Chewy - Esc From F5

Hi All,

Does anyone know how to get this game to play on Windows 7? Been looking for a couple of days and haven't found anything.

Thank you,

Mr. Bill

The game should run on Windows 7 using DOSBox. The DOSBox site confirms this. According to MobyGames, the game will run in Windows as well, but I imagine that might be considerably more problematic to get working and you would need to use a virtual machine. I don't have any experience running Chewy with that, however. I did get the game running with DOSBox a few years ago.

If it's a DOS game, it uses 16-bit code and won't run on 64-bit Windows without emulation. DOSBox is your best bet.

Thank you Marion and Jenny.

I searched the DosBox Website and I came up with 0 matches under search using the full name. Today I searched with just Chewy and got 0 again, but after I found, in the upper left, a menu choice so I could go to games beginning with C and found it (compatibility, C). Go figure!

Anyway, I'm going to give it a try, but will need help. When I installed DosBox in the beginning my Windows 7 placed it in C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74\. I realize this is an extra step when going for a game in DosBox. Do you recommend an uninstall and reinstall it as recommended in the Dos Box Tutorial?

Thank you.

Bill

I don't have it installed in C:\Program Files (x86).
I don't trust the C:\Program Files folders to allow everything to install properly.

So yes I'd uninstall it from C:\Program Files and reinstall it elsewhere -- some location Windows isn't as overconcerned about "protecting" from the user.

No matter where you install the main folder, the DOSBox configuration file will probably go to
C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\DOSBox
and will call itself dosbox-0.74.conf in DOSBox 0.74.

So the full path to the configuration file will be
C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-0.74.conf

The configuration file appears the first time you run DOSBox, but if you've had DOSBox installed before, the file may already be there.

Thank you Jenny,

I Go to Control Panel uninstall programs and DosBox is not there. I have all folders and file extensions to show. So what have I missed. I do miss XP. :(

Bill

You can probably just drag that folder to the trash and reinstall. The DOSBox installer may not do anything more than unpack a DOSBox folder to wherever you tell it to, and may not leave junk in the registry like most installers. At least that's what I've read.

Hi Jenny,

Am I battling a losing battle with a 64 bit Windows 7 Professional OS? The game is on a CD (drive e) with a CHEWY.EX_, CHEWY.BAT, INSTALL.BAT and SETUP.EXE. and I don't know where to begin because if I need to get the game installed from CD into a CHEWY FOLDER in my oldgames folder which I call DOSGAMES. I don't think it plays from the CD directly (don't have a clue).

I realize the person I'm trying to help is more paralyzed by DosBox than I am, but she is using Windows 7 Home Premium (I think). I'm doing this with my 64 bit OS because I would like to play this game with Lela, Sounds cute, as well as help my friend.

Can the qame be installed onto my hard drive using DosBox??

I've Printed out their tutorial, but too many questions before I try things. Where do I start?

Cheers,

Bill

Hi Bill, the game will definitely work with Windows 7 Pro running in DOSBox. I know, because I have run Chewy with Windows 7 Pro. When you install the game, you install it from within DOSBox, and it will then be installed on your hard drive. You will first need to use a mount command in DOSBOX to point the game as to where to install the game on your (C:) hard drive - in your case, it sounds like that would be your Dosgames folder that you already have. After that, you will need to use a mount command within DOSbox to mount your CD-ROM drive, and then you will be able to install the game.

Open the INSTALL.BAT with Notepad to see what it does.
Maybe the INSTALL.BAT is to install in DOS while the SETUP.EXE is to install in Windows 95. You'll want the DOS install for DOSBox.

You'll need to install through DOSBox. Even if you were able to install directly in Windows 7, DOSBox wouldn't necessarily know about it.

