Homebrew Dosbox .conf and .map files collection for Wiiflow

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
Just a heads up. I was just looking at your controller lay out pic in post #1, and for loading games, it will ask you to confirm by pressing "Y" or "N". So you may want to assign "A" on the Wiimote to "Y" if anything.
Yes I know, unfortunately there's a problem in mapping the Wiimote A button: it will lose the ability to work in Virtual Keyboard mode. So in this game you wouldn't be able to write the name while saving the game, or to change the game speed from 0 to 9.
It's the only key that is better to leave unmapped on the wiimote, and after all it's not a big deal to use the virtual keyboard to press y or n while restoring a game.
However what I can do is to map Y to the classic controller, there are many unused buttons.
 

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
Thanks for giving this puppy the royal treatment man!
You're welcome! Enjoy
Recently discovered another little gem...

Monster Bash


Yeah, I was planning to add Monster Bash, nice game (although frustrating, I like Dangerous Dave 2 a little more).
However, I will do it when I'll be back from summer vacationB-)
 

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
Added Monster Bash conf, map and 3D cover, see 1st post.
As usual, you can download the banner from my Banner thread

edit: it appears that I've reached the maximum number of image uploads on the 1st post.
here is the banner preview with controls for monster bash
monsterbash.png
 
Last edited by Tetsuo Shima,

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
@Tototi Yes, I was thinking about adding them. Apogee old platformers are perfect on DosBox Wii, they run smooth and play great with the wiimote as a pad :)

Unfortunately the games that are played with a mouse are a pain to play with the wiimote as a pointer, no matter how old. The cursor stutters, disappears, stops against an invisible wall... too many issues to play already difficult games.
This is why the list of possible games to add is so limited.
But if you know of any old DOS game worth adding, that should run and play good on Wii and that don't use a mouse (tipically 2D sidescrollers), let me know.
 

sion_zaphod

Ex-Galactic President; confidence trickster; etc
Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
513
Trophies
1
Age
45
Location
Wales
XP
2,090
Country
How about the Commander Keen earlier games, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, Hexxen, Heretic, Sky Roads, Dope Wars, Blake Stone.

Glad people are still using Dosbox on Wii. The conf and map setup really paved the way for other Dosbox ports. And people were only interested in launching executables (bat,com,exe). Even the libretro port benefits from this setup. I'll dust off my Wii and see if I've got some of my confs and maps to add.
 
Last edited by sion_zaphod,
  • Like
Reactions: Tetsuo Shima

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
Hey @sion_zaphod !! Long time no see:) Hope all is well!
Yes the .conf and .map support was really a blessing, you really made a perfect work. Furthermore, some time ago Wiimpathy released a Dosbox mod with the ability of setting up cycles and other things straight from the app.

The Commander Keen games are already in my pack, and they work like a charm. Yes, I was thinking on adding Wolfenstein 3D and other similar games too.

One last thing, since the latest beta release of Wiiflow Lite, Fledge added the feature to have snapshots in place of the mini banners. All my banners for Dosbox are not working anymore, so I won't make any more of them. I will try to replace all my Dos banners with .png's to be still able to read the button mappings.
@fledge68 I'm thinking on how to make the snapshots with button mappings readable. Using the old banners I could click on them to zoom them. I see that currently this is not possible with snapshots. Will this be a possibility in future WiiFlow releases? Or can it be done in another way? (maybe including button mappings in the game info page, in text form?)
 
Last edited by Tetsuo Shima,

fledge68

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States
Hey @sion_zaphod !! Long time no see:) Hope all is well!
Yes the .conf and .map support was really a blessing, you really made a perfect work. Furthermore, some time ago Wiimpathy released a Dosbox mod with the ability of setting up cycles and other things straight from the app.

The Commander Keen games are already in my pack, and they work like a charm. Yes, I was thinking on adding Wolfenstein 3D and other similar games too.

