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A guide to running F22 Air Dominance Fighter under Win10. Although not perfect F22 Air Dominance Fighter (F22 ADF) runs very well under Win10, with most issues being either cosmetic, or music related, which could be considered minor for this classic flight sim. If you haven't already, it's strongly recommended to take a look at the previous  F22 Air Dominance Fighter part 2: PCem build  article as this provides the F22 ADF build used in Win10. Strategy The strategy will be taking the build created in a PCem Win95 virtual machine (VM) and moving it onto Win10. Preparation for running under Win10 will be covered, followed by in-game configuration. But before that, we'll take a look at the utilities which provide compatibility for the optimum experience under Win10. Before continuing it's recommended to take a look at the remaining issue summary and decide if they are acceptable when running under Win10. Retail media The retail media advice given in the previous article, remains valid. Game Management As a windows game running build with PCem installation folder will be copied from the PCem Win95 VM. However some limited game management is still useful for installation folder location and files used in the F22 ADF setup. The installation folder and setup files for F22 ADF and other Windows games can be found in the same folder (my own, as an example): D:\Games\Win\ D:\Games\Win\F22ADF D:\Games\Win\F22ADF Setup The following setup folders are used (similar to the previous article): conf - to store any HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of recommended patches, zip archives or installers. cd - to store any cd images. Compatibility utilities This section covers the required utilities required for maximum compatibility under Win10 (to date). It is recommended that copies of zip archives or installers are kept in the setup patch folder for safekeeping. nGlide nGlide settings Glide emulation is provided by the latest version of nGlide v2.10. Available from Zeus Software in nGlide download . nGlide is installed as a system level Glide wrapper as explained further in Glide Wrappers: Last Man Standing or Peace and Harmony? Once installed the nGlide configurator is used to set the nGlide settings as shown in the screenshot. DirectX wrappers There are currently cosmetic issues with the menu screen as the game runs with DirectX5. For Win10 we don't use any DX wrappers as they have issues with F22 ADF. A number of DirectX wrappers were tested including cnc-ddraw, DDrawCompat, dgVoodoo2, DxWrapper and DxWnd. dgVoodoo2 wouldn't start the game, DxWrapper would not 'hand off' to nGlide, cnc-draw, DDrawCompat and DxWnd would either start without fixing the cosmetic issue or start and crash moments later. The issue seems to be with GDI components either caused by the game, wrapper or combination of both. DDrawCompat v0.2.0 didn't fix the issue but could run the game, while DDrawCompat v0.3.0 that incorporated enhanced GDI handling would fix the issue but would crash soon afterwards. VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper (optional) Installing and configuring these utilities is optional if you prefer to run F22 ADF without MIDI music and just wish to use sound fx and speech. VirtualMIDISynth VirtualMIDISynth is a MIDI synth that allows the soundfonts supplied with F22 to be used. MIDIMapper allows the VirtualMIDISynth device to be used as the default MIDI device, instead of the default Microsoft synth device (with does not support soundfonts). If you have previously installed VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper to play F22 ADF under PCem emulation, then you don't need to install them again, you're all set. If you only installed VirtualMIDISynth then it's time to install MIDIMapper as F22 ADF does not allow you to choose a preferred MIDI device (see below). If you haven't installed either then... The first step is to download and install VirtualMIDISynth , as described in the article, DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth . The DOSBox Staging config section can be ignored, as we aren't using DOSBox. Then download and install MIDIMapper , which will integrate with VirtualMIDISynth, as described in the earlier article, VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper . Now we select VirtualMIDISynth as the default MIDI device with the MIDIMapper configurator: Run the MIDIMapper Configurator. Choose VirtualMIDISynth as your preferred default MIDI device. Choosing the default device in MIDIMapper Configurator. Or with the VirtualMIDISynth configurator (that integrates with the MIDIMapper): Run the VirtualMIDISynth Configurator. Select the MIDI Mapper tab. Choose VirtualMIDISynth as your preferred default MIDI device. Choosing the default device in VirtualMIDISynth Configurator. As shown above, both utilities allow you to do the same thing and set the default MIDI device. That concludes installing and configuring VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper, adding the F22 ADF soundfonts is covered later. TrueSpeech Codec Speech in F22 ADF uses the TrueSpeech codec. This was included with earlier versions of Windows (up to WinXP) and so it was already available under the PCem Win95 VM. With Win10 this codec must be installed, if we wish to hear in-game speech. It is available from PCGamingWIki as the DSP Group TrueSpeech codec installer , distributed as a zip file. Installation requires extracting the installer, tsp_codec_install.exe and running it. It should install without issue. OTVDM/WineVDM (optional) OTVDM, also known as WineVDM, is a port of the Wine project that allows you to run old 16-bit Windows applications on modern 64-bit Windows operating systems. However, we won't be using it for this reason. OTVDM also includes a winhlp32.exe utility, which allows opening old style Windows help files on 64-bit Windows, including the F22 ADF help file, which acts as a manual for some versions and is a useful reference. The latest version of OTVDM/WineVDM is v0.9.0 available from the WineVDM GitHub, found in Releases . As it is distributed as a zip file, installation only requires extracting the files to a suitable folder of your choosing. HOTAS Config Joystick, throttle and rudder pedals are supported. Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller  can be used, limited to 4 axes. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin  combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. You may also have to use HidHide as a device firewall, to hide your real controllers, so only the vJoy virtual controllers are detected by F22 ADF. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows: Physical axis Windows axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle DX_Z_AXIS Rudder DX_ZROT_AXIS Note : The rudder axis changes from DX_XROT_AXIS (in the previous article for PCem) to DX_ZROT_AXIS (for Win10), for my controllers. You may/may not have to make a similar change depending on your HOTAS hardware. PCem build Once the compatibility utilities are installed and configured, it's time to copy the F22 ADF install from the PCem Win95 virtual machine onto Win10. The steps to follow are: Shutdown the virtual machine, if it is running, and close PCem. Mount the virtual machine hard disk image (a .vhd file) by opening it. The hard disk will be mounted, assigned a drive letter and will be accessible with File Explorer. The F22ADF folder needs to be copied from the hard disk image into Win10. If you installed F22 ADF into the default F22 ADF installation folder it can be found in (X: will be the drive letter assigned by Win10): X:\Program Files\DID Copy the F22ADF folder into a suitable location in Win10. As an example, my game management folder discussed earlier, would be: D:\Games\Win There should now be a D:\Games\Win\F22ADF folder present in Win10, as an example. Unmount the hard disk image by ejecting the assigned drive. You may get a notification from Win10 about the device being safe to remove. As F22 ADF has already been patched on the virtual machine, this concludes the copying of the F22 ADF installation folder. Preparation If F22 ADF was run in the PCem Win95 VM, it may have created configuration files that are incompatible with the new installation on Win10. It is recommended to delete the following files in the F22ADF folder: game.cfg players.lst It is safe to do so, as these files will be recreated once F22 ADF is run in Win10. The properties of the _F22.exe file should be changed. Under the Compatibility tab, check the ' Run this program as an administrator ' checkbox. Soundfonts (optional) Configuring soundfonts is optional if you prefer to run F22 ADF without MIDI music and just wish to use sound fx and speech. It is also optional if you added the soundfonts earlier when setting up the MIDI music for PCem. They have already been added to VirtualMIDISynth and are still available. F22 ADF has three soundfonts, (one for each of the AWE 32 memory configurations, so each soundfont is a different size), as described below: File Size tfx3512.sf2 443 KB tfx31meg.sf2 897 KB tfx3.sf2 1.4 MB These soundfonts can be found in the F22ADF\Program folder. You may add all three to VirtualMIDISynth, but only one should be active when playing. It's recommended the largest soundfont ( tfx3.sf2 ) be used for highest quality music. To configure VirtualMIDISynth: Run the VirtualMIDISynth Configurator app. Add the F22 soundfonts to VirtualMIDISynth and select one of them ( tfx3.sf2 recommended). Running When starting the game for the first time a new pilot will need to be created due to the pilot config file, players.lst being deleted earlier. When running with MIDI music enabled it is recommended to wait approximately 30 seconds on the pilot selection dialog before continuing. Jumping straight into the menu page can cause a crash to desktop (CTD). The graphics on the menu page will have issues, with the incorrect graphics shown. These issues are cosmetic and the menu page remains fully functional. When MIDI music is playing the sound fx and speech will not be heard on menu screens or in missions. This issue is resolved in F22 Air Dominance Fighter part 4: Sounding better . Alternatively play without MIDI music with just sound fx and speech available in-game. The CD audio track is not available when playing in Win10. Configuration Configuration options should now be set. When running under Win10 all graphical options can be selected or maximised, as shown below. Setting options under Win10 The joystick option can be selected if a joystick has been correctly configured. Sound fx and speech can be enabled, MIDI music can be enabled but there are issues as described in the running section above. Further configuration (optional) There may be a number of hidden settings which aren't available from the in game options screen. These options may not work on F22 ADF and may only be applicable to the sequel Total Air War (TAW), however given the commonalities in F22 ADF and TAW, these may be worth trying. This information comes from the Total Air War 2.0 mod document, GameCFG_Settings.txt , distributed as part of the mod. The file is included below: The hidden settings are manually applied by editing the game.cfg file in any suitable text editor (e.g. Notepad, Notepad++, etc.) Note : Once any hidden settings are manually applied, changing options through the in-game menu will cause hidden settings to be removed when the game.cfg config file is regenerated, after clicking Ok to leave the options menu. Once edited, it's recommended to take a backup of game.cfg, in case the options are accidentally changed in-game. Note : Do NOT make the game.cfg file read-only, this causes a crash to desktop when the game.cfg file can't be changed after in-game options are selected. Setting up help (optional) The F22 ADF Windows help file is a very useful reference, however, legacy Windows help files are not accessible under Win10 without the use of the winhelp32.exe utility, provided by OTVDM. It is recommended to create a shortcut of the winhelp32.exe and specify the F22 ADF help file as part of the command line in the Target box: X:\\winhlp32.exe X:\\F22ADF\PROGRAM\F22help.hlp For example: D:\utils\otvdm\winhlp32.exe D:\Games\Win\F22ADF\PROGRAM\F22help.hlp Use double quotes (") around file paths with spaces in them. The shortcut can be placed on the desktop or within the game management docs folders. Alternatively put the winhlp32.exe and F22help.hlp files within the docs folder and create a shortcut with the appropriate file paths. Remaining issue summary A summary of the remaining issues when running under Win10 and any suggested workarounds. Menu page graphics Issue : Menu page graphics are incorrect. No solution at present, but this is a minor issue as the menu page remains fully functional, so this is a cosmetic issue only. MIDI music on startup Issue : If MIDI is enabled, selecting a pilot and continuing onto the menu page straight away can cause a crash to desktop. Workaround : Wait for approximately 30s before selecting a pilot and continuing. MIDI or sound fx/speech in-game Issue : Enabling MIDI music disables sound fx/speech. Workaround : Described in detail in F22 Air Dominance Fighter part 4: Sounding better . CD audio Issue : The CD audio track is not available under Win10. No solution at present. Further configuration and MIDI Issue : Changing options to change MIDI volume will overwrite config file causing hidden config settings to be removed. Workaround: Use the workaround described in detail in F22 Air Dominance Fighter part 4: Sounding better . Configure and test options until optimal and satisfied, options should not need to change, going forward. Alternate Win10 solution This alternative solution is for those with both F22 ADF and the sequel Total Air War (TAW). The Total Air War mod, Total Air War 2.0, optimised for playing on WinXP and later versions of Windows (including Win10) also includes the F22 ADF campaigns. Running Total Air War 2.0 under Win10 will be the subject of a later article, although strictly speaking this is a TAW solution rather than an F22 ADF solution. Example video Training missions running under Win10. Finally... Credit and huge thanks to the following: Zeus for nGlide v2.10. The CoolSoft devs for VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper. PCGamingWIki for hosting the TrueSpeech codec. otya128 for the work on OTVDM. @Damsonn for the run as administrator hint. Home Fries and the TAW 2.0 team for the hidden settings. Good Hunting!

A guide to fixing the sound issues affecting MIDI music, sound fx and speech. In part 3 of this series we had F22 Air Dominance Fighter (F22 ADF) running well under Win10, however MIDI music could not be used simultaneously with sound fx and speech. It's time to correct that. What was going wrong Note the muted F22 ADF app. When F22 ADF was running with MIDI music disabled or with the volume turned down to 0, we could hear the sound fx and speech, both in the menu pages and when in a mission. As soon as the MIDI music was enabled and the volume increased we would hear MIDI music but nothing else. It turns out this was due to the F22 ADF app being muted in Win10 during startup and when starting a mission. This was observable in the sndvol control panel in Win10. Why this happens isn't clear, it may be due to the interaction of F22 ADF and/or Win10 sound components, as this happened prior to VirtualMIDISynth or MIDIMapper being added into the compatibility mix. What needs to be done It would be preferable if this didn't happen, but given we can't rewrite F22 ADF, what we need is a workaround. So when the F22 ADF app is muted, we can unmute it. This is slightly more tricky than it sounds, as F22 ADF is running in a full screen Glide emulation mode provided by nGlide and switching back to the desktop and back to the game, is problematic and crash prone. This means using the existing Win10 sound controls isn't going to work (or at least work well or reliably). How to do it So we need a utility we can use from within F22 ADF without switching to the desktop, which suggests the use of a hotkey combination, which will allow us to unmute F22 ADF and restore sound fx and speech. AutoHotKey (AHK) was considered but this became a very complicated programming exercise. The example scripts that initially looked promising, didn't quite manage to work or restore fx or speech. I believe it doesn't help, when nGlide takes control and switches to full screen, focus may initially be lost (a mouse click restores it). It's probably theoretically possible to use AHK to solve this problem, but quite the challenge. EarTrumpet An alternative is EarTrumpet an app available on the Windows Store, which is effectively a drop-in but enhanced replacement for the sndvol control panel. It offers a wide range of sound controls and more precise control over apps and the devices they play through. And critically, it provides a customised action framework, to control sound through simple actions, including muting or unmuting apps with hotkey combinations. This sound promising. Installing There are two releases a standard and experimental dev release. The experimental dev release is one required, as the action framework is not available in the standard release (at time of writing). Both are available at EarTrumpet . Given that the app is distributed as a Windows installer package, installation is straightforward. Once installed, go to Settings > Apps and configure EarTrumpet. My settings are shown below as an example. You may have to restart your machine once installed. The interface is very clean and simple, (shown below). If you have the Actions option the correct release was installed. Now all we need to do now is to create an action to unmute F22 ADF! Creating an action Creating an action is a very simple process and it takes about 2 mins. The action I created has been exported and is available below. This can be imported into your copy of EarTrumpet. It uses the hotkey combo of + F2 to unmute F22 ADF. You should feel free to change this if you would prefer a different hotkey combo. In fact it's so easy, that importing the above action might be more work than just recreating it, so I've included a screenshot of the action below: The very simple action to unmute F22 ADF! And that concludes the workaround for F22 ADF muting sound fx and speech when MIDI music is enabled and audible! VirtualMIDISynth The only minor change to be aware of is that VirtualMIDISynth must now be run as an administrator to make changes to the soundfonts. Example video Example video with MIDI, sound effects and speech all playing together in menu screens and on mission. Finally... Huge credit and thanks to the EarTrumpet devs for this utility. It's probably being used in a way that was never intended, but it works well! Good hunting!

