How to play Lemmings 3 in DOSBox

[kieranmillar]

1. Grab one of the CD versions from here, doesn't matter which, the only thing that changes is the name of the game on the title screen:
http://www.camanis.net/lemmings/lemmings3.php

2. Extract the zip file somewhere. E.g. C:/games/lem3cd . Note that there is a LEM3CD folder inside the zip, so might prefer to extract it to C:/games in this example.

3. Create another folder where the game's installation will go, e.g. C:/games/l3install

4. Get DosBox here, presumably you want Windows but all sorts of operating systems are supported: http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1

5. Install DosBox.

6. Run DosBox and type the following (substituting the file paths for the two folders you used):
mount c c:/games/l3install
mount d c:/games/lem3cd
d:
install

7. You will now be at the install menu. Use the keyboard to navigate. Do the following for each option:

• Set Installation Directory - Change it to C:/
• Select Sound Card - Choose Sound Blaster, then the rest of the options choose the defaults
• Select Super VGA Mode - On
• Select Sound Effects - On
• Select Music - On
• Select Difficulty - Adults
• Change CD Drive Letter - D

Then press Esc and Choose Save and Quit

8. Back at the DosBox screen, type l3 to make sure it all works. The opening video might be messed up but when you reach the main menu it should be fine. It might be insanely loud though. Watch out headphone users! We'll fix that soon.

9. If it's all working, you can close DosBox by typing "exit" at the DOS prompt, by pressing Alt+F9, or by freeing your mouse from being locked inside the window by Alt-Tabbing out and then just closing the window.

10. In your Start menu, you should go to DosBox and look for the Options, specifically "DosBox 0.74 Options". This is a text file where you set the various options.

11. In the options file you're looking for 3 options:

• Render options, scaler=normal2x. Can change this to normal3x if the game is a bit too small on your screen for your liking.
  
• Cpu options, cycles. Not sure what the default is here, but I'd recommend 10000, which keeps the loading times low without dedicating too much unnecessary processing power to running a 25-year old game.
  
• Autoexec options. This is right at the very bottom of the file, and you'll want to add in the following 5 lines (substituting the paths for your own directories):
  
  mixer master 20:20
  mount c c:/games/l3install
  mount d c:/games/lem3cd
  c:
  l3
  

(This autoexec assumes you only want to play Lemmings 3, never anything else.)
The mixer master line decreases the volume to 20% and makes it a much more sensible level.

12. Run Dosbox and Lemmings 3 should boot straight up from now on.

NOTE If you want to play custom levels, it might be easier to duplicate the CD folder, then replace the levels in there and change the D drive location you are mounting to the duplicated folder, leaving the install path the same so you don't have to reinstall everything.

[Simon]

kieranmillar's instructions make L3 read and write to different folders.

Here are alternative instructions to make Lemmings 3 read and write from only one single folder.

Configure DOSBox

1. Download and install DOSBox.

2. Create a directory for all your DOS games and remember its path. Henceforth, I'll call this directory "dosgamesdir". On Windows, create this on your desktop or into your Windows user directory C:\Users, to have write access without requiring administrator rights. Wherever it is, I'll refer to this path as "dosgamesdir" from here on.

3. Edit dosbox.conf (search the web to learn where this file is on your installation/operating system), it's usually called dosbox-0.74.conf, with a text editor. Find these lines at the end:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

Add two lines, take care to replace the-full-path-of-your-dosgamesdir with the real full path to "dosgamesdir", which is the directory that you created in item (2.) earlier:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.
mount c the-full-path-of-your-dosgamesdir
mixer master 20:20

Save the file. This edit makes DOSBox mount "dosgamesdir" as DOSBox's "C:\" and lowers the sound volume to something more reasonable. The default sound volume would have been the maximum, mixer master 100:100.

Setup Lemmings 3

4. Within "dosgamesdir", create the directory "L3" without quotes. Extract your Lemmings 3 CD into there. Your file tree should then have "dosgamesdir/L3/L3CD.EXE" along with several other directories and files in "dosgamesdir/L3/". Take care not to end up with "dosgamesdir/L3/LEM3CD/L3CD.EXE" or anything similar; the L3CD.EXE should sit immediately inside "L3" inside "dosgamesdir".

5. Extract the contents of the attached zip archive into "dosgamesdir/L3/", overwriting all files if you are asked. (This will enable sound in Lemmings 3 without running the installer. In general, don't run the installer -- it will write bad batch files in unwanted directories.)

6. This completes the setup. To play Lemmings 3 from now on, start DOSBox, then type at its C:\> prompt:
cd l3
...and hit Enter. The prompt should change to C:\L3\>. Then, type:
l3
...and hit Enter.

7. If you would like to add a savegame file from other people, e.g. Kieran's "SAVEG6.DAT", put this file into "dosgamesdir/L3/" and the game should find it after you start DOSBox and Lemmings 3 for the next time, as described in item (6.) earlier.

-- Simon