file_id.diz
TLDR : just show the video!
read the compoteam.txt please =)
in case of any urgencies, please contact me
immediately : helmut.toedtmann@gmail.com
or via phone : 0157 37 35 12 97
if you want to show the demo :
go to the "demo" folder and
just drag "revolver.com" to "Dosbox portable"
that will launch the dosbox in fullscreen mode
in the resolution 1920x1080, aspect correction
is done inside the demo, so done apply any after
effects!
*** PLEASE ***
if you show the demo LIVE, make sure that it sounds
EXACTLY like in the video. If the KICKDRUM (PCSPEAKER)
is not perfectly in sync with the rest, either show
the recorded video, or try to fix it with the dosbox settings.
REASON : the MIDI synth is completely out of the dosbox
and has an own - uncontrollable - delay. I tested my
dosbox settings on several machines, and on some the delay
of the internal MIDI synth makes the sound quite unpleasant
if you're REALLY prefer tuning the MIDI synth delay to showing
the video (if things are out of sync) try altering the ***prebuffer***
variable in /demo/data/settings/dosbox.conf (increase or decrease)
if you execute the .com file and are suspicious
remove the emergency video file from the folder!
the recorded video is 70 fps, if strange stutter
effects appear, try a different player/codec or
show the youtube video
OTHER NOTES:
timer interupt still active running after exit!
THEREFORE:
don't restart intro in the same dosbox
don't run OTHER entries in THIS dosbox
don't run THIS entry in OTHER dosboxes
thanks for taking care :-* <3
TLDR : just show the video!
The DOSBox Team
---------------
Sjoerd v.d. Berg <harekiet>
Peter Veenstra <qbix79>
Ulf Wohlers <finsterr>
Tommy Frössman <fanskapet>
Dean Beeler <canadacow>
Sebastian Strohhäcker <c2woody>
Ralf Grillenberger <h-a-l-9000>
nick_without_<> @ users.sourceforge.net
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
authors' reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below,
refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
along with the Program.
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
parties under the terms of this License.
c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
collective works based on the Program.
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
the scope of this License.
3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange; or,
c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
received the program in object code or executable form with such
an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
special exception, the source code distributed need not include
anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
itself accompanies the executable.
If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
parties remain in full compliance.
5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
the Program or works based on it.
6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
this License.
7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
be a consequence of the rest of this License.
8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
Foundation.
10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
Public License instead of this License.
Things needed for compilation.
SDL
The Simple DirectMedia Library available at http://www.libsdl.org
The dll distributed with the windows version of DOSBox is slightly
modified. You can find the changes in the sourcepackage of DOSBox
(src/platform/sdl-win32.diff). If you want the patched sourcetree
send us an email. (see README)
Licensed under LGPL
Note that only version 1.2 and its subversions (1.2.8, 1.2.13 etc.)
are currently supported.
Curses (optional)
If you want to enable the debugger you need a curses library.
ncurses should be installed on just about every unix distro.
For win32 get pdcurses at http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net
License: Open source
Libpng (optional)
Needed for the screenshots.
For win32 get libpng from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html
See http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/ for more details.
License: Open Source
Zlib (optional)
Needed by libpng.
For win32 get libz (rename to zlib) from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html
See http://www.zlib.net for more details.
License: Open Source
SDL_Net (optional)
For modem/ipx support. Get it from http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_net/
Licensed under LGPL
SDL_Sound
For compressed audio on diskimages. (optional)
This is for cue/bin cdrom images with compressed (mp3/ogg) audio tracks.
Get it from http://icculus.org/SDL_sound
Licenced under LGPL
ALSA_Headers
(optional)
for Alsa support under linux. Part of the linux kernel sources
Licensed under LGPL
If you want compile from the CVS under a unix system, you'll also need
automake (>=1.6), autoconf(>=2.50). Should be available at http://www.gnu.org
For building on unix systems.
If you are building from the cvs run ./autogen.sh first before doing the following.
1. ./configure
2. make
In step 1 you could add the following switches:
--enable-debug
enables the internal debugger. --enable-debug=heavy enables even more
debug options. DOSBox should then be run from a xterm and when the sdl-
window is active press alt-pause to enter the debugger.
--enable-core-inline
enables some memory increasing inlines. This greatly increases
compiletime for maybe a increase in speed.
--disable-fpu
disables the emulated fpu. Although the fpu emulation code isn't
finished and isn't entirely accurate it's advised to leave it on.
--disable-fpu-x86
disables the assembly fpu core. Although relatively new the x86 fpu
core has more accuracy then the regular fpu core.
--disable-dynamic-x86
disables the dynamic x86 specific cpu core. Although it might be
be a bit unstable, it can greatly improve the speed of dosbox on x86
hosts.
Please note that this option on x86 will result in a different
dynamic/recompiling cpu core being compiled then the default.
For more information see the option --disable-dynrec
--disable-dynrec
disables the recompiling cpu core. Currently x86 and x86_64 only.
You can activate this core on x86 by disabling the dynamic-x86 core.
--disable-dynamic-core
disables all dynamic cores. (same effect as
--disable-dynamic-x86 --disable-dynrec)
--disable-opengl
disables OpenGL-support (output mode that can be selected in the
DOSBox configuration file).
--disable-unaligned-memory
disables unaligned memory access.
Check the src subdir for the binary.
NOTE: If capslock and numlock appear to be broken. open
src/ints/bios_keyboard.cpp and go to line 30 and read there how to fix it.
Build instructions for VC++6
Don't use VC++ 6: it creates faulty code in core_normal.cpp
Later Visual Studio versions work fine (vs2003/.net, vs2005, vs2008)
0.74
- Several small game specific fixes/hacks/support. (Offensive,
Roadhog, GTA installer, Kingdom O' Magic soundcard detection,
Pirate booter, Armored Fist installer)
- Add the S3-specific 640x480 256 color mode. (fixes regression in "Wooden
Ships and Iron Men" and "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream")
- Fix a stack overflow that could crash DOSBox.
- Add fake microphone input. (fixes Talking Parrot)
- Modify adlib turn off code, so that it doesn't turn off in
cases where the same sound is repeated over and over again.
- Several small fixes to the CDROM audio code. (HOMM2, Redneck
Rampage and others)
- Several improvements to the CDROM emulation code. (fixes Alpha
Storm and GT Racing 97)
- Some small CPU fixes that might fix something.
- Handle opcode 0xff subcode 7 as invalid instruction. (fixes dif-2 & others)
- Some hercules fixes. (Testdrive)
- Improve support for blanked parts that wrap around to the start of
the screen. (fixes Magic Circle demo and Sid&Al)
- Remove old OPL cores as the new ones seem to work very nicely.
- Modify movie recording code so that the movies aren't corrupt when
you exit dosbox without stopping the movie.
- Change RGB3x scaler to look more pretty.
- Improve initial register values compatility of the GUS.
- Added autodetection for Gameblaster. (games can find it now)
- Change render preferences a bit to be more compatible with Windows 7.
- Add DOS fixes to terminate program. (fixes Fortune Teller)
- Add FFREEP. (fixes Trucks)
- Improve FPU ST80 in C mode when writing zero. (fixes Antigok)
- Add special int10 scanline function. (fixes mz700 and probably lots
of games that mess with them)
- Fix scrolling in rarely used video modes. (fixes Orphee)
- Modify game specific hacks a bit so that Kick off 3 works again.
- Lots of fixes to the INT10 video parameter table. (Seven spirits
of ra and others)
- Add VGA blanking in machine=vgaonly. (used by Alien Carnage)
- CGA, PCJr, Tandy: Add video blanking, change display start latch
timing, sync pulse width correction.
- PCJr, Tandy: implement vertical retrace interrupt.
- PCJr, CGA: line-by-line video emulation.
- PCJr: support on-screen change of color modes 4medium to 16low. (used
by Ghostbusters booter)
- Hercules: Add green and amber monochrome support.
- All machines: only update the video timing when needed. (Jungle Hunt,
others that synchronize to the video screen might profit)
- Several small DOS fixes.
- Some UMB related fixes. (The Legacy without UMB)
- Fix version number of DSP for SB 1.5. (fixes a few games)
- Several VGA emulation improvements. (Allertone football manager)
- Some Tandy fixes. (Mech Warrior)
- Small improvements and fixes to the OPL emulation.
- Add low level Tandy DAC emulation.
- Some EMS fixes. (fixes Mortal Kombat and others)
- Change SoundBlaster DSP reset mechanism, add sb irq acknowledge logic.
(fixes stmik-based applications)
- Some interrupt pointer location modifications. (fixes Tinker Tales)
- Some fixes to the BOOT code. (fixes Last Mission)
- Respect write-only file information. (fixes Champions of Zulala)
- Some RTC fix. (fixes Tully Bodine and others)
- Improve mouse emulation to work better with Water World.
- Hopefully fix the translation of the configuration file.
- Speed up and fixes for the recompiler core. (pitfall2 pcjr)
- Change memory start location. (fixes 7th Guest installer)
- Several fixes to the batch file handling. (Shift and
use the typed first %0 instead of the parsed %0)
- Improve file redirection and redirected line ends. (fixes
Phantasmagoria 2 DOS installer)
- Fix compilation with new MAC os X version.
- Add 16C550A FIFO support to the serial port emulation.
- Improve modem emulation to get higher speeds.
- Change default samplerates to 44100, blocksize to 1024 and prebuffer to 20,
so that hopefully certain soundcards produce more fluent sound playback.
- Add some rarely used, but for some games critical flags to
the internal commands.
- Add -userconf flag, so that the userspecific configuration can
easily be used together with -conf configfile.
- Improve internal timing with repeating timers (especially with
the dynamic core).
0.73
- Add two new opl2+opl3 emulators. (better speed, different implementation
approach)
- Improved DRO recording/better file structure.
- Add EGA emulation.
- Add special vga machine mode. Supports more of the exotic tricks like
changing the palette during screen updates, 9x16 fonts etc.
- Added special machine modes for the following svga cards:
- S3
- Paradise
- Tseng
- Fix problems with the vga split line feature.
- Improve vesa emulation.
- Add optional selection of old vesa mode for games that don't work
with certain vesa features.
- Improve video BIOS emulation to behave more like a real bios.
- Fixes for emulated 4bpp graphics modes.
- Fixes to paging system.
- Various fixes and improvements for the recompiling core.
- Add arm backend for the recompiling core.
- Add some mscdex quirks when dealing with files that are exactly 8.3 long.
- Small fixes to batch file handling.
- Small fixes to the XMS memory handling.
- Various fixes for aligned memory on hosts that want it.
- Various improvements to the mouse.
- Fixes and small speed ups to the debugger.
- Fix and improve lot's of compilation problems. (curses detection,
GCC 3.4 and GCC 4.X fixes)
- Added some basic auto keyboard layout handling. (windows only currently)
- Add basic support for evdev keyboard driver.
- Various fixes to the timer. (improve mode 2 timer changes,
implement mode 1, improve gate2 handling)
- Add audio extraction and mci audio support. Should enable CDROM audio
for Vista and adds volume control.
- Improve the directory cache speed a lot, especially with mounting slow
media like network paths.
- Various fixes to the create temporary file call.
- Don't keep batchfiles open during execution. Allows rewriting of the
active batchfile. (menu programs use this trick sometimes)
- Fix problems with filenames with 2 extensions.
- Add some more lowlevel dos tables.
- Fixes to hercules emulation.
- Fix flag handling for special case of ROR.
- Make the batchfile handling in regard to IF more flexible.
- Fixes to scrolling/panning feature.
- Add prefetch queue emulation.
- Make the emulated cpu type selectable. This is mainly the
identification commands and the way paging works.
- Some special EMS functionality added. (OS handles, zero-page handling)
- Improve support for EMS when booting a different OS.
- Improve cdrom speed detection by games.
- Improve stability of cycle guessing code, when there is background
activity.
- Fix various mscdex and cdrom detection schemes.
- Added Coremidi support on Mac OS X.
- Improve support for DOS devices when used to detect the existance
of directories in various ways.
- Add IRQ 2 emulation on VRET. (ega only)
- Added video parameter table and video state functionality.
- Increase default freespace to 250 MB.
- Some fixes to the fat filesystem handling for disk images.
- Some soundblaster fixes and command additions.
- Fix mixer 16bit direct transfers on bigendian hosts.
0.72
- Fixed unitialized variable in joystick. (Fixes crashes on Vista and
Mac OS X)
- Some bugfixes and speedups to the 64 bit recompiling core.
- Fixed sign flag on soundblaster dma transfers (Space Quest 6 intro)
- Fixed a bug in keyboard layout processing code and fixed certain
layouts.
- Fixed Dreamweb.
- Improved speed unlocking when running cycles=max.
- Fixed a crash related to the tab completion in the shell.
- Improved aspect correction code. Should now be like how a real monitor
handles it.
- Fixed a bug in the xms status report code. (Blake Stone 1.0 shareware)
- Added a lot more keyboard layouts.
- Fix crash related to changing the scaler before a screen was created.
- Hopefully fixed compilation on *bsd.
- Enabled auto cpu core selection for recompiling core as well.
- Made the used joystick selectable when 4axis is specified.
- Added some hints for inexperienced DOS users to the shell.
0.71
- Add a new recompiling cpu core, which should be easier to port.
- Add 64 bit version of the recompiling core.
- Add mipsel 32 bit version of the recompiling core.
- Fix a few small problems with FCBs. (fixes Jewels of darkness and
cyrus chess)
- Raise some more exceptions. (fixes vbdos)
- Fix a few problems with the dynamic core. (fixes Inner Words,
Archmimedean Dynasty and others)
- Improve/Fix fallback code for certain graphics cards.
- Fix a few cd audio related bugs.
- Add an undocumented MSCDEX feature. (Fixes Ultimate Domain)
- Fix some pcspeaker mode. (fixes Test Drive and similar games)
- Improve dos keyinput handling. (fixes Wing Commander 3 exit dialog)
- Remove Exit condition on fully nested mode. (fixes some demo)
- Add image file size detection.
- Add/Fix some ansi codes. (fixes PC Larn and certain versions of
infocom games)
- Several general DOS fixes. (fixes nba95, hexit and various other games)
- Add some valid input checks. (fixes 3d body adventure and similar
games)
- Fix digital joystick centering problem.
- Reenable textmode 54 and 55.
- Fix a pelmask problem with univbe 5.0 lite. (fixes Panzer General)
- Fix minor mixer underflow.
- Some general image and bios disk emulation fixes.
- Hopefully fix compilation on BSD and darwin.
- Try using ioctl cdrom access by default if possible.
- Fix some svga detection routine. (fixes Grandest Fleet 2 and Bobby Fischer
Teaches Chess)
- You can now close DOSBox using the status window in win32.
- Add support for NX enabled systems.
- Fix a casting error which only showed with certain compilers. (fixes
various games under mac os x and 64 bit linux)
- Improve timer and add gate 2 support. (fixes various games and
joystick problems)
- Improve mouse. Add undocumented backdoor. (fixes Last half of Darkness,
PC-BLOX and others)
- Add/improve support for ~ and ~username in all commands.
- Fix a font problem with the pcjr/tandy. (fixes personal deskmate 2)
- Change dma routine a bit. (fixes ticks in sound in various games)
- Allow read-only diskimages to be booted. (fixes various booter
games)
- Add basic hidden file support on cdrom images. (fixes Player
Manager 2)
- Add some rarely used functionality to the int10 mode setup. (fixes
WW2 Battles of the South pacific)
- Add ability to force scaler usage.
- Speed up flag generation and make it more 386-like.
- Some colourful feedback in the mapper.
- General code cleanup.
0.70
- Improve register handling and support with XMS.
- Fix some issues with deleting open files.(windows only issue)
- Add dummy LPT1 class. (windows only issue)
- Improve some of the internal dos commands. (choice, copy and shift)
- Improve ROM area. (for games that use it for random numbers or
overwrite it as some sort of detection thing)
- Improve compatibility of dynamic core by making it handle certain
pagefaults earlier.
- Move internal dos tables around so we have more umb memory.
- Add some dos tables.
- Dynamic core supports io exceptions.
- Move some interrupt handlers to XT Bios locations.
- Add a dynamic fpu on x86.
- Improve fpu on non-x86.
- Trapflag gets strict priority over hardware IRQs.
- Trapflag support for the dynamic core.
- Add dummy TRx handling.
- Fix a few rarely used character functions.
- Improve auto cycle guessing code.
- Improve and extend the joystick support.
- Add autofire support.
- Improve the mapper so you can map keys to the joystick and vice versa.
- A few game specific video card fixes.
- Fix some 64 bit cpu bugs.
- Add support for certain cdrom detection schemes.
- Improve HSG/Red Book support.
- Improve MSCDEX.
- Improve dynamic core support under intel macs.
- Add basic support for clipper programs.
- Add support for different keyboard layouts.
- Add auto core guessing.
- Fix a few flags bugs.
- Fix a few small cpu bugs.
