Apache and Hind in DOSbox

Like a number of the other folks on this thread I collect classic flight sims. I've been unable to get the windows or 3dfx versions of Apache and Hind to run on my Vista 64 bit system (I get a direct draw error as soon as the introductory videos end), so I finally gave up and installed the DOS versions of both games under DOSbox. I have to turn the detail level down about half way to get acceptable frame rates, and of course there is no 3d acceleration, but aside from that, both programs work ok. They will never take the place of Black Shark, of course, but a quick run through a mission or two is lots of fun--nostalgia at its best, really, sort of like when I fire up Gunship 2000. So if nostalgia is your thing, it might be worth giving the DOSbox approach to Apache and Hind a go.

I'm surprised you have to turn the detail level down. For Apache in DOSBOX 0.74 everything works fine with all the detail maxed out.

I evidently need to move up to .74. I've been using .72 because D-Fend doesn't work with .74 (or at least doesn't work very well) and D-Fend Reload tends to lock up when I try it. I could of course quit using a frontend, but they are really convenient, and I've never been able to figure out how to set up batch files which load the necessary parameters for individual games. Evidently .74 is quite a bit faster than .72, though, so I need to make the switch, especially for programs like Apache and Hind and Longbow gold (also Wing Commander III). Do you know any decent frontends for .74? That would certainly simplify life.

DOSBOX 0.74 is a quantum leap over previous versions. Things that never worked well now work amazingly well. There were a few things (I think Gunship2000 was one such) that worked BETTER in 0.72 because they ran WAY too fast in 0.74 even when trying to modify the cycles used. Even in 0.72 I have some difficulties getting it to run slow enough to be playable.

Things like Janes Apache Longbow (1) were problematic if not impossible in 0.72 and work like a charm in 0.74.

I think I had WingCommander III running ok in 0.72, but I don't recall.

I never use front ends, sorry. I generally mount my drives on the fly, but I need to get busy and write separate DOSBOX.conf files (which can be called from the command line) to save me some time.

There are a bunch of frontends listed here along with DOSBOX 0.74, so I assume they have been tested to work with that version:

http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1

Thanks for the link, Recluse.

As it turns out, I finally figured out a way to run the windows versions of Apache, Hind, and i-16, so I no longer need to run them through DOSbox (the problem had to do with the animations files, so I deselected animations in the preference screens and was good to go). Longbow Gold, on the other hand, is greatly improved running under .74.

Good!! I have the Win95 version of HIND running well, but for some reason, the Win95 version of Apache REFUSES to recognize my throttle. The little arrow shows up in the Controller screen when I select throttle but it doesn't sense the movement. The DOS version works FINE in DOSBOX.

I suppose I could program my throttle to send digital signals rather than using it as an Analog controller, but DOSBOX is just as easy and I can control the speed at which things run better than I can in the Win95 version.

APACHE95 - dosbox 0.73 with frontend - dfend reloaded 0.9.3



ufo :-)

Reckless! Love it

I no longer bother with front-ends and just use simple custom batch files to run any games through DOSBox.

Hi there - first i want to introduce myself bcause i am new in this forum and want to say: Great forum!
I joined this forum because i have a lot of PC/Dos/WinXX Games exspecialy sims exspecially subsims and Flight, landcombat :-)
hmm..and i love the manuals from all these games ;-)
oh.. i come from germany and my favourite Fighter is the A-10 :-D
the problem all we have in these days ist to play the good old games on Win XP etc. for DOS, the dosbox is really good -hail to Dosbox it helps me to play my lovely F15 III and Harrier-Jumpjet and so on but i am really sad that can not play Longbow2 with XP, so i thought as a substitute to play DI's apache and HIND in Dosbox - the software graphics is ok and all games (iF16) work with DB 073+074 BUT i have joystickproblems and the mainproblem is i cant fire the turretgun! when i select M230 on a target, put space/fire nothing the ammo counter remains on 1200 - okay sometimes it works but wvery bad and it comes with sound and framesproblems.. afterwile the games crashes - i tried a lot of solutions i.e. sound on/off no sound changing soundcards etc..
Can anybody help me?
It is very frustrating :-(
i read somehing about working Hind,apache and F16 with XP?
Thanks for your help and sorry for my excessive writting..

