ITE's Dos version works with xp!

[FallenWolf]

I now got the game working on Windows XP.
Is there any interested for me to post a detailed how-to here?

~FallenWolf

[Mira]

ooh!  I'm curious now. ^_^  How'd you do it?

[FallenWolf]

So now it should work on Win 95, Win 98, Win 2k, Win ME, Win XP and Linux. Hehehe

Just fixed a little detail in the config file, and well, it works without any errors.

So Mira, shall i post the description? Or just kidding?

~FallenWolf



**EDIT**
Of course it now also works with OS/2 as far as you got the right file system of the game files.

[Mira]

Yesyes, tell!

[FallenWolf]

How to install and play ITE on Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP

Requirements

• ITE CD-Rom version released 1994
• DOS-Box 0.61
• Some kind of Windows OS
• 20 minutes of time
• The will to do it

Hello everyfur.
This is my litte guid how to install and Play Inherit the earth ("Erben der Erde") in the 1994 DOS-Version on CD-Rom.
As you will have noticed, Windows does not have a Dos-Emulator anymore, so old games can not be played anymore.
That was the reason for some freaks to write the program "DOSBox". This is callen an "emulator". That means, it simulates another operating system and hardware which can be controlled by the software. You will have to download this .exe file later - but don't worry, it is an absolutely virus free, open source program!

Well, then let's begin

Step one
First, download the programm "DOSBox"here.
Just choose one mirror, it is always the same file.

Step two
After downloading the file, execute it and install it somewhere on your machine.
Make sure you choose the file "C:\DOS" for the DOS-OS file when you are asked for! The rest of my how-to depends on that.

Step three
Now as you have (correctly?) installed DOSBox on your system, we have to start editing the configuration file to make it work.

To do that, open the directory where you installed DOSBox to (not the DOS-Directory!)
Look for the file named "dosbox.conf" and open it with the windows editor or wordpad.
Stay calm, i know there is alot of stuff on your screen now. But we'll handle it

Here the changes:

Look for:
machine=auto
memsize=16

Replace with:
machine=vga
memsize=64

Look for:
core=auto
cycles=(a number here)

Replace with:
core=full
cycles=8000

Look for:
blocksize=(a number here)

Replace with:
blocksize=4096

Look for:
device=default

Replace with:
device=win32

Look for:
gus=true

Replace with:
gus=false

Last but not least, look for the [autoexec] part at the end of the file.
Add the following lines:
MOUNT c c:/dos
MOUNT d g:/ -t cdrom

Attention with the last change! READ THIS!
MOUNT creates virtual drives inside the emulation.
c:/dos is the directory on your drive you chose in the installation.
MOUNT d g:/ -t cdrom means, you create a virtual CD-Rom drive with the letter D:. It points to the "real" drive g:/, which has to be a CD-Rom or DVD drive, cd- or dvd-burners do not work!
So simply replace the "g:" with the letter of your correct drive and continue.

Now save and close the file. There are no more changes necessary.

Step four
Installing the game.
Now, this is the easy part. Run DOSBox and be sure that there are no errors displayed. Otherwhise you made a mistake in the configuration above. Just check again and continue.

Now enter D: to get to the CD-Rom drive and enter install.exe.
Just use the standart directory, changing it might not work (i am not yet sure why but my keyboard layout seems to make trouble). Just ignore the fact that there is "0 mb disk space free" displayed, simply continue - it WILL work.

The sound configuration of the game will start automatically. Choose "Sound Blaster", base "220", irq "7" and dma "1" (selected by default).

On the next page, choose "SoundBlaster" again with the same settings.

The installation is now complete.

You were redirected to the "D:\ITE" file on your DOS-Emulation.

Now enter "ITE" and hit the "ENTER" button - enjoy!


~FallenWolf

[FallenWolf]

Please give me a feedback if the mod works.

If the game is very laggy and you own a slow pc (less then 2000 MhZ) try to lower the "cycles". 8000 are thought for a pc with 2600 - 3000 MHz.

~FallenWolf

[Puss in Boots]

Hello there! Boy, am I glad to have stumbled upon this guide. But sadly, it does not work well for me...

1st - DOSBox and my PC usually don't go well together... is there any way to run it with VDMSound?

2nd - If not... well, as with all DOSBox games, either the game is too slow (if cycles are too low) or the music is jerky (if the cycles are too high). It's nigh unplayable. Can you help in any way?

I wonder if you could help me? The people at the VOGONS forums haven't been able to yet...

...blast, why doesn't someone release an XP patch for the DOS version? I mean, considering the game hasn't died, like some older games...

[Puss in Boots]

EDIT - Whoops, double post, sorry.

[FallenWolf]

hmm well sorry i dont know that emulator, but i know that it took me several days to find the correct configuration.

if your system seems to slow, try to 'play' wit the "cycles=" .

what machine do you own? how much mhz?
try to lower the number or even put it some higher and watch what is happening.

p.s.: i do have better experiences with dos box as you can change most values yourself by the config file.

[FallenWolf]

i need the error message, or i cant help you

dos box does work with every windows version, except you misconfigured it.

**edit**
by the way, VDM sound is your sound card? well, dosbox uses an emulation, there are -as far as i know- three different types of emulations. for me sound blaster works best.

[Threed]

VDMSound is an sound-emulator program that makes most old DOS-based games run under Windows XP - its much simplier and easier to use than DOSBox, most of the time.

Does it just not work if you try using VDMSound, Puss?

[Puss in Boots]

Well, in DOSBox, there's no error message per se - it runs fine, but either too slow or with jerky music.

I'll PM you my DOSBox conf file, so as not to clutter up this thread.

And no, VDMSound is another DOS emulator. It's the one I regularly use. And when I try to use it, I get a "Cannot load scene cache" error.

[sev]

Hmmm... I often run DOS version in dosbox starting from 0.60. And it worked right out of the box, without dosbox config file tweaking.

[FallenWolf]

should normally not work cause most cpus dont use an that old technology anymore to be compatible with that old games ^^

[sev]

Sorry? Let me rephrase myself. ITE DOS version runs on dosbox (dosbox.sf.net) without any additional tweaking of the DOS emulator. And dosbox cannot run well on non-modern processors, because it emulates x86 and all PC peripherials, and that takes a lot of CPU power. Say, for smooth ITE run under dosbox you will need about 1GHz processor.