- Improve soundblaster detection rate by various programs.
- Improve EMS emulation. (allow mapping of non standard regions)
- Improve keyboard input codes on various OS-es.
- Fix problems with filenames having stackdata in them.
- Changed a few basic operations in DOSBox so they take emulated time.
- Improve dos ioctl functions.
- Extend cpu core so they are capable of detecting and raising a few
more exception types.
- Improve DOS functions when dealing with virtual drive.
- Improve FAT drives.
- Better handling of volume-labels in file functions.
- Image disk cycling capability. (prompt)
- Try to reduce the impact of using an analog joystick.
- Several measures to avoid code invalidation on certain types
of self modification in the dynamic core.
- Add dynamic core memory function inlining.
- A few small mouse improvements. (some games are using things they
shouldn't)
- Add nullmodem emulation.(h-a-l-9000)
- Some small cga and hercules fixes.
- Add more scalers (hq2x/hq3x/sai). (Kronuz)
- Change configuration file loading support. It now supports
multiple configuration files.
- Make dynamic core capable of running some win32s programs.
- Fix and add some rare soundblaster modes. (Srecko)
- Better soundblaster mixer controls. (Srecko)
- Make soundblaster installation under windows much easier.
- Add device control channel handling.
- GEMMIS support (ems under windows).
- Support more colours in win 3. (vasyl)
- Don't show unmounted drives in windows filemanager.
- Fix some bugs in the int13 handler.
- Simulate some side-effects of bios interrupt handlers on flags.
- Add IPX functions needed by netbios.
- Make ports take emulated time.
- Tabcompletion is now aware of the CD command.
- Add suppport for the dac pel mask.
- Fixes to hercules emulation, better detection and bank switching.
- Fixes to tandy emulation, 640x200x16 mode and different sizes bank.
- EGA/VGA memory changes detection for faster rendering.
- Gus 16 bit fixes.
- Many timer improvements.
- Some pcjr fixes.
- Some booter fixes.
- Many small fixes.
0.65
- Fixed FAT writing.
- Added some more missing DOS functions.
- Improved PIC so that it actually honours irq 2/9.
- Improved intelligent MPU-401 mode so that more games work with it.
- Some mouse fixes.
- Changed DMA transfers a bit so they bypass the paging tables.
- Added S3 XGA functionality.
- Improved paging so that read and write faults are handled differently.
- Rewrote exception handling a bit (no exception 0x0B with dos4gw anymore).
- Added IO exceptions in all but the dynamic core.
- Some ems improvements.
- Added midi-device selection code for the windows hosts.
- Fix crashes/segfaults related to the disabling of the pcspeaker.
- Added some more FILES=XX detection tricks.
- Fixed some vga detection schemes.
- Fixed screenshot corruption when using -noconsole in a read-only directory.
- Fix wrong scaled screenshots.
- Added some hidden file functions when using diskimages. (helps with cdrom
detection schemes)
- Fixed a bug in the mixer code, that muted the music in certain games.
- Added an assembly fpu core.
- Made the shell more flexible for batch files.
- Check for unaligned memory acces fixes hangups on ARM processors.
- Some 64 bit fixes.
- Added code to change configuration at runtime.
- Improved ADPCM emulation.
- Fixed a few cpu instructions.
- Always report vesa 2.0 and fix some colour issues with vesa games.
- Fix video mode 0x06 and 0x0a.
- Improvements to the joystick emulation. 4 buttons are supported as well.
- Add VCPI emulation for Origin games.
- Fixed a lot of things in the boot code. Most booters work now.
- Lots of improvements to the IPX emulation.
- Rewritten modem emulation. Should work with more games.
- Improvements to the dos memory managment routines.
- Add UMB (upper memory blocks) support.
- Emulate the pause key.
- Improve Composite CGA mode emulation.
- Lots of vga compatibility changes.
- Improved support for chained video modes.
- Improved mode and palette handling in cga modes.
- Mount accepts ~ now.
- Added a few of the EGA RIL functions.
- Added TandyDAC emulation.
- OS/2 support.
- Improved and speed up the dynamic cpu core.
- Fix some errors in the CD-ROM emulation layer.
- Added an automatic work-around for some graphics chipsets.
- Add PCjr support.
- Allow mousedriver to be replaced. Fixes a few games that come with their
own (internal) driver.
- Improved dynamic cpu core so it can handle pagefaults and some obscure
types of self-modifying code.
- Added -noautoexec switch to skip the contents of [autoexec] in the
configuration file.
- Improved v86 mode emulation (mainly for Strike Commander).
- Improved timer behavior.
- Improved extended keyboard support.
- Enhanced and added several DOS tables.
- Made core_full endian safe.
- Made pagefaults endian safe.
- Add support for moviecapturing
- Add support for 15/16/32 bit videomodes.
- Add some more VESA modi (4 bit).
- Add 1024x768 output.
- Changed screenrendering so it only draws changes to the screen.
- Allow remapping of the EMS page when the dma transfer was started from
the page frame
- Made EMS and DMA work together when playing from a mapped memory page.
- Renamed several configuration options, so that they are unique.
- Merged mpu and intelligent into one option.
- Merged fullfixed and fullresolution.
- Extended keys should be handled better.
- F11 and F12 work.
- Compilation fixes for various platforms.
- Fix a few crashes when giving bad input.
- Removed interp2x and added few new scalers.
- Reintroduce the lockfree mouse. (autolock=false)
- Add a larger cache for the dynamic cpu core.
- Improved soundblaster DSP, so it gets detected by creative tools.
- Lots of bugfixes.
- Even more bugfixes.
0.63
- Fixed crash with keymapper (ctrl-f1) and output=surface.
- Added unmounting.
- Fixed multiple issues with drive labels.
- Fixed most if not all FILES=XX problems.
- Added redirection in the shell.
- Fixed crashes with subst.
- Fixed multiple crashes with the drive images support.
- Added a missing fpu instruction.
- Fixed some cpu and fpu instructions.
- Fixed a small bug related to font loading.
- Rewrote the devices support.
- Added capslock/numlock checks on startup.
- Fixed wave writing.
- A few internal DOS fixes.
- Timer fixes for the hybrid loader.
- Some small soundblaster fixes.
- The drive cache can now be cleared by a keycombo. (CTRL-F4)
- A few keyboard fixes.
- Compilation fixes on various platforms.
- Quite some debugger improvements.
- Fixed dir only showing files after the first run on cdrom drives.
- Added some cdrom detection checks.
- Enabled insert in the shell. (Easier editing of commands)
- Changed order in which executables appear with tab-completion.
- Fixed some issues with raw opl recording and using a slightly different
format
0.62
- Added blinking support in the shell and some color fixes.
- Fixed commandline parsing when .bat files involved (fixes -exit)
- Fixed issues with tabs in commandline not being processed correctly.
- Cleaned/improved shutdown sequence.
- Added some more bios functions (wait and delay functions).
- Made our XMS driver conform the specs better. (c2woody)
- Added support for some more ems functions.
- Added intelligent mpu401 emulation. (Srecko)
- Added soundblaster 16 emulation.
- Rewrote GUS emulation to sound more authentic.
- Improved pc speaker emulation.
- Added an internal (programmable) mixer.
- Added support a few soundblaster/adlib detection routines.
- Fixed lot's of bugs related to DMA transfers.
- Added interpolating prebuffering mixer routines.
- Added recording of OPL commands and raw midi.
- Fixed some bugs with the wave recording.
- Changed sensitivity settings of the mouse.
- Added ps2 mouse-emulation in bios interrupts (c2woody).
- Fixed some bugs with mouse emulation limits.
- Fixed a bug with an unterminated string in the drivelabel.
- Changed file search routines a bit to be more compatible.
- Added support for attribute-searching with fcb's.
- Added basic SDA.
- Added TPA and DIB.
- Added Lot's of missing dos tables (c2woody).
- Changed psp and dta functions to use dta.
- Returned filename in ds:dx in create-random-file (c2woody).
- Fixed a bug with date and time used on open files.
- Some mscdex fixes.
- Added the -version switch, which makes dosbox report its version.
- Added a keymapper.
- Added basic IPX emulation.
- Added cdrom iso support and floppy images support.
- Added the possibity to boot another dos version.
- Added Serial passthrough support (win32 only).
- Added the possibility to pause dosbox.
- Changed OpenGL so that it is initialized only when used.
- Make dosbox run at higher priority when active and lower when inactive.
- Added direct draw output support (win32 only).
- Added current running program to title bar.
- Rewrote video emulation to support new scalers.
- Added new graphics scalers like advmame3x,tv2x.
- Added a support for a few anti-debugger tricks.
- Improved the handling of the tab-key.
- Improved support for the numeric keyboard.
- Fixed a few cpu opcodes.
- Added cpu core simple (for lowerend machines)
- Fixed some nasty bugs in the dynamic cpu core.
- Added a few (rarely used) fpu opcodes.
- Fixed various issues with GCC 3.4.
- Many internal timer improvements (PIT and PIC).
- Added some more PIC commands (c2woody).
- Added BCD counting to the timers.
- Fix some vesa functions.
- Add some basic support for 132x25 and 132x45 textmodes.
- Improved Tandy emulation a lot.
- Lowered cpu usage when dosbox is idle.
- Allow virtualisation of some basic IO-ports (c2woody).
0.61
- Added a beta dynamic cpu for x86 hosts (very unstable)
- Added opengl and hardware overlay display output
- Rewrote the vga screen updates to go in lines
- Added paging and v86 support to cpu emulation
- Added a config option to simulate a certain type of machine
- Added hercules graphics emulation
- Made CGA/TANDY modes more compatible
- Updated textmode drawing routines to support blinking colors
- Fixed VESA set page function that was documented wrong
- Fixed some wrongly emulated cpu opcodes.
- improved exception handling
- debugger: fixes; logging of gdt,lgt,idt, new commands(Fizzban)
- fixed some mscdex issues (drive letter header error, added get directory entry)
- added/fixed some bios funcs
- added some rarely used xms functions (thanks c2woody!)
- implemented GUS emulation
- Added 16-bit DMA support (for GUS and eventually SB16)
- Fixed many small bugs in filehandling routines
- Many small FPU fixes (c2woody/Fizzban)
- Some keyboard improvements (pharlab games)
- Some Timer and cmos/rtc fixes (Mirek/Srecko/Others)
- Lot's of mouse fixes (Help from various people)
- Enabled internal modem
- Made the DOS parsing routines a bit more flexible
- Added Subst (Srecko)
- Added cdrom ioctl support for linux (prompt)
- Many internal DOS fixes: memory/files/datastructures.
- Got some help from c2woody in allowing more than 1 irq being served
- Disabled DPMI (not needed anymore. DOSBox handles almost every extender)
- Search configfile in $HOME directory if none present in current directory
- Added another way to switch to protected mode. (Thanks Morten Eriksen!)
- Fixed some odd badly documented behaviour with PSP/DTA
- Added some warnings on opening of readonly files in writemode(DOS default).
- Many shell enhanchements
- Fixed a win32 specific bug dealing with filenames starting with a "."
- Fixed some bugs with the directory structure: not found/can't save errors
0.60
- rewrote memory system for future paging support
- fixed several EMS and XMS bugs and rewrite for new memory system
- added some support for tandy video modes
- added MAME Tandy 3 voice emulation
- added MAME CMS/GameBlaster emulation
- added serial port emulation with virtual tcp/ip modem (somewhat buggy)
- sound blaster emulation is now sb pro 2.0 compatible
- added basic support for 32-bit protected mode
- VGA now tries to emulate an S3 Trio 64 card with 2 MB
- VESA 2.0 support for some 256 color modes
- rewrote large piece of video bios code for better compatibility
- added support for the not inheritance flags.
- created functions for creating child psp.
- updated errorcodes of findfirst (thanks Mirek!)
- rewrote loggingsystem to generate less warnings
- added dos protected mode interface (dpmi)
- added cdrom label support
- improved cdrom audio playing
- fixed and improved directory cache
- debugger shows selector- and cpu mode info
- added SELINFO (selector information) command to debugger
- added reference counting for dos files
- added tab-completion
- added basic fpu support.
- fixed several bugs with case sensitive filesystems.
- added more shell commands and improved their behaviour.
- mouse improvements.
- real time clock improvements.
- DMA fixes.
- Improved .BAT file support.
0.58
- fixed date and time issues with fcbs
- added more commands to the internal Shell
- corrected config system when a old configfile was used
- fixed cga put and get pixel
- fixed some vga register getting reset to wrong values
- improved support for foreign keyboards
- improved joystick support
- made dosbox multithreaded again
- lot's of soundblaster fixes
- dma fixes
- cdrom support
- midi support
- added scale2x
- reenabled screenshot support
- joystick support fixes
- mouse improvements
- support for writing wavefiles
- added directory cache and longfilename support (longfilenames will be mangled)
- mouse fixes
0.57
- added support for command /C
- fixed all fcb-write functions
- fixed fcb-parseline
- added debugger under linux/freebsd
- added debugger memory breakpoints and autolog function (heavy debug)
- added loadfix.com program that eats up memory (default 64kb)
Usage : loadfix [-option] [programname] [parameters]...
Example: loadfix mm2 (Allocates 64kb and starts executable mm2)
loadfix -32 mm2 (Allocates 32kb and starts executable mm2)
loadfix -128 (Allocates 128kb)
loadfix -f (frees all previous allocated memory)
- added echoing of characters for input function
- added support for backspace for input function
- added partial support for int10:01 set cursortype
- fixed most of the problems/bugs with character input.
- fixed allocationinfo call.(darksun series)
- improved dos support for non-existant functions
- Split screen support
- prefix 66 67 support
- rewrote timingscheme so 1000 hz timers don't cause problems anymore
- update adlib emulation
- fixed some isues with the mouse (double clicks and visible when it shouldn't be)
- improved mouse behaviour (mickey/pixel rate) and detection routines.
- basic ansi.sys support
- Disney sound system emulation
- rewrote upcase/lowcase functions so they work fine with gcc3.2
- SHELL: added rename and delete
- added support for command /C. Fixed crashes in the shell
- fixed various bugs when exiting dosbox
- fixed a bug in XMS
- fixed a bug with the joystick when pressing a button
- create nicer configfiles.
- bios_disk function improved.
- trapflag support
- improved vertical retrace timing.
- PIT Timer improvements and many bug fixes
- Many many bug fixes to the DOS subsystem
- Support for memory allocation strategy
- rewrote cpu mainloop to act more like a real cpu
0.56
- added support for a configclass/configfile
- added support for writing out the configclass into a configfile
- removed the language file and made it internal
- added support for writing the language file (will override the internal one)
- improved mousesupport
- updated readme
- support for screenshots
- some cpu-bug fixes
- dma changes
- Real Sound support
- EMM fixes and new functions.
- VGA fixes
- new wildcompare
- support for size and disktype at mount.
- added new debugger functionalities: start/trace into INTs, write processor status log,
step over rep and loop instructions, breakpoint support without using INT 03 (heavy debugging switch)
- Added more cpu instructions and changed the string operations.
- Added classes for most of the internal dos structures.
- Rewrote most of the fcb calls to use normal dos calls.
0.55
- fixed the errors/warnings in prefix_66.h and prefix_66_of.h (decimal too large becomming unsigned).
- fixed compilation error on FreeBSD when #disable_joystick was defined
- int10_writechar has been updated to move the cursor position.
- changed the basedir routines to use the current working dir instead of argv[0]. This will fix and brake things :)
- illegal command, now displays the command
- wildcmp updated to be case insensitive
- added fcb:open,close,findfirst, findnext.
- fixed rename in drive_local
- added new features to the debugger: breakpoint support / data view / command line
- partial support of list of lists (dos info block)
- full emm 3.2 support
- partial emm 4.0 support
- fixes to graphics core fonts (text in sierra games is now correct)
- improved support for user mousehandlers
- fixed EGA graphics
- fixed VGA graphics
- fixed write with size 0
- changed memory management.
- fixed and cleaned up the cpu flags.
- changed interrupt handler.
- speeded up the graphics.
- speeded up the cpu-core
- changed dma
- improved dma streams from emm memory
- added some cga videomodes
- added more funtions to the keyboard handler
0.50:
-added F3 to repeat the last typed command.
-made it possible to change the shellmessages(dosshell). so
you can costumize it.(dosbox.lang)
-changed cpu core.
-Fixed a lot of errors with the keyboard: shift-f1 and
alt-f1 now works.
-Fixed some division errors.
-made a plugin system.
-added a lot of real 386 mode instructions.
-made it possible to resize the screen.
-Mayor source cleanup/reorganisation.
-Complete rewrite of the graphics routines. Should make it
possible to implement more fancy things like 2xsai,interpolation.
-changed the sound playback.
-Changed the vga drawing to only draw on memory changes, instead
of drawing an entire frame.
-fixes to the soundblaster/dma code should be able to play 4-bit
adpcm compressed sounds.
-added the correct time to dir.
-bugfixes to batch-file handling.
