LBA1 Compilation for DOS using Open Watcom

Prerequisites

  • Open Watcom v2 - C/C++ Compiler capable of building DOS applications
  • MASM (Microsoft Macro Assembler) - For compiling assembler files

Getting prerequisites and sources

The prerequisites are freely available, MASM as part of Visual Studio Community (Tested with versions 2019 and 2022). Both can be installed at their default locations.

For Open Watcom, be sure to select full installation and to modify environment variables later.

To get the sources, clone the lba1-classic-community repository into some folder.

git clone https://github.com/2point21/lba-classic-doc.git
  • Open Watcom v2 - C/C++ Compiler capable of building DOS applications
  • [MASM (Microsoft Macro Assembler)]{.title-ref} - For compiling assembler files

Getting prerequisites and sources

The prerequisites are freely available, MASM as part of Visual Studio Community (Tested with versions 2019 and 2022). Both can be installed at their default locations.

For Open Watcom, be sure to select full instalation and to modify environment variables later.

To get the sources, clone the lba1-classic-community repository into some folder.

    git clone https://github.com/2point21/lba-classic-doc.git

Environment configuration

Create or edit the file SETENV.BAT on the lba1-classic-community repository folder, with the following content, making sure to double check if the Microsoft Visual Studio Community and Open Watcom folders are the same on your system.

    @echo off
    echo LBA Build Environment
    call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsamd64_x86.bat"
    call C:\WATCOM\owsetenv.bat
    SET LIB386_PATH=%CD%\LIB386
    SET INCLUDE=%LIB386_PATH%;%INCLUDE%

Build

In a Windows command prompt inside the lba1-classic-community repository folder, run

    cd LIB386\LIB_3D
    wmake
    cd ..\LIB_CD
    wmake
    cd ..\LIB_MENU
    wmake
    cd ..\LIB_MIDI
    wmake
    cd ..\LIB_MIX
    wmake
    cd ..\LIB_SAMP
    wmake
    cd ..\LIB_SVGA
    wmake
    cd ..\LIB_SYS
    wmake
    cd ..\..\SOURCES
    wmake
    link

The expected output is the LBA0.exe executable inside the SOURCES folder.

Run

To run the game, you will need the original assets of the game and the LBA0.exe generated executable.

  • copy game assets,
  • copy LBA0.exe,

into the same directory. The compiled file was verified to run with DOSBox Staging.

Troubleshooting

Q: When I execute LBA0.exe, an error appears: "SVGA card BIOS does not support VESA extensions. Please refer to your SVGA card documentation for installing VESA driver". What can I do?

A: To solve this, change the SvgaDriver configuration in LBA.CFG to:

SvgaDriver: TSENG.DLL

Where TSENG.DLL is set instead of S3.DLL. If the issue persists, other drivers may be used (check LBA.CFG to see which are available in the game assets). As of date, this was tested using Tseng.

Additionally, change the type of machine DOSBox tries to emulate. In the DOSBox configuration file, set the machine value to:

    [dosbox]
    machine=svga_et4000

This will change the emulation of DOSBox to Tseng Labs ET4000. If you choose to use another SVGA driver, change the machine value accordingly (check the DOSBox configuration file to see the available options).

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