One last thing, since the latest beta release of Wiiflow Lite, Fledge added the feature to have snapshots in place of the mini banners. All my banners for Dosbox are not working anymore, so I won't make any more of them. I will try to replace all my Dos banners with .png's to be still able to read the button mappings.
@fledge68 I'm thinking on how to make the snapshots with button mappings readable. Using the old banners I could click on them to zoom them. I see that currently this is not possible with snapshots. Will this be a possibility in future WiiFlow releases? Or can it be done in another way? (maybe including button mappings in the game info page, in text form?)
first off, your custom banners should still work. if they are available wiiflow should display them instead of the snapshot. if they aren't showing up then i made a mistake in the code and will have to fix it.

if we disable the banners completely then we will need to come up with a way to show your controls banner full screen. or like you said incude them in the game info screen. i actually kind a like that idea.
 

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
first off, your custom banners should still work. if they are available wiiflow should display them instead of the snapshot. if they aren't showing up then i made a mistake in the code and will have to fix it.

if we disable the banners completely then we will need to come up with a way to show your controls banner full screen. or like you said incude them in the game info screen. i actually kind a like that idea.
Yes, the dosbox banners are not showing up, so I thought they could not be used anymore. I remember you warned me about that possibility, some time ago. Well then, I'm open to every scenario:)

Banners
pros: They can include audio jingles from the games (I made a few with sound and they're very nice)
They can be zoomed
cons: Their creation requires a lot of time
Having controls instead of game shots may seem strange to someone.

Snapshots
pros: They are easier to do
cons: If they can't be zoomed they are unreadable
No audio
Having controls instead of game shots may seem strange to someone.

Game Info:
pros: Pictures of game screens for selected games, just like every other plugin
Controls are shown in the game info, it makes more sense
Easier to do than banners.
cons: Text agains pictures. Less immediate to read (and less eye candy)
 
Last edited by Tetsuo Shima,

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
Eight new games with .conf map. cover and banner with audio track. The Royal treatment!

Games list:

Bio Menace
Epic Pinball
Jazz Jackrabbit
Moonstone
Pinball Fantasies
Skyroads
Wolfenstein 3d
Zool

links are in the 1st post


Control mappings:
Bio Menace
BIO MENACE.png

Epic Pinball
epic pinball.png

Jazz Jackrabbit
jazz jackrabbit.png

Moonstone
moonstone.png

Pinball Fantasies
pinball fantasies.png

Skyroads
skyroads.png

Wolfenstein 3D
wolf3d.png

Zool
ZOOL.png
Dowload banners for these games to display control mappings in Wiiflow Lite


Game notes:

All games are playing at full speed!
Jazz Jackrabbit has some stuttering in the intro, but you can skip it with +. After that, the game runs smootly. The intro plays right at 3500 cycles but the game needs 6400 to be the right speed.
There are various versions of this game, some of them have an intro animation on a black background. This intro can't be skipped pressing + (Esc). You need a copy of the game with a white background intro. That version has also some bugfixes (see here)
Pinball Fantasies has the button for the last table with messed up colors. To fix this it should be required to use 'machine=vgaonly' in the .conf, but doing so the game becomes very slow, even increasing the cycles, so I've choosed not to fix it.
Bio Menace and Skyroads are both freeware games. They are both included in the release, with a menu.bat selector to choose the episodes. I used an old dos program from 1991 called menu0891, also freeware.


@Wiimpathy I used your dosbox plugin mod. It's a great plugin, and it's perfect for this kind of work, but there's one problem: after changing the cycles it automatically also changes the scaler value from scaler=none to scaler=normal2x. This makes the games run much slower, and there's no way to set it back to scaler=none from the plugin's interface, unless you manually edit the conf file on the pc.
 
Last edited by Tetsuo Shima,

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
Added Ultima VI - The False Prophet
conf, map, banner, cover
All links in the 1st post.

ultima 6.png ultima6-3.jpg

This game was designed to be controlled with the keyboard and (partially) the mouse.
Unfortunately, to be able to actually play it on the Wii, you'll have to run the setup program and choose 'no mouse'.
However, for this game this is not a big deal, really. Interface was so keyboard-centered that, even on a real PC, you'd eventually abandon the mouse completely in favor of the keyboard.
With a little practice (and the help of the banner, which I suggest you to use) you'll get accustomed to how this primitive interface works and enjoy this little gem of gaming history.

