DOS Games Discussion

I've got both Heroes of Might and Magic 1 and 2 on my computer. After a LOT of frustration and determination I've been able to get both up and running.

With HoMM1 my biggest problem is I get it running but the display is divided up into chunks that only display on the top-half of my screen. There's no other way (as far as I can tell) to get it running.
It's windows 95 compatible (i'm pretty sure) and it doesn't work on dosbox no matter what I try.
I have the settings on the heroes.exe file as instructed on this site, dosgames, entitled "Get DOS games working in XP!", which helped a lot, since it wasn't even running before.
Is there anything more I can do?

With HoMM2 I get the game running perfectly, except I can only do multi-player (which is useless) because it says I need the CD. Is there an update I can patch on or a crack I can go around this? I got this game when I was 10... I definately don't have the cd anymore. =/

Any feedback is appreciated... I'm pretty set on getting at least one of these games working properly.

Fligglebleh wrote: It's windows 95 compatible (i'm pretty sure) and it doesn't work on dosbox no matter what I try.

HoMM 1 and 2 are in fact dosgames (HoMM 2 however had a windows only version, if I'm not mistaken, Homm2Gold or so ....).
They work fine in dosbox.

Fligglebleh wrote: I have the settings on the heroes.exe file as instructed on this site, dosgames, entitled "Get DOS games working in XP!", which helped a lot, since it wasn't even running before.
Is there anything more I can do?

HoMM and HoMM2 (dosversion) are running fine in dosbox, read and apply:
If on XP:
http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5443
If on Vista:
http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10437

Wow. So that was a LOT easier than everything I was doing. Both games are running perfectly! All i had to do was unzip them into temp, run the install in dosbox, then run them with the cd mounted....
Now that they work, any way to make them full screen? :]
Seriously dude, I owe you some cookies lol THANK YOU!!!

Nice, enjoy them. (And a lot more of them ol'dosgames .... )

To go fullscreen: ALT+ENTER and again to switch back.

Ok so I'm very new to dosbox, and I've read through the thread; its apparent i dont have any "install" command in the heroes2 folder, which i now mounted to c:\users\name\oldgames. My problem is, I don't think I have a clue. Did you say to mount something via dosbox?

OK so I'm not so new to dosbox, but also I'm not clairvoyant.
Your OS is?
Dosbox version?
Downloaded game? Ready to run? CD image? Something? Needs to be installed? What? I don't know.

Do a cd heroes2 (here I will suppose you do have a heroes2 folder in \oldgames\ ?) and do a dir /w , take a screenshot, and yes, post the screenie.

Hey, I know this thread is a little old but I'm struggling to find the answer.

I'm very new to DosBox and have been trying to get Heroes II Gold to work via DosBox...

I have DosBox v0.74
I downloaded Heroes II from:
<snipped> . com (can't post links as a guest and it says that i've exceeded the number of attempts to register.... not sure why)
(Although now I wish I didn't cause it's $5 cheaper on GoG)

Attached is an image of my desktop with the folder structure, and what I'm getting in DosBox.
I'm just getting a message saying that the program cannot be run in DOS mode.

I've also tried running the game normally, but that doesn't work. I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate 64.
And I've tried installing a XP Virtual Machine, but get prompted with an error with something about debugging.

(sorry but since i can't post links i have to split this up)



Thanks for any help!

[Edit] by ~dosraider
Link to download site snipped, not allowed here.

Fixed your image.


What you got there is the windows version of Heroes, so DOSBox itself won't do you much good.

As it's a W9x only game you seem to have (as Larry said), your best bet will be VPC2007/W98SE to run the game on Win7 64.
http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3
You can ignore the XP mode stuffs.
(Or find HOMM2 dos somewhere and run that in dosbox...)

And FYI: your dosbox virtual C: mounting sux big.
To play dosgames with dosbox on Win 7 read and apply:
http://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13511
Will avoid all kinds of unpredictable read/write errors in dosbox under Win7.
Just saying.

Thanks for the help, but unfortunately I still can't get it going.
I can't even run VPC2007 on my machine... I'm not sure why. I appreciate the help though.

Anonymous wrote:I can't even run VPC2007 on my machine... I'm not sure why. I appreciate the help though.

