Getting Descent 1 & Descent 2 to play on newer machines?

Frosty5F11 · Post by **Frosty5F11** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:40 am

I have a new computer with win xp pro installed, but my problem is I can't play these games & I'm wondering if they don't start cause XP doesn't fully support dos?
do I need to install ol Win 98 to play these classics, I've had a real bad urge to infiltrate mines & blast the crap outta some robots!

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 11:32 am

D1 and D2 are... questionable... under Windows XP. Among other things, they run too fast -- on my Athlon 2700+, lasers shoot about 3 times faster than they're supposed to, and the ship moves much faster than it's supposed to.

Some people have them working fairly well using d1x and d2x. Unfortunately, that d1x site doesn't seem to have the latest version (1.43).

It's sort of a crapshoot as to whether or not they're going to work for you. D1x runs beautifully on this system, but didn't work very well at all on my last one. So, good luck :)

If you have to go back to Windows 98, you should try to pick up a system close to the pentium-200 speed. Like I said at the start, on fast systems, the games move too fast (unless you're using d1x or d2x) so if you're going to run the original versions, you need a slower system.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 1:08 pm

D1x and D2x are version that play well on XP.

Frosty5F11 · Post by **Frosty5F11** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:55 pm

well thanks to d1x, it will at least start up and play, but I connot get the sound to work. any ideas on a configuration that'll work with a SB Audigy or onboard nforce sound?
and it moves alot faster than 3 times on here IMO, I have a athlon 2600 machine with a geforce 5800, and even with d1x it won't go slow.
thanks
sorry for not posting back for so long, been busy

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:59 pm

Use the following configuration:

This works flawlessly with my onboard audio on my nForce2 mobo (SoundStorm chipset) and on my old SB Live! Value.

(I know its a screenshot of D2 setup, but it works fine for D1 as well.)

As for your framerate, I suggest you pay attention to your options menu. Down on the bottom is "D1x Options". Select that and a window will pop up where you can customize D1x. (D2 style weapons ordering, Framecap ability, etc) Unfortunately D1x 1.4 and later introduced a bug that doesn't allow your framecap setting to stick. Same for D2x. For setting up D2x, just dump it into your Descent2 directory and read the installation.txt carefully. It'll tell you to download two files (links are provided). These are necessary to get D2x to work. (They weren't included because they're being updated all the time.)

Best build of D2x I've used to date.

DarkShadow · Post by **DarkShadow** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 4:11 pm

Is it just me or does it seem like we need a D1x and Dx2 sticky since the questions seem to be getting asked alot lately about how to get D1 and D2 working on XP?

Frosty5F11 · Post by **Frosty5F11** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:40 am

thanks md, that works for D2 great.
the guy, or guys who did D2x did an awesome job, works great & the graphics look quit a bit better than last time I played. still can't do 1280x1024 with acceptable performance on my geforce 5800 U, lol
D1 still won't work right, maybe I need that latest version of D1x, still too fast movement and no sound, cept for midi thanks to you.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:09 pm

Well, you might want to read the "D1x.txt" file in your Descent directory. Scroll down to section 4. You can create an ini file with all the command line parameters (seperate lines for each entry of course) and modify your D1x shortcut and put -ini d1x.ini and it'll read that for your configuration.

I'd try -maxfps xx (where xx is the maximum number of frames per second you want) and see if it works alright for you.