This guide covers running iF-22 with the latest version of the RetroBridge wrapper, how to install it, existing wrappers it may replace, wrappers to retain and in-game options to set. Contents Strategy This guide is a supplemental article to the iF-22: Infuriating F-22! and the iF-22: Windows is alright for controllers and flight articles. In this article the Graphics tools discussed in F-22: Infuriating F-22! will be replaced with tools providing improved compatibility. The previous graphics tools used will be disabled. A quick control change will also be covered. Graphics This section covers disabling the previously recommended DDrawCompat and switching to the latest version of RetroBridge v0.1.417. Disabling DDRawCompat is unnecessary if using a fresh install. Disabling DDrawCompat It is recommended to backup the DDrawCompat files rather than remove them. They can be added to a zip archive or moved to sub-folder in the game management folders. To disable: Remove the following files from the iF-22 installation folder: ddraw.dll DDrawCompat.ini Replace the uiwindow.dll applying the narzoul fixes with the original file. RetroBridge The latest version of RetroBridge v0.1.417 includes dedicated iF-22 in-memory fixes applied through the RetroBridge wrappers providing enhanced compatibility over previous tools. RetroBridge v0.1.417 is available from the VOGONS thread, RetroBridge - A multi wrapper for PowerVR (SGL) + Glide + DDRAW + DSound for all versions of Ultim@te Race (1t/3t/Pro). The zip archive, (RetroBridge - 0.1.417 - Preview.zip) should be download and extracted to a folder, preserving file paths. To install: Copy the following files from the folder into the iF-22 installation folder: ddraw.dll dinput.dll dplayx.dll dsound.dll glide2x.dll retrobridge_core.dll The winmm.dll file is not used, the Xidi winmm.dll library is used instead. The sgl.dll library is not required. Copy the dedicated iF-22 RetroBridge config file from the \iF-22-v50 folder into the iF-22 installation folder: retrobridge.config.yml Controls This provides a quick summary of the existing tools retained for providing HOTAS control and covers changes to HidHide. ViGem Bus Driver and GremlinEx The ViGem Bus Driver continues to provide a virtual XBox 360 controller used by the Xidi libraries. GremlinEx continues to be used to provide a profile mapping between the physical HOTAS controllers and the virtual 360 controller. Xidi libraries The Xidi libraries continue to provide support for stick, throttle and rudder pedals. The following Xidi libraries should still remain in the iF-22 installation folder: winmm.dll xidi.32.dll HidHide When using RetroBridge, HidHide is no longer required and the HidHide device firewall can remain disabled when running iF-22. The HidHide device firewall config utility can be used to remove the Xidi libraries (winmm.dll and xidi.32.dll) from the allowed Applications list, to maintain a cleaner configuration. Configuration RetroBridge how redirects file writing to a different part of the filesystem. Files that were saved in: X:\\userdata Are now saved in: %APPDATA%\RetroBridge\iF22v50 e.g. C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\RetroBridge\iF22v50\userdata The iF-22 system setup configuration file is a text file (ss.tag) found in the userdata folder above. It is recommended that the intro and end credits movies remain disabled in the ss.tag configuration file. In-game configuration It is recommended to apply the following system settings from within iF-22: Direct3D Board: RetroBridge Hardware Accelerator Use Direct3D Board: checked Disable Animations: unchecked iF-22 system settings with RetroBridge. Example movie iF-22 v5.0 (Win10, RetroBridge v0.1.417 and Xidi v5.0.0) Finally... A huge amount of credit and thanks goes the rkk the creator of RetroBridge, without whom we wouldn't have iF-22 working as well as it does today! Good hunting!

A guide to the missions of Elite Plus and the patch needed to guarantee a visit to the ninth galaxy. Becoming Elite The combat rating is independent of any missions and any progression through the ratings has no impact on the missions. When the ELITE combat rating is reached, you may find yourself having already encountered the first few missions. Missions There are 7 missions, special events to break up the routine of trading, piracy, mining, etc. a Commander may have fallen into. Missions are presented one at a time and one mission must be completed, refused or failed before another will be presented. There may be a considerable wait between missions, so you'll want to keep trading and making jumps within the galaxy. If you want to visit a new galaxy, make sure you make the galactic hyperspace jump between missions and NOT during one! Missions are presented immediately after docking at station. The system giving out the mission and system the mission takes place in are both random, and not repeated so make sure to make a note of the mission system! Some missions can be accepted or refused, others are thrust upon you as an emergency to deal with. Some missions may only specify a nearby system. Any system within hyperspace jump range will be a suitable system to complete the mission. Mission 1: Tribble for sale A 'once in a lifetime' offer to purchase the last remaining Tribble for 5000 Cr. You'll receive this mission as soon as you have sufficient funds and you can decide to take up the offer or refuse it. Just remember, buyer beware. If things get a bit overwhelming, some radiation therapy might help! Mission 2: Refugee rescue You've arrived at a station with the local star about to go supernova. There are those on the station requiring transport to another system, will you help or refuse? No good deed goes unpunished but there is a cash reward. Mission 3: Retrieve a masking device A new masking device has been developed in a nearby system. Travelling to the nearby system will result in an attack from 3 Asp MkII's each utilising a masking device. One the destroyed ships will drop a cargo canister that should be scooped up to retrieve the device. During the attack the Asps are supported by unique ships, the Cougar and Constrictor. Once you return to the system giving out the mission you should receive your masking device as a reward. Mission 4: Destroy a Thargoid occupied station A nearby system has been invaded by Thargoids resulting in the local Coriolis station falling into Thargoid occupation, this requires a jump to a nearby system with a Coriolis station. The mission requires the station to be destroyed which is possible (obviously weakened by the Thargoid attack). When jumping into the system you'll encounter multiple Thargoid attacks so get to the station sooner rather than later. Once you return to the system giving out the mission you should receive an Anti ECM system as a reward and a new rank Archangel. Despite it being a sanctioned mission I believe this may give you a fugitive rating, so afterwards you may wish to leave the galaxy! Mission 5: Stolen police ship This mission takes place in a named system, so take a note of which one. This is a simple search and destroy mission of a stolen military police ship. This one has a cash reward. Mission 6: Thargoid 'invasion ship' plans Thargoid 'invasion ship' plans have been obtained and require transport to a research base at a named system (so make a note). The Thargoids are aware, so as you travel expect multiple Thargoid attacks. Upon delivery there's a cash reward. Mission 7: Asteroid bombardment A named system is suffering from an asteroid bombardment. When you arrive you'll find a higher concentration of asteroids than normal, but head to the station and deal with the asteroids there. If you've destroyed enough there should be a cash reward waiting when you dock. Visiting Galaxy 9 There has always been a tiny chance of reaching Galaxy 9 with a galactic hyperspace jump from Galaxy 8, however it's estimated that only 300 chances in 65536 would be successful, a less than 0.5% probability. Thousands of galactic hyperspace jumps may be needed to reach Galaxy 9 normally. The following patch applies a change to make a visit to Galaxy 9 a certainty. Elite Plus version Given the age of the game there are probably a few versions of Elite Plus that can be found. This patch is compatible with the 'official' (or official'ish) Elite Plus version which can be found at Ian Bells, The Elite Home Page in PC Elites. Backups It is recommended to take a backup of the game executable (elite.exe) and any saved commanders you wish to continue using (*.cdr). Both can be found in the game installation folder. Patching The patch is an xdelta patch containing the changes to apply to the game executable. It was created using the utility DeltaPatcher v3.1.6. From the creator, Marco Calautti: Delta Patcher is a GUI software that is able to create and apply xdelta patches as the ones supported by the xdelta tool developed by Joshua McDonald. It is available from the DeltaPatcher GitHub repository in Releases. To apply the patch: Download and extract DeltaPatcher and the ElitePlus-Galaxy9.zip patch below. Run the DelatPatcher and select the original file/game executable (elite.exe) and the xdelta patch (ElitePlus-Galaxy9.xdelta). Click Apply patch. Making the jump To make the jump you'll need to be in Galaxy 8 with a ship equipped with a Galactic Hyperdrive. SImply leave the station and make a galactic hyperspace jump to reach Galaxy 9!. Visiting the 9th galaxy. Finally... Credit and thanks goes to: Nothoria Infama for the Elite Plus thread on the Frontier Forums. darrenc for the 9th Galaxy research. Marco Calautti for DeltaPatcher. Good hunting!

Falcon 3.0 Gold, all manuals available! A recent update on the availability of Falcon 3.0 Gold manuals. Until recently the availability of digital versions of the Falcon 3.0 Gold manuals consisted of Falcon 3.0 and Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter (and Hornet took an awful lot of digging around the web to find). Operation Fighting Tiger and Mig-29 manuals couldn't be found in a digital format. However some kind soul, who shall remain nameless ;) has scanned in the Operation: Fighting Tiger and MiG-29: Deadly Adversary of Falcon 3.0 manuals and compiled them into pdf docs. If that weren't enough VOGONS forum member rfnagel has added these manuals to his already impressive Falcon 3.0 documentation to create Falcon 3.0 Gold: COMPLETE Documentation. You'll need to go to the VOGONS homepage and search for the thread. The documentation is best described in his own words: This archive includes ALL of the quick reference cards, manuals, maps, posters, support documentation, FAQs, and readmes for Spectrum Holobyte's "Falcon 3.0", "Operation: Fighting Tiger", "Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter", and "MiG-29: Deadly Adversary Of Falcon 3.0". The archive ALSO includes ALL of the strategy guides that were published for the simulations, including the "Art Of The Kill" strategy guide that was included with the "Falcon Gold" CD-ROM (as well as all of the "Art Of The Kill" videos combined and recorded to a SINGLE VIDEO in "MP4" format for playback using your video player of choice). Here's the link to download the Falcon 3.0 Gold: COMPLETE Documentation. Note: depending on your browser you may have use 'Save target as...' or 'Save link as...' to save the zip archive. So a huge thank you to rfnagel for the complete Falcon 3.0 Gold manuals and supporting docs!

An updated guide to running the NovalLogic light flight sim, F-22 Lightning II in DOSBox Staging. The original guide had incorrect or missing details and didn't provide an accurate or complete version and patch history. Contents Strategy This guide is laid out a little differently to improve consistency. There is a preparation section covering retail media image creation and game management. Installation shows the installation process with points to note, recommended patching and setup configuration options. Sound covers the various sound options both within and external to DOSBox. The control section covers joystick/HOTAS config and other controls if available. Documentation covers where to find documentation including supplemental documents often not included in re-releases. Mods & tools covers any available mods or optionally useful tools for the game. An example video section to show the results and finally credit and thanks. Hopefully this results in a far more complete guide for F-22 Lightning II (F-22 in the rest of the guide). Version and patch history The following is a corrected and more complete patch history. Due to the age of the game, overly complicated versioning and the difficulty in finding patches creating a accurate history was difficult but this history seems to be as complete as possible. All patches are available for the F-22 Lightning II (NovaLogic) patch collection at the Internet Archive. Included are the original NovaLogic self-extracting executable patches and release notes taken from the NovaLogic website. Additional patch locations are listed below. All version and patches should be installed under DOSBox. Initial retail release (September 1996) The initial retail release was published by NovaLogic in September 1996. Distributed on a single CD. This was version V 1.00.00.02. V 1.00.01.00 patch (October 1996) The first patch was a file replacement patch, replacing the games executable (f22.exe). There were no release notes distributed with the patch. The patch originally was distributed as a self-extracting executable (fs2210001.exe) with other sources using zip or legacy arj formats. Release notes are included below: This patch is not recommended having been superseded by later patches. It is available from: Internet Archive, Score 36 CD-ROM (1996-12). V 1.00.04.00 patch (October 1996) The V 1.00.04.00 patch was an installer replacement patch, for those unable to install the game, and a cumulative patch including the V 1.00.01.00 patch. It requires files from an existing installation to be removed before the patch is extracted to the installation folder and the replacement patch installer run. This patch was originally considered a beta patch, to be replaced by the F-22 Maintenance Upgrade patch but was retained to deal with installation issues. Both sets of release notes are included below: The patch originally was distributed as a self-extracting executable (fs2210004.exe) with other sources using zip or legacy arj formats. This patch is unnecessary for DOSBox but those using legacy hardware experiencing the issue may require this patch. It is available from: Internet Archive, Score 36 CD-ROM (1996-12). The Patches Scrolls, F-22 Lightning II, fix beta 4 for video. V 1.00.05.02 patch (October 1996) The V 1.00.05.02 patch was a beta upgrade patch, for those that wished to try features prior to the full F-22 Maintenance Upgrade patch release. It is a file replacement patch replacing the game (f22.exe) and setup (setup.exe) executables. The setup must be re-run to prevent the game running in a multiplayer only client mode. The release notes are included below: The patch originally was distributed as a self-extracting executable (fs2210005.exe) with other sources using zip or legacy arj formats. This patch is not recommended having been superseded by the later F-22 Maintenance Upgrade patch. It is available from: Internet Archive, Score 36 CD-ROM (1996-12). Thrustmaster patch (October 1996) This patch was a Thrustmaster profile for the Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS (Flight Control System) and TQS (Throttle Quadrant System). The patch originally was distributed as a self-extracting executable (f22_b50.exe) with other sources using zip or legacy arj formats. This patch is unnecessary for DOSBox and modern controllers, but may be useful for those with the appropriate legacy hardware on legacy systems. It is available from: Internet Archive, Score 36 CD-ROM (1996-12). Retail re-release (November 1996) The retail re-release was published by NovaLogic in November 1996. Distributed on a single CD, this included the F-22 Maintenance Upgrade and was version V 1.01.00.18. F-22 Maintenance Upgrade patch (December 1996) The final and largest patch was a cumulative patch including the V 1.00.01.00 and V 1.00.05.02 patches but excluding installation fixes provided by the V 1.00.04.00 patch. It is an installation patch which must be installed in an existing fully working installation folder. Once complete the setup configuration options must be reapplied. This patch upgrades the version to V 1.01.00.18. The release notes are included below: The patch originally was distributed as a self-extracting executable (fs2210018.exe) with other sources using zip or legacy arj formats. This patch is recommended for the initial retail release only. It is available from: Gamepressure, Download, F-22 Lightning 2, F-22 Lightning 2 - Game Update - Download. Internet Archive, F-22 Lightning II Patch v1.01.00.18. The Patches Scrolls, F-22 Lightning II, patch 1.01.00.18. F22MOUSE (December 1996) This is an additional executable (f22mouse.exe) to be used in place of the game executable (f22.exe). It provides cursor control using a joystick for systems where mouse control is unavailable. The release notes are included below: This patch is unnecessary for DOSBox but may be required for those using legacy systems without mouse control. EA CD Classics edition release (July 1998) F-22 was re-released as part of the EA CD Classics range in July 1998. This uses version V 1.01.00.18 with the F-22 Maintenance Upgrade included, making it equivalent to the Retail re-release (November 1996). Distributed by Electronic Arts on a single CD-ROM, which also includes F22MOUSE, additional joystick profiles, manual and reference card pdf documents and a variety of demos for other NovaLogic products. Patching Strategies The following are the recommended patching strategies: Initial retail release (DOSBox) Install initial retail release. Apply F-22 Maintenance Upgrade patch. Initial retail release (legacy systems) Install initial retail release. Install using V 1.00.04.00 patch (if initial retail release installation fails). Apply F-22 Maintenance Upgrade patch. Retail re-release and EA CD Classics edition release Install retail re-release or EA CD Classics edition release with F-22 Maintenance Upgrade already included. Preparation This section covers tasks prior to configuring DOSBox or installing the game. Retail media Due to the age or the media and the drives required to read the media, it is recommended to rip CD-ROM media to image files, to save wear and tear on media and the mechanical drives. The CD-ROM can be ripped to a data only iso image format as there is no CD audio on the disc. Game management It is recommended to use a game management strategy or similar strategy you may have adopted. The recommended game management folders are: cd - for any cd images. hdd - the folder used as the emulated DOSBox hard disk. conf - to store DOSBox and HOTAS configuration files. docs - for documents. patch - to store any patches. These management folders are placed in the following game folder (as an example), and used in the rest of the guide: D:\Games\DOS\F-22 Lightning II DOSBox This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging v0.83.0 has been installed, is fully working and has been run at least once to create a default configuration file. It is also assumed only a single copy of DOSBox Staging is installed with each game, using DOSBox, having its own configuration file (with settings differing from the default configuration file). Config This is a revised config, changes to the default config can be found below. # This is the configuration file for F22 Lightning II. [cpu] cpu_cycles_protected = 200000 cpu_throttle = on cycleup = 1000 cycledown = 1000 [voodoo] voodoo = off [mixer] reverb = medium chorus = normal [soundcanvas] soundcanvas_model = auto soundcanvas_rom_dir = "D:\Midi\soundcanvas\ROMs" [midi] mididevice = soundcanvas [joystick] joysticktype = ch timed = off swap34 = on deadzone = 0 [autoexec] @echo off mount c "D:\Games\Dos\F-22 Lightning II\hdd" mount d "D:\Games\Dos\F-22 Lightning II\cd\F-22 Lightning II.iso" -t cdrom mixer master 100 /noshow c: # Running F-22 # cd f22 # f22.exe # exit # Using the F22 menu # call f22menu.bat This config can be found below: In the [cpu] section cpu_cycles_protected has been changed from max to a high figure with cpu_throttle enabled as this is considered better practice than using max cycles. The [mixer] settings are an example and can be changed to a personal preference. MIDI is configured using a Sound Canvas in the [soundcanvas] and [midi] sections as an example. The soundcanvas_rom_dir folder setting is an example. Other music options are covered in Sound. The [joystick] section has the joysticktype set to ch as the game supports the CH Flightstick Pro, however other options are covered in HOTAS config. The [autoexec] section has example mount commands for an emulated hard disk and CD image. These should be changed to appropriate settings. The mixer command silently restores mixer volume to 100%. There are example commands (commented out) to run the game or invoke an F-22 menu, covered in Tools. Tools F-22 launcher menu. An F-22 launcher menu (f22menu.bat) has been created to to simply the following tasks: Running the game. Running the configuration setup. Viewing the release notes. Pilot backup and restore. Switching between DOSBox MIDI options (Sound Canvas, Fluidsynth or an external MIDI synth). Returning to the DOSBox DOS prompt. Quitting DOSBox. MIDI options are required to be configured in the DOSBox config before use. The F22 launcher menu can be found below: It should be extracted into the hdd folder. e.g. D:\Games\DOS\F-22 Lightning II\hdd (in Win10/11 becomes) C:\ (in DOSBox) Sound F-22 supports Sound Blaster digital sound and Sound Blaster or General MIDI music. The game does not support Roland MT32 type devices. Sound Blaster The default Sound Blaster settings set in the default DOSBox config are appropriate for Sound Blaster digital sound and music, however the following settings may be useful to refer to when configuring the game: DIgital Sound Device Setup: Sound Blaster 16 I/O: 220h IRQ: 7 DMA8: 1 DMA16: 5 KHz: 22 Mix: 16bit Music Device Setup: Sound Blaster 16-bit / OPL-3 I/O: 220h MIDI The following settings apply to all MIDI devices below when configuring the game: Music Device Setup: General MIDI I/O: 330h Sound Canvas The following settings enable the Sound Canvas synth and selects the Sound Canvas as the MIDI device: [soundcanvas] soundcanvas_model = auto soundcanvas_rom_dir = "D:\Midi\soundcanvas\ROMs" [midi] mididevice = soundcanvas The soundcanvas_rom_dir is an example only. It is recommended to the consult the Roland Sound Canvas page of the DOSBox Staging user manual. Fluidsynth The following settings enable Fluidsynth and selects Fluidsynth as the MIDI device: [fluidsynth] soundfont = "Shan SGM Pro 15.SF2" soundfont_dir = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts" [midi] mididevice = fluidsynth The soundfont and soundfont_dir are examples only. It is recommended to the consult the Fluidsynth page of the DOSBox Staging user manual. External MIDI The following settings enable an external (to DOSBox) MIDI synth and selects it as the MIDI device: [midi] mididevice = port midiconfig = 0 The midiconfig is an example only. It is recommended to the consult the Using external MIDI devices section of the DOSBox Staging user manual. The following earlier articles cover using virtual software synths: DOSBox Staging and MIDI. VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper, Controls The following section covers joystick/HOTAS setup. 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. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. You may also have to use HidHide as a device firewall, to hide your real controllers, so only the vJoy virtual controllers are detected by F-22. [6][7][8]. 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 Using a profile Mamy may find the CH Flightstick Pro POV hat mapping in F-22 counter intuitive. The hat is configured to switch between the HUD and MFD's rather than the HUD and internal left/right/rear views. Those wishing to create a profile (in vendor profiling software or Joystick Gremin) to assign additional buttons or remap the POV hat may wish to change the DOSBox config to: [joystick] joysticktype = 4axis The appropriate in-game joystick is covered in the In-game configuration. Installation The installation app on the mount CD/image is run with: D:\> install.exe The following gallery show the installation steps: The default installation folder (C:\F22) is recommended. A Large installation should be selected. Once the installation is complete, configuration will start automatically. Patching Patching is only required for the initial retail release at version V 1.00.00.02. The retail re-release and EA CD Classics release are already pre-patched to V 1.01.00.18. When using DOSBox, only the F-22 Maintenance Upgrade patch is required. This patch requires an installed and working copy of F-22. To apply the patch: From Win10/11, copy the self-extracting executable (fs2210018.exe) into the F-22 installation folder. Run the patch within DOSBox replacing existing files as required. Alternatively from Win10/11 extract the contents of the patch zip file (fs2210018.zip) into the F-22 installation folder, replacing existing files as required. From DOSBox, in the F-22 installation folder run the patch installer (install.exe). Configuration Configuration is run (in DOSBox) automatically after installation or run manually within the F-22 installation folder with the command: C:\F22> setup.exe The following gallery shows the configuration steps: In Video Setup, select VESA 2.0. To configure sound/music see Sound. In Performance settings the following checkboxes should be checked: Use page flipping. Use VESA for low-res. Once configuration is complete the game will run automatically. Configuration can be repeated as often as needed, by rerunning the setup.exe command. Running The game is run from the DOSBox installation folder with the command: C:\F22> f22.exe In-game configuration The following gallery shows the in-game configuration options: All graphics speed and memory options can be set to maximum. Sound options are left to personal preference. Controls: Joystick will depend on the DOSBox config. A DOSBox ch joystick type should use the CH Flightstick Pro. A DOSBox 4axis joystick type should use the 4 Button Joystick. Throttle and Foot pedals settings will depend on the available hardware. Effects settings are left to personal preference. Documents The manual and keyboard reference card is included on the CD with the EA CD Classics edition release. The following documents are available digitally: User manual Internet Archive, F 22 Lightning II Manual (pdf). Internet Archive, F-22 Lightning II (1996) PC Manual (pdf). Key reference (original and alternate version) Internet Archive, F 22 Lightning II Keyboard Comands (pdf). F-22 Lightning II QuickStart Internet Archive, F 22 Lightning II Quickstart (pdf). Game mods This section covers game mods, tools or in this case workarounds that may prove useful when playing the game. Editing the save game file There is a legitimate use for such a task as midway through the later campaigns the Promotion Point Total can increase above 199,999, which results in a crash when accessing the Player Stats Screen. A workaround for this issues requires opening the player save file (f22plyr.sav) in a hex editor, like HxD. It is recommended to take a backup copy of the player save file in case there are unexpected problems. In this example, a save file is opened in HxD, all slots in the save file have been filled with the description, DARKENEDROOM123. Each hexadecimal value, 00, 0C, A2, DF, etc. is a single character/byte. The description is always 15 characters/bytes long (with blank characters/bytes shown as '.' in HxD). After the description there is a single empty byte ('.' in HxD) and then the 3 characters/bytes storing the score (?♪♥). The highlighted parts (1st screenshot) show the maximum allowable score, 199,999 in hexadecimal (3F 0D 03) and DOS/ANSI encoded characters (?♪♥). If a score entry is selected (2nd screenshot), the panel on the right shows it's value in various formats. As a 24-bit (3-byte) integer (Int24 or UInt24) the value is 199,999. If a score entry is higher than 199,999 then the hexadecimal entry can be edited and changed to 3F 0D 03 to set it to a working maximum. Example video F-22 Lightning II in DOSBox Staging v0.83.0. Finally... Credit and thanks goes to: The Internet archive for hosting the F-22 Lightning II patch collection, images of the Score cover CDs, F-22 documents and the Wayback Machine, used to rediscover the original patches. The Patches Scrolls for hosting patches. Gamepressure for hosting a patch. John Novak and the DOSBox Staging team for DOSBox 0.83.0, wiki and user manual. Maël Hörz for HxD. Good hunting!

This guide covers the steps to obtain, install, config and run Windows 3.x in DOSBox Staging. A number of games, in later editions, included not only the game but reference or multimedia material which was accessible as a Windows app only, running under 16-bit WIndows. Examples include the Gold editions of Fleet Defender or 1942 Pacific AIr War. Rather than cover the same steps multiple times, this article covers the common process to setup 16-bit Windows under DOSBox Staging. It will also cover post-setup management, keeping a clean copy of the DOSBox hard disk folder and config which can reused multiple times for games supplied with suitable Windows apps. For the remainder of the guide 16-bit versions of Windows (Windows 3.x or Windows for Workgroups) will be referred to as Win3.x. Contents Preparation This section covers game management (or in this case WIndows management) to help keep files organised and obtaining Win3.x. Game management It is recommended to use a game management strategy or similar strategy you may have developed. The recommended game management folders for this process are: fdd - for floppy images. hdd - the folder use as the emulated DOSBox hard disk where WIndows 3.x will be installed. conf - to store DOSBox configuration files. win - to store any Windows install images and drivers (optional). These management folders can be found in the following 'game' folder (as an example): D:\Games\DOS\Windows 3x Retail media The retail media is distributed as floppy disk image files. Ensure the disk images are in a format supported by DOSBox Staging (.ima or .img). Obtaining 16-bit Windows This requires a 16-bit Windows version which includes Windows 3.1, WIndows 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11. None of these products are available for purchase, but can be obtained from WinWorld. The recommended version is Windows for Workgroups 3.11 OEM. This is distributed as a zip archive containing multiple floppy disk images. It is recommended to keep a copy in the win management folder. DOSBox This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging v.0.83.0, is installed, working and has been run at least once. Installing Windows To install Windows for Workgroups in DOSBox Staging, there are some excellent Windows 3.1x installation instructions to be found on the DOSBox Staging wiki. Credit and thanks go to MasterO2 for these excellent instructions. Rather than repeating the already clear and precise instructions, this part of the guide will cover some additional notes to be used in conjunction with these instructions. Note: The instructions use a smaller/simpler DOSBox Staging config to install Windows and then builds on this simple config to add sound/MIDI etc. It's recommended to use this simple Windows install config and then switch to the fInal DOSBox config, after Windows is installed. Note: The zip file containing the Windows disk images was saved in the win folder for safekeeping. The disk image contents of this zip file (eg. disk1.img, disk2.img, etc...) were extracted and stored in the fdd folder. Note: The instruction's DOSBox config file was supplemented with mount and imgmount commands below. As there are multiple disk images in the fdd folder, the wildcard *.img was used, as a convenience, to mount them all. The first disk image will be accessible from the A: drive. Ctrl+F4 switches to the next disk image. If accessing the last disk image, Ctrl+F4 will return to the first disk image. [autoexec] mount a "D:\Games\Dos\Windows 3x\fdd\*.img" -t floppy mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Windows 3x\hdd" Note: The instructions refer to creating DRIVERS and INSTALL folders in a win31 folder. Instead the win31 folder is replaced with our hdd folder. So the DRIVERS and INSTALL folders are created in our hdd folder. So: In DOSBox Staging we see: C:\INSTALL C:\DRIVERS In Win10/11 we see (as an example): D:\Games\Dos\Windows 3x\hdd\INSTALL D:\Games\Dos\Windows 3x\hdd\DRIVERS Note: The instructions refer to Windows 3.0 installation instructions, to copy the disk image contents to the INSTALL folder (using DOSBox Staging). As all of the disk images are mounted already, the same copy command (below) is used to copy the disk contents to the INSTALL folder (using DOSBox Staging). Then use Ctrl+F4 to access the next disk and use the same copy command again, until the file contents of each disk have been copied. COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL Note: The recommended display drivers and SoundBlaster 16 drivers were used, following the instructions provided. The zip files containing the drivers were placed in the win folder for safekeeping. The contents of the zip files were stored in an S3 folder (for the display drivers) and an SB16 folder (for the SoundBlaster 16 drivers), within the DRIVERS folder, so: In DOSBox Staging we see: C:\DRIVERS\S3 C:\DRIVERS\SB16 In Win10/11 we see (as an example): D:\Games\Dos\Windows 3x\hdd\DRIVERS\S3 D:\Games\Dos\Windows 3x\hdd\DRIVERS\SB16 Note: The recommended resolution to use for the display driver is 640x480. This may seem low but may be optimum for multimedia apps as it allows the DOSBox window to be filled (if DOSBox is run in a window) or fullscreen (if run in fullscreen). At higher resolutions multimedia apps may run in a 'Windows 3.x' window. At very high resolutions (e.g. 1600x1200) it becomes a very small window making it harder to navigate or read text. However this is really down to a personal preference. Note: It is highly recommended to set up MIDI within Win3.x as multimedia apps may use MIDI music. Note: It is recommended (optional, but not mandatory) to set up CD Audio in Win3.x. Although often not required, having this enabled for a reusable Win3.x build may be useful in the future. Note: The printing and networking sections of the guide can be ignored as those features aren't required in Win3.x for gaming uses. Final DOSBox config The final DOSBox Staging config to use once Win3x is successfully installed, is a combination of the earlier DOSBox Staging configs used in the DOSBox Staging wiki. # This is the configuration file for Windows 3.x. [dosbox] vmemsize = 4 [cpu] cputype = pentium cpu_cycles = 40000 cycleup = 500 cycledown = 500 [mouse] builtin_dos_mouse_driver_options = immediate [autoexec] @echo off # Unmount any existing c: drive mount -u c # C: drive with Windows 3.x mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Windows 3x\hdd" set path=%path%;c:\windows; c: # win # exit The following zip file contains this example DOSBox Staging config. It should be changed to match your hardware and personal preferences. Sound The above DOSBox config is using the default Sound Blaster settings to provide sound. These settings are compatible with the Win3.x install once Sound Blaster drivers are installed, covered earlier. However MIDI sound is not configured and there are a number of options to choose from including Roland sound (using an MT32 or Sound Canvas), Fluidsynth (with soundfont support) or an external MIDI component (like VirtualMIDISynth or MIDIMapper). Before choosing a MIDI sound option the DOSBox mixer can be configured to provide subtle chorus and reverb with: [mixer] reverb = small chorus = light It is recommended to consult the DOSBox Staging wiki MIDI page before making a choice. Roland sound Earlier DOSBox Staging versions included support for an emulated MT32 device. The current version also emulates the Roland Sound Canvas. Settings are described below: MT32 MT32 support requires MT32 and/or CM32L ROMs to be obtained. The following settings enable MT32, e.g. [mt32] model = auto romdir = "X:\path to\MT32 ROMs folder" [midi] mididevice = mt32 Sound Canvas Sound Canvas support requires Sound Canvas ROMs to be obtained. The following settings enable Sound Canvas support, e.g. [soundcanvas] soundcanvas_model = auto soundcanvas_rom_dir = "X:\path to\Sound Canvas ROMs folder" [midi] mididevice = soundcanvas Fluidsynth Fluidsynth is a high quality software MIDI synth supporting soundfonts. The following settings enable Fluidsynth support, using the Shan SGM Pro 14 soundfont as an example: [fluidsynth] soundfont = "Shan SGM Pro 14.SF2" soundfont_dir = "X:\path to\Soundfonts folder" [midi] mididevice = fluidsynth External MIDI DOSBox Staging also supports routing MIDI music to an external MIDI synth, running in Win10/11. This has been discussed in DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth and VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper. DOSBox Staging can send MIDI music directly to an external MIDI synth in Win10/11, or it can send MIDI music to the Coolsoft MIDIMapper (if installed), which can then send it to a selected MIDI synth. To use an external MIDI synth: Make a note of the device index in the Win32 section, when the following command is run from within DOSBox: Z:\> mixer /listmidi Apply the following settings: [midi] mididevice = port midiconfig = Note: The earlier win32 setting has been renamed to port. The mixer /listmidi command still uses the earlier win32 name. Management The result should be a working version of Windows 3.x running in DOSBox with working MIDI sound. It may have taken a lot of time and work to get to this point, so to save repeating the process in the future, the following is highly recommended. Maintaining a clean build In order to maintain this clean build it is recommended never to use it directly. Instead a copy should always be used. If the build is not immediately required or to prevent accidental usage the build should be zipped up and stored safely for later usage. The following folder should be zipped up to preserve the entire build, e.g. D:\Games\DOS\Windows 3x Reuse When using the Win3.x build for a game with a Windows app: Unzip the hdd folder and DOSBox conf file (Win3.x.conf) from the zip file into a new set of game management folders. Alternatively copy the hdd folder and conf file (Win3.x.conf) from the clean build into a new set of game management folders. This should result in (as an example): D:\Games\DOS\new DOS game\hdd (containing Win3.x) D:\Games\DOS\new DOS game\conf\Win3.x.conf (DOSBox config to run Win3.x) The new DOS game would be installed (using DOSBox) into the hdd folder and a separate DOSBox config created to run the DOS game. The Win3.x.conf would be used by DOSBox to run Win3.x in the hdd folder which would allow the installation and running of any Win3.x apps. Finally... Credit and thanks goes to: John Novak and the DOSBox development team. MasterO2 for the excellent Windows installation guide. WinWorld for hosting the Windows 3.x installation media. The CoolSoft development teams for VIrtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper.

