Mike Chambers
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2006
- Messages
- 2,621
this is something i wanted to attempt for a while, and last night i did it. i took the original (now public domain) source code for Wolfenstein 3D and went through it all (ASM and C) modifying it to play on an 8086 or 8088 system.
if you try it on that kind of CPU, the game will say sorry you need a 286 or better. what i did was bypass the CPU check, and change a lot of SHR/SHL instructions that had a value greater than 1 to multiple SHR/SHL _,1 instructions. also had to totally remove XMS detection code, as that caused a lock up on my 8088. a few other modifications had to be made as well.
i also had to disable all sound (edit: it works with sound now) to get it to work for some reason, i'll be trying to get that working as well but i do have a working 8086 compatible wolf3d exe that anybody who wants to get can have:
http://www.rubbermallet.org/wolf8086.exe
just put it in the same folder on your machine as the wolf3d.exe of course. it SHOULD work with both registered and shareware data files, but i've only tested registered.
all you need is a VGA card and it'll go. believe it or not, it's actually quite playable at 4.77 MHz especially if you make the view window smaller. i was expecting much worse performance. makes me wonder why they made it require a 286 in the first place.
have fun! :D
EDIT: UPDATE!! i fixed the sound issue. i re-uploaded the new EXE to the same URL. if you got the version with disabled sound, redownload the WOLF8086.EXE file. everything works 100% perfectly now. it didn't make the game any slower that i can notice. it's really cool hearing that classic "AH! STOP!" and "MEIN LEBEN!" from the guards on an 8088.
and a second update.. that same EXE at that URL now has a cheat menu right in the main menu that i added in addition to the 8086 hack. all cheats tested and working perfectly:
plus i changed multiple lines of SHL/SHR _,1 of SHL/SHR _,CL but i haven't noticed a performance increase at all on my 4.77 MHz boxes.
if you try it on that kind of CPU, the game will say sorry you need a 286 or better. what i did was bypass the CPU check, and change a lot of SHR/SHL instructions that had a value greater than 1 to multiple SHR/SHL _,1 instructions. also had to totally remove XMS detection code, as that caused a lock up on my 8088. a few other modifications had to be made as well.
i also had to disable all sound (edit: it works with sound now) to get it to work for some reason, i'll be trying to get that working as well but i do have a working 8086 compatible wolf3d exe that anybody who wants to get can have:
http://www.rubbermallet.org/wolf8086.exe
just put it in the same folder on your machine as the wolf3d.exe of course. it SHOULD work with both registered and shareware data files, but i've only tested registered.
all you need is a VGA card and it'll go. believe it or not, it's actually quite playable at 4.77 MHz especially if you make the view window smaller. i was expecting much worse performance. makes me wonder why they made it require a 286 in the first place.
have fun! :D
EDIT: UPDATE!! i fixed the sound issue. i re-uploaded the new EXE to the same URL. if you got the version with disabled sound, redownload the WOLF8086.EXE file. everything works 100% perfectly now. it didn't make the game any slower that i can notice. it's really cool hearing that classic "AH! STOP!" and "MEIN LEBEN!" from the guards on an 8088.
and a second update.. that same EXE at that URL now has a cheat menu right in the main menu that i added in addition to the 8086 hack. all cheats tested and working perfectly:
plus i changed multiple lines of SHL/SHR _,1 of SHL/SHR _,CL but i haven't noticed a performance increase at all on my 4.77 MHz boxes.
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