General:Playing DOS Installments under DOSBox

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

The Elder Scrolls series' earlier installments (viz. Arena, Daggerfall, Battlespire and Redguard) were developed for DOS and consequently do not run under modern Windows (nor non-Microsoft systems, for that matter). This page deals specifically with running these games in DOSBox, and is applicable to all of them.

NOTE: Prospective players of DOS Elder Scrolls games may wish to try the UESP DOSBox helper, as it significantly simplifies the installation and playing of DOS games and also addresses many pitfalls not currently covered in this guide.

Contents 1 Assumptions and general knowledge 2 Configuring DOSBox 3 Installing 3.1 Arena (free version) 3.2 Arena (CD version) 3.3 Daggerfall (free release) 3.4 Daggerfall (original release) 3.5 Battlespire 3.6 Redguard 3.6.1 Software renderer 3.6.2 Glide renderer 4 Playing 4.1 Arena (free version) 4.2 Arena (CD version) 4.3 Daggerfall 4.4 Battlespire 4.5 Redguard (software renderer) 4.6 Redguard (Glide renderer) 5 Performance tuning 6 Troubleshooting 6.1 Unresponsive mouse 6.2 Garbled graphics 6.3 Inaccessible keyboard keys

[edit] Assumptions and general knowledge

As everyone's computer is different, this guide must make certain assumptions which will probably not hold true for you. In particular, this guide will assume that you are running Windows, that your CD/DVD drive is D: and that you will create a directory for storing DOS games files, denoted in this guide by the placeholder C:\Documents\DOS for convenience. These are assumptions made simply for convenience, and you should therefore read these instructions carefully and substitute where appropriate, especially if you are running a system other than Windows. For example, Linux and Mac OS X users will want to substitute C:\Documents\DOS for a directory such as ~/Documents/DOS, and mount eg. /media/cdrom instead of D: as their CD-ROM drive.

When asked to change to a directory (eg. "ARENA") in DOSBox, the command is cd\ARENA; when asked to switch to another drive (eg. D:), simply type its letter followed by a colon and press enter: D:. The command exit quits DOSBox when at the prompt.

The current version of DOSBox as of this writing is 0.73, and the instructions reflect this. Some paths or file names are likely to change with subsequent versions. For further help on using DOSBox, there is an official wiki maintained at the DOSBox Web site which can provide guidance for using and tweaking settings beyond the scope of this wiki.

[edit] Configuring DOSBox

• Download DOSBox and install it.
• Create the directory which will store your DOS game files.
• Open DOSBox's configuration file:
  • In Windows navigate to Start > Programs > DOSBox 0.73 > Configuration > Edit configuration.
  • In Linux run the following in a terminal: dosbox -editconf xdg-open.
  • In Mac OS X run the following in a terminal: open -a TextEdit ~/Library/Preferences/DOSBox\ 0.73\ Preferences.
• Make the following changes changes to the configuration:
  • Under [dosbox], change memsize=16 to memsize=32.
  • When you want to play Battlespire or Redguard set memsize=63.
  • Scroll to the bottom and add the following lines after [autoexec]:

@echo off
mount c "C:\Documents\DOS" -freesize 1000
mount d D:\ -t cdrom -ioctl
c:

• • If you have an LCD monitor, you may wish to scroll up to [render] and change aspect=false to aspect=true.
  • If desired, change fullscreen=false to fullscreen=true under [sdl].
• Save the file and run DOSBox.

[edit] Installing

[edit] Arena (free version)

NOTE: Arena can be downloaded for free from the official Elder Scrolls Web site, packaged as a self-extracting RAR archive. For those not running Windows, unrar is available for most systems and its capabilities are also often included in third-party archiving software.

• In Windows, extract arena106.exe to C:\Documents\DOS.
• In DOSBox, change to the arena directory and type install.
  • Choose "Configure game", followed by "Select music card". Choose "General MIDI or MPU-401"
  • Choose "Done", followed by "Exit".
• Run Arena by typing arena.