-Lot's of small bugfixes.(Dune1&2,wolf3d, many more).
-Released the source.
DOSBox v0.74 Manual (always use the latest version from www.dosbox.com)
=====
NOTE:
=====
While we are hoping that one day DOSBox will run all programs ever made for
the PC, we are not there yet.
At present, DOSBox running on a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent
of a Pentium I PC. DOSBox can be configured to run a wide range of DOS games,
from CGA/Tandy/PCjr classics up to games from the Quake era.
======
INDEX:
======
1. Quickstart
2. Start (FAQ)
3. Command Line Parameters
4. Internal Programs
5. Special Keys
6. Joystick/Gamepad
7. KeyMapper
8. Keyboard Layout
9. Serial Multiplayer feature
10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox
11. Troubleshooting
12. DOSBox Status Window
13. The configuration (options) file
14. The language file
15. Building your own version of DOSBox
16. Special thanks
17. Contact
==============
1. Quickstart:
==============
Type INTRO in DOSBox for a quick tour.
It is essential that you get familiar with the idea of mounting, DOSBox does not
automatically make any drive (or a part of it) accessible to the emulation. See
the FAQ entry "How to start?" as well as the description of the MOUNT command
(section 4: "Internal Programs"). If you have your game on a cdrom you may try
this guide: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=8933
===============
2. Start (FAQ):
===============
START: How to start?
AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these "mount" commands?
FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?
CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work.
CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work.
SOUND: There is no sound.
SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?
SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.
KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.
KEYBOARD: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)
KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags.
CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!
CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!
CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup!
GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.
SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer?
OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options.
HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it.
START: How to start?
At the beginning you've got a Z:\> instead of a C:\> at the prompt.
You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using
the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give
you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory
(that was created before). In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you
a C drive in DOSBox which points to /home/username in Linux.
To change to the drive mounted like above, type "C:". If everything went
fine, DOSBox will display the prompt "C:\>".
AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these commands?
In the DOSBox configuration file is an [autoexec] section. The commands
present there are run when DOSBox starts, so you can use this section
for the mounting. Look at Section 13: The configuration (options) file
FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?
Press alt-enter. Alternatively: Edit the configuration file of DOSBox and
change the option fullscreen=false to fullscreen=true. If fullscreen looks
wrong in your opinion: Play with the options: fullresolution, output and
aspect in the configuration file of DOSBox. To get back from fullscreen
mode: Press alt-enter again.
CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work.
To mount your CD-ROM in DOSBox you have to specify some additional options
when mounting the CD-ROM.
To enable CD-ROM support (includes MSCDEX) in Windows:
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom
in Linux:
- mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom
In some cases you might want to use a different CD-ROM interface,
for example if CD audio does not work:
To enable SDL-support (does not include low-level CD access!):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -noioctl
To enable ioctl access using digital audio extraction for CD audio
(windows-only, useful for Vista):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dx
To enable ioctl access using MCI for CD audio (windows-only):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_mci
To force ioctl-only access (windows-only):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dio
To enable low-level aspi-support (win98 with aspi-layer installed):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -aspi
explanation: - d driveletter you will get in DOSBox (d is the best,
don't change it!)
- f:\ location of CD-ROM on your PC. In most cases it will
be d:\ or e:\
- 0 The number of the CD-ROM drive, reported by "mount -cd"
(note that this value is only needed when using SDL
for CD audio, otherwise it is ignored)
See also the next question: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
Be sure to mount the CD-ROM with -t cdrom switch, this will enable the
MSCDEX interface required by DOS games to interface with CD-ROMs.
Also try adding the correct label (-label LABEL) to the mount command,
where LABEL is the CD-label (volume ID) of the CD-ROM.
Under Windows you can specify -ioctl, -aspi or -noioctl. Look at the
description of the mount command in Section 4: "Internal programs"
for their meaning and the
additional audio-CD related options -ioctl_dx, ioctl_mci, ioctl_dio.
Try creating a CD-ROM image (preferably CUE/BIN pair) and use the
DOSBox's internal IMGMOUNT tool to mount the image (the CUE sheet).
This enables very good low-level CD-ROM support on any operating system.
MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work.
Usually, DOSBox detects when a game uses mouse control. When you click on
the screen it should get locked (confined to the DOSBox window) and work.
With certain games, the DOSBox mouse detection doesn't work. In that case
you will have to lock the mouse manually by pressing CTRL-F10.
SOUND: There is no sound.
Be sure that the sound is correctly configured in the game. This might be
done during the installation or with a setup/setsound utility that
accompanies the game. First see if an autodetection option is provided. If
there is none try selecting Soundblaster or Soundblaster 16 with the default
settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1" (sometimes highdma=5). You might
also want to select Sound Canvas/SCC/MPU-401/General MIDI/Wave Blaster
at "address=330 IRQ=2" as music device.
The parameters of the emulated sound cards can be changed in the DOSBox
configuration file.
If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal in DOSBox
configuration and use some lower fixed cycles value (like cycles=2000). Also
assure that your host operating sound does provide sound.
In certain cases it might be useful to use a different emulated sound device
like a soundblaster pro (sbtype=sbpro1 in the DOSBox configuration file) or
the gravis ultrasound (gus=true).
SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?
DOSBox emulates several legacy sound devices:
- Internal PC speaker/Buzzer
This emulation includes both the tone generator and several forms of
digital sound output through the internal speaker.
- Creative CMS/Gameblaster
The is the first card released by Creative Labs(R). The default
configuration places it on address 220. It is disabled as default.
- Tandy 3 voice
The emulation of this sound hardware is complete with the exception of
the noise channel. The noise channel is not very well documented and as
such is only a best guess as to the sound's accuracy. It is disabled as
default.
- Tandy DAC
Some games may require turning off sound blaster emulation (sbtype=none)
for better tandy DAC sound support. Don't forget to set the sbtype back to
sb16 if you don't use tandy sound.
- Adlib
This emulation is almost perfect and includes the Adlib's ability to
almost play digitized sound. Placed at address 220 (also on 388).
- SoundBlaster 16 / SoundBlaster Pro I & II / SoundBlaster I & II
By default DOSBox provides Soundblaster 16 level 16-bit stereo sound.
You can select a different SoundBlaster version in the configuration of
DOSBox. AWE32 music is not emulated as you can use MPU-401 instead
(see below).
- Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing
Using the printer port, this sound device outputs digital sound only.
Placed at LPT1
- Gravis Ultrasound
The emulation of this hardware is nearly complete, though the MIDI
capabilities have been left out, since an MPU-401 has been emulated
in other code. For Gravis music you also have to install Gravis drivers
inside DOSBox. It is disabled as default.
- MPU-401
A MIDI passthrough interface is also emulated. This method of sound
output will only work when used with external device/emulator.
Every Windows XP/Vista/7 and MAC OS has got a default emulator compatible
with: Sound Canvas/SCC/General Standard/General MIDI/Wave Blaster.
A different device/emulator is needed for Roland LAPC/CM-32L/MT-32
compatibility.
SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.
You may be using too much CPU power to keep DOSBox running at the current
speed. You can lower the cycles, skip frames, reduce the sampling rate of
the respective sound device, increase the prebuffer. See section 13: "The
configuration (options) file"
If you are using cycles=max or =auto, then make sure that there is no
background processes interfering! (especially if they access the harddisk)
Also look at Section 10. "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox"
KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.
This can happen in various cases, like your host keyboard layout does not
have a matching DOS layout representation (or it was not correctly
detected), or the key mapping is wrong.
Some possible fixes:
1. Use / instead, or ALT-58 for : and ALT-92 for \.
2. Change the DOS keyboard layout (see Section 8: Keyboard Layout).
3. Add the commands you want to execute to the [autoexec] section
of the DOSBox configuration file.
4. Open the DOSBox configuration file and change the usescancodes entry.
5. Switch the keyboard layout of your operating system.
Note that if the host layout can not be identified, or keyboardlayout is
set to none in the DOSBox configuration file, the standard US layout is
used. In this configuration try the keys around "enter" for the key \
(backslash), and for the key : (colon) use shift and the keys between
"enter" and "L".
KEYBOARD: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)
This may happen if Windows thinks that you have more than one keyboard
connected to your PC when you use some remote control devices.
To verity this problem run cmd.exe, navigate to DOSBox program folder
and type:
set sdl_videodriver=windib
dosbox.exe
check whether keyboard started to work properly. As windib is slower it is
best to use one of the two solutions provided here:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=24072
KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags.
Lower the priority setting in the DOSBox configuration file, for example
set "priority=normal,normal". You might also want to try lowering the
cycles (use a fixed cycle amount to start with, like cycles=10000).
CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
See if it still happens if you disable the joystick emulation,
set joysticktype=none in the [joystick] section of your DOSBox
configuration file. Maybe also try unplugging any joystick/gamepad.
If you want to use the joystick in the game, try setting timed=false
and be sure to calibrate the joystick (both in your OS as well as
in the game or the game's setup program).
SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!
Look at the section 10: "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox" for more
information.
CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!
Look at Section 11: Troubleshooting
CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup!.
Look at Section 11: Troubleshooting
GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.
First of all, try to find a port of the game. Those will offer a better
experience. To fix the graphics problem that occurs in DOSBox on higher
resolutions: Open the configuration file of DOSBox and search for
machine=svga_s3. Change svga_s3 to vesa_nolfb
Change memsize=16 to memsize=63
SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer?
DOSBox can not harm your computer more than any other resource demanding
program. Increasing the cycles does not overclock your real CPU.
Setting the cycles too high has a negative performance effect on the
software running inside DOSBox.
OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options.
Look at Section 13. "The configuration (options) file"
HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it.
For more questions read the rest of this Manual. You may also look at:
guides located at http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewforum.php?f=39
the wiki of DOSBox http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/
the site/forum: http://www.dosbox.com
===========================
3. Command Line Parameters:
===========================
An overview of the command line options you can give to DOSBox. Although
in most cases it is easier to use DOSBox's configuration file instead.
See: Section 13. "The configuration (options) file"
To be able to use Command Line Parameters:
(Windows) open cmd.exe or command.com or edit the shortcut to dosbox.exe
(Linux) use console
(MAC OS X) start terminal.app and navigate to:
/applications/dosbox.app/contents/macos/dosbox
The options are valid for all operating systems unless noted in the option
description:
dosbox [name] [-exit] [-c command] [-fullscreen] [-userconf]
[-conf congfigfilelocation] [-lang languagefilelocation]
[-machine machine type] [-noconsole] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec]
[-securemode] [-scaler scaler | -forcescaler scaler] [-version]
[-socket socket]
dosbox -version
dosbox -editconf program
dosbox -opencaptures program
dosbox -printconf
dosbox -eraseconf
dosbox -erasemapper
name
If "name" is a directory it will mount that as the C: drive.
If "name" is an executable it will mount the directory of "name"
as the C: drive and execute "name".
-exit
DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application "name" ends.
-c command
Runs the specified command before running "name". Multiple commands
can be specified. Each command should start with "-c" though.
A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or an executable
on a mounted drive.
-fullscreen
Starts DOSBox in fullscreen mode.
-userconf
Start DOSBox with the users specific configuration file. Can be used
together with multiple -conf parameters, but -userconf will always be
loaded before them.
-conf configfilelocation
Start DOSBox with the options specified in "configfilelocation".
Multiple -conf options may be present.
See Section 13 for more details.
-lang languagefilelocation
Start DOSBox using the language specified in "languagefilelocation".
See Section 14 for more details.
-machine machinetype
Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are:
hercules, cga, ega, pcjr, tandy, svga_s3 (default) as well as
the additional svga chipsets listed in the DOSBox configuration file.
svga_s3 enables vesa emulation as well.
For some special vga effects the machinetype vgaonly can be used,
note that this disables svga capabilities and might be slower due to the
higher emulation precision.
The machinetype affects the video card and the available sound cards.
-noconsole (Windows Only)
Start DOSBox without showing DOSBox Status Window (console).
Output will be redirected to stdout.txt and stderr.txt
-startmapper
Enter the keymapper directly on startup. Useful for people with
keyboard problems.
-noautoexec
Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.
-securemode
Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the
bottom of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how
the drives are mounted inside DOSBox).
-scaler scaler
Uses the scaler specified by "scaler". See the DOSBox configuration file
for the available scalers.
-forcescaler scaler
Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of
the specified scaler even if it might not fit.
-version
output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.
-editconf program
calls program with as first parameter the configuration file.
You can specify this command more than once. In this case it will
move to second program if the first one fails to start.
-opencaptures program
calls program with as first parameter the location of the captures
folder.
-printconf
prints the location of the default configuration file.
-resetconf
removes the default configuration file.
-resetmapper
removes the mapperfile used by the default clean configuration file.
-socket
passes the socket number to the nullmodem emulation. See Section 9:
"Serial Multiplayer feature."
Note: If a name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation contains
a space, put the whole name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation
between quotes ("command or file name"). If you need to use quotes within
quotes (most likely with -c and mount):
Windows and OS/2 users can use single quotes inside the double quotes.
Other people should be able to use escaped double quotes inside the
double quotes.
Windows: -c "mount c 'c:\My folder with DOS games\'"
Linux: -c "mount c \"/tmp/name with space\""
A rather unusual example, just to demonstrate what you can do (Windows):
dosbox D:\folder\file.exe -c "MOUNT Y H:\MyFolder"
This mounts D:\folder as C:\ and runs file.exe.
Before it does that, it will first mount H:\MyFolder as the Y drive.
In Windows, you can also drag directories/files onto the DOSBox executable.
=====================
4. Internal Programs:
=====================
DOSBox supports most of the DOS commands found in command.com.
To get a list of the internal commands type "HELP" at the prompt.
In addition, the following commands are available:
MOUNT "Emulated Drive letter" "Real Drive or Directory"
[-t type] [-aspi] [-ioctl] [-noioctl] [-usecd number] [-size drivesize]
[-label drivelabel] [-freesize size_in_mb]
[-freesize size_in_kb (floppies)]
MOUNT -cd
MOUNT -u "Emulated Drive letter"
Program to mount local directories as drives inside DOSBox.
"Emulated Drive letter"
The driveletter inside DOSBox (for example C).
"Real Drive letter (usually for CD-ROMs in Windows) or Directory"
The local directory you want accessible inside DOSBox.
-t type
Type of the mounted directory.
Supported are: dir (default), floppy, cdrom.
-size drivesize
(experts only)
Sets the size of the drive, where drivesize is of the form
"bps,spc,tcl,fcl":
bps: bytes per sector, by default 512 for regular drives and
2048 for CD-ROM drives
spc: sectors per cluster, usually between 1 and 127
tcl: total clusters, between 1 and 65534
fcl: total free clusters, between 1 and tcl
-freesize size_in_mb | size_in_kb
Sets the amount of free space available on a drive
in megabytes (regular drives) or kilobytes (floppy drives).
This is a simpler version of -size.
-label drivelabel
Sets the name of the drive to "drivelabel". Needed on some systems
if the CD-ROM label isn't read correctly (useful when a program
can't find its CD-ROM). If you don't specify a label
and no lowlevel support is selected (that is omitting the -usecd #
and/or -aspi parameters, or specifying -noioctl):
For Windows: label is extracted from "Real Drive".
For Linux: label is set to NO_LABEL.
If you do specify a label, this label will be kept as long as the drive
is mounted. It will not be updated !!
-aspi
Forces use of the aspi layer. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under
Windows systems with an ASPI-Layer.
-ioctl (automatic selection of the CD audio interface)
-ioctl_dx (digital audio extraction used for CD audio)
-ioctl_dio (ioctl calls used for CD audio)
-ioctl_mci (MCI used for CD audio)
Forces use of ioctl commands. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under
a Windows OS which support them (Win2000/XP/NT).
The various choices only differ in the way CD audio is handled,
preferably -ioctl_dio is used (lowest workload), but this might not
work on all systems, so -ioctl_dx (or -ioctl_mci) can be used.
-noioctl
Forces use of the SDL CD-ROM layer. Valid on all systems.
-usecd number
Valid on all systems, under windows the -noioctl switch has to be
present to make use of the -usecd switch.
Enables to select the drive that should be used by SDL. Use this if
the wrong or no CD-ROM drive is mounted while using the SDL CD-ROM
interface. "number" can be found by "MOUNT -cd".
-cd
Displays all CD-ROM drives detected by SDL, and their numbers.
See the information at the -usecd entry above.
-u
Removes the mount. Doesn't work for Z:\.
Note: It's possible to mount a local directory as CD-ROM drive,
but hardware support is then missing.
Basically MOUNT allows you to connect real hardware to DOSBox's emulated PC.
So MOUNT C C:\GAMES tells DOSBox to use your C:\GAMES directory as drive C:
in DOSBox. MOUNT C E:\SomeFolder tells DOSBox to use your E:\SomeFolder
directory as drive C: in DOSBox.
Mounting your entire C drive with MOUNT C C:\ is NOT recommended! The same
is true for mounting the root of any other drive, except for CD-ROMs (due to
their read-only nature).
