# Installing Descent (aka DXX-Rebirth) on BSD 12



## JLAIP (Jul 30, 2019)

Can anyone guide me through the steps to install *dxx-rebirth/Descent 1* (I've got the Descent 1 "Anniversary Edition" CD) onto BSD 12?

I've read the included pkg info, but it's nebulous, at best. It says you need the original .exe(s) (setup.exe?) file(s) from the CD, which I've got, but it doesn't explain which .exe(s) or what needs to be done with it(them)?

Riffing off the gog.com directions.....I downloaded and tried "innoextract setup.exe ~/app", but that produced an error: "Not a supported Inno Setup Installer....Done with 1 error".

I've searched both the forums and the dxx-rebirth home page for instructions, but found little.
Can anyone familiar with Descent provide some overview here?


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## SirDice (Jul 30, 2019)

JLAIP said:


> Can anyone familiar with Descent provide some overview here?


Ok, it's been 10 or more years, but I'm game. I have the original game box. Not a GoG version, the actual original game bought in 94. Somewhere. 

Installing the games/dxx-rebirth port itself worked? 



JLAIP said:


> It says you need the original .exe(s) (setup.exe?) file(s) from the CD, which I've got, but it doesn't explain which .exe(s) or what needs to be done with it(them)?


If I read the message correctly you should have a setup_descent_1.4a_(16596).exe somewhere?


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## shkhln (Jul 30, 2019)

SirDice said:


> setup_descent_1.4a_(16596).exe



That looks like a typical GOG installer name.


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## SirDice (Jul 30, 2019)

Oh, right. The OP does NOT have the GoG version. That means I'm going to have to dig through some boxes.


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## JLAIP (Jul 30, 2019)

SirDice said:


> Installing the games/dxx-rebirth port itself worked?



Because I'm running an old (i.e., slow) laptop, compiling from ports isn't a good idea (takes "forever" and usually results in an ERROR). I was able to get the dxx-rebirth part installed without any problem via "pkg install dxx-rebirth". But, apparently, that does little without the original program files from either the CD or gog.exe.




> If I read the message correctly you should have a setup_descent_1.4a_(16596).exe somewhere?



I've got a setup.exe in the CD's /descent directory, which is what I tried (unsuccessfully) to run the innoextract utility on. I'm pretty sure innoextract is intended for the gog.exe version and not the CD. I also tried to "tar xvfz setup.exe ~/app" but that didn't work either.
And that's as far as I got..


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## shkhln (Jul 30, 2019)

What files are there besides setup.exe?

https://github.com/dxx-rebirth/dxx-...d45848c4e485762f994f5/d1x-rebirth/INSTALL.txt:


> Following files are needed to run the game:
> descent.hog
> descent.pig


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## JLAIP (Jul 30, 2019)

shkhln said:


> What files are there besides setup.exe?



Lots of files! I mean like ~200 +/-.




> https://github.com/dxx-rebirth/dxx-...d45848c4e485762f994f5/d1x-rebirth/INSTALL.txt:



Thank you for the link. I'm not sure the compiling route will work for me, especially with a slow laptop that tends to terminate compiles with an ERROR. Based on the dxx-rebirth home page, it sounds like it's intended to be run as a binary....once the issue of which files from the CD are required and where/how to implement them is figured out???


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## Datapanic (Jul 31, 2019)

These are the files I have from the original CD game that I copied to HD and ran the hack on the exe so I didn't have to load the CD every time:

```
ALPHA.MSN       BLOCK.MSN       CHAOS.HOG       DESCENT.FAQ     HMIDRV.386      MUNITION.HOG    ROOMS.RDL
ALPHA001.RDL    BLOCK.RDL       CHAOS.MSN       DESCENT.HOG     HMIMDRV.386     MUNITION.MSN    RUBICON.HOG
ALPHA002.RDL    BRATTICA.RDL    COBALT.MSN      DESCENT.M50     JOSHA.MSN       NAILED.HOG      RUBICON.MSN
ALPHA003.RDL    BRIAN.MSN       COBALT.RDL      DESCENT.PHX     JOSHA.RDL       NAILED.MSN      SETUP.EXE
ALPHA004.RDL    BRIAN.RDL       DARK001.RDL     DESCENT.PIG     JOUST.MSN       PCXVIEW.EXE     SNIPER.MSN
BETA.MSN        BRINSANE.RDL    DARK002.RDL     DESCENT2.ADV    JOUST.RDL       README.TXT      SNIPER.RDL
BETA1.RDL       BRSPIRAL.RDL    DARKSERI.MSN    DESCENTG.INI    LAVA4D.HOG      RNDABOUT.HOG    SPIRAL.RDL
BETA2.RDL       BUTTHEAD.PLR    DESCENT.B50     DESCENTR.EXE    LAVA4D.MSN      RNDABOUT.MSN    SPOOGE.HOG
BETA3.RDL       CBOX.MSN        DESCENT.BAT     DEVTEAM.PCX     MAZE.MSN        ROBBIE.PLR      SPOOGE.MSN
BETA4.RDL       CBOX_X.RDL      DESCENT.CFG     HMIDET.386      MAZE.RDL        ROOMS.MSN
```
There were never 200+ files on the original CD. 

I'm interested how this port handles sound and multi-player since the early original version was only IPX.  I think later there was a plugin to run it over IP.

I'm stuck on Level 23 with 5 seconds to get out... Got there with no cheating...


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## SirDice (Jul 31, 2019)

SirDice said:


> That means I'm going to have to dig through some boxes.


Found lots of old stuff, did find Descent 3. Cool, but useless for this project.