[edit] Arena (CD version)

• Switch to drive D: and type install.
  • Accept the data directory (or change it according to your preference).
  • Choose "Configure game".
    • Choose "Select sound card", followed by "SoundBlaster Pro or 16".
    • Choose "Select music card", followed by "General MIDI or MPU-401".
    • Choose "Done".
  • Choose "Exit".
• Run Arena by typing C:\arena_cd\arena.

[edit] Daggerfall (free release)

NOTE: Daggerfall can be downloaded for free from the official Elder Scrolls Web site, packaged as a ZIP archive. It is identical to the 1996 CD release.

• In Windows, extract DFInstall.zip to C:\Documents\DOS.
• In DOSBox, start the installer: C:\dfcd\install.
  • Agree to the license.
  • Choose "Install the game to your hard drive".
  • Accept the install size.
  • Accept the installation directory.
  • Install. Wait.
• Configure sound:
  • Choose "Select digital" and choose "SoundBlaster 16/AWE32"; set port to 220, DMA to 1 and IRQ to 7. Test if desired, then choose "OK".
  • Choose "Select MIDI" and choose "MPU-401" at port 330. Test if desired, then choose "OK".
  • Choose "OK" to quit the sound configuration utility.
• Still in DOSBox, run dag213.exe to apply the patch; answer yes to both prompts.
• Contrary to the installer's instructions, run Daggerfall by typing fall z.cfg.
• Some of the Cheat mode keys do not work under DOSBox; ctrl-F1 does not work because it brings up the DOSBox keymapper program instead, but the cheats can be made to work by remapping the keys.

ANNOTATION: Note that the default keyboard mapper of DOSBox interferes with the key-combinations that are used by the game cheats. If you want to use this cheats, you must re-map these keys by pressing CTRL + F1 during a DOSBox session.

[edit] Daggerfall (original release)

• Download the Daggerfall patch and save it for later.
• Start the installer: D:\install.
  • Accept the license.
  • Choose "Install the game to your hard drive".
  • (Recommended) Change the installation size to "huge".
  • Accept the installation directory (or change it according to your preference).
  • Install. Wait.
• Configure sound:
  • Choose "Select digital" and choose "SoundBlaster 16/AWE32"; set port to 220, DMA to 1 and IRQ to 7. Test if desired, then choose "OK".
  • Choose "Select MIDI" and choose "MPU-401" at port 330. Test if desired, then choose "OK".
  • Choose "OK" to quit the sound configuration utility.
• Quit the Daggerfall installer.
• (Recommended) Apply the Daggerfall patch:
  • In Windows, extract the patch (dag213.exe) to C:\Documents\DOS\dagger.
  • In DOSBox, switch to Daggerfall's directory (default "dagger") and run dag213.exe. Answer yes to any prompts.
• Contrary to the installer's instructions, run Daggerfall by typing fall z.cfg.

[edit] Battlespire

• Download the Battlespire patch and save for later.
• Before you start DOSBox, use a text-editor and set fullresolution=640x480 in the dosbox.conf file to properly enable full-screen mode for the game.
• Start DOSBox, switch to drive D: and type install.
  • Choose "Install Battlespire".
  • Accept the installation directory (or change it according to your preference).
  • Wait.
  • Select "Bypass".
  • Configure sound:
    • Choose "Select and configure digital audio driver".
    • Choose "Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16 or AWE32".
    • Choose "Attempt to configure sound driver automatically".
    • Choose "Done".
  • Enable captions and childguard at your discretion.
  • Quit the installer.
• (Recommended) In Windows, apply the Battlespire patch by extracting batpat15.zip to C:\Documents\DOS\batspire.
• Run Battlespire by typing spire. Ignore the DPMI warning if it appears.

[edit] Redguard

NOTE: While Redguard was technologically a DOS game, it was distributed only with a Windows-based InstallShield installer. Help is available for those unable or unwilling to use the original installer.

[edit] Software renderer

• In Windows, install Redguard:
  • Choose XnGine version.
  • Install to C:\Documents\DOS\Redguard.
  • Skip sound configuration.
• Run DOSBox.
• Change to the redguard\sound directory and type setsound.
  • Choose "Select and configure MIDI music driver"; choose "General MIDI" and configure automatically.
  • Choose "Select and configure digital audio driver"; choose "Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16 or AWE32" and configure automatically.
  • Choose "Done".
• Change to the redguard directory and run Redguard by typing rg.

