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This is a guide to setting up F/A-18 Hornet V1.0/Classic with Mac emulation. It'll take a look a single screen and multi-monitor options and my subjective view on which are best. We'll be looking at emulators in order of preference. Versions The preferred version of Hornet is v1.1.2 , available as a single game or as part of the ' 9 Big Ones ' compilation cd. A patch exists to update to version 1.1.3b1, however it requires the games folder to named (or renamed to) F/A-18 Hornet 1.1.2 before the patch will run. However at the present time this version will crash on all emulators. It doesn't provide any significant changes or bug fixes. SheepShaver SheepShaver is a good solution, easy to setup and run. In order to use a modern joystick effectively, you will need to use your joysticks profile software to map your joystick x/y-axes to the mouse x/y-axes. It doesn't have support for multiple virtual monitors at present. If you decide to use Qemu m68k instead, it's still worth installing SheepShaver as you can mount a Qemu disk image in SheepShaver which makes transferring files onto the disk far easier. The latest version of SheepShaver can be obtained from the Emaculation website. At time of writing the latest version is SheepShaver-Windows-27-08-2023-framebuffer . In order to create a suitable emulated PPC Mac, the SheepShaver setup guide at the Emaculation website should be followed. The configuration I use is: An old world 4mb rom file 128mb ram Mac OS 7.6.1 1152x870 resolution In addition the SheepShaver_prefs file was edited and the following preference was added to reduce the cpu clock to 33Mhz, the default being 100Mhz. cpuclock 33 Once you have an emulated Mac running Mac OS 7.6.1, you will want to install software. Depending on the version of Hornet obtained, you may have to install Stuffit Expander before you install F/A-18 Hornet. I've found Stuffit Expander v5.5 to work well. Update 07/11/2023 : I've noticed that very occasionally when switching to the external target view during a mission the game can freeze. SheepShaver is still the recommendation, but something to be aware of. Update 10/11/2023: The key bindings are not optimal. The \ key is incorrectly mapped to 3. To fix this you'll want to set the 'Use raw keycodes' option and specify the keycodes files in the SheepShaver folder as shown. Qemu m68k Qemu is another good solution for running Hornet and the recommended solution to run with multi monitor support. Transferring files onto the hard disk image is also more complicated, the easiest solution is to use SheepShaver to mount the Qemu disk image and transfer files. The alternative is to create a cd image and mount the image in Qemu. Like SheepShaver you'll need to remap the joystick x/y-axes to the mouse x/y axes. The target button, backslash '\' doesn't seem to work, instead the hash '#' key targets (at least on Uk keyboards). There are 2 versions available from the Emaculation website, the latest version, Qemu-system-m68k-Win64-06-10-2023 and the experimental multi-monitor version Qemu-m68k-Win64-qfb-experimental-05-10-2022 . If you want to try out both, they should be installed into separate folders. I tend to use the experimental version for both single and multiple monitors. The experimental version allows you to use the Windows key to emulate the Apple command key (which you need in Hornet). The Qemu-system-m68k-Win64-06-10-2023 version seems to have lost this mapping. However the experimental version has an issue with full screen rendering at 1152x870, so I tend to use 1024x768. Update 11/11/2023: The Qemu-system-m68k-Win64-06-10-2023 version hasn't actually lost this mapping, but in full screen mode holding the Windows key causes a key press 'pulse' in the emulator. In the experimental version holding the Windows key generates the held key press in the emulator. This can be seen with the 'Key Caps' app. I'll include the command to run the Qemu-system-m68k-Win64-06-10-2023 version in case this gets fixed later. In order to create a suitable virtual Mac the Emaculation setup guide should be used. The configuration I use is: Quadra 800 rom 128mb ram Mac OS 7.6.1 1152x870 resolution (Qemu-system-m68k-Win64-06-10-2023 version) 1024x768 resolution (Qemu-m68k-Win64-qfb-experimental-05-10-2022 version) Note: In the configurations below, your rom file