DOSBox 0.61 (For Linux) - An x86 PC emulator for running old DOS games.

[Gordon Darling]

DOSBox 0.61 - An x86 PC emulator for running old DOS games.

About:
DOSBox uses SDL to emulate the PC hardware required for running old DOS
games. This includes a 386 processor, an S3/Trio video card with some
tweaks to allow for older display hardware like the Tandy, a Sound
Blaster Pro, the PC speaker, Tandy 3-sound, CMS/GameBlaster, Disney
Sound Source, and MIDI. DOS emulation is integrated. It is possible to
mount local directories as drives inside the emulator.

Changes:
This release greatly improves the support for protected mode games. Further
highlights are paging support, GUS emulation, dynamic recompilation, and
Hercules display support. Some hard to track bugs in the CPU core have
been corrected. Many small bugs in the DOS/memory emulation have been
fixed as well. The internal timers are better, and this release can run
some "troublemakers". OpenGL output was added.

Release focus: Major feature enhancements
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Project URL: http://freshmeat.net/projects/dosbox/
Homepage: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net
Tar/GZ: http://freshmeat.net/redir/dosbox/44954/url_tgz/dosbox-0.61.tar.gz

Regards
Gordon

 

[John Corliss]

DOSBox 0.61 - An x86 PC emulator for running old DOS games.

About:
DOSBox uses SDL to emulate the PC hardware required for running old DOS
games. This includes a 386 processor, an S3/Trio video card with some
tweaks to allow for older display hardware like the Tandy, a Sound
Blaster Pro, the PC speaker, Tandy 3-sound, CMS/GameBlaster, Disney
Sound Source, and MIDI. DOS emulation is integrated. It is possible to
mount local directories as drives inside the emulator.

(snip)
Release focus: Major feature enhancements
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Project URL: http://freshmeat.net/projects/dosbox/
Homepage: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net
Tar/GZ: http://freshmeat.net/redir/dosbox/44954/url_tgz/dosbox-0.61.tar.gz

I wonder if this will allow me to run my old LucasArts DOS games on my
ME based system. Just downloaded and will check it out. Note that the
program seems to require this download as well:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/sdl/?branch_id=9343&release_id=135256

 

[Gabriele Neukam]

On that special day, Gordon Darling, ([email protected]) said...

Further
highlights are paging support, GUS emulation, dynamic recompilation, and
Hercules display support.

Wow, GUS emulation? I still have these old Party Demos lying around
(Second Reality and similar), and would really like to know how they did
sound with a GUS.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)

 

[H-Man]

http://freshmeat.net/redir/dosbox/44954/url_tgz/dosbox-0.61.tar.gz

I wonder if this will allow me to run my old LucasArts DOS games on my
ME based system. Just downloaded and will check it out. Note that the
program seems to require this download as well:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/sdl/?branch_id=9343&release_id=135256

--

John,
I have used DosBox for legacy app compatibility, I do not use it for
games or multimedia. It is a better DOS than XP can provide for, some
things. I think the SDL library is compiled into the final product. I
don't think you need the extra download.
HK

 

[John Corliss]

John,
I have used DosBox for legacy app compatibility, I do not use it for
games or multimedia. It is a better DOS than XP can provide for, some
things. I think the SDL library is compiled into the final product. I
don't think you need the extra download.

H-Man,

Thanks. This emulation stuff can get a little convoluted (at least to me.)

I want to try DOSBox to see if I can get Lucasarts "Full Throttle" to
run with sound on my ME machine. The DOS drivers that came with my
Creative Labs Audigy Gamer won't install in ME, just 98SE. Maybe this
program will get my sound card to work with the game. This would be
neat if somebody could undermine Microsoft's scheme to wean people
away from DOS and their old DOS games.

I'm already using this Win32 port:

http://www.doomsdayhq.com/

to run Doom, Heretic and Hexen. It's not that I'm so attached to those
idiotic games, it's just that MS pissed me off when they blocked use
of them off with ME. I keep the idea of finding workarounds on the
back burner.

 

[John Corliss]

H-Man,

Thanks. This emulation stuff can get a little convoluted (at least to me.)

I want to try DOSBox to see if I can get Lucasarts "Full Throttle" to
run with sound on my ME machine. The DOS drivers that came with my
Creative Labs Audigy Gamer won't install in ME, just 98SE. Maybe this
program will get my sound card to work with the game. This would be neat
if somebody could undermine Microsoft's scheme to wean people away from
DOS and their old DOS games.

I'm already using this Win32 port:

http://www.doomsdayhq.com/

to run Doom, Heretic and Hexen. It's not that I'm so attached to those
idiotic games, it's just that MS pissed me off when they blocked use of
them off with ME. I keep the idea of finding workarounds on the back
burner.

It worked!!! I actually got Full Throttle to play with sound!!!
However, they still need to get DOSBox to run a little faster:

"While we hope that, one day, DOSBox will run virtually all programs
ever made for the PC...we are not there yet. At present, DOSBox run on
a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent of a lowend 486 PC.
While the 0.60 release has added support for "protected mode" allowing
for more complex and recent programs, but note that this support is
early in development and nowhere near as complete as the support for
386 real-mode games (or earlier)."

"Full Throttle" never locks up (well,so far) but it stutters a little,
even when I optimize DOSBox emulation speed using Ctrl-F11 and
Ctrl-F12, but it's a resource hungry app. I used to have to tweak the
hell out of my autoexec.bat and config.sys files to get it to run in
W95. I'll bet that games like Heretic and Hexen would run just fine in
DOSBox.

 

[John Corliss]

It worked!!! I actually got Full Throttle to play with sound!!! However,
they still need to get DOSBox to run a little faster:

"While we hope that, one day, DOSBox will run virtually all programs
ever made for the PC...we are not there yet. At present, DOSBox run on a
high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent of a lowend 486 PC.
While the 0.60 release has added support for "protected mode" allowing
for more complex and recent programs, but note that this support is
early in development and nowhere near as complete as the support for 386
real-mode games (or earlier)."

"Full Throttle" never locks up (well,so far) but it stutters a little,
even when I optimize DOSBox emulation speed using Ctrl-F11 and Ctrl-F12,
but it's a resource hungry app. I used to have to tweak the hell out of
my autoexec.bat and config.sys files to get it to run in W95. I'll bet
that games like Heretic and Hexen would run just fine in DOSBox.

It occured to me this morning that I can certainly get better
performance out of DOSBox if I turn off my cable modem router first,
then shut down AVG, Kerio and all the other stuff I have running in
the background.

This program is definitely a keeper for those running ME and XP. Never
did like the idea of having to tweak my IO.SYS, COMMAND.COM, and-or
REGENV32.EXE in order get back real mode DOS.

 

[Shel]

This program is definitely a keeper for those running ME and XP. Never
did like the idea of having to tweak my IO.SYS, COMMAND.COM, and-or
REGENV32.EXE in order get back real mode DOS.

Hi, I use Windows 98 First Edition.

What improvement will I get by changing to WIndows XP?

 

[John Corliss]

Hi, I use Windows 98 First Edition.
What improvement will I get by changing to WIndows XP?

Fraid that's an evaluation you'll have to make for yourself. Many
(like myself) refuse to use XP for various reasons. It depends on your
needs. And of course, Windows isn't freeware so this discussion is off
topic here.