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A guide to enhancing and running Tachyon: The Fringe in Windows 10 with dgVoodoo2 and ReShade. This guide uses the gog.com version but the steps should be similar for other digital releases or a cd retail release. Tachyon: The Fringe is NovaLogic's foray into the space sim genre. Released in 2000, what sets it apart from the crowd and makes it fondly remembered today is the voice acting talent of Bruce Campbell, who plays the protagonist Jake Logan. This guide will cover, installation, configuration and patching to optimise use with modern Windows and graphical enhancements for a modern GPU with dgVoodoo2 and ReShade. Media Tachyon was distributed on a single cd, but as usual a cd image will be used in preference to physical media, to save wear and tear on disc and drive. The physical cd can be ripped to the data only iso image format, as there are no cd audio tracks on the disc. This guide will be based on gog.com release but should also be applicable to a Steam  digital release or a cd retail release. 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 a combination of devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller  can be configured (with vendor software or Joystick Gremlin), limited to 4 axes. 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 Installation Digital releases should be installed with the relevant client, gog.com Galaxy or the Steam client. Retail cd releases seem to use a 32-bit installer app ( setup.exe in the ttfsetup folder) which continues to run under Win10. Patching Despite the digital versions being pre-patched with the last official patch there are still some additional patches that are either useful for or required by digital releases. Retail cd patch The final official patch will update Tachyon to v01.00.00.36r. The official patch is cumulative with earlier fixes also included. This patch is unnecessary for gog.com and Steam digital versions which are already patched. A list of fixes and a link to the patch can be found on the Novalogic support page for Tachyon: The Fringe (now hosted on the Internet Archive, courtesy of the WayBack Machine). In addition, a copy of the NovaLogic FTP site from 2014 is also hosted at the Internet Archive. The entire FTP site is in a zip archive, 11GB in size, so view the contents of the zip archive and only download the patch ( TTF/ttf_update_050500_xx.exe ). Alpha blending patch The 3Dfx renderer uses an incorrect alpha blending mode for nebulae. A patch is available on the nGlide compatibility list . The tachyon_patch.zip file contains a replacement Hw_3dfx.dll file which should be extracted into the Tachyon installation folder, replacing the original file. This patch is recommended for both cd retail and digital releases. It is not known if this patch has already been applied to digital releases, but applying it doesn't cause any issues. Credit and thanks to Zeus (of nGlide fame) for hosting this patch. Stack patch Trying to run Tachyon with ReShade results in a crash. This is due to the insufficient stack size allocated to space.exe, for ReShade to start. Fortunately Dege (of dgVoodoo2 fame) was able to identify the issue and had already found the fix as posted in the VOGONS forum. Another big thank you to Dege for his investigation. The copyrighted space.exe file can't be hosted for download, however an xdelta patch was created which can be used to patch an existing space.exe file: Background In order to create this patch the Visual Studio tools and x86/x64 build tools library were obtained and installed to get the Visual Studio developer console and editbin tool. The editbin tool was run from within the developer console to increase the stack size of space.exe with the following command: editbin.exe /stack:1048576 space.exe Credit and thanks to Dege, once again. An xdelta patch was created with the xdelta UI tool comparing the original space.exe and amended space.exe. Credit and thanks go to Josh McDonald for the xdelta tool and to KaioShin for the xdelta UI tool. Applying the patch Download the tachyon-stack.zip file above and extract tachyon_stack.xdelta into the Tachyon installation folder. xdelta UI tool Download the xdelta UI tool from ROMhacking.net . Extract the contents of xdeltaUI.zip (xdelta.exe, xdeltaUI.exe and readme.txt) into the Tachyon installation folder. Run xdeltaUI.exe and click the Apply Patch tab. Select tachyon_stack.xdelta as the Patch. Select space.exe as the Source file and specify an Output file (e.g. space_stack.exe ). Click the Patch button to apply the patch, it should be successful. Rename the original space.exe to a backup name (e.g. space_backup.exe ). Rename the output file (e.g. space_stack.exe ) to space.exe . This is the first xdelta patch to be hosted so it would be useful to get confirmation that this patch works for others. Disabling nGlide The recommended Glide wrapper is dgVoodoo2 as this allows for anti-aliasing and scaling with later DirectX libraries which are hooked into by ReShade. However the gog.com (and it is assumed other digital releases) may use nGlide. The recommended method for disabling nGlide is to copy the following files from the Tachyon installation folder into a sub folder (e.g. nglide ). glide.dll glide2x.dll glide3x.dll nglide_config.exe nglide_readme.txt nGlideEULA.txt If there are issues using dgVoodoo2 then the dgVoodoo files can be removed and the nGlide files restored by copying them back into Tachyon installation folder. dgVoodoo2 This guide assumes the latest version of dgVoodoo2, which is v2.86.1 (at time of writing), available from Dege's dgVoodoo2 GitHub repository, under Releases . Once again credit and thanks to Dege for the amazing dgVoodoo2 tool. Installation Tachyon uses Glide rendering, so only the Glide components of dgVoodoo2 are required. The following files should be extracted from the zip archive and copied to the Tachyon installation folder: dgVoodoo.conf dgVoodooCpl.exe \3Dfx\x86\ Glide.dll \ 3Dfx \x86\ Glide2x.dll \ 3Dfx \x86\ Glide3x.dll Note : only the files need to be copied into the installation folder, the \ 3Dfx \x86 path is not needed. Configuration The settings for dgVoodoo2 are shown in the screenshots below, the key settings being: General Output API: Direct3D 11 (feature level 10.0) . Appearance Full Screen  is selected. Scaling mode: Stretched, keep Aspect Ratio . Glide 3Dfx card: Voodoo 2 (8MB/12MB, 2 TMUs)  is selected. Onboard RAM: 12MB . Resolution: Max QHD ISF  is selected, or the highest setting applicable to your monitor. Integer Scaling Factor (ISF) is recommended to prevent scaling issues Antialiasing (MSAA): 8x  is selected, although this is a personal preference. MIscellaneous: 3Dfx Watermark: Checked , to confirm dgVoodoo2 is being used. Once confirmed, it can be disabled. General settings Glide settings ReShade ReShade provides graphical enhancements to a wide variety of games using modern graphical libraries available to today's high performance GPUs. This guide assumes the latest version of ReShade, v6.5.1, available from the ReShade  site. Installation Once downloaded the ReShade installer ( ReShade_Setup_6.5.1.exe ) should be extracted into the Tachyon installation folder. Download the ReShade preset zip file and extract the presets ( TachyonReShadePreset.ini )  into the Hardwar installation folder. Note : These are the shaders used in the testing video at the end of this guide. They are not definitive, you should feel free to try out different shaders to find a set you prefer. Run the ReShade installer. Select the Tachyon game executable ( space.exe ) from within the Tachyon installation folder. Select the rendering API, as we are using dgVoodoo2, this will be DirectX 10/11/12 . Select the effects to install. An individual effect or collections of effects can be installed, however it is easier to use the ReShade preset file instead. Click the browse button at the bottom and select TachyonReShadePreset.ini  from the Tachyon installation folder. Note : Running the ReShade installer again will provide options to 'Update ReShade', 'Update Reshade and effects' or 'Uninstall ReShade'. Selecting ' Update Reshade and effects ' will allow additional or alternative shaders to be installed. This will allow you to try out different combinations to find a set of shaders you prefer. Configuration Nearly all of the configuration is contained within the Tachyon ReShade presets file. However there is a further recommended config change. To open ReShade and configure: Start the game. If the game opens windowed, use + to switch to full screen. When the ReShade banner appears, open reshade with the  key. Go to ' Settings ' and in the ' General ' section (see screenshot): Change the Start-up preset to TachyonReShadePreset.ini . Check the option ' Load only enabled effects ', to reduce the memory overhead. ReShade settings Game configuration This last configuration section covers game configuration, setting EAX audio options (if applicable) and ensuring the game is configured to use 3D hardware acceleration in the tachyon.cfg file. Audio Tachyon has audio support for EAX, so was added to the Creative ALchemy app, using the settings shown below. It is recommended to use the game path setting rather than the registry path. The buffers, duration and maximum voice count were left as default. Creative ALchemy Creative ALchemy settings Once Tachyon has been configured in ALchemy, legacy EAX options should now be supported. All that remains is to set the audio options in the Tachyon launcher app ( tachyon.exe ), as shown below. The Tachyon config/launcher tool. Note: EAX is a supported audio option. Here we see in the audio options EAX can now be selected along with alternative 3D audio settings. Clicking on the Test button plays a witty quip from Bruce Campbell! Game config file The game config file ( tachyon.cfg ) is a plain text file. It should be opened in a text editor to check the settings are correct. The following is a fragment of the config file with the settings of interest: [VIDEO] USE_HARDWARE=1 RES=0 HW_TYPE=1 [AUDIO] A3D_DEVICE=5 To ensure Glide is being used USE_HARDWARE and HW_TYPE should be set to 1 as shown above. RES is the in-game resolution, with 0 being the highest resolution (1024x768), 1 a lower resolution (800x600) and 2 the lowest (640x480). It should be set to the highest: 0. The A3D_DEVICE option corresponds to the 3D Audio Device options in the Tachyon launcher (starting from 0). So selecting EAX (the 6th option) means this setting should be 5. You'll want to check the A3D_DEVICE matches your own selection. In-game configuration As would be expected the graphics can be pushed to maximums and all graphical effects enabled. However, if a virtual controller is used you may find the control scheme defaults to mouse at the start of a new session. When starting a new gaming session go to the in-game options and ensure your virtual controller is already selected. Below is an example showing a Thrustmaster Virtual Game Controller with throttle and rudder pedals enabled. Controller options may need to be set when starting a new session Enable the intro video Intro video In the gog.com digital release, the intro video isn't played when the game is started. To enable the intro video, create a shortcut to Binkplay.exe in the Tachyon installation folder. Change the target field in the shortcut properties to one of the the following: To play the video in it's tiny original size: "\Binkplay.exe" tachyon.bik Where is the Tachyon install folder path. To play fullscreen: "\Binkplay.exe" tachyon.bik /w-1 /h-1 This may look overly stretched on widescreen monitors, so choose a suitably large 4:3 aspect ratio supported by your monitor, e.g.: "\Binkplay.exe" tachyon.bik /w2048 /h1536 Backups Now that configuration is complete, it might be a good time to take a backup of your Tachyon installation folder. It's recommended to zip up the installation folder and store it elsewhere. The game client used by digital releases may have a verification option. If the verification option is accidentally (or deliberately) run, the hard work to configure the game may be lost if the changed files are replaced with those originally installed by the client or the extra files added to the installation folder are removed. Documentation & further information Be sure to grab the docs which come bundled with digital releases to get the most out of the game. Sadly there don't seem to be any fan sites left for this old classic, but the gog.com and Steam Tachyon forums may have some useful posts. Finally... This is a quick test video of Tachyon: The Fringe running with the dgVoodoo2 and ReShade settings discussed above: Woah, that's a big gun. - Jake Logan

