ATAC: The secret war within DOSBox
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A guide to running ATAC: The Secret War Against Drugs in DOSBox Staging. Also known as Advanced Tactical Air Command, ATAC pits you against Colombian drug barons. Your job is conduct a strategic battle plan against the cartels utilising a fleet of F-22 Raptors and AH-64 Longbow attack helicopters. Once a mission is planned it's time to fly and fight!
This marks a departure from the usual Microprose single missions career and introduces a strategic campaign to plan and execute (much like AV-8B Harrier Assault). Unfortunately it received fairly average reviews and never seemed to capture the interest of sim fans making it one of MIcroProse's lesser known sims.
Contents
Version & patch history
ATAC is unusual in there only having been a single retail release on 2 x 3.5"/5.25" High Density (HD) floppy disks or 3 x 3.5"/5.25" Double Density (DD) floppy disks. It was developed by Argonaut and published by MicroProse in 1992. There were no patches released for ATAC.
The only compilation with ATAC appears to be Mile High Club 8, with the game distributed on a single CD-ROM. Again, no patches were produced for this edition.
Retail media
Due to the age or the media and the drives required to read the media, it is recommended to rip floppy disk and cd-rom media to image files, to save wear and tear on media and the mechanical drives.
Floppy disks can be ripped to an ima or img format compatible with DOSBox Staging. The CD-ROM can be ripped to a data only iso image format as there is no CD audio on the disc.
Game management
It is recommended to use my DOSBox game management strategy or similar strategy you may have developed. The recommended game management folders are:
cd - for any cd images.
fdd - for any floppy disk images.
hdd - the folder used as the emulated DOSBox hard disk.
conf - to store DOSBox and HOTAS configuration files.
docs - for documents.
These management folders can be found in the following game folder (as an example, and used in the rest of the guide):
D:\Games\DOS\ATACHOTAS config
Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using a combination of devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller can be configured (with vendor software or Joystick Gremlin), limited to 4 axes.
For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. You may also have to use HidHide as a device firewall, to hide your real controllers, so only the vJoy virtual controller is detected by DOSBox. [6][7][8].
Stick, throttle and rudder are supported. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows:
Physical axis | Windows axis |
Joystick x-axis | DX_X_AXIS |
Joystick y-axis | DX_Y_AXIS |
Throttle | DX_Z_AXIS |
Rudder | DX_XROT_AXIS |
DOSBox Staging config
The DOS version is configured to run under the latest released DOSBox Staging version, v0.83.0-RC1 (at time of writing):
# This is the configuration file for ATAC: The Secret War on Drugs.
[cpu]
cpu_cycles = 25000
cycleup = 500
cycledown = 500
[voodoo]
voodoo = off
[mixer]
reverb = small
chorus = light
[mt32]
model = cm32l
romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned"
[midi]
mididevice = mt32
[joystick]
joysticktype = ch
timed = off
swap34 = on
deadzone = 0
[autoexec]
@echo off
# mount a "D:\Games\Dos\ATAC\fdd\*.img" -t floppy
# mount d "D:\Games\Dos\ATAC\cd\ATAC.iso" -t cdrom
mount c "D:\Games\Dos\ATAC\hdd"
mixer master 100 /noshow
c:
cd atac
call atac.bat
pause
exitThe following zip file contains this example DOSBox Staging config. It should be changed to match your hardware and personal preferences.
Due to the revised defaults with this DOSBox version, most settings are now personal preference or optimal settings, such as sound or joystick settings. Only those settings that differ from the DOSBox Stagiing v0.83.0-RC1 default config are shown.
The cpu_cycle setting of 25000 is suggested. It is equivalent to a 486DX/2 66Mhz machine. cycleup/down settings are changed to values rather than percentages.
Voodoo emulation isn't required and is disabled.
The mixer settings are a personal preference but a light chorus may be more suitable for aircraft engine sounds.
The default Sound Blaster settings are appropriate for Sound Blaster music and digital sounds.
The optimum Roland sound settings use the CM32L device, as described in List of MT-32-compatible computer games.
The joystick settings are a personal preference and suitable for my joystick hardware. A ch joystick type allows the joystick hat to be used in-game.
The autoexec mount settings are examples only, demonstrating how to mount multiple floppy disk images or a cd image.
The mixer setting restores the master volume to 100%. The game is run using the installed atac.bat batch file.
Installation
To install from floppy or CD image run the following command, from the first floppy or CD in DOSBox:
A:\> install.exeNote: there is no graphics or sound setup during the installation.
The steps to install from floppy are shown below:
The CD installation steps are shown below:
Running
Running the game is the same with floppy or CD editions, run the following batch file from the installation folder, e.g.
C:\ATAC> atac.batIn-game configuration
There are fairly minimal graphics and sound options configured in game, as well as joystick/HOTAS calibration as the following steps show:
Documents
The following documents are available:
Manual, pdf document, rar archive
Old-Games.RU, Games, ATAC: The Secret War Against Drugs, files
Technical Supplement, pdf document, rar archive
Old-Games.RU, Games, ATAC: The Secret War Against Drugs, files
Key Guide, pdf document, rar archive
Old-Games.RU, Games, ATAC: The Secret War Against Drugs, files
Example video
Finally...
Credit and thanks go to Old-Games.RU for hosting the documentation and to John Novak and the rest of the DOSBox Staging team for DOSBox Staging v0.83.0-RC1.
Good hunting!
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