In this case it might just be easier to put the CD in a Windows machine, run the setup.exe and see what it does. Then backup the installed game to a memory stick and copy those files to the mentioned ~/.d1x-rebirth/Data directory. The files shown by Datapanic look like the ones we need for it.


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## JLAIP (Jul 31, 2019)

SirDice: I have a feeling there's more to it than that, but Descent 1's been on my primary Windows PC for decades (i.e., since it was released), so I'll try transferring a copy of the entire program to that /Data directory on the BSD laptop, run "dxx-rebirth" and see if it does anything. Thank you...both.


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## iSiek (Jul 31, 2019)

Maybe this will not be much helpful but in my cases when I have no access to Windows machine, I am using PlayOnBSD (it is also available as pkg) and installing game/program to dedicated PlayOnBSD HDD which in fact is dedicated folder in my home directory.
Then you can simply get the content on FreeBSD directly 

Regards,
Krzysztof


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## SirDice (Jul 31, 2019)

JLAIP said:


> I have a feeling there's more to it than that


No, I don't think so. The GoG version is a self-extracting archive with installer built-in. This is why you need to use innoextract on it, it simply decompresses the GoG installer without running the actual install process.

Your CD copy doesn't appear to be a compressed installer, so the files are likely to be available on the disk itself and the setup.exe simply copies them to the right place.


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## JLAIP (Jul 31, 2019)

SirDice said:


> Your CD copy doesn't appear to be a compressed installer, so the files are likely to be available on the disk itself and the setup.exe simply copies them to the right place.



The CD's got multiple directories, each containing many files, which is the source for my contains ~200 files observation. But, based on what you and others've reported, the salient files may be limited to those in the _Descent_ directory (which contains the files Datapanic cited previously). So I'll copy those to ~/.dxx-rebirth/Data and try running "dxx-rebirth". Does that sound about right?


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## SirDice (Jul 31, 2019)

JLAIP said:


> Does that sound about right?


Yes, that's definitely something I would try too.


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## JLAIP (Jul 31, 2019)

The descent.hog file size matches the CD.
Getting closer, but no horseshoe..


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## SirDice (Jul 31, 2019)

This might be why:

```
For the PC CD-ROM, these files should be located on the Descent1 CD-Rom. The PC version data files need
   to be patched to version 1.4a.
```
This should help though:

```
There is a patch suitable for Mac OS X available at:
   https://www.dxx-rebirth.com/download/dxx/misc/descent-game-content-10to14a-patch.zip
```
If you download that, the README contains instructions how to patch the descent.hog and descent.pig files on UNIX.


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## JLAIP (Jul 31, 2019)

One step forward, one step backward....but learning along the way...


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## JLAIP (Jul 31, 2019)

SirDice said:


> For the PC CD-ROM, these files should be located on the Descent1 CD-Rom. The PC version data files need to be patched to version 1.4a.



I kinda figured that out, so I pointed it to the descent directory on the [mounted] CD, which did attempt to start, but core dumped.
I'm not sure of the version, but I kinda think it's the updated one because the CD I've got is the Descent 1 "Anniversary Edition", which came out a year or two after the initial release, and contains both company and user updates.

Actually, as I was typing this, I checked the descent.hog file and it's dated '95. So they probably used the original files.


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## SirDice (Jul 31, 2019)

What driver is your Xorg using?


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## JLAIP (Jul 31, 2019)

SirDice said:


> What driver is your Xorg using?



Either nvidia-driver-340 or XF86-driver-nv, as you may recall, I was having X problems that got solved with another member's hack.
In any case, I'm no longer in X. The core dump in the last screenshot occurred when attempting to run the program from the standard command-line console.


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## JLAIP (Jul 31, 2019)

Another bit to add: I've actually got the 1.4 update...back when it first appeared. I have it in a zip, which contains an updated (albeit much smaller) descent.hog file. I'm not sure whether to just copy the 1.4 files to the Data directory or if I need to run some update.exe??


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## SirDice (Jul 31, 2019)

JLAIP said:


> Either nvidia-driver-340 or XF86-driver-nv


The nv(4) driver has no 3D acceleration, so make sure you're using the NVidia driver. 


JLAIP said:


> I'm not sure whether to just copy the 1.4 files to the Data directory


I have no idea either. Since I can't find my copy I can't compare.


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## shkhln (Jul 31, 2019)

JLAIP said:


> nvidia-driver-340



We've had this conversation before. As for llvmpipe (Mesa's software OpenGL implementation), it won't work with nvidia-driver installed due to libmap.conf libGL.so override.


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## Datapanic (Aug 1, 2019)

I checked my old BBS files and I have a bunch of stuff for Descent 1 and 2. Also patches for 1 -> 1.4 and 1.4 -> 1.5.


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## LVLouisCyphre (Dec 26, 2021)

I've been thinking about descending back into playing the game.  I have the discs for both D1 and 2 which means I should be ok for the dxx-rebirth port.  I plan on running it on my new Lenovo ThinkPad X390 Yoga after I upgrade the NVMe SSD to 1 TB and one of my servers (either a Lenovo Thinkserver TS430) or one of my HP Microserver G7 N54Ls.  I think that hardware combo will work fine for dxx-rebirth considering it's originally a DOS game which for its time was very well done.  The Descent gaming franchise is still pretty popular.

My question is with respect to controllers.  Do the current production USB HOTAS controllers work with dxx-rebirth?  When I played D1 and 2 on a machine with a DOS partition, I used an Interplay PC Flight Force joystick and throttle controllers which worked very well.  I don't remember if I discarded them because they broke or if I still have them in storage somewhere.  There are USB to 15-pin legacy PC game port adapters out there which I will try to use if I do manage to find my original D1 & 2 controllers.  Does anyone have any insight as to if these adapters will work with FreeBSD 12.x?


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