Elite Plus retail box This will be the first in a couple of articles covering the classic granddaddy space sim of them all, Elite. In this first article we'll be taking a look at the last version released for the PC, 'Elite Plus', in all of it's 256 colour, VGA glory, and a modern take on the original classic, 'Elite: The New Kind'. This article won't be covering the Frontier or Frontier: First Encounters games. One for a future article! Elite Plus Elite Plus title screen Elite Plus is a re-implemented version of the classic Elite on the PC with graphics improved from CGA to EGA, VGA or MCGA (256 colour VGA). Sound has also been enhanced with the original PC Speaker supplemented with Adlib (Soundblaster compatible) or Roland music. The PC version of Elite was created by Ian Bell and David Braben and published in 1984, while Elite Plus was published in 1991. The retail release was distributed on 2 x 5.25" Double Density (DD) 360k floppy disks, or a single 3.5" 720k DD floppy disk. If you wish to use your existing floppy disks I would recommend converting them to floppy disk images to save wear and tear on the media, they are over 30 years old now! Where to get it Docking at a Coriolis station The easiest place to pick up Elite Plus is digitally through a free download on Ian Bell's PC Elite page . This version also has the added advantage of disabled copy protection. This digital version is distributed as a zip archive. Controller support Elite Plus supports keyboard, mouse or joystick control. It does not support a throttle or rudder pedals. However, since I have a joystick, throttle and rudder pedals, I configured them as part of the virtual controller, even if they won't be used. This will make it easier for DOSBox to assign the correct virtual controller axes to the DOSBox joystick device axes. Configuring axes may not be required if your setup has 4 axes or less. 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 config assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging, at time of writing v0.82.0. Changes from the default values are described below: [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] core = simple cycleup = 100 cycledown = 100 [voodoo] voodoo = false [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true [mixer] reverb = medium chorus = normal [midi] mididevice = mt32 [mt32] romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" [sblaster] sbtype = sbpro1 [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis timed = true swap34 = false deadzone = 0 [autoexec] imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\Elite Plus\fdd\*.img" -t floppy -ro mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Elite Plus\hdd" loadfix c: cd elite elite 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. The simple core is used to increase compatibility with earlier DOS games. The default 3000 cycles count seems fine and doesn't need to be adjusted. Voodoo emulation isn't required and can be disabled. The [mixer] settings are a personal preference to enhance sound and music. The [midi] and [mt32] settings are based on info from the VOGONS wiki article ' List of MT-32-compatible computer games '. The rom folder needs to be specified, as described in DOSBox midi . As the CM32L device is supported the mt32 model can be left as default. In the [sblaster] section, the sbtype is changed to a Soundblaster Pro, this is to take advantage of stereo audio provided by (emulated) dual OPL chips. I'm not sure if this makes a difference but the VOGONS wiki article has a note about Adlib OPL2, so setting the type to sbpro1 may provide an enhancement? The [joystick] settings use a 4axis joystick type, as I'm using a 4 axes virtual controller, and this will help DOSBox assign axes correctly. If you only have a 2 axes controller or your device(s) allows unused axes to be disabled, then this could be changed to a 2axis joystick type. The timed settings seemed to be required by my HOTAS setup and as the throttle and rudder pedals aren't used the swap34 setting can be left as default. The deadzone is a personal preference. The [autoexec] has example imgmount commands for a floppy disk image, if you wish to use your retail release. The imgmount and mount commands make use of a folder structure described in my DOSBox game management  article. The loadfix  command is required to limit the amount of conventional memory. This is often needed by early DOS games or increases compatibility. The rest of the autoexec commands go to the DOSBox folder where Elite was installed and runs the game. Installation There is no installer utility with Elite Plus so installation is just a manual file copy. To install the digital release, simply create a folder under the DOSBox hard disk folder and extract the archive into this folder. This can all be done in Windows. In my case I created an ELITE folder, so I had to extract the archive into D:\Games\Dos\Elite Plus\hdd\ELITE. This folder becomes C:\ELITE in DOSBox. To install a retail release with floppy disk images, from within DOSBox, create an installation folder on the C: drive and copy the contents of any disk(s) into this folder, e.g. c: # Go to the c: drive md elite # Create an elite folder a: # Go to the floppy disk copy *.* c:\elite # Copy the contents into the elite folder Running Each time Elite Plus is run, the sound/music and graphics options are chosen. The sound/music options are: PC speaker Adlib compatible (Soundblaster) Roland LAPC1 (recommended) The DOSBox config settings allow Adlib/Soundblaster or Roland to be chosen. The graphics option can then be chosen: EGA 16 colours VGA 16 colours MCGA 256 colours (recommended) Cobra MkIII, feels like home! MCGA is fully compatible with VGA, so the MCGA option is effectively VGA with 256 colours. Once in game you will need to select your controller option, either keyboard (default), mouse or joystick. Saved games have the file extension .cdr for Commander. Background and documentation When it comes to background information Ian Bell's Elite Home Page is second to none, well worth a read if you want to dig into the history and the various versions of Elite. Of particular note are: The Space Traders Flight Training Manual The novella included with retail releases, ' The Dark Wheel '. Written by Rob Holdstock it provides background to the galaxies you'll be flying, fighting and trading within and a pretty good Elite story as well! If you are using a joystick I would also recommend trying to find a pdf version of the PC retail manual as the joystick control options are covered. Elite: The New Kind I'd recognize a Cobra MkIII anywhere! Elite: The New Kind (also known as Elite: TNK or E:TNK) is the work of Christian Pinder. The original 8-bit BBC Model B version was reversed engineered and redeveloped into a Windows version. What is remarkable is that the 'feel' of the original has been preserved in E:TNK coupled with graphics that are reminiscent of the Acorn Archimedes version (often considered the best version of Elite) has resulted in a modern day equivalent that plays like the classic Elite of previous years. Definitely one for the purist Elite connoisseur! Not without its issues, it was unavailable when Christian was asked to remove the download for legal reasons, but following the 30th anniversary of Elite, E:TNK was granted a reprieve and has been available to download ever since! Where to get it The latest version is v1.2 available digitally as zip archive from the download section of ' The New Kind ' website. Installation and running A clean and harmless Commander DarkenedRoom! As a zip archive, installation only requires extracting the archive into a folder, that's it. There are installation and running instructions on the download page of the website. There is no joystick or mouse option, it being a port of the original BBC Model B version, so it's old school keyboard flying in this version! Even if you've never played the earlier 8- or 16-bit versions of Elite, I'd recommend E:TNK if only to get a taste of what the original was like. Finally... We've taken a brief look at Elite for the PC as it was then, with the PC port and a modern PC interpretation of the 8-bit classic Elite. In the next article we'll take a look at a 21st century Elite and why I think it's as revolutionary today, as the original was 40 years ago.

A discussion on optimising the Jane's Longbow 2/Anthology setup to maximise rocket effectiveness.and suggestions for effective use in-game. The issue When engaging targets with the FFAR rockets, they will often seem to fall hundreds of metres short of the actual vehicle being engaged, despite there being a solid valid lock with the I-beam reticle on the HUD. This has been an on-going issue which seems to have begun around the release of v2.09 patch and/or the use of cpu's exceeding the recommended specs of the game. Subjective opinion seems to lean towards, higher spec cpu's, or the v2.09 patch or a combination of both creating the issue or increasing ithe impact to the point it affects gameplay. The issue isn't due to emulation as the issue was present with higher spec legacy cpu's as indicated by Flyboy's FAQ (see: Why do the rockets fall short of the targets, even though I have a valid lock?). Increasing effectiveness These following suggestions cover changing the PCem virtual machine used to play Longbow 2, to try and reduce the impact of the issue. AmnHLT driver Use of the AmnHLT driver was discussed in the Longbow 2//Anthology setup guide, Jane's Longbow 2/Anthology: Rocketing into PCem , and is repeated below: There is an additional virtual device driver that can be installed to increase the performance of the 86Box emulator. Quoting the VOGONS post  by Jo22: AmnHLT is a third-party VxD that issues a HLT (halt) instruction to the CPU whenever Windows 9x is idle. It's meant to avoid a 100% processor usage in VMs - and emulators. HLT is supported by late 486 processors and higher. It can be obtained from the VOGONS post  by SA1988. AmnHLT.7z  is a 7zip  archive. Only the amnrefr.vxd  file is required from the archive. The following installation instructions were provided in a VOGONS post  by 0x6A7232: In Win98SE, open regedit. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD . Create a key named AmnHLT . Create a binary value named Start  with a value of 00  inside the AmnHLT key. Create a string value named StaticVxD  with a string of AMNREFR.VXD  inside the AmnHLT key. Shutdown the operating system and close the emulator. Copy amnrefr.vxd  driver into the C:\Windows\System  folder of the virtual hard disk. Start the Win98SE virtual machine. Credit and thanks go to VOGONS members Jo22, SA1988 and 0x6A7232. Limiting Voodoo Graphics frame rates The Voodoo Graphics emulated in the PCem Win98SE virtual machine can be frame rate limited to 30fps. This seems to help as high frame rates may also contribute to the issue, as discussed in the SimHQ forums post, Rocket pod problems . These steps should be carried out within the Win98SE virtual machine: Add the following to end of autoexec.bat in the PCem VM: call c:\windows\glideenv.bat Create the file c:\windows\glideenv.bat . Add the following Voodoo environment variables to the file: SET SST_SCREENREFRESH=30 SET FX_GLIDE_SWAPINTERVAL=0 Choosing a CPU The virtual machine motherboard ([Super 7] FIC VA-503+) was chosen as it supports a wide range of cpu's and cpu speeds. Given that the issues also seems to be somewhat dependant on the host machine, this allows for testing multiple cpu speeds and selecting the 'subjectively' best one for your machine. The CPU can be changed within the PCem virtual machine config, without having to make any other changes, making it convenient to change and test. Recommendations are for an emulated cpu speed between 166-233MHz . In addition it may be worth testing alternatives to Intel CPU types, such as the IDT WinChip 200 . Game considerations Targeting & engaging When engaging a target the targeting mode should be set to TADS with the laser designating the target. In the casual flight mode the laser is used automatically but should be manually enabled for realistic flight mode. There can be a huge 200m discrepancy between the range reported by the PCR mode and the TADS range. Rockets are more accurate using TADS targeting with the laser. Speed & altitude The following SimHQ thread, LB2 Rocket Issues discusses speed and altitude issues when employing rockets. From my own testing I've found rockets work best at: Very low speed, 15-20kts or less and it's usually better to hold position and hover. An altitude of 100ft+ works subjectively best although there are alternatives discussed in the SimHQ post including the position of the flight path marker in relation to the I-beam reticle. Final word Unfortunately there isn't a 'one size fits all' solution but hopefully the advice presented here will make rockets more effective in your Longbow 2 missions. Credit and thanks go to Floydii (Discord) for finding SimHQ posts and additional testing and to SimHQ for hosting these older discussions. Good hunting!

