X-Com Apoc running on DoXBox 0.70 and Windows XP SP2

[UfoMan]

XCOM3 - XCOM APOCALYPSE v1.00 WORKING UNDER DOSBOX 0.70 ON WINDOWS XP SP2

 

Okay, this required like about a million steps to get it right and hours of experimentation. This may not work for you, and you may have to spend hours or days trying your own experiments to find what works for you. But, this is what worked for me!!

 

1) I started by finding the XCom Apoc CD that I bought long ago. Mine is the original DOS and Win95 stand-alone version. I got it 10 years ago.

 

2) I used windows explorer to create a folder called c:\xcom3i

 

3) I copied the contents of my Xcom Apoc CD to this c:\xcom3i folder, and I then went into that folder from Windows XP Explorer and right clicked "INSTALL" and told it to run in Windows 95 Compatability mode.

 

4) Then I installed the game from Windows Explorer. It complained about a few things but allowed me to install. I installed to the default C:\XCOMA subdirectory. I'm installing from the hard drive to the hard drive. It goes rather fast, and you don't have to worry about CD speeds or any of that.

 

5) I then while inside the install program, I used Setup to set the sound - SOUNDBLASTER 16/AWE, BASE 220, IRQ 7, DMA 1 -- what DOSBox defaults to. Ended up going with SOUNDBLASTER PRO, as SB16 didn't provide any sound at all.

 

6) Lots of problems here, actually. You have to guess right to get the sound right the first time, as it took me days to figure out how to run SETUP.EXE from XP. First of all, if you choose incorrectly, I was able to actually run C:\XCOMA\SETUP.EXE from Windows Explorer after I had created a PIF that set the program to run in Windows 95 Compatibility mode.

 

I soon found myself right clicking each XCOM3 program that I wanted to run and setting it to run in Win95 Comapability mode, using the compatability tab.

 

7) After I finally got XCOM3 running way down below on step 15, I actually had to go back in and set it to SOUNDBLASTER PRO, BASE 220, IRQ 7, DMA 1 -- the SB16 mode gave no sound, but I did get sound out of SOUNDBLASTER and SOUNDBLASTER PRO.

 

SOUNDBLASTER is mono sound, though, no stereo, so I eventually ended up going with SOUNDBLASTER PRO as my final setting. I mention that here just in case you want to select SOUNDBLASTER PRO from the start and save yourself the trouble.

 

8) Now, you have the core installed in C:\XCOMA, but that is only the beginning.

 

9) Notice that your XCOM3.CFG file has this in it "<space>C:\XCOM3I\". It is extremely important that the <space> be there before the path name or you won't get music. It looks like this " C:\XCOM3I\", whenever you edit XCOM3.CFG.

 

10) Now you got to download goodies to fix the video and crack the CD copy protection, or you can't get it to go. I was never able to run the APOC game on XP from the XCOM3 CD that I purchased 10 years ago! It just won't work for me.

 

11) https://www.xcomufo.com/x3dl.html

 

This one here was an important link.

 

FORGET about the xcom3fix.zip. It never worked for me no matter what I tried, although it has a good batch file that might come in handy later.

 

What you need on this forum is the x3svga.zip file. Download that one! It fixes the VGA problems so that you won't get black screen of death. Unzip it.

Follow the instructions. Copy the two patches to the appropriate folders TACEXE and UFOEXE in C:\XCOMA.

 

These patches won't run from DOSBox. You have to set them to Windows 95

Compatability, and run each one of them from Windows Explorer in Windows XP.

There, now your video should work, when you finally get all the rest of the stuff done.

 

12) You have to download DOSBox 0.70 from here:

https://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1

 

Install DOSBox 0.70 to the default directory.

 

I found that to get ALL of my purchased DOS games to run right under DOSBOX

0.70, I had to go into START, ALL PROGRAMS, DOSBOX 0.70, DoSBoX.conf, and edit that file so that cycles=max.

 

Iirc, it set cycles=auto, and that just plain makes everything stutter and lag and music choppy. BAD!

 

Go into dosbox.conf and make cycles=max, and save. Then all seems to be well.

This was a tip that my son taught me. And, it made all the difference between DOSBoX 0.70 being total crap to sheer perfection!

 

Then you want to copy the DOSBox shortcut from Windows Explorer, rename it do DoSBox X-Com Apocalypse, right click on it, Select properties, and then copy this into Target:

--

"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" "C:\XCOMA\DARXCOM3.BAT" -fullscreen -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf" -exit

 

--

The quotes have to be there. It won't work, yet, but now you are ready with a shortcut to run the thing in DOSBox!

 

Make sure you have a space before every

[UfoMan]

The DoSBox Forum and Mark's forum refers you to the various cracks as well.

 

You are going to have to crack it in order to get XP and DoSBox to recognize it. I found no other way.

