General information
- Wookieepedia - A huge wiki dedicated to the Star Wars universe
- DF-21 - Modding site
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- Demo is available
Essential improvements
Patches
- The DOS version has no patches (the
Install.exe
listed on the support page is not for this game).
- The 1.2 Update patch fixes some issues with the Classic version of Dark Forces.
- Enables playing the game in modern Windows. Supports high resolutions, with enhanced visuals and proper mouselook.
- Sadly however, the project no-longer appears to be in active development, and the most-recent alpha version has some unresolved issues such as missing cutscenes, no music during cutscenes, a float/noclip function bound to the F key that cannot be rebound, and other issues that require workarounds to correct. However, the game can still be completed in this form (see Getting started with XL Engine).
Run in DOSBox
To improve DOSBox performance make the following changes to the DOSBox configuration file:
- Change
fulldouble=false
to fulldouble=true
- Change
memsize=16
to memsize=32
- Change
blocksize
to 4096
and prebuffer
to 30
Dark Frontend
Dark Frontend is a utility that allows easier launching of mods and levels. Installation (of both the launcher and the mods you intend to use with it) isn't exactly the most straight forward; includes a digital manual (readme.exe), reading it is recommended before using.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
- Config file is not human readable. A partial explanation on how to edit it can be found here.
- It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.
Save game data location
Video settings
Template:Video settings
Input settings
Video options in INSTALL.EXE.
Template:Input settings
Modern control scheme + v-look for mouse (DOSBox)
- Use Dark Forces Plus, compilation of DOSBox keymapper files and GlovePIE script.[4]
- Could use FreePIE as alternative to GlovePIE.
- GlovePIE and FreePIE are Windows programs, they do not work on Mac or Linux.
Audio settings
Template:Audio settings
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
|
|
|
|
Italian |
|
|
|
|
Issues fixed
Game randomly changes colors
Change output method to DirectDraw or OpenGL[citation needed]
|
- Go to the Dark Forces installation folder.
- Edit
dosbox.conf
- In the
[SDL] section, change output=surface to output=ddraw or output=opengl (whichever works best)
- Save your changes.
|
Game appears stretched horizontally
Fix incorrect aspect ratio[citation needed]
|
- Dark Forces is designed to run at 320x200, but with a 4:3 aspect ratio. To set this, do the following:
- Go to the
[render] section of the DOSBox configuration file and change aspect=false to aspect=true .
- If you are using Boxer, you can also use the View - Use 4:3 Aspect Ratio item in the menu.
|
Run retail version without the CD
Run without the CD[5]
|
- Perform a full install within DOSBox.
- Copy the CD.ID file from your Dark Forces CD, to the folder you have mounted as DOSBox's C: drive.
- Use a text editor to open the DRIVE.CD file in your Dark Forces installation folder. It should contain one letter. Change it to C and save it.
- Disables the ability to change configuration in the setup.exe (says you must install the game first).
|
Create a dummy folder[citation needed]
|
- Perform a full install within DOSBox.
- Copy the CD.ID file from your Dark Forces CD, to a new folder (which you will later mount as drive D).
- Copy the BOOTMKR.EXE and IMUSE.EXE from the CD or the installation folder to this new folder (the IMUSE.EXE must be in a \Dark sub folder to be detected by the configuration utility).
- Mount the folder as drive D, then play!
- Slightly more involved than the above fix for simply the ability to use the configuration utility.
- Significantly leaner than having an ISO mounted to access setup.exe (GOG.com and Steam versions).
- Files can be mistakenly deleted using the "Remove modules" option, Suggest locking files.
|
Update Steam DOSBox version/Run without Steam
Run without Steam[citation needed]
|
- Install the game through Steam.
- Download the latest DOSBox version.
- Run the installer and point it to the Dark Forces installation folder.
- To run Dark Forces without Steam, run
dosbox.exe directly. To run with Steam, launch as usual.
|
Enable Steam overlay
Change output method to OpenGL[citation needed]
|
- Go to the Dark Forces installation folder.
- Edit
dosbox.conf
- Change
output=surface to output=opengl
- Save your changes.
|
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
9 |
See DarkXL |
Software renderer |
|
|
DOS video modes |
MCGA, VGA |
|
Executable | PPC | 16-bit |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows | | |
|
|
|
Linux | | |
|
|
Mac OS (Classic) | | | |
|
|
System requirements
DOS | Windows | Mac OS (Classic) | Linux |
DOS |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
5.0 |
6.22 |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel 386DX 33 MHz
| Intel 486DX 33 MHz |
System memory (RAM) |
8 MB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
3.5 MB | |
Video card (GPU) |
MCGA, VGA | |
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
References