Matt Komarnicki

Requirements

Ensure you have your CDs with the game ready. For convenience I have created ISO images for each disk using my external CD-ROM drive with USB-A type connector. Nothing fancy here. Do the same so that you end up with 4 images:

Mount CD 1 (by double clicking on the corresponding ISO file in Finder) to access content of the first disc under macOS. This is the disc, where the fabulous Lands of Lore installer is located.

Emulator Setup

To ensure 3dfx Voodoo emulation is even possible, we have to use modern version of a MS-DOS emulator, called DOSBox Staging. Download macOS binary and install it as any other software. For this guide version 0.82 has been used.

Location on Host Machine

Now we need to create a folder on macOS host machine, where we are going to store all the MS-DOS related games, programs or files. The root of this directory will be automatically mounted each time you run DOSBOX Staging as drive C. In my case I have created DOSGAMES in my home directory:

/Users/slick/DOSGAMES

Emulator Configuration

The configuration file is located at:

/Users/slick/Library/Preferences/DOSBox/dosbox-staging.conf

Obviously change the username to match your case. Within the file, we are interested in the following settings:

• fullscreen set to true
• fullresolution set to desktop
• memsize set to 64
• automount set to true
• cpu_cycles set to 200000 as this will try to emulate fastest available CPU of Pentium II 300
• voodoo set to true
• voodoo_memsize set to 64

In the same file, at the very bottom after [autoexec] section, type:

mount C /Users/slick/DOSGAMES

imgmount D /Users/slick/Downloads/LOLG_CD1.iso -t cdrom

C:

Let's check if both DOSGAMES directory as well as the first CD are mounted correctly. Open DOSBox Staging, the following screen should welcome you:

This indicates that everything went well so far.

Game Installation

Run the installation by calling SETUP.EXE from CD-ROM drive mounted under letter D:

License agreement will be shown, press Enter to agree to run the installation wizard animation.

Animation will start. Wait till it's completed.

At this point you should see the installation wizard, where you select a sound card device. Click on Sound Blaster ASP/16 and press Test Sound button to check if you can hear any sound of a skeleton hitting a gong.

Performing sound test by a skeleton:

Click Next. Now repeat the process by selecting the same card as a MIDI device.

Click Test Sound to ensure you can hear some MIDI music:

Click Next to specify location where the wizard should install game files. You can leave default path. If you do so, you end up with a new location on you host macOS:

/Users/slick/DOSGAMES/WESTWOOD/LOLG

The installator will begin copying necessary files from CD 1:

Once done, the game automatically plays intro:

After that, Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny automatically starts on the lowest image and sound quality.

Press Esc to go back to the main menu.

At this stage we can quit the game completely and go back to DOSBox Staging MS-DOS prompt. We can type exit to quit and be back in macOS.

Game Upgrading (1.06 to 1.30)

The default Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny version is 1.06. We will now use the official patch that bumps the game to 1.30 version that offers hardware acceleration. Copy (extract) official LL2-130E.EXE patch from my own server to the root of where you have installed the game, by default it should be: /Users/slick/DOSGAMES/WESTWOOD/LOLG. Alternatively you can pull the patch from archived ftp.westwood.com. Here you can find more details about the patch.

Do you know what the 1.30 patch does?

I sure do. Take a look at the official changelog to find out all changes introduced by the patch. What we are mostly interested in is the new hardware support for 3dfx Voodoo chipset, which is supported by DOSBox Staging as well:

1.2.2. Supported Hardware
Below is a list of hardware cards that are supported by this patch.

Chipsets: 3Dfx Voodoo, NVidia Riva 128, ATI 3D Rage II, Rendition Verite 2200, Rendition Verite 1000-E, and the Matrox MGA-1064SG.

If you do not see your card in the list and it does support Direct3D, we still allow you to turn on hardware acceleration. In this instance, you will have to choose whether you feel the experience is of good enough quality or you may decide to switch hardware acceleration off and play using the software 3D engine.

Let's upgrade the game then.

After copying patch file to the root folder of Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, open DOSBox Staging and go to the game's directory:

C:\WESTWOOD\LOLG

Run extracted executable LL2-130E.EXE.