A guide to running the floppy, CD and digital releases of 1942 Pacific Air War and 1942 Pacific War Gold in the DOSBox Staging emulator. 1942 The Pacific Air War (PAW) is a World War 2 sim set in the pacific theater. Playing as part of US or Japanese forces, missions and the campaigns are staged from carriers. The expansion would add US and Japanese army aircraft staging from island airstrips. Table of contents Version & patch history This is a brief look at the version and patch history of the game. When running under DOSBox Staging all versions of the game (patched and unpatched) require the Jemm expanded memory manager. Initial retail version (May 1994) The initial retail release occurred in May 1994. It was released on 6 x 3.5" 1.44MB High Density (HD) floppy disks. This version is assumed to be version 1.0 as no version number can be displayed on the in-game main menu. The installer only allows for the selection and configuration of a single digital audio/music sound card. Roland sound fix for 1942 PAW (July 1994) The Roland sound fix for 1942 PAW is a single replacement file ((rsound.ft). Taken from the Microprose FTP archive: This file replaces the Roland sound driver supplied with 1942 Pacific Air War. A couple sound effects, like the guns, did not work correctly on the original MT-32, though they worked fine on the LAPC-1 version. This has now been corrected. If you don't have an MT-32, you don't need this patch. This patch is not recommended, having been superseded by later patches. This patch can be found at: Internet Archive, Microprose FTP archive. Internet Archive, Microprose FTP mirror archive. 1942 PAW Modem Update (October 1994) The 1942 PAW Modem Update is a zip archive (pawmodem.zip). Taken from the release notes: The files MODM28_8.TXT, MODM14_4.TXT, MODM9600.txt, and MODMINIT.TXT will be installed into your 1942 directory with this update. 1942 will read the file MODMINIT.TXT to find the initialization string for your modem. The other three files contain recommended initialization strings for 28.8K, 14.4K and 9600 baud modems. This is a modem enhancement patch only. It must be installed using DOSBox, once unzipped. This patch is not recommended, as it concerns legacy modem hardware only. This patch can be found at: DOS Days, 1942: The Pacific Air War, Versions of the game known to exist. Internet Archive, 1942: The Pacific Air War Modem Patch. Internet Archive, Microprose FTP archive. 1942 PAW Modem Extra Files (October 1994) The 1942 PAW Modem Extra Files is a zip archive (pawmod1.zip). Taken from the Microprose FTP archive: The very initial release of the PAWMODEM.ZIP file did not contain a couple necessary files. This would ONLY apply to downloads on the evening of Oct 12 and the early morning of Oct 13. This PAWMOD1.ZIP file contains the missing files and is only available to save you from having to download another 500K. All files contained in this .zip are included in the current version of PAWMODEM.ZIP. This is a modem enhancement patch only. It must be installed using DOSBox, once unzipped. This patch is not recommended, as it concerns legacy modem hardware only. This patch can be found at: Internet Archive, Microprose FTP archive. 1942: The Pacific Air War Scenario (December 1994) The one and only expansion, 1942: The Pacific Air War Scenario allowed the player to fly for US and Japanese armies. Six new aircraft are included: P-38 Lightning, P-40 Warhawk, P-51 Mustang, Ki-61 'Tony', Ki-84 'Frank' and N1K 'George'. There are also additional missions for the Philippines and New Guinea campaigns. The expansion was distributed on 3 x 3.5" 1.44MB HD floppy disks. The installer allows the selection of separate digital sound and music cards. Following installation the version is Scenario Ver 1.0. 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.4 Update (January 1995) A comprehensive enhancement patch, taken from the Microprose FTP archive: This is the 1942:PAW v1.4 update. This update implements digital sounds, 6 new airplanes, and new flight models. To update, UNZIP the file PAWV14.ZIP to a TEMP directory, change to that directory and type "INSTALL". Follow the prompts for installation. IMPORTANT: Do **NOT** UNZIP the file to your 1942 directory. Also, to update correctly, the update REQUIRES that you have played the game at least once to create a sound and joystick configuration file. Please note: While digital sounds (gun, cannon, explosion, etc) have been added, digital SPEECH has NOT been added. Also, the 6 new planes are available ONLY via the mission builder - there are NO pre-generated missions. Speech and hundreds of historically accurate missions are available in the commercial release of the 1942:PAW SCENARIO DISK! This patch must be installed using DOSBox, once unzipped. This is a recommended patch for any version of PAW below v1.4. This patch can be found at: DOS Days, 1942: The Pacific Air War, Versions of the game known to exist. Internet Archive, 1942: Pacific Air War 1.4 Patch. Internet Archive, Microprose FTP archive. Internet Archive, Microprose FTP mirror archive. 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold (December 1994/February 1995) The Gold edition was a compilation of the original game and expansion published as a single game and pre-patched with the v1.4 update patch. The Gold edition also featured a Windows 3.x installer and utilities to configure digital sound and music under Windows. It also featured a multimedia app featuring instruction and history videos. This version was distributed on a single CD-ROM. The base game, scenario disk, and Gold edition was a product release cycle also used by the Microprose sim, Fleet Defender. Updated digital sound driver for 1942 (January 1995) This is a bug fix patch for specific legacy sound cards for v1.4 only. Taken from the Microprose FTP archive: This is an updated digital sound file for Pacific Air War 1942 that fixes a compatibility problem with the DigiSpeech Port*able sound card by disabling some error checking. It MAY fix other compatibility problems also. This patch is ONLY for the ver 1.4 update, scenario disk and Gold versions. It will NOT work with the original game. Once unzipped, this is a file replacement patch. This patch is only recommended for legacy hardware and is not required for DOSBox Staging. This patch can be found at: DOS Days, 1942: The Pacific Air War, Versions of the game known to exist. Internet Archive, 1942: The Pacific Air War Sound Patch. Internet Archive, Microprose FTP archive. Internet Archive, Microprose FTP mirror archive. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, 1942: The Pacific Air War - files. 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.5b Update (May 1995) Once unzipped, this is a file replacement patch providing bug fixes/enhancements. From the release notes: This version of 1942: THE PACIFIC AIR WAR corrects the following problems: Lack of aggressiveness for enemy planes and players wingmen. Enemy planes always taking the fight down to near sea level or ground level. Planes crashing into the ground for no apparent reason. Planes under fire performing lazy left and right hand turns. Lack of vertical maneuvers for enemy and wingmen planes. This patch requires version 1.4 and is a recommended patch for v1.4. Following installation the game is upgraded to v1.5b. This patch is available from: DOS Days, 1942: The Pacific Air War, Versions of the game known to exist. Internet Archive, 1942: Pacific Air War 1.4 to 1.5b Patch. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, 1942: The Pacific Air War - files. 1942: Pacific Air War GOLD Update Volume Install Problems (October 1995) Once unzipped, this is a file replacement patch providing compatibility with alternate CD volume labels. Taken from the Microprose FTP archive: This update contains a new version of the file, 1942cd.com, which will correct a problem seen if your copy of this program has a volume label of "paw_1942" instead of "1942_paw", where the game would not run from a minimum installation. This is a only recommended for those using a Gold edition cd with an alternate label. It should not be required by DOSBox Staging as a full install is recommended. This patch is available from: DOS Days, 1942: The Pacific Air War, Versions of the game known to exist. Internet Archive, 1942: Pacific Air War Gold (volume label fix). Internet Archive, Microprose FTP archive. Internet Archive, Microprose FTP mirror archive. The Patches Scrolls, 1942: Pacific Air War Gold. Compilation editions (1994-1997) From 1994 - 1997 PAW appears in a number of compilation editions. Most compilations featured the original game and expansion pre-patched to v1.4. Most compilations were distributed on 1 or more CD-ROMs. Compilations included a budget re-release featuring the original game and expansion and the Conquer the Skies compilation. The compilation editions did not not feature the Windows 3.x installer or apps. The budget rerelease with base game and scenario disk, but without Windows 3.x components was a product release cycle also used by the Microprose sim, Fleet Defender. The Conquer the Skies compilation features an install utility that allows the selection and configuration of a single sound card, supplemented with a setup utility that allows the selection of separate digital audio and music sound cards. 1942: The Pacific Air War digital release (2015) The digital edition is equivalent to the Gold edition but without the Windows 3.x components, making it similar to compilation editions, but also pre-patched to the latest v1.5b update patch. The installer allows music and digital sound to use separate devices and cloud saves are available on the gog.com digital platform. The digital edition of the game is also available on Steam. Patching strategies The following are recommended patching strategies for the various releases of PAW. 1942: The Pacific Air War retail release only Install 1942: The Pacific Air War retail release. Patch with 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.4 Update. Patch with Updated digital sound driver for 1942 (optional, only for affected legacy hardware). Patch with 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.5b Update. 1942: The Pacific Air War retail release & Scenarios expansion Install 1942: The Pacific Air War retail release. Install 1942: The Pacific Air War Scenarios expansion. Patch with 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.4 Update. Patch with Updated digital sound driver for 1942 (optional, only for affected legacy hardware). Patch with 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.5b Update. 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold edition Install 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold edition. Patch with Updated digital sound driver for 1942 (optional, only for affected legacy hardware). Patch with 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.5b Update. Patch with 1942: Pacific Air War GOLD Update Volume Install Problems (optional, if required). CD compilation releases Install 1942: The Pacific Air War (expected to include expansion and pre-patched to v1.4). Patch with Updated digital sound driver for 1942 (optional, only for affected legacy hardware). Patch with 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.5b Update. 1942: The Pacific Air War digital edition Install 1942: The Pacific Air War digital edition (no patches required). Retail media Due to the age or the media and the drives required to read the media, it is recommended to rip floppy and cd-rom media to image files, to save wear and tear on media and the mechanical drives. The floppy disks should be ripped to a DOSBox staging compatible .ima or .img image format. The cd-rom can be ripped to a data only .iso image format as there is no cd audio on the cd. When ripping cds it is recommended to use a combined ISO9660 and Joliet file system for the image, this is to preserve files with a .$00 extension, which are not supported under a ISO9660 only file system. A digital edition of the game is available on gog.com, and Steam. Game management It is recommended to use my DOSBox game management strategy or similar strategy you may have developed. The recommended game management folders for the DOS version are: cd - for any cd images. fdd - for any floppy images. hdd - the folder use as the emulated DOSBox hard disk conf - to store DOSBox and HOTAS configuration files. docs - for documents. patch - to store any patches. win - to store any Windows install images and drivers (optional). These management folders can be found in the following game folder (as an example): D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War 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. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. You may also have to use HidHide as a device firewall, to hide your real controllers, so only the vJoy virtual controller is detected by DOSBox. [6][7][8]. 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 The DOS version is configured to run under the latest released DOSBox Staging version, v0.83.0-RC1 (at time of writing). This config is suitable for the PAW game. A suitable DOSBox config for Windows for Gold edition Windows apps is covered later. # This is the configuration file for 1942: The Pacific Air War. [cpu] cpu_cycles = 20000 cycleup = 500 cycledown = 500 [voodoo] voodoo = off [mixer] reverb = small chorus = light [mt32] model = cm32l romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned" [fluidsynth] soundfont = "Shan SGM Pro 14.SF2" soundfont_dir = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts" [soundcanvas] soundcanvas_model = sc55 soundcanvas_rom_dir = "D:\Midi\soundcanvas\ROMs" [midi] # Other valid options: mt32, fluidsynth, port mididevice = soundcanvas midiconfig = 0 [joystick] joysticktype = ch timed = off swap34 = on deadzone = 0 [dos] xms = off ems = off umb = off [autoexec] @echo off # Base game floppy images # mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\paw*.img" -t floppy -ro # Scenario expansion floppy images # mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\scen*.img" -t floppy -ro # CD release image # mount d "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\cd\paw.iso" -t cdrom # PAW Gold CD release # mount d "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\cd" -t cdrom mount c "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd" mixer master 100 /noshow c: # Non-gold editions # cd \mps\1942 # jemmex.exe frame=e000 load # cd \mps # call 1942.bat # exit # Gold edition running update v1.5b # cd \mps\pawgold # jemmex.exe frame=e000 load # 1942.exe # exit The following zip file contains this example DOSBox Staging config. It should be changed to match your hardware and personal preferences. Due to the revised defaults with this DOSBox version, most settings are now personal preference or optimal settings, such as sound or joystick settings. Only those settings that differ from the DOSBox Stagiing v0.83.0-RC1 default config are shown. The cpu_cycle setting of 20000 is suggested to provide quicker installation. It is equivalent to a 486DX 33+ Mhz machine. The game runs with the default cpu_cycles_protected setting at 60000. cycleup/down settings are changed to values rather than percentages. Voodoo emulation isn't required and is disabled. The mixer settings are a personal preference but a light chorus may be more suitable for aircraft engine sounds. PAW supports a wide variety of MIDI sound devices including Roland MIDI and general MIDI devices. Sound Blaster is also another option for music. The default Sound Blaster settings are appropriate for Sound Blaster music and digital sounds. Multiple general MIDI devices are configured in the [mt32], [fluidsynth] and [soundcanvas] sections. A Win10 MIDI synth can also be used with DOSBox Staging (see Compatibility tools). The optimum Roland sound settings use the CM32L device, as described in List of MT-32-compatible computer games. The FluidSynth soundfont is a personal preference. In the above example, Shan SGM Pro v14 is used, an excellent general purpose soundfont. DOSBox Staging v0.83.0-RC1 introduces Sound Canvas support. The Sound Canvas config, like the Roland MIDI config, requires a model to be selected and a folder containing the Sound Canvas ROMs to be specified. The MIDI section specifies a Win10 MIDI synth. This can be changed to your preferred MIDI device: mt32, fluidsynth or soundcanvas. Alternatively a PAW launcher is available to allow selection of a DOSBox MIDI device within DOSBox (see PAW Launcher), allowing multiple MIDI devices to be tried before selecting your preferred MIDI device and setting it in the config as a default. The midiconfig setting is used to select a Win10 MIDI synth if there is more than one synth available. The joystick settings are a personal preference and suitable for my joystick hardware. A ch joystick type allows the joystick hat to be used in-game. The [dos] settings are recommended in the DOSBox Staging wiki, Game issues for 1942: The Pacific Air War. The autoexec mount settings are examples only, demonstrating how to mount multiple floppy disk images or a cd image. The mixer setting restores the master volume to 100%. The Jemm memory manager is loaded using recommended options from the DOSBox Staging wiki, Game issues for 1942: The Pacific Air War. The game is started using the batch (.bat) file created by the installer of most PAW releases. This can be replaced with a PAW Launcher menu Compatibility tools The following compatibility tools are employed to ensure PAW runs without issues in the DOSBox Staging emulator. Jemm Expanded Memory Manager (EMM) When run in the DOSBox Staging emulator, PAW requires the use of the Jemm Expanded Memory Manager. WIthout this memory manager sound does not work properly. Jemm is freely available from the Jemm GitHub repository under Releases. The recommended version to use is the latest v5.86 version. The digital