF-21 forums stating what system you have, what OS it is running, and the text of any error messages you are getting.

1. Copy all files, exactly as they are, from the Dark Forces CD to c:\dark. Files in the CD root should go in c:\dark, dark.exe and dark.gob should end up in c:\dark\dark, and so on.

2. After copying the files from the CD to the HD, remove the "read only" tag from the file LOCAL.MSG (right click the file, select properties and uncheck the 'read only' tickbox). If you don't, DF will fail to start, claiming "Unable to load LOCAL.MSG".

3. In c:\, make a batch file (paste the following in Notepad and save it as dfrun.bat):

subst p: c:\dark
p:
cd dark

4. Eject the CD.

5. Run this batch file from a DOS prompt (type c:\dfrun, and then type dark to start Dark Forces!

NOTE: You must run this file after every reboot and before playing DF.

6. The first time, Dark will ask for the CD location. Press space to autodetect.

7. Once this is done, you can set up the sound (run imuse.exe and choose "Custom" setup). For everything except WinXP, set it to whatever sound card you have. In XP, set up SoundBlaster Pro regardless of what you actually have. Make sure that the volume is set at least mid-way on all sliders. If your speakers have a volume control or switch, make sure they're turned on(!) and the volume is set high. Check the volume settings in Windows as well as on the speakers. If you can hear sound but not music then check the synthesizer (MIDI) volume.

If you still can't get sound or music and you're running Windows NT, 2000 or XP, you need to install a suitable emulator, too. Good results have been obtained using VDMSound (freeware) or SoundFX 2000 (commercial).

WinME may give choppy sound. Select each sound card in turn, leave everything else as the default, and test, and you should be able to hear sound eventually.



Geoff Archer writes the following regarding VDMSound (added April 26, 2004):

Note: This tutorial was written for VDMSound 2.1.0 and Launchpad 1.0.1.0, although it will probably work with future versions as well.

1. Download VDMSound from here and install it: http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/. VDMSound is an emulation layer that provides Soundblaster, MIDI, joystick, and VESA support to old DOS games. The Launchpad (a fancy term for the right-click configuration menu) is included in the release.

2. Right click on IMUSE.EXE in your DF directory (this is the sound setup utility), and choose "Run with VDMS". Use the default configuration and click Next. Uncheck "remember my settings" and click Finish to launch IMUSE.

3. Press "C" to enter a custom setup. Navigate to the Advanced menu. Configure it to use Adlib for music, and Soundblaster 16 for sound. Use the default options for port, IRQ, DMA channel, and stereo reverse. Don't worry if you clicked on "test" and the playback sounds too slow. (We will remedy this later). For now just quit and save your settings. Close the empty VDMSound window that remains.

4. Right click on DARK.EXE and choose "Run with VDMS". Choose to set up a custom configuration and click Next. Create a new configuration from scratch and click on Advanced. Under the Program tab, check "Close DOS window on exit". If you have preferred output devices for MIDI, Adlib, or Soundblaster, then select them under the appropriate tabs. Click OK followed by Next. Uncheck "remember my settings", but this time tell it to add a shortcut to your desktop. Click Finish and the game should launch (with working audio!)

5. Use your new desktop shortcut to run the game from now on. If you have any trouble, you can right click on it to access the VDMSound properties and change them as you wish. For example, if you found that the music works but performance is too slow, you may need to move the slider located under the Performance tab. Check "Try to reduce CPU usage" and push the slider some amount to the left. (Experimentation may be necessary). Good luck!
 
Steve, have you ever been on Spain to holiday and seen a British tourist trying to order something by speaking very slowly, very loudly and putting an "O" on the end of each word in an effort to make himself understood by the waiter?

You are said waiter, I am the plug of dried snot in said tourist's left nostril. 😀



Fuck it, isn't there a PSX version somewhere?
 
Cheers Your BOFH'ness. Do you know if it's identical to the PC version?
 
Uh.... good question. I think they got most (if not all) of the content but the graphics and sound suffered a bit. Reviews on the web seem to be very, very average game.

http://www.absolute-playstation.com/api_review/rdf.htm
http://gr.bolt.com/games/sony/darkforces.htm

Personally I'd say go and pick up Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (now with 50% more Jedi goodness in every box!) instead. It'll cost you about the same and it's a pretty good game, though granted it's a mix of third and first person shooter.
 
What do you take me for, a lightweight? I've got the entire series. JA was actually the one I've got furthest with. I got to the last mission of the first tier (which in the order I played them was Bakura) and had finished all objectives and killed all enemies. The walkthrough on gameFAQ's .com says to go back to the ship, so I go, but the door in the lobby that opens onto the landing pad won't frigging open! 😡 I've gone all round the base 187 times to look for things I've missed, but all enemies are dead and all objectives are completed. Effing door still won't open though. That's why I gave up playing that one a fewq months ago. I never did play the original though, so I thought I'd go through it.


Personally I like playing them all in third-person mode. It's more like watching a movie that way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
What's New
10/30/25
Visit the TMF Art and Story Archives for collections of some of our communities best creators work.

Door 44
Live Camgirls!
Live Camgirls
Streaming Videos
streaming tickling videos on demand at the TMF!
Tickling videos on demand!
Pic of the Week
Pic of the Week
Congratulations to
*** brad1701 ***
 The winner of our weekly Trivia, held every Sunday night at 11PM EST in our Chat Room
Back
Top