Excellent guide here. Just to give an update on my trying to get windows games to work on android. Retroarch, itself, has buggered me. When I want to go beyond 2gb on the disk space retroarch stops responding. Maybe it's because it's coming from an android phone. Have close to 100Gb space on the phone itself. It's happy out with the 1GB or 2GB but stops responding beyond that. To be honest, I would probably get more enjoyment from getting the games to work than the actual games themselves, lol. Could be a simple thing, but shur, I'm only killing time.
Excellent guide here. Just to give an update on my trying to get windows games to work on android. Retroarch, itself, has buggered me. When I want to go beyond 2gb on the disk space retroarch stops responding. Maybe it's because it's coming from an android phone. Have close to 100Gb space on the phone itself. It's happy out with the 1GB or 2GB but stops responding beyond that. To be honest, I would probably get more enjoyment from getting the games to work than the actual games themselves, lol. Could be a simple thing, but shur, I'm only killing time.
Mmm maybe try with only 2GB for now. Win98 and a few CD-ROM games will already fit on that. It can also be demanding but for Planescape and other 2D stuff you dont need 3D-accelerated graphics.
Maybe it's also because there's a size limit on your SD card, or restriction from you Android version?
Running 98SE on Dosbox pure was pretty cool last time I tried it but was dumb enough to found out that the games I'm trying to run are for xp. Also I don't have a lot of storage space so yea.
I think it should be fine, Planescape wont take more than a few hundred MB with normal install and I dont need to copy all the CDs on the virtual C:, I can keep all the ISO files as is, the virtual CDROM drive will load them as fast.
So here it goes so far on Android 13 with a 2GB Windows... I'm using scrcpy to pilot the phone (old POCO X3) and screencap stuff so it should run faster without that.
First thing's first we need a proper keyboard layout.
So here it goes. US-101 preset auto-scale disabled so it's stretched on all the screen for my big fat sexy manly fingers. I think a stylus might also help, and there's always the option to use the controller with sticks to mouse.
So the procedure will be basically the same as before, except maybe a bit slower.
Phone will be unresponsive during the 2GB image creation for a few seconds. Dont click or press keys during that, just wait it out.
Win98 install will check the image created and the virtual D drive (DOSBox-Pure will use E: by default for the virtual CDRom drive where you mount the ISO, D: is another virtual hard drive).
You can fast forward a bit if you're in a hurry. But here it didnt improve the install speed that much while. The SD card might be limiting the speed.
Maybe not Win11. But Win98 sure did got better.
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Here goes the magic word.
After that it will check for the hardware and update settings. Got one dialog box and one error but nothing blocking, so just accept everything.
After the last "asking to restart" I got a black screen so I just restarted DOSBox (close content).
Then I loaded the core without any ISO to check if the OS option was now available.
Still got some Windows updating to update before a proper boot.
Also had to tweak the mouse sensitivity in the core options. Maybe it's just me, I'm a real sensitive guy.
So far so good. We got our Win98 image. It's on the phone within the Retroarch/System folder, along all the other BIOSes for the other emulators. I'm gonna backup this file and screw and break stuff further from there. The file can also be transfered to your other phones or computers or tablets or whatever and placed on that folder it should boot on any DOSBoxPure/Retroarch.
I've not tweaked any core option other than the ones showed so performance is still set on Auto. When I got to install and hopefully play Planescape I might have to play around that and set the cycles.
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Mkay ingame is working.
First let's prepare all the gamefiles you got from some archive on the internet. Let's have everything unzipped in one single folder for DOSBox to easily access the CUE files and so we can swap discs when needed.
M3u file is not necessary here. Now let's load the first CUE file in DOSBox Pure that will be the install CD.
And use the Run Installed OS, win98.
Now in Win98 let's run E:\setup.exe, just like the old days (Start Menu > Run or autoplay E: from My Computer). Game will install 500MB on C:.
While we wait for the progress bar, it's time to dabble in the wonderful world of Retroarch's shaders to get a much needed Muh RetrofeelingTM look to the game. The core run on OpenGL here so I'll use a nice old GLSL shader : crt-consumer. Reducing curvature and switching interlacing off so it doesnt flicker with our 480p content.
Oh yuuur. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. Maybe not here on the screencap, but much better on the screen phone anyway.
Ok it's installed let's drag and drop the icon on the desktop.
No thanks, Interplay. You're dead. You cant give more free stuff.
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At last we boot in the game and we need to swap to disc 2.
Hello old friend.
Seems after 25 years, I got back to the Mortuary again. Styx water, strong stuff huh.
Yeah, got it going. It looks really good. Gotta sort out something with retroarch now. For some reason when I am moving the pointer on the screen, it jumps straight to the quick menu as if you had pressed the retroarch button. The button itself is no longer visible on the screen so maybe somehow a setting has changed along the way. Makes it a bit unplayable for the moment but I'll try to figure it out. Retroarch itself has quite a broad range of settings so it may take a while. I'm only at the starting point talking to the skull buddy after him reading off my back. Maybe the torment has begun lol.
Also, it said you have to press shift to run or right click the mouse and choose run. I'm unsure if the virtual keyboard would be great to use when it blocks the screen and unsure if you can right click a virtual mouse. Erra, even if it is too tormenting to play under phone conditions, it's still good to know it's possible. More hope for the future of retro gaming on phones or tablets.