This is the second F22 Air Dominance Fighter (F22 ADF) article. This article will be using PCem v17 to build a virtual machine that can be used to build an F22 ADF release and to optionally play it as well. The first part will be a detailed look at the exact virtual machine used, as F22 ADF can be very particular about the hardware and operating system it runs on. The following will be covered: PCem background. The virtual machine hardware. The Windows operating system. Windows drivers. The second part of the article covers the complete setup of F22 ADF on the PCem virtual machine. It will cover: Installing and patching F22 Air Dominance Fighter (F22 ADF). Installing and patching F22 Red Sea Operations (F22 RSO). expansion. Running and configuring F22 ADF. Finally, a quick discussion on whether to run in PCem or Win10 and example video of playing in PCem. Retail media This guide assumes any physical cds will be ripped to an image file, to reduce wear and tear on media and drives. Depending on the retail version of F22 ADF the cd may or may not contain cd audio. An original retail edition may contain cd audio, while a rerelease in an DVD style case may not. If you are unsure, it is recommended to rip the cd to a bin/cue image pair, to preserve any cd audio. The expansion F22 RSO does not contain cd audio and can be ripped to a data only .iso format. At present there is no release of the game on digital platforms. Game management As a windows game running under PCem emulation the VM and VM config sit under the PCem installation folder. However some limited game management is still useful for files used in the F22 ADF setup. The setup files for F22 ADF and other Windows games can be found in the same folder (my own, as an example): D:\Games\Win\ D:\Games\Win\F22 ADF Setup The following folders are used: conf - to store any HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of recommended patches. cd - to store any cd images. PCem emulator This guide assumes the latest version of PCem v17 available from PCem Downloads or from PCem GitHUb Releases . For those unfamiliar with PCem or would benefit from a refresher, I highly recommend the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup . This video does not show the exact Virtual Machine (VM) being created but being familiar with the building process is very useful. PCem is used in preference to 86Box due to the higher resource usage of 86Box. However for those with suitably high spec hardware, the virtual machine listed below can be created and run with 86Box, although this has not been tested. PCem should be installed and working normally prior to continuing. Virtual Machine (VM) hardware The following is the hardware used by the virtual machine, in addition to the recommended hardware listed in the F22 ADF readme. Recommended PCem VM CPU Pentium P200 or higher Intel Pentium II/233 Memory 32MB 64MB HDD space 205MB 510MB CD 8 x CD-ROM drive 24 x PCem CD Video AGP bus based 3D accelerator video card S3 ViRGE/DX Fast VLB/PCI & Voodoo2 Sound Creative Labs AWE32 or AWE64 card with 512k of memory Creative Labs AWE32 with 2MB of memory Mouse Microsoft Mouse or other Windows '95 compatible device Microsoft Intellimouse (PS/2) As can be seen in the comparison, the VM hardware used is a higher spec but not widely different to the hardware supported by F22 ADF. It's recommended to use 64MB of memory, higher amounts of memory introduce instability when running F22. The disk size of 510MB was chosen to remain below the size required for large disk support that makes installing Win95 more difficult. It recommended to use a dynamically sized VHD hard disk type as it can be opened and mounted in Win10. The largest soundfont used by F22 is 1.4MB therefore an AWE 32 with 2MB of memory is sufficient. The MIDI device can be left as the default Microsoft GS wavetable synth, it can be changed later. The Voodoo2 was chosen over the Voodoo3, as the v5.144 patch adds further support for the Voodoo2 and subjectively, F22 seems more stable when using a Voodoo2. The following is a gallery showing the required configuration. Note: the joystick settings can be left as default and will be dealt with later. The network settings aren't used. Configuration When starting the virtual machine for the first time, it's recommended to change the following bios settings: Disable the serial and parallel ports in the bios. Load performance defaults . Under Integrated Peripherals ensure the Onboard serial port 1 , Onboard serial port 2 and Onboard parallel port are Disabled . They aren't required and can take up an interrupt (IRQ) (see screenshot right). Save & exit setup . Windows operating system The next step is to install a suitable Windows operating system onto the VM. Windows 95 was chosen as this Windows OS was referenced in the F22 ADF readme, v5.144 patch readme and F22 RSO readme. It seems likely F22 was developed for Win95 so this seems like a good Windows choice for maximum compatibility. Versions & images A cd image of Windows 95 OSR 2.5 along with a Boot Disk 95 OSR2.x image was obtained from WinWorld . Installation It is beyond the scope of this guide to go into a detailed Win95 installation guide, however the following is a brief description of the steps taken: Start the VM using the Boot Disk image. Within the VM, use fdisk to create a hard disk partition. Within the VM, format it with the format cmd /s switch, to copy system files and make the hard disk bootable. Copy the Win95 setup.exe and Win95 folder onto the hard disk. This can be done in the VM or in Win10. Within the VM, run the Win95 setup from VM hard disk. Complete the installation process. The installation will complete but some of the hardware won't be recognised without suitable driver installation. MS-DOS Prompt Running the MS-DOS Prompt within Win95 will cause the virtual machine to crash, so running the MS-DOS Prompt should be avoided if possible. If MS-DOS is required then restart Win95 in safe mode. If the MS-DOS Prompt is used to extract files from a ' .exe ' archive. Then consider trying to open the archive with 7zip in Win10 instead, and copy extracted files onto the VM hard disk, to avoid this issue. Windows drivers There are a number of Windows drivers required to make all the hardware accessible to Win95. The order below is the order in which the drivers should be installed. The Intel chipset, S3 ViRGE, 3dfx Voodoo 2 and Creative AWE 32 drivers were supplied by PHILSCOMPUTERLAB.COM . Credit and huge thanks to Phil for finding and hosting these drivers. Intel chipset drivers These can be found in Intel chipset drivers , The Gigabyte GA-686BX motherboard used in the VM uses the Intel 440BX chipset, so the 3.20.1008.zip should be downloaded The zip file can be opened in Win10 and the infinst_enu.exe file should be copied to the VM hard disk and run within Win95 on the VM. Win95 will begin to detect many new devices and may restart a number of times. S3 ViRGE/DX drivers These can be found in S3 VIRGE . The file to download is s3_virge__325__vx__988__dx__375__gx__385__v3.12.01.zip . The zip file can be opened in Win10 and the files extracted to an S3 folder. This S3 folder should be copied to the VM hard disk. Within Win95 use the Device Manager or Display Properties to update the driver and select the drivers present in the S3 folder. 3dfx Voodoo 2 drivers These can be found in Drivers for Voodoo 2 . The latest reference drivers, voodoo2-30202.exe should be downloaded. The voodoo2-30202.exe file can be opened in Win10 with 7zip , and the files extracted to a Voodoo 2 folder. This Voodoo 2 folder should be copied to the VM hard disk. Within Win95 use the Device Manager to update the drivers and select the drivers present in the Voodoo 2 folder. Creative AWE 32 drivers The Win95 setup will detect and install drivers for the AWE 32 sound card, however it is recommended they are upgraded. In Drivers for Creative Labs Sound Blaster Sound Cards the latest updates for the Sound Blaster 16, 32 AWE 32 and 64 for Win95 and Win98 are available in the sbw9xup.exe file. The   sbw9xup.exe file can be opened in Win10 with 7zip , and the files extracted to an AWE32 folder. This AWE32 folder should be copied to the VM hard disk. The upddrv95.exe file within this AWE32 folder should be run within Win95 on the VM. Creative AWE 32 device conflict The Creative AWE 32 has a Creative Advanced Wave Effects Synthesis for AWE 32 MIDI device which is listed in Device Manager, under the Sound, video and game controllers . If this is listed as not working, then uncheck the Use automatic settings checkbox and ensure Basic configuration 0000 is chosen in the dropdown menu, (as shown in the screenshot below), to fix the problem. Resolving an AWE 32 device conflict AmnHLT driver The AmnHLT driver is an optional driver which may help squeeze a little more performance out of the emulated hardware. Driver and Installation instructions have been covered previously and apply to a Win95 VM in PCem as well. This concludes the PCem VM setup and install. Preserving the virtual machine At this point we have a clean Win95 virtual machine using optimised device drivers. It is recommended to take a copy of the PCem VM configuration and the virtual hard disk (vhd) file. This provides a clean VM you can use with other 3Dfx/Glide games which run best under Win95, without having to repeat the above to create the VM. Serial/parallel port issue When starting a the clean VM (or a copy of the clean VM), on first boot go into the bios setup and ensure the serial and parallel ports are disabled. These ports can get reset to default values, so if they are enabled, then disable them. F22 overview The rest of this article covers the build of F22 ADF. This build will be installing and patching F22 ADF using the English language and Glide graphics version, followed by installing and patching F22 RSO as described in the earlier, F22 Air Dominance Fighter part 1: Primer. All patches covered below can be found on this post, DID F22 Games Collection  on   Krishty’s Sim Forums . Installing F22 ADF The game was installed from a cd image mounted in PCem. The installation was straightforward, but the following notes may be useful: The English language version was selected. The default installation location was used: D:\Program Files\DID\F22 ADF A typical installation was selected as it will make a complete/full install of F22. The VM may not have the correct DirectX 5 components required, so DirectX 5 should be installed. Glide was selected as the Graphics API. After files have been copied, a few more questions are asked. When asked about audio, sound fx and speech can be checked but music should be unchecked. The music is still installed but it is disabled and can be enabled later. This helps prevent issues when the game is first run. For joystick or keyboard, select keyboard the joystick can be configured later. Viewing the readme is a personal preference. Once complete Win95 will be restarted. Patching F22 ADF The recommended v5.144 patch was installed next, using the English language, Glide version of the patch. The following steps were taken: The patch executable was extracted from the zip file using 7zip in Win10. The VM was shutdown and the VM hard disk mounted in WIn10. The patch executable was copied into the D:\Program Files\DID\F22 ADF\Program folder. The VM hard disk was ejected from Win10 and the VM restarted. The v5.144 patch was run. IMPORTANT NOTE: The v5.144 patch is completely silent. There is no indication it is running or working. This is very unusual, and you may think the patch has failed or not started. When running, you may see temporary files being created in the \F22 ADF\Program folder. When the following patch readme files exist, the patch has completed: patch.txt patch.rtf Installing F22 RSO The expansion was installed from a cd image mounted in PCem. The installation was straightforward, but the following notes may be useful: The English language version was selected. The patched version was selected. The Glide version was selected. The F22 RSO installer should automatically find the installation folder and begin the installation/patching process. Patching F22 RSO The recommended RSO training mission fix was the final patch to apply, with the following steps: The patch executable was extracted from the zip file using 7zip in Win10. The VM was shutdown and VM hard disk mounted in Win10. The patch executable was copied into a folder (e.g. My Documents). When run the patch will automatically find the F22 ADF installation folder. The VM hard disk was ejected from Win10 and the VM restarted. The RSO training mission fix was run. This patch is not silent but it is very quick. You will not see any files being patched or updated, this is normal. PCem VM or Win10 The next section covers running and configuring F22 ADF within the PCem Win95 VM. You may be wondering why, if the game can be run in Win10 natively? In Win10, some of the menus look a little messed up due to the incompatibilities between modern DirectX and the legacy DirectX 5 used by F22 ADF. The menus themselves are completely functional and the flight engine works perfectly with no graphical issues. However, some may prefer the PCem VM approach over Win10. Another reason may be the subjective 'feel' of the controls. With my particular HOTAS setup the controls 'feel' fractionally better/tighter under Win10. Your own subjective 'feel' of your own HOTAS may differ, and you may prefer to play in PCem. The important thing is that both approaches are covered, so you can try them both and stick with the one you prefer. Running and configuring F22 ADF Once the VM is restarted, F22 ADF can be run from the Win95 Start menu. After a short delay, you should see the F22 ADF splash screen and you'll be asked to create or select a pilot. If this is the first time the game is run and it doesn't seem to start. There may be a problem with the game configurations options stored in (assuming the default location was used): C:\Program Files\DID\F22ADF\Program\game.cfg This file can be deleted and the game restarted. This file will be recreated with default config options which should allow the game to start. Setting game options and checks The next step is to set the in-game Options , all options can be maximised as shown in the options menu screenshot below. Keyboard should remain selected until the joystick is properly configured in the VM (see HOTAS config ). If you enabled sound fx, speech or music you may need to restart the game before these changes take effect. Next, open up the Tour of Duty menu. You should be able to scroll through the standard tours and the expansion tours including AWACS and Saudi tours. If you can see these tours (see screenshot) the expansion was installed correctly. Finally, open up the Simulator menu. You should be able to see the standard training missions (see screenshot). If you can see these training missions the F22 RSO expansion, training mission fix was applied correctly. CD audio If your retail cd contained a cd music track and this cd was ripped to bin/cue cd image pair to preserve the cd music, this cd music is available. If the cd image is left mounted in the Win95 VM cd drive then cd music will be used when the game starts. Authentic MIDI music At present PCem is using the default Microsoft synth as the default MIDI device. This means the F22 MIDI music probably doesn't sound quite right. This next section covers changes to fix that. Important note: The F22 ADF cd image should NOT be mounted in the Win95 VM. We want to hear the MIDI music, not the cd music track! Once the MIDI is fixed we can remount the F22 ADF cd image. The first step is to download and install VirtualMIDISynth , as described in the article, DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth . The DOSBox Staging config section can be ignored, as we aren't using DOSBox. Once installed, we can get the F22 soundfont and configure it for use in VirtualMIDISynth. Using the F22 soundfont The legacy Creative AWE 32 sound card could be made to load a soundfont, when a game was started. F22 ADF supplies it's own soundfonts (in fact it has three!), so when F22 was started, the soundfont would be loaded into AWE 32 memory, for use in game. F22 ADF has three soundfonts, one for each of the AWE 32 memory configurations, as described below: File Size Used with AWE 32 model with tfx3512.sf2 443 KB 512 Kb memory. tfx31meg.sf2 897 KB 1 MB memory. tfx3.sf2 1.4 MB 2 MB or more memory. Before starting, you may wish to consider a single location in Win10 for keeping all of your soundfonts together, as described in DOSBox midi . As PCem cannot automatically load a soundfont into a virtual AWE 32, we set this manually in VirtualMIDISynth. To do so: Shutdown the Win95 VM and mount the VM hard disk in Win10. Copy one or more of the soundfonts (if choosing one, the largest, tfx3.sf2 is recommended) into your soundfonts folder or other suitable location in Win10. The F22 soundfont files can be found on the Win95 VM hard disk in: C:\Program Files\DID\F22ADF\Program Eject the Win95 VM hard disk from Win10. Run the VirtualMIDISynth Configurator app. Add the F22 soundfonts to VirtualMIDISynth and select one of them (as shown below). The last 3 soundfonts are F22 soundfonts, with the largest one (tfx3.sf2) selected. A default MIDI device for PCem Changing PCem AWE 32 config settings to use VirtualMIDISynth. With VirtualMIDISynth installed and an F22 soundfont ready for use, the next step is to tell PCem to use VirtualMIDISynth instead of the default Microsoft Synth MIDI device. The steps to follow are: Shutdown the Win95 VM and the PCem emulator, this allows PCem to pick up a newly installed VirtualMIDISynth. Run PCem and go to the configuration options for the Win95 VM. Go to the sound card configuration options and click the AWE 32 settings button. From the MIDI out device menu, select VirtualMIDISynth (as shown above). Important note: After selecting VirtualMIDISynth, PCem may continue to use the default Microsoft Synth device, leaving the MIDI music unchanged. This issue may or may not affect you, as everyone's PC hardware is slightly different. I encountered this issue but others may not. If VirtualMidiSynth is being used and the MIDI music sounds authentically like F22 then the process is complete (this test video may help you determine this). If not, then continue onto the MIDIMapper section below. MIDIMapper For installation instructions and integration with VirtualMIDISynth, take a look at the earlier article, VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper . CoolSoft, the creators of MIDIMapper and VirtualMIDISynth always recommend setting the MIDI out device in the app first (in this case PCem). If this doesn't work then MIDIMapper should be tried, so the steps above were important. Changing PCem AWE 32 config settings to use MIDIMapper. To configure PCem to use the MIDIMapper, follow these steps: Install and configure the MIDIMapper to use VirtualMIDISynth, as described in  VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper . Shutdown the Win95 VM and the PCem emulator, this allows PCem to pick up a newly installed MIDIMapper.. Run PCem and go to the configuration options for the Win95 VM. Go to the sound card configuration options and click the AWE 32 settings button. From the MIDI out device  menu, select CoolSoft MIDIMapper  (as shown above). HOTAS config Joystick, throttle and rudder pedals are supported. Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller  can be used, limited to 4 axes. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin  combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows: Physical axis Windows axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle DX_Z_AXIS Rudder DX_XROT_AXIS Once configured, the Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem article provides detailed instructions on how to configure multi-axes controllers within PCem and how to create a custom controller with a Win98 VM (the Win95 VM process is identical). All that remains is to start F22 ADF and in the Options menu, a Joystick option should be available for selection. Example video This is a quick test video of F22 ADF running in a Pcem Win95 VM, described above. Finally... Credit and huge thanks to Krishty and Menrva for the F22 ADF patches and patch info, the CoolSoft devs for bring MIDI control back into Win10 and Phil of PHILSCOMPUTERLAB.COM for finding and hosting the legacy Windows drivers and for his excellent PCem tutorial video. And not forgetting Sarah Walker for PCem v17. And Happy Birthday to EF2000 as it turns 30! The next article will take the F22 ADF build created in this article and configure it for use within Win10 natively! Good hunting!

