Tips and Tricks: Abandonware Games on Linux
 

I hardly use Windows any more for gaming. Instead, I use DOSBox through Linux. For normally downloaded games, you can just place the games within DOSBox and play. But when you've got ISOs it can be a little trickier.

I think I can write up a how-to if'n yer want'n.

weel.. i thought it's kinda normal to use dosbox? o_O

I think the only difference between getting dosbox to run on Windows and Linux is for the latter you have to grow a beard ;)

Some sort of weird piercing may also be a requirement, but views on this may differ between various schools of thought... :amused:

Go ahead. :thumbs:
The DOSBox tutorials currently out there are focused primarily on Windows users...
Don't remind me what happened when we had to deal with a very inexperienced Mac user...

_I'd_ say that if you mount an iso you simply have to follow the instructions how to mount a cd drive in DosBox to use it.

Am I missing something? :unsure:

imgmount works the same for both linux and windows

..and imo, linux users are not that retarded to need a tutorial for dosbox :P
they actually tend to read the read me

I think it's an excellent idea.
Can help the beginners, and we were all beginners once, didn't we?
Even if the Linux forums are filled with help for those beginners, it can be useful.


In fact you would even need two 'howto's, one with the basics, for the absolute beginners.
And one for those who want to know more, with elaborate instructions.

Question is:
For what Linux, even if they all based on almost the same principle, each distri has his own particularities.
I usually send absolute beginners to one the appropiate Linux forums about their own distri when they ask for help, but having a general howto on the site would certainly be helpfull, I think.

Interesting the mix of possitive and negative responses.

For more of an explanation, here's what I ran into when I downloaded some of the Cellar ISOs, step by step.

1. The user must download and install DOSBox on their system. Then they must create the config.conf file.
2. Files must be unrarred. Just like in Windows, you have to have a utility to do this. Obtaining this utility is different for Linux than Windows.
3. While I had experience long ago with CloneCD, I've never seen unecm before. Some users may not know how to run a Windows program (unecm) in Linux. This required Wine.
4. Since there is no CloneCD for Linux, how to make the .img files accessible to the user? There is a utility available to Linux users called ccd2iso. But it's only available in source. How do you compile the source? What Linux compilers are required to compile? Some users may need a little help compiling the program.
5. How does a user mount an ISO image into Linux?
6. How does the user mount (in DOSBox) the mounted (in Linux) ISO image?
7. How can the process of starting a game be automated?

I didn't have any real trouble with any of this myself, but I can see how a Linux user who hasn't been using Linux long can get stuck.

The purpose is not to create yet another DOSBox tutorial, but to help Linux users.

so you are planning to write a tutorial for linux..

what are you talking about.

inside dosbox:
imgmount d path/to/iso/or/img/cue/file -t iso

More compatible then using a virtual cd drive by your OS or burning it

Well, I'll be a ... [insert your own interestingly defamatory description here]!

I remember using imgmount a while ago, but totally forgot about it! That makes things totally easier!

Shoot! The heck with this tutorial! We don't need it now! :thumbs: