Star Wars: Dark Forces

This page is for the original 1995 game. For the 2024 remaster, see Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster.

Star Wars: Dark Forces

Developers
	LucasArts
Publishers
	LucasArts
	Disney Interactive Studios
Engines
	Jedi
Release dates
DOS	February 15, 1995
Mac OS (Classic)	June 1995
Windows (DOSBox)	September 16, 2009
Linux (DOSBox)	January 20, 2015
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox)	March 19, 2018
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter, FPS
Themes	Sci-fi, Space
Series	Star Wars: Jedi Knight

Star Wars: Jedi Knight
Subseries of Star Wars
Star Wars: Dark Forces	1995
Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II	1997
Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith	1998
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast	2002
Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy	2003
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster	2024

Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter set during the original Star Wars trilogy, and is the first game in the Jedi Knight series.

In late 2022, version 1.0 of The Force Engine was released, a reverse-engineered port allowing for native widescreen, high resolutions, and vertical aiming with the mouse. The game has an active modding community, centered around the DF-21 website and it's Discord server.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		See Run retail version without the CD on how to bypass the disc check.
GOG.com		Pre-packaged with DOSBox.
Humble Store		Not available for sale in Germany.
Origin		Included with EA Play Pro. Currently only visible in the EA App's Browse menu.
Steam		Can be played without Steam. Pre-packaged with DOSBox 0.73. Update to 0.74 for better performance and some color issue fixes.
GamersGate (unavailable)
(unavailable)

A demo containing an earlier version of the first level is available. A longer demo which includes the finalized versions of the first 3 levels was also released.

The original icon, which isn't used in the Steam version of the game, is available here

Essential improvements

Patches

The DOS version has no patches (the Install.exe listed on the official support page is not for this game).

The 1.2 Update patch fixes some issues with the MacOS Classic version.

Official German Patch adds missing translations and voice files.

Unofficial patches

Dark Forces Community Patch (2022) has over 100 fixes and quality of life improvements.

The Force Engine

Reverse-engineered source port of Dark Forces made by the same author of DarkXL that includes QOL improvements

GPU rendering with widescreen and high resolution support (up to 4K)

Full mouselook support

In-game saving and quicksaves available from any point in the game

iMUSE and dynamic music implemented

DarkForces Custom Launcher

Note!! this is now superceded by The Force Engine please use that instead.

Multi-featured Launcher which has a guide.

• Runs Dark Forces and custom community-made missions
• Automatically updates new missions as they are added to df-21.net.
• Includes Dark Forces DeHacker.

Dark Forces DeHacker

All of the following features are completely optional and DeHacker can be used only as configuration tool replacement instead of the buggy original setup executable - see "Configuration setup" menu.

• Enables vertical mouselook and allows for higher controls customization
• Runs the game and setup program without the CD
• Fixes infinite loop bug in General MIDI and Roland music drivers
• Increased mouse sensitivity by 4 times
• Documentation in DARKINFO.TXT file with a complete list of all reserved keyboard keys, command line options, and cheat codes

Step-by-step guide

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\JEDI.CFG
Windows	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)
Mac OS (Classic)	Macintosh HD/System Folder/Preferences/Dark Forces Preferences
macOS (OS X)	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)
Linux	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/32400/pfx/

Config file is not human readable. A partial explanation on how to edit it can be found here.

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\DARKPILO.CFG
Windows	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)
Mac OS (Classic)	Macintosh HD/System Folder/Preferences/Dark Forces Pilots
macOS (OS X)	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)
Linux	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/32400/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game options menu.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			DOS version runs at 320x200 (see the DOSBox page for more information) and Mac OS (Classic) version runs at 640x480. See The Force Engine for widescreen support.
Multi-monitor			See The Force Engine.
Ultra-widescreen			See The Force Engine.
4K Ultra HD			See The Force Engine.
Field of view (FOV)		See The Force Engine.
Windowed		Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter if using DOSBox. The Force Engine supports windowed mode.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Use The Force Engine.
60 FPS		Up to 72 frames per second.
120+ FPS		The framerate is uncapped on The Force Engine if Vsync is turned off. Game logic runs at 145 ticks per second.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Control options in INSTALL.EXE.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Use INSTALL.EXE (KEYCONFI.EXE in the demo) or SETUP.EXE. Mouse settings cannot be changed in the demo. Some keys cannot be mapped. See fix below, or use The Force Engine.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Some menus only work with mouse.
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Game lacks vertical-look for mouse. See hack below for adding it, or use The Force Engine.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Use INSTALL.EXE (KEYCONFI.EXE in the demo) or SETUP.EXE.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Through DosBox
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Designed for keyboard and flightstick.