A primer on the different releases and versions of the classic Digital Image Design (D.I.D.) F-22 sim from December 1997, F22 Air Dominance Fighter (F22 ADF). This article will cover the various releases and versions possible with F22 ADF. Acknowledgement Most of this article is based on the excellent work done by Menrva with this post on Krishty’s Sim Forums , and from the patch collection compiled by Krishty, without which this would have been a far more difficult (if not impossible) endeavour. Credit and many thanks to both. Overview Putting it simply, there have been a lot of different editions/releases of F22 Air Dominance Fighter. Edition/release is used to refer to a product sold as a retail product or bundled with OEM hardware. A number of editions were released in multiple languages, so each of those were a separate language specific product in it's own right. Many editions supported multiple graphics API's. So an edition may have a Glide API version and a Direct3D API version. This resulted in a rather large array of versions from what could be considered the 'standard' F22 ADF product. This in turn resulted in a large number of patches for the 'standard' product. Then we can add it the OEM editions bundled with some Intel MMX hardware. Again these came in multiple languages. Then there are the Japanese editions which rather strangely came in Japanese and English! This means there are a lot of editions requiring a lot of patches. So even if you only need a couple of patches, you still need to be able to navigate your way through all the rest. For this reason this primer is here. Patches All patches covered below can be found on this post, DID F22 Games Collection on Krishty’s Sim Forums . F22 Air Dominance Fighter (F22 ADF) Standard editions This section will concentrate on the most common 'standard' retail editions. The standard retail edition came in the following languages, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Each language edition supported both Direct3D or Glide API versions. This results in 10 versions based on language and graphics API. I believe that F22 had both a build version number and a release version number. It looks like the last build was on or around 20th November 1997, so has a build version number of v5.108. This build version number only seems to appear in the associated readme.txt file and although not listed I believe this would have a release version number v1.0. There are a number of standard edition patches but only the v5.144 patch is recommended. v5.144 patch This is an upgrade patch providing multiple fixes and increasing the build version to v5.144. There are 10 versions of this patch, one for each language and each graphics API (Direct3D or Glide) in each language. The patch required will depend on the language and graphics API in use, e.g. English language, Glide API version or German language, Direct3D version. The patch readme file refers to this patch as v5.144 and a few lines below as v1.544! I believe v1.544 is the release version number. This is the only recommended patch. Union Reality Gear patch The Union Reality Gear headset was a helmet like head worn tracking controller, providing early head tracking support. This patch adds support for this hardware and must be installed after the v5.144 patch. There are again 10 versions of this patch, one for each language and each graphics API (Direct3D or Glide) in each language. Due to the esoteric nature of the hardware this is not a recommended patch. Multiplayer patch The multiplayer patch was a multiplayer upgrade patch which may have followed on from earlier multiplayer upgrades in the v5.144 patch. This patch must be installed after the v5.144 patch. It is a 'file replacement' patch, however the file it replaces, f22.dat is different from the patch file supplied, _f22.exe . Replacing _ f22.exe causes the game to crash on start. This patch is not compatible with the Union Reality Gear patch so only one of these patches can be installed. This patch is also not compatible with the Read Sea Operations expansion. The readme supplied with this patch describes it as 'Patch Version 2'. I believe this is either: A reference to it being the second set of multiplayer upgrades. The patch release version number. Due to the incompatibility with the F22 Red Sea Operations (F22 RSO) expansion, this is not a recommended patch. F22 Air Dominance Fighter OEM (Intel MMX) editions This section will concentrate on the OEM edition bundled with early Intel MMX hardware in Europe. It is distinguished from the normal retail release with the Intel MMX logo present on the menu screen. These editions of the F22 ADF will only use the Direct3D graphics API. This version is not compatible with the F22 RSO expansion. There is no build or release version number in the readme file. Intel MMX edition (note the logo in the top left corner) There is a single patch for the English language Intel MMX edition. 3dfx patch This is a file replacement patch replacing the existing f22.dat file. This replaces the Direct3D API used by F22 with the Glide version. It is only applicable to the English language edition. When running with this patch a dialog box appears (very briefly) before the game begins indicating the 3dfx version. F22 Red Sea Operations (F22 RSO) The one and only expansion was F22 Red Sea Operations (F22 RSO) developed by Simulation Technologies Limited (SimTech) in August 1998. The expansion added Ethiopian, Egyptian, AWACS and Saudi/Yeman tours. The expansion is only compatible with the original upatched game or the v5.144 patched game. During the install the appropriate language, patched/unpatched game and graphics API selections must be made. Training mission fix There is a single patch for the English language F22 RSO edition. Due to a bug in the install, training missions will be replaced with tour missions, requiring the use of the patch to restore training. This patch is applicable to original/patched game and Direct3D/Glide versions of F22 RSO. Japanese Editions The Japanese edition was released in both Japanese and English language versions. Each edition was released with Direct3D and Glide options available. This is the only version with a cd check and requires the cd/image to be present to start the game. v5.144 patch This is the Japanese Editions version of the v5.144 upgrade patch providing multiple fixes and increasing the build version to v5.144. There are 4 versions of this patch, one for each language (Japanese or English) and each graphics API (Direct3D or Glide) in each language. The patch required will depend on the language and graphics API in use. This is a recommended patch for the Japanese Editions. F22 Desert Missions (F22 DM) The one and only expansion, F22 Red Sea Operations, was renamed F22 Desert Missions. The expansion is only compatible with the Japanese edition unpatched game or the Japanese edition v5.144 patched game. During the install the appropriate language, patched/unpatched game and graphics API selections must be made. US Edition (F22 ADF and F22 RSO compilation) The US edition is a repackaging of the standard edition of F22 ADF and F22 RSO in a single retail package. The cd contents seem identical to the standard edition, down to the F22 ADF install. installing build version v5.108 and the F22 RSO install has the same issue with training missions. The recommended patches are v5.144 patch for F22 ADF and the training mission fix for F22 RSO. Installation & patching strategies The following are not detailed instructions but installation & patching strategies for each of the possible F22 ADF and F22 RSO builds. They can be used to ensure you have the required cd/images and patches for a particular build. The F22 ADF and F22 RSO build will probably be the optimum build for Europe/International/UK/US builds. F22 ADF only Install F22 ADF with the required language and graphics API (D3D or Glide). Install the v5.144 patch matching the required language and graphics API. F22 ADF (Union Reality Gear) Install F22 ADF with the required language and graphics API (D3D or Glide). Install the v5.144 patch matching the required language and graphics API. Install the Union Reality Gear patch matching the required language and graphics API. F22 ADF (Multiplayer) Install F22 ADF with the required language and graphics API (D3D or Glide). Install the v5.144 patch matching the required language and graphics API. Install the Multiplayer patch matching the required language and graphics API. F22 ADF and F22 RSO Install F22 ADF with the required language and graphics API (D3D or Glide). Install the v5.144 patch matching the required language and graphics API. Install RSO and select the patched version of F22. Select the appropriate language and graphics API. Install the RSO training mission fix for the English language version. F22 ADF (Intel MMX) Install F22 ADF (Intel MMX) with the required language. F22 ADF (Intel MMX & Glide) Install F22 ADF (Intel MMX) with the English language. Install the 3dfx patch. F22 ADF only (Japanese Editions) Install F22 ADF with the required language (Japanese or English ) and graphics API (D3D or Glide). Install Japanese Editions of the v5.144 patch, matching the required language and graphics API. F22 ADF and F22 DM (Japanese Editions) Install F22 ADF with the required language (Japanese or English )and graphics API (D3D or Glide). Install Japanese Editions of the v5.144 patch matching the required language and graphics API. Install DM and select the patched version of F22. Select the appropriate language and graphics API. F22 ADF (US Edition compilation) The 2 cd's in this release are identical to F22 ADF and F22 RSO, so the same steps for F22 ADF and F22 RSO should be followed, including using the same patches. Finally... This primer was created to help understand the different versions and the myriad of patches for F22 ADF you may encounter. Hopefully this should help you decide what is needed and what can be omitted, when trying to create a required build of F22 ADF. In the next article PCem will be used to create the F22 ADF and F22 RSO build. F22 ADF can be played using the PCem emulator or the F22 install can be transferred from the PCem virtual machine into Win10. In either case a suitable PCem virtual machine is required. Good hunting!

A quick guide on using the CoolSoft MIDIMapper and why you may want to use it. This is something I've ended up looking into recently, and it seems very useful info for those looking at some of the retro sims/games out there, that use MIDI. In a previous article DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth , the CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth and it's use with DOSBox Staging was covered. This article will be covering the CoolSoft MIDIMapper and it's use with VirtualMIDISynth, DOSBox and PCem. What is it? Put simply the MIDIMapper is software which allows you to choose a default MIDI device to play your MIDI music through. Win10 has a single default software MIDI device, Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth. If you install another software MIDI device like VirtualMIDISynth, then you can use the MIDIMapper to use VirtualMIDISynth (or another software MIDI synth) as the default device, rather than the Microsoft Synth. Why you need it? Later versions of Windows from XP onwards have removed more and more MIDI functionality, until with Win10 we have only the default Microsoft Synth. If your game or software supports selecting a MIDI device then you can choose a different one, but if it doesn't you're stuck with the default Microsoft Synth. The MIDIMapper software adds back the ability to choose a MIDI device. For a far more detailed and accurate description of the issue, check out the CoolSoft MIDIMapper page. How to use it It's a very simple process, basically you need to: Download the MIDIMapper from the CoolSoft MIDIMapper  page. Install it. Run the MIDIMapper Configurator. Choose your preferred default MIDI device. Choosing the default device in MIDIMapper Configurator. If you already have VirtualMIDISynth installed the MIDIMapper integrates with VirtualMIDISynth and can be configured from the MIDIMapper tab in VirtualMIDISynth, so: Download and install the MIDIMapper. Run the VirtualMIDISynth Configurator. Select the MIDI Mapper tab. Choose your preferred default MIDI device. Choose the default device in VirtualMIDISynth Configurator. When to use it Here are some examples I've encountered. DOSBox Staging The advice from CoolSoft is to use the MIDIMapper if the game/software doesn't support the selection of a MIDI device. Since DOSBox does support selecting a MIDI device, the mapper doesn't have to be used and the existing process should be followed (see DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth ). PCem When creating a virtual machine with the Creative AWE32 sound card you can select device configuration options and select a MIDI device to use (so in theory the MIDIMapper doesn't have to be used). However when selecting VirtualMIDISynth, PCem still seemed to use the default Microsoft Synth device. Setting VirtualMIDISynth in the MIDIMapper, and then selecting the MIDIMapper as the MIDI out device in PCem, caused VirtualMIDISynth to be used instead. F22 Air Dominance Fighter The classic Digital Image Design (D.I.D.) Win95 sim F22 Air Dominance Fighter uses MIDI music with it's own F22 soundfont. Once an F22 ADF installation is copied into WIn10 there are no options to choose a MIDI device or use the F22 soundfont. VirtualMIDISynth can be set in the MIDIMapper as the default MIDI device, VirtualMIDISynth can load the F22 soundfont. When the game starts the authentic retro MIDI music is played! Demo of the MIDI in F22. Finally Credit and thanks to the CoolSoft devs for some useful and easy to use MIDI software to help us get that authentic retro soundtrack back! Happy listening!

