DOS ain't dead

FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! (Users)

posted by jhall , 20.11.2021, 18:30
(edited by Rugxulo on 20.11.2021, 19:43)

I think some of the errors are because you probably are running the games from some other directory. Not being able to find game files is a big clue here.

I don't know what to suggest except to run the game from the game's directory. Many DOS games expected that.

For example, I have Tomb Raider 1 (demo) installed on my FreeDOS machine. If I go into C:\TOMBRAID and run TOMB, the game runs fine. If I set my PATH to include C:\TOMBRAID, then back up to the C:\ directory and run TOMB from there, the game tries to start but the aborts with "Cannot find file 'data\titleh.pcx':No such file or directory." So it's not that Tomb Raider doesn't run on FreeDOS, but that I have to be in the Tomb Raider directory to play it. And that was common on DOS.

Also, I've recorded gameplay videos for the FreeDOS YouTube channel using several of the listed games, all running on FreeDOS, and they worked fine. Here's the list:

Commander Keen 1
Commander Keen 4
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 1
Little Willy
Doom
Freedoom
Oregon Trail
Raptor
Number Munchers
Ford Driving Simulator
Golden Flute IV (developed by a 12 year old)
Dark Forces
Blood

And newer DOS games (not classic era games, but games developed more recently for DOS):

RetroFuel
Acronia
Double Pacman
Post Apocalyptic Petra
Dr Mind
Lacewing

And I haven't recorded videos for them yet, but I recently played (successfully) Tomb Raider 1 and a newer DOS game called RCross that Vojtech shared on the FreeDOS Facebook group.

Complete thread:

• FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - liljames2k, 13.11.2021, 20:50
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Laaca, 13.11.2021, 22:51
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 13.11.2021, 23:35
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 14.11.2021, 06:37
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - liljames2k, 20.11.2021, 05:48
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Zyzzle, 20.11.2021, 09:03
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - mceric, 20.11.2021, 11:25
      • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 21.11.2021, 14:35
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Japheth, 20.11.2021, 11:27
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 12:09
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - jhall, 20.11.2021, 18:30
      • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - jhall, 20.11.2021, 18:34
        • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:04
          • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:14
            • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:28
            • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Khusraw, 21.11.2021, 16:54
              • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 21.11.2021, 17:17
              • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - mceric, 21.11.2021, 18:35
                • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Zyzzle, 22.11.2021, 06:18
              • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 21.11.2021, 19:03
                • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Japheth, 22.11.2021, 14:36
                  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 22.11.2021, 22:00
                    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 23.11.2021, 21:15
                      • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - glennmcc, 24.11.2021, 04:16
                • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - mceric, 23.11.2021, 01:07
                  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 23.11.2021, 21:07
        • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 21.11.2021, 12:38
          • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 21.11.2021, 13:24
          • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 21.11.2021, 14:44
    • Don't panic! (FreeDOS works!) - Rugxulo, 20.11.2021, 19:34
      • Don't panic! (FreeDOS works!) - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:46
        • Don't panic! (FreeDOS works!) - mceric, 20.11.2021, 20:12