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Might and Magic 1 - 5 Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by Daerandin, Dec 17, 2013.

  • by Daerandin, Dec 17, 2013 at 6:45 PM
  • Daerandin

    Daerandin Well-Known Member

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    The Might and Magic series began in 1986, the first game was developed almost single handedly by Jon Van Caneghem. For modern gamers, these games may be far too dated in gameplay and graphics. Personally, I find the very first game in the series to be absolutely great. For people that are curious about these older games, but are turned off by the dated graphics of the first games, then Might and Magic 4 is a good starting point. Might and Magic 4 and 5 actually combine into one large game called "World of Xeen", where you can travel freely between the two game worlds and there is even another plot to complete after completing the main quests in both individual games.

    mm_title.png

    Follow my guide and you will be able to play all the first five Might and Magic games on Linux without any problems. This guide is specifically for the digital edition of the games available on GOG.com

    All these games are part of the Might and Magic 6 Pack: Limited Edition on GOG.com

    Setting up games for DosBox is quite similar for most games, so this guide will only detail the specifics for each game.

    First Steps in: DosBox Generic Guide

    There is one thing to note when extracting the contents of the Might and Magic 6 pack installer. Most GOG games have the game data within the extracted app folder. However, since this installer is for 6 games, the app folder contains separate game folders.

    mm15_01.png

    What we want are the folders for Might and Magic 1, 2, 3, 4-5. Swords of Xeen is a fan made game which use the same engine as Might and Magic 4 and 5. I will not include it for this guide, but if you'd like to play it then it can easily be accomplished with the same steps as for the other games. Might and Magic 6 is not a Dos game, so it can't be played with DosBox like the other games.

    We will rename the folders into much simpler names for the sake of simplicity in the following steps. Rename the following folders to the indicated new name:

    • Might and Magic 1 --> mm1
    • Might and Magic 2 --> mm2
    • Might and Magic 3 --> mm3
    • Might and Magic 4-5 --> mm45
    Then move all these folders into the

    /home/username/games

    folder in your home directory. The other folders within the extracted 'app' folder should be deleted.

    'username' is your user name

    Config file Setup

    You will need 4 config files as mentioned in the DosBox generic guide. Might and Magic 4 and 5 run as one game, so we will only use one config file for those two games. So within your:

    /home/username/dosbox_shortcuts/config/

    folder, you should have 4 config files which we will name:

    • mm1.conf
    • mm2.conf
    • mm3.conf
    • mm45.conf
    These are changes you have to make in all four config files:

    For fullscreen mode:

    fullscreen=true
    fullresolution=desktop

    For windowed mode (these games work pretty well in a window):

    fullresolution=false
    windowresolution=1280 x 960
    I just used an example resolution here for the window, you can set it to something more suitable to what you prefer

    The following changes should be made in either case:

    output=overlay
    This will allow you to play in windowed with a high resolution, or fullscreen with desktop resolution

    autolock=false
    This prevents the game window from capturing the mouse. Mouse capture is not required in these games, so it is preferable to be able to move it outside for browsing or whatever else you do while playing

    Scroll down to the [render] section

    aspect=true
    scaler=normal3x

    Scroll down to the [joystick] section

    joysticktype=false
    This is not required, but it provides a small performance boost

    Specific Might and Magic 1 settings

    In the mm1.conf make the following changes

    Scroll down to the [cpu] section

    cycles=fixed 1500

    Then scroll further down to the [autoexec] section and type in the following, replacing "username" with the name of your user

    mount c /home/username/games/mm1
    c:
    mm.exe

    Specific Might and Magic 2 settings

    In the mm2.conf make the following changes

    Scroll down to the [cpu] section

    cycles=fixed 8000

    Then scroll further down to the [autoexec] section and type in the following, replacing "username" with the name of your user

    mount c /home/username/games/mm2
    c:
    loadfix -4 mm2.exe

    Specific Might and Magic 3 settings

    In the mm3.conf make the following changes

    Scroll down to the [cpu] section

    cycles=fixed 8000

    Then scroll further down to the [autoexec] section and type in the following, replacing "username" with the name of your user

    mount c /home/username/games/mm3
    c:
    mm3.com

    In case you are wondering, the mm3.com file is without the built-in copy protection which made you open the manual at a specified page, line and type in a certain word

    Specific Might and Magic 4 & 5 settings

    In the mm45.conf make the following changes

    Scroll down to the [cpu] section

    cycles=fixed 20000
    I have found this to work best, but in case you experience a lot of stuttering sound, you may want to lower this number

    Then scroll further down to the [autoexec] section and type in the following, replacing "username" with the name of your user

    mount c /home/username/games/mm45
    c:
    xeen.exe

    This will launch the regular version of the game without voice acting. I have not been able to get the version with voice acting to work as it always crashes for me on the cd-swap. However, in case you want to try the cd-version, instead of the above lines, type in the following:

    mount c /home/username/games/mm45
    c:
    imgmount d "/home/username/games/mm45/GAME1.INST" "/home/username/games/mm45/GAME2.INST" -t iso -fs iso
    cd world
    xeen.exe


    In my experience, this crashes when the game asks to switch the cd, so I use the no-cd version instead.

    Now you have a dosbox config file for each game. The last part is just to create a very simple script to start dosbox with the specified config file for each game. So open a terminal and type these commands:

    Might and Magic 1 startup shortcut

    echo -e "#! /bin/bash\ndosbox -conf ~/dosbox_shortcuts/config/mm1.conf" > ~/dosbox_shortcuts/MM1

    chmod +x ~/dosbox_shortcuts/MM1


    Might and Magic 2 startup shortcut
    echo -e "#! /bin/bash\ndosbox -conf ~/dosbox_shortcuts/config/mm2.conf" > ~/dosbox_shortcuts/MM2

    chmod +x ~/dosbox_shortcuts/MM2


    Might and Magic 3 startup shortcut
    echo -e "#! /bin/bash\ndosbox -conf ~/dosbox_shortcuts/config/mm3.conf" > ~/dosbox_shortcuts/MM3
    chmod +x ~/dosbox_shortcuts/MM3


    Might and Magic 4 & 5 (World of Xeen) startup shortcut

    echo -e "#! /bin/bash\ndosbox -conf ~/dosbox_shortcuts/config/mm45.conf" > ~/dosbox_shortcuts/Xeen

    chmod +x ~/dosbox_shortcuts/Xeen


    This creates a shortcut which you can simply double click to start the game. The shortcuts created can be moved anywhere you wish, and will still work without problem, as long as the config file remains where it is with the same folder names.

    Now you are ready to play the games!

    mm_02.png
    mm_03.png
    mm_04.png
    mm_05.png
    mm_06.png
    mm_07.png
    mm_08.png
    mm_09.png
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2014
    bombatomba likes this.

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by Daerandin, Dec 17, 2013.

  1. bombatomba
    Sounds stupid, but I never thought to extract the original game files from the GoG .exe. Thanks for that, and for the M&M guides!
  2. booman
    Yeah, I didn't know you could do that until recently either.
    Linux is pretty stinking cool. Can't do that natively in Windows.

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