Box cover A guide to running the classic MicroProse, 1992 DOS sim, F-15 Strike Eagle III in DOSBox Staging. Like it's predecessors there are a several theaters, this time there are campaigns in Panama, Korea and Desert Storm. This would be the final game in the MicroProse F-15 Strike Eagle series. Had this one configured and running for a while so it's long overdue for an guide. This guide will be using the final CD version of F-15 (4108.03) running under DOSBox Staging but will include additional information for those with an earlier retail version or using legacy hardware or a legacy OS. History Version 4108.01 The initial release was in December 1992, on both 6 x 5.25" 1.2MB High Density (HD) or 5 x 3.5" 1.44MB HD floppy disks. This used the MicroProse product code 4108. Version 4108.02 A change to the install app to allow it to run without EMS memory. Version 4108.03 A CD-ROM release occurred in April 1993 on a single CD-ROM. This release was pre-patched with the .03 update. This fixed a number of bugs and added the Iraq '93 missions to the game. The CD edition also included a tutorial and video presentations. Retail media This guide assumes any physical floppy disks or cds will be ripped to an image file, to reduce wear and tear on media and the disk/cd drives. The floppy disks can be ripped to an img  image format. The cd can be ripped to an iso  (data only) cd image format as there are no cd audio tracks present on the cd. At present there is no release of the game on digital platforms. Patches The CD version is already at the final version and does no not require patching. These patches may be useful for those with an earlier version or using legacy hardware. All patches are available from the MicroProse FTP archive on the Internet Archive. New Install Patch ( f15ins.zip ) A later installer released in December 1992. Supplied to those users experiencing issues with the original installer. This used an install utility v1.12. This may be the 4108.02 patch. This is not a recommended patch have been superseded by the Version 03 Update which used a later install app. Version 03 Update (f15303.zip ) The final version patch upgrading previous versions to 4108.03. This is a file replacement patch requiring the patch to be extracted on existing files replaced. It contains notes for modem users, and a comprehensive list of changes and fixes. This patch was released in April 1993. This patch has a later v1.13 install utility. This patch is only recommended for those using an earlier retail version of F-15. Patch for Users of DRDOS 6.0 ( patch326.zip ) Released in May 1993, this was an optional patch to prevent DRDOS from padding the environment of exe-packed utilities which may allow F-15 to run in this OS. This patch is only recommended for those using legacy hardware and the appropriate OS. Game Management I recommend using my DOSBox game management  strategy. Due to the different releases some folders are optional, depending on release, as noted below: conf - to store any DOSBox Staging/HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of recommended patches (for earlier releases). mod - to store a copy of any mods (optional). cd - to store any cd images (for cd releases). fdd - to store any floppy disk images (for floppy disk releases). hdd - the DOSBox Staging hard disk folder. HOTAS config Joystick, throttle and rudder pedals are supported. Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller  can be used, limited to 4 axes. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows: Physical axis Windows axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle DX_Z_AXIS Rudder DX_XROT_AXIS DOSBox Staging config This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging v0.82.2. Changes from the default configuration are detailed below: [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] cpu_cycles = 40000 cpu_cycles_protected = auto cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 [voodoo] voodoo = false [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true [mixer] reverb = medium chorus = normal [midi] mididevice = mt32 [mt32] model = cm32l romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 [autoexec] mount c "D:\Games\Dos\F15 Strike Eagle III\hdd" imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\F15 Strike Eagle III\fdd\*.img" -t floppy imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\F15 Strike Eagle III\cd\f15se3.iso" -t cdrom # running the game keyb us c: cd mps/f15cd call f15 exit # using f15menu call f15menu.bat The [sdl], [dosbox] and [mouse] settings are suitable for high frame rate gaming as described in this article  by Omniclyde. These settings aren't strictly required and can be omitted to use the default settings. In the [cpu] section, cpu_cycles is set to 40000 cycles, a recommended Fleet Defender setting, and since F-15 uses the same game engine, this setting is used. The cycleup/cycledown settings allow for a suitably small increment/decrement in finding an optimum setting for a particular machine. Voodoo emulation isn't required and can be disabled. The [mixer] settings enhance the music and audio. They are a personal preference and can be adjusted as desired. In the [joystick] section, setting the joysticktype to 4axis allows the use of joystick,throttle and rudders on most joysticks. The timed setting is recommended to be false to prevent sluggish response (when set to true). The swap34 setting is suitable for my HOTAS (TM Warthog), however you may need to adjust these for your own joystick or HOTAS. [deadzone] is a personal preference and should be adjusted as desired. The [midi] and [mt32] settings enable high quality Roland midi music. The model value, will use a CM32L/LAPC-1 device. F-15 supports the LAPC1 sound card which is equivalent to a CM32L device. The midi roms folder is described in the DOSBox midi  article. The [autoexec] has example imgmount commands for the floppy images. As there are multiple floppy images the imgmount command uses the '*' wildcard. The imgmount and mount commands make use of a folder structure described in my DOSBox game management  article. The remaining batch commands should be added after installation. You can use the commands to run the game or use the F15menu launcher to do so. Installation Installation should should be run within DOSBox using the F-15 installer app ( install.exe ) with: D:\> install The following questions will be asked (with default answers): Install onto which drive: [ C ] Install to which directory on drive C? [ \MPS\F15CD ] Copy RAP.SPR (Y/N): Y The setup utility is run to allow the configuration of hardware, settings should match those shown below: Manual installation The final step is to correct a problem with the Iraq 93 missions. These missions will cause the game to crash with the CD release. The solution is to copy the ds.rel file from the CD into the F-15 installation folder, either with Windows or with the DOSBox command: C:\> copy d:\f15\fs\ds.rel c:\mps\f15cd Thanks to VOGONS member ripsaw8080 for finding the solution. Running the game The game can be run with the F15menu launcher or the following commands: C:\> keyb us C:\> cd mps/f15cd C:\> f15 Setting the keyboard to US correct issues with some keys not working due to the default non-US keyboard setting. Changing hardware options Hardware options can be changed anytime by running the setup utility ( setup.exe ) again, with the F15menu launcher  or the commands: C:\> cd mps/f15cd C:\> setup In-game configuration If a new controller is selected or the settings have changed, then the joystick calibration is performed before a mission starts. When in-flight, a configuration menu is accessible allowing the mission to be resumed or abandoned, allows controllers to be selected and re-calibrated and sets various graphics options. Mods These are 3rd party mods/utilities that provide enhancements. F15 Roster Editor ( f15ed11.zip ) Created by Christopher Thompson in July 1993. This is the final version, v1.1. Available from the FTP MicroProse mirror at the Internet Archive. Taken from the description: Edit your ROSTER file for F-15 Strike Eagle III. Resurrect pilots, get promotions, award yourself medals. Pilots WorkBench ( pwb101.zip ) Created by William Castello in October 1993. This is version 1.1 of the Pilots WorkBench. Available from the the FTP MicroProse archive and mirror at the Internet Archive. Taken from the description: Pilot's Workbench allows you to edit your pilots in a very user friendly environment. It has all the options to make your pilots any way YOU want them to be. It also includes a new RESERVE pilot option. You can keep 8 more pilots in reserve and call them up to the front lines whenever you need them. A great utility! F15menu launcher A quick menu launcher created to: Run F-15 Strike Eagle III Run the setup utility to change hardware options or view the ReadMe doc. VIew the Iraq 93 historical background doc (if the cd is mounted in DOSBox). Supports the Roster Editor & manual (if installed). Supports the Pilots WorkBench & manual (if installed). Return to the DOSBox DOS prompt. Exit DOSBox. It assumes the default folders are used to install F-15. It should be installed in the C:\ folder and is run from within the DOSBox config or from the command line with: C:\> f15menu It can be obtained below: Performance benchmarks For those using legacy/period correct hardware, the following may be helpful. Performance advice was released as F-15-III Designer Tips on Performance ( f15tip.zip ). Available from the the FTP MicroProse archive  and mirror  at the Internet Archive. Taken from the description: This file contains two Technical Supplements from F-15-III Game Designer-Programmer Andy Hollis featuring information and insight into achieving maximum performance from the game. One document discusses frame rate and the other modem connections. Also included are two benchmark programs which will allow insight regarding your system performance. Documentation The following documentation is available for F-15. Retail documents Instruction Manual, pdf download. [ DOS Days , F-15 Strike Eagle III , Supporting Documentation , User manual]. [ Internet Archive , Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle III Manual (English) ]. Key Reference Card, pdf download. [ DOS Days , F-15 Strike Eagle III , Supporting Documentation , Key Reference Card]. [ Internet Archive , Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle III Key Reference Card ]. Technical Supplement, pdf download. [ DOS Days , F-15 Strike Eagle III , Supporting Documentation , Technical Supplement] [ Internet Archive , Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle III Technical Supplement ]. Strategy guide F-15 Strike Eagle Ill The Official Strategy Guide, pdf download [ PDFCOFFEE , F-15 Strike Eagle III - The Official Strategy Guide ]. Additional MicroProse documents Peregrine's Bomber Helper, text document distributed as zip file, created by Walter M. Rauch (Peregrine). [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com , f15_bomb.zip] Bombing Help, text document (Compuserve post), created by Mike Barrs. [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com , f15bomb.txt]. F-15 III Help file (extreme mode help), text document (Compuserve post), created by Sid Maurer. [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com , f15ext.txt]. F-15 home plates and tanker tracks, MS Write document converted to pdf below, created by Kenny "Lineman" Tucker. Original [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com , f15home.wri]. Iraq tactical maps, gif images and readme text document, distributed as zip file, created by Quentin. [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com , f15iraq.zip]. Authentic Flight Model, text document, created by Scott Spanburg, MicroProse. [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com , f15spd.txt]. Legacy hardware documents Problem Help File, useful problem information for those using legacy/period correct hardware, text document, created by Andy Hollis & others. [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com , f15hlp..txt]. Modem help information, not useful, listed so files can be ignored. [ Internet Archive , ftp.microprose.com ] f15&usr.txt f15inis8.zip f15mod.zip Additional 3rd party documents Alternate key reference, creator unknown, text document. [ DOS Days , F-15 Strike Eagle III , Supporting Documentation , Keyboard controls text file]. Keyboard Shortcuts, created by alejulian, also available as a pdf download. [ Cheatography , F-15 Strike Eagle III (DOS, 1992) Keyboard Shortcuts ]. Finally... Credit and thanks go to: Omniclyde for DOSBox config settings. ripsaw8080 for solving the CD release crashing issue. Christopher Thompson & William Castello for the Roster Editor and Pilot WorkBench mods. DOS Days & PDFCOFFEE for hosting documentation. Walter M. Rauch (Peregrine), Mike Barrs, Sid Maurer, Kenny "Lineman" Tucker, Scott Spanburg, Quentin, alejulian & MicroProse for additional documents. Good Hunting!

