I've a laptop which has Windows 8. Having looked at other posts on how to download Elite Frontier I still can't play it.
I've downloaded "DOSbox" to my desktop and Elite Frontier to my C Drive as requested on another post. The other post states that the Elite Frontier folder should be opened using DOSbox however I don't have this option. I'm completely lost and a total Newbee when it comes to things like this. Could somebody out there hold my hand from start to finish on this. Not played this game in years and really want to start playing again.
If you're struggling with DosBox, there are two ways of making life easier. You can get hold of D-Fend*, which makes creating profiles and running DOS games that much easier. Or if you only ever want to play Frontier, you can get an integrated version that includes DosBox as part of the package.
If you installed DOSbox only for Frontier, just edit the DOSbox config file - adding line:
Code:
mount c: c:\Frontier
at the end of it.
Start DOSbox.
Type:
frontier
and press enter.
Explanation:
The mount -command tells DOSbox to use your Windows folder c:\Frontier as its internal c: -drive.
I assume you have unpacked/installed Frontier Elite 2 to c:\Frontier - if the actual folder is different, just change that part to the correct one.
that's how i did it (it's in fact a bit simpler that what i have but it works just as well):
for me Frontier.exe is in C:\Games\Frontier
in this folder i have created 2 files : Frontier.bat (it could be anything.bat) FrontierDB.conf (it could be anything.conf)
you can create 2 individual ".txt" files then change them into a ".conf" and a ".bat". both can be edited with notepad as a simple text file. be careful : the .bat can be executed like an exe file so dont open it with a double click, unless you want to test it.
frontier.bat content:
@echo off
C:\Games\DOSBox-0.74\dosbox -conf FrontierDB.conf
you can then make a shortcut directing to this file. this bat file will launch the dosbox using the .conf file as a parameter.
[autoexec]
@ECHO OFF
mount C "C:\Games\Frontier"
c:
Frontier.exe
just to explain how it works :
the autoexec part at the end is the set of commands you want to execute automatically when dosbox has started.
it mounts your C:\Games\Frontier on your computer as your C: drive under dosbox. (**)
then goes to C(the one you described as C:\Games\Frontier) with "c:"
and finally starts the game.
**: you could pick any letter you want, F for instance but then you have to type F: instead of C:
---
so what you shoud have in the end is a shortcut on your desktop linked to frontier.bat which will automatically launch dosbox by using the content of FrontierDB.conf to define dosbox parametters and launch the game directly.
all of that being transparent to you. the game itself will ask you something about the sound(choice 2 is fine).
you can use the same technique for any game you want to run in dosbox, but you may have to change some of the parameters in the ".conf" file, the cpu cycles for instance, you may also have to mount cds(or iso/bin/.. files).
output=OpenGL is useful if you want to use an external software like fraps or dxtory to record a video of the game.
dosbox can also do it itself but it's a bit unpractical as you dont know when it is or isnt recording.
