Using CD images with AO486

[Chris23235]

Right now, the AO486 core doesn't support CD images, as I understand it, the core already fills out a large portion of the FPGA, so I am not sure if CD support can be implemented in the future. For anybody looking for CD support on the core, there is a tool for MS-DOS to mount CD images:

http://adoxa.altervista.org/shsucdx/

SHSUCDX is a MSCDEX alternative and SHSUCDHD is a tool to mount an .iso image as a virtual CD-ROM.

The program only mounts .iso files, so no audio tracks can be played, but as many DOS games didn't had audio tracks, it's an easy way to use CD-images with the AO486 core.

[robng15]

Can confirm, works perfectly for me. Many CD DOS games up and running.

[kathleen]

Thank you @Chris23235 for this valuable information, I was aware that for Amiga this king of tool was existing (with the same restriction regarding the audio tracks) but I didn't know that this was also existing for MS-Dos, good catch!

[ericgus09]

I dont know if its been discussed but would it be possible to convert an ISO image to a VHD and mount that as a "second" hard drive.. I had thought about this but never really looked into it .. (if its even a *thing*) ..

[Cebion]

You can most often extract an iso and use it that way

[Chris23235]

I dont know if its been discussed but would it be possible to convert an ISO image to a VHD and mount that as a "second" hard drive.. I had thought about this but never really looked into it .. (if its even a *thing*) ..

This works with some CDs and some not. I had to look the tool up, because the CD versions of X-Wing and Tie-Fighter refused to install when the content was copied to a vhd, they checked for the CD.

Besides, it's more convenient to work with ISOs, you can put several of them to a vhd and mount the one you want to use, instead of remounting different vhd files.

[Schyz]

I've had much better results with FakeDR:
http://www.math.uni-rostock.de/~nfa506/fakecddr.html

It uses mscdex.exe so it's much more reliable. I won't say is 100% compatible but I haven't found a game yet that doesn't work.

You might have to dump the isos from another machine or a VM as it needs to copy not only the files but also some metadata.

Of course, forget about CD-Audio.

[robng15]

Using

Code: Select all

LH SHSUCDHD /F:C:\ISO\xxx.ISO
LH SHSUCDX /D:SHSU-CDH

start game

LH SHSUCDHD /U

To mount an ISO image for a game.

[Caldor]

Now that a new Core is coming that makes Windows 95 and 98 much more viable, I can suggest trying Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120%, they support several CD formats and audio CDs. Seems like VESA support might also be added... but with all the work being done on this core, it seems like there is a chance we will see it getting CD-ROM support within the next... 6 months or so? Time will tell.

But Alcohol 120% is pretty amazing when it comes to doing this. I also used it to make images of my original disks and it is a really good tool and its even free.

[ash2fpga]

Has anyone found a way to switch CDs in-game (in DOS)? Just going from games I own or have played, Privateer 2 and Gabriel Knight 2 (DOS versions) would need it, I think. (Not actually sure if C&C or Red Alert, although multi-CD, actually need in-game CD switching, since they have a disc per campaign.)

[Caldor]

Has anyone found a way to switch CDs in-game (in DOS)? Just going from games I own or have played, Privateer 2 and Gabriel Knight 2 (DOS versions) would need it, I think. (Not actually sure if C&C or Red Alert, although multi-CD, actually need in-game CD switching, since they have a disc per campaign.)

That is probably going to be a problem... one option might be to emulate / simulate two CD drives.

But there might also be another option. Game Wizard 32 Pro essentially gives you multi-tasking for DOS. So while running the game you have a hot-key that jumps into Game Wizard and then you can actually launch a prompt from Game Wizard, and you might be able to use that to change CD.

Game Wizard runs in the memory, and it does not work with all games, because some games use the memory that Game Wizard is in.

[ash2fpga]

(snip)

Game Wizard 32 Pro essentially gives you multi-tasking for DOS. So while running the game you have a hot-key that jumps into Game Wizard and then you can actually launch a prompt from Game Wizard, and you might be able to use that to change CD.

Wow, Game Wizard. I could not remember the name of that program for the life of me a while back. Very impressive piece of kit back in the day. I forgot that it had a DOS shell, too.

(Found a video of Game Wizard on a blog, wasn't quite sure if it was the same program I remembered at first.)

[Caldor]

(snip)

Game Wizard 32 Pro essentially gives you multi-tasking for DOS. So while running the game you have a hot-key that jumps into Game Wizard and then you can actually launch a prompt from Game Wizard, and you might be able to use that to change CD.

Wow, Game Wizard. I could not remember the name of that program for the life of me a while back. Very impressive piece of kit back in the day. I forgot that it had a DOS shell, too.

(Found a video of Game Wizard on a blog, wasn't quite sure if it was the same program I remembered at first.)

I am pretty sure the one I am using is the one from this page:
https://anapan.525lines.moe/Game%20Wizard.htm
Btw, to use the disk image, you can just rename the IMA type to IMG and it can mount, to install GW32Pro

[Caldor]

This reminds me of having a similar problem on Linux. I was using QEMU on a Raspberry Pi 4 to run Windows 98. It is pretty effective, can run games like Starcraft and Diablo, but mounting CDs, even though it had a virtual drive, was command based. So I wrote a batch script for Linux that searched through some folders for *.iso files and listed them in a menu where you could then select which ISO you would want to mount. Only issue was it could only be used when you booted the system, so you still had to rely on commands to switch CDs after booting Windows 98.

But I am thinking it should be possible to do the same in DOS. If it cannot be done with a batch job, it can probably be done with a somewhat simple Pascal program. For games where its possible to Game Wizard, Game Wizard can then be used to run this script or app while in the game and switch CD when needed.

[ZigZag]

I wonder if you could use DriveDroid on an android phone to simulate a USB CD/DVD drive that'd work in Win98SE. That way you could just eject & insert bin/iso's on the phone to swap disks.

[Caldor]

This explains how to use SHSUCDHD:
https://www.notanon.com/retro/how-to-us ... 010/09/15/

I made a bat file called mount.bat with this code:

Code: Select all

@echo off
shcdhd86 /U
shsucdx /U
shcdhd86 /F:%1
shsucdx /d:shsu-cdh

And added it to a folder that I have in PATH, while also have the SHSUCDHD files there. Makes it so that only one CD is mounted, and when I mount a new CD it will unmount the other one first and its drive.

So I just have to type f.ex. "mount c&c_cd1.iso" and it will mount it.

Next up is testing switching CDs while installing something, using game wizard.

[Caldor]

Well... game wizard does not work for me while trying to play Kingdom O Magic, which is a good example as it has 2 CDs and requires you to start with one CD, and if you pick the Sharon character you then have to switch CD.

The game crashes when I try to go to the shell while in the game, using Game Wizard. I am now trying to crack the game, hoping its a simple copy protection just looking for the files it needs. Another solution could maybe be making a custom TSR program? Some simple CD swapping script that uses a hotkey.

I found some information about how to possibly accomplish that here:
http://www.x-hacker.org/ng/zcpp/ng7e495.html

Game Wizard might work with other games though, for CD switching... but I doubt it, since games that uses CD and requires CD swapping are likely to use a good amount of memory and some pretty advanced features.

Btw, the Windows 98 DOS VHD, seems to have DOS 6.22 commands in its DOS folder. There is a SUBST command for DOS 7.0 and DOS 7.1, they are in the C:\Windows\command folder of Windows 98 or 95.