edition of PAW already includes an earlier Jemm expanded memory manager. Installation Jemm should be obtained before running the PAW installer. For floppy disk based releases, once the base game is installed, Jemm should be added using the instructions below. The scenarios expansion and patches can then be installed. For CD based releases once the CD based installer has complete, Jemm should be added using the instructions below. Patches can then be installed. Once downloaded the contents of the zip archive can be extracted to a folder in Win10, e.g. D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\patch\jemm The jemmex.exe file should be copied into the game installation folder, this can be done in Win10: # Game installation folder in Win10 D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\MPS\1942 # And in DOSBox C:\MPS\1942 Add the following lines to the [autoexec] section of the DOSBox Staging config, after switching to the c: drive: [autoexec] ... c: cd \mps\1942 jemmex.exe frame=e000 load ... This changes to the DOSBox folder with the jemmex.exe file and loads it into memory at memory location E000. Lower memory addresses are already used by DOSBox Staging. Gold edition installation The Gold edition uses a slightly different default installation folder. The jemmex.exe file should be copied into the game installation folder, this can be done in Win10: # Game installation folder in Win10 D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\MPS\PAWGOLD # And in DOSBox C:\MPS\PAWGOLD Add the following lines to the [autoexec] section of the DOSBox Staging config, after switching to the c: drive: [autoexec] ... c: cd \mps\pawgold jemmex.exe frame=e000 load ... Digital edition installation The digital edition already includes an older version of the Jemm expanded memory manager. To use the older included version, only the following line needs to be added to the [autoexec] section of the DOSBox Staging config, after switching to the c: drive: [autoexec] ... c: jemm578B\jemmex.exe frame=e000 load ... To use the latest version, he jemmex.exe file should be copied into the game installation folder, this can be done in Win10: # Digital edition game installation folder in Win10 D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\1942 The Pacific Air War # And in DOSBox C:\ Add the following lines to the [autoexec] section of the DOSBox Staging config, after switching to the c: drive: [autoexec] ... c: jemmex.exe frame=e000 load ... VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper These are optional MIDI tools that can be used by DOSBox Staging and PAW, as General MIDI (GM) is supported as a PAW music option. The built in features of DOSBox Staging can do the job of these tools but they may make things easier for those who wish to try out multiple soundfonts (VirtualMIDISynth) or switch between different Win10/11 MIDI synths (MIDIMapper). For a further discussion on using these tools with the latest DOSBox Staging, see DOSBox Staging and MIDI. Installation 1942: The Pacific Air War floppy retail releases This section is applicable to 1942: The Pacific Air War with or without the Scenarios expansion. Note: PAW and PAW expansion disk images should be named so they can be distinguished from each other, as shown in the below example. Example mount commands for floppy images, to add to the [autosec] section of the DOSBox config, are shown below: [autoexec] ... # Base game # mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\paw*.img" -t floppy # Scenarios expansion # mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\scen*.img" -t floppy ... As both PAW and PAW Scenarios use multiple floppy disk images the *.img wildcard is used to mount a set of floppy images. Only one set of floppy images should be mounted at once, either paw*.img (6 base game installation floppy images) or scen*.img (3 Scenario expansion floppy images) depending on the step of the installation process. Install 1942: The Pacific Air War The installation process is straightforward, the gallery below shows each step required. Ensure the PAW disk images are mounted as the A: drive, the line below should be the only uncommented/enabled A: mount n the DOSBox config. mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\paw*.img" -t floppy Start DOSBox with this config and run the installer from the first disk/image: A:\> install.exe Only a single music & sound card can be selected with the PAW base game, so selecting SoundBlaster Pro is a good choice at this stage. Install Jemm Use the Jemm installation instructions to add Jemm and change the DOSBox config. Restart DOSBox. Configure 1942: The Pacific Air War Note: It may seem odd to configure PAW at this stage, however, the Scenarios expansion and update patch require a complete in-game configuration before the installers will run. Change to the MPS folder and run the game from the batch file to start the configuration: C:\> cd \mps C:\MPS> 1942.bat Once the intro movie has completed the configuration will start immediately, the steps are described in In-game configuration. Install 1942: The Pacific Air War Scenarios (optional) For those wishing to install the PAW Scenarios expansion, the installation process is straightforward, the gallery below shows each step required. Ensure the PAW Scenario disk images are mounted as the A: drive, the line below should be the only uncommented/enabled A: mount n the DOSBox config. mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\scen*.img" -t floppy Start DOSBox with this config and run the installer from the first disk/image: A:\> install.exe Note: the above examples demonstrates switching to a MIDI music device, however you may also wish to switch the digital sound device to the Sound Blaster 16. The digital sound parameters should be set to the DOSBox Sound Blaster defaults of: Address: 220 h IRQ: 7 DRQ: 1 Music and digital sound options can be re-configured multiple times by running the installer from the game installation folder, e.g. C:\> cd \mps\1942 C:\MPS\1942> install.exe Hit Esc to skip past the release notes and select Setup Sound. After re-configuring sound devices don't forget to Save Setup. 1942: The Pacific Air War CD compilation This section is applicable to 1942: The Pacific Air War CD compilation releases. Example mount commands for a cd image, to add to the [autosec] section of the DOSBox config, is shown below: [autoexec] ... # CD release mount d "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\paw.iso" -t cdrom ... Install 1942: The Pacific Air War The process of installing the CD release is identical to the floppy version with an identical installer app. See Install 1942: The Pacific Air War. The installer app installs the base game plus expansion pre-patched to version v1.4. Install Jemm Use the Jemm installation instructions to add Jemm and change the DOSBox config. Restart DOSBox. Setup 1942: The Pacific Air War The installer app adds an additional setup app (setup.exe) which is identical to the expansion installer. The following commands run the setup app from the PAW installation folder: C:\> cd \mps\1942 C:\MPS\1942> setup.exe The steps to setup music and digital sound devices are identical to the steps used in the expansion installer, as described in Install 1942: The Pacific Air War Scenarios (optional). The Install Game option of the setup app should not be used. The expansion having already been installed and patched by the CD installer app. Music and digital sound options can be re-configured multiple times by running the setup app from the PAW installation folder. Configure 1942: The Pacific Air War The steps to configure a PAW CD release are identical to a floppy disk based release and are described in In-game configuration. 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold edition This section is applicable to 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold edition only. It is recommended to use two DOSBox Staging configs: A config to run the PAW game within DOSBox. A config to run Windows apps within Windows for Workgroups within DOSBox. The PAW game requires a config disabling extended/expanded memory and upper memory blocks in the [dos] section and uses the Jemm expanded memory manager instead. The PAW Windows config below continues to use the extended/expanded memory and upper memory blocks provided by DOSBox Staging. Both configs should use the same DOSBox emulated hard disk folder (hdd). The notes on obtaining and installing Windows for Workgroups are identical to those in the Fleet Defender: Defending in DOSBox guide. They are repeated below for convenience. Obtaining 16-bit Windows This requires a 16-bit Windows version which includes Windows 3.1, WIndows 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11. None of these products are available for purchase, but can be obtained from WinWorld. The recommended version is Windows for Workgroups 3.11 OEM. This is distributed as a zip archive containing multiple floppy disk images. It is recommended to keep a copy in the win game management folder. Installing Windows for Workgroups To install Windows for Workgroups in DOSBox Staging, there are some excellent Windows 3.1x installation instructions to be found on the DOSBox Staging wiki. Credit and thanks go to MasterO2 for these excellent instructions. Rather than repeating the already clear and precise instructions, this part of the guide will cover some additional notes to be used in conjunction with these instructions. Note: The instructions use a smaller/simpler DOSBox Staging config to install Windows and then builds on this simple config to add sound/MIDI etc. It's recommended to use this simple Windows install config and then switch to the config shown in DOSBox Staging config (1942: The Pacific Air War Gold), after Windows is installed. Note: The zip file containing the Windows disk images was saved in the win folder for safekeeping. The disk image contents of this zip file (eg. disk1.img, disk2.img, etc...) were extracted and stored in the fdd folder. Note: The instruction's DOSBox config file was supplemented with mount and imgmount commands below. As there are multiple disk images in the fdd folder, the wildcard *.img was used, as a convenience, to mount them all. The first disk image will be accessible from the A: drive. Ctrl-F4 switches to the next disk image. If accessing the last disk image, Ctrl-F4 will return to the first disk image. [autoexec] mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\*.img" -t floppy mount c "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd" Note: The instructions refer to creating DRIVERS and INSTALL folders in a win31 folder. Instead the win31 folder is replaced with our hdd folder. So the DRIVERS and INSTALL folders are created in our hdd folder. So: In DOSBox Staging we see: C:\INSTALL C:\DRIVERS In Win10/11 we see (as an example): D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\INSTALL D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\DRIVERS Note: The instructions refer to Windows 3.0 installation instructions, to copy the disk image contents to the INSTALL folder (using DOSBox Staging). As all of the disk images are mounted already, the same copy command (below) is used to copy the disk contents to the INSTALL folder (using DOSBox Staging). Then use Ctrl-F4 to access the next disk and use the same copy command again, until the file contents of each disk have been copied. COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL Note: The recommended display drivers and SoundBlaster 16 drivers were used, following the instructions provided. The zip files containing the drivers were placed in the win folder for safekeeping. The contents of the zip files were stored in an S3 folder (for the display drivers) and an SB16 folder (for the SoundBlaster 16 drivers), within the DRIVERS folder, so: In DOSBox Staging we see: C:\DRIVERS\S3 C:\DRIVERS\SB16 In Win10/11 we see (as an example): D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\DRIVERS\S3 D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\DRIVERS\SB16 Note: The recommended resolution to use for the display driver is 640x480. This may seem low but is optimum for the video app as it allows the DOSBox window to be filled (if DOSBox is run in a window) or fullscreen (if run in fullscreen). At higher resolutions the video app is run in a 'Windows' window. At very high resolutions (e.g. 1600x1200) it becomes a very small window making it harder to navigate or read text. However this is really down to a personal preference. Note: Although I used the instructions to set up CD Audio in Windows, this was unnecessary for PAW. Note: The printing and networking sections of the guide can be ignored as those features aren't required by PAW. DOSBox Staging config (Windows apps only) The final DOSBox Staging config to use once Windows for Workgroups is successfully installed, is a combination of the earlier DOSBox Staging config with the following additional settings applied. Note: This is an additional DOSBox Staging config (used to run the PAW Windows apps), to be used in conjunction with the earlier config (used to run the PAW game). Both configs should use the same DOSBox emulated hard disk folder (hdd). The Windows app config is based on the PAW game config but with sections replaced with those below, i.e. the [cpu] section in the earlier config is replaced with the [cpu] section below. # This is the configuration file for 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold. # This config supports 16-bit Windows. [dosbox] vmemsize = 4 [cpu] cputype = pentium cpu_cycles = 40000 cycleup = 500 cycledown = 500 [mouse] builtin_dos_mouse_driver_options = immediate [autoexec] @echo off # Unmount any existing c: drive mount -u c # C: drive with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and cd folder mount c "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd" mount d "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\cd" -t cdrom set path=%path%;c:\windows; c: # win # exit Note: The [dos] section is omitted to use default settings. The [dos] setting from the game config should not be used. The following zip file contains the complete example DOSBox Staging config. It should be changed to match your hardware and personal preferences. 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold installation preparation As was briefly mentioned, the Gold edition contains files on the CD which do not conform to the ISO9660 filesystem standard (those with a $00 file extension). When ripping a Gold edition CD into an image it is preferable to use the 'ISO9660 with Joliet extensions' filesystem which will retain the $00 extension. Files on the CD/image with the extension $00 will be interpreted as _00 by DOSBox Staging, which only supports the CD ISO9660 filesystem standard. During installation this will cause the Gold installer app to fail. This is an issue for the Gold edition only, other CD compilation releases extract files from archives during the installation process, retaining the correct file extension. The solution is to copy the contents of the Gold CD/image into a folder and mount the folder as a CD to retain the correct extension. The steps to take are: Mount the PAW Gold CD/image in Win10/11. Copy the contents of the CD/image into a suitable cd folder, e.g. D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\cd Unmount/eject the image in Win10/11. Mount the CD folder as a CD in the DOSBox config: [autoexec] ... mount d "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\cd" -t cdrom ... 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold installation Start Windows for Workgroups (WfW) from within DOSBox and use the File Manager to open the CD and run the installer (setup,exe). The gallery below shows the steps to install the game: Configuring 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold Immediately following installation, configuration will begin. The gallery below shows the steps to configure the game: Install Jemm Use the Jemm installation instructions to add Jemm and change the PAW game DOSBox config only. Restart DOSBox. 1942: The Pacific Air War digital release Digital releases should be installed using the appropriate digital platform client, or any standalone install packages available from the digital platform, e.g. the gog.com offline installer. This process assumes the installation folder used will be the one created by the digital platform client or offline installer. Switching to DOSBox Staging The [autoexec] section of the PAW game DOSBox config is changed as shown below: [autoexec] @echo off mount c "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\1942 The Pacific Air War" # mount c "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\1942 The Pacific Air War\cloud_saves" -t overlay mixer master 100 /noshow c: jemm578B\jemmex.exe frame=e000 load 1942.exe A gog.com digital release provides a cloud based saving facility, it does this by providing an overlay mount in the digital release DOSBox config. This mount is recreated in the DOSBox Staging config, however it remains untested and is not guaranteed to work. The gog.com Galaxy client may need to be running. Upgrading Jemm (optional) The digital release uses Jemm v5.78, the latest version is v5.86. Optional: Use the Jemm digital edition instructions to add the latest version of Jemm and change the DOSBox game config. Patching Showing the version number The earlier patching strategies indicate the required patches. Running in DOSBox means patches for specific legacy hardware or smaller install sizes can be skipped. As patches require a particular version, to check the version, run the game and at the main menu, use Alt + V to display the current version (see screenshot). 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.4 Update This patch is applicable to: 1942: The Pacific Air War floppy release at Ver 1.0. 