Yeah, got it going. It looks really good. Gotta sort out something with retroarch now. For some reason when I am moving the pointer on the screen, it jumps straight to the quick menu as if you had pressed the retroarch button. The button itself is no longer visible on the screen so maybe somehow a setting has changed along the way. Makes it a bit unplayable for the moment but I'll try to figure it out. Retroarch itself has quite a broad range of settings so it may take a while. I'm only at the starting point talking to the skull buddy after him reading off my back. Maybe the torment has begun lol.
Nice. For the controls I had the same issue. The gamepad overlay will only allow the right area of the screen where the ABXY buttons are displayed to be used for dragging the mouse, and if you touch the middle it will open the RA menu. If you touch the small keyboard button in the center, it will switch to the keyboard overlay, then you can minimize it and use the whole screen to drag the mouse. Two fingers tap to right click. If you got a bluetooth mouse and keyboard combo it may be easier to play.
Alternatively with a bluetooth gamepad, I use the right stick to move the mouse. and map the arrow keys on the left stick. Then left click on LB, right click on RB, spacebar on the B button (to pause the game) and Escape on the A button for the ingame menu to save and load. You can set all that by bringing the DOSBoxPure menu, hard shortcut L3 (left stick click) and LB/RB to go to the gamepad settings page.
Good man. I have a bluetooth gamepad I rarely use but mapping it the right way could make it playable. Will get round to it . With work, it may be next weekend.
Thanks for posting the process for getting that running in retroarch/dosbox!
I actually still have my old Win98 PC simply because some of my fav games do not run on newer OS's. I know some of them have been re-released on GOG, like Warlords 3, but that is the newer version than the original game that I have, which is what I really want.
Sometimes I want the originals vs. GoG bc of some old hacks, patches or utilities that only work with a certain version. Diablo II V1.09 an example. I have a lot of resources to hack into items or take them out of the game to be used by some other character. I doubt they may work with a modern release, I have an official patch from Blizzard that upgrades to 1.10? maybe, now none of my tools works.
I think it should be fine, Planescape wont take more than a few hundred MB with normal install and I dont need to copy all the CDs on the virtual C:, I can keep all the ISO files as is, the virtual CDROM drive will load them as fast.
So here it goes so far on Android 13 with a 2GB Windows... I'm using scrcpy to pilot the phone (old POCO X3) and screencap stuff so it should run faster without that.
Here goes the magic word. View attachment 78579
After that it will check for the hardware and update settings. Got one dialog box and one error but nothing blocking, so just accept everything. View attachment 78580 View attachment 78581
After the last "asking to restart" I got a black screen so I just restarted DOSBox (close content). View attachment 78582
Then I loaded the core without any ISO to check if the OS option was now available. View attachment 78583 View attachment 78584 View attachment 78585
Still got some Windows updating to update before a proper boot. View attachment 78586 View attachment 78587 View attachment 78588
Also had to tweak the mouse sensitivity in the core options. Maybe it's just me, I'm a real sensitive guy. View attachment 78589 View attachment 78590 View attachment 78591
So far so good. We got our Win98 image. It's on the phone within the Retroarch/System folder, along all the other BIOSes for the other emulators. I'm gonna backup this file and screw and break stuff further from there. The file can also be transfered to your other phones or computers or tablets or whatever and placed on that folder it should boot on any DOSBoxPure/Retroarch. View attachment 78592
I've not tweaked any core option other than the ones showed so performance is still set on Auto. When I got to install and hopefully play Planescape I might have to play around that and set the cycles.
Post automatically merged:
Mkay ingame is working.
First let's prepare all the gamefiles you got from some archive on the internet. Let's have everything unzipped in one single folder for DOSBox to easily access the CUE files and so we can swap discs when needed. View attachment 78651
M3u file is not necessary here. Now let's load the first CUE file in DOSBox Pure that will be the install CD. View attachment 78653 View attachment 78654
And use the Run Installed OS, win98. View attachment 78655
Now in Win98 let's run E:\setup.exe, just like the old days (Start Menu > Run or autoplay E: from My Computer). Game will install 500MB on C:. View attachment 78656 View attachment 78659
While we wait for the progress bar, it's time to dabble in the wonderful world of Retroarch's shaders to get a much needed Muh RetrofeelingTM look to the game. The core run on OpenGL here so I'll use a nice old GLSL shader : crt-consumer. Reducing curvature and switching interlacing off so it doesnt flicker with our 480p content. View attachment 78660 View attachment 78663View attachment 78661View attachment 78662
Oh yuuur. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. Maybe not here on the screencap, but much better on the screen phone anyway. View attachment 78664
Ok it's installed let's drag and drop the icon on the desktop. View attachment 78666 View attachment 78668
No thanks, Interplay. You're dead. You cant give more free stuff. View attachment 78669
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. Just to give an update on my trying to get windows games to work on android. Retroarch, itself, has buggered me. When I want to go beyond 2gb on the disk space retroarch stops responding. Maybe it's because it's coming from an android phone. Have close to 100Gb space on the phone itself. It's happy out with the 1GB or 2GB but stops responding beyond that. To be honest, I would probably get more enjoyment from getting the games to work than the actual games themselves, lol. Could be a simple thing, but shur, I'm only killing time.
. Good to see it working on a phone. Gotta get at it myself, now. Decent guide too, cheers 