Otherwise if you or DOSBox make a mistake you may lose all your files.
Also never mount a "Windows" or "Program Files" folders or their subfolders
in Windows Vista/7 as DOSBox may not work correctly, or will stop working
correctly later. It is recommended to keep all your dos applications/games
in a simple folder (for example c:\dosgames) and mount that.
You should always install your game inside DOSBox.
So if you have the game on CD you always (even after installation!)
have to mount both: folder as a harddisk drive and a CD-ROM.
HardDisk should always be mounted as c
CD-ROM should always be mounted as d
Floppy should always be mounted as a (or b)
Basic MOUNT Examples for normal usage (Windows):
1. To mount a folder as a harddisk drive:
mount c d:\dosgames
3. To mount your CD-ROM drive E as CD-ROM drive D in DOSBox:
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
2. To mount your drive a: as a floppy:
mount a a:\ -t floppy
Advanced MOUNT examples (Windows):
4. To mount a hard disk drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (simple version):
mount c d:\dosgames -freesize 870
5. To mount a drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (experts only, full control):
mount c d:\dosgames -size 512,127,16513,13500
1. To mount c:\dosgames\floppy as a floppy:
mount a c:\dosgames\floppy -t floppy
Other MOUNT examples:
3. To mount system CD-ROM drive at mountpoint /media/cdrom as CD-ROM drive D
in DOSBox:
mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom -usecd 0
6. To mount /home/user/dosgames as drive C in DOSBox:
mount c /home/user/dosgames
7. To mount the directory where DOSBox was started as C in DOSBox:
mount c .
(note the . which represents the directory where DOSBox was started,
on Windows Vista/7 don't use this if you installed DOSBox
to your "Program Files" folder)
If you want to mount a CD image or floppy image, check IMGMOUNT.
MOUNT also works with images but only if you use external program,
for example (both are free):
- Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),
- Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).
Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.
MEM
Program to display the amount and type of free memory.
VER
VER set major_version [minor_version]
Display the current DOSBox version and reported DOS version
(parameterless usage).
Change the reported DOS version with the "set" parameter,
for example: "VER set 6 22" to have DOSBox report DOS 6.22 as version number.
CONFIG -writeconf filelocation
CONFIG -writelang filelocation
CONFIG -securemode
CONFIG -set "section property=value"
CONFIG -get "section property"
CONFIG can be used to change or query various settings of DOSBox
during runtime. It can save the current settings and language strings to
disk. Information about all possible sections and properties can
be found in Section 13: "The configuration (options) file".
-writeconf filelocation
Write the current configuration settings to a file in a specified location.
"filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive in DOSBox.
The configuration file controls various settings of DOSBox:
the amount of emulated memory, the emulated sound cards and many more
things. It allows access to AUTOEXEC.BAT as well.
See Section 13: "The configuration (options) file" for more information.
-writelang filelocation
Write the current language settings to a file in a specified location.
"filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive
in DOSBox. The language file controls all visible output of the internal
commands and the internal DOS.
See Section 14: "The Language File" for more information.
-securemode
Switches DOSBox to a more secure mode. In this mode the internal
commands MOUNT, IMGMOUNT and BOOT won't work. It's not possible either
to create a new configfile or languagefile in this mode.
(Warning: you can only undo this mode by restarting DOSBox.)
-set "section property=value"
CONFIG will attempt to set the property to new value.
Currently CONFIG can not report whether the command succeeded or not.
-get "section property"
The current value of the property is reported and stored in the
environment variable %CONFIG%. This can be used to store the value
when using batch files.
Both "-set" and "-get" work from batch files and can be used to set up your
own preferences for each game. Although it may be easier to use separate
DOSBox's configuration files for each game instead.
Examples:
1. To create a configuration file in your c:\dosgames directory:
config -writeconf c:\dosgames\dosbox.conf
2. To set the cpu cycles to 10000:
config -set "cpu cycles=10000"
3. To turn ems memory emulation off:
config -set "dos ems=off"
4. To check which cpu core is being used.
config -get "cpu core"
LOADFIX [-size] [program] [program-parameters]
LOADFIX -f
Program to reduce the amount of available conventional memory.
Useful for old programs which don't expect much memory to be free.
-size
number of kilobytes to "eat up", default = 64kb
-f
frees all previously allocated memory
Examples:
1. To start mm2.exe and allocate 64kb memory
(mm2 will have 64 kb less available):
loadfix mm2
2. To start mm2.exe and allocate 32kb memory:
loadfix -32 mm2
3. To free previous allocated memory:
loadfix -f
RESCAN
Make DOSBox reread the directory structure. Useful if you changed something
on a mounted drive outside of DOSBox. (CTRL - F4 does this as well!)
MIXER
Makes DOSBox display its current volume settings.
Here's how you can change them:
mixer channel left:right [/NOSHOW] [/LISTMIDI]
channel
Can be one of the following: MASTER, DISNEY, SPKR, GUS, SB, FM [, CDAUDIO].
CDAUDIO is only available if a CD-ROM interface with volume control is
enabled (CD image, ioctl_dx).
left:right
The volume levels in percentages. If you put a D in front it will be
in decibel (Example: mixer gus d-10).
/NOSHOW
Prevents DOSBox from showing the result if you set one
of the volume levels.
/LISTMIDI
In Windows lists the available midi devices on your PC. To select a device
other than the Windows default midi-mapper, change the line 'midiconfig='
in the [midi] section of the configuration file to 'midiconfig=id', where
'id' is the number for the device as listed by LISTMIDI. eg. midiconfig=2
In Linux this option doesn't work, but you get similar results by using
'pmidi -l' in console. Then change the line 'midiconfig=' to
'midiconfig=port', where 'port' is the port for the device as listed by
'pmidi -l'. eg. midiconfig=128:0
IMGMOUNT
A utility to mount disk images and CD-ROM images in DOSBox.
IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile] -t [image_type] -fs [image_format]
-size [sectorsbytesize, sectorsperhead, heads, cylinders]
IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN] -t cdrom -fs iso
imagefile
Location of the image file to mount in DOSBox. The location can be
on a mounted drive inside DOSBox, or on your real disk. It is possible
to mount CD-ROM images (ISOs or CUE/BIN or CUE/IMG) too.
If you need CD swapping capabilities, specify all images in succession
(see the next entry).
CUE/BIN pairs and cue/img are the preferred CD-ROM image types as they can
store audio tracks compared to ISOs (which are data-only). For
the CUE/BIN mounting always specify the CUE sheet.
imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN
Location of the image files to mount in DOSBox. Specifying a number
of image files is only allowed for CD-ROM images.
The CD's can be swapped with CTRL-F4 at any time.
This is required for games which use multiple CD-ROMs and require the CD
to be switched during the gameplay at some point.
-t
The following are valid image types:
floppy: Specifies a floppy image. DOSBox will automatically identify
the disk geometry (360K, 1.2MB, 720K, 1.44MB, etc).
cdrom: Specifies a CD-ROM image. The geometry is automatic and
set for this size. This can be an iso or a cue/bin pair or
a cue/img pair.
hdd: Specifies a harddrive image. The proper CHS geometry must be set
for this to work.
-fs
The following are valid file system formats:
iso: Specifies the ISO 9660 CD-ROM format.
fat: Specifies that the image uses the FAT file system. DOSBox will
attempt to mount this image as a drive in DOSBox and make
the files available from inside DOSBox.
none: DOSBox will make no attempt to read the file system on the disk.
This is useful if you need to format it or if you want to boot
the disk using the BOOT command. When using the "none"
filesystem, you must specify the drive number (2 or 3,
where 2 = master, 3 = slave) rather than a drive letter.
For example, to mount a 70MB image as the slave drive device,
you would type (without the quotes):
"imgmount 3 d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142 -fs none"
Compare this with a mount to be able to access the drive
within DOSBox, which would read as:
"imgmount e: d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142"
-size
The Cylinders, Heads and Sectors of the drive.
Required to mount hard drive images.
An example how to mount CD-ROM images (in Linux):
1. imgmount d /tmp/cdimage1.cue /tmp/cdimage2.cue -t cdrom
or (which also works):
2a. mount c /tmp
2b. imgmount d c:\cdimage1.cue c:\cdimage2.cue -t cdrom
(in Windows):
imgmount d f:\img\CD1.cue f:\img\CD2.cue f:\img\CD3.cue -t cdrom
imgmount d "g:\img\7th Guest CD1.cue" "g:\img\7th Guest CD2.cue" -t cdrom
Don't forget that you can also use MOUNT with images, but only if you use
external program, for example (both are free):
- Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),
- Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).
Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.
BOOT
Boot will start floppy images or hard disk images independent of
the operating system emulation offered by DOSBox. This will allow you to
play booter floppies or boot other operating systems inside DOSBox.
If the target emulated system is PCjr (machine=pcjr) the boot command
can be used to load PCjr cartridges (.jrc).
BOOT [diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img] [-l driveletter]
BOOT [cart.jrc] (PCjr only)
diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img
This can be any number of floppy disk images one wants mounted after
DOSBox boots the specified drive letter.
To swap between images, hit CTRL-F4 to change from the current disk
to the next disk in the list. The list will loop back from the last
disk image to the beginning.
[-l driveletter]
This parameter allows you to specify the drive to boot from.
The default is the A drive, the floppy drive. You can also boot
a hard drive image mounted as master by specifying "-l C"
without the quotes, or the drive as slave by specifying "-l D"
cart.jrc (PCjr only)
When emulation of a PCjr is enabled, cartridges can be loaded with
the BOOT command. Support is still limited.
IPX
You need to enable IPX networking in the configuration file of DOSBox.
All of the IPX networking is managed through the internal DOSBox program
IPXNET. For help on the IPX networking from inside DOSBox, type
"IPXNET HELP" (without quotes) and the program will list the commands
and relevant documentation.
With regard to actually setting up a network, one system needs to be
the server. To set this up, type "IPXNET STARTSERVER" (without the quotes)
in a DOSBox session. The server DOSBox session will automatically add
itself to the virtual IPX network. For every additional computer that
should be part of the virtual IPX network, you'll need to type
"IPXNET CONNECT <computer host name or IP>".
For example, if your server is at bob.dosbox.com, you would type
"IPXNET CONNECT bob.dosbox.com" on every non-server system.
To play games that need Netbios a file named NETBIOS.EXE from Novell is
needed. Establish the IPX connection as explained above, then run
"netbios.exe".
The following is an IPXNET command reference:
IPXNET CONNECT
IPXNET CONNECT opens a connection to an IPX tunneling server
running on another DOSBox session. The "address" parameter specifies
the IP address or host name of the server computer. You can also
specify the UDP port to use. By default IPXNET uses port 213 - the
assigned IANA port for IPX tunneling - for its connection.
The syntax for IPXNET CONNECT is:
IPXNET CONNECT address <port>
IPXNET DISCONNECT
IPXNET DISCONNECT closes the connection to the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET DISCONNECT is:
IPXNET DISCONNECT
IPXNET STARTSERVER
IPXNET STARTSERVER starts an IPX tunneling server on this DOSBox
session. By default, the server will accept connections on UDP port
213, though this can be changed. Once the server is started, DOSBox
will automatically start a client connection to the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET STARTSERVER is:
IPXNET STARTSERVER <port>
If the server is behind a router, UDP port <port> needs to be forwarded
to that computer.
On Linux/Unix-based systems port numbers smaller than 1023 can only be
used with root privileges. Use ports greater than 1023 on those systems.
IPXNET STOPSERVER
IPXNET STOPSERVER stops the IPX tunneling server running on this DOSBox
session. Care should be taken to ensure that all other connections have
terminated as well, since stopping the server may cause lockups on other
machines that are still using the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET STOPSERVER is:
IPXNET STOPSERVER
IPXNET PING
IPXNET PING broadcasts a ping request through the IPX tunneled network.
In response, all other connected computers will respond to the ping
and report the time it took to receive and send the ping message.
The syntax for IPXNET PING is:
IPXNET PING
IPXNET STATUS
IPXNET STATUS reports the current state of this DOSBox session's
IPX tunneling network. For a list of all computers connected to the
network use the IPXNET PING command.
The syntax for IPXNET STATUS is:
IPXNET STATUS
KEYB [keyboardlayoutcode [codepage [codepagefile]]]
Change the keyboard layout. For detailed information about keyboard layouts
please see Section 8: "Keyboard Layout"
[keyboardlayoutcode] is a string consisting of five or less characters,
examples are PL214 (Polish typists) or PL457 (Polish programmers).
It specifies the keyboard layout to be used.
The list of all layouts built into DOSBox is here:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=21824
[codepage] is the number of the codepage to be used. The keyboard layout
has to provide support for the specified codepage, otherwise the layout
loading will fail.
If no codepage is specified, an appropriate codepage for the requested
layout is chosen automatically.
[codepagefile] can be used to load codepages that are yet not compiled
into DOSBox. This is only needed when DOSBox does not find the codepage.
If no codepagefile is specified, but you place all ten ega.cpx files
(from FreeDOS) in the DOSBox program folder, an appropriate codepagefile
for the requested layout/codepage is chosen automatically.
Examples:
1. To load the polish typist keys layout (automatically uses codepage 852):
keyb pl214
2. To load one of russian keyboard layouts with codepage 866:
keyb ru441 866
In order to type russian characters press ALT+RIGHT-SHIFT.
3. To load one of french keyboard layouts with codepage 850 (where the
codepage is defined in EGACPI.DAT):
keyb fr189 850 EGACPI.DAT
4. To load codepage 858 (without a keyboard layout):
keyb none 858
This can be used to change the codepage for the FreeDOS keyb2 utility.
5. To display the current codepage and, if loaded, the keyboard layout:
keyb
For more information use the /? command line switch with the programs.
================
5. Special Keys:
================
ALT-ENTER Switch to full screen and back.
ALT-PAUSE Pause emulation (hit ALT-PAUSE again to continue).
CTRL-F1 Start the keymapper.
CTRL-F4 Change between mounted floppy/CD images. Update directory cache
for all drives.
CTRL-ALT-F5 Start/Stop creating a movie of the screen. (avi video capturing)
CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot. (PNG format)
CTRL-F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file.
CTRL-ALT-F7 Start/Stop recording of OPL commands. (DRO format)
CTRL-ALT-F8 Start/Stop the recording of raw MIDI commands.
CTRL-F7 Decrease frameskip.
CTRL-F8 Increase frameskip.
CTRL-F9 Kill DOSBox.
CTRL-F10 Capture/Release the mouse.
CTRL-F11 Slow down emulation (Decrease DOSBox Cycles).
CTRL-F12 Speed up emulation (Increase DOSBox Cycles)*.
ALT-F12 Unlock speed (turbo button/fast forward)**.
F11, ALT-F11 (machine=cga) change tint in NTSC output modes***
F11 (machine=hercules) cycle through amber, green, white colouring***
*NOTE: Once you increase your DOSBox cycles beyond your computer CPU resources,
it will produce the same effect as slowing down the emulation.
This maximum will vary from computer to computer.
**NOTE: You need free CPU resources for this (the more you have, the faster
it goes), so it won't work at all with cycles=max or a too high amount
of fixed cycles. You have to keep the keys pressed for it to work!
***NOTE: These keys won't work if you saved a mapper file earlier with
a different machine type. So either reassign them or reset the mapper.
These are the default keybindings. They can be changed in the keymapper
(see Section 7: KeyMapper).
In MAC OS you can try using cmd(applekey) together with Ctrl if the key doesn't
work eg. cmd-ctrl-F1, but some keys may still need remapping (in Linux too).
Saved/recorded files can be found in:
(Windows) "Start/WinLogo Menu"->"All Programs"->DOSBox-0.74->Extras
(Linux) ~/.dosbox/capture
(MAC OS X) "~/Library/Preferences/capture"
This can be changed in the DOSBox configuration file.
====================
6. Joystick/Gamepad:
====================
The standard joystick port in DOS supports a maximum of 4 axes and 4 buttons.
For more, different modifications of that configuration were used.
To force DOSBox to use a different type of emulated joystick/gamepad, the entry
"joysticktype" in the [joystick] section of the DOSBox configuration file can
be used.
none - disables controller support.
auto - (default) autodetects whether you have one or two controllers connected:
if you have one - '4axis' setting is used,
if you have two - '2axis' setting is used.
2axis - If you have two controllers connected, each will emulate a joystick
with 2 axes and 2 buttons. If you have only one controller connected,
it will emulate a joystick with only 2 axis and 2 buttons.
4axis - supports only first controller, emulates a joystick
with 4 axis and 4 buttons or a gamepad with 2axis and 6 buttons.
4axis_2 - supports only second controller.
fcs - supports only first controller, emulates ThrustMaster
Flight Control System, with 3-axes, 4 buttons and 1 hat.
ch - supports only first controller, emulates CH Flightstick,
with 4-axes, 6 buttons and 1 hat, but you cannot press more
than one button at the same time.