1942: The Pacific Air War floppy release with Scenario expansion at Scenario Ver 1.0. To apply the patch: Ensure the mount command for the floppy disk images are commented/disabled, otherwise the installer will fail: # mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\paw*.img" -t floppy -ro # mount a "D:\Games\Dos\1942 Pacific Air War\fdd\scen*.img" -t floppy -ro In Win10/11, if the contents of the patch zip file (paw_v14a.zip) are additional zip files, extract them to a temp folder, e.g. D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\patch\patch_v14 In Win 10/11 extract the contents of these additional zip files to a patch folder (paw_v14) in the DOSBox hdd folder, e.g. # In Win10/11 D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\paw_v14 # In DOSBox C:\paw_v14 In DOSBox, change to the paw_v14 folder and run the patch: C:\> cd paw_v14 C:\PAW_V14> install.bat If the base game or Scenario expansion installer starts, then the A: drive mount commands were not disabled. Remove the contents of the paw_v14 folder and extract the patch contents to this folder again. Disable the mount commands and restart DOSBox. The remaining steps are shown in the gallery below: The installation process for Update V1.4 is nearly identical to the Scenario expansion installation process. 1942: Pacific Air War Version 1.5b Update This patch is applicable to: 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold edition at Scenario Ver 1.0. 1942: The Pacific Air War with/without Scenario expansion and CD compilation releases at Update Ver 1.4. To apply the patch: In Win10/11, extract the contents of the patch zip file to a folder in the game management patch folder. Optional: You may wish to take a backup of the original 1942.exe file. In Win10/11, copy the files: 1942.exe and paw15b.txt to the game installation folde, replacing any files as required: # In Win10/11 one of these folders: D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\MPS\1942 D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd\MPS\PAWGOLD # In DOSBox it becomes one of these folders C:\MPS\1942 C:\MPS\PAWGOLD Start DOSBox and run the game. At the main menu use Alt + V to check the version: Update version 1.5b Sound options PAW supports a wide variety of digital sound and music options. The PAW Launcher can swap between MIDI devices during a DOSBox session, and coupled with VirtualMIDISynth allows switching between soundfonts 'on-the-fly'. However once a preference has been settled on, you may wish to make this the default without having to choose the preferred sound/music devices each time. When reconfiguring music/sound devices the following apps should be used: Floppy release with/without expansion,from the game installation folder: install.exe. 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold edition, from Windows for Workgroups, run the Sound Card Configuration app from the PAW program group. CD release, from the game installation folder: setup.exe. Digital edition, from the game installation folder: install.exe. Alternatively run the setup option from the PAW Launcher. Sound Blaster Can be selected for music and sound. The default DOSBox config Sound Blaster settings are Ideal. Music/sound should be set in the appropriate PAW app to Sound Blaster 16. Sound Blaster settings: Address: 220h IRQ: 7 DRQ: 1 Roland sound Roland devices can be selected for music only. Settings for all Roland devices: Address: 330h IRQ: N/A (leave at 2 if set) CM32-L The DOSBox configs use the optimum device model: cm32l. This is noted in List of MT-32-compatible computer games. The DOSBox configs should be changed as follows: [midi] mididevice = mt32 Music should be set in the appropriate PAW app to: Roland LAPC-1/CM32-L. MT-32 To use an MT-32, the DOSBox configs should be changed as follows: [mt32] model = mt32_new [midi] mididevice = mt32 The preferred model: mt32_new is noted in List of MT-32-compatible computer games. Music should be set in the appropriate PAW app to: Roland MT-32. Sound Canvas The DOSBox configs specify a suitable Sound Canvas model: sc55. The DOSBox configs should be changed as follows: [midi] mididevice = soundcanvas Music should be set in the appropriate PAW app to Roland RAP-10 or General MIDI via MPU-401. The original audio hardware for PAW was the SC-55, as noted in List of MT-32-compatible computer games. FluidSynth The FluidSynth device is selected for music only. The DOSBox configs specify an example soundfont and soundfont folder, these should be changed to your own preferred soundfont and valid soundfont folder, e.g. [fluidsynth] soundfont = "Shan SGM Pro 14.SF2" soundfont_dir = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts" [midi] mididevice = fluidsynth Music should be set in the appropriate PAW app to General MIDI via MPU-401. Settings: Address: 330h IRQ: N/A (leave at 2 if set) External MIDI devices External MIDI devices are selected for music only. The following commands lists all internal MIDI devices, FluidSynth soundfonts and external MIDI synths in WIn10/11: C:\> mixer /listmidi In the last Win32 section, external MIDI devices are listed with an id and description. This id is used by the midiconfig setting, e.g. Win32: 0 - "CoolSoft MIDIMapper" 1 - "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth" 2 - "VirtualMIDISynth" The DOSBox configs should be changed as follows, e.g. for VirtualMIDISynth: [midi] mididevice = port midiconfig = 2 Music should be set in the appropriate PAW app to General MIDI via MPU-401. Settings: Address: 330h IRQ: N/A (leave at 2 if set) Running To automatically run the game the following commands can be added to the PAW game DOSBox config, at the end of the [autoexec] section:. Floppy releases with/without the expansion: CD releases: [autoexec] ... cd \mps call 1942.bat exit Digital release: [autoexec] ... 1942.exe exit Gold edition, PAW game config: [autoexec] ... cd \mps\pawgold 1942.exe exit Gold edition, PAW Windows apps config: [autoexec] ... win exit In-game configuration The in-game configuration steps are shown in the gallery below: PAW Launcher This is a batch file menu launcher (pawmenu.bat) that performs a number of functions: Start the game. Run the install/setup app to reconfigure music/sound settings. Run Windows (if installed). View the various release notes. Switch to a different DOSBox MIDI device (MT32, FluidSynth or Sound Canvas). Switch to an external (Port) MIDI device (e.g. VirtualMIDISynth, MIDIMapper). Return to the DOSBox command prompt. Close DOSBox. This launcher should be compatible with floppy releases with/without the expansion, Gold edition, CD compilation editions and digital edition. The launcher relies on the various releases being installed to their default folders. Not all options are valid for all releases, invalid options are not shown in the menu. Switching MIDI devices allows trying out various MIDI options to find a preference. Installing Download the launcher below: In Win10./11, extract the contents to the game installation folder: # In Win10/11: D:\Games\DOS\1942 Pacific Air War\hdd # In DOSBox this becomes: C:\ Change the PAW game DOSBox config as shown: From [autoexec] ... # Non-gold editions cd \mps call 1942.bat exit # Gold edition update v1.5b cd \mps\pawgold 1942.exe exit To [autoexec] ... # Non-gold editions cd \ call pawmenu.bat # Gold edition update v1.5b cd \ call pawmenu.bat Note: When using the Gold edition do not run Windows using the PAW game config. Gold edition Windows app config To use the launcher with the PAW Windows apps DOSBox config used by the Gold edition, change the config as shown (this allows trying MIDI options in WIndows): From [autoexec] ... c: win exit To [autoexec] ... c: call pawmenu.bat Note: Do not run the PAW game using the PAW Windows apps config.. Documents The following documents are available for PAW: Game Player's Guide, pdf download. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, files. replacementdocs, Manual Download, PC (Dos/Windows), page 1. Pilot's Handbook, pdf download. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, files. replacementdocs, Manual Download, PC (Dos/Windows), page 1. Technical Supplement, pdf download. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, files. replacementdocs, Manual Download, PC (Dos/Windows), page 1. Scenario Instruction Manual, pdf download. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, files. replacementdocs, Manual Download, PC (Dos/Windows), page 1. Scenario Technical Supplement, pdf download. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, files. replacementdocs, Manual Download, PC (Dos/Windows), page 1. Key Reference Card, DOS Days, 1942: The Pacific Air War, Keys, png image. Old-Games.RU, 1942: The Pacific Air War, files, pdf download. replacementdocs, Manual Download, PC (Dos/Windows), page 1. Gold & digital edition The Gold and digital editions use a single manual which combines: Technical Supplement. Game Player's Guide. Pilot's Handbook. Scenario Technical Supplement. Scenario Instruction Manual. Key Reference Card. Gold edition Gold edition manual, pdf download. DOS Days, 1942: The Pacific Air War, Supporting Documents. Internet Archive, 1942: The Pacific Air War Gold Manual. Steam, 1942: The Pacific Air War, View the manual. Digital edition Manual, pdf. Game installation folder. Key Reference Card, pdf. Game installation folder. Example videos 1942: The Pacific Air War training missions Gold edition Finally... Credit and huge thanks go to: DOS Days, Internet Archive and Old-Games.RU for hosting documents and patches. The Patches Scrolls for hosting patches. VOGONS for PAW information on the VOGONS wiki. John Novak and the rest of the DOSBox Staging team for DOSBox Staging and DOSBox Staging wiki. CoolSoft and the developers of VirtualMIDISynth and MIDIMapper. Baron-von-Riedesel for Jemm. David Shan for the Shan SGM Pro 14 soundfont. Good hunting!

A guide to the fan-made USNRaptor campaigns for Jane's Fighters Anthology (JFA). Those old-hands of JFA are probably already well aware of the dedicated work by USNRaptor in creating some of the premier fan-made JFA campaigns available. For those that are new to JFA or to those that have only played the official campaigns and are looking for more JFA, the USNRaptor campaigns provide a huge amount of high quality extra JFA. This is a quick guide on what's available, where to find them and some hints on running fan-made campaigns. September 2027 Update: A new Baltic Campaign 2009 was released on 22 August 2026. It is a a major overhaul of the original Baltic 2009 campaign, bringing it up to the high standard set by existing USNRaptor campaigns. Contents Website and Discord For those interested in USNRaptor's campaigns, it is highly recommended to visit USNRaptor's Jane's Fighters Anthology for more information and many other resources related to JFA. For those that frequent Discord, the Combat Flight Sim Tavern server hosts a number of Jane's Fighters Anthology channels. Existing game preparation If JFA has already been installed then there is some preparation work to ensure the campaigns will work properly. This advice applies to any JFA fan made campaign not just the USNRaptor campaigns. Standard game library timestamps The issue is described in USNRaptors Installation Guide for Win10/11 Users. To summarize: If JFA has been recently installed, the timestamps on the standard JFA game libraries will match the installation date, e.g. 1st August 2026. Fan made campaigns created prior to this date, will use libraries with an earlier timestamp, e.g 1st March 2020. JFA will use data from the latest library it can find. This means that incorrect data could be used, if taken from a standard library (with a later timestamp, 1st August 2026) rather than from the intended campaign library (with an earlier timestamp, 1st March 2020). If you wish to use your existing game installation with these campaigns you may need to change the standard game libraries timestamps to a much earlier date. Fortunately this is straightforward using the Win10/11 PowerShell. Note: Powershell can be found in the Start Menu. It should be run as Administrator. Assuming D:\Fighters Anthology is the installation folder then: PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> cd "D:\Fighters Anthology" PS D:\Fighters Anthology> (Get-Item FA_1.LIB).creationtime=$(Get-Date "1/1/1998 1:00am") PS D:\Fighters Anthology> (Get-Item FA_1.LIB).lastwritetime=$(Get-Date "1/1/1998 1:00am") ... PS D:\Fighters Anthology> exit Changes the creation and last modified date of the FA_1.LIB standard JFA library to a much earlier 1st Jan 1998 at 1:00am timestamp. This should be repeated for the other standard JFA libraries listed below: FA_2.LIB FA_3.LIB FA_4B.LIB FA_4C.LIB FA_4D.LIB FA_7.LIB FA_10.LIB FA_10B.LIB FA_11.LIB FA_11B.LIB This ensures fan-made campaigns will always be using the correct data from campaign libraries, if required.. Shapefix library This library uses aircraft models imported from some of earlier games comprising the anthology to improve aircraft models in JFA. This library is not compatible with the USNRaptor campaigns and should not be used. Campaigns All campaigns are stand-alone, and only require a properly installed JFA, patched to v1.02, and libraries properly time stamped using the year 1998.. All missions playable as both single and campaign missions.The campaigns are listed alphabetically. Aegean Campaign 1997 Aegean Campaign 1997 is a 40 mission fictional campaign. Missions involve seven different mission types flying eight different aircraft. The campaign includes new aircraft and vehicle textures. A great campaign for beginners and returning players. Note: This campaign is bundled with the Ukraine Campaign 1994. Available from Aegean Campaign 1997. Baltic Campaign 1976 Baltic Campaign 1976 is a 40 mission NATO campaign and a 40 mission USSR campaign, based on a customised JFA Baltic 2009 campaign. Missions involve six mission types flying nine aircraft for NATO and seven mission types flying ten aircraft for the USSR. The campaign includes a wide range of shapes/textures from many other user mods and improved aircraft, ordnance, ships, and weapon systems. Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player. Available from Baltic Campaign 1976. Baltic Campaign 2009 Baltic Campaign 2009 is a 40 mission campaign, based on a customised JFA Baltic campaign. Taking place, July-September 2009, featuring six different mission types and seven aircraft. This campaign introduces the Su-30 Flanker-H and Yak-130 Mitten, as well as new and improved aircraft, ordnance, ships, and weapon systems. Semi-moderate missions, making this a fun campaign for the semi-experienced JFA player. Available from Baltic Campaign 2009. Egypt Campaign 1995 Egypt Campaign 1995 is a 40 mission campaign, based on a customised JFA Egypt campaign. Missions involve six mission types flying eight aircraft. A great campaign for beginners and returning players. Note: This campaign is bundled with the Israel Campaign 2001. Available from Egypt Campaign 1995. Israel Campaign 2001 Israel Campaign 2001 is a 40 mission campaign based on a highly customised version of an earlier USNRaptor Israel Campaign 2001. Missions involve eight mission types flying nine aircraft. Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player. Note: This campaign is bundled with the Egypt Campaign 1995. Available from Israel Campaign 2001. Korea Campaign 2024 Korea Campaign 2024 is a 40 mission campaign. This campaign is a culmination of 20 years of work from various JFA modders across a multitude of projects. The campaign uses modified aircraft, weapons, ships and SAMs in addition to all new terrain. Changes include Chinese Aircraft Carrier, armed Guard Towers, IRBMs, M48 Patton Tanks, Trains, and suicide-bomb Trucks. Modified AN-2, IL-76, MiG-19, and P-3. Missions involve thirteen aircraft and a driveable M163 Vulcan AAA vehicle, updated Korean Map & In-Flight Map, new information files for the MIM-104 and S-300, six new voice-sound files, and several new scenery objects. Expert missions, suitable for seasoned FA players. Available from Korea Campaign 2024. Kuril Islands Campaign 2018 Kuril Islands Campaign 2018 is a 35 mission campaign featuring a new Su-27 Flanker, improved SAMs and an F-35B with stability and texture improvements. Missions involve seven mission types using three aircraft, AV-8B+, F/A-18D, and F-35B. A mix of fairly easy and very challenging missions. Note: This campaign is bundled with the Taiwan Campaign 2014. Available from Kuril Islands Campaign 2018. Taiwan Campaign 2014 Taiwan Campaign 2014 is a 40 mission campaign. It features new aircraft, ships, and self-propelled AAA units, improved AT-3, F-CK-1C/D, C-2A and P-3 textures. Missions involve eight mission types using eight aircraft. Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player. Note: This campaign is bundled with the Kuril Islands Campaign 2018. Available from Taiwan Campaign 2014. Ukraine Campaign 1994 Ukraine Campaign 1994 is a 50 mission campaign. It is a completely new campaign drawing inspiration from the original JFA Ukraine campaign. Missions involve seven different types flying four different aircraft, A-6E, F-14B and F/A-18C/D. New and improved aircraft, ships, and weapon systems including C-2A, Su-27, P-3 and F-14. Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player. Note: This campaign is bundled with the Aegean Campaign 1997. Available from Ukraine Campaign 1994. Vietnam Campaign Set This is a compilation of all four USNRaptor Vietnam Campaigns: Rolling Thunder, Linebacker and Yankee Station 1964 & 1972, packaged together into one set. It comprises of 130 missions across the entire duration of the war. Eight different mission types flown with over a dozen aircraft. An advanced campaign suitable for expert players. Available from Vietnam Campaign. Finally... Credit and huge thanks goes to USNRaptor for all the hard work in creating this extensive set of campaigns and for allowing their use in this article. Good hunting!