A guide to running the MicroProse 1994 sim, Fleet Defender in DOSBox Staging. This guide will cover using a gog.com digital releases and the budget retail re-release and F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario, Fleet Defender Gold retail releases. Fleet Defender also goes by the following names: F-14 Fleet Defender. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation. Digital releases are available from gog.com or Steam . A quick history Before continuing it's useful to take a quick look at the history and various Fleet Defender products that have been released over the years. They can be summarized as: Fleet Defender: The initial retail release by MicroProse in 1994. Features a training campaign in Oceana, and campaigns in the North Cape and Mediterranean. Fleet Defender: Scenario: The one and only expansion pack, released by Microprose in 1995. As part of the US Pacific Fleet, six campaigns are added in the Indian Ocean and Korean Peninsula theaters. Also includes a mission builder. Fleet Defender Gold: Includes Fleet Defender and the Scenario addon. Includes videos of the game, real life engagements and a documentary from Aviation Week. The installer and Fleet Defender video apps run in 16-bit Windows. Released in 1995. F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario: A budget re-release of Fleet Defender and the Scenario addon pack released in 1998. It does not include the Windows installer or videos from Fleet Defender Gold. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation: The digital release available on gog.com and Steam platforms. This is the Gold edition configured to run only in DOS, however a copy of the cd contents is included, containing the Windows installer and video presentation apps. Version This guide will be using the digital edition on gog.com . The digital edition is currently bundled with vanilla DOSBox and this guide will cover running Fleet Defender with DOSBox Staging, providing enhanced features and capabilities. In addition, the Fleet Defender Gold and F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario retail editions will be configured and tested. Installation strategies The version obtained dictates the installation options available. Installing the game can be straight-forward but becomes more involved if you wish to use the video presentations available to the Gold and digital releases. To help you decide these are the installation options available to each release: DOS installation only The DOS game is installed using DOSBox Staging and run from within DOSBox. There are no WIndows installer or Windows video presentation apps, so a WIndows install is not required. This is applicable to: Fleet Defender (with or without the Fleet Defender: Scenario addon). F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation (digital release installed using the gog.com or Steam installer). Windows installation This requires a version of Windows (3.1, 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11) to be installed in DOSBox Staging. The DOS game and Fleet Defender video app is installed using the Windows installer. The game is run in the DOSBox Staging DOS environment. The Fleet Defender video app runs in 16-bit Windows, which in turn runs in the DOSBox Staging DOS environment. This is applicable to: Fleet Defender Gold. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation (digital release using the included cd folder). Note : 16-bit Windows (3.1, 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11) was not an operating system like DOS, but a Windowing environment which allowed multiple Windows applications to run. It still required the DOS operating system, or in this case, the DOS environment provided by DOSBox Staging. Summary It's worth briefly summarizing the installation strategies to work out which one is the best for your particular release or preferred. Fleet Defender (with/without Fleet Defender: Scenario addon), a DOS only retail release: Configure DOSBox Staging. Install and configure Fleet Defender using DOSBox Staging. Install and configure Fleet Defender: Scenario using DOSBox Staging (optional). Patch Fleet Defender (if Scenario not installed). F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario, a DOS only retail release: Configure DOSBox Staging. Install and configure F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario using DOSBox Staging. Fleet Defender Gold, a Windows retail release: Configure DOSBox Staging. Install and configure Windows. Install and configure Windows drivers. Install and configure Fleet Defender Gold. Patch Fleet Defender Gold. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation, digital release game only: Install using the digital release installer (gog.com/Steam). Configure DOSBox Staging. Configure Fleet Defender. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation, digital release, game and videos: Install using the digital release installer (gog.com/Steam). Configure DOSBox Staging. Install and configure Windows. Install and configure Windows drivers. Install and configure Fleet Defender Gold in Windows. Patch Fleet Defender Gold. Retail media This guide assumes any physical floppy disks or cds will be ripped to an image file, to reduce wear and tear on media and the disk/cd drives. The floppy disks can be ripped to an img image format. The cd can be ripped to an iso (data only) cd image format as there are no cd audio tracks present on Fleet Defender cds. Digital release installation Digital releases should be installed to Win 10/11 using the appropriate method. Steam releases should use the Steam client, while gog.com releases should use the on-line Galaxy client or download the offline installer. Patches Some releases benefit from the patches that are available. This section will be taking a look at the available patches, and the releases they are applicable to. All patches are hosted at the Internet Archive within the ftp.microprose.com archive. F14 Sound Updates The F14 Sound Updates ( f14snd.zip ) were released 11th March 1993. They provide fixes for OPL-2 based sound cards and Roland sound cards. It also adds the Fleet Defender jukebox DOS app, to play music from the game. This patch is only required by the original Fleet Defender without the Scenario addon, but is not recommended, having been superseded by later patches. Release Version: 1.2 The Release Version: 1.2 patch ( f14v12.zip ) was available from 6th May 1994. It provides 41 changes and fixes covering many aspects of the game. It is a cumulative patch including the F14 Sound Updates. This patch is only required by the original Fleet Defender without the Scenario addon, but is not recommended, having been superseded by a later patch. Release Version: 2.0 non scenario The Release Version: 2.0 non scenario patch ( f14v20.zip ) was available from 12th September 1994. It provides 4 changes and fixes including a fix for faster machines. It is a cumulative patch including the 41 changes and fixes from the Release Version: 1.2 patch and the F14 Sound Updates. This patch is only required by and recommended for the original Fleet Defender without the Scenario addon. This patch is also available from PixelWings , in the Fleet Defender  section as Fleet Defender - Update 2.0 (Non-Scenario) ( Fleet.Defender.Update.2.0.7z ). Credit and thanks to PixelWings for providing alternate hosting of this patch. Fleet Defender Gold video patch The Fleet Defender Gold video patch ( fdgvid.zip ) fixes a Video For Windows installation problem, from the readme.txt file: This patch file is for users who have been experiencing the 'unable to open d:\fleet.avi' type errors. This is normally caused by an older version of Video For Windows being present on the system. The FLEET DEFENDER GOLD install program will not correctly overwrite these files. This patch is required when used with WIndows running in DOSBox Staging. It is applicable to: Fleet Defender Gold. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation, digital release with game and videos. Game management I recommend using my DOSBox game management  strategy. Due to the different releases some folders are optional, depending on release, as noted below: conf - to store any DOSBox Staging/HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of recommended patches (optional). mod - to store a copy of any mods/addons (optional). cd - to store any cd images (optional). fdd - to store any floppy disk images (optional). hdd - the DOSBox Staging hard disk folder (optional). win - to store any Windows install images and drivers (optional). HOTAS config Joystick, throttle and rudder pedals are supported. Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller  can be used, limited to 4 axes. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows: Physical axis Windows axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle DX_Z_AXIS Rudder DX_XROT_AXIS DOSBox Staging config This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging v0.82.2. Changes from the default configuration are detailed below, except sound options  which are considered later, (as Roland, SoundBlaster and General MIDI support is available) and disk mount options as this is dependant on release. Those who wish to install Windows under DOSBox Staging may wish to use the simpler config files used in the Windows installation instructions and then switch to this config, shown below. [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] vmemsize = 4 [cpu] cputype = pentium cpu_cycles = 40000 cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 [voodoo] voodoo = false [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true [mixer] reverb = medium chorus = normal [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 The [sdl] and [mouse] settings are suitable for high frame rate gaming as described in this article  by Omniclyde. These settings aren't strictly required and can be omitted to use the default settings. Note : the dos_rate setting has been omitted to use the default value. A dos_rate of 1000 causes DOSBox Staging to close when leaving Windows. In [cpu] settings, the cputype is set to pentium as suggest in the Windows installation instructions. The cpu_cycles suggested setting for Windows is 30000 but is set to 40000 cycles, a recommended Fleet Defender setting suggested by Damson (credit and thanks to Damson). The cycleup/cycledown settings allow for a suitably small increment/decrement in finding an optimum setting for a particular machine. Voodoo emulation isn't required and can be disabled. The [mixer] settings enhance the music and audio. They are a personal preference and can be adjusted as desired. In the [joystick] section, setting the joysticktype to 4axis allows the use of joystick, throttle and rudders on most joysticks. The timed setting is recommended to be false to prevent sluggish response (when set to true). The swap34 setting is suitable for my HOTAS (TM Warthog), however you may need to adjust these for your own joystick or HOTAS. [deadzone] is a personal preference and should be adjusted as desired. Time to pause & decide If you're following this article is a step by step fashion, now is the time to pause and read the Installing in DOSBox Staging and Sound options sections as they both make additional changes to the DOSBox config above. Take time to decide which of the installation options is required for your release. Installing in DOSBox Staging In this section the DOSBox Staging mount options and installation for each type of release will be covered. DOS only retail release This is applicable to: Fleet Defender (with/without Fleet Defender: Scenario addon). F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario. Game management The following optional game management folders are used: cd - to store any cd images (if required). fdd - to store any floppy disk images (if required). hdd - the DOSBox Staging hard disk folder. DOSBox Staging config The following example shows additions to the DOSBox Staging config: [autoexec] # Each line in this section is executed at startup as a DOS command. mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd" imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\fdd\*.img" -t floppy imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\cd\FleetDefender.iso" -t cdrom c: cd f14 In the above example all the game management folders are contained in the D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender folder, your own containing folder may be in a different location. The hdd folder is mounted as the DOSBox hard disk folder ( C: ). The fdd folder is mounted as an emulated floppy disk drive ( A: ) to store any floppy disk images. If there are no floppy disk images, it can be omitted. It is assumed there will be multiple disk images in an img format, so the *.img wildcard is used to mount all the floppy disk images at once. The disk images can be swapped within DOSBox Staging ( Alt-F4 ). The cd folder is mounted as an emulated cd drive ( D: ), containing an example Fleet Defender cd image, FleetDefender.iso . If there is no cd image it can be omitted. The remaining commands navigate to the default installation folder on the DOSBox C: drive. Installing Fleet Defender should be installed in DOSBox Staging. The F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario release has two installation methods, to install the game to a hard disk ( install.bat ) or install a minimum set of files to the hard disk and run the game from the cd ( setup.bat ). It is recommended to install to the hard disk. It is assumed the Fleet Defender and Fleet Defender: Scenario releases would have an install to hard disk option as a minimum. Once installed the music and sound configuration will be run (see Sound options ). Patching Only the Fleet Defender release requires patching with the Release Version: 2.0 non scenario patch . Fleet Defender: Scenario and F-14 Fleet Defender & Scenario already incorporate this patch. It is a file replacement patch so the patch zip file ( f14v20.zip ) should be extracted to the Fleet Defender installation folder within the DOSBox hard disk (hdd) folder. This can be done in Win10/11. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation, digital release, DOS game only This option is suitable for those who prefer not to install Windows or use the Fleet Defender video app. It is the easiest and quickest way to enjoy Fleet Defender with the benefits of DOSBox Staging. Game management This option does not require any of the optional game management folders. DOSBox Staging config The following example shows additions to the DOSBox Staging config: [autoexec] # Each line in this section is executed at startup as a DOS command. mount c "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Fleet Defender Gold" The DOSBox hard disk folder ( C: ) uses the digital release installation folder. In this example it is D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Fleet Defender Gold . This will have to be changed to your own digital release installation folder. Installing As it is already installed there is no need for any installation process. Patching No patches are required for this game only release. Important note With this option the installation provided by the gog.com/Steam client. is used to run the game. One of the advantages of DOSBox staging are the additional features provided, such as more MIDI options. If the game is configured to use these DOSBox Staging features then it will probably affect how the game looks/sounds if you try and use vanilla DOSBox 0.74 provided by the digital installation. If you change the game configuration, this risks being lost if the game files are validated or the game is downloaded again and installed over an existing copy in the same folder, by the gog.com/Steam client. These are not huge issues, there is not a compelling reason to switch back to vanilla DOSBox 0.74, and MIDI options can always be configured again, but it is something to be aware of. Fleet Defender Gold & Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation This method involves installing Windows in DOSBox Staging, before installing and configuring Fleet Defender. This method is applicable to: Fleet Defender Gold retail release. Fleet Defender: The F-14 Tomcat Simulation, digital release installing game and videos. Game management The following optional game management folders are used: fdd - to store any floppy disk images. cd - to store any cd images (if required). hdd - the DOSBox Staging hard disk folder win - to store any Windows installation images and drivers (.zip files). Obtaining 16-bit Windows This method requires a 16-bit Windows version which includes Windows 3.1, WIndows 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11. None of these products are available for purchase, but can be obtained from WinWorld . The recommended version is Windows for Workgroups 3.11 OEM. This is distributed as a zip archive containing multiple floppy disk images. It is recommended to keep a copy in the win game management folder. Installing Windows for Workgroups To install Windows for Workgroups in DOSBox Staging, there are some excellent Windows 3.1x installation instructions to be found on the DOSBox Staging wiki . Credit and thanks go to MasterO2 for these excellent instructions. Rather than repeating the already clear and precise instructions, this part of the guide will cover some additional notes to be used in conjunction with these instructions. Note : The instructions use a smaller/simpler DOSBox Staging config to install Windows and then builds on this simple config to add sound/MIDI etc. It's recommended to use this simple Windows install config and then switch to the config shown in DOSBox Staging config , after Windows is installed. Note : The zip file containing the Windows disk images was saved in the win folder for safekeeping. The disk image contents of this zip file (eg. disk1.img, disk2.img, etc...) were extracted and stored in the fdd folder. Note : The instruction's DOSBox config file was supplemented with mount and imgmount commands below. As there are multiple disk images in the fdd folder, the wildcard *.img was used, as a convenience, to mount them all. The first disk image will be accessible from the A: drive. Alt-F4 switches to the next disk image. If accessing the last disk image, Alt-F4 will return to the first disk image . [autoexec] mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd" imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\fdd\*.img" -t floppy Note : The instructions refer to creating DRIVERS and INSTALL folders in a win31 folder. Instead the win31 folder is replaced with our hdd folder. So the DRIVERS and INSTALL folders are created in our hdd folder. So: In DOSBox Staging we see: C:\INSTALL C:\DRIVERS In Win10/11 we see (as an example): D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd\INSTALL D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd\DRIVERS Note : The instructions refer to Windows 3.0 installation instructions, to copy the disk image contents to the INSTALL folder (using DOSBox Staging). As all of the disk images are mounted already, the same copy command (below) is used to copy the disk contents to the INSTALL folder (using DOSBox Staging). Then use Alt-F4 to access the next disk and use the same copy command again, until the file contents of each disk have been copied. COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL Note : The recommended display drivers and SoundBlaster 16 drivers were used, following the instructions provided. The zip files containing the drivers were placed in the win folder for safekeeping. The contents of the zip files were stored