Front Page Sports Football Pro '95 & '96 work on a Tablet!!!

[Redwolf]

Just an FYI. I am reposting my original post from the VPNFL forums here:

Yes, you can run Front Page Sports Football Pro '95 on an Android based tablet/playbook (unsure about ios, however).
First, you will need a DosBox emulator - grab one off the Google App Store. "AnDosBox" or "DosBoxTurbo" for this particular game (I have both apps and have tested both, though an adjusted DosBoxTurbo will outperform AnDosBox). Secondly, the game tends to crash at half-time unless you have a patched version of FBPro'95. Now the dilemma - patched FBPr'95 initiates copy protection that requires looking up a codes in the manual...so unless you have the manual still, you are out of luck. There is an old program call neverlock that is/was supposed to remove this check, but I could not get it to work for me. Solution: Download this fully patched (to v1.03) and cracked version found here:
http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/front-pa ... load/2192/ (relax, the game is "abandonware " now)

Install the game to your computer - it will automatically install a version of dosbox to it configured for the game and create a one press shortcut as well. You don't need all this stuff (unless you want to play it on your computer of course!) - you want to get the important files over to your tablet. Find the directory it is installed to (on my computer it is C:\Program Files (x86)\Oldgames\FPS Football Pro 95 ). Navigate to the "c" directory within, then "Sierra". There you will find a "fpspro95" directory. It is this directory (and all the files within) that you will need to copy over to your tablet.

Once done, use AnDosBox and then navigate to this directory (or create a startup shortcut) and type "hike" or do similar with DosBoxTurbo (even better- create a start-up icon for it through DosBoxTurbo Manager).

Now enjoy FBPro'95 on your tablet!!!!!!

P.S. This assumes some knowledge of DosBox as you will want to fiddle with the dosbox emulator config setting and find settings that work best for your particular tablet.

...Can't comment on FBPro '96 as I am still waiting for it in the mail (re-purchased off ebay) - seems absolutely nobody has it available for download online (ALL cases of it I have found have turned out to be FBPro'95 & not '96 ...and FBPRO-Online does not have it (broken link - which I emailed over a year ago to fix, but nothing...)). Will let you know how it goes when I get it (it is also supposed to be fully compatible with dosbox and therefore should work fine too).

Happy Tablet Gaming!

[Redwolf]

Yes, FBPro '96 works too!!
I finally got it in the mail - I used to play the hell out of it a long time ago.
Playing around with it - some initial comments:

Much better graphics than FBPro'95 ...but runs slower...

More detail later...

[Redwolf]

Pros & Cons of FBPro'95 vs. FBPro'96 on Tablet

FBPro'96

Pros
*Much crisper and better looking graphics (new svga engine vs. old vga engine for FB'95 version) - if you couldn't stand FBPro'95 graphics, you may find this more to your liking.
*Plays a very solid game patched (v1.01 Sierra)
*30 team NFL league - Carolina & Jacksonville included

Cons
*Much more cpu intensive - if you were struggling to get FBPro'95 running smoothly, then forget about FBPro'96. I might even suggest it only for more modern dual core & quad core tablets & playbooks. For reference, I am running a very good single core cpu on my tablet (All Winner A10 1.2 GHz) and I am struggling to find good Andosbox/dosbox config settings to get it to play without choppiness. I am estimating I can get it to run at about 16-18 fps on my tablet...playable, but not that desirable. May be a different for your tablet, however. (EDIT - DosBoxTurbo runs it better)
*Seems a bit more power hungry than FBPro'95 - battery drains a little faster with it running (this makes sense given the above).
*Running game not terrific (still unsubstantiated at this point, but it seems not the best in this department and not as good as FBPro'95 here either).
*Draft class suspect (this still unsubstantiated by me atm, but reports of the game not generating very strong draft classes can be found - can't remember from my old playing experience...and not sure if FBPro'95 is better in this regards, but I am not see this as a con for '95 in reviews).
*Availability of extra files on net (leagues, plays, etc.) - almost none now, unfortunately ...besides official patch. May be able to convert league files from other versions to FBPro'96 using its league converter (included)...not sure.
*not "cracked" - needs the iso image of the cd mounted on a virtual drive in dosbox (not difficult to do, however).

FBPro'95

Pros
*runs very well/smooth (at least for me on a good single core cpu tablet)
*plays a very good game (maybe even better than VPNFL FBPro'98 (on pc) - which plays more like the NFL '70's, FBPro'95 plays more like today's game relative - I really like what I am seeing so far (though I use a *modified* version (more later)).
*some 3rd party file availability (though very limited) - modifications, some league/team files, and plays/profiles can still be found on the net, as well as official patches.
*"cracked" - no cd/iso image nor manual with codes needed to run it.