You also have to configure controller properly inside the game.
It is important to remember that if you saved the mapperfile without joystick
connected, or with a different joystick setting, your new setting will
not work
properly,
or not work at all, until you reset DOSBox's mapperfile.
If controller is working properly outside DOSBox, but doesn't calibrate properly
inside DOSBox, try different 'timed' setting in DOSBox's configuration file.
=============
7. KeyMapper:
=============
You start the DOSBox mapper either with CTRL-F1 (see section 5. Special Keys)
or -startmapper (see Section 3. Command Line Parameters).
You are presented with a virtual keyboard and a virtual joystick.
These virtual devices correspond to the keys and events DOSBox will
report to the DOS applications. If you click on a button with your mouse,
you can see in the lower left corner with which event it is associated
(EVENT) and to what events it is currently bound.
Event: EVENT
BIND: BIND (the real key/button/axis you push with your finger/hand)
Add Del
mod1 hold Next
mod2
mod3
EVENT
The key or joystick axis/button/hat DOSBox will report to DOS applications.
(the event that will happen during the game, (eg. shooting/jumping/walking)
BIND
The key on your real keyboard or the axis/button/hat on your real
joystick(s) (as reported by SDL), which is connected to the EVENT.
mod1,2,3
Modifiers. These are keys you need to have to be pressed while pressing
BIND. mod1 = CTRL and mod2 = ALT. These are generally only used when you
want to change the special keys of DOSBox.
Add
Add a new BIND to this EVENT. Basically add a key from your keyboard or an
event from the joystick (button press, axis/hat movement) which will
produce the EVENT in DOSBox.
Del
Delete the BIND to this EVENT. If an EVENT has no BINDS, then it is not
possible to trigger this event in DOSBox (that is there's no way to type
the key or use the respective action of the joystick).
Next
Go through the list of bindings which map to this EVENT.
Example:
Q1. You want to have the X on your keyboard to type a Z in DOSBox.
A. Click on the Z on the keyboard mapper. Click "Add".
Now press the X key on your keyboard.
Q2. If you click "Next" a couple of times, you will notice that the Z on your
keyboard also produces an Z in DOSBox.
A. Therefore select the Z again, and click "Next" until you have the Z on
your keyboard. Now click "Del".
Q3. If you try it out in DOSBox, you will notice that pressing X makes ZX
appear.
A. The X on your keyboard is still mapped to the X as well! Click on
the X in the keyboard mapper and search with "Next" until you find the
mapped key X. Click "Del".
Examples about remapping the joystick:
You have a joystick attached, it is working fine under DOSBox and you
want to play some keyboard-only game with the joystick (it is assumed
that the game is controlled by the arrows on the keyboard):
1. Start the mapper, then click on one of the left keyboard arrow.
EVENT should be key_left. Now click on Add and move your joystick
in the respective direction, this should add an event to the BIND.
2. Repeat the above for the missing three directions, additionally
the buttons of the joystick can be remapped as well (fire/jump).
3. Click on Save, then on Exit and test it with some game.
You want to swap the y-axis of the joystick because some flightsim uses
the up/down joystick movement in a way you don't like, and it is not
configurable in the game itself:
1. Start the mapper and click on Y- in the first joystick field.
EVENT should be jaxis_0_1-.
2. Click on Del to remove the current binding, then click Add and move
your joystick downwards. A new bind should be created.
3. Repeat this for Y+, save the layout and finally test it with some game.
If you want to remap anything to your d-pad/hat you will have to change
'joysticktype=auto' to 'joysticktype=fcs' in configuration file. Maybe this
will be improved in the next dosbox version.
If you change the default mapping, you can save your changes by clicking on
"Save". DOSBox will save the mapping to a location specified in
the configuration file (the mapperfile= entry). At startup, DOSBox will load
your mapperfile, if it is present in the DOSBox configuration file.
===================
8. Keyboard Layout:
===================
To switch to a different keyboard layout, either the entry "keyboardlayout"
in the [dos] section of the DOSBox configuration file can be used, or the
internal DOSBox program keyb.com (Section 4: Internal Programs)
Both accept DOS conforming language codes (see below),
but only by using keyb.com a custom codepage can be specified.
The default keyboardlayout=auto currently works under windows only. The language
is chosen according to the OS language, but the keyboard layout is not detected.
Layout switching
DOSBox supports a number of keyboard layouts and codepages by default,
in this case just the layout identifier needs to be specified (like
keyboardlayout=PL214 in the DOSBox configuration file, or using "keyb PL214"
at the DOSBox command prompt). The list of all layouts built into DOSBox is
here: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=21824
Some keyboard layouts (for example layout GK319 codepage 869 and layout RU441
codepage 808) have support for dual layouts that can be accessed by pressing
LeftALT+RrightSHIFT for one layout and LeftALT+LeftSHIFT for the other.
Some keyboard layouts (for example layout LT456 codepage 771) have support
for three layouts, third can be accessed by pressing LeftALT+LeftCTRL
Supported external files
The FreeDOS .kl files are supported (FreeDOS keyb2 keyboard layoutfiles) as
well as the FreeDOS keyboard.sys/keybrd2.sys/keybrd3.sys libraries which
consist of all available .kl files.
See http://www.freedos.org/ for precompiled keyboard layouts if
the DOSBox-integrated layouts don't work for some reason, or if updated or
new layouts become available.
Both .CPI (MS-DOS and compatible codepage files) and .CPX (FreeDOS
UPX-compressed codepage files) can be used. Some codepages are compiled
into DOSBox, so it is mostly not needed to care about external codepage
files. If you need a different (or custom) codepage file, copy it into
the directory of the DOSBox so it is accessible for DOSBox.
If you place all ten ega.cpx files (from FreeDOS) in DOSBox folder,
an appropriate codepagefile for the requested layout/codepage is
chosen automatically.
Additional layouts can be added by copying the corresponding .kl file into
the directory of the DOSBox configuration file and using the first part of
the filename as language code.
Example: For the file UZ.KL (keyboard layout for Uzbekistan) specify
"keyboardlayout=uz" in the DOSBox configuration file.
The integration of keyboard layout packages (like keybrd2.sys) works similar.
Note that the keyboard layout allows foreign characters to be entered, but
there is NO support for them in filenames. Try to avoid them both inside
DOSBox as well as in files on your host operating system that are accessible
by DOSBox.
==============================
9. Serial Multiplayer feature:
==============================
DOSBox can emulate a serial nullmodem cable over network and internet.
It can be configured through the [serialports] section in the DOSBox
configuration file.
To create a nullmodem connection, one side needs to act as the server and
one as the client.
The server needs to be set up in the DOSBox configuration file like this:
serial1=nullmodem
The client:
serial1=nullmodem server:<IP or name of the server>
Now start your game and choose nullmodem / serial cable / already connected
as multiplayer method on COM1. Set the same baudrate on both computers.
Furthermore, additional parameters can be specified to control the behavior
of the nullmodem connection. These are all parameters:
* port: - TCP port number. Default: 23
* rxdelay: - how long (milliseconds) to delay received data if the
interface is not ready. Increase this value if you encounter
overrun errors in the DOSBox Status Window. Default: 100
* txdelay: - how long to gather data before sending a packet. Default: 12
(reduces Network overhead)
* server: - This nullmodem will be a client connecting to the specified
server. (No server argument: be a server.)
* transparent:1 - Only send the serial data, no RTS/DTR handshake. Use this
when connecting to anything other than a nullmodem.
* telnet:1 - Interpret Telnet data from the remote site. Automatically
sets transparent.
* usedtr:1 - The connection will not be established until DTR is switched
on by the DOS program. Useful for modem terminals.
Automatically sets transparent.
* inhsocket:1 - Use a socket passed to DOSBox by command line. Automatically
sets transparent. (Socket Inheritance: It is used for
playing old DOS door games on new BBS software.)
Example: Be a server listening on TCP port 5000.
serial1=nullmodem server:<IP or name of the server> port:5000 rxdelay:1000
=====================================
10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox:
=====================================
DOSBox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and other peripherals
of a PC, all at the same time. The speed of an emulated DOS application
depends on how many instructions can be emulated, which is adjustable
(number of cycles).
CPU Cycles (speed up/slow down)
By default (cycles=auto) DOSBox tries to detect whether a game needs to
be run with as many instructions emulated per time interval as possible
(cycles=max, sometimes this results in game working too fast or unstable),
or whether to use fixed amount of cycles (cycles=3000, sometimes this results
in game working too slow or too fast). But you can always manually force
a different setting in the DOSBox's configuration file.
You can force the slow or fast behavior by setting a fixed amount of cycles
in the DOSBox's configuration file. If you for example set cycles=10000, then
DOSBox window will display a line "Cpu Speed: fixed 10000 cycles" at the top.
In this mode you can reduce the amount of cycles even more by hitting CTRL-F11
(you can go as low as you want) or raise it by hitting CTRL-F12 as much as you
want, but you will be limited by the power of one core of your computer's CPU.
You can see how much free time your real CPU's cores have by looking at
the Task Manager in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and the System Monitor
in Windows 95/98/ME. Once 100% of the power of your computer's real CPU's one
core is used, there is no further way to speed up DOSBox (it will actually
start to slow down), unless you reduce the load generated by the non-CPU parts
of DOSBox. DOSBox can use only one core of your CPU, so If you have
for example a CPU with 4 cores, DOSBox will not be able to use the power
of three other cores.
You can also force the fast behavior by setting cycles=max in the DOSBox
configuration file. The DOSBox window will display a line
"Cpu Speed: max 100% cycles" at the top then. This time you won't have to care
how much free time your real CPU's cores have, because DOSBox will always use
100% of your real CPU's one core. In this mode you can reduce the amount
of your real CPU's core usage by CTRL-F11 or raise it with CTRL-F12.
CPU Core (speed up)
On x86 architectures you can try to force the usage of a dynamically
recompiling core (set core=dynamic in the DOSBox configuration file).
This usually gives better results if the auto detection (core=auto) fails.
It is best accompanied by cycles=max. But you may also try using it with
high amounts of cycles (for example 20000 or more). Note that there might be
games that work worse/crash with the dynamic core (so save your game often),
or do not work at all!
Graphics emulation (speed up)
VGA emulation is a demanding part of DOSBox in terms of actual CPU usage.
Increase the number of frames skipped (in increments of one) by pressing
CTRL-F8. Your CPU usage should decrease when using a fixed cycle setting,
and you will be able to increase cycles with CTRL-F12.
You can repeat this until the game runs fast enough for you.
Please note that this is a trade-off: you lose in fluidity of video what
you gain in speed.
Sound emulation (speed up)
You can also try to disable the sound through the setup utility of the game
to reduce load on your CPU further. Setting nosound=true in DOSBox's
configuration does NOT disable the emulation of sound devices, just
the output of sound will be disabled.
Also try to close every program but DOSBox to reserve as much resources
as possible for DOSBox.
Advanced cycles configuration:
The cycles=auto and cycles=max settings can be parameterized to have
different startup defaults. The syntax is
cycles=auto ["realmode default"] ["protected mode default"%]
[limit "cycle limit"]
cycles=max ["protected mode default"%] [limit "cycle limit"]
Example:
cycles=auto 5000 80% limit 20000
will use cycles=5000 for real mode games, 80% CPU throttling for
protected mode games along with a hard cycle limit of 20000
====================
11. Troubleshooting:
====================
General tip:
Check messages in DOSBox Status Window. See section 12. "DOSBox Status Window"
DOSBox crashes right after starting it:
- use different values for the output= entry in your DOSBox
configuration file
- try to update your graphics card driver and DirectX
- (Linux) set the environment variable SDL_AUDIODRIVER to alsa or oss.
Running a certain game closes DOSBox, crashes with some message or hangs:
- see if it works with a default DOSBox installation
(unmodified configuration file)
- try it with sound disabled (use the sound configuration
program that comes with the game, additionally you can
set sbtype=none and gus=false in the DOSBox configuration file)
- change some entries of the DOSBox configuration file, especially try:
core=normal
fixed cycles (for example cycles=10000)
ems=false
xms=false
or combinations of the above settings,
similar the machine settings that control the emulated chipset and
functionality:
machine=vesa_nolfb
or
machine=vgaonly
- use loadfix before starting the game
The game exits to the DOSBox prompt with some error message:
- read the error message closely and try to locate the error
- try the hints at the above sections
- mount differently as some games are picky about the locations,
for example if you used "mount d d:\oldgames\game" try
"mount c d:\oldgames\game" and "mount c d:\oldgames"
- if the game requires a CD-ROM be sure you used "-t cdrom" when
mounting and try different additional parameters (the ioctl,
usecd and label switches, see the appropriate section)
- check the file permissions of the game files (remove read-only
attributes, add write permissions etc.)
- try reinstalling the game within DOSBox
=========================
12. DOSBox Status Window:
=========================
DOSBox's Staus window contains many useful information about your currant
configuration, your actions in DOSBox, errors that happened and more.
Whenever you have any problem with DOSBox check these messages.
To start DOSBox Status Window:
(Windows) Status Window is being started together with main DOSBox window.
(Linux) You may have to start DOSBox from a console to see Status Window.
(MAC OS X) Right click on DOSBox.app, choose "Show Package Contents"->
->enter "Contents"->enter "MacOS"->run "DOSBox"
=====================================
13. The configuration (options) file:
=====================================
The configuration file is automatically created the first time you run DOSBox.
The file can be found in:
(Windows) "Start/WinLogo Menu"->"All Programs"->DOSBox-0.74->Options
(Linux) ~/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
(MAC OS X) "~/Library/Preferences/DOSBox 0.74 Preferences"
The file is divided into several sections. Each section starts with a
[section name] line. The settings are the property=value lines where value can
be altered to customize DOSBox.
# and % indicate comment-lines.
An extra configuration file can be generated by CONFIG.COM, which can be found
on the internal DOSBox Z: drive when you start up DOSBox. Look in the Section 4:
"Internal programs" for usage of CONFIG.COM. You can start DOSBox with
the -conf switch to load the generated file and use its settings.
DOSBox will load configuration files that are specified with -conf. If none were
specified, it will try to load "dosbox.conf" from the local directory.
If there is none, DOSBox will load the user configuration file.
This file will be created if it doesn't exist.
Important!: In Windows Vista/7 the configuration file won't work correctly
if it is located in "Windows" or "Program Files" folder or their subfolders,
or directly on c:\, so the best place for storing extra configuration files is
for example: C:\oldgames
======================
14. The Language File:
======================
A language file can be generated by CONFIG.COM, which can be found on the
internal DOSBox Z: drive when you start up DOSBox. Look in the Section 4:
"Internal programs" for usage of CONFIG.COM.
Read the language file, and you will hopefully understand how to change it.
Start DOSBox with the -lang switch to use your new language file.
Alternatively, you can setup the filename in the configuration file
in the [dosbox] section. There's a language= entry that can be changed with
the filelocation.
========================================
15. Building your own version of DOSBox:
========================================
Download the source.
Check the INSTALL in the source distribution.
===================
16. Special thanks:
===================
See the THANKS file.
============
17. Contact:
============
See the site:
http://www.dosbox.com
for an email address (The Crew-page).
We would like to thank:
Vlad R. of the vdmsound project for excellent sound blaster info.
Tatsuyuki Satoh of the Mame Team for making an excellent FM emulator.
Jarek Burczynski for the new OPL3 emulator.
Ken Silverman for his work on an OPL2 emulator.
The Bochs and DOSemu projects which I used for information.
FreeDOS for ideas in making my shell.
Pierre-Yves Gérardy for hosting the old Beta Board.
Colin Snover for hosting our forum.
Sourceforge for hosting our homepage and other development tools.
Mirek Luza, for his moderation of the forums.
eL_Pusher, DosFreak and MiniMax for their moderation of VOGONS forum.
crazyc, gulikoza, M-HT for their work on the dynrec core.
Jantien for the version management.
Shawn, Johannes and Marcus for creating the MAC OS X version.
Jochen for creating the OS/2 version.
Ido Beeri for the icon.
ripsaw8080 for his hard debugging work.
GOG Team for the splash screen.
All the people who submitted a bug.
The Beta Testers.
DOSBox v0.74 Manual (always use the latest version from www.dosbox.com)
=====
NOTE:
=====
While we are hoping that one day DOSBox will run all programs ever made for
the PC, we are not there yet.
At present, DOSBox running on a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent
of a Pentium I PC. DOSBox can be configured to run a wide range of DOS games,
from CGA/Tandy/PCjr classics up to games from the Quake era.
======
INDEX:
======
1. Quickstart
2. Start (FAQ)
3. Command Line Parameters
4. Internal Programs
5. Special Keys
6. Joystick/Gamepad
7. KeyMapper
8. Keyboard Layout
9. Serial Multiplayer feature
10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox
11. Troubleshooting
12. DOSBox Status Window
13. The configuration (options) file
14. The language file
15. Building your own version of DOSBox
16. Special thanks
17. Contact
==============
1. Quickstart:
==============
Type INTRO in DOSBox for a quick tour.