in an S3 folder (for the display drivers) and an SB16 folder (for the SoundBlaster 16 drivers), within the DRIVERS folder, so: In DOSBox Staging we see: C:\DRIVERS\S3 C:\DRIVERS\SB16 In Win10/11 we see (as an example): D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd\DRIVERS\S3 D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd\DRIVERS\SB16 Fleet Defender video app filling the DOSBox window at 640x480. Note : The recommended resolution to use for the display driver is 640x480. This may seem low but is optimum for the video app as it allows the DOSBox window to be filled (if DOSBox is run in a window) or fullscreen (if run in fullscreen). At higher resolutions the video app is run in a 'Windows' window. At very high resolutions (e.g. 1600x1200) it becomes a very small window making it harder to navigate or read text. However this is really down to a personal preference. Note : Although I used the instructions to set up MIDI and CD Audio in Windows, this was unnecessary for Fleet Defender. Note : The printing and networking sections of the guide can be ignored as those features aren't required by Fleet Defender. Time to pause & decide again At this point you have a clean Windows for Workgroups 3.11 installation running in DOSBox Staging. This may be useful for other DOS games with Windows components or very earlier 16-bit Windows games. So, this may be an appropriate time to take a copy of the following folders for a future alternate use, if desired: conf - containing your DOSBox config suitable for Windows. fdd - containing the Windows installation disk images. hdd - the hard disk folder containing the WIndows installation win - containing all of the Windows/driver zip files used. Mounting the Fleet Defender installation cd As mentioned earlier, this guide assumes any physical/retail cds have been ripped to an iso cd image file, e.g. FleetDefenderGold.iso . To use this cd image in DOSBox Staging we make sure it's stored in the game management cd folder and add a cd imgmount command to our DOSBox config: [autoexec] mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd" imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\fdd\*.img" -t floppy # cd mount imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\fdd\FleetDefenderGold.iso" -t cdrom For digital releases there is no cd image, but a ' CD ' folder exists containing files from an installation cd. The command below uses an example folder (your location will be different): # cd mount mount d "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Fleet Defender Gold\CD" -t cdrom If you prefer to keep the DOSBox Staging and digital client installations of Fleet Defender completely separate, then you can copy the contents of the CD folder to a game management cd\contents folder, and then mount it, as shown in the example below: # cd mount mount d "D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\cd\contents" -t cdrom Note : When mounting an image, the imgmount command is used. When mounting a folder the mount command is used. Using the Fleet Defender Windows installer For some it may have been a while since a early Windows installer was used, for others it may be the first time using such an early Windows app. So, it may be useful to briefly cover the installation steps to make thing easier. The section above covered mounting a virtual installation cd, available as the D: drive. So now we need to: Start Windows from within DOSBox with the win command. Use File Manager to access the D: drive. You should see all the installation files on the cd. Run the WIndows installer ( install.exe ). You'll be asked to begin the install, select Yes . The windows installer has a number of steps as shown in the slideshow below: Issues If you try and run the newly installed Fleet Defender Windows app, you'll probably see an error complaining that D:\fleet.avi can't be opened . This is normal and due to an issue with the Video for WIndows installer. To fix this we need to do some patching. Patching Fleet Defender Gold and the digital release both require the same Fleet Defender Gold video patch . This patch should be downloaded and extracted to a folder. The README.TXT file accompanying the patch explains what to do. You can also perform the steps in Win10/11 without running DOSBox Staging, which some may find easier, summarized here: Copy the IR32.DLL file to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. Using my earlier example folder, in Win10/11 this would be: D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd\WINDOWS\SYSTEM Open SYSTEM.INI in a text editor. It can be found in the C:\WINDOWS folder. In Win10/11 this would be: D:\Games\Dos\Fleet Defender\hdd\WINDOWS Look for the [drivers] section. Add or edit the line so it becomes: VIDC.IV31=IR32.DLL Following patching, the video introduction and other videos should play without issue in Windows. Sound options Fleet Defender Jukebox Fleet Defender supports a wide variety of hardware for music/sound effects and digitized speech. DOSBox Staging supports some of these, and in this section the best options for DOSBox Staging will be covered. In the VOGONS wiki article, List of MT-32-compatible computer games , the original sound hardware for Fleet Defender is listed as the Creative Sound Blaster Pro 2. The DOSBox Staging SoundBlaster 16 is fully compatible and is an excellent music option. A very useful app to help choose your preferred option is the Fleet Defender Jukebox , a DOS app which allows all the music in the game to be played. It is available on all releases (once patched if needed). Run the Jukebox in DOSBox Staging, from the DOS game folder with: F14JUKE Example DOS and Windows screenshots are shown in the galleries below. Music & sound effects In this section we'll be looking at the optimum Roland, SoundBlaster and General Midi options. Below is a slideshow showing the Music & Sound Effects selection in bth DOS and Windows. SoundBlaster SoundBlaster is an excellent choice for Fleet Defender music and sound. Fleet Defender supports the SoundBlaster Pro. The DOSBox Staging default SoundBlaster 16 is fully compatible with this option. The DOSBox Staging config requires the following additions: [midi] mididevice = default The default SoundBlaster settings are appropriate and don't need to be specified. The Music & Sound Effects settings are: Music & Sound Effects Device: SoundBlaster Pro (later) Music Card Address: Address 220 Music Card IRQ: IRQ 7 Roland Fleet Defender supports the earlier Roland MT32 and the later Roland LAPC-1/CM-32L. The optimum choice being the Roland LAPC-1/CM-32L. The DOSBox Staging config requires the following additions: [midi] mididevice = mt32 [mt32] model = cm32l romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" In [mt32] the model is set to cm32l. Versioned roms are used, as described in the earlier article ' DOSBox midi '. The Music & Sound Effects settings are: Music & Sound Effects Device: Roland LAPC-1/CM-32L Music Card Address: Address 330 Music Card IRQ: IRQ 2 Fluidsynth As Fleet Defender supports general MIDI, DOSBox Staging's built in MIDI synth, Fluidsynth can be used. This allows the use of soundfonts to enhance the music. The DOSBox Staging config requires the following additions: [midi] mididevice = fluidsynth [fluidsynth] soundfont = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts\Shan SGM-X48 v2.0.SF2" The soundfont is an example and an alternative can be used, based on preference. All soundfonts are kept in the same folder, as described in the article ' DOSBox midi '. The Music & Sound Effects settings are: Music & Sound Effects Device: General Midi Music Card Address: Address 330 Music Card IRQ: IRQ 2 It's recommended to test the sound effects in-flight as the soundfont used may result in odd sound effects. VirtualMidiSynth The general MIDI support means we aren't restricted to just the built in MIDI synth, an external MIDI synth app like VirtualMidiSynth can be used. Coupled with the Jukebox you can play a music track and switch to various soundfonts on the fly! The DOSBox Staging config requires the following additions: [midi] mididevice = win32 midiconfig = 0 Setting the mididevice to win32 allows the VirtualMidiSynth app to be used. The midiconfig setting can be found using the method as described in the article ' DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth '. The Music & Sound Effects settings are: Music & Sound Effects Device: General Midi Music Card Address: Address 330 Music Card IRQ: IRQ 2 Again it's recommended to test in-flight to make sure there are no odd sound effects. Digitized speech There's really only one option for Fleet Defender and that's to use SoundBlaster to provide the digital speech. If you really wanted to, you could try Covox but SoundBlaster will be the optimum choice. Here are the DOS and Windows digitized speech settings: In the DOSBox Staging config, the Soundblaster section [sblaster] has a dma setting that is set to 1 by default. The Fleet Defender Speech DRQ setting is equivalent and must be the same for speech to work, so make sure it is: Speech DRQ: DRQ 1 The digital release defaults this to DRQ 3, so be sure to check. Alternatively you can change the [sblaster] dma setting to 3 in the DOSBox config, but the first option is the recommended one. Credit and thanks to Damson for that useful info! Changing options Sound options can be changed and reconfigured as often as desired. To do so in a DOS retail release or digital release (game only): Go to the game installation folder (the default is C:\ for digital and C:\F14 for retail). Run install.exe . Select Reconfigure Hardware Options . To do so in Fleet Defender Gold, or a digital release using Windows: Run Windows. Once started, open the Fleet Defender Gold program group. Run the Sound Card Configuration app. Fleet Defender Gold in-flight sound issue During testing and installation a lot of changes were made to both music and speech and somehow I managed to disable a lot of the sound effects provided by the DOSBox SoundBlaster when in-flight It's unlikely this will occur (it was probably due to all the playing around with sound settings I was doing) but just in case it does, this is how I fixed it. When installing the SoundBlaster drivers/utilities for Windows, the DOS SoundBlaster drivers/utilities are also installed. If the default location was used they will be in C:\SB16 . In DOSBox, go to the C:\SB16 folder and run the DIAGNOSE.EXE utility. Run through the utility applying the DOSBox Staging SoundBlaster settings, if you are relying on the default settings they are: sbbase = 220 irq = 7 dma = 1 hdma = 5 This should correct the issue. Running Fleet Defender To run a DOS retail release, use the following DOSBox commands (assuming the default folder is used): C: CD F14 F14 To run a digital release (game only), use the following DOSBox commands: C: F14 These can be added to the end of the [autoexec] section of the DOSBox config after the mount commands. Fleet Defender Gold To run the Fleet Defender Gold video presentation under Windows, use the following DOSBox commands:: C: WIN # or WIN : to skip the Windows splash screen Once Windows has started: Hopefully you'll get here! Open the Fleet Defender Gold program group. Run the Fleet Defender Gold app. To run the game it's recommended to exit Windows and return to DOS. The option to run the game from the video app doesn't work under DOSBox. Once back in DOS, use the DOSBox commands: C: CD MPS\F14GOLD F14 In-game configuration The only in-game configuration required for Fleet Defender is controller/HOTAS calibration. To get to the appropriate page, from the main menu: Click the Campaign button. Click the Difficulty button. Click the Joystick button. As I have a joystick with rudder pedals, configured as a 4-axis controller in DOSBox, I chose: Control selection A joystick w/throttle. Foot pedals. As shown in the screenshot. Once chosen, click on Recalibrate to open a calibration dialog: Calibration dialog Each axis of the controller is calibrated by following the instructions in the dialog. However, the trigger button did not work and the second joystick button had to be used to progress the calibration at each stage, something to be aware of. The last step of calibration was to set a deadzone (the white square) which was set to 0. Mods and enhancements These mods and enhancements are entirely optional and left as a personal preference. Fleet Defender - Visual Upgrade Mod 1.0 No guide would be complete without covering the work done by PixelWings with the Visual Upgrade Mod 1.0 . The mod makes a number of visual upgrades to: The ship models and graphics. The motion of the ocean! And ocean textures. Some aircraft model and graphics improvements, which will be part of a larger aircraft mod. What I like about this mod is that it is a visual mod, so some may like to install this for a initial playthrough. To install, just follow the included instructions. After installation I found I had to recalibrate the HOTAS in-game. I've given this a quick test with a gog.com release so should work with: Fleet Defender (with Scenario addon). Fleet Defender & Scenario. Fleet Defender Gold. Fleet Defender digital releases. I'm not sure about the original Fleet Defender cd release (as I don't have it), but with the Release Version: 2.0 non scenario patch, there is a patched f14.exe file that is identical in size to PixelWing's modified f14.exe file, so it looks promising for this patched release as well! Huge credit and thanks to PixelWings for the hard work on this mod. The website is well worth checking out. And there's an alternate Windows 3.1 Fleet Defender icon ! fdmenu I've created a small DOS batch file menu for Fleet Defender, which allows you to: Run the game (it should correct identify Fleet Defender (with and without Scenario addon), Fleet Defender & Scenario, Fleet Defender Gold and digital releases (DOS and WIndows), if a default folder was used. Run the Jukebox, if a default folder was used. Run the DOS based install app to change sound settings, if applicable. Run Windows to play Videos or change sound settings, if applicable. Return to the DOSBox DOS prompt. Close DOSBox. To install, extract fdmenu.bat to the DOSBox hard disk folder and add the following lines to the bottom of your DOSBox config (after the mount commands): [autoexec] c: call fdmenu.bat Documents The digital release has a comprehensive set of documents, in pdf format, comprising of: The manual. The Scenario addon manual. The key reference card. The basic flying guide. The campaign notes. PixelWings has done some more excellent work and managed to assemble some additional documents , including: The alternate quick keyboard reference. The official strategy guide. A Player’s Guide To Fleet Defender by Robin G. Kim (which is also available at the ibiblio archives ). DOS days also very kindly hosts the following pdf/html documents: The manual. The key reference card. The campaign notes. A Player’s Guide To Fleet Defender by Robin G. Kim. Even more documents are hosted at the Internet Archive  within the ftp.microprose.com  archive. A number of quick reference documents have been compiled together to form the F-14 aids v4 ( f14aids.zip ), comprising of: An AWG-9 quick reference. A cockpit quick reference. A radar quick reference. A landing quick reference. A wingman quick reference. The alternate quick keyboard reference. And of course, A Player’s Guide To Fleet Defender by Robin G. Kim. Hopefully this set of documents will be able to answer any questions arising during a gaming session! Example video This example video shows some soundfont testing with VirtualMidiSynth, the video app and the game itself. Finally... Hopefully with this guide you'll be able to run Fleet Defender with the added benefits of DOSBox Staging and if so desired, run Windows within DOSBox Staging for the complete Fleet Defender Gold experience! Good hunting!

Myst IV: Revelation A quick guide on the Myst IV: Revelation utility Revolution. It's not all flight and space sims (well it very nearly is, but sometimes I play something else). I've just completed Myst IV: Revelation and only then did I try out the Revolution utility. So to save you from doing something similar here's a quick guide on it. What is it? Best described by the author himself, Anthony Kleine, and taken from the Myst IV: Revolution GitHub page: Myst IV: Revolution is a command line tool that can perform various fixes for the game Myst IV: Revelation. IMPORTANT : this tool requires the Visual Studio 2019 C++ Redistributable to be installed for both x86 and x64. If the tool or the game will not start, please ensure that both are installed. Currently, Myst IV: Revolution is only available for Windows. The DVD release, Steam release and GOG release are supported. Supports Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with an SSE4-capable CPU and at least 1 GB of RAM. Although Myst IV: Revolution itself is only about 60 MB large, it will create a backup of your game files, which requires up to 3 GB of free disk space. The core things it can fix include: Toggle Full Screen. Toggle Camera Inertia (disable mouse acceleration). Toggle Sound Fading (remove sound crossfading for faster navigation). Edit Transition Time (reduce/remove scene fade transition for faster navigation). Fix Loading (faster navigation). Much of the navigation delay was 'designed in' by the development team. Anthony's Revolution utility makes changes to reduce/remove much/all of this delay! And it takes a backup before making changes so they can all be reversed, if desired. You can read more at the Myst IV: Revelation GitHub . Obtaining Myst IV: Revolution The latest version (v1.2.4 at time of writing) is available from the GitHub Releases . Once obtained you simply need to extract the contents of the zip file to a folder. When you run it you should see the following (see screenshot). Myst IV: Revolution, search for an installation and menu options. Disabling dgVoodoo2 In a previous Myst IV article, Myst IV: Revelation running in Windows 10 , it was recommended to use dgVoodoo2. Unfortunately dgVoodoo2 doesn't seem to be compatible with the Revolution changes and will cause the game to crash after the intro movie journey to Tomahna. dgVoodoo2 was installed in the \bin folder. The easiest method is to move (not copy) dgVoodoo2 files to a sub-folder in this folder. You can always switch back, if desired. To disable dgVoodoo2: Go to the   \bin folder. Create a sub-folder, e.g. dgVoodoo2 . Move (not copy) the following files into this sub-folder: D3D8.dll D3D9.dll D3DImm.dll DDraw.dll dgVoodoo.conf dgVoodooCpl.exe Note : In order to get Myst IV to run in full screen, it was required use the Revolution utility to toggle full screen off and then toggle it back on again. Further info For a background article on what it took to make these changes to Myst IV: Revelation, check out Anthony's Medium article: Fixing the Loading in Myst IV: Revelation , the first part of two part article. It's quite the interesting read, on the work involved in making these changes! Setup summary This ia an updated summary on the preferred method to setup Myst iV: Revelation to run under Win10. For the location of various patches and advice see Myst IV: Revelation running in Windows 10 . Steps are: Install retail version. Install official v1.00 to v1.03 patch. Install no cd patch. Install IndirectInput (for Win10 compatibility). Install Myst iV: Revolution (for optional speed fixes and Win10 compatibility). Finally... Huge credit and thanks to Anthony Kleine for the Revolution tool. This took substantial effort to change the 'baked in; transition delays inherent in this game. Great work Anthony!

