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This is my guide to running F-19 Stealth Fighter in DOSBox Staging. This guide will cover setup using a GOG installation. We are using the GOG release as it's the last version of F-19 Stealth Fighter, version 435.04. GOG installation I used GOG Galaxy to install F-19, it obviously includes all the GOG specific files and it's own copy of vanilla DOSBox which we won't be using. Where GOG Galaxy is installed will determine where your copy of F-19 will be installed. In my case, my copy of GOG Galaxy was installed at  D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy , which meant F-19 was installed at D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\F-19 Stealth Fighter . It's worth noting that the GOG release has changed and been updated over time. Not the game itself, but more F-19 documents have been added later. So if you have an older installation, maybe check those extras for additional docs! Game folders I use my DOSBox game folder scheme described in  DOSBox game management . So in my case I have a D:\games\dos\F-19 Stealth Fighter  folder with the following sub folders: conf (DOSBox Staging configuration file). docs (optional: manuals, other docs, etc.) A hdd or cd folder isn't required as we'll be using the GOG installation folder. Command line options (optional) F-19 supports a number of command line options. You should use a command line option to specify a sound card otherwise F-19 will default to the PC speaker (emulated in DOSBox Staging in our case). It's recommended to pick something other than PC speaker from these options, your ears will thank you! /AA Adlib or compatible (Soundblaster emulated in DOSBox) /AB Innovation (can be emulated in DOSBox Staging) /AI Internal PC speaker (default) /AR Roland (can be emulated in DOSBox after patching) /AT Tandy sound (can be emulated in DOSBox) Each sound option has it's own in game sound driver (xSOUND.EXE) so if you have a look in your F-19 installation folder you'll see ASOUND.EXE, BSOUND.EXE, ISOUND.EXE, etc. The following command line options are optional, if you don't specify them F-19 will ask you about a joystick and give you a graphics menu to select from at start-up. The detail level can be adjusted in game. Options are: /J if you use a joystick /NJ if you use a keyboard without a joystick /GE if you use EGA 16-color graphics /GM if you use MGCA or VGA 256-color graphics /GC if you use CGA 4-color graphics /GT if you use Tandy 1000 16-color graphics /GH if you use Hercules monochrome graphics /D2 if you prefer exceptional ground detail (for very fast machines) /DI if you prefer moderate ground detail (for AT class machines) /D0 if you prefer very little ground detail (for slow machines) So in my case I would use: f19 /AR /J /GM /D2 to run F19 with Roland (MT-32) sound, with a joystick, with VGA graphics and at a high detail level. Patching and gaming experience improvements The GOG release is the latest version of F-19 but unfortunately they didn't include the Roland retrofit patch which allows you to enjoy MT-32 midi music. This would be the Roland in-game sound driver RSOUND.EXE. This file needs to be in your GOG installation folder in order to use the Roland sound option. See damson menu below. damson menu Firstly a huge thankyou to damson for his batch file menu (it's awesome) and allowing me to link to his video, steam guide and download. damson menu is the one gaming improvement you need for F-19 Stealth Fighter, it is very highly recommended. It provides the following improvements: A scenario selector, allowing F-15 Strike Eagle II scenarios to be used in F-19. Pilot roster backup and restore options. Who wants to get through 98 missions only to die on the 99th? (not me!) An external model selector, choose from the original F-19 or F-117. The secret sound board selector, allowing you to choose from PC speaker, Tandy Adlib and Roland sound (no need for command line options!) And if that wasn't enough the download package includes the Roland retrofit patch for F-19, RSOUND.EXE so no need to go hunting for the patch! The menu is self-explanatory and very easy to use. damson has put up a YouTube video showing the menu and how to install and use, and there's a comprehensive Steam guide explaining it all as well. So go grab that download package ! If you haven't seen damson's YouTube channel I recommend taking a look there's some very informative and entertaining flight sim videos there! Finally, the GOG menu problems in DOSBox Staging I discuss in the post, DOSBox Staging: Why do GOG menus look bad? , don't apply, as damson's menu is already in it's own batch file. DOSBox Staging setup The DOSBox Staging video and rendering setup defaults provide a solid set of options that don't need to be tweaked for a really good gaming experience. You may find the 'out of the box' settings never need to be changed. CPU setup This is my subjective opinion so your experiences may differ. The CPU settings are often overlooked and get left on auto, I know I normally did but I've recently discovered that the CPU settings may affect the gaming experience. In short, I think the simple core may be underused for older games not requiring protected mode. Now the F-19 detail level menu suggests settings for a fast 286 and 386 machine, so we know F-19 would have coped with a 386 pc. The DOSBox-X wiki suggesting that a fast 286 is 3300 cycles and a 386 is 4595 cycles. So I'll set my CPU type to 386 as the menu suggests F-19 wasn't developed for anything faster. Now with the core set to auto/dynamic and 4595 cycles we're going to get a lot of weapons misses. With a normal core we get fewer but still a lot of weapons misses but with a simple core we get fewer misses still, they still happen just not as many. If we drop the cycles down to 3300, the auto/dynamic core is still getting weapons misses, it's a bit better with normal but a simple core gets consistent weapons hits. It looks like a simple core with a 386 CPU at 3300 cycles is a bit of sweet spot for F-19. Landings seem to be a bit of an issue with F-19 and I think it might be due to the flight path indicator (on the HUD) not tracking with speed properly during approach. Again it's subjective but I think it tracks a lot better with a simple core at 3300 cycles. I'm finding smoother landing far easier with these settings. This is subjective and this is running with my hardware, so you may disagree or need to tweak the cycles a bit, either way give it a shot, it might surprise you. You can always switch back to your previous settings in DOSBox. Soundblaster setup Normally we would skip past Soundblaster setup as the default settings are normally optimal. However F-19 supported Soundblaster stereo but only for the Soundblaster Pro (1) which had dual OPL 2 chips on the board. The Soundblaster Pro 2 and Soundblaster 16 only had a single OPL 3 chip. In the sblaster section of the config file the sbtype option affects the oplmode option. So for stereo you can either: Set the sbtype to sbpro1 and leave the oplmode as auto . Leave the sbtype as sb16 and set the oplmode to dualopl2 . I opted for the later. Innovation setup The GOG release include BSOUND.EXE the Innovation sound card driver, so I was a bit cheeky and added an Innovation option to Damson's menu to try it out. To enable it, in the innovation section of the DOSBox Staging config set sidmodel to auto . It's an interesting alternative, the Innovation tech is based on the SID chip in the C64. The title music is completely different, sounding a lot like an enhanced version of the C64 music and there's even some speech when you're ready to take-off! I don't think I'd stick with it permanently but it's good for a session or two. Midi setup For a discussion on midi setup see DOSBox midi . For DOSBox Staging the versioned MT-32 roms are used. F-19 works well with the CM32L and MT32 new roms, so leaving the MT32 model , (in the mt32 section) as auto will default to CM32L roms which sound good. Controller setup For an in-depth look at modern HOTAS controller configuration for retro flight sims, take a look at my series of posts, Controllers and retro sims . F-19 only uses 2 controller axes, the joystick x-axis and y-axis. No throttle or rudder axis is needed. Those with a HOTAS with an integrated throttle/rudder axes should be fine. I didn't even need a TARGET profile to use my joystick the game calibration just found it. Autoexec setup and cloud saves As F-19 is such an old game it has problems with large amounts of conventional memory, so you'll want to use the loadfix utility. From the DOSBox wiki: LOADFIX is a program to reduce the amount of available conventional memory. It's useful for old programs which don't expect much memory to be free. It can be run without parameters, to use the defaults. GOG releases often provide saving your game in the cloud, it does this by providing an overlay mount in the GOG DOSBox config. I've recreated this mount in the DOSBox Staging config. I'm not 100% sure if it works correctly, so please be aware and don't rely on it! This is a guess on my part but I'm assuming that there's a GOG process running which is scanning the cloud_saves folder in the GOG installation folder and uploading those save files to the cloud. My example config This is my example config with the changes/options most likely to change from the DOSBox Staging default. [sdl] fullscreen = false fullresolution = desktop windowresolution = default viewport_resolution = fit [render] aspect = true glshader = crt-auto integer_scaling = vertical [cpu] core = simple cputype = 386 cycles = fixed 3300 cycleup = 100 cycledown = 100 [midi] mididevice = mt32 [mt32] model = auto romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" # your dir may differ [sblaster] sbtype = sb16 # or sbpro1 oplmode = dualopl2 # or auto for sbpro1 [innovation] sidmodel = auto # to try Innovation [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = true deadzone = 0 # my preference [autoexec] loadfix mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\F-19 Stealth Fighter" mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\F-19 Stealth Fighter\cloud_saves" -t overlay c: call f19scen.bat # damson menu Shortcut Don't forget to create your game specific DOSBox Staging shortcut as described in DOSBox game management . Manuals and other documents There are already some manuals in the GOG installation folder and with GOG Galaxy you can download more manuals as extras, which will be downloaded to the !Downloads  folder in the GOG installation folder. Documents include: Manual Reference card Technical supplement The Official F-19 Stealth Fighter Handbook (strategy guide) This is entirely optional but I like to copy these docs to my D:\games\dos\F-19 Stealth Fighter\docs folder and then place a shortcut to this docs folder on my desktop when playing. That way if I need to consult any docs, I can pause F-19, switch from fullscreen to window, open the docs folder shortcut and check out any docs without having to hunt around for them. Missing documents If you were playing F-19 back in the day there's some documentation you might remember but not listed above, the ONC maps. It may take a bit of hunting but they are available on-line in fact both versions of the maps are available, the original maps and the later colour glossy maps. Running F-19 A couple of pointers: The key sets keyboard and joystick sensitivity, my personal preference is for the highest sensitivity. The game is speed sensitive so if your weapons are missing what should have been an easy kill, your DOSBox cycles may be a little too high. The 3300 cycles recommendation works for me, but you may need to reduce the cycles a little, try a 100 cycle decrement. Good hunting! References F-19 command line options? VOGONS F-19 Stealth Fighter Scenario Selector (tool for using maps from F-15 Strike Eagle 2 + download) , damson's channel , YouTube How to add more scenarios, change 3d model and save your pilot. Guides, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Steam CPU core , DOSBox conf, DOSBox wiki LOADFIX , DOSBox wiki

The earlier blog post: described DOSBox Staging settings for F-19 Stealth Fighter, they aren't bad, but after many hours of play and little bit of experimentation, I've discovered they aren't optimal. This post is about the changes I made to optimise those original settings. These settings were discovered using my own hardware, so you may need to adjust them for your particular setup. Monitor setup & Windows settings The first step is in ensuring Windows is supporting a Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). You can find this in Windowss 10 under Settings > System > Display > Graphics settings. You should see a page similar to this one, on the right. You'll want to set Variable refresh rate to On. Now this option may be missing if your monitor doesn't support G-Sync or FreeSync. It was also missing for me, despite it being a FreeSync monitor, until I installed some Win 10 device drivers for my Samsung monitor. There was a small app to specify my one and only graphics card and the port it was using on the monitor. Then it was just a quick reboot and the Variable refresh rate option appearred. Obviously this will be very dependent on your own hardware. To be honest I'm not 100% sure this is absolutely required for high frame rates in DOSBox Staging, but if you have the facility it makes sense to use it. DOSBox Staging settings These settings are taken from the 'High refresh rate gaming' article on the DOSBox Staging wiki (see References), so all credit to the author. For more details on these settings it's recommended to read the article, short but very interesting. The cycles setting is what seems to work well for myself, obviously it may need some minor adjustment depending on your hardware. [sdl] vsync = false presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] cycles = fixed 5200 [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true You should now be able to enjoy some silky smooth 60fps F-19 Stealth Fighter gaming! References High refresh rate gaming (DOSBox Staging wiki)

