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DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 2:06:03 AM

sabre1

Posts: 1928
Joined: 8/15/2001
From: CA
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How well does dosbox work? Is it worth the trouble to setup and use on old games? There was an old Holistic Design (Battles of Destiny) game that I enjoyed from time to time that is now a free download. I don't want to get into a configuration nightmare fiddling with a game that I will only play "very" occasionally. Thanks for the help.

Post #: 1

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 2:31:07 AM

Terminus

Posts: 41460
Joined: 4/23/2005
From: Denmark
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It works very well. The trouble will be finding a front end for it, so it'll be easy to configure. The best front end, DFEnd, has been discontinued.

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Post #: 2

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 2:42:39 AM

Zakhal

Posts: 2491
Joined: 1/4/2001
From: Jyv�skyl�, Finland
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I have used it for years now. Played through many old dos game with it. All you have to do is download&run it. Then mount the directory where the games is and you are ready to go.

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Post #: 3

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 3:11:08 AM

Mac67

Posts: 496
Joined: 3/7/2006
From: Essex, England
Status: offline

I had it downloaded a while back so i could play x-com:apocalyspe. My tolerance for fiddly computer things is pretty low, but after a couple of read throughs of the instructions I had it up and running. Amazing, since I was drunk at the time. I was using it on a pc running windows98, no idea how it works on any later versions.

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Post #: 4

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 3:28:04 AM

cragpider

Posts: 9
Joined: 10/15/2007
From: Middle Village, NY
Status: offline

Hey sabre1, I've used this little beauty and I can say the new version is the best version for old DOS games, was able to play 40K Final Liberation with sound and all, Steel Panthers I and II, Avalon Hill's 1830, Avalon Hill's Advanced Civilization, Command and Conquer first iteration, etc. and the instructions are pretty straight forward and are easy to follow even when you're drunk, LOL... And it works great on MS Windows XP.

< Message edited by cragpider -- 3/28/2008 3:29:14 AM >

(in reply to sabre1)

Post #: 5

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 3:31:09 AM

ravinhood

Posts: 3891
Joined: 10/23/2003
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I think it's very easy to use nothing more than mount c:\ <your main drive like c: > and mount d:\ <your main cdrom like d: > -t cdrom and that's it....how hard is that to do or comprehend? ;) oh then press ALT + ENTER to get to full screen. ;) I run a load of old DOS games through it now, the ones I can't figure out how to make XP run them anyways.

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Post #: 6

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 3:52:03 AM

sabre1

Posts: 1928
Joined: 8/15/2001
From: CA
Status: offline

Thanks everyone.

I did run into one problem. I started the download for "Battles of Destiny" and lo and behold, my Kapersky AV told me it had a trojan attached to it. So much for downloading that game. The website so you guys are aware of it is holistic-design.com.

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Post #: 7

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 4:52:26 AM

Mac67

Posts: 496
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From: Essex, England
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quote:

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
I think it's very easy to use nothing more than mount c:\ <your main drive like c: > and mount d:\ <your main cdrom like d: > -t cdrom and that's it....how hard is that to do or comprehend? ;)

Yeah, thats the bit that gets confusing when you are drunk

Though maybe not for you old-timer, ;)

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Post #: 8

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 12:39:10 PM

hadberz

Posts: 1386
Joined: 5/11/2000
From: Moncks Corner, SC
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The best front-end is D-Fend Reloaded. http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

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Post #: 9

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 1:58:04 PM

Zakhal

Posts: 2491
Joined: 1/4/2001
From: Jyv�skyl�, Finland
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quote:

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

I think it's very easy to use nothing more than mount c:\ <your main drive like c: > and mount d:\ <your main cdrom like d: > -t cdrom and that's it....how hard is that to do or comprehend? ;) oh then press ALT + ENTER to get to full screen. ;) I run a load of old DOS games through it now, the ones I can't figure out how to make XP run them anyways.

And you can put all that into the end of the bat and thus start the dosbox&game with one shortcut click on your windows desktop.

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Post #: 10

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 2:34:54 PM

Krasny

Posts: 315
Joined: 7/3/2003
Status: offline

On the subject of X-Com Apocalypse, I have recently discovered UFO: Aftershock, which I was expecting to be so-so like it's predecessor, but is a compelling game in every respect.

AND runs fine in Windows XP.

AND version 1.2 comes WITHOUT Starforce.

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Post #: 11

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 8:23:09 PM

ilovestrategy

Posts: 3627
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From: San Diego
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This is good to know. You guys rock!