SVGA Harrier A guide to running the Domark, sim Super VGA (SVGA) Harrier in DOSBox Staging. Released in 1993, Super VGA Harrier is the upgraded version of AV-8B Harrier Assault , released only a year previously in 1992. Retaining the same setting, of East Timor and continuing to combine both a flight sim, with an upgraded SVGA engine, and a strategic campaign which remains unchanged from the original. This game is the second in the Domark Harrier 'series', with: AV-8B Harrier Assault , 1992 (PC, DOS, VGA, Amiga, Atari ST). Super-VGA Harrier, 1993 (PC DOS, SVGA). Flying Nightmares, 1994 (Macintosh, 3DO). Releases & patches There is only a single retail release on floppy or CD-ROM, although the games would be included on several compilations. There are no patches for SVGA Harrier. Retail media This guide assumes any physical floppy disks or cds will be ripped to an image file, to reduce wear and tear on media and the disk/cd drives. The floppy disks can be ripped to an img  image format. The cd can be ripped to an iso  (data only) cd image format as there are no cd audio tracks present on the cd. Game management I recommend using my DOSBox game management  strategy. The following folders are recommended: conf - to store any DOSBox Staging/HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc. cd - to store any cd images (optional, depending on media). fdd - to store any floppy disk images (optional, depending on media). hdd - the DOSBox Staging hard disk folder. HOTAS config Joystick, throttle and rudder pedals are supported. Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller  can be used, limited to 4 axes. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows: Physical axis Windows axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle DX_Z_AXIS Rudder DX_XROT_AXIS DOSBox Staging config This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging v0.82.2. Changes from the default configuration are detailed below: [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] cpu_cycles = 20000 cpu_cycles_protected = auto cycleup = 100 cycledown = 100 [voodoo] voodoo = false [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true [mixer] reverb = medium chorus = normal [midi] mididevice = mt32 [mt32] model = cm32l romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 [autoexec] imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\SVGA HArrier\fdd\*.img" -t floppy -ro imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\SVGA HArrier\cd\SVGAHarrier.iso" -t cdrom mount c "D:\Games\Dos\AV-8B Harrier Assault\hdd" c: # cd harrier # Game batch files # call harrier.bat # call harfly.bat # exit # Game launcher menu # call harmenu.bat The [sdl], [dosbox] and [mouse] settings are suitable for high frame rate gaming as described in this article  by Omniclyde. These settings aren't strictly required and can be omitted to use the default settings. In [cpu] settings, 20000 cycles seems appropriate, you may need to tweak this setting but this seems like a good starting point. The cpu_cycles_protected setting will use the same cycle count as cpu_cycles and must be set to auto, otherwise the sim will run far too quickly at the default 60000 cpu_cycles_protected setting. Voodoo emulation isn't required and can be disabled. The [mixer] settings can be changed to enhance sound and music to personal preference. The [midi] and [mt32] settings enable high quality Roland midi music. The model value, auto, will default to a CM32L device. SVGA Harrier supports the LAPC1 sound card which is equivalent to a CM32L device. The midi roms folder is described in the DOSBox midi  article. The [joystick] settings are appropriate for my HOTAS setup so you may need to alter these. The swap34 setting is recommended to be set to true, due to the calibration process (see In-game configuration  below). The deadzone setting is a personal preference. The [autoexec] has example imgmount commands for the floppy images. As there are multiple floppy images the imgmount command uses the '*' wildcard. The imgmount and mount commands make use of a folder structure described in my DOSBox game management  article. You may wish to change the batch command used to run the game, once installed (see Running the game  below) or use the game launcher menu (see Changing sound options ). Installation The installation methods from floppy disk and cd will result in two different install folders. Both installations should be run from within DOSBox. From floppy disk image The following command will run the floppy installer which copies all files to the hard disk. When asked for the next disk use + F4 to switch to the next disk image. A:\> install During the installation you be asked to select from the following: Drive to install to: C: Drive . Folder to install to: Use the default \harrier folder. Full or small install: Full . Graphics: VESA Standard SVGA card . Sound: Use SoundBlaster or Roland sound driver. From cd image CD installation options The cd installation was created during a time when hard disk space was at a premium and the files were already on the cd. The cd install will add config files and sound files to the hard disk while keeping most game files on the cd. In addition the cd install requires installation choices for drive, graphics and sound to be made. To view the options, run the installer without any arguments, with: D:\> install To install with a VESA standard SVGA card and Roland sound use the following: D:\> install c: v r To install with a VESA standard SVGA card and SoundBlaster sound use the following: D:\> install c: v s With this method the cd image must remain mounted in DOSBox. Adding files to the hard disk To run the game without the cd image mounted, the following steps are required: Perform the cd installation, described above. Copy the following files and folders from the cd into the SVGA Harrier installation folder on the hard disk (this can be done from Win10): D D1 D2 DC DG SOUND ERRATA.TXT FLY32.EXE FLYX.EXE INTRO.ANM MANUAL.BAT MANUAL.TXT README.EXE README.LIB README.TXT VER Edit the following files as shown below: HARRIER.BAT @echo off c:\harrier\sndtsr.exe d:\ # remove this line call c:\harrier\anim.bat call c:\harrier\fly.bat HARFLY.BAT @echo off c:\harrier\sndtsr.exe d:\ # remove this line call c:\harrier\fly.bat Running the game Depending on the type of install (floppy or cd) the commands to run SVGA Harrier are different. For floppy: c:\harrier> av8b.bat # with intro c:\harrier> av8bfly.bat # without intro For a cd install: c:\harrier> harrier.bat # with intro c:\harrier> harfly.bat # without intro In-game configuration When starting the game for the first time, you'll need to configure and calibrate axes. There is a config page available from the command page in-game. The throttle and rudder pedals should be set as shown in the screenshot. Controller setup and calibration Rudder should be on channel (axis) 3. Throttle should be on channel (axis) 4. Thrustmaster stick and throttle should be left as no. The DOSBox config swapped axes 3 and 4 to ensure when the calibrate option is used the throttle appears in the vertical calibration scale and the rudder appears on the horizontal calibration scale. When calibrating, the throttle and rudder pedals will need to centred and should either be able to reach (or come close to) either end of their respective scales. You may need to adjust the throttle centre position and calibrate a couple of times. Once calibrated to your liking, click (channel/axis) save, Changing sound options To change sound options for a floppy install simply run the floppy installer again and select the alternate sound options to use. Changing sound for a cd install is more difficult as the cd installer will only install the game if the harrier folder cannot be found. There is no utility or batch file allowing sound options to be changed. Instead I have created a launcher that will: Start the game with the intro. Start the game without the intro. Change to Roland sound. Change to SoundBlaster sound. Return to a DOSBox DOS prompt. Close DOSBox. Update : The launcher menu no longer needs the cd mounted if files were added to the hard disk. The zip file below should be extracted and the launcher batch file added to: c:\harrier And run with: harmenu.bat Documentation Documentation is identical to the original AV-8B Harrier Assault, which include: The manual in pdf format. The reference card as an image. The campaign map as an image. The campaign map Finally... Despite losing the 320x200 resolution Microprose like charm of the original, you do gain the improved SVGA graphics. Whichever one you decide to use, there are articles to help you run either (or both)! Good hunting!

AV8B Harrier Assault box cover This is a guide on running the original Simis Limited 1992 sim, AV-8B Harrier Assault, in DOSBox Staging. This is not a guide for the remake, Super-VGA Harrier. A broken UN resolution and a politically limited US task force, form the backdrop of AV-8B Harrier Assault campaign. Not just a flight sim of the AV-8B but a strategy game as well, as you can stick to or modify the battle plan, to try and tip the scales of the conflict. This guide is for DOSBox Staging v0.82.0, the latest version at time of writing. Versions There are at least two versions of AV-8B, the version number doesn't seem to be listed in game. However the earlier version uses a blue/monochrome install utility while a later version uses a colour install utility. It's not known if the changes are limited to just the install utility or if additional bug fixes or enhancements were made to the later version. However it is recommended to use the later version in case changes were made. Both versions came on either 2 x 5.25" 1.2Mb High Density (HD) floppy disks or 2 x 3.5" 1.44Mb HD floppy disks. For the purposes of this guide, it is assumed the disks have been ripped into disk images, (.img or .ima files). HOTAS Config As it is a DOS based sim a maximum of 4 axes are supported. AV-8B supports all 4 axes, including throttle and rudder, although the manual states a Thrustmaster joystick and throttle is supported, but doesn't mention anything about other devices. When using HOTAS/controller profiling software to limit the controller to a maximum of 4 axes the following device axes to Windows axes mappings were used: Physical axis Windows axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle DX_Z_AXIS Rudder DX_XROT_AXIS DOSBox config This DOSBox Staging config for AV-8B assumes the latest version (at time of writing), 0.82.0 will be used. The changes to the default config are shown below: [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] cpu_cycles = 20000 cpu_cycles_protected = auto cycleup = 100 cycledown = 100 [voodoo] voodoo = false [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true [mixer] reverb = large chorus = normal [midi] mididevice = mt32 [mt32] romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" joysticktype = 4axis timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 [autoexec] imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\AV-8B Harrier Assault\fdd\*.img" -t floppy -ro mount c "D:\Games\Dos\AV-8B Harrier Assault\hdd" c: cd av8b call av8b.bat exit The [sdl], [dosbox] and [mouse] settings are suitable for high frame rate gaming as described in this article  by Omniclyde. These settings aren't strictly required and can be omitted to use the default settings. In [cpu] settings, 20000 cycles seems appropriate, you may need to tweak this setting but this seems like a good starting point. The cpu_cycles_protected setting will use the same cycle count as cpu_cycles and must be set to auto, otherwise the sim will run far too quickly at the default 60000 cpu_cycles_protected setting. Voodoo emulation isn't required and can be disabled. The [mixer] settings can be changed to enhance sound and music to personal preference. The [midi] and [mt32] settings enable high quality Roland midi music. The model value, auto, will default to a CM32L device. AV-8B supports the LAPC1 sound card which is equivalent to a CM32L device. The midi roms folder is described in the DOSBox midi  article. The [joystick] settings are appropriate for my HOTAS setup so you may need to alter these. The swap34 setting is recommended to be set to true, due to the calibration process (see Setup and running below). The deadzone setting is a personal preference. The [autoexec] has example imgmount commands for the floppy images. As there are multiple floppy images the imgmount command uses the '*' wildcard. The imgmount and mount commands make use of a folder structure described in my DOSBox game management  article. You may wish to change the batch command used to run the game (see Setup and running below). Installation There is an installation utility ( install.exe ) that should be run from within DOSBox. The install utility allows selection of the installation drive/folder and sound card. You will also be asked to choose between a full install with intro animation or a small install without the intro. It's recommended to choose the full install, the sim can be run, skipping the intro movie. Once selections are made the installation will begin and should complete without issue. The install utility will only unpack the sound files it needs, based on the selection, (not all sound files). This means changing the sound card means re-installing the game and choosing a new sound device. The DOSBox config, will allow Roland LAPC1 or Soundblaster sound to be used. It's recommended to use Roland sound. Alternatively a Roland sound version of the game can be installed into one folder and the Soundblaster sound version of the game, installed into a different folder, if you wish to try both out. Setup and running There is a choice of running with the intro movie: call av8b.bat Or if you want to jump straight into the game, without intro: call av8bfly.bat When starting the game for the first time, you'll need to configure and calibrate axes. There is a config page available from the command page in-game. The throttle and rudder pedals should be set as shown in the screenshot. Calibration screen Rudder should be on channel (axis) 3. Throttle should be on channel (axis) 4. Thrustmaster stick and throttle should be left as no. The DOSBox config swapped axes 3 and 4 to ensure when the calibrate option is used the throttle appears in the vertical calibration scale and the rudder appears on the horizontal calibration scale. When calibrating, the throttle and rudder pedals will need to centred and should either be able to reach (or come close to) either end of their respective scales. You may need to adjust the throttle centre position and calibrate a couple of times. Once calibrated to your liking, click (channel/axis) save, Documentation The following documents are available from various websites: The manual in pdf format. The reference card as an image. The campaign map as an image. Finally... This guide covers the original AV-8B Harrier Assault, in the future, a later guide will cover the SVGA remake, Super-VGA Harrier. I wanted to cover the original because, it's often overlooked in favour of the later SVGA remake. However, the VGA 320x200 resolution is very reminiscent of the MicroProse sims around the time, e.g. F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0 and Gunship 2000. In fact it feels a lot like a slightly higher fidelity MicroProse sim with a comprehensive dynamic campaign added, which is rather ironic given MicroProse's own Harrier sim, Harrier Jump Jet was released the same year, (nothing for ages then two come along at once!) So hopefully any MicroProse fans will take a look and maybe give AV-8B Harrier Assault a try. It has a charm of its own. Good Hunting!