Cons
*Graphics not that great - but very serviceable on a 7" screen...you may not feel the same way on a 10" Playbook,, however.
*28 team NFL leagues ('92, '93, '94) - no Panthers or Jaguars

...so there are the main points that come to mind. I am leaning toward FBPro'95 as the one I will be using most on my tablet as the fps on FBPro'96 is just at that borderline point where it bothers me. That being said, if there was no FBPro'95, I would be playing FBPro'96 as it still is playable on my system. I have been tweaking the dosbox config file like crazy trying to squeak out a few more fps with it, but I think I have achieved my limit on my system. EDIT: DosBoxTurbo makes it playable on my system, but I have chosen the gameplay of '95 over '96 personally.

Regarding extra files - some leagues/teams/plays mainly for FBPro'95 can still be found here: http://tgryn.tripod.com/fpsfp/fpsfp.html .I decided to use Bob Crafton's updated profiles and gameplans found on this site and am liking what I am seeing with them - though out-of-the-box FBPro'95 plays very well too. There are official patches for both games and also some league files from FBPro'98 that may be convertible to either game with the league conversion utilities (?) found here: http://fbpro-online.com/downloads.htm
Another site with official patches here: http://www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updat ... tes.html#F

Note: a true FBPro'96 does not seem to be available for download online anywhere - and good luck trying to find it for sale anywhere (or at a decent price). I got lucky with mine. I will have to pass on the iso image of my cd I made somewhere to make sure it becomes available (and no, this doesn't break my conscience to make available an 18 year old abandonware game) - will keep you posted...

Final thoughts: It is WONDERFUL to have a decent football sim that can play franchise play on a portable tablet! If you love football & football gaming and have a tablet or playbook (android based), then definitely check it out!

[superben21]

I'm gonna try this out on my iPad at some point....hoping it works

[FrankBaller]

I started with a cracked version of DosBox Turbo I found on the web, and FPS Football ran very slow on it. But according to all the discussion on various forums DosBox Turbo should be much faster than andosbox, so I bit the bullet and purchased both from the Play Store.

I now have both the latest version DosBox Turbo 1.5.0 and AnDosBox 1.2.7 on my Nexus 7 tablet, and did a direct comparison of both. I prefer DosBox Turbo, as its got many more options, a really nice front end and it was the only one that would work perfectly with my bluetooth PS3 six-axis controller.

As for speed, I found the legitimate version of DosBox Turbo literally blows andosbox out of the water! It feels about 30% faster, the graphics are much more fluid and there is absolutely no lag. I guess the cracked version was cycle limited or something, but I'm very happy playing both FPS Football '95 and FPS Football '96 on DosBox Turbo with my bluetooth PS3 controller.

[Redwolf]

Well, I have legit versions of both (and fully up to date) - DosBox Turbo runs lots of programs much faster than AnDosBox....BUT not FBPro in my case - it is the opposite for me with AnDosBox running FBPro about 25-30% faster than DosBox Turbo. It may entirely be tablet dependent.

Also here is more info for those interested: All of Sundby's dos based utilities seem to work just fine (eg., roster, news, stand, gameday, etc.) - just have to make a dummy "windows" folder for the sundos.ini file to reside.

Also, I mentioned I use Bob Crafton's updated profiles and gameplans for FBPro'95 - well, these seem to work better (creating the more realistic stats) using the patched default NFLPA94 league rather than Bob's own custom adjusted '94 league (go figure).

[Redwolf]

Solved issue with DosBoxTurbo - turned off Experimental Turbo Cycles and turned off UMS. Now runs better than AnDosBox.

[FrankBaller]

Solved issue with DosBoxTurbo - turned off Experimental Turbo Cycles and turned off UMS. Now runs better than AnDosBox.

Ah, I should have posted the settings I was using as well. You might want to update your original post(s), as it's got a lot of great information, and with DosBox Turbo, I'm able to run FBPro '96 nicely, whereas with AnDosBox its just too slow to be playable.

[Redwolf]

Yup, I can play FBPro'96 now on my tablet as well (be it slower in framerates), but I am forsaking it for FBPro'95 - better game play (but much worse graphics )

[FrankBaller]

Yeah, I'm feeling the same way, FBPro '95 has better gameplay, though on my Nexus 7 with DosBox Turbo I'm running FBPro '96 at a very playable framerate. Anyway, thanks for your great guide, without which, I would have never found the updated profiles and utilities. I appreciate it!