I'm trying to get Windows 3.11 installation working under DosBox (with ultimate goal to run Civilization 2).

First, I tried Win3.11 under plain host directory. This one is able to run Win3.11 in 640x480 16 colours, but gives GFX errors (no fonts) with S3 drivers in 640x480 256 colours. DosBox output complains something about not supported XGA commands and that it is not possible to create some TMP file (probably wrong name for the host filesystem).

Second, I tried Win3.11 on a disk image file, but the startup ends on initialization of smartdrv (simply does nothing, no error etc.). When I remove the smartdrv line form the autoexec part of the dosbox config file, the startup continues to the Windows logo and then nothing more than a black screen.

Note I tried both cases (same config, same files/disk images) also on DosBox 0.74 on my Win10 laptop and all works as expected (including runing Civilization 2).


Is there any way to solve this?


Edit: Solved (see my post No 4)

Last edited by pavlor on 11-Mar-2023 at 09:13 AM.

@pavlor

Use VirtualBox. You get full 24 bit color with S3 drivers with no problems.

@ppcamiga1

Quote:

Use VirtualBox. You get full 24 bit color with S3 drivers with no problems.

I don't think VirtualBox is available for AmigaOS4.


I want to play Civ2 on Pegasos 2, that is why I'm somewhat toturing poor DosBox.

I managed to solve my issue. It seems S3 GFX emulation in OS4 port of DosBox is not as complete as in other DosBox ports (eg. in comparison to DosBox on my Win10 notebook, where all works good with full S3 drivers).

First, I created pure filedisk based configuration (I probably mixed host filesysystem and filedisks earlier) and installed MSDOS622 on the filedisk. Now I'm able to boot from filedisk with full MSDOS622 installation (via "boot -l c" commands from the DosBox CLI). Then I installed Windows 3.11 (with plain VGA 640x480 16 colours driver) and Civilization 2 dependencies (SB16 drivers, WinG, VfW).

Next comes the hard part. I somewhat experimented with DosBox GFX card settings and available Win 3.x drivers and found the best combination is S3 GFX emulation with plain SVGA driver patched to support VESA extensions (original driver would not work). I downloaded full SVGA driver package (should be included in Win311, but was not able to get it working that way) - just look for "svga.exe" on the net and applied the SVGAPatch from: https://www.japheth.de/dwnload1.html (SVGAPtch.zip). Windows 3.11 now works in 640x480 256 colours!

Then I copied my Civ2 directory to this Win311 filedisk (I didn't make full install right now, as I didn't configure CD-ROM for full filedisk based setup) and configured Civ2 icon for Program manager by hand...



Now I can play Civilization 2 on Pegasos 2! Works quite well with 1266 MHz G4.


Todo: Try the same with the host filesystem or get CD-ROM working under the filedisk setup (not really urgent...).

Note I used my Win10 based laptop for all above mentioned steps (OS4 part was tested under WinUAE) and only in the last step I copied a working filedisk to Pegasos 2. There was some funny moment during testing under WinUAE, when at last working Win311 configuration complained about out of memory for the Program manager. I assume using filedisk (for DosBox) on filedisk (for WinUAE/OS4) was too slooooooow for Win311 virtual memory to be even able to fucntion properly. No such issues on a real hardware.

@pavlor

Why not Basilisk2 and Civ2 for Macos 7.5 with decent resolution?

@rzookol

DosBox is muuuuuuch faster and far more stable (I did not find MacOS/Civ2 combination working properly under Basilisk 2 - crashes and freezes are too common).

There is also another great benefit: I can configure DosBox to run my games directly by doubleclick on an icon in the WB and then exit to WB, when I exit the game (this could work also for Win3x - I have an utility to open the game without Windows logo with a minimized Program manager and then exit to DOS).

Sure, I'm limited to 1024x768 256 colours with my SVGA driver (I have yet to test, how this resolution works on Pegasos 2), but this is still plenty of space for Civ2 (well, even 640x480 is enough for me).

@pavlor

DOSBox PPC working good and more compatible than OS3 version. on EAB someone post video of DOSBox Win3.11 on X1000 and also very good playble Tomb Raider.

Win 3.11 on X1000
https://youtu.be/sHGenhrvK-w

Tomb Raider DOS on X1000
https://youtu.be/3PzVKVdwoOg

_________________

@Seiya

PowerPC DosBox has now support for dynamic CPU core, which is cca 3x faster than "normal" CPU core available in the OS3.x build (and older OS4 releases). It is also more compatible in some cases.

However, there are still minor issues in comparison to DosBox on Win10. Eg. that util I mentioned above doesn't work correctly in our DosBox (outcome looks as if the path to Civ2 is wrong, but the command line options are the same for both computers, must investigate this further...), I was also not able to play intro movie for Civ2 from CD. I already mentioned not compatible enough S3 emulation.

That are really minor problems, most resource demanding games work quite well on Pegasos 2 G4 1266 MHz, I tested/played:

Afterlife (needs some change in the startup bat file)
Albion (I use somewhat smaller screen for 3D)
Civilization 2 (subject of this very thread ; now runs in 1024x768 256 colours)
Dark Forces
Fallout
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Master of Magic
Master of Orion 2
TES: Arena (TES: Daggerfall works, but is too slow on my configuration)
Theme Hospital (high resolution is slower, but playable)

etc.

Dungeon Keeper requires more CPU speed to be really playable (well, I'm in the 3rd level right now).

@pavlor

at this point better play these games on dosbox on Win10. To do it in Amiga is nice feelings, but not much playable.

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@Seiya

Well, most games work well on my setup, no need for some Windows PC.

I tested Win311/Civ2 on the host file system and disk image. Conclusion: using disk image offers better compatibility as there are some issues when using the host FS for Windows (eg. I was not able to create a new Program item in Program manager, or generate new map in the Civ2 Editor). It probably is not possible to automaticaly exit DosBox after exiting Windows when booting from a disk image, but this is only a minor downside (i placed small ECHO note in the autoxec.bat to press Ctrl-F9).

Civ2 scales its sprites if runing in 1024x768 or greater resolution, 800x600 256 colours seems to be a better choice (and is of course faster).

To do: CD-ROM support when booting from the disk image (to get movies working - well, not a high priority)

Last edited by pavlor on 25-Mar-2023 at 05:59 PM.