Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Searching through diferent topics, I realized that there are few other members interested in playing Fallout game on their Maemo device, so I thought I`d share that little I`ve achieved so far in trying to get the game working on N900:

I managed to get Fallout 1 playing on my N900 through DOSBox-0.73 but it runs incredibly slow.

With the DosBox default configurationg, it was taking 15 minutes from the moment I launch Dosbox > Fallout Stand By screen > Main menu > Character creation > to actually playing the game. And ingame, i`d say the speed was around 25% of the normal playing speed.

Changing some settings on dosbox-0.73.conf, I managed to reduce the time it took to be ready to play the game from 15 to 8 minutes and the speed ingame is up to ~ 33% of the normal.

If there`s anyone experienced with DosBox/Maemo/Linux that could have a look at my dosbox-0.73.conf and point out to me if there`s any other changes I can make that might help the ingame speed, I`d greatly appresciate it. I`m a total newbie regarding DosBox/Maemo/Linux.
And if it helps, here a copy of Fallout.cfg as well.

For anyone thinking of trying out Fallout 1 on Maemo... except for the speed issue(which in truth makes the game unplayable), loading, saving and every other aspect of the game works perfectly. To install the game properly(after many failed attempts) I had to copy all the files of the installation CD on the N900 and run the installation proccess from the N900 through DOSBox.

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Have you tried adjusting the animation speed in fallout itself, perhaps this may help compensate for the slowdown.

Disabling sound as much as possible may help to.

Id try, but my CD is across the country from me at the moment.

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

@migen, sorry for the totally noob question, but how do you edit dosbox.conf in xterm? i've not even been able to get that far, although i've managed to install dosbox itself from the repository ... any (detailed) instructions to help me get started would be greatly appreciated.

ps: sorry for the partial thread-hijack :)

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

I dont seem to figure out how to change the animation speed... is it in Fallout.cfg or inside the game settings?


@sierrafoxtrot: I`m a newbie myself :) and I have no clue yet how to edit files from XTerm.
I used mc(midnight commander - a powerfull file manager). A great applicationg for N900 that can be used to access and edit files.

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Its in the game settings, don't recall exactly where, but it only applies to combat animations.

I use vi to edit files in xterm, but its very much noob unfriendly

I'd recomend installing leafpad, then you should be able to invoke it from xterm with:

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

On PC Dosbox support opengl acseleration for graphics output. You need change "output" option in dosbox.conf like this:
But I think dosbox for maemo5 dosn't support opengl output

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

N900 on the other hand doesn't support OpenGL too :D

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Fallout system requirements say 90MHz Pentium. Normally emulation needs close to 10x performance of emulated system as overhead is such.

Omap3 is close to Pentium performance per MHz but lacking from 10x figure. Also Dosbox may not use Neon for Fpu so if Fallout uses fpu a lot it may explain slowdown. Have you checked if n900 has enough memory to run without virtual memory? Also stop all other concurrently running processes

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Migen thanks for posting this. I've been currently playing wiz 7 mostly but will want to play fallout as well. Keep us posted on any further improvements you might make.

2d

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

These are the numbers I get with DOSBox/Fallout running(minimized, in bg):

http://migenonline.com/N900/screenshot08.png


Surprisingly, changing cycles value on DOSBox-0.73.conf from "max" to "12000" improved the loading times and the game speed.

DOSBox-0.73.conf
Now it takes 5mins from the moment I start the DOSBox to actually playing the game(includes ~ 2mins30seconds to load a saved game).

Also the gameplay speed is up to ~ 60% of the normal playing speed but the game sound is totally screwed up.

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Is there a way to disable sound entirely in dosbox or fallout itself? that may help get you up to realtime.

Also, have youl tried playing with headphones plugged in? (this should reduce cpu overhead slightly by bypassing the software eq in pulseaudio used to protect the built in speakers)

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

I saw in Dosbox pages:
'With DOSBox 0.72, I am able to run Fallout smoothly with sound. You must disable the GUS support by specifying gus=false in dosbox.conf. Then run the sound.exe setup utility in the fallout root folder, and autodetect your soundcard. This should now recognize a SB. Test the sound then exit/sav.'

Maybe GUS emulation is tougher than SB, and above could help

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Did anyone test this already?

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Isn't that just for PC? because yeah, it works flawlessly on x86 builds, but remember that ARM must emulate every x86 instruction, so it gets way more slow. I think someone needs to optimize the emulation on ARM7 arch, possibly using some goodies included in Cortex8

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Not really, Gravis Ultrasound is/was much more capable soundcard than Soundblaster. For sure GUS emulation is more complex than basic SB. When emulation is simpler, Dosbox runs faster.

By default Fallout/dosbox seems to use best soundcard available so better to disable GUS for faster emulation.

For sure Dosbox could get help if it also would be Cortex optimized but that may take some time.

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

uris, I was talking about speed of the emulation, fallout for sure doesn't run smoothly on n900 with dosbox. BTW GUS emulation is disabled by default.

Re: Fallout 1 on DOSBox-0.73 (N900)
 

Got fallout running , but its painfully slow and the touchscreen occasionally de-syncs. Has anyone figured out tweaks to get dosbox running any faster, would overclocking do much?