Windows '98 version of DOS for Duke Nukem Series

[Captain FPGA]

I noticed this video of the guy playing Duke Nukem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeidZSiQvhA&t=1319s

It runs decently.

Right now I'm using Flynn's Total Dos Launcher 300 package, problem is whenever I try to run Duke Nukem on there, the game crashes like hell. It's a great pack I wish I could get Duke Nukem working through there.

So anyway about the Win98DOS, is there really an already pre-configured VHD pack with Duke Nukem 3D+Expansions and other non-working games from Flynns pack floating around the net? If not I would assume that means Windows '98 would need to be installed separately and Duke Nukem inserted. I tried to seek out this pre-existing pack but without a name I've reached a dead end. At least with Flynn's pack, the name Flynn Top 300 is easy enough to find.

[zorrobandito]

I can't help with the Win98 aspect but can confirm that Duke Nukem runs fine on MISTer from Flynn's pack. The Atomic Edition struggles with framerate and is basically unplayable but loads to the title screen and runs the demo.

I select EMM386 and Soundblaster as my startup options.

[Captain FPGA]

I can't help with the Win98 aspect but can confirm that Duke Nukem runs fine on MISTer from Flynn's pack. The Atomic Edition struggles with framerate and is basically unplayable but loads to the title screen and runs the demo.

I select EMM386 and Soundblaster as my startup options.

That helped, it's a little more playable now. The thing is the game still crashes if I leave it on for an hour. Have you had this problem?

[zorrobandito]

"The thing is the game still crashes if I leave it on for an hour."

Clearly I don't play it as much as you

I'll give it a try today and report back.

[Captain FPGA]

"The thing is the game still crashes if I leave it on for an hour."

Clearly I don't play it as much as you

I'll give it a try today and report back.

Yessir.

[zorrobandito]

OK, so it took me a bit longer but I left it running last night for about 3 hours on the demo. There were points where it seemed to have crashed - wouldn't respond to keypresses, even Ctrl-Alt-Del, but it came back after a few mins as if nothing had happened.

Obviously I wasn't actively playing it for that long but perhaps it's worth trying the same experiment on yours?

[Captain FPGA]

OK, so it took me a bit longer but I left it running last night for about 3 hours on the demo. There were points where it seemed to have crashed - wouldn't respond to keypresses, even Ctrl-Alt-Del, but it came back after a few mins as if nothing had happened.

Obviously I wasn't actively playing it for that long but perhaps it's worth trying the same experiment on yours?

Hey,

Tried it a while ago, freezes after an hour and sits at menu making this weird stuttering sound. When I attempt a restart it reverts back to TDL menu and I have to completely hard reboot the Mister.

What are all of your settings?

[Caldor]

Ahh, that is my video

Yes, I run DOS 7.0 I think it is, which comes from Windows 98. It seems to be more compatible than FreeDOS while having most of the features of FreeDOS as well. Mainly support for large partitions / FAT32.

One problem I ran into when it came to optimizing Duke3D that confused me at first, was that it seemed to by default run at 640x480. That runs very badly on AO486, it has to be set to 320x240 instead or something like that. There are some other settings that might also help.

I do think there were some audio issues as well, where I had to use specific settings or memory managers to be able to have music and sound effects.

If you are still having issues, I can check up on what my exact boot settings are and such when I get home.

[Captain FPGA]

Ahh, that is my video

Yes, I run DOS 7.0 I think it is, which comes from Windows 98. It seems to be more compatible than FreeDOS while having most of the features of FreeDOS as well. Mainly support for large partitions / FAT32.

One problem I ran into when it came to optimizing Duke3D that confused me at first, was that it seemed to by default run at 640x480. That runs very badly on AO486, it has to be set to 320x240 instead or something like that. There are some other settings that might also help.

I do think there were some audio issues as well, where I had to use specific settings or memory managers to be able to have music and sound effects.

If you are still having issues, I can check up on what my exact boot settings are and such when I get home.

I'm definitely having issues here, keep in mind I'm an amatuer user. I hadn't installed my version of DOS from scratch it came pre-packaged. I know how to operate basic functions from the Mister menu and the initial boot screen, as well as the sound settings before game launcher but that's pretty much it. Would you know where in DOS I can set the video? I think my native is ???x400 something. Sounds like you're saying it might run better at 240p, if you can tell me where to adjust that I'll get right on it.

I'll need all of the help I can get on this one. Unlike Arcade/Console cores these computer cores tend to be anything but simple especially the AO486.