It is essential that you get familiar with the idea of mounting, DOSBox does not
automatically make any drive (or a part of it) accessible to the emulation. See
the FAQ entry "How to start?" as well as the description of the MOUNT command
(section 4: "Internal Programs"). If you have your game on a cdrom you may try
this guide: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=8933
===============
2. Start (FAQ):
===============
START: How to start?
AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these "mount" commands?
FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?
CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work.
CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work.
SOUND: There is no sound.
SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?
SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.
KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.
KEYBOARD: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)
KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags.
CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!
CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!
CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup!
GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.
SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer?
OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options.
HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it.
START: How to start?
At the beginning you've got a Z:\> instead of a C:\> at the prompt.
You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using
the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give
you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory
(that was created before). In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you
a C drive in DOSBox which points to /home/username in Linux.
To change to the drive mounted like above, type "C:". If everything went
fine, DOSBox will display the prompt "C:\>".
AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these commands?
In the DOSBox configuration file is an [autoexec] section. The commands
present there are run when DOSBox starts, so you can use this section
for the mounting. Look at Section 13: The configuration (options) file
FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?
Press alt-enter. Alternatively: Edit the configuration file of DOSBox and
change the option fullscreen=false to fullscreen=true. If fullscreen looks
wrong in your opinion: Play with the options: fullresolution, output and
aspect in the configuration file of DOSBox. To get back from fullscreen
mode: Press alt-enter again.
CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work.
To mount your CD-ROM in DOSBox you have to specify some additional options
when mounting the CD-ROM.
To enable CD-ROM support (includes MSCDEX) in Windows:
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom
in Linux:
- mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom
In some cases you might want to use a different CD-ROM interface,
for example if CD audio does not work:
To enable SDL-support (does not include low-level CD access!):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -noioctl
To enable ioctl access using digital audio extraction for CD audio
(windows-only, useful for Vista):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dx
To enable ioctl access using MCI for CD audio (windows-only):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_mci
To force ioctl-only access (windows-only):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dio
To enable low-level aspi-support (win98 with aspi-layer installed):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -aspi
explanation: - d driveletter you will get in DOSBox (d is the best,
don't change it!)
- f:\ location of CD-ROM on your PC. In most cases it will
be d:\ or e:\
- 0 The number of the CD-ROM drive, reported by "mount -cd"
(note that this value is only needed when using SDL
for CD audio, otherwise it is ignored)
See also the next question: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
Be sure to mount the CD-ROM with -t cdrom switch, this will enable the
MSCDEX interface required by DOS games to interface with CD-ROMs.
Also try adding the correct label (-label LABEL) to the mount command,
where LABEL is the CD-label (volume ID) of the CD-ROM.
Under Windows you can specify -ioctl, -aspi or -noioctl. Look at the
description of the mount command in Section 4: "Internal programs"
for their meaning and the
additional audio-CD related options -ioctl_dx, ioctl_mci, ioctl_dio.
Try creating a CD-ROM image (preferably CUE/BIN pair) and use the
DOSBox's internal IMGMOUNT tool to mount the image (the CUE sheet).
This enables very good low-level CD-ROM support on any operating system.
MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work.
Usually, DOSBox detects when a game uses mouse control. When you click on
the screen it should get locked (confined to the DOSBox window) and work.
With certain games, the DOSBox mouse detection doesn't work. In that case
you will have to lock the mouse manually by pressing CTRL-F10.
SOUND: There is no sound.
Be sure that the sound is correctly configured in the game. This might be
done during the installation or with a setup/setsound utility that
accompanies the game. First see if an autodetection option is provided. If
there is none try selecting Soundblaster or Soundblaster 16 with the default
settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1" (sometimes highdma=5). You might
also want to select Sound Canvas/SCC/MPU-401/General MIDI/Wave Blaster
at "address=330 IRQ=2" as music device.
The parameters of the emulated sound cards can be changed in the DOSBox
configuration file.
If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal in DOSBox
configuration and use some lower fixed cycles value (like cycles=2000). Also
assure that your host operating sound does provide sound.
In certain cases it might be useful to use a different emulated sound device
like a soundblaster pro (sbtype=sbpro1 in the DOSBox configuration file) or
the gravis ultrasound (gus=true).
SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?
DOSBox emulates several legacy sound devices:
- Internal PC speaker/Buzzer
This emulation includes both the tone generator and several forms of
digital sound output through the internal speaker.
- Creative CMS/Gameblaster
The is the first card released by Creative Labs(R). The default
configuration places it on address 220. It is disabled as default.
- Tandy 3 voice
The emulation of this sound hardware is complete with the exception of
the noise channel. The noise channel is not very well documented and as
such is only a best guess as to the sound's accuracy. It is disabled as
default.
- Tandy DAC
Some games may require turning off sound blaster emulation (sbtype=none)
for better tandy DAC sound support. Don't forget to set the sbtype back to
sb16 if you don't use tandy sound.
- Adlib
This emulation is almost perfect and includes the Adlib's ability to
almost play digitized sound. Placed at address 220 (also on 388).
- SoundBlaster 16 / SoundBlaster Pro I & II / SoundBlaster I & II
By default DOSBox provides Soundblaster 16 level 16-bit stereo sound.
You can select a different SoundBlaster version in the configuration of
DOSBox. AWE32 music is not emulated as you can use MPU-401 instead
(see below).
- Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing
Using the printer port, this sound device outputs digital sound only.
Placed at LPT1
- Gravis Ultrasound
The emulation of this hardware is nearly complete, though the MIDI
capabilities have been left out, since an MPU-401 has been emulated
in other code. For Gravis music you also have to install Gravis drivers
inside DOSBox. It is disabled as default.
- MPU-401
A MIDI passthrough interface is also emulated. This method of sound
output will only work when used with external device/emulator.
Every Windows XP/Vista/7 and MAC OS has got a default emulator compatible
with: Sound Canvas/SCC/General Standard/General MIDI/Wave Blaster.
A different device/emulator is needed for Roland LAPC/CM-32L/MT-32
compatibility.
SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.
You may be using too much CPU power to keep DOSBox running at the current
speed. You can lower the cycles, skip frames, reduce the sampling rate of
the respective sound device, increase the prebuffer. See section 13: "The
configuration (options) file"
If you are using cycles=max or =auto, then make sure that there is no
background processes interfering! (especially if they access the harddisk)
Also look at Section 10. "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox"
KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.
This can happen in various cases, like your host keyboard layout does not
have a matching DOS layout representation (or it was not correctly
detected), or the key mapping is wrong.
Some possible fixes:
1. Use / instead, or ALT-58 for : and ALT-92 for \.
2. Change the DOS keyboard layout (see Section 8: Keyboard Layout).
3. Add the commands you want to execute to the [autoexec] section
of the DOSBox configuration file.
4. Open the DOSBox configuration file and change the usescancodes entry.
5. Switch the keyboard layout of your operating system.
Note that if the host layout can not be identified, or keyboardlayout is
set to none in the DOSBox configuration file, the standard US layout is
used. In this configuration try the keys around "enter" for the key \
(backslash), and for the key : (colon) use shift and the keys between
"enter" and "L".
KEYBOARD: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)
This may happen if Windows thinks that you have more than one keyboard
connected to your PC when you use some remote control devices.
To verity this problem run cmd.exe, navigate to DOSBox program folder
and type:
set sdl_videodriver=windib
dosbox.exe
check whether keyboard started to work properly. As windib is slower it is
best to use one of the two solutions provided here:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=24072
KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags.
Lower the priority setting in the DOSBox configuration file, for example
set "priority=normal,normal". You might also want to try lowering the
cycles (use a fixed cycle amount to start with, like cycles=10000).
CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
See if it still happens if you disable the joystick emulation,
set joysticktype=none in the [joystick] section of your DOSBox
configuration file. Maybe also try unplugging any joystick/gamepad.
If you want to use the joystick in the game, try setting timed=false
and be sure to calibrate the joystick (both in your OS as well as
in the game or the game's setup program).
SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!
Look at the section 10: "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox" for more
information.
CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!
Look at Section 11: Troubleshooting
CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup!.
Look at Section 11: Troubleshooting
GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.
First of all, try to find a port of the game. Those will offer a better
experience. To fix the graphics problem that occurs in DOSBox on higher
resolutions: Open the configuration file of DOSBox and search for
machine=svga_s3. Change svga_s3 to vesa_nolfb
Change memsize=16 to memsize=63
SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer?
DOSBox can not harm your computer more than any other resource demanding
program. Increasing the cycles does not overclock your real CPU.
Setting the cycles too high has a negative performance effect on the
software running inside DOSBox.
OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options.
Look at Section 13. "The configuration (options) file"
HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it.
For more questions read the rest of this Manual. You may also look at:
guides located at http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewforum.php?f=39
the wiki of DOSBox http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/
the site/forum: http://www.dosbox.com
===========================
3. Command Line Parameters:
===========================
An overview of the command line options you can give to DOSBox. Although
in most cases it is easier to use DOSBox's configuration file instead.
See: Section 13. "The configuration (options) file"
To be able to use Command Line Parameters:
(Windows) open cmd.exe or command.com or edit the shortcut to dosbox.exe
(Linux) use console
(MAC OS X) start terminal.app and navigate to:
/applications/dosbox.app/contents/macos/dosbox
The options are valid for all operating systems unless noted in the option
description:
dosbox [name] [-exit] [-c command] [-fullscreen] [-userconf]
[-conf congfigfilelocation] [-lang languagefilelocation]
[-machine machine type] [-noconsole] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec]
[-securemode] [-scaler scaler | -forcescaler scaler] [-version]
[-socket socket]
dosbox -version
dosbox -editconf program
dosbox -opencaptures program
dosbox -printconf
dosbox -eraseconf
dosbox -erasemapper
name
If "name" is a directory it will mount that as the C: drive.
If "name" is an executable it will mount the directory of "name"
as the C: drive and execute "name".
-exit
DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application "name" ends.
-c command
Runs the specified command before running "name". Multiple commands
can be specified. Each command should start with "-c" though.
A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or an executable
on a mounted drive.
-fullscreen
Starts DOSBox in fullscreen mode.
-userconf
Start DOSBox with the users specific configuration file. Can be used
together with multiple -conf parameters, but -userconf will always be
loaded before them.
-conf configfilelocation
Start DOSBox with the options specified in "configfilelocation".
Multiple -conf options may be present.
See Section 13 for more details.
-lang languagefilelocation
Start DOSBox using the language specified in "languagefilelocation".
See Section 14 for more details.
-machine machinetype
Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are:
hercules, cga, ega, pcjr, tandy, svga_s3 (default) as well as
the additional svga chipsets listed in the DOSBox configuration file.
svga_s3 enables vesa emulation as well.
For some special vga effects the machinetype vgaonly can be used,
note that this disables svga capabilities and might be slower due to the
higher emulation precision.
The machinetype affects the video card and the available sound cards.
-noconsole (Windows Only)
Start DOSBox without showing DOSBox Status Window (console).
Output will be redirected to stdout.txt and stderr.txt
-startmapper
Enter the keymapper directly on startup. Useful for people with
keyboard problems.
-noautoexec
Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.
-securemode
Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the
bottom of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how
the drives are mounted inside DOSBox).
-scaler scaler
Uses the scaler specified by "scaler". See the DOSBox configuration file
for the available scalers.
-forcescaler scaler
Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of
the specified scaler even if it might not fit.
-version
output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.
-editconf program
calls program with as first parameter the configuration file.
You can specify this command more than once. In this case it will
move to second program if the first one fails to start.
-opencaptures program
calls program with as first parameter the location of the captures
folder.
-printconf
prints the location of the default configuration file.
-resetconf
removes the default configuration file.
-resetmapper
removes the mapperfile used by the default clean configuration file.
-socket
passes the socket number to the nullmodem emulation. See Section 9:
"Serial Multiplayer feature."
Note: If a name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation contains
a space, put the whole name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation
between quotes ("command or file name"). If you need to use quotes within
quotes (most likely with -c and mount):
Windows and OS/2 users can use single quotes inside the double quotes.
Other people should be able to use escaped double quotes inside the
double quotes.
Windows: -c "mount c 'c:\My folder with DOS games\'"
Linux: -c "mount c \"/tmp/name with space\""
A rather unusual example, just to demonstrate what you can do (Windows):
dosbox D:\folder\file.exe -c "MOUNT Y H:\MyFolder"
This mounts D:\folder as C:\ and runs file.exe.
Before it does that, it will first mount H:\MyFolder as the Y drive.
In Windows, you can also drag directories/files onto the DOSBox executable.
=====================
4. Internal Programs:
=====================
DOSBox supports most of the DOS commands found in command.com.
To get a list of the internal commands type "HELP" at the prompt.
In addition, the following commands are available:
MOUNT "Emulated Drive letter" "Real Drive or Directory"
[-t type] [-aspi] [-ioctl] [-noioctl] [-usecd number] [-size drivesize]
[-label drivelabel] [-freesize size_in_mb]
[-freesize size_in_kb (floppies)]
MOUNT -cd
MOUNT -u "Emulated Drive letter"
Program to mount local directories as drives inside DOSBox.
"Emulated Drive letter"
The driveletter inside DOSBox (for example C).
"Real Drive letter (usually for CD-ROMs in Windows) or Directory"
The local directory you want accessible inside DOSBox.
-t type
Type of the mounted directory.
Supported are: dir (default), floppy, cdrom.
-size drivesize
(experts only)
Sets the size of the drive, where drivesize is of the form
"bps,spc,tcl,fcl":
bps: bytes per sector, by default 512 for regular drives and
2048 for CD-ROM drives
spc: sectors per cluster, usually between 1 and 127
tcl: total clusters, between 1 and 65534
fcl: total free clusters, between 1 and tcl
-freesize size_in_mb | size_in_kb
Sets the amount of free space available on a drive
in megabytes (regular drives) or kilobytes (floppy drives).
This is a simpler version of -size.
-label drivelabel
Sets the name of the drive to "drivelabel". Needed on some systems
if the CD-ROM label isn't read correctly (useful when a program
can't find its CD-ROM). If you don't specify a label
and no lowlevel support is selected (that is omitting the -usecd #
and/or -aspi parameters, or specifying -noioctl):
For Windows: label is extracted from "Real Drive".
For Linux: label is set to NO_LABEL.
If you do specify a label, this label will be kept as long as the drive
is mounted. It will not be updated !!
-aspi
Forces use of the aspi layer. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under
Windows systems with an ASPI-Layer.
-ioctl (automatic selection of the CD audio interface)
-ioctl_dx (digital audio extraction used for CD audio)
-ioctl_dio (ioctl calls used for CD audio)
-ioctl_mci (MCI used for CD audio)
Forces use of ioctl commands. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under
a Windows OS which support them (Win2000/XP/NT).
The various choices only differ in the way CD audio is handled,
preferably -ioctl_dio is used (lowest workload), but this might not
work on all systems, so -ioctl_dx (or -ioctl_mci) can be used.
-noioctl
Forces use of the SDL CD-ROM layer. Valid on all systems.
-usecd number
Valid on all systems, under windows the -noioctl switch has to be
present to make use of the -usecd switch.
Enables to select the drive that should be used by SDL. Use this if
the wrong or no CD-ROM drive is mounted while using the SDL CD-ROM
interface. "number" can be found by "MOUNT -cd".
-cd
Displays all CD-ROM drives detected by SDL, and their numbers.
See the information at the -usecd entry above.
-u
Removes the mount. Doesn't work for Z:\.
Note: It's possible to mount a local directory as CD-ROM drive,
but hardware support is then missing.
Basically MOUNT allows you to connect real hardware to DOSBox's emulated PC.
So MOUNT C C:\GAMES tells DOSBox to use your C:\GAMES directory as drive C:
in DOSBox. MOUNT C E:\SomeFolder tells DOSBox to use your E:\SomeFolder
directory as drive C: in DOSBox.
Mounting your entire C drive with MOUNT C C:\ is NOT recommended! The same
is true for mounting the root of any other drive, except for CD-ROMs (due to
their read-only nature).
Otherwise if you or DOSBox make a mistake you may lose all your files.
Also never mount a "Windows" or "Program Files" folders or their subfolders
in Windows Vista/7 as DOSBox may not work correctly, or will stop working
correctly later. It is recommended to keep all your dos applications/games
in a simple folder (for example c:\dosgames) and mount that.
You should always install your game inside DOSBox.
So if you have the game on CD you always (even after installation!)
have to mount both: folder as a harddisk drive and a CD-ROM.