This is a guide on running F-16 Aggressor in Windows 10. F-16 Aggressor was developed by General Simulations Incorporated (GSI) in 1998. Based on the F-16C Fighting Falcon the game is often considered a spiritual successor to Origins' Strike Commander as with both games you play as a mercenary carrying out missions for the highest bidder. For the rest of the guide F-16 Aggressor will be referred to as Aggressor. Contents Strategy This guide is laid out a little differently to improve consistency. There is a preparation section covering media image creation and game management. Installation shows the installation process with points to note. Graphics, sound and movie sections covering the compatibility tools to use to fix those components. The control section covers joystick/HOTAS config and other controls like head tracking. Documentation covers where to find documentation including supplemental documents often not included in re-releases. An example video section to show the results and finally credit and thanks. Version & patch history There have been surprising few official releases of Aggressor and there have been no official patches released for the game. Initial retail release (1998) The initial retail release occurred in 1998. Developed by General Simulations Incorporated (GSI) and published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment and Bethesda Softworks. It was distributed on a single CD-ROM and features a 32-bit installer, making it compatible with Win10. No CD patch (Mar 1999) The only unofficial patch was a no cd CD patch release in Mar 1999, by an unknown creator. It is a file replacement patch replacing the game executable. This patch is available from GameCopyWorld but is not recommended as it results in the CD audio tracks no longer playing during the game. Sold Out Software re-release (2001) The Sold Out Software budget re-release was published in 2001. It was released on 2 x CD-ROMs with the first CD containing Internet Explorer 6, Shockwave Flash, a pdf reader and menu system and a preview of other Sold Out Software releases. The second CD is equivalent to the initial retail release and continues to use a 32-bit installer. Preparation The following section covers ripping retail media, recommended mounting tools and game management. Retail media Due to the age or the media and the drives required to read it, it is recommended to rip CD-ROM media to image files, to save wear and tear on media and the mechanical drives. The CD-ROMs should be ripped to a bin/cue image pair format to preserve the CD audio tracks. Only the second CD of the Sold Out Software re-release needs to be ripped. CD images It is recommended that a CD image tool be used to allow CD images be mounted, such as Daemon Tools Lite v11 (an earlier free version without ads) or WinCDEmu, as this allows the CD audio to be played during the game. Game management It is recommended to use a game management strategy or similar. The recommended game management folders are: cd - for any CD images. conf - for joystick/HOTAS configuration files and to store DIrectX wrapper files/settings in sub-folders, if you to wish to try an alternative wrapper. docs - for game documents. patch - for compatibility patches. These management folders can be found in the following game folder (as an example): X:\Games\Win\F-16 Aggressor Setup Alongside the Aggressor installation folder: X\Games\Win\F-16 Aggressor Installation The following gallery shows the steps involved in installing the game: Running The game requires the CD/image to be mounted before running the game. The game is run with the following: f-16.exe Graphics The compatibility tools recommended for Aggressor are DDrawCompat or dgVoodoo2. DDrawCompat provides a 'softer' image and may be a preferable for those wishing to use the original 4:3 aspect ratio. However, playing the intro movie with DDrawCompat is often problematic. dgVoodoo2 provides a 'harder' image and due to the verticality of the cockpit in a 4:3 aspect ratio, running in a 16:9 stretched aspect ratio is possible and may provide a better image with dgVoodoo2. Movies play more consistently with dgVoodoo2 although there is some stuttering at higher resolutions. Although the game also supports Glide, at present attempts to use Glide under Win10 have proven unsuccessful. Using Glide in the game may required a PCem or 86Box virtual machine using an emulated 3Dfx card which is out of scope for this guide. The following galleries shows DDrawCompat and dgVoodoo2 graphics in-game at a 1024x768 resolution: The choice of wrapper is left to personal preference. Note the Display Device field. Both wrappers will exhibit a display device issue, where resolutions are shown in the display device field preventing the game from starting (see screenshot). This is suspected to be due to both wrappers providing more resolutions to the game than it can handle. The configs for both wrappers adjust the config to prevent this issue. dgVoodoo2 The version used is dgVoodoo v2.87.3. It is available from the dgVoodoo2 GitHub, Releases. To install: Download dgVoodoo2 (dgVoodoo2_87_3.zip) and extract to a new folder. Copy the following dgVoodoo2 files to the Aggressor installation folder. Note: the paths are not important you just need to add the files: dgVoodooCpl.exe MS\x86\D3D8.dll MS\x86\D3D9.dll MS\x86\D3DImm.dll MS\x86\DDraw.dll The following gallery shows the config for dgVoodoo2. To access the extended options right click in the dgVoodoo banner and select, Show all sections of the configuration. In the General tab, the scaling mode can be set to Stretched (for 16:9) or Stretched, 4:3 Aspect Ratio. In the DirectX tab, the Resolution should set to Unforced. In the GeneralExt tab, in System hooks, both GDI and Cursor should be checked. In the DirectExt tab, in Enumerated resolutions, the Defaults should be set to Classics. In the DirectExt tab, in Enumerated resolutions, additional resolutions can be set in Extras field as a comma separated list in the format: x@. Only a few should be set, too many will result in the display device issue occurring. The above config is included below: DDrawCompat The version used is DDrawCompat v0.7.1. It is available from the DDrawCompat GitHub, Releases. To install: Download DDrawCompat (DDrawCompat-v0.7.1.zip) and extract ddraw.dll to the Aggressor installation folder. A DDrawCompat config file (DDrawCompat.ini) is required and can be found below. It should be downloaded and extracted to the Aggressor installation folder. This file can be edited to replace the 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 resolutions with your own prefered resolution. Sound The following compatibility tools to enable sound should both be used. Compatibility database A Microsoft compatibility database is required for Aggressor. The database patch can be opened and examined in the Microsoft Compatibility Administrator (32-bit), part of the Microsoft Application Deployment Kit (ADK). For further info on the Microsoft Compatibility Administrator see, A retro gamers friend: Microsoft Compatibility administrator. Download the patch and extract to a folder. The zip archive comprises of: PatchInstall.bat, to install the database. PatchUninstall.bat, to remove the database. F-16 Aggressor.sdb, the compatibility database containing the fix F-16 Aggressor.sdb contains a single compatibility fix, EnableHardwareMixer. It forces legacy applications or video games that rely on DirectSound or older Windows audio wrappers to utilize hardware-accelerated audio mixing rather than falling back to software emulation. Run PatchInstall.bat, to install the database. DSOAL DSOAL (DirectSound via OpenAL) is used to improve the sound in the game, e.g. it stops the engine drowning out the instructors voice. Those wishing to use headphones may wish to experiment with settings in alsoft.ini to optimise sound. The latest version is used, DSOAL r694 + OpenAL Soft r10692, available from DSOAL GitHub Releases. The following files should be extracted from the zip/7z archive into the Aggressor installation folder: \DSOAL\Win32\dsoal-aldrv.dll \DSOAL\Win32\dsound.dll \DSOAL\Win32\alsoft.ini Note: the file paths are not copied into the installation folder, just the files themselves Movies The intro movie uses the Intel Indeo v5.0 codec. If Indeo videos are playing correctly on your machine the following installation advice may not be required. Installation If the intro movie does not play then the codec may be disabled. One method is to download and install the K-Lite Codec Pack. The Basic install is known to include these codecs, (as listed on the Comparison of abilities page) and after installation the K-Lite Codec Pack Tweak Tool can be used to enable them (if not already). The K-Lite Codec Pack is available from Codec Guide, Download K-Lite Codec Pack. Playing Playing the intro movie may be problematic when using DDrawCompat. dgVoodoo2 is usually more successful but at higher resolutions there may be some stuttering. To play the movies smoothly, using the in-game configuration to: Switch the Graphics Device to Software: DirectDraw. Switch the Resolution to 640x480 (8 bit). After playing the movie, switch back to your preferred device and resolution. Controls The following section covers joystick/HOTAS setup and head tracking. 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: For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. You may also have to use HidHide as a device firewall, to hide your real controllers, so only the vJoy virtual controllers are detected by Aggressor. [6][7][8]. 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 Additional settings In addition to the above, the device (physical or virtual) to use must be set as the Preferred device in the Advanced options of the Windows Game Controllers panel (joy.cpl) as shown below: Head tracking The Aggressor virtual cockpit uses a mouselook scheme to look around the virtual cockpit, enabled by holding the right mouse button and disabled by releasing the button. The head tracking will be pitch (y-axis) and yaw (x-axis) only as these are the only facilities provided by the underlying mouselook mechanism. Fortunately this head tracking to mouse conversion is well supported. There are two recommended methods utilising this conversion, detailed below. TrackIR This is a pure TrackIR solution, it uses the standard TrackIR 5 software and the TrackIR utility, TrackIR Mouse Emulation (TIRmouse.exe). This is found in the TrackIR install folder. Once a profile is configured for Mouse Emulation in the TrackIR 5 software, the mouse emulation utility is run. Head motion should now be reflected in the mouse emulation utility. The utility must remain open and in the foreground (until covered by the game window), it can not be minimised and will not run in the background. OpenTrack Opentrack has been covered in combination with AITrack in the article, Head tracking with Opentrack & AITrack. The Opentrack utility supports mouse emulation, so Opentrack and AITrack provide the head tracking solution, and instead of sending TrackIR data to Super Hornet, Opentrack can send mouse data, allowing head tracking in the virtual cockpit. In-game configuration The in-game configuration is straightforward once a 3D hardware graphics device is selected with a preferred resolution, all other options are enabled or set to maximum. Sound volume is a personal preference with other options enabled, as shown below: Documentation The only known documentation is the manual. This is available on the CD of the initial retail release and on the first CD of the Sold Out Software re-release. The only known on-line copy is available from Old-Games.RU, F-16 Aggressor, Files as a rar archive/pdf document. Example video F-16 Aggressor using dgVoodoo2, DSOAL, stick throttle and rudder pedals in 1920x1200 resolution. Finally... Credit and thanks goes to: The developers of Daemon Tools Lite and WinCDEmu. narzoul for DDrawCompat. dege for dgVoodoo2. kcat for DSOAL. Codec Guide for hosting the K-Lite Codec Pack. The developers of TrackIR. The OpenTrack and AITrack developers. Old-Games.RU for hosting documentation. Good hunting!

This is a guide on fixing the onerous deadzone problem present in Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer 2. The previous Silent Thunder guide, Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer 2: Boxing clever to defeat the dead zone, covered an alternative mapping profile to try to solve the problem of an extensive deadzone on the x and y axes. Although this alternative profile helped, it wasn;t as intuitive and required careful flying. Contents Strategy This time we'll be using vJoy coupled with a Joystick Gremlin profile, this time using intuitive controls coupled with deadzone handling to finally fix these issues. An improved choice of a CH Flightstick Pro and CH Pedals as the HOTAS device in 86Box and Win98 will complete the setup. This is a supplemental article only and to setup other game components, the original Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer 2: Boxing clever to defeat the dead zone, guide should be iued. Compatibility tools configuration For this solution the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combo will be used to correct the deadzone issue. Joystick Gremlin (JG) is used to set a deadzone on our joystick response for x and y axes. This effectively causes the joystick response to 'jump past' the in-game deadzone on these axes providing more responsive behaviour. Each tool will be configured manually in addition command line options are provided which would prove useful for inclusion in startup scripts. Further details on command line options can be found in Controllers and retro sims part 10: vJoy/Joystick Gremlin/HidHide command line options. vJoy config Silent Thunder supports 4 axes (x, y, z and rotation x), 8 buttons (although the device emulated in 86Box will be a 4 button CH Flightstick Pro) and a single POV hat. In vJoy this is configured as follows: vJoyConfig.exe Enable on vJoyConfig.exe 1 -f -a X Y Z Rx -b 4 -p 1 vJoy configuration Joystick Gremlin config The Joystick Gremlin configuration is a key part of the solution. Instead of mapping directly to a vJoy axis the x and y axes are modified by a JG response curve prior to mapping to a vJoy axes as shown in the screenshot: Joystick x-axis with deadzone added. The joystick x and y axis have a deadzone added with the Response Curve action. A deadzone of 0.25 is applied, (highlighted in red), although the exact value may be dependent on the physical joystick. It is recommended to use the cursor keys to precisely define equal dead zones on each side of the centre point. Once the dead zone is defined the Map to vJoy action is added. The example above shows the response curve for the x-axis. The response curve for the y-axis is identical. The command line options to load and start a Silent Thunder profile (SilentThunder.xml) are: "X:\\joystick_gremlin.exe" --start-minimized --enable --profile "X:\\SilentThunder.xml" HidHide config In this instance HidHide is not required and can be omitted or left disabled. This is due to 86Box joystick input settings allowing a particular device to be selected, in this case the vJoy virtual controller, and ignoring other controllers. Emulation configuration The following section covers the HOTAS configuration by emulation components, the 86Box emulator and Win98 OS running within the emulator. 86Box HOTAS config The 86Box configuration remains identical to the original virtual machine in Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer 2: Boxing clever to defeat the dead zone, except for the following joystick input device: Input devices Joystick: CH Flightstick Pro + CH Pedals If an 86Box profile already exists for Silent Thunder, this profile can be modified. The input device settings and vJoy to CH Flightstick Pro + CH Pedals mappings are shown below: Win98 HOTAS config In Control Panel the Game Controllers option allows a CH FlightStick Pro to be added. As pedals are also available the rudder option is checked. For those without a rudder axis this can be omitted. Finally the CH FlightStick Pro is calibrated and once calibrated can be tested. In-game configuration The In-game configuration remains unchanged from Game config in Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer 2: Boxing clever to defeat the dead zone. Finally... Credit and thanks in providing a Silent Thunder deadzone solution goes to: The developers of 86Box. The developers of vJoy and Joystick Gremlin. Good hunting!