EDIT: Tried different resolutions but nothing worked.

[Caldor]

The resolution is adjusted in game. There should be a graphics setting under the options if I remember correctly.

[Captain FPGA]

The resolution is adjusted in game. There should be a graphics setting under the options if I remember correctly.

Hi, yeah that did not work. This game is determined not to give me the time of day.

[akeley]

The main resolution is set outside of the game, in the "setmain.exe" or "setup.exe" files.

I've tried the standard, shareware version and it crashed when using standard setup, but with some tweaking I was able to play for a longer time. Still, it was only 320x200 and yet quite choppy. If you really want to play it I'd suggest just sticking with Dosbox, where it should just work with no problems and fast performance in high VESA resolutions (800x) .

[Captain FPGA]

The main resolution is set outside of the game, in the "setmain.exe" or "setup.exe" files.

I've tried the standard, shareware version and it crashed when using standard setup, but with some tweaking I was able to play for a longer time. Still, it was only 320x200 and yet quite choppy. If you really want to play it I'd suggest just sticking with Dosbox, where it should just work with no problems and fast performance in high VESA resolutions (800x) .

Massive apologies for getting this late. I'm so sorry!

Where can I find "setmain.exe" or "setup.exe" files? Do I activate them from my pc or Mister OSD when the core isn't active?

[akeley]

Where can I find "setmain.exe" or "setup.exe" files? Do I activate them from my pc or Mister OSD when the core isn't active?

They're in the game's directory, on MiSTer's SD card. I assume you're using flynnsbit's pack, so then I suppose you're starting Duke through The Dos Launcher (long list of games with blue background). So once you choose Duke3D from this list, it should show a little window with "Multiple Components Found". Choose setup.exe from this sub-list and then go to Screen Setup and pick 320x200. You can also choose sound options in Sound Setup (eg you can run No Sound to see if the game still crashes without any sound drivers). Then "Save and launch", it should go back to main TDL screen, then run Duke as you normally would (via duke3d.exe).

[Captain FPGA]

Where can I find "setmain.exe" or "setup.exe" files? Do I activate them from my pc or Mister OSD when the core isn't active?

They're in the game's directory, on MiSTer's SD card. I assume you're using flynnsbit's pack, so then I suppose you're starting Duke through The Dos Launcher (long list of games with blue background). So once you choose Duke3D from this list, it should show a little window with "Multiple Components Found". Choose setup.exe from this sub-list and then go to Screen Setup and pick 320x200. You can also choose sound options in Sound Setup (eg you can run No Sound to see if the game still crashes without any sound drivers). Then "Save and launch", it should go back to main TDL screen, then run Duke as you normally would (via duke3d.exe).

I could've sworn I tried this and it didn't do anything. Perhaps it was a different screen I went to, to change the video resolution. I'll give it a look!

[Captain FPGA]

Where can I find "setmain.exe" or "setup.exe" files? Do I activate them from my pc or Mister OSD when the core isn't active?

They're in the game's directory, on MiSTer's SD card. I assume you're using flynnsbit's pack, so then I suppose you're starting Duke through The Dos Launcher (long list of games with blue background). So once you choose Duke3D from this list, it should show a little window with "Multiple Components Found". Choose setup.exe from this sub-list and then go to Screen Setup and pick 320x200. You can also choose sound options in Sound Setup (eg you can run No Sound to see if the game still crashes without any sound drivers). Then "Save and launch", it should go back to main TDL screen, then run Duke as you normally would (via duke3d.exe).

I thought I been through this option before... yeah it's already been adjusted to 320x200 the crashing persists.

Does Duke Nukem 3D DOS emulation run any better on the original XBOX mod?

[akeley]

I doubt OG Xbox can handle Duke. But am pretty sure anything you write these posts on can

[Captain FPGA]

I doubt OG Xbox can handle Duke. But am pretty sure anything you write these posts on can

Sounds like I should give-up on trying to get this thing to work on the core for now. I hope one day they update the core to run Duke Nukem without crashes and better frame rate. Keeping thine fingers

Luckily I do have a monster pc to run the game, so Dosbox shouldn't be a problem. Just prefer to play on consoles (OG XBOX) and mini-PCs (Mister)

Thanks for trying to help you guys.