When you first open DOSBox, you get the Z: prompt

Mount the folder you want to be C:

If your DOSBox folder is C:\DOSGAMES enter the following at the Z: prompt

mount C C:\DOSGAMES

Then mount your CD drive as the drive letter you want in DOSBox (usually D: is best for DOS games). So if your DVD drive is F: enter the following at the Z: prompt

mount D F:\ -t cdrom

You may need other options for the CD drive if the game uses CD audio (Redbook files)

You can find more examples here
https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT

If it helps, you can read the above as
"mount as C" C:\DOSGAMES
"mount as D" F:\ -t cdrom
In other words, the first letter in the command is what DOSBox sees (D:) and the 2nd letter is what Windows sees(F:).

So in summary

Z:\mount C C:\DOSGAMES
Z:\mount D F:\ -t cdrom
Z:\D:
D:\install.bat

That should start the game installation.

Once you figure out your mount lines, you can add them to the end of your dosbox-0.74.conf file and every time you run DOSBox these lines will be added automatically.

As a check, after typing in
Z:\mount C C:\DOSGAMES
Z:\mount D F:\ -t cdrom
you can do
Z:\dir C:
and
Z:\dir D:
to make sure the right folders/drives are mounted as C: and D: in DOSBox.

I think MrBill said above that his CD-ROM drive is labeled "E." If so, MrBill, you would want to substitute the letter E in Jenny's outline above for the letter "F."

Hi Marian,

Can you give me a brief example that I would use to install the game into the appropriate folder. It's the install using DosBox that I don't believe I have ever done. I assume I start by mounting my DVD Drive E.

Z:\> MOUNT E E:\ -t cdrom I don't know if this is how I get started in order to install from the DVD within DosBox, The only example I see in their tutorial is a game being played from the CDROM which I don't believe can be done with this game.

Thank you for helping me.

Bill

I'm Sorry Jenny, I didn't find your response until now.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will print this out and give it a try. You and Marian are wonderful. I'll get back with you after I play with this awhile.

Cheers,

Bill

Keep us posted, MrBill. I also have instructions at the ready now, if needed.

By the way. I moved (drag and drop) DosBOX and my DosBoxGames folders into C:\ rather than delete them and reinstall DosBox and made a new shortcut for DosBox. Does this seem ok. I did it this way to save time if DosBox does nothing to the Registry.

That sounds okay to me. I have DOSBox on my C: drive.

I was asked what install.bat was for. At first it wouldn't open it because of my 64 bit this and that. I fooled it by dragging it into notepad on my desktop. This was the content of it:

echo off
setup
echo on

It is listed in the CD directory as a windows batch file (1KB)

There is also a DOS4GW.EXE that is an application

Bill

What I typed in DOSBox in order to get the installation of the game to start was:

d:\ install

I did not use install.bat, I just typed install at the d:\ prompt.

This is of course assuming that I am understanding your problem and that you have already mounted your directory on your hard drive and also mounted your CD-ROM drive.

Don't double-click a .bat file to view its contents.
Double-clicking it attempts to run the file, not view it.
Right-click it and choose Edit and it should open in Notepad.


Looks like the game uses the same SETUP file to install in both Windows 95 and DOS.
So you can install using either
D:\>INSTALL
or
D:\>SETUP
within DOSBox.

You just did.
If there is an install.bat file present, and you type install, the computer runs install.bat
If there is an install.com file present, and you type install, the computer runs install.com
If there is an install.exe file present, and you type install, the computer runs install.exe
If there is more than one install file present, I expect DOS (or DOSBox) will ask you to clarify.

Right, Jenny. I understood that I ran a batch file. I was just saying that I did not include the .bat in what I typed in order to launch it. I should have been more clear. I wasn't trying to confuse anyone - sorry if I did.

My CD of Chewy, by the way, is only in German. I didn't know this when I purchased it on eBay many years ago. No option of subtitles either. The installation instructions were solely in German as well. It wasn't that big a deal to figure it out, but I didn't get very far with playing the game - just took a look at the intro and the first few screens, so I have a very abbreviated idea of what the actual game is like.

Some games can be played in other languages, especially if they have subtitles and other text that sticks around while you look stuff up with Google translator. But not all games are like this. I bought a French copy of Monkey Island 2 and couldn't figure out the Dial-A-Pirate thing to start the game. Four years of French in high school and Google translator and I still couldn't do it. My English version is on a CD, and didn't use the Dial-A-Pirate thing, so I still have no idea what I was doing wrong.