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Post #: 12

RE: DOSBOX - 3/28/2008 8:53:42 PM

Kuokkanen

Posts: 3341
Joined: 4/2/2004
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If you still have CRT monitor (I do), DOSBox can spare you from lots of headaches, for it makes game work with higher refresh rate. Two games I'm having problems with DOSBox and WinXP, are System Shock and MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries. Frame rate of SS sucks and MW2:MERCS crashes after 2nd mission every time. New version might be some help... gotta remember do update.

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Post #: 13

RE: DOSBOX - 3/5/2016 8:48:37 PM

clark_x_zhang

Posts: 14
Joined: 5/9/2013
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Hi Craig, May I ask how you were able to get the sound to work for Steel Panthers in dosbox? Thanks for your help, C

(in reply to cragpider)

Post #: 14

RE: DOSBOX - 3/5/2016 9:21:01 PM

wings7

Posts: 4608
Joined: 8/11/2003
From: Phoenix, Arizona
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Clark, "cragpider" has not been written any messages since 2009, I don't have much experience with DOSBOX, but I'm sure someone will give you some help.

Patrick

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Post #: 15

RE: DOSBOX - 3/5/2016 10:12:21 PM

JamesM

Posts: 990
Joined: 8/28/2000
From: QLD, Australia
Status: offline

Have you tried D-Fend reloaded, can be difficult at first to learn, it incorporates dosbox with a much more functional front end.
http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

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Post #: 16

RE: DOSBOX - 3/6/2016 1:05:35 PM

jamus34

Posts: 108
Joined: 7/25/2008
Status: offline

I managed to get the original Xcom running on it...you know the one where the time lapse is based on CPU cycles.

With a little reading up on the InterWebz I was able to get it up and running.

So it does work pretty well IMHO.

(in reply to JamesM)

Post #: 17

RE: DOSBOX - 3/30/2016 5:32:23 AM

sPzAbt653

Posts: 9285
Joined: 5/3/2007
From: east coast, usa
Status: offline

DFend has moved on to 'DOSBox Game Launcher'. If you have trouble with other DosBoxes, you may want to try this one - http://members.quicknet.nl/blankendaalr/dbgl/

(in reply to jamus34)

Post #: 18

RE: DOSBOX - 3/30/2016 4:10:30 PM

Riitaoja2

Posts: 208
Joined: 2/10/2016
Status: offline

I have been using DOSBox to play my old DOS games for several years now. The last official version has been 0.74 since 2010. That seems to work just fine for all the games I have played with it.

I am not using any third party frontend programs though. Just configuring DOSBox with Notepad seems to be enough.

In the DOSBox config file the most useful settings are in the end under the [autoexec] field.
Here I have input the path to my DOS C: drive and my computers CD/DVD drive like this:
mount c D:\DOSGAMES\
mount d E:\ -t cdrom -ioctl

So I have all my DOS games on the D: drive under \DOSGAMES\ -folder. And I mount it as the virtual C: drive for DOSBOX.
And ofcourse my computers CD/DVD drive letter is E: and for DOSBox I mount it as D:

That's all it really takes. To get to Full screen one can press "Alt Gr + Enter". Or if one likes DOSBox to always start in full screen one can edit the option in the beginning of the conficuration file under [sdl] as follows:
fullscreen=true

If a game runs too slow I press the keys Ctrl + F12 to speed up the emulation.
Or if it runs too fast Ctrl + F11 slows down the speed.
Most games however run with correct speed without the need to manualy change it.

You can also create a .bat file with the cycles command to automate the speed adjustemt for a particular game if you like.

For example for Steel Panthers 2 I have created a file START.BAT in the game directory that has the following in it:
cycles 60000
steel2
Running the game with this start.bat file automaticaly adjusts the cycles to 60000 which seems to be good for Steel Panthers 2. So I do not need to manualy press "Ctrl+F11" or "Ctrl+F12" to adjust the speed every time I run the game.

Most of the games will run at the correct speed under DosBox with the default "cycles auto" value. However for some games you may need to experiment to find the correct cycles value.

The README.TXT file that comes with DOSBox is definately recommended reading. It contains all the information you need to run the emulator the way you want.

P.S The DOSBox configuration file can be accessed from the Windows Start menu under:
->"All Programs"->DOSBox-0.74->Options

< Message edited by Riitaoja2 -- 3/30/2016 4:20:14 PM >

(in reply to sPzAbt653)

Post #: 19

RE: DOSBOX - 3/30/2016 5:11:33 PM

wings7

Posts: 4608
Joined: 8/11/2003
From: Phoenix, Arizona
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Riitaoja2

I have been using DOSBox to play my old DOS games for several years now. The last official version has been 0.74 since 2010. That seems to work just fine for all the games I have played with it.