and hard disk image may have a different name and be located in a different folder. The caret ^ character continues the command onto the next line. Qemu-system-m68k-Win64-06-10-2023 configuration qemu-system-m68k.exe ^ -M q800 ^ -m 128 ^ -g 1152x870x8 ^ -display sdl ^ -bios "D:\MacOS\qemu-disk-rom\Quadra800.rom" ^ -drive file=pram-macos.img,format=raw,if=mtd ^ -device scsi-hd,scsi-id=0,drive=hd0 ^ -drive file=D:\MacOS\qemu-disk-rom\qemu761.img,media=disk,format=raw,if=none,id=hd0 Qemu-m68k-Win64-qfb-experimental-05-10-2022 single monitor configuration qemu-system-m68k-qfb.exe ^ -M q800,fb=none ^ -m 128 ^ -bios D:\MacOS\qemu-disk-rom\Quadra800.rom ^ -display sdl ^ -device nubus-qfb,width=1024,height=768,depth=8 ^ -drive file=pram-macos-qfb.img,format=raw,if=mtd ^ -device scsi-hd,scsi-id=0,drive=hd0 ^ -drive file=D:\MacOS\qemu-disk-rom\qemu761.img,media=disk,format=raw,if=none,id=hd0 Qemu-m68k-Win64-qfb-experimental-05-10-2022 multi monitor configuration This configuration will create 3 virtual displays as windows. qemu-system-m68k-qfb.exe ^ -M q800,fb=qemu ^ -device nubus-qfb,width=1024,height=768,depth=8 ^ -device nubus-qfb,width=1024,height=768,depth=8 ^ -m 128 ^ -g 1024x768x8 ^ -bios D:\MacOS\qemu-disk-rom\Quadra800.rom ^ -display sdl ^ -drive file=pram-macos-qfb.img,format=raw,if=mtd ^ -device scsi-hd,scsi-id=0,drive=hd0 ^ -drive file=D:\MacOS\qemu-disk-rom\qemu761multi.img,media=disk,format=raw,if=none,id=hd0 You can add the following lines to the bottom of each command to mount a cd image, replacing with the actual name of your cd image. The previous last line will need to end with the caret character. rem add the ^ to the end of the last line before adding these lines -device scsi-cd,scsi-id=3,drive=cd0 ^ -drive file=,format=raw,media=cdrom,if=none,id=cd0 Once you have your emulated Mac up and running, install Stuffit Expander v5.5 , if you need to, before you install Hornet. MAME MAME provides very accurate emulation at the cost of performance. This accuracy means it may be the only emulator capable of running some titles reliably. With Hornet, we can get better performance from SheepShaver or Qemu. However both SheepShaver and Qemu require the joystick axes to be mapped to mouse axes for the mouse controls to act like a joystick. If this isn't possible then MAME may be a preferred option. The hit in performance can be overcome by overclocking the emulated Mac, however this can result in non-breaking sound issues, where fragments of sound will be repeated during play. It'll be down to personal preference as to how big of an issue this is. The current version of MAME is v0.260 although there is active development with new releases coming out frequently. Setup To set up MAME take a look at my earlier blog post: Running the Mac version of F-117a Stealth Fighter 2.0 with MAME . You can follow the guide all the way through until it comes to installing F-117. Installing Stuffit Deluxe is optional but you may find it useful for installing other games. You should now have: An emulated Mac Quadra 800 with 128mb of memory. Running Mac OS 7.6.1. With Stuffit Expander v5.5 (and optionally Stuffit Deluxe) installed. You can now install hornet. If the copy of Hornet obtained is a .toast cd image. You may be able to mount it in MAME by: Taking a copy of the .toast cd image. Change the extension to .iso. Use the MAME file manager to mount the .iso cd image. Otherwise you will have to create your own .iso cd image to transfer files onto your emulated Mac. To increase performance, you can specify the -cheat option in the command used to run MAME and use the MAME slider menu to overclock the main cpu by up to 400%. This may introduce sound issues depending on how high you go and your host pc, so the optimum overclock is a personal preference. Joystick setup Hornet can use keyboard controls (not great) or mouse controls (even worse)! To use a modern joystick with the emulated Mac mouse controls that acts like a joystick, you can use the MacFlight plugin. Details on how to use the MacFlight plugin are on the earlier blog post: MacFlight: A MAME plugin for retro Mac flight sims . Multiple Monitors To set up multiple monitors in MAME take a look at yet another earlier blog post: MacFlight: Multi-monitor support! It'll describe how to set up multiple monitors in MAME. If you use a supported memory and resolution, MacFlight will also work.

