Testing DOS game on original hardware

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romeroman
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

Post by romeroman »

Is there anyone with working original DOS hardware that might be able to test a certain game? It's notoriously broken, but the only experiences and reports so far have been through emulation.
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Rwolf
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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Depends on what hardware you are looking for; I have some stuff in storage, but I know some of it is broken.
I have not run my oldest PC:s in decades, so there is no telling what is still useable.

(I assume you are talking about the Metal Gear game?)
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MrFlibble
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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Rwolf wrote: the Metal Gear game
Did I miss something?
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Rwolf
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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@MrFlibble: Not really, I just looked at the OP:s previous posts, and noted that game was mentioned as 'broken', so I made a guess.
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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Yeah the Metal Gear DOS version. I don't know what system specs it would need beyond what's on the box sticker https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/meta ... rId,14329/

But I know that games can be more picky than that in their requirements despite not being stated, down to not playing properly unless the PC has certain processors.

I checked the instructions manual, too, but there's nothing about it there.

If you know anybody else who might be able to run this on og hardware, please find out, I'd really like to find out for sure since this is probably the best indicator for the game's situation.
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Rwolf
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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There could also be some copy-protection issue that makes the game fail, if it is a non-kosher version.
romeroman
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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Actually, these are from original, unaltered disk images. The problems manifested in one of *those* copies from online, so I figured it's probably due to that. But a few years ago, I tested my disk image files that are an original backup; all of the exact same problems occur. Made it seem more and more likely to be a problem with the game itself, but how it'll run on the actual hardware should seal the deal on that.

If you or anyone would be able to test it, let me know and I can facilitate that on my part.
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Rwolf
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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I asked a Mobygames user who had played the game (I have not), and while he thought he had played it on actual hardware, but it was some 20 years ago.

He suspected some of the 'bugs' might due to the games CPU speed sensitivity, plus some minor differences in the game details on different platforms - so a walkthrough for one platform might be somewhat misleading on another.

I pointed to your posts here, and asked for his thoughts, and this is his reply.

-Quote:
"3 essential items don't appear in their respective rooms."

-- Is this a bug? or just that the IBM version is different than others? I found the first level map is different than the NES version I looked up online - not drastically, but slightly (for example the first keycard is in the truck on the right and not the left). Maybe those items appear but not where expected...? Not sure...

"1 essential item is acquired by defeating a certain boss, or rather, a pair of bosses. Only problem is those bosses disappear off the screen after a few seconds. Sometimes one of them remains on-screen, and you can even kill that one; only problem is leaving and returning to that area respawns the defeated boss and they both go back to the disappearing act.

-- no idea on this one. If I had to guess, it's a speed issue. The game seems like it may be timing sensitive - meant to run correctly on an 8088/8086 or maybe even an 80286, but on faster (386/486,etc) machines fails to take the cpu speed into account. Similarly if running in DOSBox with too many cycles or wrong cpu setting, it acts like it would on a faster machine and the timing mucks up in this area. This is just a guess, I never got far enough in the game to confirm.

:End Quote
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Testing DOS game on original hardware

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Yeah, the DOSBox-X dev said many of the issues encountered are likely CPU speed related. I have not heard from them any further on investigating this version, unfortunately.

Thing with the DOS version, it follows the NES source material very closely and there are no differences with respect to the progression/walkthrough of the game. There are tons of little things here and there, no doubt; but the big picture of "go here, then there" and "do this at this part" is pretty much parallel with the NES version (when it doesn't seem like a bug). The key card 1 being in the opposite truck is more a "shade of red" difference rather than "red vs green" difference, since both trucks are still on the same screen of the exact same area (as opposed to the key being relocated to a totally different location).

The 3 missing items thing is definitely a bug (or possible timing issue), for a few reasons. First, their locations in the NES version are based on the MSX-2 version and this includes being tied into a slight plot element behind their placement. Second, the way to get these items is carried over to the DOS version, where an NPC's dialogue pretty much confirms those are the rooms they should be in. Third, when using the debug cheats and checking all areas in the game, they're not found anywhere else.

I tried various configurations on DOSBox-X, but don't know what would be the correct/expected specs for this to run as intended. If testing on actual hardware, though, it most likely needs to be one of those machines to account for the potential timing issues.
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