This is a guide to optimising a gog.com or Steam digital release of the classic Falcon 3.0 flight sim collection, Falcon Gold, within DOSBox Staging. The guide will cover using the gog.com digital or Steam digital release and either a client install and/or a fresh install of Falcon Gold for reasons covered in the strategy. It will reference many of the earlier articles for Falcon. Strategy The recommended strategy is to create a fresh install of Falcon Gold using the digital release. There are a number of reasons for doing so: The use of 3rd party utilities and tools can enhance the campaign aspect of Falcon Gold. Using the existing digital release installation may result in an installation folder more difficult to manage or contain utilities that may conflict with each other. Additional 3rd party Red Flag missions may be harder to manage. The verification of a digital release installation folder with the gog.com or Steam client may result in any 3rd party tools or additional 3rd party missions to be removed, or damaged if they have changed existing Falcon Gold files. Additional installations allow tools and configuration changes to be tried without affecting any on-going campaigns. Given the popularity long time fans have had to create and use tools to enhance campaign management, it seems likely those new to the sim would reach a point in using these tools for their own campaigns. Having a fresh installation folder supplemented with additional tools folders becomes easier to manage. It is therefore recommended to create a fresh install unaffected by gog.com/Steam verification for this reason and this is covered in ' Using a fresh installation '. However for those who would just wish to optimise an existing digital installation and jump right in and begin flying, should take a look at ' Using a client installation ', The client installation can be used to begin with before moving onto a fresh Falcon Gold installation. Both methods will require a client installation as the first step. Client installation Either the gog.com Galaxy client, gog.com offline installer or Steam client should be used to install Falcon Gold. It should complete successfully without issue. The installation folder will be dependant on the client installation folder or the chosen gog.com offline installer destination folder. Using a client installation This section uses a gog.com digital release, however the steps should be similar, if not identical, for a Steam digital release. Game Management I recommend using my DOSBox game management  strategy. As the gog.com digital version is used and installed by the gog.com client or offline installer, the following folders are recommended: conf - to store any DOSBox Staging/HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of the recommended patch. DOSBox config changes This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging v0.82.1. This config only details the changes from the configuration found in the previous article, ' Falcon 3.0: Operation DOSBox Staging '. Changes to this configuration are detailed below. [autoexec] mount c "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Falcon Gold" mount c "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Falcon Gold\cloud_saves" -t overlay imgmount d "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Falcon Gold\game.gld" -t iso c: cd falconcd # for Falcon Gold cd-rom install folder darkmenu # my startup menu The [autoexec] section mounts the gog.com installation folder under the Galaxy client  as the c: drive. gog.com releases often provide a facility to save your game in the cloud, it does this by providing an overlay mount in the gog.com DOSBox config. I've recreated this mount in the DOSBox Staging config. I'm not 100% sure if it works correctly (it seems to), so please be aware and don't rely on it! The Falcon Gold cd image is included in the release as game.g ld and is mounted as an emulated cd d: drive. The remaining commands run my Falcon 3.0/Gold darkmenu . Patching TM-STICK A recommended utility is TM-STICK which reduces the joystick deadzone and allows changes to be made to the throttle detent, after which the various stages of afterburner are applied. It's usefulness will be determined by your specific controller setup but it's certainly worth trying out. Note: The Falcon Gold edition has the TM-STICK v1.9 utility included as an extra, but Falcon Gold requires TM-STICK v2.1, available at the   Internet Archive . 3rd party patches This guide assumes a vanilla experience for new players so the only recommended mod is F3 missile which changes the characteristics of the Stinger/SA-7B SAM missiles, making them less overpowered and more realistic.A huge number of utilities with various version have been distributed over the years, an earlier article. 'Falcon 3.0: Unofficial mods & tools', details them and the utilities that remain compatible with the latest versions. This concludes using a client installation. Using a fresh installation Game Management The game management for a fresh install extends the game management shown above for a client install. So we have the existing three folders: conf - to store any DOSBox Staging/HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of the recommended patch. Supplemented with: cd - to store the cd image. hdd - to act as the DOSBox hdd folder. The game management folders will be identical to those used in . Obtaining the CD image A Falcon Gold cd image is included within the client installation, it is the game.gld file. This file is an iso image and can be renamed to game.iso (or falcon3.iso , falconcd.iso , etc.). It can be mounted and opened in Win10/11 as a cd and the contents viewed in File Explorer. Once satisfied the image seems ok, the cd can be ejected. The iso file can be copied into the cd game management folder. DOSBox config The DOSBox Staging config is identical to one used earlier in the article ' Falcon 3.0: Operation DOSBox Staging ', but is listed below for convenience (some settings are omitted as they are now the default in the latest version of DOSBox Staging). A description of the various settings can be found in the DOSBox setup section. [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] vmemsize = 8 dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] cpu_cycles = 18000 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\Falcon Gold\hdd" imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Falcon Gold\cd\game.iso" -t cdrom c: cd falconcd # for Falcon Gold install folder darkmenu # my startup menu The [autoexec] mount and imgmount commands will depend in which folder the game management folders are stored. In the example above I used: D:\Games\Dos\Falcon Gold Installation and patching Falcon Gold should be installed under DOSBox using the installer app (install.exe) found on the cd image. It should complete without issue. The Art of the Kill should also be installed, if desired. Patching Art of the Kill The gog.com client installation includes the Art of the Kill patch, an updated video player ( newaotk.exe ). This file needs to be copied to the aotk folder in the DOSBox hdd folder. It's not known if the AOTK patch is also included in the Steam digital release. If not the patch should be applied under DOSBox. Patching TM-STICK See Patching TM-STICK above. 3rd party patches See 3rd party patches above. HOTAS config The Controller setup advice is unchanged. Running Falcon Gold The Running Falcon advice is unchanged. Documentation & further Information How to find complete documentation . Background to the falcon collection and official patches and utilities . 3rd party patches and utilities . The earlier setup guide: Falcon 3.0: Operation DOSBox Staging . Running Gold Falcon Utilities in DOSBox Staging . Good hunting!

A guide to running the (maybe not so well known) DOS sim, Heroes of the 357th in DOSBox Staging. Heroes is a WWII sim of the P-51 Mustang based from England with missions taking place over France and Germany. Published by Electronic Arts in 1992 and developed by Midnight Software, Inc. Originally released on both 1 x High Density 1.2MB 5.25" and 2 x Double Density 720KB 3.5" floppy disks, later released would be distributed on a single cd-rom. Not the most known or well loved sim it's generally considered middling but may still be worth a look for nostalgic purposes. The recommended version is the cd-rom release. Media Due to the age or the media and the drives required to read the media, it is recommended to rip both floppy and cd-rom media to image files, to save wear and tear on media and the mechanical drives. Floppy disks can be ripped to an .ima or .img image format. The cd-rom can be ripped to a data only .iso image format. HOTAS config Heroes only supports a joystick, however the below config includes throttle and rudder pedals to prevent the other peripherals from being incorrectly used by DOSBox and to allow keys to be mapped to the throttle. This is only required if the HOTAS has more than 4 axes and should be set through the DOSBox mapper or HOTAS profiling software. The config is shown below: Physical axis Windows axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle NONE Rudder NONE Game management Takeoff cutscene I recommend using my DOSBox game management  strategy. The recommended game management folders are: cd - to store the cd image. conf - to store any DOSBox or HOTAS configuration files. docs - to store any documents. fdd - to store any floppy images. hdd - the folder use as the emulated DOSBox hard disk. DOSBox Config This DOSBox Staging config for Heroes assumes the latest version (at time of writing), v0.82.1 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] core = simple cpu_cycles = 4000 cycleup = 100 cycledown = 100 [voodoo] voodoo = false [mixer] reverb = large chorus = normmal [joystick] joysticktype = 2axis timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 [autoexec] mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Heroes of the 357th\hdd" imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Heroes of the 357th\cd\Heroes.iso" -t cdrom imgmount a "D:\Games\Dos\Heroes of the 357th\fdd\*.img" -t floppy c: # cd p51 # p51 vga j adlib hi music sound # exit The [sdl] and [dosbox] settings are suitable for high frame rate gaming as described in this article  by Omniclyde. The mouse iss left as the game doesn't use the mouse. These settings aren't strictly required and can be omitted to use the default settings. In [cpu] settings, a core of simple is optimised for older real mode games. 4000 cycles is recommended but you may wish to change this, depending on personal preference or host pc. Cycles up/down is set to a suitably small increment. Voodoo emulation isn't required and can be disabled. The [mixer] settings can be changed to enhance sound and music to personal preference. Heroes only supports an AdLib (Sound Blaster compatible) device for music and sound, so MIDI options aren't used or needed and the default Sound Blaster settings are appropriate. There are example imgmount and mount commands to add floppy disk or cd images and the emulated hard disk folder. As there may be multiple multiple floppy disk images the * wildcard is used. The disabled commands can be enabled once installation is complete. Installation Installation differs between the cd-rom and floppy versions. CD Image CD-rom installer Installation should be performed from within DOSBox. For the cd-rom version, the installer app ( install.exe ) should be run. The installation steps are: Select an installation drive, the default c: is appropriate. Select an installation directory, the default c:\p51 is appropriate. There are instructions for running the game. A text version of the manual is displayed. Note: there are no graphics or sound/music options to choose. Floppy Image(s) There is no installer for the floppy version of the game. The game may have been ripped to one or two floppy images. To install from a single floppy image: Create an installation folder ( c:\p51 ). Copy p51.bat and heroes.exe from the floppy image into the installation folder. Run heroes.exe to extract the game files. To install from multiple floppy images: Create an installation folder ( c:\p51 ) Copy p51.bat and heroes1.exe from the first floppy image into the installation folder. Copy heroes2.exe from the second floppy image into the installation folder. Run heroes1.exe to extract the game files. Run heroes2.exe to extract the rest of the game files. Note:  there are no graphics or sound/music options to choose. Running & configuration The game is run by calling p51.exe or p51.bat. In the DOSBox Staging config, p51 is called with arguments: p51 vga j adlib hi music sound The supported arguments are listed below: ega Loads game with EGA graphics. vga Loads game with VGA graphics. j Loads game with joystick flight control. k Loads game with keyboard flight control. lo Loads game in low graphics detail mode. med Loads game in medium graphics detail mode. hi Loads game in high graphics detail mode. sound Loads game with sound on. nosound Loads game with music on and sound off. pc Loads game with PC internal speaker sounds. adlib Loads game with AdLib sound card sounds. tandy Loads game with Tandy sound (VGA required) quiet Loads game with neither music nor sound. music Loads game with music on. nomusic Loads game with music turned off. Options menu In-game configuration During a mission, ' o ' will bring up an options menu as shown in the screenshot. Options are left as a personal preference. Documents The cd-rom release has a copy of the manual as a text file ( heros357.txt ). However a digital version of the manual can be found in pdf format and is recommended due to the included screenshots. The reference card can be found on MobyGames . Good hunting!