This is an update covering various things discovered or changes since the last MiG Alley article. It covers a new patch collection, alternate install method, controller support and skins and sound mods which may have been difficult to locate. Hopefully these will be useful for anyone who would like to enjoy this classic sim. MiG Alley patch collection There is a new MiG Alley patch collection available on the Internet Archive . It provides a single place to obtain the following patches: Official v1.23 patch. Unpacked version of v1.23 patch. Version 1.1 setup up files, in combination with a v1.0 installation cd, can be used to create a v1.1 installation cd. BDG v0.85F patch for WinXP and later. BDG v0.85F2 additional patch for Win98 applied after BDG v0.85F patch. BDG Keyboard Manager utility for reassigning keys. Alternate installation Some may have experienced an error in the official v1.23 patch installation, caused by the tt2.exe file which updated maps during the install. Due to this, VOGONS user Been_Nath_58 created an unpacked version of the official patch. It can be found in the  MiG Alley patch collection . The installation process is as follows for those wishing to use the unpacked v1.23 patch: Those with a MiG Alley v1.0 cd/cd image will need to use the v1.1 setup files to create a v1.1 installation cd/cd image. Install using the MiG Alley v1.1 cd/cd image. Compatibility mode for the setup.exe installer should be Windows 98/ME. Once installed, extract the unpacked version of v1.23 patch ( mig_alley_1.23_unpacked.zip ) to the MiG Alley installation folder, overwriting any existing files. Install the BDG v0.85F patch ( BDG_MiGAlley_0.85F.rar ) for WinXP and later. Follow the existing advice for: Configuring the BDG patch(es) . Adding no-cd fixes . Add and configure DDrawCompat v0.6.0 . This should result in a properly installed and configured installation. Credit and thanks to Been_Nath_58 for this unpacked v1.23 patch. Controller support with vJoy/Joystick Gremlin One of the issues with MiG Alley is the incompatibility with at least some vendor profiling software, e.g. TM TARGET. This was discussed in the article, MiG Alley: HOTAS Controllers . This is slightly alleviated with some good native controller support where multiple physical/windows controllers can be used together within the sim, e.g. a joystick device can be used to control pitch and roll, a separate throttle device can control thrust while rudder pedals control yaw. However, this means that many controller buttons may go unused, the initial solution was to use additional software (e.g. JoyToKey). There is single simpler alternative and that is to use the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combo . The vJoy app is used to create a virtual joystick/controller with as many axes, buttons and hats as needed. MiG Alley allows use to choose the vJoy device while ignoring other Windows devices as shown below: Selecting the vJoy virtual device Opentrack/AITrack support For those without TrackIR then an alternative may be an Opentrack/AITrack combo to provide head tracking. Opentrack essentially provides TrackIR data to a TrackIR supporting flight sim like MiG Alley. To enable in sim, you just follow the same steps as enabling TrackIR, as opentrack sends 'TrackIR like' data to MiG Alley. Mods A number of mods have been located, including aircraft skins, replacement sounds, terrain mods and a hit sprite mod. All mods can be found in the  MiG Alley patch collection . The mods are listed below. The author of the AxA mods is Alexander X. Alonso (AxA). Skins All aircraft skins can be found in the Skins folder of the patch collection. AxA's B-26 Invader (AxA's B-26 Invader.zip) From the readme: This is my attempt in correcting the B-26 aircraft in Mig Alley. The B-26 depicted in MA is actually the World War II "Marauder". I tried to convert it to the B-26 "Invader", which served admirably in WWII, Korea and even Vietnam. AxA's Checkertail F-51 (AxA's Checkertail F-51.zip) From the readme: What if the F-51 squadrons carried over their World War II markings into the Korean conflict Here is my interpretation of just that, in regards to having the 325th FG fly and fight in the skies over Korea. While I did include the obviously familiar checker-tail markings, I took the liberty of keeping some of the Korean War markings that were found on the F-51's during that era. I wanted to incorporate the WWII markings into the Korean War and not just bring in the exact WWII aircraft. (does this make any sense??) For example, fuselage codes, red-stripe on national markings, etc... AxA's F-51 12th FBS (AxA's F-51 12thFBS.zip) From the readme: Here is a shark-toothed F-51 from the 12th Fighter-Bomber Squadron which was based at K-10 Chinhae airbase, South Korea (near Pusan). I took some artistic license and painted the canopy frame with the same blue as that found on the fin & wing tips. (for a more colorful aircraft). AxA's F-51 18th FBG (AxA's F-51 18th FBG.zip) From the readme: Here is an F-51D shown in 18th FBG colors, with squadron stripes. The red trim indicates that the aircraft was assigned to the 67th FBS in late 1952, just as the Mustang's career started to wind down. AxA's F-51 78th FG (AxA's F-51 78th FG.zip) From the readme: What if the F-51 squadrons carried over their World War II markings into the Korean conflict? Here is my interpretation of just that, in regards to having the 78th FG fly and fight in the skies over Korea. While I did include the obviously familiar checker-nose markings, I took the liberty of keeping some of the Korean War markings that were found on the F-51's during that era. I wanted to incorporate the WWII markings into the Korean War and not just bring in the exact WWII aircraft. (does this make any sense??) For example, fuselage codes, red-stripe on national markings, etc... AxA's F-84 8th FBS (AxA's F-84 8FBS.zip) From the readme: Here is an F-84E from the 8th FBS, 49th FBG at Kunsan, circa 1953. AxA's F-84 9th FBS (AxA's F-84 9FBS.zip) From the readme: Here is a new skin for the F-84E based on "Lil Butch", an F-84E-25RE assigned to the 9th Fighter Bomber Squadron of the 49th Fighter Bomber Wing in Korea. AxA's F-84E 58th FBWg (AxA's F-84E 58th FBWg.zip) From the readme: Here is a skin for the F-84 in Mig Alley. This aircraft has the markings for the 58th FBWg, flying out of Taegu, Korea during 1952. The most famous aircraft in these markings was "Night Take Off / Ruth", the personal aircraft of Col. Charles Jordan, commanding the 58th FBWg during this time. AxA's F-86A 4th FIS (AxA's F-86A 4thFIS.zip) From the readme: This is a "Skin" for an F-86A-5-NA Sabre, of the 334th Fighter Intercept Squadron, 4th Fighter Intercept Wing. These markings are for the early (1951) Sabres in Korea. AxA's F-86F 12th FBS (AxA's F-86F 12th FBS.zip) From the readme: Here is my skin for an F-86F of the 12th FBS, stationed at Osan AB, 1953. The 12th shared space with the 67th FBS as well. Both are similarly marked except that the 67th had yellow stripes over/under the blue and white star markings in the tail section. AxA's F-86F 67th FBS (AxA's F-86F 67th FBS.zip) From the readme: Here is my skin for an F-86F of the 67th FBS, stationed at Osan AB, 1953. The 67th shared space with the 12th FBS as well. Both are similarly marked except that the 67th had yellow stripes over/under the blue and white star markings in the tail section. Shiny F-80 (F-80_Shiny.zip) From the readme: New "Shiny" look to the Mig Alley Aircraft by John Maleski. John has created a brighter look on the Mig Alley aircraft. He has done this for the F-84 and F-80. F-84 (F-84.zip) There is no readme or images included with this mod for the F-84. The author is unknown. F-86 camo (F-86_Camo.zip) The author is listed only as John. From the readme: F-86 camo is an alternative Mig Alley Skin. Unfortunately, it is not an authentic replica of a squadron marked F-86 during the Korean War. I am not aware of any Korean War F-86 with camouflage paint markings, so this was merely created for "fun" (but apparently does attempt to simulate a post Korean War F-86 camo paint job). F-86 Sabre - Generic, Black/White Stripes (F-86_Generic_BWStripes.zip) The author is Christian Mosimann. From the readme: Aircraft skin for Mig Alley. The color-scheme is generic, the b/w stripes where used early in the Korean War on the first F-86A of this theatre. The basic metal-color is based on the "Shiny"-Aluminium Sabre, done by Sergei Olschewski, the yellow nose bases on the work of AxA. F-86 Sabre - Generic, Yellow Stripes (F-86_Generic_YellowStripe.zip) The author is Christian Mosimann. From the readme: Aircraft skin for Mig Alley. The color-scheme is generic, the yellow stripes where painted to all Sabres of the Korean theatre for better recognition. The basic metal-color is based on the "Shiny"-Aluminium Sabre, done by Sergei Olschewski. F-86A (f86a.zip) There is no readme or images included with this mod for the F-84. The author is unknown. MiG-15 Honcho (MiG-15_Honcho.zip) The author is listed only as Harry. From the readme: This adds a red "honcho" nose to the MiG 15 and replaces the generic red star with the correct star with dashed outline in red and blue. The scheme appears when you select the MiG-15 to fly in a single mission. If you fly against the MiG the game gets those resources somewhere else, so you will see the original scheme. MiG-15 Star (MiG-15_Star.zip) The author is listed only as Harry. From the readme: This replaces the generic red star with the correct star with dashed outline in red and blue. (the blue renders as dark gray). I also shrunk the star on the fuselage and tried to adjust it so it doesn't appear so squashed. I think someone else did something similar but I couldn't find it anywhere. The scheme appears when you select the MiG-15 to fly in a single mission. If you fly against the MiG the game gets those resources somewhere else, so you will see the original scheme. Shiny F-51 Sharkmouth (Shiny_F51_Sharkmouth.zip) The author is John Maleski. From the readme: This shiny F-51 is an alternative Mig Alley Skin. It attempts to create that "shiny" metallic look. This F-51 utilizes AxA's Sharkmouth, and also uses the "shiny" fuselage textures from Mosi's F-86. Thanks to the both of them for their great inspiring mods to Mig Alley. You can see some example skins below (images taken from mod zip files): Sounds All sound mods can be found in the Sounds  folder of the patch collection. AxA Sound Replacement Paks From the readme: Here are just a few more sound replacements for the great flight sim "Mig Alley". While the game's original sounds are not bad, I found that some of the sounds were a little weak. While the new sounds are much stronger/richer, they are also a bit larger in file size. So those with slower CPU's "may" find a slight drop in frame rates. I don't believe that it will affect most computers that can run Mig Alley in the first place. Unfortunately AxA's Sound Replacement Pak 1 mod does not seem to be available to download at present. They can be found in the Sounds folder of the patch collection as: AxA's MA snds2.zip AxA's MA snds3.zip AxA's MA snds4.zip CFS2 cal .50 sound (cal50.zip) The Microsoft Combat Flight SIm 2 .50 cal sound for use in MiG Alley. The author is unknown. F-51 Engine (F-51_Engine.zip) Replacement F-51 engine sounds. The author is unknown. Other replacement sounds (hwsound.zip) Comprising of booms.zip , replacement explosion and flak sounds, and guns.zip , replacement gun/cannon sounds. The author is unknown. Terrain All terrain mods can be found in the Terrain  folder of the patch collection. AxA's "Patchy Snow" Terrain Modification (AxA Patchy Snow.exe) From the readme: "This terrain mod was done with the intent of creating a terrain somewhere between the default terrain that came with the sim and my other terrain mod, the "WinTer" terrain mod. I've tried to give the impression that either it has just begun snowing in the area or the snows are slowly melting away; a transition between no snow-fall and heavy snow-fall. In other words, there is only slight snow on the ground, particularly in certain areas. My intent was also to create a new terrain with additional farm land, based on photographs from that time period. It was a simple mod to create, basically just swapping some terrain "textures" around and utilizing my "WinTer" terrain's buildings, trees, etc. Perhaps not very realistic but adds a little variety to the default terrain. I hope you like it." --AxA Spring Terrain (MA_SpringTerrain.zip) The author is John Maleski. From the readme: A spring in Mig Alley... Well, not exactly. After playing Mig Alley for countless hours with the original brownish land textures (seemed like autumn to me), I needed something different. Alexander Alonso (AxA) came up with a winter terrain, which was just what the doctor ordered (more countless hours playing). In more recent months, AxA was working on an alternative terrain, but I just couldn't wait any longer. I figured I'd try to modify some of the files myself (almost wish I hadn't, this was a pain). However, this "spring terrain mod" may tide us over until AxA finishes his new terrain, which should be excellent. I give a great deal thanks to AxA for the inspiration of this terrain mod, his website, as well as some of his winter terrain files that I needed to use or modify. Thanks also to the many others in the flight sim community for making modifications for various sims. Before you begin installing this, you should consider this terrain as a "Beta" release. I do not have access to more than one computer for testing. I flew a number of hours after completing this terrain mod, but I have not flown around the the entire Korean Peninsula to determine if there are other issues/incompatibilities, etc. I also do not know if this will cause a frame rate hit. There are some known problems with this "beta" terrain, such as some duplication of terrain tiles, snowy patches on the secondary runways, and snowy roads across and along the sides of forests). The snowy roads can be turned off by selecting [routes "off"] in 3dII Preferences of Mig Alley, but then you can't see any roads :-( So what's a little snow...it's spring...pretend it didn't all melt yet. Spring Terrain Additions (MA Spring Terrain Additions.zip) The author is John Maleski. From the readme: This addition attempts to fix a few of the more obvious repeating terrain issues, as well as a runway issue (at least one runway was darn near impossible to identify). These additions are intended to be used with my Mig Alley "beta" spring terrain (so I'll assume you downloaded that terrain first, read the associated readme file, and installed it). I know I said that I may not update the beta spring terrain mod, but some things were annoying me. As discussed in the readme of the beta spring terrain, some issues were noted, such as duplication of terrain tiles, snowy patches on the secondary runways, and snowy roads across and along the sides of forests. I haven't figured out how to remove the snow from the roads that cross and circle some forests, and I'm not too concerned regarding the snow on a few of the runways (yet). As an FYI, all the files "repeat" throughout the landmap, so it's difficult to completely remove the repeating terrain look, unless you use very simple solid color files or simple patterns (but that would be boring). I noticed that the repeating terrain in mountainous areas isn't as noticeable as the big flat stretches of land. The biggest problem is, some small areas in one area may be used for much larger areas in another (thereby causing the offending repeating terrain). I did notice that some of the new terrain files were more offending "repeaters" IMHO, so I tried to fix them. Unfortunately, I can't fly to every section of the map to explore problems with repeating terrain. I also included brown city ground color files to make the cities stand out a little more (img10029.x8, img10030.x8 and img10031.x8). If you liked the greenish color of the cities in the spring mod, don't install these files. Others All other mods can be found in the Other  folder of the patch collection. AxA's MA Hit Sprites A mod to make hits more visible from the cockpit. Nose art Additional nose art, although there are no installation instructions, the MiG Alley folders seem to suggest the contents of the zip file should be extracted to: \Artwork\NOSEUSER You may wish to backup the original images before doing so. Finally... Credit and thanks goes to: VOGONS user Been_Nath_58 for the unpacked version of the official patch. vJoy developers. Joystick Gremlin developers. Opentrack developers. AITrack developers. Alexander X. Alonso (AxA), Christian Mosimann, John Maleski, 'John', 'Harry' and the unknown authors of MiG Alley mods. Good hunting!

This is a quick article briefly discussing the use of Opentrack and AITrack. For those without TrackIR, an alternative may be an Opentrack/AITrack combo to provide head tracking. This is a very brief article as the installation and setup was very easy using a webcam. Opentrack OpenTrack configured for AITrack Opentrack essentially provides TrackIR data to a TrackIR supporting flight sim like MiG Alley or Falcon BMS. From the GitHub page: Opentrack  is a program for tracking user's head rotation and transmitting it to flight simulation software and military-themed video games. The latest versions are available from Opentrack GitHub releases . One of the types of input available to Opentrack is a neural net face tracker. One such example which seems to work very well is AITrack, AITrack AITrack, the camera is off so as not to scare young children or the innocent! AITrack can be thought of as the brains of the combo. AITrack is responsible for taking webcam video and using a neural network to identify facial features and convert head movement into data for OpenTrack. The latest versions are available from AiTrack GitHub releases . From the AITrack GitHub page: AITrack is a 6-Degree of Freedom head-tracker designed to work alongside Opentrack for its use in simulators/games. AITrack uses its own tracking pipeline (based on neural networks) to estimate the user's head position with respect to the webcam and then, streams it to Opentrack, which in turn, transmits it to your games.   Installation and setup Installation and setup is very straightforward, simply consult the AITrack Installing and running  instructions. There is also a video tutorial to help out as well. Using an old Microsoft LifeCam Cinema from 2010, I was able to get head tracking up and running in about 20 mins from plugging in the camera to testing it in a sim. It works well and this is with an old camera with the barest of tracking configuration. With a more modern camera and a bit of time spent tweaking response axes, you should see even better results. Finally... Credit and thanks to the developers of Opentrack and AITrack, not only have they created an excellent alternative to TrackIR, both products integrate seamlessly together, and are simple and easy to install and configure! Great work there!