Total Air War part 2: PCem build
- DarkenedRoom
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
This second Total Air War (TAW) article, will be using PCem v17 to build a virtual machine that can be used to build a TAW release and to optionally play it as well.
Since there is a great deal of commonality between F22 Air Dominance Fighter (F22 ADF) and TAW, this article will borrow heavily from the earlier, F22 Air Dominance Fighter part 2: PCem build.
Retail media
This guide assumes any physical cds will be ripped to a cd image file, to reduce wear and tear on media and drives. The retail version of TAW uses cd audio, so it is recommended to rip the cd to a bin/cue image pair, to preserve cd audio.
At present there is no release of the game on digital platforms.
Game management
As a windows game running under PCem emulation the VM and VM config sit under the PCem installation folder. However some limited game management is still useful for files used in the TAW setup.
The setup files for TAW and other Windows games can be found in the same folder (my own, as an example):
D:\Games\Win\<Game setup folder>
D:\Games\Win\TAW SetupThe following folders are used:
conf - to store any HOTAS profile configuration files.
docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc.
patch - to store a copy of recommended patches.
cd - to store any cd images.
PCem overview
Most of the PCem advice that was valid for F22 ADF continues to be valid for TAW. So the advice in the F22 Air Dominance Fighter part 2: PCem build for the following sections can be followed:
If you have already built the PCem VM suggested in the F22 ADF article and followed the advice to preserve a clean copy, then this clean VM can be copied and used for TAW.
Additional info and advice specific to TAW is covered below.
PCem emulator
As TAW is more compatible on a wider range of emulated hardware, you may wish to build TAW with an alternative to the Win95 virtual machine (VM) linked above.
A popular option is a Pentium 2, Voodoo 3, Win98SE combination, which is the subject of the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup. This will be referred to as the Win98SE VM.
However, it is recommended to switch from the Sound Blaster PCI 128 suggested in the video to an AWE 32 sound card for the MIDI synth capabilities.
It is also recommended to skip the DirectX7 install suggested by the video and use DirectX5.2a installed during TAW installation, for maximum compatibility.
The only issue with the Win98SE VM is flickering on MFD displays that does not occur in a Win95 VM.
Virtual Machine (VM) hardware
It's worth comparing the recommended specs of TAW with the Win95 and Win98SE VMs as shown in the table below:
Recommended | PCem Win95 VM | PCem Win98SE VM | |
CPU | Pentium P200 or higher | Intel Pentium II/233 | Intel Pentium II/266 |
Memory | 32MB | 64MB | 128MB |
HDD space | 205MB | 510MB | 4GB |
CD | 8 x CD-ROM drive | 24 x PCem CD | 24 x PCem CD |
Video | AGP bus based 3D accelerator video card | S3 ViRGE/DX Fast VLB/PCI & Voodoo2 | 3Dfx Voodoo 3 |
Sound | Creative Labs AWE32 or AWE64 card with 512k of memory | Creative Labs AWE32 with 2MB of memory | Creative Labs AWE32 with 2MB of memory |
Mouse | Microsoft Mouse or other Windows '95 compatible device | Microsoft Intellimouse (PS/2) | Microsoft Intellimouse (PS/2) |
The recommended TAW specs are identical to the F22 ADF recommended specs. TAW is more compatible than F22 ADF when using larger amounts of memory and the Voodoo 3 graphics card.
The large disk support can be enabled and is compatible with the Win98SE setup so larger hard disks can be used.
The largest soundfont used by TAW is 1.4MB therefore an AWE 32 with 2MB of memory is sufficient.
Windows operating system
The Win95 VM information remains valid, so this next section will detail any differences with the Win98SE VM. Many of the suggestions and links come from the tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup.
Versions & images
A cd image of Windows 98 Second Edition was obtained from WinWorld.
Installation
It is beyond the scope of this guide to go into a detailed Win98SE installation guide, however the steps detailed in PCem Windows 98 Setup can be followed.
Windows drivers
There are a number of Windows drivers required to make all the hardware accessible to Win98SE. The order below is the order in which the drivers should be installed.
The Intel chipset, 3Dfx Voodoo 3 and Creative AWE 32 drivers were supplied by PHILSCOMPUTERLAB.COM. Credit and huge thanks to Phil for finding and hosting these drivers.
Intel chipset drivers
The Intel chipset drivers advice remains valid.
3Dfx Voodoo 3 drivers
These can be found in Drivers for 3Dfx Voodoo 3. The amigamerlin-win9x-29.zip third party drivers should be downloaded as well as overclock.exe, a v-sync and overclocking utility.
Creative AWE 32 drivers
The Creative AWE 32 drivers advice remains valid.
