Running Obsession Off-Line on the Mac


Contrary to ETC's indication, it is possibly to run Obsession Off-Line on the Macintosh using Virtual PC. You do, however, need to make a few minor adjustments.

The quick and easy method:
Obsession Off-Line restarts your computer (or virtual machine) from Windows, running DOS with its own config.sys and autoexec.bat files.  These files need some small adjustments.  I have only had success with MS DOS.  Other versions--open source or otherwise--don't seem to work.
  1. Locate the Obsession Off-line shortcut installed in your Start Menu (Usually C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ETC\).
  2. Select the shortcut and click File>Properties.
  3. Click the Program tab.
  4. Click the Advanced… button.
  5. Add the following commands to the Autoexec.bat box (you may want to check file paths for your particular system)
    C:\WINDOWS\CNTX\SYSINI.EXE
    C:\WINDOWS\CNTX\FSHARE.EXE
    CD C:\ETC\OBSN###     where ### is the version number eg. OBSN442
  6. Remove the part of any lines matching C:\ETC\OBSN###
  7. Click OK.


Note: This works with Virtual PC versions 4-6 and Obsession versions 3-5.  Obsession version 2 would only work with VPC 3, which is not supported by OS X.  To run version 2, use the open source emulator BOCHS, described below.
The recommended method:
Set up a dedicated Obsession Off-Line virtual machine with its own drive image.  
  1. Create a new drive image using Virtual Disk Assistant.  Choose the DOS and auto-expanding options. 
  2. Add the new drive image as Drive 2 for your Windows virtual machine.  This is only to format the drive and install Obsession software.
  3. Download setupobs.bat.
  4. Start up Windows.
  5. Copy setupobs.bat to your Windows drive.  (The easiest way to do this is to drag and drop it onto your C: drive in VPC.)
  6. In Windows, select Run from the Start menu.  Type C:setupobs.bat driveletter where driveletter is the letter of your newly created Obsession drive, usually D.  Assuming your Windows is installed normally, this will copy and create all needed files to the D drive, including an autoexec.bat and config.sys.
  7. When prompted, press Y, wait for the drive to format, and give it a label.  If the script produces any errors, feel free to e-mail me
  8. Download Obsession Off-Line.  Since there's all sorts of console versions in use out there, I highly recommend installing all available versions (2-5).
  9. Install OO-L from within Windows, but when prompted for a location, click Browse… and change the drive letter from C: to driveletter:.  You should keep the following directories:
    Version
    		 Directory
    5.1.0
    \ETC\OBSN510
    4.4.2
    \ETC\OBSN442
    3.1.2
    \ETC\OBSN
    2.4.2
    \ETC\OBSN242

  10. Shut down the Windows Virtual Machine and remove the Obsession drive image.
  11. Create a new Obsession Off-Line Virtual Machine.
  12. In the settings, set Drive 1 to your OO-L disk image and the memory to 32 MB.
  13. When you start up the new Virtual Machine, you will be prompted to type the version number of the Obsession software you want.  Note: it's only DOS and does not detect which versions you have installed.  If you choose a version number for software not on the disk, the start up script will return an error.
  14. Be patient, the Off-Line software should load.
Note: Obsession Off-Line version 2.4.2 has stopped working with Virtual PC.  It does, however, work with the open source emulator BOCHS.  Whatever enables version 2.4.2 to work with BOCHS causes the other versions not to work.
  1. Download BOCHS.
  2. After installing, use Virtual PC to mount your Obsession disk image.
  3. Use Apple's Disk Copy to make a new image of your VPC image, and call it c.img.
  4. Replace c.img in BOCHS with your new c.img.
  5. Start the BOCHS application and all should work.
Scroll Lock (F14) is necessary for toggling command and label mode.  If you have a PowerBook without the F14 key, VPC 6 allows you to remap it.  Select Virtual Machine Settings, then keyboard.

You should be able to print to any connected printer.  In addition, Obsession Off-Line creates a file in the OOL directory named PRN01.$$$.  This is a text file identical to the printed output.  You can open this file in a word processor or text editor.