• 

  Keyboard remapper in setup.exe
  Suggested controls shown.

• 

  Joystick remapper in setup.exe

• 

  Mouse remapper in setup.exe

Modern control scheme + v-look for mouse (DOSBox)

Use Dark Forces Plus, compilation of DOSBox keymapper files and GlovePIE script.

Could use FreePIE as alternative to GlovePIE.

GlovePIE and FreePIE are Windows programs; they do not work on Mac or Linux.

Audio

Sound card and MIDI options in setup.exe.
Suggested settings for DOSBox shown.

Sound channel settings in setup.exe.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Uses stereo output with some 3D spatial effects.
Subtitles		See The Force Engine.
Closed captions		See The Force Engine.
Mute on focus lost		For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio		Uses audio from the original Star Wars movie trilogy.
General MIDI audio

This game supports the MT-32 and General MIDI for music.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Russian				Fan translation by «ENPY Studio»
Spanish

Issues unresolved

• The MIDI tracks BOSS-05.GMD, BOSS-08.GMD, BOSS-10.GMD, BOSS-11.GMD and BOSS-14.GMD (inside SOUNDS.GOB) never play during the game when the corresponding boss is fought against. This is known to be true about the DOS retail release and is an iMUSE issue.
• One sector in "Mission 3: Anoat City" is messed up, preventing access to two energy unit pickups. Its corridor can be entered by setting the hub switch to setting 2. The inaccessible sector is on the right just inside the sewage corridor, showing up with the map cheat or a level editor.
• Two Ceiling Turrets in "Mission 4: Research Facility" are missing their bases.
• Some of the Ceiling Turrets have their base set to have the Turret logic. Nothing happens unless the corresponding map gets edited.
• A fan in "Mission 4: Research Facility" has its grate set to use the Fan logic. Unless the map is edited, the grate stays still.
• There is a non-functioning elevator in "Mission 9: Nar Shaddaa" in the room with the first Trandoshans. Its sector is messed up and inaccessible, preventing players from going back to the starting area without sitting on a mine or cheating.

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
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 (Steam version). Files can be mistakenly deleted using the "Remove modules" option, marking files as read-only is recommended.

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.

Ice Glitch using DOSBox

When playing the game in DOSBox you will find that you get stuck in the ice in the Robots Facility level

Set your cycles amount to fixed 40000
You can do this in DOSBox config or pressing Ctrl+F11 / Ctrl+F12

You try to grab the Ice Shoes before you get stuck in the ice. If you got stuck on the ice and can't grab the Ice Shoes, try moving the mouse quickly to get unstuck

Enable Steam overlay

Change DOSBox 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
OpenGL	3.3	See The Force Engine
Software renderer
DOS video modes	MCGA, VGA

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	iMUSE	For music

• 

  Main page of setup.exe

• 

  System speed settings in setup.exe

DarkXL

DarkXL is heavily outdated at this point and it's not recommended to use it anymore, as it has been surpassed by The Force Engine.

Enables playing the game in modern Windows. Supports high resolutions, with enhanced visuals and proper mouselook.

The Original version of the project, however, is no-longer 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).

The author of the Xlengine/DarkXL port LuciusDXL has, as of May 2020, restarted the project as The Force Engine concentrating on Dark Forces and Outlaws games. This is due in part to Blood and Daggerfall having other complete projects/ports available. More information is available on his blog post here.

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. It has been superseded by Dark Forces Custom Launcher, but unlike its successor, it is a native DOS program and can directly in DOSBox.

System requirements

The Force Engine requires an OpenGL 3.3-capable GPU.

DOS

Windows

Mac OS (Classic)

macOS (OS X)

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

Full hard-drive installation requires 67.4 MB.

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	2000, XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 486
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	80 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 5.2 compatible
Sound (audio device)	16-bit sound card

Mac OS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	MacOS 7.1
Processor (CPU)	68040 or PowerPC
System memory (RAM)	8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	5 MB (Minimum Install)	13 MB
Video card (GPU)	256-color 13" display
Controller	Keyboard and mouse	Joystick optional
Other	CD-ROM drive required