I've included a setup .conf file that you can use to launch the installation program and, when you are done, you can either assign it to a 'hidden' category in Wiiflow, or remove it.
Installation program:
- Hit the "h" key to "install" the game to the hard disk.
- Hit the "c" key to "install" the game to the C: drive.
- Hit the "5" key to choose VGA graphics.
- Hit the "n" key to indicate that you don't have a mouse.
- Hit the "1" key to choose AdLib sound card.
- Hit the "d" key to choose the default I/O port of 388.

The decision of excluding the mouse is mainly for two reasons. One is that in Dosbox-Wii the pointer controls are not working good with any game and the other is that there's a problem when closing the virtual keyboard, pressing A on the Wiimote.
It's interpreted as a left mouse click by the game, and acts as a skip button making it impossible to play certain parts of the game. This is why removing the mouse entirely from the game is necessary.
Luckily, I managed to map every keyboard function to the classic controller AND wiimote combined, and the game plays very good!

This game is old, and for conversations you have to type on the keyboard (even when mouse is enabled), but you can abbreviate words to their first four letters.
So on the Wii, you'll be using the virtual keyboard a lot, but thanks to these abbreviations it shouldn't be so much of a trouble.
 
Last edited by Tetsuo Shima,
  • Like
Reactions: rogerioronin

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
Updated Ultima VI conf, map and banner.
Changes:
Game and sound are now playing at perfect speed.
Remapped "party mode" to the B button on the Wii remote. This way you're now able to use "-" on Classic Controller to "pass turns". This is needed in some situations (e.g. you need to wait for a shop to open, or a sleeping NPC to wake up, etc.). Besides, it solves another issue: when you accessed inventory in solo mode, you couldn't return to party mode without using the virtual keyboard.
Now this is fixed. Downloads in the 1st post.

ultima 6.png
 
Last edited by Tetsuo Shima,

sparkle86

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 12, 2019
Messages
9
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
95
Country
United States
Hey can I suggest a couple games to pack in?

Comanche 3 (will it even run?)
IndyCar Racing (1993)
Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage
Elf Land
Duke Nukem
Oregon Trail
Sim City
The Secret of Monkey Island
Super Munchers
Number Munchers
Putt Putt
Sam and Max
Beneath a Steel Sky
Maniac Mansion 2
Space Hulk
Command and Conquer
 
Last edited by sparkle86,

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
I will eventually add some of these games. Just can't do it in a short time, being really busy with work and other things lately. Not all of them are possible,

Comanche 3 (will it even run?)
-No way, I'm sorry. It requires a 1st gen Pentium cpu, or a very powerful 486 at the very least. Dosbox Wii can emulate a slow 386, at its best. It could run it, but it wouldn't be an enjoyable experience at all.

Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage
-possible

Elf Land
-possible. Didn't know this game. I like cute old EGA platformers. Thanks for this.

Duke Nuke
-possible. Not a fan of 2D Duke games, but it won't be a problem to add it.

Oregon Trail
-not sure. If I remember correctly (but please, correct me if I'm wrong) it was played exclusively by typing key words on the keyboards. It would be boring to play it with the virtual keyboard only, also defeating part of the purpose of this thread (map file with gamepad configuration). Maybe the remake? I never played it.

Sim City
-not sure, but probably no. This is controlled mainly with the mouse. And (sad but true) mouse driven games are a nightmare to play with IR controls: the mouse pointer stutters so bad that you'll stop playing after a few minutes. Trust me, I tried all I could. In fact, I think that it was a mistake, for me, to add the Lemmings games to this thread. They run great but, actually, they are impossible to play.

Super Munchers
Number Munchers
-possible. Never heard of these too. It may be funny for kids.

Putt Putt
Sam and Max
Beneath a Steel Sky
Maniac Mansion 2
-Sorry but no. They already run perfectly in Scummvm, better than how they could possibly do in Dosbox wii.

Space Hulk
-Yes, it could be done. I forgot of this game, thanks. I need to ensure that you can fully play it with keyboards only for the reason above.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    straferz @ straferz: Anybody know why this is happening to my ACWW town...