A guide on running the Rowan sim, MiG Alley natively in Windows 10. This sim can be very tricky to get running under Windows 10, so not only do I cover the installation actions that worked in my particular case but those actions which have been beneficial to others as well. As it can be such an involved process, I would suggest reading at least down to the 'Menu issues' section, before you attempt the install, so you know what to expect and the issues you may encounter when installing. When it comes to installing MiG Alley everyone's experiences seem to be 'slightly' different, hopefully this guide can help you get a version working on your particular machine. Versions There were two cd retail versions released, v1.0 released in July 1999 and a v1.1 release in December 1999. You will need the v1.1 release to install in Windows 10. My preferred method is to rip the cd to save wear and tear on disc and drive. An iso cd image is sufficient as there is no cd audio on the disc requiring a bin/cue sheet image. If you only have access to v1.0 then a download is available allowing you to create a v1.1 installer folder. Before you begin My suggestion is to create a MiG Alley setup folder for holding the cd iso file, any patches and the various compatibility fixes. You may have to experiment with various fixes or versions of a particular fix and having them all available to apply or reapply will be useful and save you some hassle later. Creating an installer folder This step is only necessary if you have a v1.0 copy. VOGONS member BEEN_Nath_58's message in the MiG Alley thread kindly supplied a rar file with the changed v1.1 setup files. Copy the contents of the cd/iso to a folder on your hard disk. Download the rar file migalley1.1setup.rar (link is in the message). Extract to your folder, overwriting the v1.0 files with the v1.1 files. Installing the Intel font A common issue during the install is the failure to install a TrueType font used by MiG Alley, causing the installation to freeze or hang. The font can be installed manually by going to your installer folder/cd/iso image and finding the intel.ttf file. Open this file and in the window showing the font, click the Install button. Installing the base game Go to your installer folder/cd/iso image and find the setup.exe file. You'll want to open the Properties and go to the Compatibility tab. In my case, I only changed the Compatibility mode option to Windows 95. Others have used the Windows 98 / Windows ME option. If you have issues you may want to try the 'Run this program as an administrator' option. Run the setup and select a folder to install the game to. If the setup completes you'll be given the options to select 3d hardware and shortly after, to restart Windows, which I did. When I tried running MiG Alley, it alternated between black screens and blank full screen application windows before it opened the MiG Alley menu along with a dialog box complaining about the resolution/desktop colour depth. Clicking Ok in the dialog closed the game and returned to the desktop. Installation freezes/hangs Update : You can find out if it's a Logitech Gaming Software issue, by taking a look at this article: InstallShield freezing? It may be a Logitech issue , and how to fix it. A fairly common problem is that the installation freezes or hangs. It usually occurs at 74% completion or 1% if you attempt to reinstall to the same folder. The issue seems to be that the installer is waiting for a resource which never becomes free. The process using this resource can be manually killed to allow the installer to continue. If your installation has frozen: Open the Task Manager and go to the Processes tab. You should see a SETUP.EXE (32 bit) entry with a status of 'Not responding'. Go to the Details tab, find the SETUP.EXE entry with the status of 'Not responding'. Right click and select 'Analyze wait chain'. Select the checkbox of the process (or processes) below SETUP.EXE. The End process button should become active, click it to end process(es). The installer should be able to continue to completion. To be honest I'm no expert so I don't know how risky it is to kill off these processes, so you do this at your own risk. In the screenshots, the blocking process I found, was some sort of Logitech Discord process, so I felt fairly safe in killing it off and it probably restarted when Windows was restarted. Thanks to BEEN_Nath_58 and the hint about wait chains . Installing the last official patch The last official patch released by Rowan Software is the v1.23 patch released in April 2000. It can be found at The Patches Scrolls . Download the zip file and extract the contents. The patch is an executable, mig123.exe . Before running the patch, open the Properties and go to the Compatibility tab. In my case I set the Compatibility mode option to Windows 95. Run the patch and it should complete without issue. If there are issues you may need to change compatibility settings (Windows 98 has been reported as working) or try 'Run this program as an administrator' option. You may want to try the same options you used when installing the base game. Trying to run the game at this point, resulted in the same dialog and exit to desktop encountered when trying to run the base game. Installing the BDG patch(es) The Battle of Britain / MiG Alley Development Group (BDG) continued working on MiG Alley and produced patches fixing a number of outstanding bugs, added quality of life improvements to the game and added TrackIR support. Patch v0.85F The latest patch is v0.85F with it's own installer. The patch can be found on MediaFire . Download the BDG_MiGAlley_0.85F.rar file and extract the contents. I ran the executable BDG_MiGAlley_0.85F.exe which completed successfully, compatibility settings were set to Windows 98. However if you have issues you may want to use the settings you may have used to install the base game and/or last official patch. Patch v0.85F2 There is also a v0.85F2 patch, this is s file replacement patch, without installer, so v0.85F should be installed first. It's not clear what fix(es) it provides, but the sim seems to keep the menu window open/active in the background while the 3d flight window is open/active and this patch seems to improve the game's window handling, at least in my very subjective opinion. Like all of these fixes, your experience may differ or the difference may be marginal. The patch can be found on a GitHub repository created by gondur in the patches folder . Once the mig_085_f2.rar file is downloaded, extract the files and overwrite the mig.exe  and mig.pdb  files in the MiG Alley folder, taking backups of the originals before you do so. Update : This message in the A2A Simulations forum says the v0.85F2 patch is for Windows 98/ME editions, to be applied on top of the v0.85F patch. Good to get some clarification on the above. Configuring the BDG patch(es) It's recommended to disable the intro videos. The BDG patch can be configured through the sim itself in the BDG menu page or by editing the bdg.txt file. In the file, find the INTRO_VIDEO entry and change it to: INTRO_VIDEO=OFF VOGON's member WesCov found that particular fix and the message includes a download link to a bdg.txt file. Adding no-cd fixes To remove the need to retain the installer folder/cd/iso image, the SMACKER folder should be copied to your MiG Alley folder. Then, the roots.dir file can be edited, it's a text file so any text editor (Notepad) will do. There should be two entries which reference the installer folder/cd/mounted iso image. Change these entries to your MiG Alley folder. In my case in the lines: 3 "F:\" 13 "F:\" were changed to: 3 "D:\Games\mig" 13 "D:\Games\mig" These instructions can also be found in /Docs/BDG_MiG_Manual.pdf , if you installed the BDG v0.85F patch. Trying to run the game at this point, resulted in the menu pages working but a crash to desktop when trying to fly a mission. Adding DDrawCompat From the creator, Narzoul of DDrawCompat: DDrawCompat is a DLL wrapper aimed at fixing compatibility and performance issues for games based on DirectDraw and Direct3D 1-7. The DDrawCompat wrapper seems to a key fix in getting MiG Alley to run under Windows 10. This wrapper is the only one I ended up requiring. There are a couple of different versions to try, the first was identified by VOGON's member Dornil in this message which includes the mig.rar download. Alternatively the latest version of DDrawCompat ( DDrawCompat-v0.5.4.zip at present) can be used, available from the releases page. For either version, extract the ddraw.dll file from the rar/zip into the MiG Alley folder and configure DDrawCompat as described below. Configuring DDrawCompat Whichever version of DDrawCompat is used, it requires configuring. DDrawCompat can run into issues if there are a large number of valid resolutions, so the available resolutions have to be limited. In addition the default shortcut keys need to be reassigned or disabled as they are also used by the BDG patch to change the FOV. Configuration involves creating a DDrawCompat.ini file in the MiG Alley folder. Any text editor can be used to create the file. My own DDrawCompat.ini file has the following entries: SupportedResolutions=800x600,1024x768,1600x1200,2048x1536 ConfigHotkey=none Antialiasing=msaa(3) I've limited it to four resolutions, with 2048x1536 being the largest 4:3 aspect ratio resolution supported by my monitor. During gameplay the thrust/heading/speed/altitude text in the bottom bar is extremely small, so lower resolutions like 1600x1200 have also been retained. The Antialiasing entry was added later once I had MiG Alley running, so you may want to leave this out when testing. Narzoul has a wiki detailing the other options, definitely worth a quick read. Again, VOGON's member WesCov found that particular fix and the message  includes a download link to a DDrawCompat.ini file. If you try and run the game at this point, the first attempt may result in a crash to desktop but with further attempts, you may find the menu pages work and you're able to successfully start flying a mission! Performance should be good, I normally see around 50fps with an i7-7700K and RTX 3060 @ 2048x1536. If you still have issues you may wish to try WineD3D or a combination of WineD3D and DDrawCompat. Adding WineD3D WineD3D is a compatibility wrapper which emulates old Direct3D versions and features that were removed by Microsoft in recent Windows releases, using OpenGL. Thanks to Federico Dossena, precompiled Windows binaries are available on the WineD3D for Windows page. If you've already tried DDrawCompat, you may wish to remove/backup/rename the DDrawCompat ddraw.dll file. Download the latest version of WineD3D for Windows ( WineD3DForWindows_9.16-staging.zip at present) and extract all of the files. If you take a look at the WINED3D README.txt file, it'll describe the files that need to be copied into the game folder for the various versions of DirectX. According to MobyGames, MiG Alley used DirectX6 so ddraw.dll and wined3d.dll should be copied into the MiG Alley folder. If you try and run the game at this point may you have to be patient, initialisation may take longer when starting the game or starting a mission. I find the performance on my machine isn't great with 9-22fps. Combining DDrawCompat and WineD3D For some the combination of DDrawCompat and WineD3D has proved successful. Using the mig.rar download from Dornil in this message , using earlier versions of DDrawCompat and WineD3D, extract all of the files ( ddraw.dll, libwine.dll and wined3d.dll ) into the MiG Alley folder. Alternatively you could try the latest versions of DDrawCompat and WineD3D described above. Copy the ddraw.dll file from the latest DDrawCompat version and the wined3d.dll file from the latest WineD3D version, into the MiG Alley folder. Whichever versions are used, DDrawCompat will require configuring as before.  