I am not using any third party frontend programs though. Just configuring DOSBox with Notepad seems to be enough.

In the DOSBox config file the most useful settings are in the end under the [autoexec] field.
Here I have input the path to my DOS C: drive and my computers CD/DVD drive like this:
mount c D:\DOSGAMES\
mount d E:\ -t cdrom -ioctl

So I have all my DOS games on the D: drive under \DOSGAMES\ -folder. And I mount it as the virtual C: drive for DOSBOX.
And ofcourse my computers CD/DVD drive letter is E: and for DOSBox I mount it as D:

That's all it really takes. To get to Full screen one can press "Alt Gr + Enter". Or if one likes DOSBox to always start in full screen one can edit the option in the beginning of the conficuration file under [sdl] as follows:
fullscreen=true

If a game runs too slow I press the keys Ctrl + F12 to speed up the emulation.
Or if it runs too fast Ctrl + F11 slows down the speed.
Most games however run with correct speed without the need to manualy change it.

You can also create a .bat file with the cycles command to automate the speed adjustemt for a particular game if you like.

For example for Steel Panthers 2 I have created a file START.BAT in the game directory that has the following in it:
cycles 60000
steel2
Running the game with this start.bat file automaticaly adjusts the cycles to 60000 which seems to be good for Steel Panthers 2. So I do not need to manualy press "Ctrl+F11" or "Ctrl+F12" to adjust the speed every time I run the game.

Most of the games will run at the correct speed under DosBox with the default "cycles auto" value. However for some games you may need to experiment to find the correct cycles value.

The README.TXT file that comes with DOSBox is definately recommended reading. It contains all the information you need to run the emulator the way you want.

P.S The DOSBox configuration file can be accessed from the Windows Start menu under:
->"All Programs"->DOSBox-0.74->Options

Thanks for the info!

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(in reply to Riitaoja2)

Post #: 20

RE: DOSBOX - 3/30/2016 5:38:32 PM

Riitaoja2

Posts: 208
Joined: 2/10/2016
Status: offline

Some additional Tips / info for DOS operation:

If you are rusty with DOS commands these should get you started:

DIR = list files in the current directory.
CD "directory name here" = change directory to the specified one.

Other useful commands are:
DIR/P = list directory with a pause function to view long lists.
DIR/W = list directory as multiple columns to view long lists.
You can even combine these with the DIR/P/W command.

DIR.EXE = List only executable files (.exe). Useful for quickly finding out what to type to start the game.
DIR.BAT = Same as above but for batch files (.bat).

And finaly to start a program simply type in the correct .EXE or .BAT file name and hit ENTER.
Sometimes a game might also start from a .COM file. (usualy just very old and simple games)

DOS Sound Setup:

Usualy DOS games reguire you to run the SETUP, SETSOUND or similar .exe or .bat file to configure your sound card.
When you setup sounds for a game in DOSBox use Soundblaster16 if available to get stereo sounds. Otherwise select a regular SoundBlaster card from the list. Automatic configuration should be fine. If you do need to manualy specify the card settings use these:
IRQ 7
DMA 1
I/O 220

Happy DOSBoxing!

< Message edited by Riitaoja2 -- 3/30/2016 5:41:10 PM >

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Post #: 21

RE: DOSBOX - 3/30/2016 9:09:23 PM

CGGrognard

Posts: 579
Joined: 10/3/2013
From: USA
Status: offline

All these DOS commands bring back fond memories of DOS programs and DOS games from years gone by. Now these commands for the most part have been tucked inside an icon, link, tile etc. to run the game. I feel DOS commands and the like are becoming a lost skill.

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Post #: 22

RE: DOSBOX - 3/30/2016 10:53:27 PM

wings7

Posts: 4608
Joined: 8/11/2003
From: Phoenix, Arizona
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: CGGrognard

All these DOS commands bring back fond memories of DOS programs and DOS games from years gone by. Now these commands for the most part have been tucked inside an icon, link, tile etc. to run the game. I feel DOS commands and the like are becoming a lost skill.

For me those were magical times, learning all the DOS commands, remember the "DOS Shell"? It was the non-GUI Windows File Manager.

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Please come and join and befriend me at the great Steam portal! There are quite a few Matrix/Slitherine players on Steam! My member page: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197988402427

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Post #: 23