Hind95 direct play on Windows7 - compatibility mode on Win95

Hi warthog77 and welcome to the forums!

I like some of the old sims too but as you say it is hard to get all running on modern PCs without having to use lots of tricks and third-party software, and even then the games may not play as we remember them on the PCs of that era. I'm sorry to hear you can't play LB2 on WinXP. What exactly are the problem(s) there?

I don't have much experience with DOSBox and have only briefly played the DI Apache demo through it, so can't really help with your problems there.

Hi Flyboy,

thx for your answere :-)and for your (future) help with LB2
LB2 on XP .hu..let me see, it is a little tima ago i tried this.. I will try to check this next week and will come back later -
i remember that it have chrashed after starting..(tested with native XP and 95/98 cooperative mode)
BUT 688 Hunter Killer works very good with XP.. that is strange

Dosbox is fine and i tried yesterday to fix the problems - for apache i was succesfull, Hind has not problem with the turret gun but with one of the weapon pylons (57mm /80mm rockets and cannon pods) if i aquire a target i cant fire the weapon..?!?!?
Yes..this is very strange.. think i will bring my efforts on LB2 and Gunship! because G! simulates the German Eurocopter , the MI 28 Havoc and Longbow - interssting is that Gunship! works with XP but for example M1 tankplatton2 and European world War not..!! all games from Microprose..!!
Arrrgh.. uh..I tried to play Win95/98 games with WinE under Linux(Ubuntu) but it was not so succesfull ..this is very distressing.

Okay, i will post the next days my experinece with LB2 and XP
HanD

Hi warthog77

I had the same issue as you describes and I found solution to it

First of I try to always use dynamic core and max cycles in the config of DOSBox. But when I have encountered this issue I noticed that the sound of gun firing was being cut (hard to explain - but you would get similar effect as if you pressed the trigger really quick and fast - like for few ms with very high frequency - so you get the sound of firing gun but the event is too short to trigger bullet being fired from the gun. That's why there is no visible tracers and no depleting ammo count). So I set the cycles in config file to fixed value of 100000. And that helped! Try to experiment. If you have pretty fast CPU (equal or greater than 3GHz) that's probably the cause. Some games don't like high amount of cycles (like the Wing Commander 3 and 4 for example).

I recently bought the upgraded version of Apache Longbow (I think it's 1998 release, probably the same which was released as part of Front Line Fighters bundle including AL, Hind & F16FF all with 3dfx support) - you can see which version you have while the game is loading still in DOS prompt, distributed by SoldOut Software on the e-bay (new and sealed for couple of pounds!), and because the game engine is from F-16FF (textured land an sky) the game plays fine on max cycles settings without the gun issue. Tried the cycles settings upped to 200000 and the gun still works on the newer version.

Maybe I will upload some gameplay of it on youtube in the near future, stay tuned

Edit: Oh, and set your memsize to 32, or you won't get any rendered cutscenes. I recommend reading through this - might be usefull.

Well I think it's normal - if you have target locked then just hold space while trying to bring the target into the crosshairs. While you press the trigger you basically giving the consent to fire, the weapon will fire when the crosshairs are over the target. If you just want to plow through some infantry squad with rockets for example, just undesignate the target and fire at will.

Hi damson,

thnaks for your reply and thanks for the helpfull solutions - it works

I use a AMD X2 4600+ (939) -
I have the original Version of AL, HIND was gift from a computermagazine an F16 was a magazine fullversion - i have the f16 an AL and Hind (?) 3Dfx-Patch - but how can i use 3DfxGlide with DOSBox??

oh..this link is very helpfull, too

hi damson,

yes, that is the solution :-) but there is another problem.. if i hold down the turretgun trigger for a long time ..the game crashes ("..illegal adress caused...")this problem comes also with AL when i give instant fire with the 70mm..
strange..think it could be asoundproblem..because if i change in the DB setttings the soundcard and then in AL, the game crashes..
okay continous fire is not realistic.. you vave to watch for xyour ammo ;-)
and by the way - your solution(dynamic core) for AL does not work (thaught i had set it but i have not saved) it works if i set cycles to fixed value i.e. 20000 - but the fps are very bad - i set core to normal and cycles to max everything seems to work ok exspecially the M230
but with t
dyncore and cyclemax Hind works very nice :-)

Hey warthog77, glad to be helpful. You can check this thread on how to run those games in 3dfx mode. I think Davros had some luck with Hind. To run it you need to install it under windows and use a glide wrapper (you must apply a 3dfx patch first) or try to use a special build of DOSBox that usues software glide wrapper which can be slow (some guys were able to run EF2000 that way, but not 100% compatible with real glide), although I don't know if AL, Hind or F16FF had 3dfx patches for DOS versions. If not disregard the DOSBox solution. I never tried 3dfx on those games.