Performance is good, I normally see around 50fps with the wrappers used in this manner. MS compatibility fixes You may at some point you may receive a 'one-shot' Windows notification stating compatibility fixes were found and applied for the software (MiG Alley) you were running. I chose the 'Yes, this program worked correctly' option and haven't seen it since. As I have the Compatibility Administrator installed, here are the compatibility settings for 2 installations of MiG Alley. D:\mig\Mig.exe uses the BDG v0.85F patch while D:\mig2\Mig.exe uses the BDG v0.85F and v0.85F2 patches. If you use DDrawCompat/WineD3D, DWM8And16BitMitigation is set. If you try dgVoodoo2, HighDpiAware also gets set. This may be of some use for those trying to run under a different version of Windows. Menu issues There are still some minor issues remaining, after completing a mission the menu pages will occasionally migrate to the top left of the screen. I would recommend saving progress as needed before quitting and restarting the game. In the Preferences page the '3D II' settings have 'Horizon fade' and 'Horizon distance' options. If they are set to Far , make sure in the '3D' settings the 'Auto Frame Rate' is set to Off . When a mission starts, the game tends to think there are frame rate issues and automatically resets the 'Horizon fade' to Near during gameplay. If it still doesn't work? Unfortunately MiG Alley is still very tricky to get working natively under Windows 10 and with everyone's setup being unique in one way or another there is no guarantee of success. However Windows 98 emulation with PCem has allowed MiG Alley to run successfully for some. This will be something I'll be taking a look at in a future post. Trying dgVoodoo2 This was tried using the current version (v2.83 at time of writing). I'm including it as it's a popular solution and maybe a later release will fix any MiG Alley issues and provide an alternative solution if DDrawCompat/WineD3D is unsuccessful. Performance was excellent at 50-60fps, but there are obvious issues as the screenshot shows, so not recommended at present. Controller setup MiG Alley has pretty good native controller support. The important thing is to enable each device from the Input Devices drop down and then select the input device and axis for each control. This screenshot shows my config. I'm not using a utility like TM Target or Joystick Gremlin to assign keys to controller buttons, so I'm not sure what effect a virtual/enumerated device, created by these utilities, will have. That'll be in a future update. TrackIR setup TrackIR is supported by the BDG v0.85F patch so you'll need this installed first. TrackIR can be turned on or off in the Preferences page, under the BDG settings, in-game or with the bdg.txt config file in the MiG Alley folder. Set the entry as follows: TRACKIR=ON This should allow you to use TrackIR to control panning around the cockpit. If you wish to use all 4 of the TrackIR axis supported by MiG Alley, the bdg.txt needs to be set to: TRACKIR6DOF=ON This option is not available in the in-game BDG menu. Recording issues If you wish to record your gameplay, there are issues to consider. Nvidia GeForce Experience GeForce Experience will either end the video immediately or record the background menu window instead of the 3d flight window, resulting in a black screen video with audio. The trick is to, counter-intuitively, turn on the privacy setting and only start the recording once the mission has started. This seems to cause the menu window to be ignored and to record video from the 3d flight window. Microsoft GameBar MS GameBar seems to record but would often either record a black screen or blank full screen window. The trick is to modify the modify the DDrawCompat.ini file and add the following entry: FullscreenMode=exclusive The wiki says this increases the risk of crashes and the default borderless setting should be more appropriate for recording, but this is the only way I managed to record video. You may also see a notification from the GameBar (although often it doesn't appear) saying it has switched to full screen recording. Only start the recording once the mission has started. There is still an issue where the video is squashed horizontally as the below video shows. I don't have any other 3rd party gameplay recording software, so I can't comment on any required setup. Uninstalling The bundled uninstaller works well and will successfully uninstall MiG Alley, leaving behind the patches and wrappers you may have used, which is be be expected. I'd suggest using the same compatibility settings used, when installing the game. The uninstaller also seems to play well with 3rd party uninstaller apps like Revo Uninstaller , so good news there. Freezes/hangs If you experienced freezes/hangs when installing there's a high probability of experiencing the same when uninstalling. Following the same Task Manager steps, during installation (detailed earlier), will allow the uninstaller to complete. This time you'll be looking for an UNWISE.EXE process rather than a SETUP.EXE process. In my case, it was the same Logitech/Discord process I encountered when installing so I had no worries in killing it off. What I tried I thought I'd go through the various steps I tired in getting this sim to work, rather than the minimum needed to get it to work on my machine. The initial install didn't go well and it took a number of installs, trying compatibility settings, installing fonts and looking into wait chains before I got a successful install. Then the install was supplemented with the official patch and the BDG v0.85F patch using the same or similar compatibility settings. I started with the WineD3D and DDrawCompat combo suggested by Dornil and after discovering the need for a DDrawCompat.ini file, I had a first working install. Further testing continued with the latest version of DDrawCompat and WineD3D. I also tried WineD3D only and dgVoodoo2, each working install was tested and tried with various config options. Eventually settled on just needing the latest version of DDrawCompat. Also added my hotas controller during this testing. Started to trying to record gameplay footage as well. Tried out TrackIR and figured out how to record footage with GameBar. Created a new install to try out the BDG v0.85F2 patch and tried the recently released DDrawCompat and dgVoodoo2 versions and finally worked out how to record better quality footage with GeForce Experience. Decided to create a fresh installation, so uninstalled both copies I had, and found the same freeze/hang as when installing. Finally If there are any mistakes/omissions/updates or anything you think is confusing please get in touch. If I've missed any VOGON's members I should have mentioned or you wish your mention to be removed, again please get in touch and I'll update this guide. Good Hunting!

A look at some of the issues involved in trying to set up HOTAS controllers with MiG Alley and why it's not quite as straightforward as hoped. Some background If you're struggling to setup MiG Alley under Windows 10, I'd suggest taking a look at my MiG Alley setup guide. The discussion will be covering virtual HOTAS controllers and profiling software and if you need a quick introduction, I'd suggest taking a look at my Controllers and retro sims part 2: Virtual controllers guide. The good MiG Alley has pretty good native/physical device controller support in the Preferences Controls menu. The important thing is to enable each device from the Input Devices drop down and then select the input device and axis for each flight control in the centre section. Job done! The bad However, the default button bindings leave a lot to be desired. I guess the MiG Alley dev's never envisioned there being so many buttons on present day controllers. Normally the controller profiling software would be fired up and the axes and buttons defined. In my case I would fire up the Thrustmaster TARGET app, and define the axes as shown. In this example we can see the slider axis has been disabled in the profile. This means when the profile is run, the virtual controller should have no idea this axis exists, and it doesn't. However the MiG Alley dev's either did something very weird or very very clever, as MiG Alley is still able to find this axis and allows it to be assigned, as the screenshot shows. If you try and fly a mission, the flight window initializes, the flight begins, immediately freezes and a second later crashes back to the desktop. The crash log shows an access violation which isn't surprising. Even if you leave the axes unchanged so they match the physical controllers, it still crashes. I suspect (but can't confirm) that MiG Alley will crash if you try and use any profiling software that creates a virtual controller, like Logitech/Saitek SST Profile Editor or Joystick Gremlin. If anyone has tried these I'd be interested in hearing the results? And the ugly Well maybe not ugly, but not a single solution. We need a solution that doesn't create a virtual controller and we have a couple of options. BDG Keyboard Manager The Battle of Britain/MiG Alley Development Group (BDG) created the BDG Keyboard Manager which allows you to reassign keys and device buttons. But there is a limitation, it will only scan the first device it finds. If your HOTAS is a single device then it's an option. So a big thank you to VOGON member akula65 for including a link in this message ! You just have to unzip the file into the MiG Alley KEYBOARD folder. However, if you use something like a Warthog HOTAS which is two separate devices then this won't work but there are alternatives. JoyToKey Well not just JoyToKey but any profiling app that lets you assign keys to buttons on multiple devices. Some quick JoyToKey testing shows I can map high numbered buttons on the throttle and override the default commands on the Joystick. There's a limit of 32 buttons per device, but I don't consider this an issue. Recommendations Use the MiG Alley Preferences Controls menu to setup the HOTAS controller axes. When it comes to HOTAS controller buttons, leave your virtual controller at home, it won't help you in the 1950's skies over Korea! Instead try the BDG Keyboard Manager, if you only have a single physical HOTAS device, or if you prefer... Use profiling software that doesn't create virtual controllers like JoyToKey. Good hunting!

This is a version retrospective looking back at all the versions of Jane's AH-64D Longbow, in a product chronological order, the patches that were released and a brief summary on how to create and play the latest version of each release. The reason for this guide is two-fold, when compiling this information, there were a number of surprises, versions I didn't know existed and patches that had long since been forgotten about. There are guides about installing and patching Longbow but time has moved on and so has the optimum setup. Some guides require some understanding of the release to be installed and patched and the some of the advice is unclear or has been superseded. In short there was no single definitive source, a situation hopefully rectified by this primer. This should be read before using any of the Longbow setup guides on this website. If you want to setup Longbow and you're here first, then well done! Now onto the releases... Jane's Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow This is the original big box retail release, distributed on 2 cds and released in 1996 by Origin Systems. It is a DOS only release featuring the AH-64A in historical missions, AH-64D in tutorials/single missions/campaign and a single campaign 'Baltic Hammer' set in Ukraine. Only the pilot seat is available in the sim. It is the v1.07F version, with the latest timestamps on the cd files indicate April 1996 (although the release was later in the year, it's useful for comparison with patches). There are separate French and German language localizations but all are version v1.07F. This was released after Windows 95, so the readme file covers running the game from Windows and although it is possible to run it as a DOS application from Windows i(there's even a Windows icon included) it isn't recommended, the preference being to reboot into DOS mode. The recommended specs were an Intel Pentium 120, 16 MB of memory and 98 MB of hard disk space! I'll refer to this as Longbow for the rest of the primer. v1.08F patch The v1.08F patch is a comprehensive collection of fixes and modifications, featuring 13 fixes and 12 modifications. These include flight model changes, weapons changes and others. The patch is applicable to the base game only and was created in August 1996. It can be found at the Longbow section of GameFront as a self extracting archive. v1.08F engine sounds fix From the GameFront description: Official release of 4 engine sound files meant as a hotfix for version 1.08 of Jane's Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow. This is a patch which seems to have been forgotten about with the passing of time. It's a collection of 4 wav sound files. Judging from the filename they seem to change the damaged engine and runway idling engine sounds, one each for left and right engines. This is a file replacement patch and there is no readme file or any other documents included. The patch is applicable to the v1.08F version of Longbow and the file timestamps indicate they were created in July 1996, but for some reason missed being included in the v1.08F patch. It can be found at the Longbow  section of GameFront as a self extracting archive. Jane's Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow - Flash Point Korea The one and only expansion pack produced for Longbow, distributed on 1 cd as a retail big box release by Origin Systems in 1996. It is a DOS only release adding the co-pilot/gunner seat to the sim, a new campaign 'Morning Fury', improved wingman commands, and bug fixes. I'll refer to it as Flash Point Korea. The readme states that Flash Point Korea includes the Longbox v1.08F patch. It also includes the engine sounds fix as well (although not mentioned). The version number is v1.03F which seems to indicate that it was considered a separate product from Longbow at the time with it own version numbering. It also explains the odd version numbers going forward. Timestamps on the cd files indicate it was created in October 1996, although released later. Flash Point Korea is compatible with Longbow, Longbow v1.08F and Longbow v1.08F with engine sounds fix. Jane's Combat Simulations: Longbow - Gold The Gold edition combines Longbow and Flash Point Korea into a single product, it also includes a dedicated Windows executable allowing the game to be played natively in earlier versions of Windows. The developer was Origin Systems and it was released as a 3 cd retail big box edition by Electronic Arts in 1997. I'll refer to this as Longbow Gold for the rest of the primer. This version is v1.03F which can be explained as matching the version of Flash Point Korea forming part of this release. The latest timestamp of files on the cd's is March 1997. Other changes include the flight recorder being disabled in the Windows version and the addition of a campaign 'cheat' menu allowing any campaign mission to be played as a single mission. The readme contains a lot of Windows troubleshooting advice which basically states 'try the DOS version'! v1.04F patch The v1.04F patch comprises of two fixes to correct skipping/garbled speech and the movie player improved to reduce lock ups, skipping or crashes to