Running Enemy Unknown

[Fox]

Let me first say that I started playing this game as X-COM: UFO Defense. But this version is next to impossible to find these days, the only version I have of it are the original floppies and I believe the PSX version is UFO Defense as well. It's not a big deal, I know it's the same game, but I wish I had my American version.

 

Regardless, I have been playing the patched version of EU on Windows XP. Runs pretty good, but the only issues I have are:

 

*Scroll speed is off the hook.

*The BEEP sounds of clicking buttons on the geoscape is deafening.

 

Is there any easy way to fix this? I'm really sorry, but I tried using DOSBOX and that thing is confusing as all hell. I've searched and searched for walkthroughs on how to get it running, and it's just a pain in the ***.

 

Anyone have quick fixes to this issues?

[Azure]

For the beep problem, in the DOS version, the + and - keys should turn up/down the volume.

 

For the speed problem, you can try using one of the cpu cycle wasters like moslo, etc. But in my experience, those don't do enuff...you could try setting the priority of the process to low (start xcom, alt-tab back to windows, hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on the process tab, find ntvdm (NT Virtual Dos Machine) & right click, Set Priority>Low)

 

But seriously, DOSbox ain't hard...just download and install 0.65, after it installs, click on start>programs>DOSbox>DOSbox.conf (should have a notepad icon and open in notepad). If your machine is decently fast, set frameskip (under [render]) to 0, cycles (under [CPU]) to about 12500, and then add the following lines under [autoexec]:

"mount c X:\xxx\xxx\xcom" (replace X with the drive letter where you installed xcom and \xxx\xxx\xcom with the path to xcom)

so, for example, if you installed xcom in c:\games\xcom, then put "mount c C:\games\xcom"

"c:" (this will switch you to the virtual drive you just mounted)

If you're only gonna use DOSbox for xcom, you can even make it go ahead and start the game by adding a final line that is just the command you use to play, for example

"ufo" (or whatever file you run to start the game...if you use xcomutil, this will probably be "runxcom"

 

You can toggle fullscreen with Alt-Enter, and you adjust the speed with Ctrl-F12(up) or Ctrl-F11 (down)...if its too slow, you can try increasing frameskip (Ctrl-F8, Ctrl-F7 decreases again). When you get the speed right, note the cycles and frameskip settings in the title bar and try plugging those values into the DOSbox.conf file. Do note that if you use DOSbox, you will probably need to run setup (in the xcom folder) to ensure that DOSbox and Xcom are using the same sound settings (DOSbox defaults to soundblaster16, address 220, irq 7, dma 1, so try those when you run setup) If the sound is a bit jerky, try increasing the prebuffer to 100 or so in DOSbox.conf under [mixer].

 

Azure

[uriaheep]

It's worth persevering Fox, the game runs just about as I remember it the first time around apart from a few freezes now and then.

 

SAVE CONSTANTLY!!!

 

Like Azure says you just have to add the mount command at the dos promt.

[Fox]

Awesome guys, thanks so much. I suppose I really should try and get it running... I'll post back with a success/failure story.

[Fox]

Well I got dosbox working ok I guess, but how the heck do I install this damn thing? It seems like DOSBOX will only let me run something but it cant actually go through the installation routine. What I have is an old copy of the install files, not an installed version of the game. It gets to the installation screen but then what it does is it says,

 

https://home.comcast.net/~ashtonpierre/dosxcom.JPG

 

No matter what I do, it will never let me go any further. What the heck!?!?

[Bomb Bloke]

Usually that message comes up when you type "cdsetup" without the correct parameters.

 

What I recommend you do is only use DosBox to run the game. Install it via Windows. Then you don't need to worry about drive mounting or anything like that.

 

Though if your version is anything like mine, you can "install" the game by copying the CD contents to a folder on your harddrive.

[Fox]

Yeah I figured it out. The version of the game that I had was faulty.