I'm back and confused. After I close DosBox it no longer remembers dir C: or dir D:. Somehow during installation I got a duplication of the DOSGAMES Folder So that Chewy's pathway was in C:\DOSGAMES\DOSGAMES\CHEWY\CHEWY.EXE. I moved CHEWY to the first DOSGAMES and deleted second DOSGAMES Folder. So now the pathway is C:\DOSGAMES\CHEWY\CHEWY.EXE

So far I have not gotten the game to run in DOSBOX, I also did not know what to do when the sound thing came up.

Bill

I have been trying to start the game. this is what is in a 1KB EXE file next to CHEWY Folder:

OS/4GW fatal error (1004): syntax is DOS4GW <executable.xxx>

Marian - you had it running. Does any of this ring a bell. Should I remove the DOS4GW>EXE File?

Bill

That's normal if you don't put the mount lines at the end of the dosbox-0.74.conf file where it says
and save the changes.

The dosbox-0.74.conf file is found here
C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-0.74.conf
and not in your DOSBox folder.
You edit the dosbox-0.74.conf file with Notepad.


It sounds like you used the path C:\DOSGAMES inside DOSBox instead of C:
Windows sees the folder as C:\DOSGAMES but DOSBox sees the same folder as C:
So when you tell DOSBox to install the CHEWY folder in C:\DOSGAMES, DOSBox creates what it considers to be C:\DOSGAMES\CHEWY -- which Windows sees as
C:\DOSGAMES\DOSGAMES\CHEWY

I always found it easier to create a folder called C -- just the letter C -- inside whatever folder I wanted to keep DOSBox game stuff inside. That way it was easier for me to keep straight what DOSBox was seeing as the C: directory. For example,
mount C C:\dosgames\c

Was there anything else in the C:\DOSGAMES\DOSGAMES folder besides the CHEWY folder? Sometimes games put a specially configured .bat file in with the folder.

It's easy enough to delete the thing in Windows, and then reinstall in DOSBox using C: as the destination.


You may need to configure sound for the game to work.
Usually choosing SB16 (SoundBlaster 16) works OK in DOSBox. If the game asks, choose

sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5

Those are the DOSBox defaults.
You can see the SET BLASTER line DOSBox uses by opening DOSBox and typing

type autoexec.bat

You should end up with something like




Make sure it's installed correctly.
That file may be trying to point to the C:\DOSGAMES\DOSGAMES\CHEWY folder which no longer exists.

I'd delete everything the game installed and start over using C: as the destination in DOSBox, and not C:\DOSGAMES.

No, you should not remove that file.

Here's what I did to get the game running. I have tried not to leave out any steps. If something looks wrong or unclear, hopefully Jenny can offer some advice:

First, I created a new folder on my C: drive and named it ChewyF5. Leave the folder empty; don't do anything else with it.

Then, I opened up DOSBox.

At the z: prompt, I typed the following:

mount c c:\ChewyF5 (and then hit enter)

Then, again at the z: prompt, I typed this:

mount d e:\ -t cdrom (and then hit enter)

Then, at the z: prompt, type d: (and then hit enter)

now type: install

You will not need to change the install path when the game asks where you want to install it. Let the game install to the default path. There will be another option for sound configuration. For both audio driver and digital, I chose the Soundblaster 16 option and told it to detect it automatically. After you are all done with that, you can say you are done and then you will be back at the DOSBox screen and you will see this:

C:\ChewyF5>

When you see that line, type the word chewy and hit enter

and then the game will begin.

____________________________________

That's it. I changed the above only insofar as it pertains to your CD-ROM drive letter, which is apparently E.

After the game starts, if it stutters/seems laggy, you may need to up the cycles in DOSBox. This is easily accomplished by hitting F12. I think I hit F12 about three times and then it seemed pretty smooth. What you need to do here depends upon your computer's processing power, I believe. Hitting F11 will cycle down.