 

I tried everything I could think of to install without the crack, and nothing worked. Once I cracked, then up it came, in both DoSBox and Windows Explorer.

 

The CD itself breaks Windows XP and prevents XP from running.

 

I don't have the Windows Collector Edition, I have the original 1.00 CD that came with the original game 10 years ago, along with the nice manual. That original CD just won't startup or autoplay or run right on XP.

 

But, a crack can fix it so that you can skip the CD and just run from the hard drive, which seems to be essential to getting your original copy of XCom Apoc to run under DOSBox and Windows XP.

 

It only took me five years to find something that finally worked. Now, I can actually play XCom Apoc on my Windows XP machine. It's been a long time in coming!

[UfoMan]

Mine was the original v1.00 X-Com Apocalypse that I purchased 10 years ago. That CD has something on it that breaks XP so that XP cannot run it with the CD. Even if you crack the CD and try to run from the CD, it still doesn't work. You have to run from the hard drive! And, to run from the hard drive, again, you have to crack the CD. I found no other way. The original CD that came in the box with the game just won't AUTOPLAY or startup in PLAY or work at all on XP. It has something there that is broken when XP tries to run it. Crashes every time. The only way is to run off the hard drive. Then DOSBox works wonderfully!

 

--

 

I'm not trying to promote the cracks. They have been around for years and never worked.

 

When it comes to the original X-Com Apocalypse, the key to it all is to get it all onto the hard drive, as there is something on the original 1.0 CD that prevents XCom from running at all on Windows XP.

 

Even if you crack it and try to run from the original CD that you purchased, it still won't run. The CD breaks it or prevents it from running on XP. The Play button isn't offered as part of Autoplay, even after you have installed from the CD. The Autoplay is broken for XP or doesn't run with XP or isn't compatible with XP. So, running from the original CD is impossible!

 

You have to be running it all from the HARD drive.

 

That's why the Windows Collector's version worked for some people, as it apparently all ran from the hard drive. Then you didn't encounter the Autoplay thing on the CD that broke it.

 

For those of us with the original version, the only hope is to get the whole thing onto the hard drive and running from the hard drive. And, to do that, you have to crack it. I found no other way.

 

If you find a way to do it without cracking it, let us know. But, every place that I went to made it clear that the only people who got it to run were running with Window's Collector Edition and running it all on the hard drive.

 

There is a way for those of us with the original XCom Apoc v1.00 to run on the hard drive too, but it requires the crack to break the dependence upon the CD and to get it to run without encountering the thing on the CD that breaks XP compatability.

 

You have got to get past the CD, as the original Apoc CD is not compatible with XP, no matter what you do with it.

 

Hopefully, they will let this stay up here, as it would have saved me days and years of grief if I would have known from the start that I was never going to be able to get it to run on XP from the original CD.

[UfoMan]

In the subsequent time, I found that the default "cycles=auto" in DoSBox 0.70 dosbox.conf file might actually work a bit better on some of the machines than "cycles=max", when it comes to X-Com Apocalypse 1.0. This was the only game though, where the default 'cycles=auto' appeared to work better than 'cycles=max'. All the other games required 'cycles=max' to run their best.

 

It's a simple exercise to create a custom dosbox.conf file in the C:\XCOMA folder and adjust the shortcut to point to it. Just be sure that you make a copy of the real dosbox.conf file and not the shortcut that is on the start menu. If you do the one on the start menu, that's the shortcut, and it will have you modifying the real thing.

 

I actually have two separate X-Com Apocalypse shortcuts now, one for the default cycles=auto and one for my updated master cycles=max that I use for MOO, MOM, Empires Deluxe, X-Com, and TFTD.

 

I have also taken the results of this whole and put it on two other XP SP2 machines in the house here, and XCom Apoc runs just fine. I don't need to play X3 right now, but my son is done with college and in between tasks, and he has been playing my copy of X-Com on his XP machine with DOSBox 0.70, and I wanted him to be able to have a go at my copy of Xcom Apoc. Anyway, the gist of this is that XCom Apoc is now working on my son's WinXP SP2 machine just fine now. And, I also backed it up onto my secondary WinXP work machine that I have in the office, and again, it ran just fine.

 

So, the process seems to work on more than just my main XP machine. Good news.

 

It seemed like Pete, Slaughter, and a whole bunch of the guys here had the original XCom Apoc and could never get it running on XP. Hopefully, they will now be able to take their CD and get it going, if they so desire. The key to it all is that you have to get it all onto the hard drive and running from the hard drive. If you don't, if it the startup or Autoplay accesses the original CD even for one second while starting the game, it will crash every time on XP. Only Win 95 and Win 98 and Win ME could seem to access the original CD without it crashing. It's as if the XCOM APOC CD startup checks the operating system, and when it runs into XP, something that it has never seen before, then it just automatically quits to the prompt and you are done before you start.