the desktop. The patch was created in April 1997 and is only applicable to Longbow Gold v1.03F. It can be found at soggi.org as a 7zip archive. GoldFX patch The GoldFX patch adds support for 3dfx graphics cards with the Glide API. It also makes some pretty major changes to the game, the AH-64A available in historical missions is removed and scenario textures converted. The Windows executable is changed which means this patched version is Windows only. It can no longer be played in DOS and must be played in Windows with a 3dfx card or Glide wrapper. The patch is only compatible with the the base game, Longbow Gold v1.03F. Applying this patch to v1.04F will introduce game breaking incompatibilities. The patch is listed as v1.09F which seems a bit of a jump in versions, however between v1.04F and this patch, two little known of versions of Longbow Gold were released. The patch was developed in July 1998 according to file timestamps. This is 10 months after the first Longbow Gold OEM version with 3dfx support. This patch can be found at soggi.org as a 7zip archive or as a self extracting archive in this message on the VOGONS forum by member feda, so a big thank you to both. Jane's Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow OEM This was also known as Jane's Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow Limited edition. Due to the OEM name it was probably supplied as bundled software with new PC's from one or more suppliers. It is based on Longbow Gold (in fact you can see it called Longbow Gold in the end credits), however the campaigns and Apache promotional films have been removed. This still leaves a large amount of the game intact: instant action, training, single and historical missions all remain. The DOS executable was also removed making this a Windows only version. It carries the version number v1.00F, which probably means the developer considered it a separate product from Longbow Gold. According to file timestamps it was developed in August 1997. This OEM version has the Longbow manual (with campaign section removed) and reference card in electronic format as pdf files. Jane's Combat Simulations: LongbowFX According to the readme file, LongbowFX was developed and tested exclusively for the Intergraph Intense 3D Voodoo video card. It is the second OEM version of Longbow Gold and looks like a development of Longbow OEM as it has the version number v1.01F. LongbowFX was probably a bundled game with the video card. Like Longbow OEM the campaigns and promotional films are removed. It is a Windows only version requiring a 3dfx card or Glide wrapper (although the readme states only that it 'may' work with other 3dfx cards). Timestamps indicated it was developed in September 1997 making it the first version with 3dfx support. This OEM version also has the Longbow manual (with campaign section removed) and reference card in electronic format as pdf files. The Longbow OEM readme has a section on 'Frame Rate Help', a section removed from the LongbowFX readme, so it looks like the 3dfx card was doing the heavy lifting! The LongbowFX cd contains an lb.exe file, which 'looks' like it might be a DOS executable but isn't, it's just another Windows executable, so there is still no DOS Glide version. And finally, was the GoldFX patch so named because the LongbowFX name was already taken? Jane's Combat Simulations: Longbow - Anthology The Anthology edition is a combination of a fully patched Longbow Gold and Longbow 2. It was released as a four cd retail big box edition by Electronic Arts in 1998. The first two cds are Longbow (Anthology) while the third and fourth are Longbow 2. Both DOS and Windows executables are supplied. There is no version information noted but the latest file timestamp is July 1998 so it should be equivalent to Longbow Gold v1.04F. This was the final edition of Longbow. I'll refer to this as Longbow Anthology. GoldFX (Anthology) patch This is also known as the GoldFX(A) patch and is the 3dfx patch specifically for use with Longbow Anthology only. Like the earlier GoldFX patch, it has a version v1.09F. It provides the same 3dfx support and removes the same capabilities as the GoldFX patch. So this patch makes Longbow Anthology a Windows only game requiring a 3dfx card or Glide wrapper. A different patch was required for Longbow Anthology as it is equivalent to Longbow Gold v1.04F. The earlier GoldFX patch was not compatible with the v1.04F version. Patching & playing each edition This is a summary of the above, listing the patches each edition should use and the order of installation and the prefered emulators or wrappers for playing (OEM versions won't be covered): Longbow Install Longbow base game (v1.07F). Install v1.08F patch. Install v1.08F engine sounds fix. Longbow with Flash Point Korea expansion Install Longbow base game (v1.07F) Install Flash Point Korea expansion (v1.03F) No further patches needed as Flash Point Korea includes v1.08F mods/fixes and v1.08F engine sounds fix. These should be played under DOS emulation using a modern DOSBox release, such as DOSBox Staging or DOSBox-X, etc. Longbow Gold (DOS or Windows without 3dfx/Glide) Install Longbow Gold base game (v1.03F). Install v1.04F patch. Longbow Anthology (DOS or Windows without 3dfx/Glide) Install Longbow Anthology base game. No further patches needed for Longbow Anthology as it already includes the v1.04F fixes. DOS versions should be played under DOS emulation using a modern DOSBox release, such as DOSBox Staging or DOSBox-X, etc. Windows versions should be played under Windows 98 emulation using the PCem emulator. Attempting to run these natively under Windows 10 is very difficult and crash prone. Longbow Gold (Windows only, with 3dfx/Glide) Install Longbow Gold base game (v1.03F). Install GoldFX patch (v1.09F). Longbow Anthology (Windows only, with 3dfx/Glide) Install Longbow Anthology base game. Install GoldFX(A) patch (v1.09F). These can be played natively in Windows 10, requiring the use of Windows compatibility fixes, the nGlide Glide wrapper and the Windows/DirectX wrapper, DxWnd. The setup is a rather involved process. Hopefully this has left you with a better understanding of the different versions of Longbow, the patches you may need, to play your desired version and the emulation to use. Good hunting!

How to run the DOS versions of Longbow, Longbow & Flash Point Korea, and Longbow Gold in DOSBox Staging. As usual I'll be using cd images to save wear and tear on cds and drive. Your Longbow cds can be ripped to data only iso cd images, there is no cd audio on the Longbow cds. Versions and patches For a list the various releases of Longbow and the recommended patches for each version take a look at the Longbow primer . Preferred versions are Longbow & Flash Point Korea expansion and Longbow Gold. Each contains the Ukraine and Korea campaigns. The Longbow Gold version doesn't add any game content or additional facilities to the DOS version. Game folders I use my DOSBox game folder scheme described in   DOSBox game management . So in my case I have a D:\games\dos\Janes Longbow  folder with the following sub folders: hdd (hard disk drive, DOSBox C: drive), folder used as hard disk by DOSBox. cd (cd drive, DOSBox D: drive), cd images go here. conf (DOSBox configuration file). docs (manuals, other docs, etc.) DOSBox setup The DOSBox configuration file will be living in the conf folder described above. The default DOSBox Staging settings are a very good start, but a few tweaks are needed. Longbow is a memory hungry beast for a DOS game, so the memory allocated to the emulated machine needs to be increased (one of the few DOS games that requires this): [dosbox] memsize = 48 The default glshader is 'crt-auto', this means the default integer_scaling option 'auto' will choose 'vertical' (which is what we want), so you don't need to change this, but I prefer to: [render] integer_scaling = vertical The all important cpu cycles, for Longbow it's pretty large. I set the cycles up and down to 1000. You may need to tweak this up or down, depending on your machine. [cpu] cycles = fixed 110000 cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 Nothing like a bit of reverb and chorus in the DOSBox mixer to bring the sounds and music to life. These are my personal preferences so feel free to experiment. These are the only sound/music options you need to change. Longbow will use the Soundblaster for sound/music and the defaults are ideal. No need to tweak midi settings either. [mixer] reverb = large chorus = normal And finally the all important autoexec section. The C: drive is using the hdd folder described earlier and all 3 cd images are mounted to drives D:, E:, and F:. The Longbow installer app should find each cd image as needed. Original Longbow (without Flash point Korea) has 2 cds so you'll have 2 cd images, adjust these settings as needed. Original Longbow with Flash Point Korea and Longbow Gold have 3 cds. [autoexec] # Lines in this section will be run at startup. # You can put your MOUNT lines here. mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\hdd" imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\cd\JLBCD1.iso" -t iso imgmount e "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\cd\JLBCD2.iso" -t iso imgmount f "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\cd\JLBCD3.iso" -t iso c: cd janes\longbow # remove comments once happy # lb # exit Once you completed the following steps, you can comment out the last 2 lines to fire up Longbow straight-away and close DOSBox once you quit the game. Controller setup HOTAS controller setup should be pretty straight forward. Depending on your particular HOTAS setup you may need to experiment with timed and swap34 (swapping the 3rd & 4th joystick/HOTAS axes). Setting the deadzone to 0 is a personal preference, so test to find what works best for you. [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 If you have more than 4 axes with your HOTAS controllers combined (and I do) then you'll have to use your HOTAS profile software to create a virtual controller and limit it to 4 axes (joystick x & y axes, throttle axis and rudder (pedal) axis). For a quick discussion on virtual controller, see my earlier article, Controllers and retro sims part 2: Virtual controllers . The rudder will probably be the x rotation axis (it was for me) but it can also be the z rotation axis. Again with a little testing you should discover which. In the screenshot you can see my TARGET profile for Longbow under DOSBox. High Frame Rate gaming If you want to try High Frame Rate (HFR) gaming with Longbow, then this excellent article (thank you Omnicydle), gives some background. The HFR options for DOSBox Staging are: [sdl] vsync = false presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true My DOSBox Staging config Putting it all together we get: [sdl] vsync = false presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] memsize = 48 dos_rate = 1000 [render] integer_scaling = vertical [cpu] cycles = fixed 110000 cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true [mixer] reverb = large chorus = normal [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 [autoexec] # Lines in this section will be run at startup. # You can put your MOUNT lines here. mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\hdd" imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\cd\JLBCD1.iso" -t iso imgmount e "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\cd\JLBCD2.iso" -t iso imgmount f "D:\Games\Dos\Janes Longbow\cd\JLBCD3.iso" -t iso c: cd janes\longbow # remove comments once happy # lb # exit Installation and setup Installation is straightforward, to install original Longbow, or Longbow Gold, go to the mounted D: drive in DOSBox and run the Installer app. If you want to install the Flash Point Korea expansion, there's a further step. You need to mount the cd (or cd image) and run the Flash Point Korea installer. In my case I had already mounted Flash Point Korea as the F: drive, so I ran the installer from there. Sound/music setup should be done, but if you do need to set/reset sound/music settings there is a setsound.exe utility found in the Longbow installation folder, to do so. CD emulation The developers of Longbow, left in a functional cd emulation facility. If you are using cd iso images the performance difference will be minor/negligible but if you are using physical cds there will be a performance boost (especially when loading terrain). To use it, copy the contents of each cd to a folder that DOSBox can access. Then create a file CDEmu.ini in the Longbow installation folder (in my case C:\Janes\Longbow) and specify the folder for each cd, like so: [CDEmulate] CD001=C:\Janes\Longbow1 CD002=C:\Janes\Longbow2 CD003=C:\Janes\Longbow3 Patching Now it's time to install any patches, for a list of the recommended patches for each version take a look at the Longbow primer . Only original Longbow (without Flash Point Korea) and Longbow Gold should require patching. Gameplay options There are two sets of options, the on-base options and the in-flight options both accessible with alt-o . An important base option is to allow automatic saving. If it's enabled and you crash or die, there's no second chances! In-flight options include calibrating controllers (useful for controller testing) and realistic helicopter style collective (pull back to increase collective). Manual and other documents If you can obtain either of the OEM versions of Longbow (see the primer ) then you'll have access to a pdf version of the Longbow manual. There's also a very useful pdf reference card. The docs don't have any campaign information as the OEM versions had the campaigns removed, but useful manuals nonetheless. I'd suggest keeping a copy in the docs folder, described in 'Game folders' above. In the words of the Longbow exit message... Good hunting!