A guide to running Jane's Longbow 2 and Jane's Longbow Anthology under PCem emulation. Longbow 2/Anthology will be run on an emulated Windows 98 Second Edition (Win98SE) virtual machine. This guide will cover: The hardware settings to use in PCem emulation. The preferred Win98SE drivers to use. Software installation. Longbow 2/Anthology configuration. Optional HOTAS setup. Optional TrackIR setup. Testing. Last update: 15 June 2025. Strategy This emulation strategy is based on a known issue which has plagued Longbow 2 and Anthology since shortly after release, the rocket attacks which always seem to fall short of the target. This was identified as being due to the speed or the hardware the sim was being run on, at the time a situation which has only worsened as hardware became more powerful. For this reason and in conjunction with testing the recommended hardware to emulate has been specified to be lower than may be expected. At present it is believed the issue is affected by both the host machine running the emulator and the virtual machine being emulated. For reference my host machine specs (at time of writing) are:: Processor: Intel i7-7700K @ 4.2GHz Mainboard: Asus Prime Z270-P Memory: 64GB DDR4 (4 x 16GB) @ 3.2Ghz, XMP enabled Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060 The precise spec to use will depend on the host machine and the results of testing. It is recommended to use a CPU in the range, Pentium 150 - 200Mhz, Pentium MMX 150-233Mhz or Mobile Pentium MMX 150-300Mhz. The FIC VA-503+ allows for this large range of processor speeds. PCem emulator & virtual machine This guide assumes the latest version of the PCem emulator v17 will be used. It is available from the PCem website . Where a particular setting is missing, the default setting is assumed to be used. The recommended virtual machine specs are as follows: Machine Machine: [Super 7] FIC VA-503+ CPU: Intel Pentium MMX 166 Memory: 256MB Synchronise time to host clock: enabled Update : There has been some promising testing with rocket effectiveness, using the following CPU settings: CPU: IDT WinChip 200 Display Device: S3 ViRGE/DX Memory size: 4MB Bilinear filtering: enabled Dithering: enabled Speed: Fast VLB/PCI Voodoo Graphics: enabled Voodoo type: Voodoo Graphics Framebuffer memory size: 4MB Texture memory size: 4MB Bilinear filtering: enabled Screen filter: disabled Render threads: 4 SLI: disabled Recompiler: enabled Sound Device: Sound Blaster 16 OPL emulator: NukedOPL All other settings remain default Disks & drives HDD: [IDE] Standard IDE FDD1: 3.5" 1.44M CD Model: PCemCD CD Speed: 32X Select a new hard disk Image Format: Dynamic-size VHD (.vhd) New File: choose a suitable file name Size (MB): 4000 Cylinders, Heads and Sectors will be configured once Size is chosen Block size: Large blocks (2 MB) Mouse Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse (PS/2) Joystick Discussed later, see HOTAS config . Creating the virtual machine The virtual machine will be using Windows 98 Second Edition (Win98SE). Before creating the virtual machine it may be useful to take a look at the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup . Even though it covers an alternative PCem virtual machine the steps for configuring the bios and installing Win98SE will be identical. The virtual machine bios should be configured to boot from the CD-ROM first and then the C drive. As usual all credit for the excellent YouTube tutorial and PhilsComputerLab  website should go to Phil. Windows 98 Second Edition You will need to obtain the OEM full edition which allows the PC to be booted from the CD-ROM. By following the advice provided by PhilsComputerLab and the YouTube video,   PCem Windows 98 Setup  you should end up with a clean Win98SE installation. Device drivers Now it's time to optimise the hardware using appropriate hardware device drivers, installed in the order below, for the following devices: VIA chipset Sound Blaster 16 3Dfx Voodoo Accelerator DirectX7 AmnHLT software It's worth remembering Win98SE does not include support for opening zip files. So it is recommended to do this with Win10/11 by following the steps: Download copies of the device drivers. Extract each zip file on your Win10/11 machine, into a separate folder. Shutdown the virtual machine if it is running. Mount the virtual hard disk in Win10/11 by opening the vhd hard disk file (created earlier when configuring the virtual machine in 86Box Manager). Copy the folders containing the device driver and any downloaded executable (.exe) files containing device drivers, onto the mounted virtual hard disk. I would recommend copying into the 'My Documents' folder on the virtual hard disk. Eject the virtual hard disk, unmounting it from Win10/11, otherwise you won't be able to start Win98SE on the virtual machine. Start up the virtual machine and once Win98SE has started, begin installing the device drivers. VIA chipset drivers The VIA chipset drivers for the FIC VA-503+ motherboard can be found on The Retro Web website. The VIA 4in1 Chipset Driver v4.43V supports Windows 2000/9x/NT4/XP ( via-4in1-443v.zip ). As the drivers are distributed as a zip file, it should be extracted in Win10/11 first before being copied to the virtual hard disk. The executable file ( 4in1443v.exe ) should be run to install the drivers. Sound Blaster 16 drivers The Sound Blaster 16/AWE32 Driver Update for Win98  can be found on the VOGONS Vintage Driver Library. As the drivers are distributed as a zip file, it should be extracted in Win10/11 first before being copied to the virtual hard disk. This distribution includes an installer app ( upddrv95.exe ) which will install the drivers. With some Voodoo cards/drivers the texture behind the tower struts won't be visible. 3Dfx Voodoo Accelerator drivers The Voodoo Accelerator drivers  can be found on the PhilsComputerLab website. The specific drivers are the May 1999 - Latest Reference drivers ( voodoo_graphics_driver_kit_version_3.01.00.zip ) As the drivers are distributed as a zip file, it should be extracted in Win10/11 first before being copied to the virtual hard disk. Win98SE may have already installed 3Dfx Voodoo drivers, but they should be replaced by this version. You will have to open the Voodoo device in Device Manager and upgrade the drivers. DirectX7 The DirectX7 drivers can be found on the PhilsComputerLab website ( directx7.zip ). As the drivers are distributed as a zip file, it should be extracted in Win10/11 first before being copied to the virtual hard disk. This distribution includes an installer app ( 7.0_directx7.exe ) which will install the drivers. AmnHLT driver There is an additional virtual device driver that can be installed to increase the performance of the 86Box emulator. Quoting the VOGONS post  by Jo22: AmnHLT is a third-party VxD that issues a HLT (halt) instruction to the CPU whenever Windows 9x is idle. It's meant to avoid a 100% processor usage in VMs - and emulators. HLT is supported by late 486 processors and higher. It can be obtained from the VOGONS post  by SA1988. AmnHLT.7z  is a 7zip  archive. Only the amnrefr.vxd  file is required from the archive. The following installation instructions were provided in a VOGONS post  by 0x6A7232: In Win98SE, open regedit. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD . Create a key named AmnHLT . Create a binary value named Start  with a value of 00  inside the AmnHLT key. Create a string value named StaticVxD  with a string of AMNREFR.VXD  inside the AmnHLT key. Shutdown the operating system and close the emulator. Copy amnrefr.vxd  driver into the C:\Windows\System  folder of the virtual hard disk. Start the Win98SE virtual machine. Credit and thanks go to VOGONS members Jo22, SA1988 and 0x6A7232. Preserving the virtual machine At this point we have a clean Win98SE virtual machine (VM) 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 to try out with other 3Dfx/Glide games that struggle to run natively in Win10 with Glide/DX wrappers, without having to repeat the above to create the VM. Longbow 2/Anthology media This guide assumes that physical cds will be ripped to cd images to save wear and tear on discs and drives. Longbow 2 uses 2 cds, while Anthology uses 4 cds, cds 1 & 2 being Longbow Gold while cds 3 & 4 are Longbow 2. Neither version uses cd audio so all discs can be ripped to a data only iso format. Longbow 2/Anthology installation Longbow 2 No place like home! A Longbow 2 installation should be a straightforward process. The first cd image should be mounted in PCem. If the cd does not autorun then the installer app ( setup.exe ) should be run. During the installation the default installation folder should be used ( C:\Janes\Longbow2 ). Either casual or expert play can be chosen as this option can be changed in-game. When asked about graphics, high details graphics and textures should be chosen. When asked about DirectX installation, this should be skipped as a later version of DirectX has already been installed. Longbow Anthology A Longbow Anthology installation should be a straightforward process. The first cd image should be mounted in Pcem as it contains the installer app for both Longbow Gold and Longbow 2 (setup.exe). If the cd does not autorun the installer app can be started manually. During the installation the default installation folder should be used ( C:\JANES\LBA\Longbow2 ). A custom install should be chosen to install Longbow 2 only. In addition to Longbow 2 the Longbow help files can also be chosen if you wish to have access to digital pdf copies of the manuals. Either casual or expert play can be chosen as this option can be changed in-game. When asked about graphics, high details graphics and textures should be chosen. When asked about DirectX installation, this should be skipped as a later version of DirectX has already been installed. Longbow 2 patches Only Longbow 2 requires patching as Anthology already has the two recommended patches applied. There are two recommended patches for Longbow 2, the v2.09 patch and the Display Driver Update (DDU) patch. Both patches can be found at GameFront . The Display Driver Update Beta patch is not recommended having been updated by the full DDU patch. v2.09 patch Released on 5 August 1998, the patch readme states: This patch fixes (among other things) known bugs such as the autopilot occasionally disengaging, hat issues with some joysticks and includes a filter to remove some harsh language in the game. This patch also includes support to play Longbow 2 on Janes combat.net. This patch should be extracted and then installed on the Win98SE virtual machine. Display Driver Update (DDU) patch The DDU patch introduces support for a number of additional 3d accelerator chipsets. From the readme: This is a display driver update to allow Longbow 2 to run 3D accelerated on 3D accelerator cards using the following chipsets: Riva 128, Rendition Verite V2100 and V2200, TI/3D Labs, Permedia 2, Intel i740, Matrox G200 This patch should be extracted and then installed on the Win98SE virtual machine. During the installation you will be asked to specify a chipset. After installation the config app ( lb2cfg.exe ) should be run to reselect the 3Dfx Glide option. Additional software If you want to read the digital copies of the manuals from with the PCem emulator, it is recommended to install Foxit Reader 2.3.3309 . This version is compatible with Win98SE despite the download page saying otherwise. The installer requires copying onto the Win98SE virtual machine and running, ( 2.3.3309_FoxitReader23_3309_setup.exe ). Longbow 2/Anthology fixes The following fixes can be applied to improve the stability and add Quality of Life (QoL) improvements. These fixes were originally found for the Jane's Longbow and Longbow 2 but are equally applicable to Anthology. Memory fixes For machine with large amounts of memory, this can trigger a spurious out of memory errors. To prevent the following lines should be added to the ca.ini config file in the Longbow 2/Anthology installation folder: [Backdoors] HEAP_PERCENT=0 If you wish to try the DirectX version of Anthology, this should be changed to: [Backdoors] HEAP_PERCENT=70 CD emulation The developers of Longbow, left in a functional cd emulation facility. This is a very useful facility as it saves you having to swap physical cd or cd images in PCem. To use it, copy the contents of each cd to a folder on the PCem virtual machine. Then create a file CDEmu.ini in the Longbow installation folder and within the file, specify the folder used for each cd. An example CDEmu.ini for Longbow 2 may look like this: [CDEmulate] CD001=C:\Janes\Lb2cd1 CD002=C:\Janes\Lb2cd2 Longbow Anthology only has two Longbow 2 cds, the third and fourth cds are Longbow 2, so the CDEmu.ini file only requires two entries. An example CDEmu.ini may look like: [CDEmulate] CD001=C:\Janes\Lbacd3 CD002=C:\Janes\Lbacd4 This was originally found by VOGONS member Marty2dos in the post, ' Janes AH-64D Longbow 1 & 2 without CD inc Memory Fix (Windows) '. So many thanks to Marty2dos. Finishing touches The following are some optional finishing touches you may wish to try. The graphics card control panels used by Nvidia or AMD cards can be configured on a per application/game basis. A profile can be created for the PCem app but in order to keep the settings specific to Longbow 2/Anthology, I took a copy of pcem.exe and renamed it to pcem-lb2.exe (or whatever name you prefer). I was then able to use the Nvidia Control Panel (as I have an Nvidia card) to create a profile for pcem-lb2.exe. Within the profile anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing were enabled. HOTAS Config The  Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem  guide covers installing HOTAS controllers in PCem. The physical axes were mapped as shown: 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 you have a custom calibrated Windows 98 controller the hard work is done. As long as the 3rd axis is the throttle and the 4th