Can't get LBA to work the normal way? - LBA1/2 DOSBox Guide [updated: 24-4-2005]

[ChaosFish]

If LbaWin can't work for you, and even FunnyFrog's patches don't work for you, or if you're using Linux or Mac OS anyway, and you almost gave up playing LBA...
Don't give up! With this guide (and with a strong computer) you will get LBA1 and LBA2 to work.

DOSBox is the best DOS emulator available, it can emulate DOS on any operation system. It is still on a beta stage, but it can already run LBA1 and LBA2 pretty smoothly.

Enough talks. Let's start.

Getting ready

1. Download the latest version of DOSBox from here, and install it.
2. Launch dosbox.exe.

Run LBA1

1. After you inserted the LBA1 disc, write this (only the bold part of this) inside DOSBox:
   mount d E:\ (assuming E: is your LBA1 CD) -t cdrom -label ADELINE -ioctl -usecd 0 [Enter]
   mount c C:\lba (or any other folder, but you must first create this folder outside of DOSBox) (this is the main LBA folder, inside it there'll be 'LBA1' folder)[Enter]
   D: [Enter]
   install [Enter]
2. Now you are inside of the LBA1 installer which is controlled by the "Up", "Down" and "Enter" keys.
   Choose your language.
   Choose "Hard Disk Installation"
   Choose "C:"
   Change the directory name so there will be written "C:\LBA1"
   Choose "Music Sound Card Configuration", choose "Sound Blaster Pro 1 (OPL2)", choose "220"
   Choose "FX Sound Card Configuration", choose "Sound Blaster Pro 1", choose "220", choose "7", choose "1"
   Choose "Speech Configuration", choose "Keep Speech Files on Hard Disk" (there should be YES written at the end of this line now)
   Choose "Save Parameters", then Quit to Dos
3. Now, outside of DOSBox, copy the folder "VOX" from the LBA1 cd to the folder which you installed LBA1 in. If you don't want to copy all VOX files, just copy the VOX files in your language from the CD VOX folder to the LBA1 installation VOX folder (for English it's all files starting with "EN_").
4. Now, in DOSBox, type:
   C:[Enter]
   cd\lba1[Enter]
   LBA (or RELENT if you have the US version)

Voila! The game should run now!
Now to the fun part. (this is for Windows, I don't know how to do this with Linux)
Create a new shortcut (by right-mouse-click -> new -> shortcut). Type your DOSBox path and your parameters. Here's an example:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox\dosbox.exe" -c "mount d E:\ -t cdrom -label ADELINE -ioctl -usecd 0" -c "mount c C:\lba" -c "C:" -c "cd\lba1" -c "lba" -c "exit" if you want to start in full screen, you can add: -fullscreen
Now all you need is to do is launch this shortcut you just made, and LBA1 will be launched with DOSBox!

Run LBA2

1. After you inserted the LBA2 disc, write this (only the bold part of this) inside DOSBox:
   
   mount d E:\ (assuming E: is your LBA2 CD) -t cdrom -label LBA2 -ioctl -usecd 1 [Enter]
   Or, if you have the Twinsen's Odyssey version,
   mount d E:\ (assuming E: is your Twinsen's Odyssey CD) -t cdrom -label TWINSEN -ioctl -usecd 1 [Enter]
   
   mount c C:\lba (or any other folder, but you must first create this folder outside of DOSBox) (this is the main LBA folder, inside it there'll be 'LBA2' folder)[Enter]
   D: [Enter]
   cd\dos <-- Only type if you have the "Twinsen's Odyssey" version!
   install [Enter]
2. Now you are inside of the LBA2 installer which is controlled by the arrow keys and the Enter key.
   Choose your language.
   Choose "Hard Disk Installation"
   Press Enter
   Make sure the directory name is "C:\LBA2" (if it's not, change it), choose "Ok, Install"
   Choose "Select and configure digital audio driver"
   Choose "Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32"
   Choose "Attempt to configure sound driver automatically", choose "Done"
   Set all speech and text options as you wish.
   Press Esc again and again until receiving "Do you really want to quit ?", then press Enter
3. Now type:
   C:[Enter]
   cd\lba2[Enter]
   LBA2

The game should run now!
To the fun part. (Again, only for Windows)
Create a new shortcut (by right-mouse-click -> new -> shortcut). Type your DOSBox path and your parameters. Here's an example:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox\dosbox.exe" -c "mount d E:\ -t cdrom -label TWINSEN -ioctl -usecd 1" -c "mount c C:\lba" -c "C:" -c "cd\lba2" -c "lba2" -c "exit" if you want to start in full screen, you can add: -fullscreen
Now just launch the shortcut you made, and LBA2 will run!

Notes & Tips

• You can switch between fullscreen and windowed mode by pressing Alt+Enter at any time.
• To exit DOSBox at any time, press Ctrl+F9
• You need a strong computer to run the LBA games on DOSBox, and especially LBA2. If the game runs too slow, try playing a bit with the "Cpu Cycles": Press Ctrl+F12 to higher the cycles and Ctrl+F11 to lower them. You can see the amount of Cpu cycles in the title bar of DOSBox. Once you reached the ideal amount of Cpu Cycles for your computer, you can make it default by editing the attached "dosbox.conf" file with any plain text editor (such as Notepad) and changing the "cycles=8000" to your option.
• The LBA2 movies might run crippled in DOSBox.
• This guide is very Windows focused, simply because I only know Windows. Any help for other operating systems is welcomed in this thread and will be merged with this guide.
• You can access the installation options by using setup.exe from the LBA1/2 installation folder (in DOSBox, type cd\lba1 or cd\lba2 and then type setup)
• The examples for the Windows shortcut parameters are just examples, use them as 'templates'

If you have more tips and/or notes to give, post them in this thread and if they're good I'll add them here.

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How I got this info? Some of it I got from the VOGONS forum, some of it I just tried myself. Huge thanks goes to the DOSBox team for making such a great application open source.

Please, come to this thread to discuss and to give me feedback on this guide.