A testing guide for the various releases of Jane's Longbow. The Glide versions of Jane's Longbow Gold and Anthology are not perfect. In order to test alternative emulation or compatibility approaches this guide details a number of testing scenarios that were particularly prone to crashing or problematic in the past. Tests for all versions These tests are applicable to any version/release of Longbow. On base mouse clicks Use the mouse click on base screens. Some versions experience mouse click issues where a single mouse click will be interpreted as multiple very high speed mouse clicks. This can make navigating between base screens very problematic. To test successfully, mouse clicks should behave normally. Read Jane's On the pre-mission options screen there are various choices, mission planning, arn chopper, fly or trash mission and read the Jane's book. Selecting the 'Read Jane's' option has been problematic and caused crashes to the desktop. To test successfully, the option should open the vehicle database and allow navigation through the various vehicles found in the game. First mission planning Navigating to the mission planning screen before ever starting a mission (and sitting in the Apache) will cause a crash to the desktop after a short while. To replicate, start the game and navigate to: historical missions, any mission, mission planning. After a short time the game will crash to desktop. To test successfully, the mission planning should function correctly for an extended period before ever starting a mission. Workaround this issue, by starting a mission without navigating to the mission planning screen, once on mission, quit and the mission planning will function correctly. Later mission planning Navigating to the mission planning screen having previously started a mission and quit back to the base. Start a mission and quit immediately, returning to the base. Navigate to a mission planning screen. To test successfully, the mission planning should function correctly for an extended period. Fly mission Trying to fly a mission without suitable emulation or compatibility fixes can cause a crash to the desktop. To replicate, navigate to a mission planning screen, for any mission, and select the fly mission option. To test successfully, the fly mission option should function correctly, loading the mission and starting it, player should be in the Apache. Early mission view switch Once a mission had started, switching the views to either internal or external views would cause a crash to desktop. The view switching should take place within the first 10 seconds of the mission starting. To replicate, start any mission, within the first 10 seconds switch to internal views (F2 and/or F3 keys) or external views (F5 and/or F6 keys). To test successfully, the views should be able to switch internally/externally multiple times without crashing within the first 10 seconds of the mission starting. Early mission options Once a mission had started, opening the in mission options within the first 10 seconds, would cause a crash to desktop. To replicate, start a mission, open the mission options (alt-o) within 10 seconds. To test successfully, mission options should be able to be opened/closed without crashing. MFD mouse Can the in-mission mouse cursor reach every part of the MFD's? Required for creating priority fire zones (PFZ) within the right MFD of the Apache D, which is a necessary game mechanic. Start a mission that uses the Apache D and move your mouse, should see the mouse cursor move. It should only be bounded by the MFD panels edges and can move between panels. To test successfully, the mouse cursor should be able to reach every part of both MFD's in the Apache D. First load scenario Before starting a mission, switching to another geographic area (e.g. free flight to Panama), will cause the replacing of the current geographic terrain textures with new ones. It will load terrain (low, medium and high detail), and may crash at or near 100% of the final high detail terrain load. To replicate, choose the free flight mission, start the mission and if it loads, quit the mission and game. Restart the game and choose any historical mission and choose to fly the mission. The scenario will begin to load. To test successfully, the scenario should load and mission start, without any previous mission having being started. Workaround this issue, by ending the game session by loading and quitting the free flight mission. When starting a new game session, start a free flight mission and quit before starting any other missions. Later load scenario Start a mission that requires a scenario load, having previously successfully started an earlier mission. To replicate, start a mission that does not require a scenario load and quit the mission, returning to the base screens. Start a mission in a different area that does require a scenario load. To test successfully, the scenario should load and mission start. Longbow Gold Tests applicable to Longbow Gold only. Corrupted videos To replicate, start the game, the intro video will play for a couple of seconds in a corrupted state before ending early. The game continues to the on-base screen. Other videos throughout the game show similar corruption. To test successfully, the intro video should run correctly to completion. The workaround is to disable intro and end credit movies with the on-base options. Leave the game alone at the on-base screen for 60-75 seconds. This seems to fix the issue and other in-game videos should play without issue.

A guide to running Jetfighter III in DOSBox-X with Glide passthrough. Jetfighter III is a late era DOS game, created by Mission Studios, that can utilise the graphics capabilities of a Voodoo or Voodoo2 graphics card. In order to enjoy the greater graphical fidelity provided, the DOSBox-X emulator can be integrated with a Glide wrapper. It's recommended to read the earlier article on Glide wrappers and DOSBox-X, ' Glide Wrappers: Last Man Standing or Peace and Harmony? ' for background information. As usual I'll be using a cd image rather than the physical cd to prevent wear and tear on discs and the drive. Jetfighter III does not use cd audio so your physical cd can be ripped to a data only iso cd image. Version The original base game, Jetfighter III was released in 1997 and followed shortly by the one and only expansion pack, Jetfighter III: Enhanced Campaign CD in the same year. A compilation edition, of the base game and expansion pack was also released in 1997, this was Jetfighter IIII+, also known as Jetfighter III Platinum Edition. In 1999 the final edition, Jetfighter III Classic was released, this was equivalent to the Platinum Edition but also included a mission editor. The preferred version of Jetfighter III is the Platinum Edition or Jetfighter III Classic. Both versions should have a readme.txt file which lists the version as Jetfighter III Platinum Edition v1.63. Game folders I use my DOSBox game folder scheme described in  DOSBox game management . So in my case I have a D:\games\dos\Jetfighter III  folder with the following sub folders: hdd (hard disk drive, DOSBox C: drive), folder used as hard disk by DOSBox. cd (cd drive, DOSBox D: drive), cd images. conf (DOSBox configuration file). patches (a folder to store the patches) . DOSBox-X settings As DOSBox-X is used in preference to DOSBox Staging some of the configuration options will be slightly different. General settings I generally keep fullscreen set to false when testing. The preferred output is pixel perfect opengl in DOSBox-X. [sdl] fullscreen = false windowresolution = 1600x1200 output = openglpp You can set a title for the DOSBox-X window. [dosbox] title = Jetfighter III The aspect ratio should be set to true when using pixel perfect opengl. [render] aspect = true Setting vsync on, helps with tearing in the video when navigating the ship. [vsync] vsyncmode = on These cycles are appropriate for a Pentium 75 - 90Mhz. The minimum specs call for a 486DX4, so this should make for fluid performance. [cpu] cycles = fixed 48500 cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 Autoexec iis where the hard disk and cd image is mounted. The jf3 folder is where my game is installed on the mounted C: drive. The jf3 command is used to start the game. The exit command will close DOSBox-X when you quit the game. [autoexec] # Lines in this section will be run at startup. # You can put your MOUNT lines here. mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Jetfighter 3\hdd" imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Jetfighter 3\cd\jf3c.iso" -t cdrom c: cd jf3 # jf3 # exit Glide passthrough To enable Glide passthrough we set the internal 3dfx Voodoo card rendering to false and set the glide passthrough option to true. [voodoo] voodoo_card = false glide = true Glide wrapper The preferred Glide wrapper is nGlide v2.10 as it provides fluid performance at high and low altitudes in the sim. I have this version installed as the system Glide wrapper so I didn't need to install it. If you need to install nGlide take a look at ' Glide Wrappers: Last Man Standing or Peace and Harmony? '  if you haven't already, for installation options. Glide library The DOSBox-X Glide library, glide2x.ovl must be copied from the DOSBox-X system folder to the game install folder of the mounted C: drive. So after starting DOSBox-X, use the following DOS commands: z: cd system copy glide2x.ovl c:\ e.g. copy glide2x.ovl c:\jf3 If glide2x.ovl can't be found then nGlide (or your preferred Glide wrapper) can't be found by DOSBox-X. Check the steps you took when you installed the wrapper. Midi setup For a discussion on midi setup see DOSBox midi . Jetfighter III can be configured to use a Soundblaster 16 (emulated in DOSBox) as the digital music device. However, it can also be configured to use general midi, which makes Jetfighter III an ideal candidate for trying out fluidsynth and various soundfonts in DOSBox-X. These settings allow the defined soundfont to be used with Fluidsynth for midi music. [midi] mididevice = fluidsynth fluid.driver = dsound fluid.soundfont = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts\Timbres Of Heaven GM_GS_XG_SFX V 3.4 Final.sf2" Controller setup For an in-depth look at modern HOTAS controller configuration for retro flight sims, take a look at my series of posts, Controllers and retro sims . For a controller with only 4 axes, DOSBox-X should be able to find and assign them, although you may need to swap the 3rd and 4th axes. I'm running a TM TARGET profile for my TM Warthog HOTAS, as it has more than 4 axes iit needs a virtual controller to define only 4 axes used by Jetfighter III. My profile defines these 4 axes: DX_X_AXIS (Joystick x-axis) DX_Y_AXIS (Joystick y-axis) DX_Z_AXIS (Throttle) DX_XROT_AXIS (Rudder pedals) These 4 axis allow for complete joystick, throttle and rudder control in Jetfighter III. These are the settings I use for my virtual controller, you may need to change these depending on your own setup. I set the deadzone to 0 as a personal preference. [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true [mapper] joy1deadzone0- = 0 joy1deadzone0+ = 0 joy1deadzone1- = 0 joy1deadzone1+ = 0 joy1deadzone2- = 0 joy1deadzone2+ = 0 joy1deadzone3- = 0 joy1deadzone3+ = 0 joy1deadzone4- = 0 joy1deadzone4+ = 0 joy1deadzone5- = 0 joy1deadzone5+ = 0 joy1deadzone6- = 0 joy1deadzone6+ = 0 joy1deadzone7- = 0 joy1deadzone7+ = 0 joy2deadzone0- = 0 joy2deadzone0+ = 0 joy2deadzone1- = 0 joy2deadzone1+ = 0 joy2deadzone2- = 0 joy2deadzone2+ = 0 joy2deadzone3- = 0 joy2deadzone3+ = 0 joy2deadzone4- = 0 joy2deadzone4+ = 0 joy2deadzone5- = 0 joy2deadzone5+ = 0 joy2deadzone6- = 0 joy2deadzone6+ = 0 joy2deadzone7- = 0 joy2deadzone7+ = 0 To calibrate your controller(s) in game you must start a mission and choose the calibrate option from the in-flight options menu. I would suggest starting a free flight mission for this purpose (see screenshot below). My DOSBox-X config Putting it all together we end up with the following DOSBox-X configuration: [sdl] fullscreen = false windowresolution = 1600x1200 output = openglpp [dosbox] title = Jetfighter III [render] aspect = true [vsync] vsyncmode = on [cpu] cycles = fixed 48500 cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 [voodoo] voodoo_card = false glide = true [midi] mididevice = fluidsynth fluid.driver = dsound fluid.soundfont = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts\Timbres Of Heaven GM_GS_XG_SFX V 3.4 Final.sf2" [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true [mapper] joy1deadzone0- = 0 joy1deadzone0+ = 0 joy1deadzone1- = 0 joy1deadzone1+ = 0 joy1deadzone2- = 0 joy1deadzone2+ = 0 joy1deadzone3- = 0 joy1deadzone3+ = 0 joy1deadzone4- = 0 joy1deadzone4+ = 0 joy1deadzone5- = 0 joy1deadzone5+ = 0 joy1deadzone6- = 0 joy1deadzone6+ = 0 joy1deadzone7- = 0 joy1deadzone7+ = 0 joy2deadzone0- = 0 joy2deadzone0+ = 0 joy2deadzone1- = 0 joy2deadzone1+ = 0 joy2deadzone2- = 0 joy2deadzone2+ = 0 joy2deadzone3- = 0 joy2deadzone3+ = 0 joy2deadzone4- = 0 joy2deadzone4+ = 0 joy2deadzone5- = 0 joy2deadzone5+ = 0 joy2deadzone6- = 0 joy2deadzone6+ = 0 joy2deadzone7- = 0 joy2deadzone7+ = 0 [autoexec] # Lines in this section will be run at startup. # You can put your MOUNT lines here. mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Jetfighter 3\hdd" imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Jetfighter 3\cd\jf3c.iso" -t cdrom c: cd jf3 # jf3 # exit Installation and setup The game should be installed from within DOSBox-X by running the install.exe installer app. Installation should be straightforward. Once installed you will be asked to configure the game by setting display, sound and music options. If you wish to re-configure the game after installation, simply run the install.exe app from the game installation folder on the mounted C: drive. To calibrate your controller(s) in game you must start a mission and choose the calibrate option from the in-flight options menu. I would suggest starting a free flight mission for this purpose. Patching There are two recommended patches, they should be installed in the following order: Jetfighter III update 3   This is last official patch from Mission Studios, it enhances the installer and the game, including adding 3dfx/Glide support and fixes a training mission. It upgrades the version to v1.67. The patch is available from The Patches Scrolls  and is compatible with the Platinum Edition and Classic. The patch should be executed from within DOSBox-X. JetFighter III Platinum Edition Unofficial Update 4 This is a fan made file replacement patch, compatible with the Platinum Edition and Classic, it was produced by VOGONS member rfnagel and can be found in this forum post , so a huge thank you to rfnagel. Taken from the readme file: This unofficial update fixes problems with several of the campaign mission files where the next mission in the campaign would constantly loop back to the current mission, REGARDLESS if you win or lose the current mission. This unofficial update also fixes problems with several other campaign mission files where the next mission in the campaign would constantly loop back to the current mission, unless that you LOSE the current mission.These fixes now force the next mission in the campaigns to continue to the next mission, as they should. Game shortcut All that remains is to set up a suitable DOSBox-X game shortcut. I would recommend taking a look at the earlier article, ' DOSBox game management '. Good hunting!