[SuperBabyHix]

If you want to pay Duke 3D on an Xbox it looks like there is a homebrew source port: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_3D_XBOX

[Caldor]

I have heard many mention Duke3D crashing after an hour or so. Maybe its a DOS4GW problem? Anyone running the game replacing DOS4GW with DOS32A maybe? Its a highly optimized replacement of DOS4GW. Several games on AO486 wont run at all without using DOS32A. That it crashing after an hour or so, sounds like it could be a memory leak problem, which I think could be one of the bugs left in DOS4GW.

DOS4GW is also why many games wont run when setting AO486 to use 256MB RAM, as some of the older versions of DOS4GW does not expect more than 64MB RAM as that was pretty much unthinkable back then... but it can still end up using more RAM than that or something, so it ends up crashing when trying to access the areas beyond the first 64MB RAM mapped.

[Caldor]

Okay, seems to be working for me.

My settings are that I am using EMM386, set AO486 to 16MB RAM, using MIDI for the music, with the PiMidi, not sure if that makes a difference. I played for 1 hour playing the game, now its just running and it has run a total of 1 hour 30 minutes. I ran it using DOS32A, so the command line is
"DOS32A DUKE3D".
Resolution set to 320x200 or whatever that default low res setting is. Oh, and no mouse. That might be relevant, because I have gotten several mouse games bugging out on me.

Did some more tests... crashed when I ran the same settings but without DOS32A. So even with the 16MB setting it crashes with DOS4GW. Now I am trying with mouse enabled but using DOS32A. So far no crashes, but it has only run for 10 minutes. The first game ran for more than 3 hours, so that certainly seemed to not have the issue. Other test done, still running without crashing as long as I use DOS32A. Using mouse did not cause a crash. Been running for 50 minutes now.

[Captain FPGA]

Okay, seems to be working for me.

My settings are that I am using EMM386, set AO486 to 16MB RAM, using MIDI for the music, with the PiMidi, not sure if that makes a difference. I played for 1 hour playing the game, now its just running and it has run a total of 1 hour 30 minutes. I ran it using DOS32A, so the command line is
"DOS32A DUKE3D".
Resolution set to 320x200 or whatever that default low res setting is. Oh, and no mouse. That might be relevant, because I have gotten several mouse games bugging out on me.

Did some more tests... crashed when I ran the same settings but without DOS32A. So even with the 16MB setting it crashes with DOS4GW. Now I am trying with mouse enabled but using DOS32A. So far no crashes, but it has only run for 10 minutes. The first game ran for more than 3 hours, so that certainly seemed to not have the issue. Other test done, still running without crashing as long as I use DOS32A. Using mouse did not cause a crash. Been running for 50 minutes now.

I know I'm getting to this late but wanted to tell you my situation has been resolved. I replaced DOS4G using the stub extender for 32a now, the game is forced to boot using DOS32A each time.

I performed a 10 hour stress test afterwards to make certain the thing is working this is both with 250 something megs of RAM and with a mouse, it works. Thanks for trying to help!

If you want to pay Duke 3D on an Xbox it looks like there is a homebrew source port: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_3D_XBOX

Also I'll be downloading this once I remove that nasty clock battery out of my XBOX. The one that could kill your motherboard and happened to be a design flaw.

[Caldor]

Okay, seems to be working for me.

My settings are that I am using EMM386, set AO486 to 16MB RAM, using MIDI for the music, with the PiMidi, not sure if that makes a difference. I played for 1 hour playing the game, now its just running and it has run a total of 1 hour 30 minutes. I ran it using DOS32A, so the command line is
"DOS32A DUKE3D".
Resolution set to 320x200 or whatever that default low res setting is. Oh, and no mouse. That might be relevant, because I have gotten several mouse games bugging out on me.

Did some more tests... crashed when I ran the same settings but without DOS32A. So even with the 16MB setting it crashes with DOS4GW. Now I am trying with mouse enabled but using DOS32A. So far no crashes, but it has only run for 10 minutes. The first game ran for more than 3 hours, so that certainly seemed to not have the issue. Other test done, still running without crashing as long as I use DOS32A. Using mouse did not cause a crash. Been running for 50 minutes now.

I know I'm getting to this late but wanted to tell you my situation has been resolved. I replaced DOS4G using the stub extender for 32a now, the game is forced to boot using DOS32A each time.

I performed a 10 hour stress test afterwards to make certain the thing is working this is both with 250 something megs of RAM and with a mouse, it works. Thanks for trying to help!

Nice, that is good to hear Yeah, the simplest solution to me seems to replace DOS4GW.exe with DOS32A.exe... or maybe they are com files. But renaming DOS32A to DOS4GW should make it work without having to change configuration files and such.