The next time you wish to play the game, open up DOSBox and type the following:

type mount c c:\chewyF5 and hit enter

type mount d e:\ -t cdrom and hit enter

then type c: and hit enter

then type cd ChewyF5 and hit enter

then type chewy

You can set the above commands to run automatically so that you don't have to type them in every time you wish to play the game, but let's see if we can't get the game running first.

Jenny and Marion Thank you! I have given up for now, but will try in a day or so. I am whipped and have some paper work to try and get done and unfortunately I will probably have more difficulty with it than with DosBox.

Take care and thank you so very much. I will get it running.

Bill

Marian,

When the game is trying to be started, does the CD have to remain in the DVD drive during the start and play?

Bill

Yes. No DOS game had a complete install from CD. Hard drives weren't large enough at the time.

However you can make an image of the CD and use that instead of the CD in the drive. You can install and play using the drive image. Then use the "imgmount" in the mount line instead of "mount" and give the path to the image file.
For example from https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT


It's more complicated if the game uses Redbook files -- you have to make a cue/bin pair from the CD instead of an iso.

People make DOSBox far harder to use than needs be. It is fine to have it installed in the %ProgramFiles% directory, which is its default. It is a modern application and writes its files in the User's %AppData%\Local\DOSBox path as fits best practices. It can be called from anywhere, but you do not want to have your games under any system folder.

Install your games in a non protected folder, say "C:\Games" or somewhere under your user folder. One of the best ways to setup games with DOSBox is to place a custom DOSBox configuration file (dosbox.conf) in the game's folder. The only thing that needs to be in it are settings that the game might need and personal preferences like preferred render modes and most importantly mounting commands for that game under the [autoexec] section.

DOSBox can be called with a batch file or Windows shortcut using the "-conf <path_to_your_custom_conf>", replacing the <path_to_your_custom_conf> with the path to your actual conf file. If the game was installed in say "C:\Games\Chewy" the shortcut or batch file would have.

"C:\Program Files\DOSBox 0.74" -conf "C:\Games\Chewy\dosbox.conf"

Be sure to enclose your paths with quotes if it has any spaces. You will also need to run the game's setup from within DOSBox to set the sound, etc. Once done and if the game has been properly setup you will be able to start the game from this shortcut or batch file.

Note that for fast testing if no additional settings or mountings are required you can quickly start a game by dropping the game's exe onto a shortcut to DOSBox. This will automatically mount the exe's folder as the "C:" drive and start the EXE in DOSBox. Dropping a folder onto a shortcut to DOSBox will mount that folder as "C:". You can then run any program within the game's folder by simply typing the name of the program. Such as to run the game's setup program type the name of the setup program after mounting the game's folder.

Hi Marian and Jenny.

I have it running finally.

Thank you.

Now, How do I place those lines at the end of the config file so I don't have to type them in all the time.

Also how do I get the screen larger? It is a little bigger then DosBox that is in the background. A lot of my desktop shows and the game is up and to the left (not in the corner though). DosBox starts out up to the left. Is there a way to center it.

Again Thank You.

Is there a way to get a menu formed of games to play in DosBox like I have in ScummVM?
That should be the next DosBox project. When I double click SkummVM I get a list of 8 or 10 games I have setup with it to play (just click on one and away we go.

Cheers,

Bill

Hi Mr. Bill,

I am on my way out for some errands, but just wanted to say that's great that you got the game running. To make games fullscreen in DOSBox, hit alt + enter. Sorry I didn't mention that before.

You edit the dosbox-0.74.conf file (or whatever .conf file you're using for the game).
Paste the lines at the end of the file under where it says

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.


It sounds like you need to adjust the settings in the dosbox-0.74.conf file (not the ones having to do with mount). Look where it says

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper-0.74.map
usescancodes=true

or something like that.
fullresolution is the resolution of your monitor.
windowresolution is the resolution of the game window.
fullscreen= is where you choose if you want DOSBox to open fullscreen or not.