This is a guide to setting up custom sound within A-10 Attack! There are mods for enhanced stereo sound and for radio chatter during missions. The custom sound mods are only available at Steve's HOG HEAVEN , under the ' Better Sounds ' section. This page houses a large set of A-10 Attack! and A-10 Cuba resources created and curated by Steve Russillo. Without Steve's page we very likely would have lost these mods and the extensive info Steve has collected. So a huge thankyou to Steve. The mods are exclusive, one or the other can be installed but not both, due to them both replacing the same original sound resources. They are only compatible with A-10 Attack! and the Mac version of A-10 Cuba. Prerequisites In order to install the sounds we'll need an old Mac developer tool, ResEdit . It's basically an editor for creating and editing the resources that make up a Mac application. For example, it can be used for editing the icons and menus that make up an application's GUI. In this case it'll be used to change the sound resources used by A-10 Attack! We'll need the sound mods themselves from Steve's HOG HEAVEN . The mods are: Custom Stereo Sounds (1.4MB) Radio Chatter Sounds (3.3MB) You'll need to download one or both from Steve's page. Installing ResEdit I'd recommend ResEdit v2.1.3 it seemed to work reasonably well. The version I found was a compressed archive .sit which expanded into a disk image. Opening the disk image revealed a ResEdit folder that just needed to be copied to hard disk. Preparation Prior to making any changes it is very strongly recommended to take a copy of the original unmodified A-10 Attack! application and store it in another folder for safe keeping. If anything goes wrong you can restore this unmodified version. Installing a sound mod The sound mods are distributed as a compressed archive .sit file, so use StuffIt Expander to un-compress it, into a mod folder. The process is identical for each sound mod: Open the folder and open the resource file with ResEdit, there should be a single snd resource. Use ResEdit and open the A-10 Attack! 1.5 application. This should open a window showing all the resources used by A-10 Attack! One of these resources will be a snd resource. Drag and drop doesn't work so select the snd sound resource in the sound mod window and go to Edit and Copy. Select the A-10 Attack! window and selected Edit and Paste. ResEdit will ask if you want to replace resources with the same id. Select Yes. If you encounter an error at this point (and I did) don't panic. For some reason not all the sounds copy across. This might be due to emulation or some other reason but it's very easy to fix, we just have to copy some of the sounds across manually: Double click on the sound mod snd resource to open the sound list in the mod. There should be a list of sounds with id's running from 10000 to 10041. Double click on the sound mod snd resource to open the sound list in the A-10 Attack! app. Again there should be a list of sounds with id's running from 10000 to 10041. If the sound file size is smaller or an id is missing in the A-10 Attack! sound list. Then we need to copy that sound from the sound mod list and into the A-10 Attack! list. Highlight the sound to copy in the sound mod list and select Edit and Copy. Select the A-10 Attack sound list window and select Edit and Paste. ResEdit will ask if you want to replace resources with the same id. Select Yes. Continue until all id are present the all the sounds are the same size as the sound mod size. To finish up: Select the A-10 Attack! resource window and select File and Save. Close ResEdit. You're ready to play with your enhanced sounds! References Better Sounds section of Steve's HOG HEAVEN

This is my guide to running Subwar 2050 in DOSBox Staging. This guide will be a little bit different as we'll cover using a GOG installation and creating your own installation. Which Version? My earlier post ' Subwar 2050 Versions ' discussed the various Subwar 2050 versions. The definitive version which we'll be using is the GOG release, 'Subwar 2050 Complete (GOG version)'. GOG installation I used GOG Galaxy to install Subwar, it obviously includes all the GOG specific files and it's own copy of vanilla DOSBox which we won't be using. Where GOG Galaxy is installed will determine where your copy of Subwar will be installed. In my case, my copy of GOG Galaxy was installed at D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy , which meant Subwar was installed at D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Subwar 2050 . Game folders I use my DOSBox game folder scheme described in  DOSBox game management . So in my case I have a D:\games\dos\Subwar 2050  folder with the following sub folders: conf (DOSBox configuration file). docs (manuals, other docs, etc.) A hdd or cd folder isn't required as we'll be using the GOG installation folder. DOSBox Staging setup The DOSBox Staging video and rendering setup defaults provide a solid set of options that don't need to be tweaked. The important cycles settings we can obtain from the GOG DOSBox config file dosboxSUBWAR.conf in the GOG Subwar installation folder. Their suggested settings of 20000 cycles worked well on my pc. Obviously you can tweak this to be higher or lower depending on your machine. Cloud saves GOG releases often provide saving your game in the cloud, it does this by providing an overlay mount in the GOG DOSBox config. I've recreated this mount in the DOSBox Staging config. I'm not 100% sure if it works correctly, so please be aware and don't rely on it! This is a guess on my part but I'm assuming that there's a GOG process running which is scanning the cloud_saves folder in the GOG installation folder and uploading those save files to the cloud. Midi Setup For a discussion on midi setup see DOSBox midi . For DOSBox Staging the versioned MT-32 roms are used. Subwar works well with the CM32L and MT32 new roms, so leaving the MT32 model , (in the mt32 section) as auto will default to CM32L roms which sound good. Controller setup For an in-depth look at modern HOTAS controller configuration for retro flight sims, take a look at my series of posts, Controllers and retro sims . Subwar only uses 3 controller axes, the joystick x-axis and y-axis and a throttle axis. No rudder axis is needed, which seems odd for a sea-going vessel sim! Those with a HOTAS with a rudder axis may need to do some testing to determine whether the throttle and rudder axes need to be swapped in the DOSBox Staging config file. Set the swap34 option in the joystick section of the config file as appropriate. This will depend on your controller(s) and in my case I did need to swap them (see My example config below). Creating your own installation This part is optional unless you don't want to use the GOG installation folder and want to use your own. You'll need an to create additional game installation folder to be used as the DOSBox Staging C: drive. If you use your own installation folder you will lose the cloud save facility. So in my case, using my game folder scheme, described in  DOSBox game management , I created the D:\games\dos\Subwar 2050\hdd folder. I could just copy the contents of the D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Subwar 2050 to my new hdd folder, but this would include a lot of GOG specific files that aren't used. Some of you may have period correct pc's you play retro DOS classics on, in which case you'll want to create a 'clean' installation of Subwar to transfer to your retro gaming pc. So here is a list of files and folders to copy from the GOG installation folder to your own installation folder. [SWPIX] [SWSOURCE] ADLIB.CAT FULL.BAT INSTALL.EXE INTRO.EXE LAPC1.PAT README.NOW ROLAND.CAT SMALL.BAT SUBWAR.ADV SUBWAR.BAT SUBWAR2.ADV SW.CFG SW.EXE SWSLOT0.SAV SWSLOT1.SAV SWSLOT2.SAV SWSLOT3.SAV SWSLOT4.SAV SWSLOT5.SAV SWSLOT6.SAV SWSLOT7.SAV SW_DE.EXE SW_FR.EXE You could use the GOG installation and have your own installation, you just need separate config files with the appropriate mount commands in the autoexec section along with separate DOSBox Staging shortcuts calling each config. Fixing the GOG menu Some GOG releases of classic DOS games have a little DOS menu added by GOG. These menus may allow you to run an installer to set graphics and sound options, or play the game in a different language. Subwar has one of these menus. The menu is defined in the GOG DOSBox config file dosboxSUBWAR_single.conf in the GOG Subwar installation folder. You could copy the menu commands into your DOSBox Staging config file. The menu would work but would look a bit odd. The reason for this and a workaround is described in DOSBox Staging: Why do GOG menus look bad . So to get the menu looking right: Create a DOS batch file in your GOG installation folder, I called mine gogmenu.bat. Copy the menu commands from dosboxSUBWAR_single.conf into gogmenu.bat. Call gogmenu.bat from the autoexec section of your DOSBox config file. Optional: If you have your own installation folder copy gogmenu.bat into it. My example config This is my example config with the changes/options most likely to change from the DOSBox Staging default. [sdl] fullscreen = false fullresolution = desktop windowresolution = default viewport_resolution = fit [render] aspect = true glshader = crt-auto integer_scaling = vertical [cpu] cycles = fixed 20000 cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 [midi] mididevice = mt32 mpu401 = intelligent [mt32] model = auto romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = true swap34 = true deadzone = 0 [autoexec] # Lines in this section will be run at startup. # You can put your MOUNT lines here. # mount commands for GOG installation mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Subwar 2050" mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Subwar 2050\cloud_saves" -t overlay # mount commands for own installation (commented-out) # mount C "D:\Games\Dos\Subwar 2050\hdd" # for those with a cd version, converted to iso (commented-out) # mount D " D:\Games\Dos\Subwar 2050\cd\subwar.iso " -t cdrom C: call gogmenu.bat Shortcut Don't forget to create your game specific DOSBox Staging shortcut as described in DOSBox game management . DOS settings Run the install utility, through the GOG menu or from the DOSBox DOS prompt, to set the digital audio device, midi device and control scheme. If you're still testing and tweaking controllers you don't have to set them up now, as they can be set and calibrated later, through in-game options. Running the game The first time you run the game, it may detect your controllers and ask you if you wish to use a throttle and then ask you to calibrate. If you're still testing and tweaking controllers you can calibrate now and recalibrate later through in-game options. Gameplay options Gameplay options are available through the sub base screen (where you can choose a campaign, receive a briefing, arm your sub and begin your mission). Select the options screen to ensure the graphics are maxed out and to choose the control scheme. The joystick icon to the right of the control scheme option allows you to recalibrate your controllers in game. Manuals and other documents There are already some manuals in the GOG installation folder and with GOG Galaxy you can download more manuals as extras, which will be downloaded to the !Downloads folder in the GOG installation folder. Documents include: The base game manual (also a German version at time of writing). 'The Plot Deepens' expansion manual. A reference key chart. 'Undercurrents', the in-universe magazine. readme.txt, additional game info not in the manual. readme.now, additional game info text file, displayed by the install utility, mostly contains the same info as readme.txt. another readme.txt, the expansion installation info, found in the scenario folder, not so useful. This is entirely optional but I like to copy these docs to my D:\games\dos\Subwar 2050\docs folder and then place a shortcut to this docs folder on my desktop when playing. That way if I need to consult any docs, I can pause Subwar, switch from fullscreen to window, open the docs folder shortcut and check out any docs without having to hunt around for them. Patching other versions Absolutely not required for the GOG version and strongly recommended for other versions. I converted my physical Subwar cd to a .iso image format for speed, convenience and to save wear and tear on disc and drive. My example config includes a mount command for this iso image. If you have Subwar on cd re-release, 'The Plot Deepens' expansion may be included but it isn't installed by default so you'll have to find it on the cd and install manually. I started playing the original version, not realising the expansion was included on the cd. I couldn't get past mission 4 in the North Atlantic campaign. After issuing special orders then setting my wingman to attack targets worked. But then trying to issue the special orders again failed and sometimes the wingman would disappear off never to be seen again. Running the cd re-release with the scenario installed updated the sw.exe file to the 1994 version and fixed this issue. If you have the original 5 floppy disks version, without the expansion, it benefits from having the v2.02 patch installed, which should still be available, to update sw.exe. Walkthrough If you get stuck in any of the missions, I've created a series of walkthroughs for each of the campaigns available on this website . Stay silent and deadly, good hunting!