axis is the rudder, which can be checked in the Windows 98 control panel in the Game controllers section, then the game will correctly assign the axes. Just remember to calibrate the custom controller in Windows 98 first and then select Windows joystick in the 'in-flight' options menu (alt-o) in game when in the Apache. TrackIR Config Although there is no native TrackIR support in Longbow 2/Anthology, it can be enabled through the use of additional tools. For this section it is assumed the latest version of the TrackIR software is used, v5.5.3. TrackMapper TrackMapper In order to enable TrackIR support, TrackMapper needs to be used. It is a Keyboard emulator for TrackIR enhanced mode. TrackIR will send movement to TrackMapper, which will convert it into keyboard commands, used by Longbow 2. The latest version TrackMapper v1.1a needs to be downloaded, it is a single executable that just needs to be extracted into the Longbow installation folder. There are no registry keys so the executable can be added or deleted from game installation folders as required. TrackMapper used to be available from the NaturalPoint TrackIR website, where it was called TrackMapper2. As long as your TrackIR software has a profile for TrackMapper2 , then TrackMapper v1.1a should also work with the TrackIR software. Credit and thanks goes to Koji "KAF" Sato for the TrackMapper software. TrackMapper profile A Longbow profile for TrackMapper is available from Flyboy's Longbow Site , under the 'Controller/Joystick Profiles' page as a TrackIR support download link. Only the profile, ' Longbow2trackmappe4.ttk ' is required. Configuring To configure TrackIR, TrackMapper and Longbow 2: Start the TrackIR software. Start the TrackMapper software, the TrackIR software should be running in enhanced mode and TrackMapper should be receiving data from TrackIR. Load the Longbow2trackmappe4.ttk profile . You may wish to test with various changes. However: Ensure the DataRate is increased to 60 polls/sec . Keyboard emulation properties are set to Generate Scancodes . Save the profile under a different name and set it to AutoLoad . Minimise the TrackIR software and TrackMapper. Change the config file, ca.ini , (see below). Start Longbow 2 and test. You will probably wish to test the TrackMapper responsiveness, reduce the deadzone and change the ring position to your preference. Longbow 2 configuration changes It is recommended to change yaw and pitch settings to make them more suitable for TrackIR. In the ca.ini file the following settings: [CAMERAS] ... LinearSpeed=75 AngularSpeed=30 HelmetYawSpeed=60 HelmetPitchSpeed=45 ... Should be changed to: [CAMERAS] ... LinearSpeed=150 AngularSpeed=60 HelmetYawSpeed=110 HelmetPitchSpeed=110 ... Credit and thanks go to Flyboy for the Longbow 2 site and hosting the TrackMapper support files. Testing SAM's destroyed with rockets at distance on a Pentium 200 VM Testing involves making rocket attacks against a variety of targets. The closer to the target you have to get to make a successful rocket attack reveals the severity of the rocket falling short issue. In order to test a free flight should be undertaken at the NTC training location. This testing is subjective so you may need to repeat a number of times to get a feel for the issue on your particular hardware. The following sim settings are recommended along with reasons for doing so: Casual gameplay controls should be enabled. The aim is to test as simply as possible. Realistic weapon damage should be disabled. The aim is to test the effective distance of a rocket attack. Invulnerability should be enabled as this is testing not play. Infinite ammo should be enabled for the same reason. Once the scenario begins head towards the 2nd waypoint. Shortly a couple of SAM's should appear ahead. Configure for an attack: Switch to rockets. Set the salvo size to 8 or more. Target a SAM. Continue towards the SAM until within range. Reduce speed to under 100kts otherwise the rocket pods will not be able to pivot towards the target. The slower the better, maintain a steady altitude. Centre the I-beam reticle on the targeted SAM and fire away. You may have to pivot the aircraft nose to get a solid I-beam reticle. If the rockets don't fall short you should be able to obtain a kill from 1800+m with a kill possible from 2000m or further if lucky. From 1600m - 600m you should be able to see if rockets are falling short or bracketing/hitting the SAM. A kill at this range may indicate an issue, so continue attacking other target starting out from maximum rocket range. You 'should' be able to get vehicle kills at this range if everything is working. At around 600m or less you may get a kill but it should be obvious if the rockets were falling short. If you are using a higher spec PCem virtual machine you may have to reduce the specs and try testing again. Longbow 2 mods There is a single semi-official optional mod for the Fallen Crescent, Longbow 2 campaign. From the mod readme: AZER2000 is a replacement campaign for the Fallen Crescent campaign included in Longbow 2. The original campaign has American forces challenging Iranian military forces in the Azerbahjian region of the Middle East. AZER2000 is the same campaign, but with a challenging twist. The authentic Iranian Order of Battle, which was faithfully represented in Longbow 2, has been replaced with front line, modern CIS equipment. The mod is available from GameFront . Versions of the mod exist for english, french and german languages. It is recommended to complete the vanilla Fallen Crescent campaign before installing this mod. Documents First edition manual A digital versions of the Longbow 2 manual is available when Longbow Anthology is installed with the help files. Other digital version of the Longbow 2 manual are also available. The keyboard reference is also available in a digital format. A strategy guide, 'The official guide to Jane's Longbow 2' is also available digitally. Each of these documents is recommended for getting the most out of Longbow 2. Other information Quite an old website but Flyboy's Longbow 2 Site still hosts a huge amount of information on Longbow 1 and 2 that isn't found anywhere else. The Combat Flight Sim Tavern discord has a number of channels dedicated to the Jane's Combat Simulations. This concludes the Longbow 2/Anthology setup guide. Good hunting!

A guide to running the 1993, Origin Systems sim, Strike Commander in DOSBox Staging. The original version of Strike Commander was released on 8 x 1.44MB 3.5" High Density (HD) floppy disks. This was followed by the Strike Commander: Speech Pack released on 3 x1.44MB 3.5" HD floppy disks, which added digitized speech to in-flight comms and cinematic sequences. In the same year, 1993 an expansion campaign and general MIDI support was added with Strike Commander: Tactical Operations, distributed on 3 x 1.44MB HD floppy disks. The Strike Commander: CD-ROM edition, distributed on (unsurprisingly) a single CD-ROM combined the original game, speech pack and expansion as well as adding further digitized speech and intro video. Version This guide will be using the digital edition released in 2013 on gog.com , which is comparable to the Strike Commander: CD-ROM edition. The digital edition is currently bundled with vanilla DOSBox and this guide will cover running Strike Commander with DOSBox Staging, providing enhanced features and capabilities. Speed sensitivity A point worth noting is the speed sensitivity present in this digital/CD edition. At higher DOSBox cycles the effectiveness of AAM's and Mavericks can vary along with the AI use of countermeasures. This is discussed at length in the gog.com Strike Commander forum post ' Missile gullibility '. Game management I recommend using my DOSBox game management  strategy. As the gog.com digital version is used and installed by the GoG client or offline installer, only the following folders are recommended: conf - to store any DOSBox Staging/HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of the recommended patch. Installation The gog.com digital release should be installed using either the Strike Commander offline installer or Galaxy client. Installation should be straight-forward and complete successfully. HOTAS config Joystick 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. Despite not supporting a throttle it is included in the profile to allow keyboard throttle commands to be mapped to the throttle axis in HOTAS profiling 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 v0.82.1. Changes from the default configuration are detailed below, except MIDI options which are considered later, as both Roland and General MIDI support is available: [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] core = normal cpu_cycles_protected = 25000 cycleup = 100 cycledown = 100 [voodoo] voodoo = false [mouse] dos_mouse_immediate = true [mixer] reverb = large chorus = normal [joystick] joysticktype = ch timed = false swap34 = true deadzone = 0 [autoexec] mount c "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Strike Commander" mount c "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Strike Commander\cloud_saves" -t overlay imgmount d "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Strike Commander\sc.dat" -t iso -fs iso c: sccd.exe pause 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, the core is set to normal and the cpu_cycles_protected set to 25000 cycles, to try and alleviate the speed sensitivity issues whilst keeping framerates fluid. 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 ch allows the use of the hat available on most joysticks. [timed], [swap34] are suitable settings 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 [autoexec] section mounts the gog.com installation folder under the Galaxy client as the c: drive. gog.com releases often provide a facility to save your game in the cloud, it does this by providing an overlay mount in the gog.com DOSBox config. I've recreated this mount in the DOSBox Staging config. I'm not 100% sure if it works correctly (it seems to), so please be aware and don't rely on it! The Strike Commander cd image is included in the release as sc.dat and is mounted as an emulated cd d: drive. The remaining commands run Strike Commander and after quitting the game will pause allowing the goodbye message to be read before closing the DOSBox Staging app. It is recommended to leave these commented out until configuration is complete. MIDI options As general MIDI support was introduced with the expansion campaign, both Roland and general midi options are supported. Once configured, you may wish to adjust mixer settings to your preference. Taking a look at each in turn: Roland [midi] mididevice = mt32 [mt32] model = cm32l romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" In [mt32] the model is set to cm32l as the install utility allows the selection of the compatible Roland LAPC-1 sound device. Versioned roms are used, as described in the earlier article ' DOSBox midi '. Fluidsynth [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 '. VirtualMidiSynth [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 '. Patching There is a single recommended fan made patch to try and alleviate the speed sensitivity issues. A result of the work done by Harr-Nuta and others over on the gog.com forums, so credit and thanks to those individuals. Depending on the DOSBox cycles used, you may find this patch unnecessary. The Strike Commander CD Missile Fix can be found at PCGamingWiki . It is a file replacement patch, replacing the existing strike.exe executable. It is recommended to backup the original file. It is also recommended to keep a copy of the patch in the game management folders, in case the gog.com Galaxy client is ever used to verify the game installation folder, as this may replace the patch executable with the original one. Configuration The Strike Commander installer utility It is recommended to run the installer app ( install.exe ) to set the hardware configuration options at least once and then each time the Sound Blaster or MIDI options are changed in the DOSBox configuration. To set the configuration: Select ' Change the hardware configuration '. Select ' Roland/LAPC-1 ' if you wish to use Roland music, or... Select ' General MIDI ' if you wish to use Fluidsynth or VirtualMidiSynth. Select ' Sound Blaster Pro ' as the sound effects card, this is compatible with the default DOSBox Staging Sound Blaster 16 device. Select the default I/O address ( 220H ) for the Sound Blaster. Select IRQ 7 for the Sound Blaster ( this is different from the suggested default ). Select the default I/O address ( 330H ) for the MIDI device. Select ' Yes ' for a local bus video card. Select ' Yes ' if satisfied with the current configuration, or ' No ' to go back and change options. Once configured commands in the [autoexec] section of the DOSBox Staging configuration can be enabled. Running Strike Commander can now be run by calling the sccd.exe executable. In-game configuration In-game configuration options It is recommended when first starting the game to perform the in-game configuration. Any training mission should be started. Once in-mission open the in-game configuration options (alt-o). Select FLIGHT options. For FLIGHT CONTROL Select FS PRO . Select RUDDER if you wish to use rudder pedals or a separate rudder control. In the centre menu, the following options would affect frame rates on period hardware but can be enabled with DOSBox Staging: SHOW WEAPONS can be enabled. REALISTIC can be enabled For PANNING CONTROL Select FS PRO . Select CALIBRATE JOYSTICK and perform the calibration. Don't forget to SAVE the in-game configuration. Documents It's recommended to grab the full suite of documents (and store them in the docs game management folder), supplied by gog.com, including: The Strike Commander manual The Strike Commander: Tactical Ops manual The reference card The Playtester's Guide The Strategy Guide Good hunting!