HardDisk should always be mounted as c
CD-ROM should always be mounted as d
Floppy should always be mounted as a (or b)
Basic MOUNT Examples for normal usage (Windows):
1. To mount a folder as a harddisk drive:
mount c d:\dosgames
3. To mount your CD-ROM drive E as CD-ROM drive D in DOSBox:
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
2. To mount your drive a: as a floppy:
mount a a:\ -t floppy
Advanced MOUNT examples (Windows):
4. To mount a hard disk drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (simple version):
mount c d:\dosgames -freesize 870
5. To mount a drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (experts only, full control):
mount c d:\dosgames -size 512,127,16513,13500
1. To mount c:\dosgames\floppy as a floppy:
mount a c:\dosgames\floppy -t floppy
Other MOUNT examples:
3. To mount system CD-ROM drive at mountpoint /media/cdrom as CD-ROM drive D
in DOSBox:
mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom -usecd 0
6. To mount /home/user/dosgames as drive C in DOSBox:
mount c /home/user/dosgames
7. To mount the directory where DOSBox was started as C in DOSBox:
mount c .
(note the . which represents the directory where DOSBox was started,
on Windows Vista/7 don't use this if you installed DOSBox
to your "Program Files" folder)
If you want to mount a CD image or floppy image, check IMGMOUNT.
MOUNT also works with images but only if you use external program,
for example (both are free):
- Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),
- Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).
Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.
MEM
Program to display the amount and type of free memory.
VER
VER set major_version [minor_version]
Display the current DOSBox version and reported DOS version
(parameterless usage).
Change the reported DOS version with the "set" parameter,
for example: "VER set 6 22" to have DOSBox report DOS 6.22 as version number.
CONFIG -writeconf filelocation
CONFIG -writelang filelocation
CONFIG -securemode
CONFIG -set "section property=value"
CONFIG -get "section property"
CONFIG can be used to change or query various settings of DOSBox
during runtime. It can save the current settings and language strings to
disk. Information about all possible sections and properties can
be found in Section 13: "The configuration (options) file".
-writeconf filelocation
Write the current configuration settings to a file in a specified location.
"filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive in DOSBox.
The configuration file controls various settings of DOSBox:
the amount of emulated memory, the emulated sound cards and many more
things. It allows access to AUTOEXEC.BAT as well.
See Section 13: "The configuration (options) file" for more information.
-writelang filelocation
Write the current language settings to a file in a specified location.
"filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive
in DOSBox. The language file controls all visible output of the internal
commands and the internal DOS.
See Section 14: "The Language File" for more information.
-securemode
Switches DOSBox to a more secure mode. In this mode the internal
commands MOUNT, IMGMOUNT and BOOT won't work. It's not possible either
to create a new configfile or languagefile in this mode.
(Warning: you can only undo this mode by restarting DOSBox.)
-set "section property=value"
CONFIG will attempt to set the property to new value.
Currently CONFIG can not report whether the command succeeded or not.
-get "section property"
The current value of the property is reported and stored in the
environment variable %CONFIG%. This can be used to store the value
when using batch files.
Both "-set" and "-get" work from batch files and can be used to set up your
own preferences for each game. Although it may be easier to use separate
DOSBox's configuration files for each game instead.
Examples:
1. To create a configuration file in your c:\dosgames directory:
config -writeconf c:\dosgames\dosbox.conf
2. To set the cpu cycles to 10000:
config -set "cpu cycles=10000"
3. To turn ems memory emulation off:
config -set "dos ems=off"
4. To check which cpu core is being used.
config -get "cpu core"
LOADFIX [-size] [program] [program-parameters]
LOADFIX -f
Program to reduce the amount of available conventional memory.
Useful for old programs which don't expect much memory to be free.
-size
number of kilobytes to "eat up", default = 64kb
-f
frees all previously allocated memory
Examples:
1. To start mm2.exe and allocate 64kb memory
(mm2 will have 64 kb less available):
loadfix mm2
2. To start mm2.exe and allocate 32kb memory:
loadfix -32 mm2
3. To free previous allocated memory:
loadfix -f
RESCAN
Make DOSBox reread the directory structure. Useful if you changed something
on a mounted drive outside of DOSBox. (CTRL - F4 does this as well!)
MIXER
Makes DOSBox display its current volume settings.
Here's how you can change them:
mixer channel left:right [/NOSHOW] [/LISTMIDI]
channel
Can be one of the following: MASTER, DISNEY, SPKR, GUS, SB, FM [, CDAUDIO].
CDAUDIO is only available if a CD-ROM interface with volume control is
enabled (CD image, ioctl_dx).
left:right
The volume levels in percentages. If you put a D in front it will be
in decibel (Example: mixer gus d-10).
/NOSHOW
Prevents DOSBox from showing the result if you set one
of the volume levels.
/LISTMIDI
In Windows lists the available midi devices on your PC. To select a device
other than the Windows default midi-mapper, change the line 'midiconfig='
in the [midi] section of the configuration file to 'midiconfig=id', where
'id' is the number for the device as listed by LISTMIDI. eg. midiconfig=2
In Linux this option doesn't work, but you get similar results by using
'pmidi -l' in console. Then change the line 'midiconfig=' to
'midiconfig=port', where 'port' is the port for the device as listed by
'pmidi -l'. eg. midiconfig=128:0
IMGMOUNT
A utility to mount disk images and CD-ROM images in DOSBox.
IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile] -t [image_type] -fs [image_format]
-size [sectorsbytesize, sectorsperhead, heads, cylinders]
IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN] -t cdrom -fs iso
imagefile
Location of the image file to mount in DOSBox. The location can be
on a mounted drive inside DOSBox, or on your real disk. It is possible
to mount CD-ROM images (ISOs or CUE/BIN or CUE/IMG) too.
If you need CD swapping capabilities, specify all images in succession
(see the next entry).
CUE/BIN pairs and cue/img are the preferred CD-ROM image types as they can
store audio tracks compared to ISOs (which are data-only). For
the CUE/BIN mounting always specify the CUE sheet.
imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN
Location of the image files to mount in DOSBox. Specifying a number
of image files is only allowed for CD-ROM images.
The CD's can be swapped with CTRL-F4 at any time.
This is required for games which use multiple CD-ROMs and require the CD
to be switched during the gameplay at some point.
-t
The following are valid image types:
floppy: Specifies a floppy image. DOSBox will automatically identify
the disk geometry (360K, 1.2MB, 720K, 1.44MB, etc).
cdrom: Specifies a CD-ROM image. The geometry is automatic and
set for this size. This can be an iso or a cue/bin pair or
a cue/img pair.
hdd: Specifies a harddrive image. The proper CHS geometry must be set
for this to work.
-fs
The following are valid file system formats:
iso: Specifies the ISO 9660 CD-ROM format.
fat: Specifies that the image uses the FAT file system. DOSBox will
attempt to mount this image as a drive in DOSBox and make
the files available from inside DOSBox.
none: DOSBox will make no attempt to read the file system on the disk.
This is useful if you need to format it or if you want to boot
the disk using the BOOT command. When using the "none"
filesystem, you must specify the drive number (2 or 3,
where 2 = master, 3 = slave) rather than a drive letter.
For example, to mount a 70MB image as the slave drive device,
you would type (without the quotes):
"imgmount 3 d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142 -fs none"
Compare this with a mount to be able to access the drive
within DOSBox, which would read as:
"imgmount e: d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142"
-size
The Cylinders, Heads and Sectors of the drive.
Required to mount hard drive images.
An example how to mount CD-ROM images (in Linux):
1. imgmount d /tmp/cdimage1.cue /tmp/cdimage2.cue -t cdrom
or (which also works):
2a. mount c /tmp
2b. imgmount d c:\cdimage1.cue c:\cdimage2.cue -t cdrom
(in Windows):
imgmount d f:\img\CD1.cue f:\img\CD2.cue f:\img\CD3.cue -t cdrom
imgmount d "g:\img\7th Guest CD1.cue" "g:\img\7th Guest CD2.cue" -t cdrom
Don't forget that you can also use MOUNT with images, but only if you use
external program, for example (both are free):
- Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),
- Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).
Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.
BOOT
Boot will start floppy images or hard disk images independent of
the operating system emulation offered by DOSBox. This will allow you to
play booter floppies or boot other operating systems inside DOSBox.
If the target emulated system is PCjr (machine=pcjr) the boot command
can be used to load PCjr cartridges (.jrc).
BOOT [diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img] [-l driveletter]
BOOT [cart.jrc] (PCjr only)
diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img
This can be any number of floppy disk images one wants mounted after
DOSBox boots the specified drive letter.
To swap between images, hit CTRL-F4 to change from the current disk
to the next disk in the list. The list will loop back from the last
disk image to the beginning.
[-l driveletter]
This parameter allows you to specify the drive to boot from.
The default is the A drive, the floppy drive. You can also boot
a hard drive image mounted as master by specifying "-l C"
without the quotes, or the drive as slave by specifying "-l D"
cart.jrc (PCjr only)
When emulation of a PCjr is enabled, cartridges can be loaded with
the BOOT command. Support is still limited.
IPX
You need to enable IPX networking in the configuration file of DOSBox.
All of the IPX networking is managed through the internal DOSBox program
IPXNET. For help on the IPX networking from inside DOSBox, type
"IPXNET HELP" (without quotes) and the program will list the commands
and relevant documentation.
With regard to actually setting up a network, one system needs to be
the server. To set this up, type "IPXNET STARTSERVER" (without the quotes)
in a DOSBox session. The server DOSBox session will automatically add
itself to the virtual IPX network. For every additional computer that
should be part of the virtual IPX network, you'll need to type
"IPXNET CONNECT <computer host name or IP>".
For example, if your server is at bob.dosbox.com, you would type
"IPXNET CONNECT bob.dosbox.com" on every non-server system.
To play games that need Netbios a file named NETBIOS.EXE from Novell is
needed. Establish the IPX connection as explained above, then run
"netbios.exe".
The following is an IPXNET command reference:
IPXNET CONNECT
IPXNET CONNECT opens a connection to an IPX tunneling server
running on another DOSBox session. The "address" parameter specifies
the IP address or host name of the server computer. You can also
specify the UDP port to use. By default IPXNET uses port 213 - the
assigned IANA port for IPX tunneling - for its connection.
The syntax for IPXNET CONNECT is:
IPXNET CONNECT address <port>
IPXNET DISCONNECT
IPXNET DISCONNECT closes the connection to the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET DISCONNECT is:
IPXNET DISCONNECT
IPXNET STARTSERVER
IPXNET STARTSERVER starts an IPX tunneling server on this DOSBox
session. By default, the server will accept connections on UDP port
213, though this can be changed. Once the server is started, DOSBox
will automatically start a client connection to the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET STARTSERVER is:
IPXNET STARTSERVER <port>
If the server is behind a router, UDP port <port> needs to be forwarded
to that computer.
On Linux/Unix-based systems port numbers smaller than 1023 can only be
used with root privileges. Use ports greater than 1023 on those systems.
IPXNET STOPSERVER
IPXNET STOPSERVER stops the IPX tunneling server running on this DOSBox
session. Care should be taken to ensure that all other connections have
terminated as well, since stopping the server may cause lockups on other
machines that are still using the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET STOPSERVER is:
IPXNET STOPSERVER
IPXNET PING
IPXNET PING broadcasts a ping request through the IPX tunneled network.
In response, all other connected computers will respond to the ping
and report the time it took to receive and send the ping message.
The syntax for IPXNET PING is:
IPXNET PING
IPXNET STATUS
IPXNET STATUS reports the current state of this DOSBox session's
IPX tunneling network. For a list of all computers connected to the
network use the IPXNET PING command.
The syntax for IPXNET STATUS is:
IPXNET STATUS
KEYB [keyboardlayoutcode [codepage [codepagefile]]]
Change the keyboard layout. For detailed information about keyboard layouts
please see Section 8: "Keyboard Layout"
[keyboardlayoutcode] is a string consisting of five or less characters,
examples are PL214 (Polish typists) or PL457 (Polish programmers).
It specifies the keyboard layout to be used.
The list of all layouts built into DOSBox is here:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=21824
[codepage] is the number of the codepage to be used. The keyboard layout
has to provide support for the specified codepage, otherwise the layout
loading will fail.
If no codepage is specified, an appropriate codepage for the requested
layout is chosen automatically.
[codepagefile] can be used to load codepages that are yet not compiled
into DOSBox. This is only needed when DOSBox does not find the codepage.
If no codepagefile is specified, but you place all ten ega.cpx files
(from FreeDOS) in the DOSBox program folder, an appropriate codepagefile
for the requested layout/codepage is chosen automatically.
Examples:
1. To load the polish typist keys layout (automatically uses codepage 852):
keyb pl214
2. To load one of russian keyboard layouts with codepage 866:
keyb ru441 866
In order to type russian characters press ALT+RIGHT-SHIFT.
3. To load one of french keyboard layouts with codepage 850 (where the
codepage is defined in EGACPI.DAT):
keyb fr189 850 EGACPI.DAT
4. To load codepage 858 (without a keyboard layout):
keyb none 858
This can be used to change the codepage for the FreeDOS keyb2 utility.
5. To display the current codepage and, if loaded, the keyboard layout:
keyb
For more information use the /? command line switch with the programs.
================
5. Special Keys:
================
ALT-ENTER Switch to full screen and back.
ALT-PAUSE Pause emulation (hit ALT-PAUSE again to continue).
CTRL-F1 Start the keymapper.
CTRL-F4 Change between mounted floppy/CD images. Update directory cache
for all drives.
CTRL-ALT-F5 Start/Stop creating a movie of the screen. (avi video capturing)
CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot. (PNG format)
CTRL-F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file.
CTRL-ALT-F7 Start/Stop recording of OPL commands. (DRO format)
CTRL-ALT-F8 Start/Stop the recording of raw MIDI commands.
CTRL-F7 Decrease frameskip.
CTRL-F8 Increase frameskip.
CTRL-F9 Kill DOSBox.
CTRL-F10 Capture/Release the mouse.
CTRL-F11 Slow down emulation (Decrease DOSBox Cycles).
CTRL-F12 Speed up emulation (Increase DOSBox Cycles)*.
ALT-F12 Unlock speed (turbo button/fast forward)**.
F11, ALT-F11 (machine=cga) change tint in NTSC output modes***
F11 (machine=hercules) cycle through amber, green, white colouring***
*NOTE: Once you increase your DOSBox cycles beyond your computer CPU resources,
it will produce the same effect as slowing down the emulation.
This maximum will vary from computer to computer.
**NOTE: You need free CPU resources for this (the more you have, the faster
it goes), so it won't work at all with cycles=max or a too high amount
of fixed cycles. You have to keep the keys pressed for it to work!
***NOTE: These keys won't work if you saved a mapper file earlier with
a different machine type. So either reassign them or reset the mapper.
These are the default keybindings. They can be changed in the keymapper
(see Section 7: KeyMapper).
In MAC OS you can try using cmd(applekey) together with Ctrl if the key doesn't
work eg. cmd-ctrl-F1, but some keys may still need remapping (in Linux too).
Saved/recorded files can be found in:
(Windows) "Start/WinLogo Menu"->"All Programs"->DOSBox-0.74->Extras
(Linux) ~/.dosbox/capture
(MAC OS X) "~/Library/Preferences/capture"
This can be changed in the DOSBox configuration file.
====================
6. Joystick/Gamepad:
====================
The standard joystick port in DOS supports a maximum of 4 axes and 4 buttons.
For more, different modifications of that configuration were used.
To force DOSBox to use a different type of emulated joystick/gamepad, the entry
"joysticktype" in the [joystick] section of the DOSBox configuration file can
be used.
none - disables controller support.
auto - (default) autodetects whether you have one or two controllers connected:
if you have one - '4axis' setting is used,
if you have two - '2axis' setting is used.
2axis - If you have two controllers connected, each will emulate a joystick
with 2 axes and 2 buttons. If you have only one controller connected,
it will emulate a joystick with only 2 axis and 2 buttons.
4axis - supports only first controller, emulates a joystick
with 4 axis and 4 buttons or a gamepad with 2axis and 6 buttons.
4axis_2 - supports only second controller.
fcs - supports only first controller, emulates ThrustMaster
Flight Control System, with 3-axes, 4 buttons and 1 hat.
ch - supports only first controller, emulates CH Flightstick,
with 4-axes, 6 buttons and 1 hat, but you cannot press more
than one button at the same time.
You also have to configure controller properly inside the game.
It is important to remember that if you saved the mapperfile without joystick
connected, or with a different joystick setting, your new setting will
not work
properly,
or not work at all, until you reset DOSBox's mapperfile.
If controller is working properly outside DOSBox, but doesn't calibrate properly
inside DOSBox, try different 'timed' setting in DOSBox's configuration file.
=============
7. KeyMapper:
=============
You start the DOSBox mapper either with CTRL-F1 (see section 5. Special Keys)
or -startmapper (see Section 3. Command Line Parameters).
You are presented with a virtual keyboard and a virtual joystick.
These virtual devices correspond to the keys and events DOSBox will
report to the DOS applications. If you click on a button with your mouse,
you can see in the lower left corner with which event it is associated
(EVENT) and to what events it is currently bound.