A guide to running the sequel, Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer 2 to the classic, A-10 Tank Killer. Developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra in 1996, Silent Thunder tries to one up the original in every department, more missions, more weapons, insanely large targets, the graphics are textured, the sound is improved and the soundtrack isn't half bad... and the joystick dead zone, is larger than ever. What could have been a fun little sim, is dealt a huge blow by the awful dead zone which feels even larger than the one they introduced with A-10 Tank Killer v1.5. It's hard to tell exactly how large of a dead zone is, but at a rough estimate approximately 35%-45% on each half of each axis making it borderline unplayable with a stick. These seems like an bizarre decision for a game that supports stick, throttle and rudder, so presumably was expected to be played with a period HOTAS. What's even stranger is that the dead zone is only present on the x and y axis, with the throttle and rudder axes operating normally! Can this sim be saved and made playable with a HOTAS? Contents Strategy The retail install cd supports both Win3.1 and Win95 which means DOSBox Staging running Win3.x, PCem or native Win10 are all potential options to run the sim, but the most stable seems to be 86Box. Building a suitable VM becomes an important part of the install. When it comes to HOTAS config, creating a stick, throttle and rudder config is straightforward but suffers from the excessive deadzone on the stick axes. However, this can be used to create a suitable HOTAS in the VM and calibrate it in-game. Once fully calibrated another HOTAS config is created replacing the absolute axes with key mappings. This increases responsiveness to the same level as keyboard control at the cost of converting stick absolute axes into relative axes. Like the prequel A-10 Tank Killer v1.5, using the keyboard remains a viable option for playing this sim. An option made more attractive by the patch which introduces self levelling controls on the roll (x) axis. Version & patch history Initial retail release (Feb 1996) Developed by Dynamix and released by Sierra On-Line in Feb 1996 on a single cd-rom. The game featured both Win3.x and Win95 installers. This initial retail version is v1.0. The release notes (converted to pdf) are shown below: Silent Thunder Patch v1.01 (May 1996) The one and only patch was released in May 1996, upgrading the version to v1.01. This is a bug fix and enhancement patch. The bugs fixed include: joystick code changes, increased sound card support, better DirectDraw support and flight model changes. Enhancements include: a new joystick calibration option, an additional DirectSound option and weapons release changes. This patch is a self installing executable. This is a recommended patch for the initial retail v1.0 release. This patch can be found at: Internet Archive Old-Games.RU The Sierra Help Pages, A-10 Tank Killer Series Updates Compilation releases (1997-2000) Silent Thunder was included in a number of compilation releases from 1997 until 2000. It's not known which version was included with each compilation, but it is expected to be v1.0A. Xplosiv retail re-release (2003) The Empire Interactive budget label, Xplosiv released Silent Thunder in 2003 on a single cd-rom. This is v1.0A (v1.0 pre-patched with the Silent Thunder Patch v1.01) created at the same time as the patch in May 1996. Both Win3.x and Win95 installers are included. Media This guide assumes any physical cds will be ripped to an image file, to reduce wear and tear on media and drives. The retail versions of Silent Thunder contains 12 cd music tracks and should be ripped to a bin/cue image pair format to preserve the music. At present there is no digital release of Silent Thunder. Game Management As a windows game running under 86Box emulation, the installation folder will be created in the 86Box virtual machine. However some limited game management is still useful for files used in the setup. The setup files for Silent Thunder can be found in the same 86Box setup folder (my own, as an example): D:\Games\86Box\ D:\Games\86Box\Silent Thunder Setup The following setup folders can be used: cd - to store any cd images. conf - to store any HOTAS profile configuration files. docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc. patch - to store a copy of recommended patches. 86Box The optimum method of running Silent Thunder is with 86Box emulation. This guide assumes the latest version of 86Box, (v5.3 build 8200 at time of writing). This is available from 86Box GitHub repository Releases. Virtual Machine (VM) The Silent Thunder release notes state the minimum spec is a 486 DX 66, 8MB RAM, Win95. The spec used is higher, but not too high. Having a spec that runs the game too quickly and makes it unplayable is not the intended result. Instead the spec used is: System Machine: [ALi ALADDiN V] ASUS P5A CPU: Intel Pentium / 120 MHz Memory: 128 MB Display Video: [AGP] 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 Storage Disks: 3.2 GiB (IDE) Floppy: 3.5" 1.44M CD-ROM: 32x 86Box 86B_CD 3.50 (ATAPI) Audio Audio: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 MIDI Out: System MIDI Network NIC: None Input devices Keyboard: PS/2 Keyboard Mouse: PS/2 Mouse Joystick: CH Flightstick + CH Pedals Ports Serial ports: None Parallel ports: None The preferred operating system is Windows 98 Second Edition (Win98SE). Notes The above is a suggested spec only and can be changed if required. The following can be changed to suit personal preferences: A 3.2GB hard disk is large enough but can be larger. Audio is provided by a Sound Blaster 16 but an AWE 32 could also be used. MIDI Out is using the host Win10 MIDI support but this can be changed to an 86Box emulation option. A Network Interface Card (NIC) is not required and has been omitted. The Joystick option is suitable for a 4-axes HOTAS. Those with 3 or fewer axes may wish to omit rudder pedals or switch to an option which more closely matches their joystick hardware. Serial and parallel ports are not required and use machine resources that could be allocated elsewhere. Configuration The following is the configuration file created by 86Box for this specification. It is the config file only and does not contain a hard disk image with Win98SE. 86Box should be used to replace the hard disk image in this config file with one of your own. Building the VM A complete set of instructions to build an 86Box Win98 virtual machine is beyond the remit of this guide. However, before trying to create your own it is recommended to become familiar with the process by reading the following guide by milnak: Install Windows 98 SE in 86Box Phil of PhilsComputerLab has produced the following recommended video. The video description contains links to some downloads also used in this virtual machine. 86Box Windows 98 Setup Notes The following notes are supplemental to the above to assist in creating a virtual machine. The hard disk image file type should be vhd. This hard disk image type can be mounted in Win10. This allows downloaded zip file contents to be extracted in Win10 and then copied onto the mounted vhd disk image. The disk image can then be ejected in Win10 and used with 86Box to run the virtual machine. Before installing Win98SE the BIOS configuration menus should be used to disable serial and parallel ports in the virtual machine. A Win98SE OEM installation cd image should be used, as this is a bootable cd image which does not require a separate floppy boot disk image. A suitable image may be obtained from WinWorld. This virtual machine should not require additional chipset drivers, being fully supported by Win98SE. The Voodoo 3 drivers used are Voodoo 3 driver kit v1.07.00 (voodoo3tm_driver_kit_1.07.00-whql.zip) available from PhilsComputerLab. The Sound Blaster 16 drivers are included in the Win98SE cd image, however the latest Win98 drivers for the Sound Blaster 16/AWE 32 (sbw9xup.exe) are available from PhilsComputerLab. This virtual machine uses DirectX 6.1a included as part of the Win98SE cd image. Once complete the Win98 Device Manager should show all hardware working and there should be no errors reported from the DirectX diagnostics, as shown below: Taking a copy Once the virtual machine is built and working it is recommended to take a copy of the 86Box virtual machine folder or to zip up the virtual machine folder. This ensures a 'clean' working virtual machine is available for any other future games requiring a similar virtual machine to be emulated. HOTAS Config Joystick, throttle and rudder are supported by Silent Thunder. Configuring axes may not be required if your single device HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using multiple HOTAS devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller can be used, limited to 4 axes. For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. You may also have to use HidHide as a device firewall, to hide your real controllers, so only the vJoy virtual controller is detected by 86Box. Setup config As 86Box only supports a single HOTAS device, we can create a fairly standard 'setup' 4 axis virtual controller in Win10 (see setup axis mapping). This controller can be mapped to the 86Box CH FlightStick and CH pedals joystick devices configured in 86Box. Once the 86Box VM is started, the CH FlightStick & pedals are added in Win98SE and calibrated. This 86Box virtual device can be used in Silent Thunder. When playing a mission for the first time the in-game joystick calibration is used to ensure a well calibrated controller. 86Box mapping 86Box joystick mapping The following screenshot shows a fairly standard axes mapping, from the Win10 virtual controller to the 86Box virtual controller. The Device is the Win10 virtual controller as seen by 86Box. Win98SE controller As a CH FlightStick and pedals have been configured in 86Box we now need to add them to Win98SE. In Control Panel the Game Controllers option allows a CH FlightStick to be added. As pedals are also available the rudder option is checked. For those without a rudder axis this can be omitted. Finally the CH FlightStick is calibrated and once calibrated can be tested. This concludes the HOTAS config until the game is installed and the in-game preferences are set. Play config This Win10 'setup' virtual controller can continue to be used, but if we wish to increase x-axis and y-axis responsiveness we can change the config (or create a new config) to replace the DirectX axes with roll and pitch 'hold' keypresses instead to create a 'play' virtual controller. As an example the changes are shown in this TARGET config. Similar functionality exists in Joystick Gremlin, you may have to split axes, and then map each side of the split axis to the appropriate hold keypress. e.g. split the x-axis into two and map the left side to a roll left hold keypress and map the right side to a roll right hold keypress. The existing 86Box mapping and Win98SE controller remain unchanged. Due to the previous 'setup' controller calibration we know the throttle and rudder should remain well calibrated. We can't calibrate the 'play' controller as it is sending keypresses rather than DirectX axis data for the x-axis and y-axis. This may be easier to visualize using the axis mapping table below. Axis mapping The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows for setup and play virtual controllers: Physical axis Windows axis (setup) Windows axis (play) Joystick x-axis DX_X_AXIS Roll left and right hold keypress Joystick y-axis DX_Y_AXIS Pitch up and down hold keypress Throttle DX_Z_AXIS DX_Z_AXIS Rudder DX_XROT_AXIS DX_XROT_AXIS Installation To install the Silent Thunder cd image should be mounted in the 86Box virtual cd drive. The cd can opened to begin the install process. Note: There should be no virtual hard disk or cd-rom images mounted in Win10 before installing Silent Thunder as they will be identified by 86Box and cause the testing phase of the installation to fail with an error. If this occurs shutdown the virtual machine, unmount the images and restart the virtual machine. The Sierra installation menu allows the hardware to be tested, which can be done first or as part of the install process. The installation process is shown in the gallery below: Running To play Silent Thunder the cd image must remain mounted in the 86Box virtual cd drive. Game config In-game configuration options are accessed through the Preferences menu option (see screenshot). Sound, Direct Sound, Voice, Music, Joystick, Clouds and Fullscreen can be enabled. Low Res should be disabled. Detail and Distance options should be set to maximum. Initial mission After starting the initial mission (use the Fly One Mission option and select the training mission), the Preferences should be accessed and the Joystick Calibration performed. It is recommended to fly the training mission with this 'setup' joystick control scheme, the keyboard control scheme and the 'play' joystick control scheme to find your preferred scheme. To set the 'play' joystick control scheme, see Play config. Documentation The core documentation is supplied as a Windows help file, available in game. However certain releases also supplied an installation booklet and quick reference card available from: Internet Archive, Installation booklet, pdf document. Internet Archive, Quick reference card, pdf document. Old-Games.RU, pdf documents. Example video Silent Thunder running in an 86Box virtual machine Finally... Credit and thanks go to: The Internet Archive and Old-Games.RU for hosting the patch and documation. The Sierra Help Pages for hosting the patch. The developers of 86Box. milnak for the Win98 installation guide for 86Box. Phil of PhilsComputerLab for his Win98 installation video for 86Box and for hosting Voodoo 3 and Sound Blaster drivers. WinWorld for hosting Win98 Second Edition. The developers of vJoy, Joystick Gremlin and HidHide. RedLir Live for the Joystick Gremlin split axes video. Good hunting!

