Some time ago I liked to play Little Big Adventure (LBA und LBA2) on DOS: It's a nice and amusing game. Recently I detected both CDs in my shelf and thought it would be great to play these games again.
I don't have a DOS diskette/CD. Otherwise I would have installed the games in a VMware image. I did some research in the net and found out there exists a DOS emulator called DOSBox. It's running on Linux and Windows7. Unfortunately I don't have any CD drive on my desktop system and I have to be able to use an ISO image of the CD. To create this image I used a labtop running Linux which has a CD drive.
LBA is setup quite fast when the ISO image was created. To get LBA2 to start successfully there are some rules to follow to create the ISO.
The instructions to create the ISOs is for Linux and has to be done on Windows with different tools I don't know. I suggest to use LInux for this. DOSBox command sequences so start the games are simliar if the path names are updated accordingly. I was able to run LBA and LBA2 on a Windows7 system by using the ISO images created on Linux. DOSBox commands to start the games on Windows7 are located at the end of the article.
Create ISOs on Linux
LBA
Just insert the CD into the CD drive and execute
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=LBA.iso bs=1MB
to create the LBA.iso.
LBA2
If you copy the LBA2 CD the same way for LBA you will get a message, to insert the CD even it's mounted in DOSBox. That's because the LBA2 CD is a mixed mode CD and dd will not copy all files correctly. Therefore you have to use some Linux tools (apt-get install cdrdao) to create a cue file which contains all the CD data. Execute
cdrdao read-cd --read-raw --datafile LBA2.bin --driver generic-mmc:0x20000 --device /dev/cdrom LBA2.toc
toc2cue LBA2.toc LBA2.cue
and you will get a LBA2.cue, LAB2bin and LBA2.toc.
Install DOSBox and provide directories and files
Now DOSBox has to be installed.
sudo apt-get install dosbox
Create following directories:
1) ~/LBA for the ISO images of LBA and LBA2
2) ~/LBA/lba for LBA
3) ~/LBA/lba2 for LBA2
and copy LBA.iso, LBA2.cue, LBA2.toc and LBA2.bin in ~/LBA
Install and start LBA and LBA2
Both games have to be installed with DOSBox. Just execute
dosbox -c "imgmount d ~/LBA/LBA.iso -t iso" -c "mount c ~/LBA/lba" -c "c:" -c "cd lba" -c "setup" -c"exit"
rsp
dosbox -c "imgmount d ~/LBA/LBA2.cue -t iso" -c "mount c ~/LBA/lba2" -c "c:" -c "cd lba2" -c "install" -c "exit"
For LBA the sound files (Directory VOX) have to be copied manually form the ISO into ~/LBA/lba/LBA. Otherwise teh game will hang when it tries to load the sound files. next configure Soundblaster Pro 1 and 220, 7 and 1. LBA2 has a sound autodiscovery.
Finally a script should be created to start the game
#!/bin/bash
dosbox -c "imgmount d ~/LBA/LBA.iso -t iso" -c "mount c ~/LBA/lba" -c "c:" -c "cd lba" -c "lba" -c "exit"
rsp
#!/bin/bash
dosbox -c "imgmount d ~/LBA/LBA2.cue -t iso" -c "mount c ~/LBA/lba2" -c "c:" -c "cd lba2" -c "lba2" -c "exit"
DOSBox commands for Windows7
You can use the ISOs created on LInux also for Windows7.
Assumptions: Following directories exist:
1) c:\LBA for ISO images of LBA and LBA2
2) c:\LBA\lba for LBA
3) c:\LBA\lba2 for LBA2
and LBA.iso, LBA2.cue, LBA2.toc und LBA2.bin are available in c:\LBA.
LBA
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.74\DOSBox.exe" -c "imgmount d c:\LBA\lba.iso -t iso" -c "mount c c:\lba\lba" -c "c:" -c "cd lba" -c "lba" -c "exit"
LBA2
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.74\DOSBox.exe" -c "imgmount d -t iso c:\LBA\lba2.cue" -c "mount c c:\lba\lba2" -c "c:" -c "cd lba2" -c "lba2"
Links
DOSBox - DOS emulator for the games
Magicball Network - LBA1/LBA2 Dosbox Guide - Instructions ahow to start LBA1 and LBA2 in DOSBox
Magicball Network - LBA2 Problem in DOSBox - Posting in forum how to mount LBA2 CD successfully
Linux goesZen - Instructions how to create for a mixed mode CD a cue file and how to mount it