A guide for using Dosemu2 to play Door Games on Mystic BBS

It goes without saying that if you are using Ubuntu, you can follow the Dosemu2 instructions to get all of the packages and dependences installed.

However, on Debian I have made a little list.  To be honest, this list started as one for getting Synchronet + Dosemu2 installed and…  I’m just going to roll with it.  I fully expect that some of these packages are not required for Mystic BBS or Dosemu2

If you have corrections, you know how to get ahold of me

Get some packages installed (could be optional)

sudo apt install build-essential perl zip git gdb libarchive-dev libncursesw5-dev libnspr4-dev libmosquitto-dev libsystemd-dev libcap-dev xorg-dev libsdl2-dev libgtk-3-dev libglade2-dev python3 python-is-python3 lrzsz gkermit

To get the Dosemu2 packages you need to download them from the package repository. 

https://code.launchpad.net/~dosemu2/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

From there select the link called “View Package Details” and filter the list down to “Jammy”.  You should see a short list of entries, expand each entry and download the appropriate *.deb file.  They are built nightly so, unfortunately the filenames change all the time. 

As I alluded to before, these nightly packages are also “dev” code so, keep in mind that, while they may work, there may also be some weird stuff going on.

Below is the order you will need to install them along with a few dependencies that I missed.  (the package compile values will change in the filename)

sudo dpkg -i dj64_0.1-0~202403241556+202403251531~ubuntu22.04.1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i fdpp_1.7-1498-e4e7992+202403181602~ubuntu22.04.1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i comcom64_0.1-0~202403241801+202403251717~ubuntu22.04.1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i dosemu2_2.0~pre9-8557-a235ad7e3+202403231716~ubuntu22.04.1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install xfonts-utils
sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt install libfluidsynth3 libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0 libao4 libieee1284-3 libslirp0 libb64-0d
sudo dpkg -i install-freedos_0.1-2~202403251907~ubuntu22.04.1_all.deb
sudo apt --fix-broken install

At this point you should be able to fire up Dosemu2

Type dosemu at the command prompt and, with luck you should see a C:\ prompt

Btw: There are packages that get missed during the dpkg install process.  To find them, inspect the .dosemu/boot.log and look for the “ERROR:” lines.  If you have some look for the missing package and do a sudo apt install to add it.

For Example:

• ERROR: /usr/lib/dosemu/libplugin_lpt.so: libieee1284.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
• ERROR: KVM: error opening /dev/kvm: No such file or directory
• ERROR: /usr/lib/dosemu/libplugin_slirp.so: libslirp.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
• ERROR: /usr/lib/dosemu/libplugin_term.so: libb64.so.0d: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
• ERROR: /usr/lib/dosemu/libplugin_libao.so: libao.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
• ERROR: /usr/lib/dosemu/libplugin_sdl.so: libSDL2_ttf-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
• ERROR: ladspa: failed to load filter.so
• ERROR: /usr/lib/dosemu/libplugin_fluidsynth.so: libfluidsynth.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I needed to search for the package matching these object libraries.  For instance. 

sudo apt install libb64-0d libslirp0

Seems like we are done right?  Well, if you want to use the system in the “supported” configuration then yes, go with the sheep and bahhhh your way to victory.

Or, you can live a little.

In my experience I find that FreeDOS worked better than MS-DOS when it comes to Dosemu2.  For testing I used a number of Door Games including

• Darkness v2.0.0
• Links Golf v6.0a
• MURDER MOTEL 4.2
• NetRunner Door V1.02
• Operation: Overkill, version 1.20
• Trade Wars 2002 3.09 DPMI Edition
• Freshwater Fishing Simulator v 2.7.001

I had all of these games installed on my Synchronet + Dosemu (1) system and they all worked, except for FFS, it seems to be a resource hog and was the genesis for trying out Dosemu2. 

When using Dosemu2 with MS-DOS these games all worked except for FFS.  That game refused to run and was likely missing some program that needed to be installed.