Both HeXen Beyond Heretic and HeXen Deathkings of the Dark Citadel run on Id Software's Doom engine. They were released between 1995 and 1996 for the DOS operating system. Because they were never natively ported to Windows by Raven, the Steam release runs in Dosbox. Which is a DOS emulator.

This is sub par for a lot of reasons. The original HeXen DOS version was fairly slow and cumbersome, and that's doubly the case running it in Dosbox. However, you can download a Doom source port which will allow you to run HeXen in your native resolution and with proper mouselook.

This guide will go over the installation process for running it on zDoom. For a variety of reasons, but the biggest being it runs cleanly on almost every PC and is cross platform. And supports modern conveniances like controller support and mouselook, as well as modifications. It's also really easy to install and run. The installation process for other source ports like Chocolate Doom or gzDoom is very similar regardless so the same steps should apply. If they don't, consult the documentation for that source port.

Go to http://zdoom.org/Download and select a version of Zdoom for your operating system, either Windows or Mac OSX

Now navigate to your HeXen directory. This is commonly located in your
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ folder. If you installed Steam in a different location, go there instead.

Then open up your HeXen folder and then go to "base". You'll be greeted with this
































Extract the contents of the zDoom .zip into this folder. Then double click on "zDoom.exe" the game should start automatically. If you wish to launch HeXen from the Steam client, and use the Steam overlay there's an additional step.

In your "Base" folder there's a file marked "DOSBOX". Rename this file to "DOSBOXBACKUP"

Now rename your zDoom .exe to "DOSBOX"

Now you can launch HeXen straight from the steam client and use the steam overlay.

To go back to using the DOS executable, remove your zDoom .exe and rename "DOSBOXBACKUP" back to "DOSBOX". Or verify the integrity of the game cache.

For some people the enhancements to Zdoom are great. But for others like me you want it to look more like the HeXen you're already used to.

Here's a list of commands that'll have the game run as close to vanilla as possible for any Doom engine game. To use these, right click HeXen in your library, go to properties and click "Set Launch Options". Then copy/paste this into it.

+sv_nofreelook 1 +sv_nocrouch 1 +cl_maxdecals 0 +cl_capfps 1 +crosshair 0 +compatmode 2 +vid_defwidth 320 +vid_defheight 200 +dimamount 0 +r_drawvoxels 0 +cl_rockettrails 0 +am_colorset 1 +am_showmonsters 0 +am_showsecrets 0 +sv_aircontrol 0 +m_use_mouse 0 +st_oldouch 1 +telezoom 0 +r_stretchsky 0

You don't need to do anything else after that. It should write it to your .ini file so you can remove it afterwards.