A guide to running the 1990 MicroProse pacific submarine sim, Silent Service II in DOSBox Staging as well as a brief look at the history of the sim. Sequel to the classic 1985 sub sim Silent Service, which was released on practically every 8- and 16-bit platform, Silent Service II had a more limited development, appearing on the 'big three' platforms, Amiga, Atari ST and DOS. Versions & patches Like earlier MicroProse sims, Silent Service II (SS2) used a product number, in this case 457, followed by a version number, running from .01 to .03. Initially distributed on disk, later releases would be a later version (often the final version) released on a single cd or floppy disk. Both patches can be found in the MicroProse FTP Archive (ftp.microprose.com) hosted on the Internet Archive. Version 457.01 This was the initial retail release, distributed on DOS with 2 x 3.5" Double Density (DD) 720KB disks. Version 457.02 The first patch ( ssiiv2.zip ) was released in September, 1990. It was a bug fix and enhancement release, with additional keyboard commands to control speed and the periscope. It included notes on historical accuracy and running advice. This patch should be installed under DOSBox. This patch was superseded by the 457.03 patch. Although not required to patch the game, it is still recommended, due to the developer notes that were included with the patch. These notes would not be present in the later .03 patch and are included below: Version 457.03 The second and final patch ( ss2v3.zip ) was released in October 1991. It was a bug fix patch but was distributed as a cumulative patch, including the v457.02 patch. This patch should be installed under DOSBox and is a recommended patch for those with earlier versions. The readme is shown below and the only difference from the .02 readme is the addition of a final warning about saves from earlier versions not working with this version. Media SS2 was distributed on a multiple disks or a single cd, but as usual disk/cd images will be used in preference to physical media, to save wear and tear on discs and drive. Physical cd's should be ripped to the iso data only format, as there are no cd audio tracks are on the disc. Digital releases of Silent Service II are available on GOG and Steam . Game management I recommend using my DOSBox game management  strategy, the recommended game management folders are: conf - to store any DOSBox configuration files. docs - to store any documents, manuals, etc. cd - to store any cd images ripped from a retail cd. fdd - to store and disk images ripped from retail disks. hdd - the DOSBox emulated hard disk folder, to install the game to. Joystick vs keyboard Although supporting a joystick, it provides no additional benefit compared to the keyboard. In the Technical Supplement it states many of the development team preferred keyboard rather than joystick control. Due to this, a joystick is not configured in the below DOSBox config. Note: there is no mouse control in SS2. DOSBox Staging config This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging, v0.82.1 (at time of writing). [sdl] host_rate = vrr vsync = off presentation_mode = vfr [dosbox] dos_rate = 1000 [cpu] core = simple cpu_cycles = 3000 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] model = mt32_new romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" [joystick] joysticktype = none [autoexec] imgmount a "D:\Games\dos\Silent Service II\fdd\*.ima" -t floppy # imgmount d "D:\Games\dos\Silent Service II\fdd\ss2.iso" -t cdromm mount c "D:\Games\dos\Silent Service II\hdd" c: # cd mps # call silent.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, a core of simple is optimised for older real mode games. 3000 cycles is the default but you may wish to change this to personal preference. The cpu_cycles_protected setting will use the same cycle count as cpu_cycles when set to auto. Cycles up/down is set to a suitably small increment. Voodoo emulation isn't required and can be disabled. The [mixer] settings can be changed to enhance sound and music to personal preference. SS2 supports Roland sound, so the MIDI device is set to mt32. The MIDI device is set to mt32_new as SS2 was built for this model, as listed on the VOGONS wiki article, ' List of MT-32-compatible computer games '. This could be omitted to default to a cm32l model which would also be compatible. The rom folder is described in the earlier ' DOSBox midi ' article. Joystick type is set to none as mentioned earlier in ' Joystick vs keyboard '. There are example imgmount and mount commands to add floppy disk or cd images and the emulated hard disk folder. As there may be multiple multiple floppy disk images the * wildcard is used. The disabled commands can be enabled once installation (and optionally patching) are complete. Installation The installer app ( install.exe ) should be run from the first (or only) floppy disk or cd image, in DOSBox. If a second floppy is requested it should be mounted by swapping disk images (CTRL + F4). Note : the installer version may be a different version than the game. During the installation the following should be selected: Option 5 - Install onto Hard Disk, drive C: Option 1 - MCGA/VGA (256-color) Option 1 - Roland MT-32 sound The installation should complete without issue, the installation folder normally being: c:\mps\ss2 Patching Patching is only required for versions earlier than v457.03. Open the patch zip archive in Win10 and copy the contents to the emulated hard disk folder. Start DOSBox and run the patch installer. The installation should complete without issue. You may also enable the remaining DOSBox config commands in the [autoexec] section. Running Start menu, note the version number To run, go to the c:\mps folder in DOSBox and run silent.bat . The MicroProse start menu.will be shown (see screenshot). This also shows the version number, which is useful to determine if the game needs patching. The following questions will be asked: Do you have a joystick? No . Do you want digitized speech? Yes . Once loading is complete, the copy protection may ask you to identify a ship from the manual. The patch readme files indicate that ALT + F1 can be used to identify the amount of free memory left during a patrol. However you shouldn't use this command: As it will open the DOSBox mapper instead. It isn't needed, as DOSBox will provide more than enough memory required. Documentation The following documents are available in a digital/pdf format: Manual - essential for the copy protection, playing the game and background information. Technical Supplement - essential control summary and some useful bits of info. Map of the patrol area - useful for the location of naval bases and water depth. Good hunting!

Jane's Fighters - Anthology A guide to running Jane's Fighters Anthology in Windows 10 with DirectX wrappers and PCem emulation. To give it, it's full title, Jane's Combat Simulations: Fighters Anthology is the complete compilation, 1997 release of the products in the Jane's Fighters series of sims. It comprises of US Navy Fighters '97 (1996), the native Windows remake of US Navy Fighters Gold, the 1995 DOS compilation release of the DOS sims, US Navy Fighters (1994) and the expansion Marine Fighters (1995). It also includes Jane's Combat Simulations ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters Gold (1997), the native Windows remakes of the DOS sims ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters (1996) and the expansion, NATO Fighters (1996). Jane's Fighters Anthology (JFA) has remained popular for years and there are a huge variety of mods, tools and additional campaigns/missions, however this guide will concentrate on running a vanilla version of the game under Windows 10. DirectX wrappers This section will describe configuration and installation suitable for DirectX wrappers, followed by installation and configuration of the wrappers themselves. The following wrappers will be covered: DxWrapper, which has a number of advantages over the previous method. dgVoodoo2, which has been the tried and trusted method in the past. Only one wrapper should be chosen. HOTAS configuration Despite being a Windows native game, JFA does seem to benefit from a virtual controller, if there is more than one physical device. JFA comes from an era when HOTAS controllers were usually a seen by Windows as a single device. The following shows the virtual controller mappings from physical to DX axes. The HOTAS config is valid for either wrapper. Physical axis DX axis Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Throttle DX_Z_AXIS Rudder pedals DX_ZROT_AXIS Installation As usual the cd's have been ripped to cd images to save wear and tear on disks and drive. The cd's can be ripped to a data only iso format as there is no cd audio on the disks. The setup.exe installer can be run from the first disk and should complete without issue. During the installation you'll be asked to choose between a full install with digital music or a smaller install with midi music. This choice is left to personal preference, although there are additional patches required for midi music. During the installation process DirectX should NOT be installed. Latest official patch The next step is to install the latest official patch ( fae102.exe ) bringing the game version to 1.02F. This patch has kindly been hosted by Damsonn on a Google Drive . The patch can be installed normally and should complete without issue. Unofficial midi music patches Both patches have been kindly supplied by Damsonn on a Google Drive . FA_MIDI_patch If the smaller install and midi music was selected during the installation, there is an unofficial midi fix required. This patch uses a Compatibility Administrator (32-bit) database to apply the CorrectSoundDeviceId compatibility fix. Running the PatchInstall.bat file will install the patch. The patch can be uninstalled by running the PatchUninstall.bat  file. USNF music for FA The is also a USNF music fix for JFA, which replaces some ATF midi music with USNF midi music. This requires the FA_MIDI_patch to have been installed first. This is an additional file patch requiring the USNF_MUS.LIB library file to be copied into your JFA installation folder. This patch is not mandatory and use of this patch is a personal preference. DxWrapper patching FA Dir - Patch+NoCD Some additional patches can be installed when running JFA with DxWrapper. The first is a no-cd patch which also integrates the official v1.02F patch ( FA Dir - Patch+NoCD.zip ) allowing play without the use of physical cd's or cd images. The patch is a file replacement patch and can be found on a Google Drive kindly hosted by Centurian. Simply extract the files to the JFA installation folder to install. This patch will add library (.lib) files which are empty. In order to have access to the Jane's reference material and intro movies, files will need to be replaced with the original library files from the cd or cd image. From JFA cd 1 (blue): FA_4C.LIB FA_7.LIB From JFA cd 2 (red): FA_3.LIB FA_10.LIB FA_10B.LIB FA_11.LIB FA_11B.LIB DxWrapper installation The latest version of DxWrapper is used, at time of writing v1.2.7500.25. This can be found on the GitHub DxWrapper project releases page. The following files should be extracted from the dxwrapper.zip archive and added to the JFA installation folder: ddraw.dll dinput8.dll dxwrapper.dll Once again thanks go to Elisha for the work on DxWrapper. DxWrapper setup The following config file (dxwrapper.ini) is used when running JFA with DxWrapper, it should be copied to the JFA installation folder: DxWrapper issues Using DxWrapper allows the Jane's reference material to be accessed without crashing to the desktop, using a DxWrapper configuration that handles exceptions. However switching to/from the Janes's reference material and missions will slowly begin to introduce graphical artifacts into the game. Once any artifacts appear simply quit and restart the game. dgVoodoo2 patching The no CD patch is recommended when using dgVoodoo2, however the libraries should not be replaced from those on the CD's. The files in the zip archive just need to be copied to the JFA installation folder. dgVoodoo2 installation dgVoodoo2 has been a tried and trusted wrapper for use with JFA. Although there are additional issues, they do not affect the gameplay, and may be useful if DxWrapper does not work with a particular setup. The latest version of dgVoodoo2 is used, at time of writing v2.86. This can be found on the GitHub dgVoodoo2 project releases  page. The following files should be extracted from the dgVoodoo2_86.zip archive and added to the JFA installation folder: MS\x86\D3D8.dll MS\x86\D3D9.dll MS\x86\D3DImm.dll MS\x86\DDraw.dll dgVoodoo.conf dgVoodooCpl.exe The folders/sub folders indicate where the file resides in the zip archive. The folders/sub folders do not need to be copied into the JFA installation folder, just the files themselves. Once again thanks to Dege for his continued work on dgVoodoo2. dgVoodoo2 setup The following screenshots show the required dgVoodoo2 configuration: General settings DirectX settings dgVoodoo2 issues Attempts to access the photos and videos of the Jane's reference material will not work due to the empty library files. Using library files from the CD's will cause a crash to desktop. PCem emulation Despite JFA being able to run natively in Windows 10, using the PCem emulator may be preferable if: Your modern multi-axes/multi-button HOTAS controller is incompatible, resulting in a crash to desktop when you try to use it. Your particular Windows 10 setup has issues with the DirectX wrappers used to run JFA. PCem can help by: Supporting 2 joysticks (4 axes), which allows us to specify the 4 axes of any physical hardware in a consistent way such that Windows 98 / JFA only deals with the PCem virtual joysticks rather than a myriad of physical devices. Emulates hardware at a lower level providing emulated period correct hardware closer to the physical hardware the game originally worked with. PCem setup If you're completely new to setting up PCem or need a refresher, I highly recommend the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup . Once you have a basic, clean Windows 98 virtual machine and hard disk image, I recommend: Taking a copy of the basic virtual machine to create a game specific virtual machine. Taking a copy of the basic hard disk image to create a game specific image. Use PCem and reconfigure the game specific virtual machine to use the game specific hard disk image. If things go badly wrong, you'll always have the basic image to try again with and it'll save a lot of time and effort if you ever want to try a different game. Installation Once the emulated machine is running, change the cd device settings in PCem, to use either your physical drive (if you have a physical cd), or a cd image. Then it's just a case of running the setup.exe installer. Installation should complete without any issues. Again you can select a full (digital music) or smaller (midi music) install. DirectX should already be installed, so DirectX installation can be skipped. Patching If you've followed Phils tutorial video, you know how easy it is to mount the PCem hard disk image (.vhd) file in modern Windows, and copy any games patches into it. Windows 98 doesn't have built in zip file support, so extract files from any zip archives in modern Windows before copying into the mounted hard disk image. The following patches are recommended for PCem emulation: The official v1.02F patch . The following patches can be installed as a personal preference: The USNF music for FA patch (if midi music was selected for the install). Note: the FA_MIDI_patch is not required due to the more period correct Windows 98. The no CD patch is not recommended for PCem, as PCem is a fallback solution (so using fewer unofficial patches is preferable, to make the install as compatible as possible) and CD's or CD images can be mounted, changed or swapped through PCem. HOTAS setup In-game options Take a look at my Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem  guide for installing HOTAS controllers in PCem, rather than the HOTAS config discussed earlier. Once you have a custom calibrated Windows 98 controller the hard work is done. Control options are limited to keyboard, mouse or joystick. Devices/axes can be configured through game options as shown in the screen shot. Additional patches and fixes In addition to the patches mentioned above there is a Shapefix patch. Shapefix patch This patch uses aircraft models imported from some of earlier games comprising the anthology to improve aircraft models in JFA. The patch is an additional file patch, to install the patch, the SHAPEFIX.LIB library is copied into the JFA installation folder. This patch has kindly been hosted by Damsonn on a Google Drive . It is not recommended until the Ukraine campaign is complete, as it can cause crashes in particular missions (e.g. mission 8) of the Ukraine campaign. It may affect other missions as well. Update : Do NOT use SHAPEFIX.LIB with the usnraptor Playset nor any usnraptor stand-alone campaigns. Documentation Much of the documentation can be found in electronic form. The minimum documentation to obtain would be: The manual. The keyboard reference. Which can both be found on a Google Drive hosted by Centurian. The strategy guide, maps and other docs can also be found there, so a big thank you to Centurian for hosting these docs. Additional information This guide has primarily been about providing advice to get the vanilla version of JFA running on a modern Windows 10 platform. JFA has been very popular for a very long time and there are a huge number of mods available. Some of the best resources (not already mentioned) are listed below: The Combat Flight Sim Tavern discord. The pinned messages in the fighters-anthology and fa-information channels provide additional resources including... The Fighters Anthology Resource Center and forums by John K. "Zephyr" Peterson. USNRaptor's Jane's Fighters Anthology website and Google Drive by USNRaptor. As usual, a big thank you to those hosting these resources! If there are any mistakes or omissions, in this guide, please get in touch and let me know. Good hunting!