Well I didn't encountered this issue. You can try disabling the sound in game settings and try to fire continously and see if it crashes with no sound - you can pinpoint problems this way. What settings for sound card in dosbox config file do you use? I use default - with these, set the card to SoundBlaster16 adress=220 IRQ=7 DMA=1 in game settings. You can also try SoundBlasterPro with the same settings if you have trouble with SB16 (SBPro has lower mixing rate = sounds somewhat worse). You can post the contents of your dosbox.conf file - maybe I can give you some pointers.


Well generally when running protected mode program (AL, Hind and F16FF as well as most modern DOS games are run in protected mode) the dynamic core should be used. It gives you more cycles out of your CPU compared to the normal core at the same CPU load (which is used for real-mode programs). So for example running some game in normal core setting and increasing cycles count you can reach say 50 000 cycles when your CPU load reaches 100% (after that increasing cycles count only gives worse effects like sound dropouts etc, becouse your CPU is already at max load and just can't compute more), running the same game on dynamic core you can reach for example 200 000 cycles before your CPU load reaches 100% - now that's a difference.

Hi damson,

THX for your helping - you gave me some good ideas
with this settings it seems it works good :-) need a couple of time, coffee and cockies to experiment with the settings:

core=normal
cputype=auto
cycles=max
cycleup=500
cycledown=100

nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

sbtype=sbpro1
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=opl2
oplemu=compat
oplrate=44100

gus=false
gusrate=22050
gusbase=240
gusirq=5
gusdma=3
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

..afterall, there is a massive problem with sbpro / sb16 settings - when i want to set the paramter in AL it crashes to Dosbox prombt with error-message (sbro) with sb16, games freezes..
with this settings it is ok.


3DFX - Yes..i think it is better i play with dosbox..it is so complicated -thougt there is a Glidewraper forDosbox :-( or..if i have to much time i want to check ;-) but it is very strange to play Win95 games on XP - i tried to play with a linux system and WinE (M1TP 2) but not good and no 3DFX oe D3D only Softwarerendering with bad frames..

It is my recollection from many hours of failure that the 3dfX patches for HIND and Apache were ONLY for the Windows Versions.

Never succeeded in getting them to work, though the original DOS versions worked well in DOSBOX and for the most part the non-3DFX Windows version of HIND worked well enough in WinXP.

You can actually get custom builds of DOSBox to handle *certain* 3DFX games. It's also worth noting that, if trying to get a DOS 3DFX game to run in DOSBox, I believe you need the Glide .ovl files and not the normal .dll files. With dgVoodoo for example you wouldn't use the 'glide2x.dll' but the 'glide2x.ovl' file. Of course, not all glide wrappers are good enough to provide an .ovl file, so your choices may be limited.

Yes I did finally sort of maybe get EF-2000 3dFX working in one of those modified DOSBOX builds. Honestly didn't notice much difference.

I never tried running a 3DFX DOS game in regular DOSBox with the wrapper though. I will have to look for those .ovl files. I think I have only tried copying the .dll's and DGVoodoo config exe from other (Windows) games with the DGVoodoo files installed.

I'm not 100% on all of this, but I don't think a standard DOSBox version will run a 3DFX game even with .ovl files because the whole purpose of the custom DOSBox builds is to allow the required Glide files to be 'hooked' in, if you will. I believe the normal DOSBox versions don't even look for Glide files. Apart from some tweaks and bug fixes I believe all that the custom builds basically do is actually look for and make use of any Glide files (.ovl) present. And I *think* that any .ovl files need to be in the custom DOSBox directory - not the game's.

An interesting forum post over at the Zeus Software (who make the nGlide wrapper) forums, and will likely contradict everything I've just said!
http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15
Also gives some useful info and details on the various custom builds of DOSBox.

This was my impression too.