F-22 Raptor is one of NovaLogic's light sim offerings in the same vein as MiG-29 Fulcrum or F-16 Multi-Role Fighter. The second sim to feature the F-22, it was essentially a Win95 remake of the earlier DOS based F22 Lightning II. However unlike these later sims F-22 Raptor (F-22) has one serious disadvantage which was it's reliance on the WinMM library which preceded DirectX. In later years this would result in the sim being incompatible with DirectInput and USB controllers, causing the sim to fall by the wayside. This guide will get F-22 running in the Win10 and with working joystick or HOTAS controllers using a number of open source tools to do so, breathing new life into this legacy sim. Contents Strategy A previous guide, F-22 Raptor: Running in PCem covered running this game in the PCem emulator. This time the game will be running natively in Win10. The WinMM controller issue has been covered in detail in the previous article, Controllers & retro sims part 11: The WinMM problem, so this guide will cover configuration and settings to implement the optimised solution. Patch and version history This is a brief version and patch history, the are no version numbers shown in game and the patches are organised by date only as they would normally be obtained from the NovaLogic FTP site, when the NovaWorld app was run or via an update utility in-game. Original retail release (November 1997) The original retail release was developed and published by NovaLogic in 1997. It was distributed on a single CD-ROM. This release uses a 32-bit Windows installer compatible with Win10. No version number is listed for the release. Update 30 June 1998 The 30 June 1998 update is not a complete patch but a replacement update tool that is designed to contact NovaLogic FTP servers for additional patch files. The FTP servers are no longer operational and this patch is superseded by a later patch, making this patch unnecessary. It is not known what the complete collection of patch files changed but may have been a multiplayer based patch. This patch uses a 32-bit installer making it compatible with Win10. It is available from the following site, but Win10 flags it as a (false positive) infected download: NovaLogic FTP server (f22r_update_063098_xx.exe) Update 7 September 1999 The 30 June 1998 update installs the Integrated Battle Space (IBS) app, allowing F22 Raptor players to fly alongside F-16 Multi-Role Fighter and MiG-29 Fulcrum players in a multiplayer environment. This patch does not seem to update any single player game files. This patch uses a 32-bit installer making it compatible with Win10. It is available from: NovaLogic FTP server (f22r_update_070999_xx.exe) Jet Pack compilation release (June 2001) The NovaLogic Jet Pack was a compilation release of MiG-29 Fulcrum, F-22 Raptor and F-16 Multi-Role Fighter. Released in 2001 it was published by NovaLogic and distributed on 3 x CD-ROM, one for each of the products. Although unconfirmed it would be expected to be multiplayer pre-patched using 32-bit installers and Win10 compatible. MiG-29 Fulcrum / F-22 Raptor compilation release (2002) Published by Focus Multimedia in 2002, this was a compilation release of MiG-29 Fulcrum and F-22 Raptor. It was distributed on 3 x CD-ROM, one for each of the games and a manual and patches CD, featuring manuals and patches for a variety of NovaLogic games. Although unconfirmed it would be expected to be multiplayer pre-patched. The installers are 32-bit making them compatible with Win10. Retail media Due to the age or the media and the drives required to read it, it is recommended to rip CD-ROM media to image files, to save wear and tear on media and the mechanical drives. The CD-ROMs can be ripped to a data only .iso image format as there is no CD audio on the CD. Game management It is recommended to use my game management strategy or similar strategy you may have developed. The recommended game management folders for F22 are: cd - for any cd images. conf - to store HOTAS configuration files. docs - for documents. patch - to store any patches. tools - as a compatibility tool installation folder. The F22 management folders would be found in the following game folder (as an example): D:\Games\Win\F22 Raptor Setup Installation The F22 installer app (setup.exe) is an 32-bit app compatible with Win10. It should be run from the CD/image to install the game. The setup is straightforward and is shown in the gallery below: Once the file copying is complete, DirectX 6.0 should NOT be installed. Patching Due to the multiplayer nature and early release date of the patches, it is recommended that the game remain unpatched for all releases. For those wishing to experiment with multiplayer it is recommended to only update the original retail release with the Update 7 September 1999. Compatibility tools The following compatibility tools allow this Win95/98 game to run successfully under Win10. Further background information on the controller optimised solution can be found in Controllers & retro sims part 11: The WinMM problem. The GremlinEx (GEX) and XInput Plus (XIP) tools both provide configuration options, however GEX provides most of the configuration with XIP limited to essential configuration only. dgVoodoo2 Graphics compatibility is provided by dgVoodoo2, created by Dege. The dgVoodoo2 wrapper is used to wrap DirectX components. The version used is v2.87.3. It is available from the dgVoodoo2 GitHub repository, Releases. To install: Download dgVoodoo2 (dgVoodoo2_87_3.zip) and extract to a new folder. Copy the following dgVoodoo2 files to the F-22 installation folder. Note: the paths are not important you just need to add the files: dgVoodooCpl.exe MS\x86\D3D8.dll MS\x86\D3D9.dll MS\x86\D3DImm.dll MS\x86\DDraw.dll Configuration Download and extract the dgVoodoo.conf in the below zip file, to the F-22 installation folder. In the DirectX section the dgVoodoo Watermark is turned on for testing purposes, once confirmed working it can be turned off. ViGem Bus Driver The ViGem Bus Driver (ViGem), created by Benjamin Höglinger-Stelzer, allows the creation and configuration of a virtual XBox 360 XInput controller similarly to vJoy creating and configuring a virtual DirectInput controller. The recommended ViGEm Bus Driver version is the latest one, ViGEmBus Setup 1.22.0 "It's dead, Jim" Release available from GitHub ViGEm Bus Driver repository, Releases. Installation is straightforward using the executable installer app, ViGEmBus_1.22.0_x64_x86_arm64.exe. GremlinEx GremlinEx (GEX), created by muchimi, extends the original Joystick Gremlin and allows multiple DirectInput devices to be mapped to a single XInput device using the ViGEm Bus Driver. Although stated in earlier articles the following points are worth repeating: GEX is still very much a work in progress with continuous releases of varying robustness. Although GEX seems to function reliably during gaming, exceptions and faults should be expected when configuring devices. Since configuration is an initial 'one and done' task, this should be considered a fairly minor issue. It is recommended to save frequently when creating the config. GEX uses the older Joystick Gremlin release 13 style of configuration. Those familiar with the release 14/15 style will need to adapt to this older style. GEX takes longer to start than Joystick Gremlin as it needs to initialise ViGEm. The recommended version is the latest release candidate, which changes frequently (so is not listed). It is available from JoystickGremlinEx repository, Releases. Installation is straightforward using the installer zip package. It should be downloaded and extracted into a suitable folder. Update: Once installed it is recommended to go to Tools > Options > VIGEM and ensure the Gamepad count is set to 1 (see screenshot). A setting of 0 will disable ViGEm. HOTAS config Configuring axes will be required no matter how many axes are available as DirectInput axes are mapped to XInput axes. It is recommended that most of the HOTAS configuration be carried out in the GEX tool, limiting XInput Plus configuration as much as possible. Those with fewer than 4 axes should map remaining axes to the keyboard in the in-game configuration. Those with fewer than 4 buttons should leave any remaining buttons unconfigured. For further background material on this HOTAS config, it is recommended to consult the optimized solution covered in Controllers & retro sims part 11: The WinMM problem. Stick, throttle and rudder are supported. The physical axes to Xinput and F-22 axes were configured as follows: Physical axis XInput axis F-22 axis Joystick x-axis Left stick x-axis Roll axis Joystick y-axis Left stick y-axis* Pitch axis Joystick button 1 Button A Button 1 Joystick button 2 Button B Button 2 Joystick button 3 Button X Button 3 Joystick button 4 Button Y Button 4 Throttle Right stick y-axis* Throttle axis Rudder Right stick x-axis Rudder/yaw axis Note: Axes marked with * may require the axis to be inverted in GEX. It is recommended to use a profile name that explicitly indicates it is a GEX profile, e.g. F22-raptor-gex.xml. XInput Plus XInput Plus, created by 0dd14lab, is a tool that allows you to configure detailed settings for XInput controllers, e.g. XBox 360 controllers, such as key assignments, input sensitivity, axis inversion, auto-fire, hold, and vibration intensity. The recommended version is the latest one, v4.16.1, available from 0dd14lab, Download. Once downloaded the installer package (XInputPlus Ver4.16.1.zip) should be extracted to a suitable folder. Configuration The following gallery shows the configuration settings to be applied to XIP: Configuration should not be attempted until a suitable F-22 profile has been loaded into GEX and enabled. The following gallery shows the limited settings that should be applied to XIP. The Target Program box should be set to the game executable (Raptor.exe). In the Vibration tab, vibration settings should be disabled. In the DirectInput tab: Enable DirectInput Output should be checked. The Right Stick (x/y axes) should be set to Z Rot/Z Axis. The LT/RT triggers should be set to Button 11/12, so they do not interfere with the Right Stick. The Info tab should show a single XInput controller (created by GEX and ViGem). The Total Test button will show a representation of a controller, which can be used to test XInput axes and buttons. The menu button, ≡ is used to save settings, from the drop down menu select, Apply Only Ini File. Creating the launcher shortcut XInput Plus Loader XInput Plus includes a loader utility, XInput Plus Loader (XInputPlusLoader.exe) which is used to create a shortcut to forcibly inject the appropriate wrapper, (WinMM in this case) into the game. To create this shortcut: Go to the XIP installation folder and then into the Loader folder. Open XInputPlusLoader.exe. Select Create ShortCut. Drag the game executable (Raptor.exe) into the XInputPlusLoader app window (see screenshot). A shortcut (Raptor - XInputPlus) will be created on the desktop. Optionally, rename and/or move/copy this shortcut into a suitable location. In plain sight (HidHide) F-22 Raptor is very robust and indifferent to additional devices being present. It seems to ignore both DirectInput and XInput devices. This means that a HidHide device firewall can be omitted. The optimised controller solution remains unchanged. The ramp start (running) Due to the required order of running tools and the limited command line options available to GEX, running the game requires a manual or 'ramp start' sequence. The steps are as follows: Mount the F-22 Raptor CD/image in Win10. Start GEX, load the F-22 profile (e.g. F22-raptor-gex.xml) and enable the profile. Start the game using the XInput Plus launcher shortcut, e.g. Raptor - XInputPlus. When the game is quit, to return the system to a clean state: Disable the iF-22 profile and close GEX. Eject the F-22 CD/image. In-game configuration In game controller configuration is straightforward and is shown in the below screenshot: Documents The following documents are available: User manual, pdf document. Internet Archive, F-22 Raptor: Users Manual (borrow only). The following documents are available from: Old-Games.RU, F-22 Raptor, Files as rar achives, pdf documents: User manual. Quick start guide. Reference card. Keyboard overlay. Example video F-22 Raptor with stick, throttle and rudder pedal support. Finally... Credit and thanks goes to the following individuals and groups for making the game accessible under Win10: NovaLogic for hosting patches. Benjamin Höglinger-Stelzer for ViGEm Bus Driver. muchimi for GremlinEx. 0dd14lab for XInput Plus. Dege for dgVoodoo2. Internet Archive and Old-Games.RU for hosting documents. Hap for GremlinEx, ViGEm options. Good hunting!

A guide for adding joystick and HOTAS support to Interactive Magic's iF-22. iF-22 has been notoriously difficult to get USB or DirectInput controller to work. This guide will be covering a solution to this problem using a number of open source projects. Note: The following solution was developed and tested on Win10, but remains untested on Win11. Contents Before we begin Strategy Tools ViGem Bus Driver GremlinEx HOTAS config Xidi HidHide Configuration Ramp start (running) In-game configuration Remaining issues Example video Finally... Before we begin This guide is a continuation from the earlier, iF-22: Infuriating F-22! guide. As such it assumes: iF-22 has been installed and patched as appropriate. DDramCompat and the specific iF-22 DDrawCompat fixes have been obtained and utilised. ViGem Bus Driver may have already been installed, but this is not a prerequisite. HidHide may have already been installed, but this is not a prerequisite. vJoy, Joystick Gremlin, XOutput and x360ce may have been installed. These tools are not used in this guide and the decision to keep or remove them is left to personal preference, they should not interfere with the required tools specified below. The following RetroBridge config and libraries are not used and should be removed from the iF-22 installation folder (if present): retrobridge.config.yml retrobridge_core.dll winmm.dll Strategy The strategy employed uses the optimized solution covered in Controllers & retro sims part 11: The WinMM problem. As the background material has already been covered, this guide will concentrate on installation and configuration settings for the tools used. The GremlinEx (GEX) and Xidi tools both provide configuration options, however only GEX is configured, with Xidi using a default configuration. The reasons for a single GEX config are as follows: Spreading the config between GEX and Xidi makes the config more complex and less intuitive and more difficult to manage. It is assumed that GEX will be easier to configure, as it based on an earlier version of Joystick Gremlin, which many will already be familiar with, despite GEX using an earlier Joystick Gremlin configuration style (release 13 and earlier), rather than the current style (release 14/15). GEX provide finer grain config options that some may wish to use, e.g. response curves. GEX can be used to map additional buttons, not used by Xidi, to keyboard commands. Tools It is recommended to keep a copy of the tools installation files in the game management tools folder for safe-keeping. ViGem Bus Driver The ViGem Bus Driver (ViGem), created by Benjamin Höglinger-Stelzer, allows the creation and configuration of a virtual XBox 360 XInput controller similarly to vJoy creating and configuring a virtual DirectInput controller. The recommended ViGEm Bus Driver version is the latest one, ViGEmBus Setup 1.22.0 "It's dead, Jim" Release available from GitHub ViGEm Bus Driver repository, Releases. Installation is straightforward using the executable installer app, ViGEmBus_1.22.0_x64_x86_arm64.exe. GremlinEx GremlinEx (GEX), created by muchimi, extends the original Joystick Gremlin and allows multiple DirectInput devices to be mapped to a single XInput device using the ViGEm Bus Driver. Although stated in earlier articles the following points are worth repeating: GEX is still very much a work in progress with continuous releases of varying robustness. Although GEX seems to function reliably during gaming, exceptions and faults should be expected when configuring devices. Since configuration is an initial 'one and done' task, this should be considered a fairly minor issue. It is recommended to save frequently when creating the config. GEX uses the older Joystick Gremlin release 13 style of configuration. Those familiar with the release 14/15 style will need to adapt to this older style. GEX takes longer to start than Joystick Gremlin as it needs to initialise ViGEm. The recommended version is the latest release candidate, which changes frequently (so is not listed). It is available from JoystickGremlinEx repository, Releases. Installation is straightforward using the installer zip package. It should be downloaded and extracted into a suitable folder. GremlinEx (GEX) Update: Once installed it is recommended to go to Tools > Options > VIGEM and ensure the Gamepad count is set to 1 (see screenshot). A setting of 0 will disable ViGEm. HOTAS config Configuring axes will be required no matter how many axes are available as DirectInput axes are mapped to XInput axes. It is recommended that the HOTAS configuration be carried out in the GEX tool only. Xidi should use its default configuration. Those with fewer than 4 axes should map remaining axes to the keyboard in the in-game configuration. Those with fewer than 4 buttons should leave any remaining buttons unconfigured. For further background material on this HOTAS config, it is recommended to consult the optimized solution covered in Controllers & retro sims part 11: The WinMM problem. Stick, throttle and rudder are supported. The physical axes to Xinput and iF-22 axes were configured as follows: Physical axis XInput axis iF-22 axis Joystick x-axis Left stick x-axis Roll axis Joystick y-axis Left stick y-axis* Pitch axis Joystick button 1 Button A Button 1 Joystick button 2 Button B Button 2 Joystick button 3 Button X Button 3 Joystick button 4 Button Y Button 4 Throttle Right stick x-axis Throttle axis Rudder Right stick y-axis* Rudder/yaw axis Note: Axes marked with * may require the axis to be inverted in GEX. The XInput throttle and rudder axes may seem counterintuitive but will be correct in the game. It is recommended to use a profile name that explicitly indicates it is a GEX profile, e.g. iF-22-gex.xml. Xidi Xidi, created by Samuel Grossman, improves the gameplay experience when using modern XInput-based controllers (such as Xbox controllers) with older games that use DirectInput or WinMM to communicate with game controllers. Xidi was originally rejected as a solution but this may have been due to the recommended Hookshot method used, which may have tried to use DirectInput and DirectInput wrapper libraries with iF-22. The method presented below only uses the winmm.dll library copied into the game installation folder. The recommended Xidi version is the latest one, v5.0.0, available from GitHub Xidi repository, Releases. To install: The installer package, Xidi-v5.0.0.zip, should be downloaded and extracted. The libraries used should be 32-bit to match the 32-bit iF-22 game not 64-bit. They can be found in the Win32 folder. The following libraries should be copied into the iF-22 installation folder: Winmm.dll Xidi.32.dll Although the Hookshot method, using the HookModule form of Xidi is recommended, this should be avoided to prevent DirectInput library use. HidHide HidHide is a device firewall created by Benjamin Höglinger-Stelzer, hiding devices from any app not explicitly allowed through the firewall. The recommended HidHide version is the latest one, HidHide Drivers v1.5.230, available from GitHub HidHide repository, Releases. Installation is straightforward using the executable installer app, HidHide_1.5.230_x64.exe. Configuration In order for iF-22 to start and work with controllers, GEX and the Xidi libraries should be allowed to see through the device firewall with all devices hidden from iF-22. The affected part of the optimised solution is shown below: The following application and libraries should be added to the list of applications allowed to see through the firewall: gremlinex.exe (GremlinEx/GEX) Winmm.dll (Xidi 32-bit library) Xidi.32.dll (Xidi 32-bit library) GEX needs to see through the firewall to map physical DirectInput controllers to a virtual XInput controller. The Xidi libraries need to see through the firewall to receive the virtual XInput controller inputs and pass them to the game. All controllers including physical DirectInput and virtual XInput controllers must be hidden by HidHide. Example config settings are shown in the gallery below: Ramp start (running) Due to the required order of running tools and the limited command line options available to GEX, running the game requires a manual or 'ramp start' sequence. The steps are as follows: Start GEX, load the iF-22 profile (e.g. iF-22-gex.xml) and enable the profile. Start HidHide and ensure, in the Devices tab, all controllers including the Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows) virtual controller is hidden. Check the Enable device hiding checkbox and close HidHide. Go to the iF-22 installation folder and run the game, if22.exe. When the game is quit, to return the system to a clean state: Uncheck the Enable device hiding checkbox and close HidHide. Disable the iF-22 profile and close GEX. In-game configuration This section supplements the exiting In-game configuration in the earlier, iF-22: Infuriating F-22! guide. The following gallery shows the settings for joystick, throttle and rudder pedals: Remaining issues Further work corrected a broken Indeo video codec installation with the K-Lite codec pack tweak tool. This fixed the video playback, however, the WinMM library used by Xidi seems to have issues with video playback so the animations should remain disabled. Example video iF-22 with full HOTAS support Finally... Credit and thanks go to the following individuals without which, iF-22 would still be languishing without joystick or HOTAS support:: Samuel Grossman for Xidi. Benjamin Höglinger-Stelzer for ViGEm Bus Driver. muchimi for GremlinEx. Hap for the GemlinEx, ViGem options. Good hunting!