Some tips I've discovered while playing F/A-18 Hornet V1.0/Classic. Updated on 23 Dec 2023. Air-to-Ground Training The annoying threat warning is coming from the SAM radar on the hexagonal patch of ground, it's easy to kill with a Harm. Enjoy the peace and quiet! You can't seem to strafe the launchers on the hexagonal patch, use Mavericks on the launchers and strafe the vehicles on the rectangular patch of ground. There's a ship off-shore you can target and kill with a Maverick, this may be useful practice if you're struggling with Maverick targeting. Missions Enemy radar struggles to find you if you stay below 125ft. Avoiding missiles seems quite difficult so don't forget, turn that ECM on. Launching missiles at low-level is possible, you can launch the AGM-88 Harm, AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM at very low-level, there is no missile 'drop' as they leave the rails. When trying to use the camera in the AGM-65 Maverick, use the autopilot. Make sure the TACAN is turned off, and turn on the autopilot to maintain course and height. With the TACAN on, the autopilot will change course towards a waypoint but with it off, the autopilot maintains a straight and level course, allowing you time to acquire a target with the electro-optical targeting. If you start on the apron, check for landing aircraft before you venture onto the runway, one mission starts with a B-52 landing. Mavericks seem over-powered they can kill vehicles and buildings. This means you don't have to acquire a vehicle target precisely, close enough is often good enough for a kill. You don't have to precisely target buildings either, a bomb or Maverick seems to have an area effect. Targeting between 2 buildings may destroy them both, if they are close enough together. In one mission you start on the apron at an enemy airbase, the runway is behind you and you can kill the parked fighter in front of you with the gun. You don't need to kill the other fighters in the air if you stay below 125ft, they'll struggle to target and fire on you. So you can just run for home! HARM's can be used against hovercraft, which may be useful if you have to attack at low level. The gun can also be used to destroy them. Supergun I thought there were just 2 final missions, destroying a nuclear power station or destroying a dam. But after 6 missions I had reached the rank of captain, on normal difficulty and received a different mission. The supergun mission. In this mission you have destroy a supergun positioned against a mountain. However the mission starts with an attack on the airbase you start from. My suggested tactics for this mission are: take off immediately, while you are taxiing select air radar and sidewinders. Take off, stay low, below 100ft lock up the attacking aircraft (advanced fighter) and destroy, usually only takes a single sidewinder. Your radar will find another advanced fighter, stay below 100ft and use an AMRAAM to take it out. Use the autopilot and turn on the TACAN for waypoint 1, switch to ARAD radar, again stay low, below 100ft, target the right-most contact, this will be the SAM radar, use a HARM, to destroy it, you may need to use a second HARM. Once the threat warning is silenced, turn away stay low as you put some distance between yourself and the AAA defences. Climb to 8000-10000ft, throttle back to 80% and re-engage the autopilot to head to waypoint 1. Engage CCIP, wait until you are nearly over the target and dive. Target the buildings at the base of the supergun, once the B57's are released (should be around 5000-6000ft), pull up and engage afterburners to escape the blast. Head to the airbase at waypoint 0 and land. Enjoy your retirement! FAQ I've managed to find the F/A-18 Hornet FAQ, by trawling some Mac archives. Given how difficult it is to find these days I've added it. Update: Strategy guide A strategy guide exists, very tricky to find it has resurfaced and can be found at the Macintosh Repository on their F/A-18 Hornet page . It's included in the FA-18_Hornet_Collection.sit file. Update: Expert hints & tips Hornet generated a lot of discussion on the Usenet group: comp.sys.mac.games .flight-sim including a discussions on SAM avoidance and weapons deployment, these are still available today courtesy of google, no longer active, the archive provides a treasure trove of useful information, you just have to go searching at: comp.sys.mac.games.flight-sim Just try and ignore the spam and search for what you need.