I will check it out.

http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide/compatibility
At least on this nGlide compatibility list, it says:
Hind - NOT PLAYABLE, in red letters.
Maybe with swapping glide files and some modding, this is no longer true?

Hi Warthog, sorry for long wait. Did you managed to solve your problems?

You could try some modifications:

core=dynamic //I use dynamic, but you could set it to auto - it will switch from normal to dynamic when appropriate
cputype=auto
cycles=max
cycleup=500
cycledown=100

nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=20

sbtype=sbpro1 // you can try sbpro2 if you have issues with sb16 (which is probably best choice and if sbpro1 works it should work also)
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=44100

BTW what version of DOSBox are you using, the newest is 0.74 which I recommend.

Regards.

Hi damson,

i am soory too, for let you waiting - thanks for your help.
I use dosbox074 / portable - and with your help and my strongheadiness, i solved the problems-all DID games are fully playable, hearable and seeable :-) great!
so..after this i have new building sites like
my favourite projekt - to build a ultimate-retro-combat-sim-"console" .. ok it is an old PIII with a Voodoo3 - so i hope that i can play in futute all my beloved SIMS without any problems and in 3DFX!
oh..have you know-how on LB1 and CG? I found not so much for solving my "problems"here and on the great Flyboy's site..

Thanks

warthog77

Hi Warthog

What problems do you have with Jane's Longbow and Comanche Gold (if that is what you are referring to)? I had Jane's Longbow and currently have Longbow + Flashpoint Korea and Gold versions all running in DOSBox without problems with graphics maxed out and fluent FPS (although no 3Dfx) and Comanche Gold running in XP Pro SP3 also without issues.

hi damson,

Comanche Gold: first, i fly with a joystick and the arcade-modell..yes :-( and with using the V-Stab-Function the chopper can't speed up over the 50mp/h..!! this is a problem i have many years and this f*** me up so i had no longer fun :-( but after excessive playing C4 (not playing with C4 ;-) ) i wanted to play C3 because it has much more from a Heli-Sim :-) btw C4 is a great game good for calming down after a hardwork-day..

LB1: it works with dosbox 074 - the problem i referred was solved(!) in the Longbow-Forum.. i wanted to find a way to play native LB1+FPG with 3DFX and asked if there is a solution.
because i think LB1 is a little bit cranky with dosbox (and i want to play maxed out)
think it could be a lack system..

my system specs are
Mainboard ECS KV2 but will update to MSI K8n neo2 platinum
YES ist is a Socket 939 System..
CPU AMD X2 4600+
Win XP HE SP3
GF 7800 GS yes with AGP..
4 GB RAM 2 GB Corsair 400er & 2 GB ?? 533er

and there is a Intel i5 Notebook i tested only DID F-16 with dosbox 074 and worked fine :-)
and eventually a PIII with 3DFX Voodoo3 - but this machine under construction.

..but i want to play this Longbow1 because i bought this a few weeks ago - LB2 owned i over 10 years.. and played it one or two times with frustrating results .. because i thought it is easy to fly around scratch some tanks and so on..
at these times it was the Half Life /FPS-era - so i pu LB2 on my shelv and were waiting until this year :-) i thought it is better to play and to learn LB1 first and then LB2.

Interesting re: Comanche Gold... Maybe it is the ARCADE model screwing you up. Try switching to the non-ARCADE model. With VSTAB on, it is (sorry Flyboy...) pretty much still an ARCADE model to me.

I hadn't noticed LB1:FPK to be that cranky on DOSBOX, but I really only flew 1 or 2 missions just to be sure it worked.

The Avionics in LB2 are pretty much identical to those brought to life in FPK with realistic FCR/TADS etc. In fact, I used my LB2 COUGAR profile to fly LB1:FPK and pretty much everything worked (except in cases where I had remapped keys).

One thing that changed from LB1:FPK to LB2... Rippling (or Rapid-Firing) Laser Hellfires at multiple targets in LOAL mode no longer works. Rather than switching targets when the next one is lased, the follow-on missiles just seem to go stupid.

warthog77 - For a start, Comanche Gold is a Windows-only game. May you be referring to Comanche 3, which is a DOS game?

You may just as well play on realistic level, as between that and 'arcade' mode there is very little difference.

What else do you want to know about CG?


