Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Dragon Wars

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Dragon Wars
Dragon Wars cover
Developers
Interplay Entertainment
Release dates
DOS 1990
Windows (DOSBox) May 28, 2015[1]
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) May 28, 2015[1]
Linux (DOSBox) May 28, 2015[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Genres RPG
Themes Fantasy
Dragon Wars on HowLongToBeat
Dragon Wars on IGDB
Dragon Wars on MobyGames
Dragon Wars on Wikipedia

Dragon Wars is a singleplayer RPG game.

Key points

Characters can be imported from The Bard's Tale and The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight (see Import characters).

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Manual required for progression.
DOS
Epic Games Store
DRM details are not known
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
GOG.com
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Pre-packaged with DOSBox.[2]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Essential improvements

Import characters

Characters can be imported from The Bard's Tale (*.TPW) and The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight (*.TW).
Importing characters will overwrite the current saved game (if one exists).
Import characters[3]
  1. Copy files from The Bard's Tale (*.TPW) and/or The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight (*.TW) to the Dragon Wars folder.
  2. Run <path-to-game>\DWTRAN.COM.
  3. Choose the game to import from.
  4. Choose the character to import.
  5. Choose the character slot to save to.
  6. When you have chosen all the characters you want from that game, write the file when prompted to confirm your changes.

Notes

To import from both games first import from one game and write the file, then go back and import from the other game.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\DRAGON.COM
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Settings are stored in DRAGON.COM which is also the main executable.
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\DATA1
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
DATA1 contains save data; DATA2 exists in the same location but is not a save file.[4]

Save game cloud syncing

Video

General settings (see Change startup settings).
General settings (see Change startup settings).

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
320x200 only.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Everything is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Issues fixed

Change startup settings

The startup settings are not shown again after being saved.
Use CONFIG command line parameter[5]
  1. Edit the DOSBox configuration file (<path-to-game>\dosboxDragonWars_single.conf for the GOG.com version)
  2. Change DRAGON to DRAGON CONFIG
  3. Save your changes and close the file. The startup settings will now be shown every time.

Notes

To reverse this change simply change DRAGON CONFIG back to DRAGON

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes CGA, Tandy, EGA

System requirements

DOS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 2.1
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) CGA
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Processor (CPU) 1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2 GB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.7.0
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 2 GHz+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17
Processor (CPU) 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) OpenGL
256 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Release: Dragon Wars - GOG.com
  2. List of GOG games using DOSBox, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
  3. Verified by User:Garrett on 3 September 2021
  4. Dragon Wars - Guide and Walkthrough - PC - By fraterrisus - GameFAQs - last accessed on 3 September 2021
    "Dragon Wars keeps its data in two files, DATA1 and DATA2. DATA2 is static data, but DATA1 is where your game is saved. So you can back up your save game at any point by copying the DATA1 file [...]"
  5. How do I reset the video mode & what is the correct selection for full color?, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023