 

I was pleased at how nicely it ran under DoSBox 0.70 on XP, when I got it all on the hard drive. The music is still a bit choppy at times, but then XCom Apoc music was always a bit choppy and weird, even running from the CD. You can turn it off if you want. Or you can make cycles=auto in dosbox.conf. You will have to experiment around to see what works best.

 

Also, so far, none of the other XP machines that I have tried this on worked for SB16/AWE32 emulation. None of them. The other machines had onboard sound. My main machine is the only one with a Soundblaster card. I had to set them all to SOUNDBLASTER PRO. I tried to see if any of them would work as SB16. No go. There's something broken there too. Other DOS games will run SB16 mode under DoSBox 0.70, just not X3 Apoc.

 

But, they also all work with the SOUNDBLASTER mono setting too.

 

XCom Apocalypse is the hardest one to get going on XP. It had a dozen different bugs and glitches that all interfere or intervene to prevent it all. It's like you need to line up all the dominoes just right in order to have it run. Maybe now you can imagine how shocked I was the first time that it ran and ran right. I was stunned. I sincerely believed that I would never be able to crack the thing or figure the thing out.

 

But, I did. It's working really well, and the process has now been tested on other machines too.

 

I also played around with the xcom3fix.zip thing to see if I could somehow get it to run from the CD. I never could get it to run from the CD. I don't think xcom3fix.zip changes anything. It isn't really a CD crack but a CD substitute, but it didn't work for me. That's another part of the process that I never mentioned, as I don't think it did anything, but I mention it now, just in case one of you goes through the whole process and discovers that it still isn't working for you.

 

Tried to be thorough.

[chad]

to ufoman or whoever, can u elaberate in more detail on the following instructions please. i am not sure on how to do what it says. thank you very much

 

 

Then you want to copy the DOSBox shortcut from Windows Explorer, rename it do DoSBox X-Com Apocalypse, right click on it, Select properties, and then copy this into Target:

--

"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" "C:\XCOMA\DARXCOM3.BAT" -fullscreen -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf" -exit

 

--

The quotes have to be there. It won't work, yet, but now you are ready with a shortcut to run the thing in DOSBox!

 

Make sure you have a space before every

[Gimli]

Find the file dosbox.exe, right click on it and choose Create shortcut. Put that shortcut on the desktop (or wherever you wish) and rename it to "DoSBox X-Com Apocalypse" (without the quotes). Now right click on it, select Properties, then click on the Shortcut tab. In the field that says Target copy this:

 

"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" "C:\XCOMA\DARXCOM3.BAT" -fullscreen -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf" -exit

 

Naturally, be sure to replace the paths with the ones on your computer. So if, for example, the path to Dosbox for your computer is C:\Dosbox, the line that you copy into the Target field of the Shortcut would look like this:

 

"C:\Dosbox\dosbox.exe" "C:\XCOMA\DARXCOM3.BAT" -fullscreen -conf "C:\Dosbox\dosbox.conf" -exit

 

The same goes for DARXCOM3.bat. Hope this helps.

[chad]

does it matter if i have 2 hd on my computer which are listed as c: & e: both with xp home edition service pk 2 op sys. i am trying to install the xcom3 on e: if u can help me out. my email is on my acount

[Gimli]

Sorry, I'm not of much use here, I haven't had this problem. You'll have to wait for UfoMan to respond.

[Bomb Bloke]

All you have to do is substitute the "c:\xcoma\" path with the location you want to install to. (For eg, "e:\xcoma\").

[UfoMan]

I can't believe it has been over two months already.

 

I used to be a DOS and Netware Programmer 20 years ago, and knowing how to get around in DOS kind of stuck with me, which made it possible for me to imagine and document this workaround.

 

But, if you go switching paths or switching stuff around or installing into different folders or directories or go installing onto other hard drives, you kind of have to know the DOS or the theory behind it all in order to tweak it all.

 

That's the weakness of doing it this way, the DosBox way, as you kind of have to know DOS and how it works if you want to venture from the path.

 

Many thanks to the others who stepped in and provided the extras and the nitty gritty details and the additional workarounds -- kudos to Gimli and Bomb Bloke.

[crazedc]

I tried to follow all of the steps and am so close! When I run DARXCOM3.BAT the game runs but:

 

1) there's no intro (not a big deal, though I'd rather not have the game crash at the end movie)

2) the colors are warped like so:

 

https://www.geocities.com/bryceisaacson/XCOM.JPG

 

3) the mouse moves very slowly

 

Based on this info, if someone can tell me what's wrong I'd appreciate it.

 

If not, here are some more specifics on questions/concerns I have with the steps:

 

1. I was not sure how to CRACK it

 

************

NOW IT'S TIME TO CRACK IT.