You may want to change output= to output=opengl or output=openglnb if you're adjusting windowresolution=
Read what it says in the dosbox-0.74.conf file using Notepad and/or watch the philscomputerlab tweak guides to learn how to setting.

Further down is a section saying something like this

frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

Change scaler= to scaler=normal3x
That should make the window a little bigger.

If you're playing a game that is 640x480 you don't have to worry about aspect. If you're playing a game that is 320x200 you probably want to change it to aspect=true.


I think there are DOSBox front ends that do something like that.
http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1

Thank you Marian, Jenny and Mr. Bill. I printed this out and am going to try and get Chewy working tomorrow. I have been having nostalgia lately and want to play my old games, but, dosbox seems too hard for me. But, I will give it a whirl with these printed out directions. thanks again.

Good luck. I will do what I can to help, should problems arise.

Thought I included a link to Phil's Tweak Guides, but it was in a different thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQD7hPMsGm4&list=PL5T8bmLxd_T0QGChQWeqhEnFp3ioEtZ2h&index=17

Look at how he tweaks DOSBox for different games to suit his monitor.

Thank you again Marian and Jenny.

All I did to get full screen was to change it from false to true in the config file.

fullscreen=true

The main thing that was messing me up was typing everything exact. Capital versus small letters, placement of dots, backslashes, colons, etc., etc., etc. I had forgotten just how fussy DOS was.

Question: Can you give me an example of the lines that you say go under the two lines below:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.
z:>mount c c:\ChewyF5
z:>mount d e:\ -t cdrom
z:>c:
c:>cd CHEWY_F5
c:CHEWY_F5>CHEWY

This is exactly what I had to do to get the game running. Is this correct or I don't need to add all of them and does the # symbol go in front of them like the two lines above?

Now in my case my DVD Drive is E. But if it were D you would still have to type at z the following:

z:>mount d d:\ -t cdrom

Thank you

Bill

When you type into the dosbox-0.74.conf file, you don't need to include the prompt.
So it looks more like

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.
mount c c:\ChewyF5
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
c:
cd CHEWY_F5
CHEWY

The above automatically starts the game.
If you want the prompt to get to the CHEWY file without automatically starting the game, leave the CHEWY off the end.

Thank you Jenny and Marian,

I get it now. I only hope I can remember it long enough for the next game. I know, I am taking careful notes.

I surprised myself when I realized that including the Z:> prompt and other prompts probably wasn't necessary because it was giving me error messages so I took them out and when I double clicked on the DosBox shortcut, the game started up automatically.

I went WOW! Then you confirmed what I had done and a smile came over my face. Thank you!

Cheers,

Bill

Way to go, Mr. Bill.

It's nice to be able to make these older games useful as well as ornamental, isn't it?

Amen To That! That includes us old folks as well doesn't it? Just look at my picture to the left. I'm ornamental and useful now.

Mr. Bill

You can have different shortcuts to start different DOS games on your desktop by using the procedure Collector described, using a different autoexec configuration for each dosbox.conf file in the game folder and and pointing the shortcut to it. I usually name my .conf files after the game.

You can also play Windows 3.1 games like Shivers using DOSBox. Follow the instructions at
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=9405
for installing Windows 3.1 (or 3.11) and you can play many early Windows games as well as DOS games.

Hi Jenny, Can you give me an example of the quote below so I can try it with Chewy.



Another question:

If your DVD (CDROM) drive is D to begin with do you need to mount it or just change to it.

z:\>d d:\ -t cdrom (hit enter) or
z:\>d: (hit enter)
D:\>

Thank you,

Bill

There is information about desktop shortcuts to DOSBox here
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/DOSBoxShortcuts

As an example this line could be in the target line of a shortcut

"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.74\DOSBox.exe" -conf "C:\Games\Chewy\dosbox.conf"

The "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.74\DOSBox.exe" is the location of your DOSBox executable -- wherever you installed it.