Recluse - I guess you're just a traditional helicopter sorta guy when it comes to the Comanche, as I am sure that its flight model is pretty realistic (without getting further into that... again!)

LB1 doesn't run very smoothly for me in DOSBox, even with having a dual-core processor. I'm not a huge fan of LB1 anyhow, on the contrary to what someone else said, I think that feels more unfinished than LB2. And just silly little things niggle me like being able to lock onto targets with the FCR in excess of 8km and being able to lock onto targets with TADS through terrain. But you know I'm a perfectionist. The voice acting is also pretty rubbish - and voices are so quiet.

It is possible to ripple-fire Laser Hellfires in LOAL mode in LB2, but the constraints are much smaller. I think in LB1 that element is made to be performed easily so as to add to the fun. I don't think it's quite THAT easy in real-life. Even though the missile itself is certainly agile enough to re-acquire and assume a new flight path, its seeker head may not always be able to see the next target.

hi recluse
(LOL) - okay i try to fly it with non-arcade + V-Stab and come back later
..i think Comanche is an Arcade-SIM compared to Jane's Longbow but i like the Novalogic Games
a lot of hours in a dark room with Comanche 1,2 W vs C, Armored Fist 1 -3 and the Deltaforce Series inclusive Black hawk Down..but Novalogic creates action games with a simulation flair - it is ok an fun.

My feeling is with LB1 that is not so smoothe but i will check it - i only played some instant action missions for testing - i want to read the manual first and then do the Training :-)

Why? i thought this is one of the strength of the Longbow-System..?
Are in LB2 no Hellfires II ( AGM-114B with Active-Radar)? the DID Longbow Apache is equipped with this..i dont find anything in the manual..?!

Cougar-Profile? Sounds good :-) but what is it? Is that ypur own created dosbox-settings or your gamesettings for LB?

THX

warthog77

warthog77 - The Longbow system is for the Hellfire II. It has nothing to do with the effectiveness of ripple-firing Laser Hellfire - that is done by TADS (optical sensors) and not the FCR (radar). Laser Hellfire can be fired from any AH-64 model, the RF Hellfire can only be fired from the AH-64D model. Yes, LB2 has RF Hellfire (Hellfire II).

A Cougar profile is a custom key mapping file for Cougar joysticks.

Warthog, do 2 things:
1. Turn on advanced flight model - it's more fun this way.
2. Turn on Vertical stabilizer (with 50% of collective the V-stab will try to maintain current altitude - it shouldn't limit your speed).
3. Make sure you have Limit Cyclic Range turned off - this is very important as this option is the root of your problem with slow speed - it limits the range of the cyclic so you cannot pitch or bank at excesive angles.

As for the LB1+FPK - so did you managed to play it 3DFX?
The speed of DOSBox is tied purely to the raw clock rate of your CPU - IIRC it doesn't use additional cores (can't confirm this as I'm at work right now - you can check it yourself by opening the task manager -> performance tab and checking if the second core has any load while only DOSBox is running) so the most important thing is high clock frequency. I see you have 4600+ which frequency is 2400MHz per core. On my X2 6000 clocked at 3GHz per core the LB1 plays very smooth.

I tried LB2 but didn't had the time to get past all the issues, so I gave it a rest. Maybe someday in the future. LB1 worked basicaly out of the box for me (little tweaking in DOSBox conf file) and I had much fun with it through the Baltic campaign (the action playes out in my homeland - Poland, so that's additional immersion factor for me) although it's lacking dynamic campaign, the semi-dynamic mission branching works pretty well. I'm planning to get on the Korea campaign in the near future - so little time available, so much sims to play...

uh think i have then already done ripple-firing with Comanche - firing 1 HF after 10 seconds firing the seconf HF and so on -then require for the inflight HF a new target - thats ripple firing?
Thanks for the information flyboy - have you any good websites for further information about Attack-Helicopter - i have some books but they are not so detailed.

warthog77

hi flyboy,

first nice work with your website

ah- yes Comanche Gold works with XP - very good and i tried the special mod to increase resolution -
and yes i referred C3 it is working with dosbox portable on an an 4GB USB - for playing at lunchtime :-) nothing is relaxative than jumping into the comanche an fly one mission..

