Anyone have Descent running in DOS?

[rhester72]

I get DOS/4GW crashes (multiple cascading instruction faults) regardless of memory configuration (DOS or core) or speed.

If it's a larger DOS/4GW problem unrelated to Descent (which I suspect it might be), it may be there's nothing to be done but hope for further core fixes, but I could have sworn I saw somewhere not too long ago that someone got Descent going (and I'm very curious how).

I've tried every released version including the Anniversary Edition with the same result.

[Caldor]

Did you get it running? There was a post in one of the Facebook groups and I shared how I got it running using the HX DOS Extender. Maybe you made that post?

Here is the game running:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oll7dvzDhbQ&t=2s

This is a link to the HX DOS Extender:
https://www.japheth.de/HX.html

There is a newer version made by someone else ,but not sure if it really changes much.

[AntialiasedPixel]

It's definitely not dos4gw specific as I know I ran at least a few games last night that use it and they worked fine, but I did hit the same crash when trying to launch Descent. Haven't played around with my configuration much yet, just using a pretty basic autoexec/config sys.

[Caldor]

I have found another interesting DOS extender that seems to work very well.

The HX DOS extender helps run Descent but Warcraft II wont run from DOS using it. But DOS32A will run both these games:
https://dos32a.narechk.net/manual/index.html

It can be used to replace the DOS4GW.EXE files in the game folders, but in some cases this has been made a part of the EXE file itself. If you want to replace the DOS4GW file, simply take the DOS32A.EXE file and rename it to DOS4GW.EXE and replace the old one. Probably best to take a backup of the old file. If the game does not allow this, or you simply do not want to replace the file, you can also run it using DOS32A like this:

DOS32A descent.exe

There are also a bunch of options that can be used. I suspect some of them might help get some troublesome games working. But it does help get both Warcraft 2 and Descent working, so I am happy with it so far.

[NightShadowPT]

I have found another interesting DOS extender that seems to work very well.

The HX DOS extender helps run Descent but Warcraft II wont run from DOS using it. But DOS32A will run both these games:
https://dos32a.narechk.net/manual/index.html

It can be used to replace the DOS4GW.EXE files in the game folders, but in some cases this has been made a part of the EXE file itself. If you want to replace the DOS4GW file, simply take the DOS32A.EXE file and rename it to DOS4GW.EXE and replace the old one. Probably best to take a backup of the old file. If the game does not allow this, or you simply do not want to replace the file, you can also run it using DOS32A like this:

DOS32A descent.exe

There are also a bunch of options that can be used. I suspect some of them might help get some troublesome games working. But it does help get both Warcraft 2 and Descent working, so I am happy with it so far.

Hi,

I find this quite interesting, but I've not been able to replicate it.
I have downloaded version 8.0 of dos32a from the SourceForge, and tried both ways to run Warcraft 2 without success (the PC just hangs).

Was there anything else you did?

Cheers

[Caldor]

You tried it with Descent? Did you run the setup file and such first?

[rhester72]

Thank you! At least for Descent, it works!

[Chris23235]

I tried the registered version of Descent but had no luck with DOS32A. It launches, but whenever I press the second button of my Gamepad the game crashes back to DOS.

[Caldor]

I have not tried running it with controllers of any type, only mouse and keyboard. Did you try without the controller?

[Chris23235]

Same for me with mouse, crashes when I press the fire button on the mouse.