A guide to running Jane's Longbow Gold and Jane's Longbow Anthology with the Glide patch in the 86Box emulator. Since there are still issues running the Glide versions of Gold or Anthology natively in Win10, the following article looks at some other methods, using other emulators, before describing the configuration of 86Box. Strategy The following alternatives were also tested before settling on 86Box as a recommended solution: BoxedWine, a limited Linux VM running Wine, taken from the Steam M1 Tank Platoon 2 release. Runs but without controller support. Qemu with 3Dfx support. Runs but crashes to Win98 desktop once mission starts. PCem v17, crashes to Win10 desktop once mission starts. DOSBox-X with internal 3Dfx emulation, runs and mission can start but extremely choppy visuals, unplayable. DOSBox-X with Glide passthrough to nGlide v2.10. Runs, mission can start successful but random crashes during mission. DOSBox-X with Glide passthrough to dgVoodoo2 v2.86. Runs, mission can start but opens in partial 640x480 window, cannot toggle to full screen, unplayable. DOSBox Staging is not an appropriate solution and not tested, as it does not support a Win95/98 platform required by a Glide patched Gold/Anthology install. 86Box 86Box running Win98SE The heart of the solution is the x86 emulator, 86Box. The 86Box website describes it as: 86Box is a low level x86 emulator that runs older operating systems and software designed for IBM PC systems and compatibles from 1981 through fairly recent system designs based on the PCI bus. This article assumes the latest version (at writing) will be used, v4.2.1. This version is available from 86Box.net . This website should be the first site to visit to learn more about this emulator. An important point to note is that it is a single threaded emulator, so the single thread performance of your machine and the specs of the machine being emulated will have a major impact on the gameplay of Longbow. Installation and configuration 86Box installation should be straight-forward although if you have the choice between SSD or mechanical drives an SSD is recommended for optimum performance. Once installed you'll need to obtain a rom set before you can use 86Box. The ' Getting started ' section of the 86Box documentation describes how. The docs are linked from 86Box.net or can be found directly at the 86Box documentation site. Instructions should be followed to place the roms in a suitable rom folder under 86Box. This concludes the installation and configuration of 86Box. Credit and thanks go to Miran Grča and the 86Box developers . 86Box Manager 86Box Manager The 86Box website recommends the use of a manager app to assist in configuration and management of multiple 86Box virtual machines (VM). A list of suitable manager apps can be found on the 86Box website for each platform. This article recommends the latest version of 86Box Manager v1.7.4. It is available for download at the 86Box Manager GitHub repository . Installation and configuration 86Box Manager is distributed as a zip file and only requires extracting to a suitable folder to complete installation. The few simple configuration steps are listed on the 86Box Manager GitHub page. Credit and thanks go to daviunic/Overdoze and the 86Box Manager contributors . Virtual machine specs As stated previously, the single thread performance of your machine and the specs of the machine being emulated will have a major impact on the gameplay of Longbow. Therefore we want to strike a balance between a virtual machine that meets or exceeds the recommended specs of Longbow, but not excessively to the point that a Win10/11 host PC struggles to emulate the virtual machine and performance suffers. For reference purposes my host machine uses an i7-7700K processor @ 4.2Ghz. 64MB of memory using an XMP memory profile @ 3.2Ghz (maybe, IIRC). Nvidia RTX 3060 and SSD storage. Based on comparison with your own hardware you may wish to change the virtual machine specs below. The emulated machine is described using 86Box/86Box Manager configuration entries. Where an entry is not listed, the default setting can continue to be used. Joystick/HOTAS configuration is discussed separately. Machine Machine type: [1997] Slot 1 Machine: [i440BX] Gigabyte GA-686BX CPU type: Intel Pentium Pro Frequency: 166 Memory: 128MB Display Video: [PCI] S3 ViRGE/DX (375) Memory size: 4MB Bilinear filtering: enabled Dithering: enabled Voodoo 1 or 2 Graphics: enabled Voodoo type: 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics Framebuffer memory size: 4MB Texture memory size: 4MB Bilinear filtering: enabled Dither subtraction: enabled Screen filter: disabled Render threads: 4 SLI: disabled Recompiler: enabled Input devices Mouse: Standard PS/2 Mouse Buttons: Wheel Joystick: discussed later, see HOTAS config Sound Sound card # 1: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 All options left as default Use FLOAT32 sound: enabled FM synth driver: Nuked (more accurate) Storage controllers HD Controller: Internal controller FD Controller: Internal controller Hard disks Select a 'New...' hard disk. File name: choose a suitable file name Size (MB): 3200 Cylinders, Heads and Sectors will be configured once Size is chosen Image Format: Dynamic-size VHD (.vhd) Speed: [1998] 5400 RPM Floppy & CD-ROM drives Floppy drives First: Type: 3.5" 1.44M Others: None CD-ROM drives First: Bus: ATAPI Speed: 32x Type: 86BOX CD-ROM 1.00 Others: Disabled Creating the virtual machine The virtual machine will be using Windows 98 Second Edition (Win98SE). Before creating the virtual machine it may be useful to take a look at the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup . Even though it covers the alternative PCem emulator the steps for configuring the bios and installing Win98SE will be identical. The virtual machine bios should be configured to boot from the CD-ROM first and then the C drive. As usual all credit for the excellent YouTube tutorial and PhilsComputerLab website should go to Phil. Windows 98 Second Edition You will need to obtain the OEM full edition which allows the PC to be booted from the CD-ROM. By following the advice provided by PhilsComputerLab and the YouTube video,   PCem Windows 98 Setup you should end up with a clean Win98SE installation. Device drivers Now it's time to optimise the hardware using appropriate hardware device drivers, installed in the order below, for the following devices: Intel chipset Sound Blaster 16 3Dfx Voodoo Accelerator It's worth remembering Win98SE does not include support for opening zip files. So it is recommended to do this with Win10/11 by following the steps: Download copies of the device drivers. Extract each zip file on your Win10/11 machine, into a separate folder. Shutdown the virtual machine if it is running. Mount the virtual hard disk in Win10/11 by opening the vhd hard disk file (created earlier when configuring the virtual machine in 86Box Manager). Copy the folders containing the device driver and any downloaded executable (.exe) files containing device drivers, onto the mounted virtual hard disk. I would recommend copying into the 'My Documents' folder on the virtual hard disk. Eject the virtual hard disk, unmounting it from Win10/11, otherwise you won't be able to start Win98SE on the virtual machine. Start up the virtual machine and once Win98SE has started, begin installing the device drivers. Intel chipset drivers The Intel chipset drivers for the 440BX chipset can be found on the PhilsComputerLab website. The specific drivers are 2001 drivers, supporting Windows 9x, 2000 and XP ( 3.20.1008.zip ). As the drivers are distributed as a zip file, it should be extracted in Win10/11 first before being copied to the virtual hard disk. The executable file ( infinst_enu.exe ) should be run to install the drivers. Sound Blaster 16 drivers The Sound Blaster 16/AWE32 Driver Update for Win98 can be found on the VOGONS Vintage Driver Library. As the drivers are distributed as a zip file, it should be extracted in Win10/11 first before being copied to the virtual hard disk. This distribution includes an installer app ( upddrv95.exe ) which will install the drivers. 3Dfx Voodoo Accelerator drivers The Voodoo Accelerator drivers can be found on the PhilsComputerLab website. The specific drivers are the May 1999 - Latest Reference drivers ( voodoo_graphics_driver_kit_version_3.01.00.zip ) As the drivers are distributed as a zip file, it should be extracted in Win10/11 first before being copied to the virtual hard disk. Win98SE may have already installed 3Dfx Voodoo drivers, but they should be replaced by this version. You will have to open the Voodoo device in Device Manager and upgrade the drivers. AmnHLT driver There is an additional virtual device driver that can be installed to increase the performance of the 86Box emulator. Quoting the VOGONS post by Jo22: AmnHLT is a third-party VxD that issues a HLT (halt) instruction to the CPU whenever Windows 9x is idle. It's meant to avoid a 100% processor usage in VMs - and emulators. HLT is supported by late 486 processors and higher. It can be obtained from the VOGONS post by SA1988. AmnHLT.7z is a 7zip archive. Only the amnrefr.vxd file is required from the archive. The following installation instructions were provided in a VOGONS post by 0x6A7232: In Win98SE, open regedit. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD . Create a key named AmnHLT . Create a binary value named Start with a value of 00 inside the AmnHLT key. Create a string value named StaticVxD with a string of AMNREFR.VXD inside the AmnHLT key. Shutdown the operating system and close the emulator. Copy amnrefr.vxd driver into the C:\Windows\System folder of the virtual hard disk. Start the Win98SE virtual machine. Credit and thanks go to VOGONS members Jo22, SA1988 and 0x6A7232. Preserving the virtual machine At this point we have a clean Win98SE virtual machine (VM) using optimised device drivers. It is recommended to take a copy of the 86Box VM configuration and the virtual hard disk (vhd) file. This provide a clean VM you can use to try out with other 3Dfx/Glide games that struggle to run natively in Win10 with Glide/DX wrappers, or with other emulators, without having to repeat the above to create the VM. Longbow media As usual I recommend converting physical media to images to save wear and tear on disks and drives. The Gold and Anthology cds can be ripped to an iso, data only cd image, format as there is no cd audio/music tracks on the Longbow discs. Longbow installation Either Gold or Anthology versions can be installed. The first cd images should be mounted within 86Box. If the cd does not auto run the installer app, it can be started manually by opening it from the 86Box emulated cd drive. Installation should be straightforward and complete without issue. During the Gold/Anthology installation, graphics and textures options can be set to high. Longbow Anthology will ask for a normal or custom install. Choose a custom install and only install the Longbow (not Longbow2) components. Later you will be asked if the GoldFX(A) patch should be installed, do not install the patch at this point, it will be done later. Note : the virtual hard disk has been sized to allow the Gold or Anthology cd images to be copied to the virtual hard disk, but not both. Longbow patches Longbow Gold The Glide version of Longbow Gold uses the GoldFX patch only, no other patches are required or should be installed. This patch can be found at soggi.org  as a 7zip archive or as a self extracting archive in this VOGONS post from feda, so a big thank you to both. Installation should be straight-forward and complete without issue. Longbow Anthology The Glide version of Longbow Anthology uses the GoldFX(A) patch only, no other patches are required or should be installed. This patch can be found on the first Longbow Anthology cd or cd image. Installation should be straight-forward and complete without issue. Issues If either patch complains a suitable Voodoo Accelerator cannot be found, ensure the recommended Voodoo drivers have been installed. Longbow fixes For those familiar with the VOGONS post, Janes AH-64D Longbow 1 & 2 without CD inc Memory Fix (Windows) may be wondering why the memory fixes are not applied. These fixes are required for modern machines with over 365MB of memory, however the 86Box Win98SE VM configured earlier, is only using 128MB, so is not affected. If you really want to apply them, they will not affect the game under 86Box. CD emulation The developers of Longbow, left in a functional cd emulation facility. If you are using cd images the performance difference will be minor/negligible, however as a convenience, it removes the necessity to mount/unmount cd images in 86Box, so is recommended. To use it, copy the contents of each Longbow cd to a folder (e.g. C:\Janes\Lbcd1) within Win98SE. Note : for Anthology this will be the first two Longbow 1 cd/images (not the Longbow 2 cd/images) Longbow Gold For Longbow Gold create a file CDEmu.ini  in the Longbow installation folder (in my case C:\Janes\Lbgold) and specify the folder for each of the three Longbow Gold cds, like so: [CDEmulate] CD001=C:\Janes\Lbcd1 CD002=C:\Janes\Lbcd2 CD003=C:\Janes\Lbcd3 Longbow Anthology For Longbow Anthology create a file CDEmu.ini  in the Longbow installation folder (in my case C:\Janes\Lba\Longbow) and specify the folder for both Longbow 1 cd/images (but not the Longbow 2 cd/images), like so: [CDEmulate] CD001=C:\Janes\Lbcd1 CD002=C:\Janes\Lbcd2 HOTAS config 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. 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 86Box configuration 86Box Manager joystick config The 86Box HOTAS configuration is very similar to the PCem HOTAS configuration described in Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem . However 86Box HOTAS configuration is easier with a single 4-axis, 4-button joystick available, which is exactly what the virtual controller is configured to be and what many physical HOTAS controllers are. To configure a HOTAS within the 86Box Manager, the following settings were used in the 'Input devices' section: Joystick: 4-axis, 4-button joystick Joystick 1 Device: set to the virtual controller, which was the only device present. Axes: set to the corresponding virtual controller axes except z and zX axes (see below) Buttons: set to the corresponding virtual controller buttons. During creation and calibration of a custom controller in Win98SE it became apparent that the 3rd and 4th axes required swapping. This was done in the 86Box joystick config by swapping the z and zX axes (see screenshot). Win98SE configuration The steps to create a custom controller in Win98SE are the same as those discussed in Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem in the section, Adding a controller to Windows 98 . Once the custom controller is calibrated the HOTAS configuration is complete in Win98SE. Video Here's a brief test video showing Longbow Gold running, prior to joystick setup. Good hunting!