Ah..like AF2 i find it is sometimes frustrating to manage the target priority - for example: whne you encounter a armored collumn with T80's, BMP's and SA9's - i set target priority to high but the system targets first the T80's after a while griffon 2-7 is down..because the SA9 or a #%&*$# of an BMP fires a SA7 or what ever :-(
my basic doctrin is to rid off first the air defense and Anti Tank (SAM, AAA and BMP) then the MBT's but it is not easily to do..
Have you some good strategies? this were very grateful :-)

LB1: uh.. i was very proud to have LB1 + FPG in good conditions ;-) ok i will absolutely insist that YOU and a lot of the other guys here in the forum are specialists with the Helicopter Sims with lot of flying-hours
for this i am ..a creepy maggot..
BTW: i don't regret to join this forum and being a member - you are here great and it is very informative and fun to read the threads here

oh yes, the voice acting is..in german language AWFUL (in german "Scheiße" ) - i dont like the accent and the voice sounds like reading a script or a goodnight tale not like (i think so) a helicopter pilot or CPG will speak..

I thik i will try to play first LB1 to make me a own point of view ;-) then i want to play LB2 oh and there is Gunship! I need more time :-(

Thanks for the help and information

warthog77

hi damson ,
thnaks for the solution i will check it if i have more time and then i report back to you

No i dont managed LB1 with 3DFX because it is a native DOS program.


hu X2 6000? "sniff" i will check


..oh YES..I will say..




if you meant "fun" to ditch and scratch against every obstacle and mountain..then you are right
yes, the flying is realy more realistc - i have to learn it!

Hi warthog77 - Yes, ripple-firing is like you described, when you fire one Hellfire and while that is in-flight fire another. When the first one hits a target, lock onto another target and the second one will hit that. Depending on target range, target dispersion and things like that, it may be possible to have 3 or 4 Hellfire's in-flight! That's like a mini-game on its own, managing all those missiles to make sure they hit targets!

I'm glad you have found my websites useful. And can I just say that it is always a pleasure to help European's with not so good English! In my experience they always have a big amount of appreciation and it feels good to help you guys out when I can. It's mainly American's who I 'deal' with, and most of what I learn is from them anyhow, so I don't always find myself in a position to teach them anything. Bigheads!

If you haven't seen it, you may also like the helicopter section on my real-world military website...
http://digitality.comyr.com/milnet/heli

Yes, the target priority in Comanche Gold does not always work how you want it to. When you set it to Target Priority, it doesn't always target the threats first - but also throws in the mission priority targets too. This can lead to harmless trucks being targeted before SAMs! Sometimes Target Cycle is better, and if you can limit the range of targets you can lock onto this will help. You can do this by trying to get any harmless targets out of the sensor field-of-view, this is the sensor on the front of the helicopter. Your doctrine is correct in that you take out any threats to you first (SAM, helicopters), then any threats left to your ground forces or mission (tanks, APCs).

Regarding having a lot of flying hours, in LB2 I have over 140hrs of flight time, over 330 successful missions and over 6200 kills. These figures were recorded back in 2007, although I must admit since then I haven't played the game that much.

A 'creepy maggot'? LOL Don't be so harsh on yourself, we all start somewhere... even if people are now only playing games that came out 15 or so years ago!

Do you mean the voice acting in German is awful for LB2? I have the English speech files online for you to download!

You might also like this article I did for SimHQ back in 2007, if you haven't already seen it...
http://www.simhq.com/_air10/air_320a.html

Always a pleasure, Flyboy

hi flyboy,

first it is a pleasure to me to communicate with you (and the others here),
2nd my english was much better..long ago..i have the feeling that was the time when dinosaurs rule the world..
i know this and it is a little bit displeasing for me..pls forbear before i tried to post here, i searched this forum(and the wwww) deeply for answeres to my questions..ok 90% of my searchresults referred to SimHQ :-) (because i 'googled' the right questions)

up to you:
flyboy's site is very good i like the enter-screen from Gunship!

nice,nice very informative but were are the pics? uh..and i think that the MBB BO 105 PAH has a right to exist on your site, because it is a great Anti-Tank Heli, eqipped with HOT-AT-Missiles and i think it was the first Heli who can do a looping..
think you know this site, do you? Helicopter History site


..yes i saw it already but i do not already read it - will do :-)

I meant the voicees from LB1 but i think LB2 would not be better..that is the problem when you buy german games..but i cant find cheap UK-Versions or i found on ebay.us but the shippingcosts...you know.. UK to Germany no problem i bought a lot of Playstation2 games (original versions not the zensored german ones) on ebay uk
..where can i download the files?