Must be your Win is completely FUBAR.
I've installed VPC on countless PCs, never had (serious) troubles getting it to run, only sometimes minor problems.

Of course you always could:

dosraider wrote:(Or find HOMM2 dos somewhere and run that in dosbox...)

Hunt for the full ISO, dosversion is included (But prob not included in the Gold version, not sure about that, someone knows ????)

how to run heroes of might and magic 1 in dosbox without cd? i've downloaded the game and after installing and setting up, but they still prompt me "Unable to acess CD drive"... Can anyone help me out with this? thanks...

sorimachi0613 wrote:how to run heroes of might and magic 1 in dosbox without cd? i've downloaded the game and after installing and setting up, but they still prompt me "Unable to acess CD drive"... Can anyone help me out with this? thanks...

No idea, check if there is a 'crack' file you have tor run, some readme1st file, whatever....
It's even possible you have to mount your (empty) CD drive as D: in dosbox to get the game ro run, whatever, there are several possibilities.

I have no idea what you have downloaded, how it's been cracked etcetera, I'm not clairvoyant, and I don't keep track of every possible cracked game that's downloadable on teh internet.

Why don't you ask where you downloaded the game? They should know how to run it. (Or not, happens more and more, apparently *sigh*)

hi all, i would need some help, i've downloaded HOMM1 and want to play with dosbox, i installed it with dosbox (i know how to use it, not new) and then run the game, it works, i mean it starts run, but only give me the NEW WORLD GAMING gif (picture) and then nothing happens, so the welcome credit picture can be seen but nothing happens, i installed propery, dosbox is not frozen, nothing error, just simply not playing, just show the picture (i run the HEROES.EXE, not open a .gif )
if anyone have a tip, pls write on me! (SNIPPED @gmail.com) pls send e-mail here ty.

If *IF* you know how to handle dosbox correctly and you can't get HOMM1-2 working: dodgy download or bad crack.

... that or you don't know how to run games correctly in dosbox....

And we don't do 'call back service' here, if you're too lazy to check your own topics, don't even bother to post for help.

i have the cd for heroes 1, i have dosbox, i found a video that explains how to mount the cd and drive, but it still wont install.

this is what ive entered, anything in () i did not enter but is an explanation:

mount e E:/ -t cdrom
(E drive is the cd)

mount c C:/game
(C drive is my hard drive)

e:
(changing to the cd)

dir
(looking up the files in the dir)

(3 files appear on the disk: autorun, install, and readme)
i type install and nothing happens, it just goes down and starts a new line

please help me

.... and your OS is ?

And: could you post a screenshot of your dosbox screen with the 'dir' screen?
Seems you miss some directories on your CD......

And²: Usually it's highly advised to mount a CD drive as D: in dosbox, regardless what the drive is under windows.
Not that it matters for HoMM, but better get the stuff right, will avoid problems with some other more nitpicking CD games.

And³: better is to use a CD image in dosbox with imgmount , modern CD drives aren't really suited to run those old games using a real CD in the drive (spinup/spindown times, heat ... etcetera) and you will keep your real CD safe and scratch free that way.
Should uyou need a soft to create dosbox valid CD images (ISO or BIN/CUE):
http://www.imgburn.com/
Excellent CD soft and freeware.

guest? wrote:(3 files appear on the disk: autorun, install, and readme)
i type install and nothing happens, it just goes down and starts a new line

Are you 100% sure that it's not the Windows version of the game? (HoMM 1 & 2 had releases for both platforms)

If there is an 'install' file that's the dos euuurrhhhh install file.
But as he state:

guest? wrote:......................
dir
(looking up the files in the dir)

(3 files appear on the disk: autorun, install, and readme)
i type install and nothing happens, it just goes down and starts a new line

He's missing a lot of files/folders ...... the install files for HoMM are stored in separate directories.

MrFlibble wrote:Are you 100% sure that it's not the Windows version of the game? (HoMM 1 & 2 had releases for both platforms)

Indeed, but for HoMM both versions (dos&win) are on the same CD, I seriously doubt there ever was a win only release.
And even if ever was he misses the win game files.

Hey guys, I've manged to get the H2 image running, however I dont have sound and it only lets me play multiplayer

Any Ideas?