Rowan's MiG Alley

[Dornil]

I finally got this masterpiece of the yesteryear working perrfectly on modern hardware under Win10. Unfortunately, all the sites with mods for this sim are long gone by now, and Wayback machine can only help so much...
Hence, my request: does anyone happen to have MiG Alley used-made mods from long ago still archived somewhere? If yes, could you please share those?

[ragnarokryan]

Can you tell us how you got it to work?

[Dornil]

Pretty straightforward, actually. I simly used the new version of DDrawCompat (0.6.0): https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat/releases Earlier versions had some problems; this one provides excellent picture and compatibility.

With this MA is running well under Win10 even without any compatibility settings. Unfortunately, it's not perfect after all - CTDs happen often during long missions :( Although it could well be inherent problem of the Mig Alley itself - I vaguely remember something like this from the days when it was a relatively new game.

There is a couple of very nice guides here:
https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/post/mig-alley-running-in-windows-10

https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/post/mig-alley-running-in-pcem

[mono27]

I enjoyed a lot this sim back then but I didn' know there were mods for it. What kind of mods? New flyables or graphics enhancements?

[Dornil]

Graphics mostly. Skins, terrains, etc.

[+streakeagle]

Did you find and apply the BDG MiG Alley 0.85 patch that improves the stability and supports TrackIR? I was disappointed when they never upgraded/re-released MiG Alley the way they did Battle of Britain.

I don't have many mods, just the patches and a couple of basic skins: F-86_Generic_BWStripes, F-86_Generic_YellowStripes, and "The Huff".

[Dornil]

Yes, I have the BDG applied - TIR works great! I could use the Huff skin - couldn't get it out of Wayback machine.

What I really want and could not find are winter terrain and AI MiGs skins with historic markings.

[DarkenedRoom]

Additional mod/skins article added for MiG Alley: 

https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/post/mig-alley-skins-things

[jeanba]

Great to see

I love this game and would be happy to retest it

[DarkenedRoom]

On 5/22/2025 at 11:39 AM, Dornil said:

With this MA is running well under Win10 even without any compatibility settings. Unfortunately, it's not perfect after all - CTDs happen often during long missions Although it could well be inherent problem of the Mig Alley itself - I vaguely remember something like this from the days when it was a relatively new game.

There's a few things that might help with this:

• Remove the MIcrosoft libs from the MiG Alley folder so it uses the Win10 system libs (might be more compatible)
• Use later versions of any mss32.dll, smacker or bink libs which might be more Win10 compatible.
• The latest version of DDrawCompat v0.7.0 works..
• DOS4GW is part of the install no idea why it's in there?!? But this could be replaced with a more mem safe DOS32a renamed to DOS4GW, if it's used.

Should probably put a few notes down at some point.

[DarkenedRoom]

Quick guide here on upgrading libs: https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/post/mig-alley-improving-compatibility

DOS4GW is used for supporting utils like the nose art or patching terrain so isn't included.

Hopefully this increases compatibility.