Hi,

Question: Is there any signification downside to playing the original 1.4 dos version (using dosbox) versus the CE windoze version? I know the windoze version doesn't have the original sounds(one of the reasons I went looking for the dos 1.4 version), but are there any other significant differences(bug fixes)?


For the last few years, I had been playing X-com via the Windoze version (the version that came with the pc gamer 'best of" cd - I believe it's the same as the Collectors edition) on my old Win98 machine.

However, I recently managed to acquire the original Dos version of X-Com Enemy Unknown, (the cd version with ufocd.bat), patched to version 1.4. After doing a little research and installing dosbox + vdmsound, i was very happy to find that I could once again play xcom on my suped up XP machine without the game doing all sorts of mushroom induced crazyness as if the geoscape was on drugs. I was getting sick of sitting around for 5 minutes waiting for Win98 to boot just to play xcom.

Last 2 weeks, i've been loving playing with the original sounds again, and have applied xcomutil to fix the difficulty bug.

Scouring the net, it seems most talk is around the Windoze version. Is this just because most people no longer have the original dos version? (ie, Bomb Bloke's uniform mod doesn't seem to work with the dos 1.4 version ... )

Thx

Bah. European dos version in dosbox is the Only True Version.

Look up Mok's voices patch. Found here on this very site, if I recall.

This replaces the new (windows) version sounds with the old DOS version ones.

Also, ignore Knan. UFO: Enemy Unknown is a silly name. X-Com is much more awesome.

I thought the other version was called "UFO: Base Defense", didn't X-Com only make it into the name when TFTD got released?

The Dos version has one executable for the Geoscape part of the game, and one for the Tactical segment. This has a bit of an advantage in that if one crashes, the other will often pick up where it left off...

Though the CE version can have it's executable split in the same way. XComUtil and my own mod rely on that split in order to function.


Works perfectly for me. What's it do for you? Note that the setup program does need to be run under Windows, but that's a once off...

The dos version of UFO 1.4 has the same sound effects as the Collectors Edition - since the CE is a port of 1.4. CE does however store its music in midi files, which DirectX will play through Window's midi synthesizer, which I've always found to be sub-par to the dos version. But then again this will vary depending on your soundcard's synthesizer settings.

I say get both and enjoy the best of both worlds.

On a side note: the Dos CD version can be converted into a full install with a bit of file copying and fiddling with the ufocd.bat (it just points to another batch file with a pointer to your CD-Rom drive). Some silly budget distributions of the game completely forget to include the full hard drive install. Same goes with TFTD - only with that you can fiddle with it a bit to get the CD movies play on full hard drive install too.

- NKF

Hm, is that just sound effects or music as well? Because I swear the windows version that came with the pc gamer cd didn't have the lady that says "warning, warning" in the intro movie ... I haven't played the 1.4 dos version much yet, just plopped down a base and went on the first couple small ufo mission to make sure it works. I just assumed that the 1.4 dos version would have the "original" sound effects. I haven't gotten to snakemen yet, so I didn't get to hear if the snakemen in my 1.4 dos version still have that weird cannon-thumping noise when they walk like they do in the windows/pc gamer cd version ...

I'll give it another shot tonight, but as soon as it went to battlescape, it crashed. Error messages said something like "it can't find power armour" or something to that effect. Then i had to kill the dosbox window.

Now that you mention the intro (I usually just skip it these days), the CE version's intro isn't able to play the sound effects. In fact, it plays too fast that it is completely out of sync with the music.

In general, the sound effects set used by CE and 1.4 are the same, but the CE's ability to play a few of the sounds is a bit iffy with one or two samples(as you've noted the snakeman stomp sound) .

- NKF

Part of the reason for bad syncing seems to be because the CE version loads the MIDIs slowly. During the intro, I get the impression it loads a few - They cut off and the right point, but then it takes half a second or so to get the next up and running (it's especially noticable in the battlescape, where the whole game pauses whenever the background music starts another loop).

It occured to me that maybe the MIDI fix f0dder spoke about did something about all this, but I tried it and it didn't seem to make any difference that I could spot.

Then I tried Mok's version again (I'd never payed attention to what it did audio-wise)... I get the impression it's using some sort of filter on the MIDIs, as I'm certain the instruments all sound quite different. Oh, and re-introduces the SFX to the intro video, too - Can't believe I didn't notice those were missing in the first place!