This is my guide to running the Mac version of F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0 under the MAME emulator. It took a lot of testing with various emulators and testing with MAME to figure this all out, so hopefully this guide makes it easier for anyone else who would like to try out this classic flight sim. I'm currently using Win10 so this guide assumes that. The usual caveats apply, you follow this guide at your own risk. If you're uncomfortable doing something then don't! We'll be covering: Installing MAME and building the virtual Mac. Virtual Mac setup, transferring apps from PC to the Mac and installing F-117. Configuring MAME and over-clocking for a better flight sim experience. Installing MAME and generating a default config Installing MAME: First thing to do is get a copy of MAME . You can get it at the MAME download page , at time of writing the latest version is v0.259. These instructions are for that version but I can't imagine it will much different for later versions. You can skip the ' MAME 0.259 full driver information in XML format' download, you won't need it. Once you have it, open the self extracting exe. Windows will probably show you a 'you've downloaded this, are you sure you want to install' dialog. Go ahead and pick a folder to extract to and that's MAME installed. Creating a default config: Now it's time to create some default config files. Open MAME , you should see a huge list of stuff none of which you have. If you want, you can filter this list so it's more useful, I would suggest the 'Available' filter, on the left hand side. As nothing is available yet, it'll be an empty list. Click on the 'General Settings' option at the bottom of the page to open up a settings menu. Click on the 'Save Settings' option, MAME will report the settings have been saved. Now click on the 'Return to Previous Menu' and the settings will close. Then click on the 'Exit' icon (white X, on a red square) at the top right of the page and MAME will exit. You've now successfully created the Mame.ini config file, you should see this in your MAME folder and a default configuration, if you go to the cfg sub-folder there should be a default.cfg file present. Building the virtual Mac We're going to be creating a virtual Mac, in this case it will be Quadra 800. Now your google-fu is going to have to strong, because the roms you need are tricky to find. If you've done any Mac emulation in the past you may already have a Quadra rom, unfortunately the ones used by MAME are different (I found this out the hard way). You're going to have to find: macqd800.zip adbmodem.zip MAME hardware emulation is a lot more accurate then other emulators you may have come across, this may be why F-117 only works reliably on MAME . You may be tempted to emulate one of Mac II series as the roms are easier to find, however the mouse is horribly jerky and difficult to use due to an issue in the emulation and it's recommended to use an alternative machine unless you have a specific reason for using a Mac II. The Quadra 800 mouse works perfectly. We'll need a hard disk image, I would recommend Mac OS/System 7.6.1, it's the last version F-117 can run on, I believe. MAME uses hard disk images in a .chd (compressed hunks of data) format. Fortunately suitable images are easier to find at the MAME Driver:Mac 68K page. It's worth a quick read as there's lots of useful info there. You may have to use 'save link as...' and your browser may complain about it being an unsecure download. Assuming you have the roms: Copy the roms into the MAME sub-folder roms. They don't require unzipping and should remain as zips. Copy the hard disk image zip into the MAME folder and unzip it. Open up MAME again and if you use the 'Available' filter you should see the 'Macintosh Quadra 800'. If you try and start it by double clicking, you may see a 'Start Empty' option, or a big list of floppy images with 'Start Empty' at the top. If you double click on this option, you'll be asked to select the emulated Quadra bios (the default is fine) and the Mac will try and start but won't find the hard disk image so you'll see the Mac 'start-up disk missing' screen. It's time to exit out of MAME again. Activate the MAME UI with the Scroll Lock (Scr-Lk) key, you should see an overlay pop up briefly which says the MAME UI is active and hit Esc to exit back to the main MAME page. Exit from MAME . If you look in the MAME cfg sub-folder you should see another default config file macqd800.cfg. Starting up MAME with a hard disk image To start the Quadra 800 with a hard disk image you can use the command line, or create a windows batch file (I prefer the batch file and put it in my MAME folder). Either way the command to use is: mame macqd800 -hard1 mac761.chd -ramsize 128M -verbose macqd800 identifies the machine to emulate as a Mac Quadra 800. hard1 identifies the hard disk image to use, mac761.chd. ramsize is the amount of ram the machine should have, a Quadra 800 can have a maximum of 128Mb so why not? verbose logs startup info, I find kind of interesting but it's entirely optional, so feel free to leave it out. If everything is ok, you should see the following. You may have seen an MAME machine info page that should have reported a resolution of 640x480 and a warning page that the sound is emulated imperfectly, that may be the case but I haven't noticed any issues! Now is a good time to check everything is ok, that the mouse works, etc. It's also time for a little bit of housekeeping. The resolution should be 640x480 and 256 colours, which is fine for F-117. You can check this by going to the 'Control Panels' option under the Apple menu item and opening the 'Monitors & Sound applet to check this. Change it to these settings if it isn't. You might find the mouse is a little too responsive, I recommend reducing the speed to 'Very slow' in the 'Mouse' control panels applet. The bar at the bottom of the screen is the 'Control Strip', it has a nasty habit of impinging on the display when playing. You can hide it with the 'Control Strip' applet. The desktop is quite dull and grey, check out the 'Desktop Patterns' applet, I quite like 22/74. Once finished you can use the Apple menu or Special menu item to shutdown the Mac, it's recommended to do so or your Mac will complain next time you start it up. Once shutdown you should see this screen. Now to close MAME we need to enable the MAME UI, the hotkey to enable/disable it is Scroll Lock (Scr-Lk) on Win10. You should see a MAME UI overlay pop up briefly each time you enable or disable it. We'll come back to it later but for now, enable the MAME UI and hit Esc to close MAME . Now a quick warning, you really want turn off the MAME UI when you're playing. I have lost count of the number of times I have accidentally killed a MAME session or reset the virtual Mac because I left the MAME UI enabled and used a key combo in the sim that MAME uses for something else. If you're playing, disable the MAME UI! Installing apps and F-117 Now it time to start installing some apps and F-117 onto your new Mac. So here's a quick rundown of what you'll need: stuffit_expander_5.5.img - The 7zip of the retro Mac world. This is available as a disk image that MAME supports. I haven't had any issues when using this version in Mac OS 7.6.1 but other versions exist. stuffitdlx551.sit - StuffIt Expander Deluxe like StuffIt Expander, but it also can also support disk images which we'll encounter when we install F-117. I've only been able to find this as a .sit StuffIt archive, this is why we need StuffIt (non deluxe version) to extract the deluxe version (oh the irony!) F-117a_Stealth_Fighter_2.1.sit - The game itself, (why you're reading this!) F117a_Update_2.3.1.sit - The first patch. F117A_Update_2.3.2.image_.sit - The second/final patch. Installing StuffIt Expander Start up your virtual Mac. Enable the MAME UI with Scr-Lk and hit the Tab key to open the MAME UI menu. Go to the 'File Manager' option, here you can mount floppy disk and cd images. Hit Tab again to close the MAME UI and the disk image should be mounted. Open the disk and start the StuffIt Expander installation. The default options are all fine and you can select it as the preferred helper application during the install process. Once complete shutdown the Mac, open the MAME UI file manager again, and select 'Empty Slot' to remove the disk image. Installing StuffIt Deluxe If you've had a look at the MAME Driver:Mac 68K page, you'll already know the recommended process for transferring files from your host pc to the emulated Mac is with a cd image. You can use whatever software you're comfortable with, I tend to use ImgBurn. The image has to contain StuffIt Expander Deluxe, F-117 and the two patches and should be in .iso format. Choose a suitably short name like f117.iso. Once you have your cd image: Start up your mac, enable and open the MAME UI and use the 'File Manager' to mount the cd image as a cd and close the MAME UI. Now you're probably looking at an error dialog box suggesting the cd can't be read from, wondering what has gone wrong. The answer is nothing, just click on the Eject button and your emulated Mac will mount the cd anyway! Copy the files from the cd to a new folder on the Mac hard disk. You may find the files have their names shortened and uppercased. Open the StuffIt application from the desktop, go to File > Expand and start expanding the StuffIt Deluxe Installer. Open the newly created StuffIt Deluxe folder, take a look at the included docs and run the installer. When it comes to registration, type anything into name and supply the serial number. Select the Easy Install and just use the default install location. You get a warning saying after installation the Mac will need to restart. Once finished the Mac will ask to restart, now would be a good time to open the MAME UI and unmount the cd image as everything is now on your Mac's hard disk image. Click on the restart button and the Mac will restart. You should see a new desktop icon and a new StuffIt option in the top menu bar. Installing F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0 Depending on your cd burning software your StuffIt archives may have different names. I'm not sure if you can skip the first patch and go straight to the second patch, but I tend to install it. Go back to the folder where you copied the F-117 StuffIt archives, highlight the game archive (mine was called F_117_A.SIT) and use the StuffIt menu bar option to expand it. It will expand into a Stealth Fighter folder, move this folder to your hard disk on the desktop. Highlight the first patch (F117A_UP.SIT) and use the StuffIt menu bar option to expand it. This will create a F117a Update 2.3.1 folder, open it and copy the Release Notes and the application into your F-117 folder on your hard disk, you'll want to replace the existing release notes and application. Highlight the second patch (F117A_U2.SIT) and use the StuffIt menu bar option to expand it. This will create an image that StuffIt will automatically mount, so it should appear on your desktop as F117A Version 2.0 Update. Open this image and you should see a README.NOW! document and a F117a232.sea file. This is a self expanding archive so just open it. It will ask where to create a folder, the default location is find and you should find an F117a232 Folder has been created on your hard disk. Open it to find release notes and the application. Copy these to your existing F-117 folder replacing both files with these new versions. Clean up any files/folders and check the application version with File > Get Info, it should be v2.3.2 And now finally start the game! Optimising the experience There are now a couple of things we can do to optimise the playing experience. Overclocking the virtual Mac Now we have F-117 working we can try and increase the performance of the virtual Mac for a smoother gameplay experience. MAME has an overclocking facility we can take advantage of, but before we can use it, we have to enable it. We need to change our existing cmd line or batch file, mentioned earlier to include the cheat option like so: mame macqd800 -hard1 mac761.chd -ramsize 128M -verbose -cheat When we start up the virtual Mac, we can open up the MAME UI and access the 'Slider Controls'. We should see quite a comprehensive menu. The Overclock CPU :maincpu is the option we are interested in, use the left and right arrows keys to move the slider. In this example I have overclocked the virtual Mac CPU to 200%. When you overclock the CPU the sound will also be overclocked so you may hear sound being played at a higher tempo or repeated fragments of sound. It'll probably depend on the host pc MAME is being run on. Sound vs speed is something you can experiment with to find your preferred experience. Each time the Mac is started the overclock option will have to applied. It is not saved between sessions. This is a deliberate decision by the MAME dev team. Overclocking increases the risk of crashes on some emulated hardware (although I haven't experienced any yet with the Mac). Imagine getting to a final boss only to have the emulated machine crash on you, as rage inducing as that might be, at least you'll be aware of the possibility, by having to set the overclock each time. It seems a sensible decision by the MAME devs. Joystick controls If there's one problem MAME does have, it's joystick controls, and that might