A setup guide for adding HOTAS controllers to the PCem emulator. In this guide I'll be showing how a joystick, throttle and rudders pedals were setup for use within PCem and how they were added to Windows 98 running on the emulated machine. PCem setup This guide assumes the latest version of PCem is being used, at time of writing this is v17. If you're completely new to setting up PCem or need a refresher, I highly recommend the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup . Preparation Assuming you have an emulated machine in PCem running a clean install of Windows 98 then before we begin, you may wish to take a copy of your PCem setup. If anything goes badly wrong you'll have your original setup intact. I'd suggest taking a new copy of your virtual hard disk (.vhd) image. Then using PCem to take a new copy of the emulated machine. Then you just need to configure your new machine copy to use the new hard disk image copy. Retro sims The retro sims we want to play in PCem usually used a maximum of 4 axes (or the 4 most important axes were): Joystick x-axis Joystick y-axis Throttle axis (or z-axis) Rudder axis (normally an x-rotation axis) The important part is getting the axes configured in PCem. The buttons assignments aren't as important as we can use profiling software to assign key-presses to controller buttons later. PCem controller support PCem supports a number of different controller configurations. The one we'll want to use is a 2 button 2 axis joystick. PCem allows us to configure 2 of these joystick devices and that will give us the 4 axes that we need. Devices In this example I'll be using 3 different physical devices, a TM Warthog joystick, a TM Warthog throttle and TFRP rudder pedals. So I'll be configuring 4 axes across 3 different devices. Creating a virtual controller If you're not clear on the difference between physical and virtual HOTAS controllers have a look at my earlier guide, Controllers and retro sims part 2: Virtual controllers . There are 4 axes spread across 3 physical devices but PCem only supports 2 devices so we need to combine those 3 devices to create a single virtual device. 4 axes across 3 physical devices As all my devices come from the same vendor, Thrustmaster, I can use the their TARGET profiling software to create a virtual controller profile. If your controllers are from the same vendor, you can use their profiling software to achieve the same result, e.g. Logitech/Saitek SST Profile Editor. If you have devices from different vendors, then JoyStick Gremlin offers the same facility in a vendor independent way. In this TARGET screenshot you can see my 3 physical devices and the 4 axes which will form the virtual controller profile. This is my default TARGET profile for flight sims running under PCem. Once configured you'll need to start the profile to create the virtual controller before continuing to the next step. Adding controllers to PCem Joystick configuration Start the PCem app, select your emulated machine and click the configure button to bring up the config window, click on the joystick button to set joystick options. You want to set 'Joystick' to Standard 2-button joystick(s) which should make the 'Joystick 1...' and 'Joystick 2...' buttons active. Joystick 1 config Click the 'Joystick 1..' button to open the dialog, set the 'Device' to your virtual device (it should be fairly obvious) and set the axes/buttons as shown and click ok. In my case the virtual device was 'Thrustmaster Virtual Game Controller (root)'. Joystick 2 config Click the 'Joystick 2..' button to open the dialog, set the 'Device' to your virtual device (again, it should be fairly obvious). Set Axis 0: to 'Axis 2' in the dropdown menu and Axis 1: to 'Axis 3' in the dropdown menu. Buttons should set as shown in the screenshot. As you can see in the screenshot, I've swapped Axis 2 and 3. In the next step we'll be adding and testing a Windows 98 controller and it's quite common for the 3rd and 4th axis of this controller (throttle & rudder) to require swapping. This was the case in this example and I had to swap the axes of the 2nd Joystick (3rd and 4th axes). Hope that's not too confusing! So too recap: Joystick x-axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 0 -> PCem Joystick 1 Axis 0 Joystick y-axis  -> Virtual Controller Axis 1 -> PCem Joystick 1 Axis 1 Throttle axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 2 ->  PCem Joystick 2 Axis 0 Rudder axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 3 -> PCem Joystick 2 Axis 1 And if you need to swap the 3rd & 4th axes: Joystick x-axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 0 -> PCem Joystick 1 Axis 0 Joystick y-axis  -> Virtual Controller Axis 1 -> PCem Joystick 1 Axis 1 Throttle axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 3 ->  PCem Joystick 2 Axis 0 Rudder axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 2 -> PCem Joystick 2 Axis 1 Adding a controller to Windows 98 Now it's time to fire up the emulated machine in PCem. Once it's started go to the Control Panel and open Game Controllers. In the Game Controllers window nothing will be listed, so click 'Add'. In the Add Game Controller Window click 'Custom...' Creating the custom game controller In the Custom Game Controller window, make sure Special Characteristics is set to 'Is a Joystick', Axes is 4 and Buttons is 4. Leave the Has a point-of-view control unchecked, give it a name and click OK until you return to the Game Controllers window. You should now see your new custom controller. Testing a custom controller Open the controller and you should see the test window. The joystick axes should work as should the throttle and rudder axes. It should also become apparent if you need to swap the 3rd and 4th axes. All that remains is to calibrate your controller in Windows 98 and you're good to go! So to recap again, we've assigned: Joystick x-axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 0 -> PCem Joystick 1 Axis 0 -> Windows controller axis 0 Joystick y-axis  -> Virtual Controller Axis 1 -> PCem Joystick 1 Axis 1 -> Windows controller axis 1 Throttle axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 2 ->  PCem Joystick 2 Axis 0 -> Windows controller axis 3 Rudder axis -> Virtual Controller Axis 3 -> PCem Joystick 2 Axis 1 -> Windows controller axis 4 Issues Once you stop your virtual profile, PCem will lose the joystick config. So the next time you run your sim you'll have to reconfigure the 2 joystick devices, fortunately PCem seems to remember the axes/button assignments so you'll just have to specify the virtual controller in the Device setting again. No need to re-configure anything in Windows, the custom controller will still be there. Game specific virtual controller profiles Now you have the axes working, you can take a copy of the default PCem virtual controller profile to create a game specific one and start to assign game keys to controller buttons! Finally This is a quick YouTube video of the NovaLogic sim F-22 Raptor being played through PCem using the joystick, throttle and rudder pedals discussed.

How to run the non-Glide Windows versions of Longbow Gold and Longbow Anthology in Windows 98 using the PCem emulator. As usual I'll be using cd images to save wear and tear on cds and drive. Your Longbow cds can be ripped to data only iso cd images, there is no cd audio on the Longbow cds. Why play the Windows version? The Windows version is 99% equivalent to the DOS version, so why not play the DOS version instead? It's a valid question, the Windows version disables the in-flight recorder, which is a mark against it, but there are a couple of reasons why the Windows version running under PCem may be preferable. There's an addition of a campaign 'cheat' menu allowing any campaign mission to be played as a single mission. If you've completed the campaigns but you want to revisit an old campaign mission, you can. If you're struggling to set up your HOTAS controller under DOSBox, you may find it easier to set it up under PCem. Whether you choose to play WIndows or DOS, you have options and can choose whichever one is best for you! Versions and patches For a list the various releases of Longbow and the recommended patches for each version take a look at the Longbow primer . This guide covers the non-Glide versions of Longbow Gold and Anthology only, there's a separate setup guide for the Glide versions. There's no preferred version with both Longbow Gold and Anthology being equivalent and running equally well. PCem setup If you're completely new to setting up PCem or need a refresher, I highly recommend the excellent YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup . Once you have a basic, clean Windows 98 virtual machine and hard disk image, I recommend: Taking a copy of the basic virtual machine to create a game specific virtual machine. Taking a copy of the basic hard disk image to create a game specific image. Use PCem and reconfigure the game specific virtual machine to use the game specific hard disk image. If things go badly wrong, you'll always have the basic image to try again with and it'll save a lot of time and effort if you ever want to try a different game under PCem. Installation Once the emulated machine is running, change the cd device settings in PCem, to use either your physical drive (if you have a physical cd), or a cd image. Installation with both Longbow Gold and Anthology should be straightforward. I didn't encounter any issues. During the Longbow Anthology installation, you should choose a custom install and skip installing the GoldFX(A) Glide patch. CD emulation The developers of Longbow, left in a functional cd emulation facility. This is a very useful facility as it saves you having to swap physical cd or cd images in PCem. To use it, copy the contents of each cd to a folder on the PCem emulated machine. Then create a file CDEmu.ini  in the Longbow installation folder (in my case C:\Janes\Longbow) and specify the folder for each cd, like so: [CDEmulate] CD001=C:\Janes\Longbow1 CD002=C:\Janes\Longbow2 CD003=C:\Janes\Longbow3 Longbow Anthology only has two Longbow cds, the third and fourth cds are Longbow 2, so the CDEmu.ini file only requires two entries. Patching Now it's time to install any patches, take a look at the Longbow primer . Only Longbow Gold should require patching, Longbow Anthology is already fully patched. Controller setup Take a look at my Controllers and retro sims part 5: PCem  guide for installing HOTAS controllers in PCem. Once you have a custom calibrated Windows 98 controller the hard work is done. As long as the 3rd axis is the throttle and the 4th axis is the rudder, which can be checked in the Windows 98 control panel in the Game controllers section, then the game will correctly assign the axes. Just remember to calibrate the custom controller in Windows 98 first and then select Windows joystick in the 'in-flight' options menu (alt-o) in game when in the Apache. Gameplay options and manuals The earlier guide, Running Jane's AH-64D Longbow (DOS) in DOSBox Staging has a brief discussion on gameplay options and manuals. Good hunting!