In my case the end result did not look so promissing at the first glance as it crashed a mysterious:

error eur0008: Internal Error `table.c(183)`.

No idea what the consequences of this particular error are, but I was able to carry on.

Adding Glide API Library

Finally download (and extract) GLIDE2X.OVL from my own server to the root of the game (same as you did with the 1.30 patch executable).

Open DOS Box Staging and run the game again by calling lolg within C:\WESTWOOD\LOLG.

In-game Settings Adjustment

Lastly we will:

1. Enable high resolution
2. Enable hardware acceleration (available thanks to presence of GLIDE2X.OVL)
3. Enable high quality music

Once the game starts go to Options:

Under Audio Controls:

set:

• Channels to 16
• Music Type to Digital

Under Video Controls:

set:

• Game Resolution to High
• optionally Gamma Correction (increase it a little bit)

Under Hardware Acceleration:

Toggle the Acceleration:

You should be able to see the 3dfx branding before the game starts. This indicates that the Voodoo emulation works.

Gameplay

Let's run the game with adjusted settings to see if we can enjoy better graphics and smooth animations. Exit Options and start New Game with the level difficulty of your choice.

Enjoy beautiful light reflections from a distance. Notice a suble mix of redish warmth given by a torch and a green glow thanks to some fireflies flying around a rock on the right side.

Remaining Issues

There are still two things we have to tackle. The Cantina Fix as well as a small invonvenience where soon after completing first level of the game, we are asked to insert another disc to CD-ROM drive.

Cantina Fix

The original fix for the GOG version of the game can be found here. However, this time we will fix it without LOWMEM param. In your terminal go the location where the game is located, in my case /Users/slick/DOSGAMES/WESTWOOD/LOLG:

Now we will modify content of the LOLG.EXE file. Type:

cp LOLG.EXE LOLG.EXE_BACKUP

sed -b -i -e "s/24\(M,Swap\)/32\1/" LOLG.EXE

First, we will create a backup of the file we are interested in, just in case something goes wrong. Then we will modify game's executable binary and increase some memory to avoid game crash when entering Cantina and talking to Baccata.

Whoa! I'm getting: sed: illegal option -- b

I got you covered. See this.

CD-ROM Shuffle Fix

Here you can see mentioned prompt.

We can easily fix this by copying entire content of 2nd, 3rd and 4th CD into game's root directory. On your macOS, assuming that your CDs are mounted under:

/Volumes/LOLG_CD2
/Volumes/LOLG_CD3
/Volumes/LOLG_CD4

and the game itself is placed under /Users/slick/DOSGAMES/WESTWOOD/LOLG:

then the following commands executed in a terminal should copy content of each CD to the destination location:

cp -R /Volumes/LOLG_CD2/* /Users/slick/DOSGAMES/WESTWOOD/LOLG/
cp -R /Volumes/LOLG_CD3/* /Users/slick/DOSGAMES/WESTWOOD/LOLG/
cp -R /Volumes/LOLG_CD4/* /Users/slick/DOSGAMES/WESTWOOD/LOLG/

The -R ensures that all directories are copied recursively, while * ensures that all files and directories are copied from source.

Once this is done, open DOSBox Staging and within game's directory (C:\WESTWOOD\LOLG) instead of calling lolg, open the game with:

lolg -CD .

The dot at the end is not a typo, it tells the game to open and seek for CD's content within current (game) directory where we have copied remaining CDs. From now on, prompts will never popup and the game will load necessary data without asking for anything.

Conclusion

This should be it. Fully working Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny released in 1997, running with a 3dfx Voodoo emulation on newest macOS Sequoia 15.2 in 2025. Enjoy your journey through The Lands.

Featurettes

• Official Making of Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny
• Joseph Bostic's gallery with actors performing on a green screen
• Developers Interview with Bill Pedro, Jeff Fillhaber and Rick Gush (January 1997)
• Speedrun in 59:41 without exploiting any glitches
• Dedication to Robert Richter Parks
• Game's Intro
• Cutscenes & Speaking Stones