First of all, GOG BRING THIS GAME!

Now, to my main questions
I have the game from GG. (I also have it on floppies but that's irrelevant)
I keep trying to record using FRAPS, but to no good, even after changing output to opengl from ddraw it has in the folder that the game is installed. The dosbox that is installed in the same folder as the game is version 0.72.
I have installed in program files x86 (I have Vista 64), Dosbox 0.74.

The game executable for xcom is actually called dosbox.exe

How can I updated the dosbox used for xcom?


After that, how do I make FRAPS record it? I prefer FRAPS since it also records mic.




EDIT: naturally as soon as I wrote this fraps decided to record. Unfortunately the game has slowed down with severe stuttering, which doesn't exist when FPAPS is not recording.

You don't need a video recorder to record footage from DOSBox. Just press ctrl+alt+f5; DOSBox has its own built in video recorder.

According to this wiki you should be able to record with 0.72 too so you don't need 0.74 for that.

If you want to know how to run stuff in Dosbox, read the supplied documentation and type "Intro" at the prompt.
There are also several guides, mainly at VOGONS.

It might be useful to install 0.74 anyway as GOG (and GG aparantly) always use customized builds of Dosbox. You can install 0.74, you then just have to figure out where the GG version X-Com gamefiles are so you can mount it.

When recording an LP (or any other commentated game video), you want a separate audio-file for your voice recording, so that you can change the volume for that individually from the game recording.

Also, the Dosbox recording software is great for just recording staright up gameplay, but if you are doing "live commentation" (i.e. commentating on the game while playing it, as opposed to commentating on the game video), don't use it. If the game slows down for any reason during gameplay then the video recording won't pick that up, and your audio & video files will quickly de-synch.


Also, in regards to the slowdown, don't record FRAPS videos at 60FPS, record it at a more manageable 30-ish FPS, and you will suffer from less slowdown. Dosbox's built in recording program will generate marginally more slowdown than FRAPS (recording game videos is quite systems demanding, so don't do it with games that don't already run very well on your computer).

So what solution do I have if I do live commentary?
FRAPS would be the best.

I have done plenty of LPs so far (windows games) and I always use FRAPS without any problem with the level of the voice (apart perhaps from the first few videos I ever recorded)
Granted my accent and level of English is...lacking, but the volume is fine.

Audacity is good for audio-recording:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/


I've done some LP videos, and while the default recording volume is usually good, there are times when the games gets too loud that I have to lower the volume of the game/increase my voice's volume a bit. And I also like to entirely turn off my own voice recording during cutscenes and such (to avoid any background noise from being heard during the game video)

So FRAPS is out of the question to work properly?

FRAPS works with D3D and OpenGL applications, I believe. So it ... may work with dosbox. But there's really no point: From dosbox internal recording, you get better and more reliable results anyway. And, as AFnord has mentioned, for recording voice, you're much better off using audacity - believe me, you do not want to find out volume of voice is off or ... well, tons of similar issues coming from the fact that you record voice and game together.

FRAPS should work, though it might require some fiddling around. When I last recorded a dosbox game, I used the free version of hypercam and had output set to ddraw. When I tried to have it on its default setting, surface, the video would suffer from horrible slowdown after a short while. Same with the built in recording utility.
If you want to record dosbox either use output=ddraw or output=opengl But if your game suffers from any slowdown, dosbox will just record it as if it played on full speed, which makes it desynch horribly with your voice recording. I tried to record with dosbox, but after only about ½min the desynch was noticeable. (Note: My computer is horribly old and slow, not an ideal setup for recording games to begin with)

So your point is, they are all bad :p

I don't like the idea of using a different program but I guess I could try audacity.

So it is ctrl alt 5 I think for recording with dosbox, which always has the recorded file in my documents/dosbox, right?
Not great but...