AmnHLT driver
The AmnHLT driver advice remains valid.
Preserving the virtual machine
Whether the Win95 or Win98SE VM (or even both) are created, you may wish to preserve clean copies of the VMs for future use.
TAW overview
The rest of this article covers the build of TAW. This build will be installing and patching TAW using the English language and Glide graphics version, as described in the earlier, Total Air War part 1: Primer.
The patch covered below can be found on this post, DID F22 Games Collection on Krishty’s Sim Forums.
Installing TAW
The game was installed from a cd image mounted in PCem. The installation was straightforward, but the following notes may be useful:
The default installation location was used: D:\Program Files\DID\TAW
A typical installation was selected as it will make a complete/full install of TAW.
The VM may not have the correct DirectX 5 components required, so DirectX 5.2a should be installed.
Glide was selected as the Graphics API.
After files have been copied, a few more questions are asked.
When asked about audio, sound fx and speech can be checked but music should be unchecked. The music is still installed but it is disabled and can be enabled later. This helps prevent issues when the game is first run.
For joystick or keyboard, select keyboard, the joystick can be configured later.
Viewing the readme is a personal preference.
Once complete the Win95/Win98SE VM will be restarted.
Patching TAW
The recommended Total Air War Patch was installed next, using the English language, Glide version of the patch. The following steps were taken:
The patch files were extracted from the zip file using 7zip in Win10.
The VM was shutdown and the VM hard disk mounted in Win10.
A backup of the existing f22.dat file was taken (optional).
The patch readme.txt and replacement f22.dat files were copied into the D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\Program folder.
The VM hard disk was ejected from Win10 and the VM restarted.
Running and configuring TAW
Once the VM is restarted, TAW can be run from the Windows Start menu. After a short delay, you should see the TAW splash screen and you'll be asked to create or select a pilot.
If this is the first time the game is run and it doesn't seem to start. There may be a problem with the game configurations options stored in (assuming the default location was used):
C:\Program Files\DID\TAW\Program\game.cfgThis file can be deleted and the game restarted. This file will be recreated with default config options which should allow the game to start.
Setting game options
The next step is to set the in-game Options, all options can be maximised as shown in the options menu screenshot below. Keyboard should remain selected until the joystick is properly configured in the VM (see HOTAS config).
If you enabled sound fx, speech or music you may need to restart the game before these changes take effect.
CD audio
The retail cd contained a cd music track and if this cd was ripped to a bin/cue cd image pair, this cd music is available. If the cd image is left mounted in the PCem VM cd drive then cd music will be used when the game starts.
Authentic MIDI music
The Authentic MIDI music advice remains valid. References to F22 MIDI music, F22 ADF cd image and F22 soundfonts should be considered references to TAW MIDI music, TAW cd image and TAW soundfonts.
Using the TAW soundfont
The Using the F22 soundfont advice remains valid, the TAW soundfonts have the same name and size as F22 soundfonts and may be identical. However for convenience the soundfont information is repeated below.
TAW has three soundfonts, one for each of the AWE 32 memory configurations, as described below:
File | Size | Used with AWE 32 model with |
tfx3512.sf2 | 443 KB | 512 Kb memory. |
tfx31meg.sf2 | 897 KB | 1 MB memory. |
tfx3.sf2 | 1.4 MB | 2 MB or more memory. |
When copying soundfonts from the virtual machine hard disk to a Win10 folder, the F22 ADF location:
C:\Program Files\DID\F22ADF\ProgramChanges to the TAW location:
C:\Program Files\DID\TAW\ProgramA default MIDI device for PCem
A default MIDI device for PCem advice remains valid for Win95 and Win98SE VMs.
MIDIMapper
The MIDIMapper advice remains valid for both Win95 and Win98SE VMs.
HOTAS config
The HOTAS config advice remains valid. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows and is repeated here for convenience:
Physical axis | Windows axis |
Joystick x-axis | DX_X_AXIS |
Joystick y-axis | DX_Y_AXIS |
Throttle | DX_Z_AXIS |
Rudder | DX_XROT_AXIS |
Once configured, the Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem article provides detailed instructions on how to configure multi-axes controllers within PCem and how to create a custom controller with a Win95 or Win98SE VM.
All that remains is to start TAW and in the Options menu, a Joystick option should be available for selection.
Example video
Finally...
Credit and huge thanks to the following:
Krishty and Menrva for the F22 ADF patches and patch info.
The CoolSoft devs for bring MIDI control back into Win10.
Phil of PHILSCOMPUTERLAB.COM for finding and hosting the legacy Windows drivers and for his excellent PCem tutorial video.
And Sarah Walker for PCem v17.
Good hunting!
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