..yesterday i had a minute to play Comanche and checked the authentic modell with v-stab - huh, it is difficult to fly..
i have a 'solution' for easier targeting with the comanche - use the TAB-key for target holding - every target in sight an range will be saved - then ripple-firing Hellfires -that was it. you do not cycle through all targets. it is a good method to deal with armored convoys and troop concentrations.

...it is strange to love playing such old games..think this is an indicator for growing older..

warthog77

Hello again warthog77,

I decided not to include pics on my MILNET website as it kind of pays homage to the old military websites that I used to visit where there was a lot of information but not many (if any) pics. I'm talking about the days in the '90s when information was more important than eye candy!

Yes I do know about the 'Helicopter History Site', and thinking of that, where are my screenshots you were going to send me of those German sims in DOSBox for my 'History Of Helicopter Simulations' website? Did you get my e-mail that I sent a while ago asking for them?

The LB2 English Speech files can be found here (61.7Mb). To use, simply extract the files in the ZIP to your LB2 directory and overwrite the old files. Backup the old files before, if you wish to keep them for another time.
http://www.gamefront.com/files/20370766/LB2_Speech_English__zip

Some advice on the Target Hold mode in Comanche Gold... It will hold the EXACT position of targets, so if they move from where you first locked onto them Hellfire's will miss. Also, this mode will only store targets that have already been seen by line-of-sight - so in other words, you have to have seen them (and potentially they saw you) before you can store them. So yes, it's good for armored convoys ONLY if they are NOT moving! And I don't know what game you're playing, but there are NO troops in CG!

Perhaps start a new thread for these later posts, as not pertaining to DI/Hind much any longer?
(Reason - I am keenly interested in any successful procedure to get Hind - and Apache - to run in 3Dfx mode on nvidia modern drivers and graphics card. And lately, even run in non 3dfx mode!)

hi flyboy,

ok - your information on your MILNET is very good and pictures can be find easily in the www :-)
..but it would be very nice to see AIRWOLF with some Maverick's ;-)

..sorry I have not received your email :-( i will try to make some shots but i think this game has some..problems with Dosbox.. BUT i will manage it and give you more information, i swear!

Thanks for the LB2-Speechpack


...yes you are right.. AArrgh.. okay the Apache TADS can not store targets, too- only the Longbow (FCR) can do this, right?


(Tr)Ooops..no comment.. BUT the voxels look like troops..sometimes...

Hi there,

I started simming with Apache Longbow and later Hind and really wanted to give Apache a spin again as soon as I read this thread about Dosbox. Unfortunately, I have a problem:

When I start Apache and enable sound, the sim crashes as soon as I try to start a mission/quickstart/etc. The error reported is:

FATAL *** PRECONDITION (size > 0) && (size <= SOUND_MEMORY_SIZE) \apache\source\sound\sndsetup.c 413 @ 35.76

So I played around a bit with sound settings but I couldn't get it to work. So I digged around in the game folder and found the debug.log file. In there, I found the real reason why stuff is not working:

Cannot open : Load File sound\STOP.RAW 109858d8 0 (\apache\source\sound\sound.c:267) (\library\os\file.c:616) @ 0.37
Cannot open : Load File sound\EXPLOS.RAW 109858d8 0 (\apache\source\sound\sound.c:267) (\library\os\file.c:616) @ 0.37
Cannot open : Load File sound\EXPLOS2.RAW 109858d8 0 (\apache\source\sound\sound.c:267) (\library\os\file.c:616) @ 0.37
...

132 lines complaining about missing sound files... So: I don't have a sound directory in my installation... Should I? Could anyone with a working installation please check and maybe send me the sound files? Thanks in advance!

selle, I don't have a solution for your problem, BUT Apache and Hind both seels at gog.com very cheap and working perfectly on any modern PC, maybe you should give it a try.

Thanks for the help so far here and via private message. I used a version downloaded from myabandonware and it was missing some content. Instead of continuing to fiddle around with it, I decided to go and buy the GOG version, which seems to be complete