 

I ran the CRACK program in Win95 compatability mode, and it didn't give me much feedback, but I could sense errors. That crack program won't run right from Windows Explorer. That's my guess, although I didn't get to see the feedback long enough to know for sure.

 

So, I ran it from DOSBox.

 

Copy the CRACK files to C:\XCOMA.

 

Run the original DOSBox prompt.

 

Inside DOSBox type these

 

MOUNT C C:\XCOMA

 

C:

 

Run the CRACK.BAT. It should then tell you that it succeeded and that you can now run "XCOMAPOC.EXE SKIP" to get it to work. It's important to use the SKIP command, but still it won't work.

*********************

 

First off, do I put all the CRACK files (c_tacp4) (c_ufo2p4) (cd-burn) (CRACK) and (YCG) directly into the APOC folder? And then do I run them all by right clicking (after setting the CRACK'S compatability to Win95)?

 

Well, I tried that, then tried to do the DOSBox thing. Question: will DosBOX .72 be OK instead of .70? I changed the shortcut target line ("C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" "C:\XCOMA\DARXCOM3.BAT" -fullscreen -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf" -exit) appropriately.

 

In DOSBOX .72 I couldn't figure out how to do the following:

 

***************************

Run the CRACK.BAT. It should then tell you that it succeeded and that you can now run "XCOMAPOC.EXE SKIP" to get it to work. It's important to use the SKIP command, but still it won't work.

*************************

 

By "Run the CRACK.BAT" do you mean to type APOC/CRACK.BAT into the c:/ field? Or did you mean to right click it in the explorer folder? Does it matter that the .BAT part of the name does not appear on the file as I see it or do I need to rename it?

 

When you say "you can now run "XCOMAPOC.EXE SKIP" to get it to work" does that mean you have to type "APOC/XCOMA.EXE SKIP" into the c:/ field or something else?

 

2. I assume that from my CD, I need to do a complete, 200MB installation because the game will run completely off my system, right? That's what I did.

 

3. The game does NOT run when I click the DoXBox X-Com Apocalypse shortcut that I made.

 

Thanks a lot for anyone's help!

[UfoMan]

I do believe that the:

x3svga.zip

is important for the VGA thing to work right.

 

I do remember that some people had problems with the mouse, and that there were various mouse fixes around, but I was lucky and DosBox 7.0 handled the mouse just fine on my machines.

 

I do believe that it's really possible that DosBox 7.2 would be different than 7.0. Each one of them is slightly different, and some work better for the purpose than others.

 

I do remember how lucky I felt when I finally loaded it up and it ran without crashing, and it was actually good. It was as if I had experienced a modern day miracle, and I was crossing my fingers hoping to be able to duplicate it and explain it.

 

I also believe that it's best to be doing this on Windows XP, because I don't think any of this will work if you try it on Vista.

 

I also thought it was an amazing miracle that Mickal put out a Virtual Machine way of doing it on the same day. If this fails or if DosBox 7.2 is no longer able to do it right, you still can try the Virtual Machine route.

 

If DosBox no longer allows you to mount drives and run the utilities in DOS compatibility mode, then there's nothing I can do about that, except to say that if you figure out how to get it to work, be sure to report back and tell people how you did it, so that others can benefit. Reading and understanding the DosBox instructions was also of great help! Along with using its built-in help button to get it to give me sample instructions that I could then modify and use.

 

I just know how I was able to do it, but if you are trying to put things onto another drive besides C drive, or trying to use one of those new mobos that don't any longer support DOS, or trying to use graphics drivers that no longer support the legacy stuff, or some such -- I'm guessing here -- then I can imagine that I would be impossible to get this to work right, even if you follow all the instructions exactly. And, then it's going to require effort and experimentation on your part to see if you too can get lucky and actually get it to work.

 

That was the frustrating part about DOS and some of this stuff -- what works for me is pretty much guaranteed not to work for you, and its corollary, murphys law says that you are most likely to mess it all up and get it wrong no matter how good and detailed the instructions are.

 

You'll have to keep trying it until you get it to work or until you give up. And, you might want to start over from scratch and try it again? The next time in the process, you might do or understand something that you overlooked before. And, you will also have to hope that someone with more skills and knowledge might come along with some real suggestions. Because, I wasn't able to see from what you wrote a quick and easy solution to your problem.

[crazedc]

Ugh, thanks. Well, I managed to run it from DosBox .72! After mounting the C:\XCOMAPOC I just typed XCOMAPOC and it started right up with proper colors and mouse speed!

 

Unfortunately, the intro movie skipped horribly and the game and music skips whenever I scroll or issue a command. I tried doing cycles = max and cycles = auto. Any other ideas? Are there any other cycles settings I could try?

 

Whew. Well, at the very least I can play the game now! Playing real time is pretty skippy, though.