Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a 1995 first-person shooter, designed by Daron Stinnett, Ray Gresko, and Justin Chin, and developed and published by LucasArts. It is one of two games to use the Jedi engine, the other being Outlaws. It is the first game of the Jedi Knight series, and the predecessor to Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.
The game (and its demo) can be run on modern machines of any operating system using DOSBox. On the Mac, you can also use Boxer, a DOSBox front-end designed to simplify the setup process; Boxer includes the demo as part of its standard install.
A Mac version was released, which ran at an increased resolution; however, because it was a Classic application, there is no way to run it on modern machines. A patch for the Mac version is available at LucasArts. A PlayStation port was released in 1996, and ported to PS3 in 2010.
The game is available on Steam. It was also available on Direct2Drive, but was removed from its catalog when it was acquired by Gamefly.
Updating DOSBox (Steam version)
The Steam release of Dark Forces includes an outdated version of DOSBox. To run the game using the latest version of DOSBox, first download and install it, then copy dosbox.exe from your DOSBox install directory to the /steamapps/common/dark forces/ folder in your Steam install directory.
DOSBox configuration file
In the Steam version, the DOSBox configuration file is in your Steam install directory under /steamapps/common/dark forces/dosbox.conf.
For Boxer, right click on your gamebox file and click "Show Package Contents". Inside should be a file called DOSBox Preferences.conf. That is your DOSBox configuration file.
For more information, including the location of the file on other systems, consult the DOSBox wiki.
WARNING: Back this file up before making any changes!
Changing output mode
Some of the instructions on this page refer to changing DOSBox's output mode. To do this, do the following:
- Go to the [sdl] section of your DOSBox configuration file (create it if not present).
- If there is a line that begins with output= in that section, delete it.
- Add one of the following lines to that section:
- output=surface for surface mode (default)
- output=opengl for OpenGL mode
- output=openglnb for OpenGL mode with bilinear filtering (pixels will be smoothed)
- output=ddraw for DirectDraw mode
- output=overlay for overlay mode
Note that some output modes may cause performance issues on some machines.
Graphics issues
Game randomly changes colors
If you experience color issues, change the output mode to DirectDraw or OpenGL.
Game appears stretched horizontally/black bars on top and bottom
Dark Forces is designed to run at a resolution of 320x200, but an aspect ratio of 4:3. To account for this, you need to turn aspect ratio correction on in DOSBox. Go to the [render] section of your DOSBox configuration file (create it if not present), and add the line:
aspect=true
If the line aspect=false is present, remove it.
For Boxer, you can also use the View - Use 4:3 Aspect Ratio item in the menu.
If this causes performance issues, try changing the output mode to something other than surface mode.
Running retail version without the CD
- Perform a full install of the game within DOSBox.
- Copy the CD.ID file from your Dark Forces CD, to the folder you have mounted as DOSBox's root drive.
- Use a text editor to open the DRIVE.CD file in your Dark Forces install directory. It should contain one letter. Change it to C and save it. (If you mount to a drive letter other than C, use that letter instead.)
Windowed mode
To switch between fullscreen and windowed mode, press Alt+Enter (Cmd+F in Boxer).
You can also force the game to start in fullscreen mode by adding or removing the line fullscreen=true in the [sdl] section of your DOSBox configuration file (create it if not present, and replace any existing fullscreen= lines).
Enabling Steam overlay
To enable the Steam overlay, change the output mode to OpenGL.
Controls
The default controls differ between the retail and Steam versions. The game also supports joysticks; consult the manual.
Note that you do not actually need to look up or down in order to aim up or down; the game handles vertical aiming automatically.
| Default Controls | ||
|---|---|---|
| Action | Retail | Steam |
| Movement | ||
| Move forward | Up, mouse up | W |
| Move backward | Down, mouse down | S |
| Strafe left | < | A |
| Strafe right | >: | D |
| Strafe (hold) | Alt, MOUSE3 | Alt |
| Turn left | Left, mouse left | Left, mouse left |
| Turn right | Right, mouse right | Right, mouse right |
| Run (hold) | Shift | Shift |
| Walk slow | Caps Lock | Caps Lock |
| Crouch | C | C |
| Jump | X | Space |
| Look up | PgUp | PgUp |
| Look down | PgDn | PgDn |
| Center view | Num5 | Num5 |
| Weapons | ||
| Primary fire | Ctrl, Mouse1 | Ctrl, Mouse1 |
| Secondary fire | Z | R |
| Holster weapon | F8 | F8 |
| Previous weapon | F9 | F9 |
| Next weapon | F10 | F10 |
| Last used weapon | Backspace | Backspace |
| Fists | 1 | 1 |
| Modified Bryar Pistol | 2 | 2 |
| Stormtrooper Rifle | 3 | 3 |
| Thermal Detonators | 4 | 4 |
| Imperial Repeater | 5 | 5 |
| Jeron Fusion Cutter | 6 | 6 |
| IM Mines | 7 | 7 |
| Packered Mortar Gun | 8 | 8 |
| Stouker Concussion Rifle | 9 | 9 |
| Interaction and equipment | ||
| Use | Space | E |
| Night vision goggles | F2 | F2 |
| Cleats | F3 | F3 |
| Gas mask | F4 | F4 |
| Additional controls | ||
| Exit mission | Esc | Esc |
| PDA menu | F1 | F1 |
| Pause game | Pause | Pause |
| Map | Tab | Tab |
| Zoom map in | = | = |
| Zoom map out | - | - |
| Increase screen size | Alt+= | Alt+= |
| Decrease screen size | Alt+- | Alt+- |
| Toggle head wave | F6 | F6 |
| Toggle auto-equip weapons | Alt+F8 | Alt+F8 |
| Toggle HUD | F7 | F7 |
Customizing controls
You can change these controls using INSTALL.EXE (KEYCONFI.EXE in the demo).
To access this in the Steam version, open your DOSBox configuration file and change dark.exe to install.exe (change it back once you are done configuring). You can also use DOSBox's built-in keymapper (Ctrl+F1).
Mouse settings cannot be changed in the demo.
Adjusting mouse sensitivity
- Go to the [sdl] section of your DOSBox configuration file (create it if not present).
- If there is not a line sensitivity=100 in that section, create it.
- Replace 100 with your desired mouse sensitivity (from 1 to 1000).
Running Steam version on Mac or Linux
On a Windows Steam install of the game, all of the game's files are contained in the /steamapps/common/dark forces/game folder in your Steam install directory. You can copy this folder to a Mac or Linux machine, rename it to whatever you like, then run the game (DARK.EXE) using DOSBox or Boxer.
Unless you have DOSBox set to mount your Dark Forces folder as C:, you will need to copy the CD.ID file from your Dark Forces folder, to the folder you have mounted as DOSBox's hard drive. If your DOSBox hard drive uses a letter other than C:, use a text editor to open the DRIVE.CD file in your Dark Forces install directory; it should contain one letter, C, which should be changed to your DOSBox hard drive letter.
XL Engine
XL Engine (formerly DarkXL and DaggerXL) is a fan project, similar to ScummVM, aimed at porting the Jedi, XnGine and Build engines to modern systems with additional features.
Support for Dark Forces is currently in alpha stage, and support for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is currently in pre-alpha. Initial support for Blood and Outlaws is planned for the next release.