The -conf "C:\DOSgames\Chewy\dosbox.conf" would be the location of the configuration file for that particular game. You could call the .conf file anything -- it doesn't have to be dosbox.conf. In this example you could call it chewy.conf. What's important is that you copy the contents of your normal dosbox-0.74.conf file into the chewy.conf and then edit it to be specific for your Chewy game.

DOS and Windows don't care about upper and lower case, but they usually do care about spaces and punctuation. If there is a space in a path name, you have to put quotes around it. So
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.74\DOSBox.exe"
needs quotes around it.
With
-conf "C:\DOSgames\Chewy\dosbox.conf"
the quotes are optional, and if you use them you don't include the -conf in them.

1. Make a desktop shortcut that points to DOSBox.exe

One way to make a shortcut is to browse to the DOSBox.exe file, right-click it, and choose Send to Desktop. So the target line might look something like this
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.74\DOSBox.exe"

2. Create a .conf file to go with the game.
Copy the the original dosbox-0.74.conf file to the game folder. You can rename it to something shorter if you want, like chewy.conf
Make the changes to the chewy.conf file that are specific for the game. For Chewy you might want

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.
mount c c:\ChewyF5
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
c:
cd CHEWY_F5
CHEWY

but a different game might be in a different folder.

3. Once you have the shortcut and the .conf file, you need to configure the shortcut to use that .conf file. So you add
-conf "C:\DOSgames\Chewy\chewy.conf"
to the target line of the shortcut and get something like
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.74\DOSBox.exe" -conf "C:\DOSgames\Chewy\chewy.conf"

(assuming your game is installed in C:\DOSgames\Chewy and your chewy.conf file is located in the game folder.)

Once again, you can name the .conf file pretty much whatever you like. You can keep it as dosbox-0.74.conf if you want as long as you put a copy in the game folder and point the DOSBox shortcut at that particular dosbox-0.74.conf file.



Don't forget the mount command.
Think about what the line is doing.

mount D D:\ -t cdrom
is mounting your Windows D: drive (the first D) as D:\ in DOSBox.

If you said
mount D -t cdrom
DOSBox would think "mount what as my D:\ drive ? I'm supposed to mount something as my D:\ drive. Wonder what that could be."

DOSBox needs to associate your Windows drive with its internal D: drive (what the game sees), so you need both letters even if they happen to be the same letter. It won't assume you want a drive mounted unless you specify what that drive is in Windows and what letter you want your DOS game to see it as.

Thank you Jenny.

I have printed your instructions and that on shortcuts at the DosBox Website. I will study it and get back with you if I have some difficulty.

Am I correct that the shortcut on the desktop starts DosBox and leads it to the chewy config file which is in the CHEWY_F5 game folder. And that the DosBox config file is identical to the chewy config file except that the chewy one may have some specifications for the chewy game itself as well as the auto-execute portion which gets it ready to start or automatically starts it like mine use to do. I took the extra CHEWY out. Is this oversimplification Ok? We have one DosBox which is linked with each game that it may help to install, and runs each game through each game's special shortcut.

Again Thank you!

Bill

Just keep in mind you may need to adjust the path depending on where things are on your computer.


Yes, and the chewy config file tells it what drives to mount and any other information it needs to play the game (or tweak settings like window size).


If I understand you right, then yes. You added mount commands to the end of your dosbox-0.74.conf file but it's not much changed from original. For a different game you might change the mounted folder and location of the gamename.conf file (whatever name you have for the other game's .conf file).


If it works, you did it right.
If it doesn't work, check your paths.

You can have different versions of DOSBox because they install in different folders. So if you have a game that for whatever reason works better in DOSBox version 0.72 instead of 0.74, you can aim your shortcut's target line at the older version. If you check DOSBox's compatibility list
http://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?letter=a
you will sometimes find a game where someone says the game works better with the older version of DOSBox. (Games that don't work as well with the latest version seem to be the exception, but if you run into one, there's the ability to use an older version DOSBox without uninstalling the current one.)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Jenny.

I greatly appreciate your help and Marians. I look forward to trying and experimenting with all of this information.

Take care.

Bill