This post will be taking a look at the history of F.A-18 Hornet, the first game in the F/A-18 Hornet series from GraphSim. It will discuss the various versions that have existed and the changes that have been introduced over time. Most of this post is based on updates and utilities I've encountered as I've looked into Hornet. Some of this information may not be correct, so if you can expand on or correct anything, please feel free to get in touch. Version 1.0 Initial version. Released in 1993, probably in the second half of the year as reviews and updates started appearing in Jan 1994. Also known as version 1.0.0 when GraphSim started using 1.x.x version numbers. Version 1.0.1 I believe this may have been a bug fix patch for v1.0 although it's not known what the changes in this version were. This was the last 1.0 version. It looks to have been created/released prior to Jan 1994. An updater application exists to update v1.0.1 to v1.1 confirming the existence of this version. Version 1.1 Also known as version 1.1.0. Released Jan 1994, registered users would later receive update disks from GraphSim. This was a major update to Hornet, introducing a large number of new features, and a new flight model. Two separate applications existed to update v1.0 to v1.1 and update v1.0.1 to v1.1. Version 1.1.1 Released Feb1994. A minor update to version 1.1 which introduced a few new features. Only one updater application has been found that updates v1.0.0 to v1.1.1 so it's not known if a fresh install of Hornet was needed to apply this patch. The readme below covers the changes in version 1.1 and version 1.1.1. Version 1.1.2 Released Apr 1994. Another minor update which introduced bug fixes and tweaked the flight characteristics of some aircraft. The updater application would update any earlier v1.1.x version to v1.1.2. Version 1.1.3b1 Released Apr 1994. A beta patch (hence the b1 in the version number) to fix bugs in the flight model for lower memory Macs and changes the roll rate in the flight model. An updater application would update v1.1.2 to v1.1.3b1. The patch is incompatible with the Classic version. Version 1.1.3b2 Released Apr 1994. A second beta patch. There is no readme so the contents of the patch aren't known. After applying the patch the hornet version is listed as 1.1.3 in the 'File Info' dialog box. An updater application would update v1.1.2 to v1.1.3b2. This patch is incompatible with the Classic version. PowerPC Hack Version An unofficial fan made patch to add PowerPC code to the Hornet application converting it to a fat binary compatible with both m68k and PPC architectures, optimising the performance on PowerPC Macs. Released in Sep 1994. It can be used to patch versions 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3b1. This patch pre-dates the Classic version. It's not known if this version is compatible with the v1.1.3b2 patch. Classic Version An official GraphSim release around Oct 1995, the classic version according to the 'about' information, is based on version 1.1.2. I believe it is released as a fat binary containing both m68k and PowerPC code as it runs under the SheepShaver emulator. It included an electronic version of the manual. This version is the most common found today. It has the characteristics of a re-release, combining a history of changes until v1.1.2. It's not known if either of the v1.1.3 beta patches made it into this release. The updater application to update Hornet 1.x to Hornet 2.0 doesn't seem to be compatible with this version.