Event: EVENT
BIND: BIND (the real key/button/axis you push with your finger/hand)
Add Del
mod1 hold Next
mod2
mod3
EVENT
The key or joystick axis/button/hat DOSBox will report to DOS applications.
(the event that will happen during the game, (eg. shooting/jumping/walking)
BIND
The key on your real keyboard or the axis/button/hat on your real
joystick(s) (as reported by SDL), which is connected to the EVENT.
mod1,2,3
Modifiers. These are keys you need to have to be pressed while pressing
BIND. mod1 = CTRL and mod2 = ALT. These are generally only used when you
want to change the special keys of DOSBox.
Add
Add a new BIND to this EVENT. Basically add a key from your keyboard or an
event from the joystick (button press, axis/hat movement) which will
produce the EVENT in DOSBox.
Del
Delete the BIND to this EVENT. If an EVENT has no BINDS, then it is not
possible to trigger this event in DOSBox (that is there's no way to type
the key or use the respective action of the joystick).
Next
Go through the list of bindings which map to this EVENT.
Example:
Q1. You want to have the X on your keyboard to type a Z in DOSBox.
A. Click on the Z on the keyboard mapper. Click "Add".
Now press the X key on your keyboard.
Q2. If you click "Next" a couple of times, you will notice that the Z on your
keyboard also produces an Z in DOSBox.
A. Therefore select the Z again, and click "Next" until you have the Z on
your keyboard. Now click "Del".
Q3. If you try it out in DOSBox, you will notice that pressing X makes ZX
appear.
A. The X on your keyboard is still mapped to the X as well! Click on
the X in the keyboard mapper and search with "Next" until you find the
mapped key X. Click "Del".
Examples about remapping the joystick:
You have a joystick attached, it is working fine under DOSBox and you
want to play some keyboard-only game with the joystick (it is assumed
that the game is controlled by the arrows on the keyboard):
1. Start the mapper, then click on one of the left keyboard arrow.
EVENT should be key_left. Now click on Add and move your joystick
in the respective direction, this should add an event to the BIND.
2. Repeat the above for the missing three directions, additionally
the buttons of the joystick can be remapped as well (fire/jump).
3. Click on Save, then on Exit and test it with some game.
You want to swap the y-axis of the joystick because some flightsim uses
the up/down joystick movement in a way you don't like, and it is not
configurable in the game itself:
1. Start the mapper and click on Y- in the first joystick field.
EVENT should be jaxis_0_1-.
2. Click on Del to remove the current binding, then click Add and move
your joystick downwards. A new bind should be created.
3. Repeat this for Y+, save the layout and finally test it with some game.
If you want to remap anything to your d-pad/hat you will have to change
'joysticktype=auto' to 'joysticktype=fcs' in configuration file. Maybe this
will be improved in the next dosbox version.
If you change the default mapping, you can save your changes by clicking on
"Save". DOSBox will save the mapping to a location specified in
the configuration file (the mapperfile= entry). At startup, DOSBox will load
your mapperfile, if it is present in the DOSBox configuration file.
===================
8. Keyboard Layout:
===================
To switch to a different keyboard layout, either the entry "keyboardlayout"
in the [dos] section of the DOSBox configuration file can be used, or the
internal DOSBox program keyb.com (Section 4: Internal Programs)
Both accept DOS conforming language codes (see below),
but only by using keyb.com a custom codepage can be specified.
The default keyboardlayout=auto currently works under windows only. The language
is chosen according to the OS language, but the keyboard layout is not detected.
Layout switching
DOSBox supports a number of keyboard layouts and codepages by default,
in this case just the layout identifier needs to be specified (like
keyboardlayout=PL214 in the DOSBox configuration file, or using "keyb PL214"
at the DOSBox command prompt). The list of all layouts built into DOSBox is
here: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=21824
Some keyboard layouts (for example layout GK319 codepage 869 and layout RU441
codepage 808) have support for dual layouts that can be accessed by pressing
LeftALT+RrightSHIFT for one layout and LeftALT+LeftSHIFT for the other.
Some keyboard layouts (for example layout LT456 codepage 771) have support
for three layouts, third can be accessed by pressing LeftALT+LeftCTRL
Supported external files
The FreeDOS .kl files are supported (FreeDOS keyb2 keyboard layoutfiles) as
well as the FreeDOS keyboard.sys/keybrd2.sys/keybrd3.sys libraries which
consist of all available .kl files.
See http://www.freedos.org/ for precompiled keyboard layouts if
the DOSBox-integrated layouts don't work for some reason, or if updated or
new layouts become available.
Both .CPI (MS-DOS and compatible codepage files) and .CPX (FreeDOS
UPX-compressed codepage files) can be used. Some codepages are compiled
into DOSBox, so it is mostly not needed to care about external codepage
files. If you need a different (or custom) codepage file, copy it into
the directory of the DOSBox so it is accessible for DOSBox.
If you place all ten ega.cpx files (from FreeDOS) in DOSBox folder,
an appropriate codepagefile for the requested layout/codepage is
chosen automatically.
Additional layouts can be added by copying the corresponding .kl file into
the directory of the DOSBox configuration file and using the first part of
the filename as language code.
Example: For the file UZ.KL (keyboard layout for Uzbekistan) specify
"keyboardlayout=uz" in the DOSBox configuration file.
The integration of keyboard layout packages (like keybrd2.sys) works similar.
Note that the keyboard layout allows foreign characters to be entered, but
there is NO support for them in filenames. Try to avoid them both inside
DOSBox as well as in files on your host operating system that are accessible
by DOSBox.
==============================
9. Serial Multiplayer feature:
==============================
DOSBox can emulate a serial nullmodem cable over network and internet.
It can be configured through the [serialports] section in the DOSBox
configuration file.
To create a nullmodem connection, one side needs to act as the server and
one as the client.
The server needs to be set up in the DOSBox configuration file like this:
serial1=nullmodem
The client:
serial1=nullmodem server:<IP or name of the server>
Now start your game and choose nullmodem / serial cable / already connected
as multiplayer method on COM1. Set the same baudrate on both computers.
Furthermore, additional parameters can be specified to control the behavior
of the nullmodem connection. These are all parameters:
* port: - TCP port number. Default: 23
* rxdelay: - how long (milliseconds) to delay received data if the
interface is not ready. Increase this value if you encounter
overrun errors in the DOSBox Status Window. Default: 100
* txdelay: - how long to gather data before sending a packet. Default: 12
(reduces Network overhead)
* server: - This nullmodem will be a client connecting to the specified
server. (No server argument: be a server.)
* transparent:1 - Only send the serial data, no RTS/DTR handshake. Use this
when connecting to anything other than a nullmodem.
* telnet:1 - Interpret Telnet data from the remote site. Automatically
sets transparent.
* usedtr:1 - The connection will not be established until DTR is switched
on by the DOS program. Useful for modem terminals.
Automatically sets transparent.
* inhsocket:1 - Use a socket passed to DOSBox by command line. Automatically
sets transparent. (Socket Inheritance: It is used for
playing old DOS door games on new BBS software.)
Example: Be a server listening on TCP port 5000.
serial1=nullmodem server:<IP or name of the server> port:5000 rxdelay:1000
=====================================
10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox:
=====================================
DOSBox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and other peripherals
of a PC, all at the same time. The speed of an emulated DOS application
depends on how many instructions can be emulated, which is adjustable
(number of cycles).
CPU Cycles (speed up/slow down)
By default (cycles=auto) DOSBox tries to detect whether a game needs to
be run with as many instructions emulated per time interval as possible
(cycles=max, sometimes this results in game working too fast or unstable),
or whether to use fixed amount of cycles (cycles=3000, sometimes this results
in game working too slow or too fast). But you can always manually force
a different setting in the DOSBox's configuration file.
You can force the slow or fast behavior by setting a fixed amount of cycles
in the DOSBox's configuration file. If you for example set cycles=10000, then
DOSBox window will display a line "Cpu Speed: fixed 10000 cycles" at the top.
In this mode you can reduce the amount of cycles even more by hitting CTRL-F11
(you can go as low as you want) or raise it by hitting CTRL-F12 as much as you
want, but you will be limited by the power of one core of your computer's CPU.
You can see how much free time your real CPU's cores have by looking at
the Task Manager in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and the System Monitor
in Windows 95/98/ME. Once 100% of the power of your computer's real CPU's one
core is used, there is no further way to speed up DOSBox (it will actually
start to slow down), unless you reduce the load generated by the non-CPU parts
of DOSBox. DOSBox can use only one core of your CPU, so If you have
for example a CPU with 4 cores, DOSBox will not be able to use the power
of three other cores.
You can also force the fast behavior by setting cycles=max in the DOSBox
configuration file. The DOSBox window will display a line
"Cpu Speed: max 100% cycles" at the top then. This time you won't have to care
how much free time your real CPU's cores have, because DOSBox will always use
100% of your real CPU's one core. In this mode you can reduce the amount
of your real CPU's core usage by CTRL-F11 or raise it with CTRL-F12.
CPU Core (speed up)
On x86 architectures you can try to force the usage of a dynamically
recompiling core (set core=dynamic in the DOSBox configuration file).
This usually gives better results if the auto detection (core=auto) fails.
It is best accompanied by cycles=max. But you may also try using it with
high amounts of cycles (for example 20000 or more). Note that there might be
games that work worse/crash with the dynamic core (so save your game often),
or do not work at all!
Graphics emulation (speed up)
VGA emulation is a demanding part of DOSBox in terms of actual CPU usage.
Increase the number of frames skipped (in increments of one) by pressing
CTRL-F8. Your CPU usage should decrease when using a fixed cycle setting,
and you will be able to increase cycles with CTRL-F12.
You can repeat this until the game runs fast enough for you.
Please note that this is a trade-off: you lose in fluidity of video what
you gain in speed.
Sound emulation (speed up)
You can also try to disable the sound through the setup utility of the game
to reduce load on your CPU further. Setting nosound=true in DOSBox's
configuration does NOT disable the emulation of sound devices, just
the output of sound will be disabled.
Also try to close every program but DOSBox to reserve as much resources
as possible for DOSBox.
Advanced cycles configuration:
The cycles=auto and cycles=max settings can be parameterized to have
different startup defaults. The syntax is
cycles=auto ["realmode default"] ["protected mode default"%]
[limit "cycle limit"]
cycles=max ["protected mode default"%] [limit "cycle limit"]
Example:
cycles=auto 5000 80% limit 20000
will use cycles=5000 for real mode games, 80% CPU throttling for
protected mode games along with a hard cycle limit of 20000
====================
11. Troubleshooting:
====================
General tip:
Check messages in DOSBox Status Window. See section 12. "DOSBox Status Window"
DOSBox crashes right after starting it:
- use different values for the output= entry in your DOSBox
configuration file
- try to update your graphics card driver and DirectX
- (Linux) set the environment variable SDL_AUDIODRIVER to alsa or oss.
Running a certain game closes DOSBox, crashes with some message or hangs:
- see if it works with a default DOSBox installation
(unmodified configuration file)
- try it with sound disabled (use the sound configuration
program that comes with the game, additionally you can
set sbtype=none and gus=false in the DOSBox configuration file)
- change some entries of the DOSBox configuration file, especially try:
core=normal
fixed cycles (for example cycles=10000)
ems=false
xms=false
or combinations of the above settings,
similar the machine settings that control the emulated chipset and
functionality:
machine=vesa_nolfb
or
machine=vgaonly
- use loadfix before starting the game
The game exits to the DOSBox prompt with some error message:
- read the error message closely and try to locate the error
- try the hints at the above sections
- mount differently as some games are picky about the locations,
for example if you used "mount d d:\oldgames\game" try
"mount c d:\oldgames\game" and "mount c d:\oldgames"
- if the game requires a CD-ROM be sure you used "-t cdrom" when
mounting and try different additional parameters (the ioctl,
usecd and label switches, see the appropriate section)
- check the file permissions of the game files (remove read-only
attributes, add write permissions etc.)
- try reinstalling the game within DOSBox
=========================
12. DOSBox Status Window:
=========================
DOSBox's Staus window contains many useful information about your currant
configuration, your actions in DOSBox, errors that happened and more.
Whenever you have any problem with DOSBox check these messages.
To start DOSBox Status Window:
(Windows) Status Window is being started together with main DOSBox window.
(Linux) You may have to start DOSBox from a console to see Status Window.
(MAC OS X) Right click on DOSBox.app, choose "Show Package Contents"->
->enter "Contents"->enter "MacOS"->run "DOSBox"
=====================================
13. The configuration (options) file:
=====================================
The configuration file is automatically created the first time you run DOSBox.
The file can be found in:
(Windows) "Start/WinLogo Menu"->"All Programs"->DOSBox-0.74->Options
(Linux) ~/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
(MAC OS X) "~/Library/Preferences/DOSBox 0.74 Preferences"
The file is divided into several sections. Each section starts with a
[section name] line. The settings are the property=value lines where value can
be altered to customize DOSBox.
# and % indicate comment-lines.
An extra configuration file can be generated by CONFIG.COM, which can be found
on the internal DOSBox Z: drive when you start up DOSBox. Look in the Section 4:
"Internal programs" for usage of CONFIG.COM. You can start DOSBox with
the -conf switch to load the generated file and use its settings.
DOSBox will load configuration files that are specified with -conf. If none were
specified, it will try to load "dosbox.conf" from the local directory.
If there is none, DOSBox will load the user configuration file.
This file will be created if it doesn't exist.
Important!: In Windows Vista/7 the configuration file won't work correctly
if it is located in "Windows" or "Program Files" folder or their subfolders,
or directly on c:\, so the best place for storing extra configuration files is
for example: C:\oldgames
======================
14. The Language File:
======================
A language file can be generated by CONFIG.COM, which can be found on the
internal DOSBox Z: drive when you start up DOSBox. Look in the Section 4:
"Internal programs" for usage of CONFIG.COM.
Read the language file, and you will hopefully understand how to change it.
Start DOSBox with the -lang switch to use your new language file.
Alternatively, you can setup the filename in the configuration file
in the [dosbox] section. There's a language= entry that can be changed with
the filelocation.
========================================
15. Building your own version of DOSBox:
========================================
Download the source.
Check the INSTALL in the source distribution.
===================
16. Special thanks:
===================
See the THANKS file.
============
17. Contact:
============
See the site:
http://www.dosbox.com
for an email address (The Crew-page).
Starting with version 0.65, DOSBox allows you to create movies out of screen
output.
To record a movie, you have to press CTRL-ALT-F5.
To stop/end the recording, you have to press CTRL-ALT-F5 again.
To play the recorded movie, you need a movie player which can handle the
ZMBV codec. MS Windows users can find this codec in the start menu entry of
DOSBox. Users of Linux and other OSes should look for a movie player that
uses the ffmpeg libary (you may need to update or ask your distribution to
upgrade).
FAQ:
Q: During the display of the movies the sound is lagging.
A: Check your display properties to see whether your refresh rate is set to
at least 70 hz. Try playing the movie in virtualdub (http://virtualdub.sf.net)
Q: Why does the resulting movie consist of multiple files?
A: Each time the game changes resolution, DOSBox creates a new movie file,
because a movie file can only contain one resolution.
Q: Can I set the cycles higher than my PC can handle during recording?
A: Yes. During recording, the game might play slowly and stuttering, but the
resulting movie should play at the intended speed and have no stuttering.
Q: CTRL-ALT-F5 switches to the console under linux.
A: 1. Start DOSBox like this: dosbox -startmapper
2. Click on Video, click on Add
3. Press the key you want (for example scroll lock or printscreen)
4. Click exit.
5. You can make movies by pressing scroll lock or whichever key you
selected.
Q: The colours are wrong and I'm using 64 bit windows
A: Look here: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=12133
The base application's source code is available from the portable app's homepage listed in the help.html file. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
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part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
parties under the terms of this License.
c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
collective works based on the Program.
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
the scope of this License.
3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange; or,
c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
received the program in object code or executable form with such
an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
special exception, the source code distributed need not include
anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
itself accompanies the executable.
If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
parties remain in full compliance.
5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
the Program or works based on it.
6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
this License.
7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
be a consequence of the rest of this License.
8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
Foundation.
10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE,
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT
PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED
IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY
AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL
NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR
AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY
OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM
AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING
ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM
(INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING
RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD
PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY
OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS
BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
Public License instead of this License.DOSBox Portable Launcher 1.0.0.0
================================
Copyright 2004-2007 John T. Haller
Website: http://PortableApps.com/DOSBoxPortable
This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software.
OSI Certified is a certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
ABOUT DOSBox PORTABLE
=====================
The DOSBox Portable Launcher allows DOSBox to be able to store its settings in the Data folder.
LICENSE
=======
This code is released under the GPL. The full code is included with this package as
DOSBoxPortable.nsi.
INSTALLATION / DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
==================================
The program expects this directory structure:
-\ <--- Directory with DOSBoxPortable.exe
+\App\
+\DOSBox\
+\Data\
+\settings\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOAVPYe4-bQ
