Christmas Jetpack Problem please help!!!!

[Prinmel]

Oh I love the downloads from the site but am having a problem with the santa jetpack. I have the original jetpack and it works great but the santa one is really slow!! does anyone know how I can fix it... it the only one ive had problems with so far.
thanks

[DOSGuy]

Are you using DOSBox? If it's too slow in DOSBox v0.72, increase the cycle count with Ctrl+F12.

[Prinmel]

I have no idea what dos box is??? but I tried control f12 and it didn't work:( I love this game I played it all the time when I was a kid but its no fun when it takes a whole minute just to climb a ladder....

[DOSGuy]

Well, there's the solution! DOSBox is an emulator for running DOS games in Windows (and other operating systems). Grab a copy from the Utilities section. If you need any help with it, start with the Basic DOSBox Tutorial. The game should work fine with the default settings, but if it's still slow, that's when F12 will speed things up.

[Prinmel]

Wooow that dos box thing seems totally out of my leage.. I have been working on it and i just don't think I am doing it right. Santa is still walking super slow and now all the games are like being shut down in the middle of play.. will the dosbox help that to if i ever get it figured out??

[DOSGuy]

DOSBox will solve all of your problems. Windows XP is okay for some DOS games, but Vista won't play DOS games at all except for text-mode games. DOSBox is already the way that the majority of retro gamers play DOS games, but by the time Vista becomes the standard, it will be the only option. In the world of DOS gaming, DOSBox is king.

I tried to aim my tutorial at people who had never used DOSBox before, and I thought I had done a pretty good job at overcoming the intimidation factor, but perhaps I failed. I'm going to give you step-by-step instructions to get your game running.

1. Create a folder for your DOS games called "dosgames".
2. Unzip or install Jetpack Christmas Special to a folder within "dosgames" called "xmasjet".
3. Open DOSBox and type "mount c c:\dosgames\xmasjet".
4. Type "c:".
5. Type "jetpack".

Done. The game should work fine. I'll give you 99% odds that you won't have to do anything more than that. If you end up being the 1% and the game is too slow, hit Ctrl+F12 a few times until it goes away. You probably won't have to. Trust me: DOSBox is so good at running DOS games that it has become the standard way for all DOS gamers to play DOS games.

When you want to play a game other than Jetpack Christmas Special, follow the same instructions, replacing the names.

In Step 2, create a folder within "dosgames" that describes your new game (i.e. "wolf3d").
In Step 3, mount the new folder (i.e. "mount c c:\dosgames\wolf3d").
In Step 5, type the name of the executable file (i.e. "wolf3d").

That's really all you need to know. If you want a technical explanation of what the instructions mean, go back to the tutorial. What exactly does "mount c" mean? It means that you're turning the folder that has your game in it into a virtual C: drive. If that's too intimidating, you don't need to know that. I try to provide both the minimum amount of information that you need, while still explaining what's going on for the benefit of the curious types.

[Prinmel]

ok my husband got it to work but I dohave a couple other questions.
1. how do I slow him down!!! now throught he dosbox he is zippen around so fast I can't control him:)
2. can i make the playing screen any bigger? the dos box thing is so small I like them to be full screen.

thanks so much for your help!!!!

[Prinmel]

oh and don't think that you failed on your directions I am just really bad at this stuff!!! my husband pretty much got it right away:)

[DOSGuy]

Too fast! D'oh! DOSBox usually gets the speed right, but sometimes a game is too fast. Ctrl+F11 makes it slower, and Ctrl+F12 makes it faster.

To change the game to fullscreen mode, press Alt+Enter. Ditto for when you when to turn it back into a window. If you want something in between, it's possible to set the window size by changing the resolution options in configuration file (dosbox.conf), but that's a bit more advanced.

[Prinmel]

thank you for all your help all is working great! thanks

[DOSGuy]

Happy gift stealing!