This blog post discusses F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 and whether it's a sequel or an upgrade to Graphism's first Hornet game, F/A-18 Hornet. It is based on what I learned as I worked to get the game running under modern hardware with emulation so it may not be 100% accurate. If you can expand on or correct anything, please feel free to get in touch. Before we begin, it's worth differentiating between the game title, F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 and the version, v2.0.1. This version seems to be the release version distributed on cd. I haven't seen an earlier v2.0.0 version. The short answer to this question is that it is both, an upgrade for some of Graphism's customers and a sequel to others. Upgrade path For customers that purchased one of the earlier versions of F/A-18 Hornet, it's an upgrade. An upgrade package came on 4 disks. A quick discussion of the myriad of  F/A-18 Hornet versions can be found in the blog post: F/A-18 Hornet: History of a classic . The upgrade application would upgrade any v1 copy of F/A-18 Hornet (presumably v1.0.0 through to v1.1.3b2, but not Classic) to F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 v2.0.1. Installation path Those customers without a copy of F/A-18 Hornet, or those that purchased F/A-18 Hornet (Classic) would have to perform a fresh install of F/A-18 Hornet 2.0. The game was distributed on a single cd. The upgrade application is incompatible with the Classic version, and for those customers it would be considered a sequel. Korean Crisis, expansion or upgrade? The Korean Crisis addon could also be considered both an expansion and an upgrade. For customers with an earlier version of F/A-18 Hornet (v1.0.0 - v1.1.3b2), the installation would upgrade to F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 v2.0.1 with the Korea theater added. For those customers with an existing install of F/A-18 Hornet 2.0, Korean Crisis would only add the Korea theater, the version remaining unchanged at v2.0.1. Contentious? The upgrade and expansion paths probably led to quite different and possibly contentious customer experiences. Both F/A-18 Hornet (Classic) and F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 were released the same year, 1995. A PowerPC customer, may have purchased F/A-18 Hornet (Classic), to get an optimised PPC version and then had to purchase F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 and Korean Crisis, to get the definitive F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 experience. Whilst another customer may only have had to buy F/A-18 Hornet v1.x followed by Korean Crisis to get the exact same definitive edition. It's my subjective opinion but the F/A-18 Hornet (Classic) version seems to have been a mis-step by GraphSim, that created confusion. It may have been better to have released a PowerPC optimised patch (the PPC Hack patch shows this was feasible) rather than a new version, based on v1.1.2 and incompatible with v1.1.3b patches or upgrades to Hornet 2.0.

This guide covers running the Eidos/Innerloop 1997 sim, Joint Strike Fighter JSF, in the PC emulator PCem. For further background take a look at the previous guide: Running Joint Strike Fighter in Windows 10 . Despite JSF being able to run natively in Windows 10, there are reasons using the PCem emulator may be preferable: Your modern multi-axes/multi-button HOTAS controller is incompatible with JSF, resulting in a crash to desktop when you try to use it. Your particular Windows 10 setup has issues with the Glide wrappers used to run JSF with 3dfx enabled. PCem can help by: Supporting 2 joysticks (4 axes), which allows us to specify the 4 axes of any physical hardware in a consistent way such that Windows 98 / JSF only deals with the PCem virtual joysticks rather than a myriad of physical devices. Emulates Voodoo hardware at a lower level providing emulated period correct hardware closer to the physical hardware the game originally worked with. PCem setup If you're completely new to setting up PCem or need a refresher, I highly recommend the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup . Once you have a basic, clean Windows 98 virtual machine and hard disk image, I recommend: Taking a copy of the basic virtual machine to create a game specific virtual machine. Taking a copy of the basic hard disk image to create a game specific image. Use PCem and reconfigure the game specific virtual machine to use the game specific hard disk image. If things go badly wrong, you'll always have the basic image to try again with and it'll save a lot of time and effort if you ever want to try a different Glide compatible game. Installation Once the emulated machine is running, change the cd device settings in PCem, to use either your physical drive (if you have a physical cd), or a cd image. Then it's just a case of selecting the JSF install option from the JSF launcher app, (you may have to manually run the launcher app from cd if it doesn't start automatically). Installation should complete without any issues. Patching If you've followed Phils tutorial video, you know how easy it is to mount the PCem hard disk image (.vhd) file in modern Windows, and copy any games patches into it. Windows 98 doesn't have built in zip file support so unzip in modern Windows before copying into the mounted hard disk image. There is a single v1.12 patch available from The Patches Scrolls . It's a file replacement patch, so copy the patch jsf.exe into the game folder, replacing the existing one. Setup options Enabling 3dfx is done through the game options. Disabling the 3dfx option will switch to software rendering. Everything else is pretty self explanatory. Hotas setup Take a look at my Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem  guide for installing HOTAS controllers in PCem. Once you have a custom calibrated Windows 98 controller the hard work is done. Control options are limited to keyboard, mouse or joystick. JSF will automatically assign axes, so the joystick option covers joystick/throttle/rudder. That's it, the HOTAS configuration is done! Good hunting!

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.