not be considered entirely fair, because you could say if there's one problem retro Mac's have, it's joystick controls. Retro Mac's treat their joysticks like a mouse device which creates issues. Joystick axes are normally absolute axes, they report exactly where they are. For example, if you use Win10 joy.cpl to test moving your joystick x-axis then moving your stick to the right would cause the pointer in the axes box to move to the right but releasing the stick would cause the pointer to jump to the centre position again. This is what we want in flight sims. But a mouse uses relative axes, you move your mouse to the right the mouse pointer moves right, you stop moving the mouse and the pointer stays exactly where it is. This is what you want from a mouse. As retro Macs treated their joysticks like a mouse device it used relative axes. So if you release a Mac joystick it doesn't snap back to a centre position. This is not what we want in Mac flight sims! It means when you turn to the right you need to push right, then push to the left to centre the mouse position to maintain the turn and then push to the left again, to start levelling out then push to the right when level to centre the position! In fact Gravis who produced the MouseStick and MouseStick II for the Mac had control panel applets to account for this and return to a centre position when the stick was return to centre, like an absolute axis joystick would. When trying to fix this I came across, an interesting utility ajoy2mouse on aminet. Used with the Mac emulator Shapeshifter on the Amiga, it does for the emulator what the Gravis applets did for their joysticks. Added it to the references below, it's worth a read as it probably explains things better than I did. I haven't gone down the rabbit hole of trying to run WinUAE to run Shapeshifter to run an emulated Mac to run F-117... yet. Now we can try and get round this by using mapping software to map the joystick x/y axes to mouse x/y axes setting the axes type as absolute. I can do this in my Target app and can see this in Win10. I can get the Win10 mouse pointer to snap back to centre when I release the stick. However MAME does not like this. MAME has comprehensive native controller support, which isn't surprising when you're trying to emulate a myriad of control schemes, with a myriad of controller hardware, arcade games have used throughout the years. But what it won't do is use an absolute axis as a relative one. From the MAME technical specs: Attempting to read an absolute axis item as a relative axis always returns zero. The other Mac emulators I've used have far less controller support, so pretty much do whatever the controller/Win10 tells them, they however, cannot run F-117 reliably in my experience. I've tried a number of things including: Checking for a suitable MAME plugin. Trying to run the Gravis MouseStick/MouseStick II control applet (bit of a long shot, they require the physical joystick to be present). Searched for a suitable Mac OS 7.6.1 utility. A lot on testing with the MAME Input Settings, including testing input providers, advanced controller configuration, TM Target settings, etc. in all cases either the emulated mouse was unresponsive and the MAME Input Devices showed no axes change, even when using a virtual ThrustmasterMouseDevice or acted as if the mouse axes were relative axes. If anyone manages to find a solution, please, drop me a message! Joystick workarounds F-117 is entirely playable with the keyboard, but that's only my opinion. You can still use a joystick but we'll be simulating keyboard key presses with a controller. First thing we want to do is sort out the joystick deadzone and limits, you'll need to run up MAME, not from the batch file, just the MAME program to get access to Advanced Options. Select the Quadra 800 and go to System Settings, then Advanced Settings and down to the Input Options section. MAME has a default high joystick deadzone so we want to lower the value (or 0). The joystick saturation is the limit at which the joystick stops responding so a higher value (or 1) is better. Finally lower the joystick threshold. Return to the previous menu and save the system settings before quitting MAME. Obviously the optimum values will depend on your controller so feel free to experiment. Now all we have to do is map the controller inputs to the keyboard keys. Start the virtual Mac, enable the MAME UI and go to Input Settings, then the Input Assignments (this system) option. You should see all the input assignments allocated to the mouse and keyboard, I'll cover a joystick axis and a button. To assign an axis, eg. controller left to left arrow, Scroll down to the left arrow assignment, double click and the entry will change to a couple of left/right arrows. At the bottom of the overlay, you'll see, the existing assignment, 'Kbd LEFT or'. Move your controller left and the assignment will change to 'Kbd LEFT or Joy n Left' (where n is the number of your joystick identified by MAME), and the Left Arrow assignment in the list will also change to 'Kbd LEFT or Joy n Left'. You can repeat this for the other keyboard arrows/controller directions. If the bottom of the overlay shows NONE, showing an empty assignment, add in the original key (in this case keyboard left arrow) pressing it and then select the assignment again to append the joystick left setting, so we end up with 'Kbd LEFT or Joy n Left'. If it all goes a bit wrong, highlight the assignment, and press the delete key to set it to NONE and then press delete again to return it to the default assignment. It takes a bit of getting used to when you first try and set it up but key press instructions appear at the bottom of the overlay. To set a button, highlight the assignment, in this case we'll set Return to Joystick button 1. Highlight the Return assignment select it. In my case it showed NONE at the bottom of the overlay so I pressed the Enter key to set it back to Enter, then selected it again and pressed button 1 to set the assignment to 'Kbd ENTER or Joy n Button 1'. Once down you can return to the previous menu and close the UI. Don't forget to disable the MAME UI, if you're about to play! When things go wrong If things go wrong, and the control scheme ends up messed up, it's simple to fix. Simply delete the default.cfg and macqd800.cfg files in the cfg sub folder. MAME will recreate these files when you start it again. You can then reapply any options or mappings you need. And finally... A huge shout out to all those devs, maintainers and other contributors to the MAME and others projects used in this guide. Without their dedication, this guide and playing this classic game would not be possible! Here's a quick video of a test mission from start to finish! References and further reading MAME >> Official Windows Binary Packages Reddit >> r/MAME >> MAME mac 68k driver machines mouse jumpy MAME >> Driver:Mac 68K Reddit >> r/MAME >> Can you save overclock cheat settings? aminet >> util/mouse/ajoy2mouse.lha MAME’s User Interface >> Configuring inputs MAME Documentation >> Technical Specifications >> Input System

This is taken from some of my earlier posts on the GOG Subwar 2050 forum. Mission 1 - A Foot in the Door This is a fairly straightforward mission, head to waypoint 1 and kill the enemy sub there. Head to waypoint 2 and destroy the enemy sub near the debris. Go active on the sonar and target the debris. Continue to waypoint 3 where the mission should end. Mission 2 - Curiosity Killed the Cat! Head to the waypoint where the debris is at speed. You'll encounter 3 enemy subs. Send your wingman after one, destroy the other and then destroy the sub towing the debris. It will fall to the ocean floor and shortly after a friendly sub will appear to tow it back to the carrier. You may have to destroy the towing sub first before you destroy the second enemy fighter sub. Once the debris has made it back to the carrier the mission ends. Mission 3 - More Questions than Answers For this mission you have to destroy an undersea pleasure complex, guarded by a couple of enemy subs. As you approach the complex get above the thermal to hide and make a stealthy approach, hide on the far side of the complex, with the complex between you and the enemy subs. From above the thermal get as close as possible and destroy each of the legs. Once destroyed the mission ends. If one of the enemy subs gets underneath the structure as it falls to the ocean floor, it'll cause the structure to bounce off the sub and spin, before it hits the sub again, bounces and spins some more. It might take a couple of minutes but eventually either the enemy sub is destroyed and/or the structure hits the ocean floor and is destroyed. Mission 4 - Beware the Howl of the Jabberwocky This one can be tricky. As you approach the waypoint where the strangeness occurs you'll want to hide above the thermal, there'll be an enemy Whirlwind present, get behind or above it and destroy at close range. The strange structure causes damage, so go full throttle with active ping over waypoint 2, then run at full speed to waypoint 3 and 4, if you're quick enough you should get back to the carrier before the damage becomes too severe and you're destroyed. Once back the mission ends. Mission 5 - To Dream the Impossible Dream As you get to the strange structure, there'll be 2 Whirlwinds, stealthy approach and destroy at close range. Due to the enhanced shielding you won't take damage so get close and active ping the structure. Shortly after be on the lookout for a third Whirlwind coming in from above (but not directly above) and spam your remaining rockets to kill it. Then it's just a case of heading to waypoints 3 and 4 after which the mission ends. Mission 6 - Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore This mission is all about base defence with a little extra at the end. The first bit can be a bit hectic. The base will be approached by 3 enemy subs approaching in a line. I headed to the right and destroyed the first one a Hurricane from behind, then destroyed a second hurricane, before finally destroying the middle sub a Type 25 (I think). You may want to change the order of the last 2 subs destroyed. Once done that's the hard bit over. The base will detect a 4th sub, approach it and it's identified as an old (but friendly) US Navy sub. Give it an active ping and shortly after the mission ends Mission 7 - No Guts, No Glory The anomaly you're sent to investigate is at waypoint 2. Once you're in close proximity, old WW2 aircraft will begin to appear at and around the anomaly. With the aircraft pointing forward, position yourself to the left of the leftmost aircraft. You receive a message that a friendly sub has been dispatched to retrieve the aircraft. Shortly after a couple of enemy Hurricanes materialise. As you're close you should be able to kill both without any trouble. Once done the mission ends. Mission 8 - The Barricade As you approach the portal there'll be 2 enemy subs. You have plenty of time so a stealthy approach and kill at short range to maximise rockets (I think you can carry rockets on this mission, but if not, getting close also makes the torps more effective). Once both are dead it's on to the next part which has to be done quickly. You need to lay 5 mines and you don't have a lot of time. Use your autopilot to orientate towards the waypoint, autopilot off throttle up and drop the mine as you pass the waypoint. Then do the same for each of the other mine waypoints, autopilot on to orientate, autopilot off, throttle and drop as you pass the waypoint. Once all 5 are done, put a little distance (not too much) as an enemy sub appears, get close and use the rest of those rockets/torps until it's dead. Once dead the mission ends. It's not a problem if some of the mines are triggered as long as you lay the 5 mines and destroy the last sub. Mission 9 - Riders on the Storm It being the final mission you know it's going to be tricky. You have 2 wingmen, but one is a Trieste which always seems to die as soon as he engages anything. It can get hectic and a bit confusing as there are 6 enemy subs to destroy. It also means ammo conservation is key. Firstly 3 enemy subs appear (from what we'll call the front) in a line. Send your fighter wingman after the one (Hurricane maybe) on the left. Take the Hurricane on the right and then get closer to the large middle sub and try and destroy it with 7 rockets. If one of your wingman is still alive you're doing well. Get back to the portal. I kept sending both wingmen and the Trieste never did much with this first wave and died almost immediately. Then 2 enemy subs appear from the 'right', send any wingmen after them but don't engage yourself because there's a large sub coming directly from above which is a greater threat. Destroy this one by getting close and letting fly, hopefully you can kill this with about 7 or so rockets. The last 2 enemy subs may also get a beating from the friendly torp mines around the portal. Hopefully you have enough ammo is left to get in close and destroy them. Once the last sub is destroyed, mission should end shortly. You might want to leave the Trieste at the portal for cover as this may be a better use and get them to help attack the sub coming in from above and then assist with the last 2 if they're still around. And that's the last campaign complete! Your medal stash should look something like this!