[edit] Glide renderer

NOTE: Glide emulation in DOSBox is, as of this writing, experimental and still rough around the edges; it may work badly or not at all. Use at your own risk.

• Download the custom Glide-enabled DOSBox version from DOSBox Daum Cafe.
• Configure custom DOSBox as above and under [glide] change glide=false to glide=true.
• Install Redguard and configure sound as with software renderer, choosing the 3Dfx version instead of XnGine.
• Change to the redguard directory and run Redguard by typing rgfx.

[edit] Playing

For reference, below is a straightforward list of DOS commands necessary for starting each game during subsequent DOSBox sessions after the game or games in question have been installed. It assumes DOSBox has been configured as outlined above (eg. with drives already mounted and drive switched to C:), and that the games have been installed in their default directories.

[edit] Arena (free version)

   cd\arena
   arena

[edit] Arena (CD version)

   cd\arena_cd
   arena

[edit] Daggerfall

   cd\dagger
   fall z.cfg

[edit] Battlespire

  cd\batspire
  spire

NOTE: The DPMI warning can be safely ignored.

[edit] Redguard (software renderer)

   cd\redguard
   rg

[edit] Redguard (Glide renderer)

   cd\redguard
   rgfx

[edit] Performance tuning

The Elder Scrolls games were notorious for their high system requirements at the time. As emulation is always considerably slower than the real thing, a very fast computer is definitely recommended---especially for Battlespire and Redguard, as they were high-resolution games.

For those for whom DOSBox is not running as fast as it perhaps should, below are various tips on how to speed up DOSBox or the relevant game, many through edits to dosbox.conf. Said tips become progressively more extreme in terms of compromise for those who really need the extra speed boost.

• Enable the dynamic core explicitly by changing core=auto to core=dynamic.
• Close as much software running in background as possible so that DOSBox has at its disposal as much processing power as possible.
• Play in full-screen. DOSBox performs various optimizations in full-screen mode which are impossible in a window.
• Enable full-screen double buffering. Change fulldouble=false to fulldouble=true.
• Play from CD images instead of physical discs if experiencing periodic hanging. DOS games would often rely upon the slower speeds and trivial spin-up times of the drives of the day, accessing game data from disc more often than modern drives are designed to cope with.
• Arena and Daggerfall both include a detail slider which decreases the draw distance. Turning detail down to its lowest will have a considerable impact on performance.
• You may wish to manually tweak the cycles (processing power) which DOSBox attempts to emulate. Start with cycles at a fairly high number (eg. cycles=8000) and press Ctrl-F12 to increase the number of cycles, repeating until either the game runs sufficiently smoothly or DOSBox starts to use 100% CPU in the Windows Task Manager processes tab. Ctrl-F11 can also be used to decrease the cycle count if necessary. On particularly slow machines, cycles=max may yield best results.
• Enable frame skipping: change frameskip=0 to a higher value, starting low. More skipped frames equates to much less work for DOSBox, at the cost of jerkier video.
• In extreme cases you can reconfigure the game to play without sound or music and disable SoundBlaster emulation in DOSBox (sbtype=none).

[edit] Troubleshooting

[edit] Unresponsive mouse

Depending on your hardware (or your personal preferences), DOSBox's preset mouse sensitivity may not be sensitive enough for you. The sensitivity can be increased by changing sensitivity=100 to something higher.

[edit] Garbled graphics

If the screen does not update properly leaving "dirty" areas behind, try changing the output driver: replace output=surface with output=overlay (or ddraw). Note that the mouse pointer can under certain circumstances leave dirty areas until it is locked; this is normal.

[edit] Inaccessible keyboard keys

Some keyboards and keyboard layouts are problematic in DOSBox and prevent the user from typing such characters as the backslash or colon. This problem can be rectified by rebinding keys with DOSBox's built-in keymapper, accessible via Ctrl-F1. Help on how to use the keymapper is available at the DOSBox wiki.