11 replies to this topic

[Tempest]

Sadly I have to put my old DOS gaming rig into my basement as I have no room for it in my gameroom anymore (don't worry, it's being replaced by something better), so it looks like I'm going to be forced to use DOSBox now. My question is, how well does it actually work? I used it briefly several years ago and while it worked alright, I found it hard to configure properly for my PC. Have things gotten better?

[The Usotsuki]

The DOS emulation is still a bit wacky but all in all it's not too bad and the hardware emulation is pretty good.

[Tempest]

Well I'd only need it for games that weren't released on the Apple II or Amiga, so that narrows down things a bit. And of course there's SCUMM for all the Lucas Arts games. The big ones I can think of are Ultima VII, VIII, IX, some of the Sierra games, some of the later SSI games, and the odd older game here and there (Fountain of Dreams comes to mind).

[cimerians]

I have been DOSBox gaming for ages. To make things a whole lot easier get a frontend. Some frontends these days are very very good. ie. They give you many options like using the command prompt in DOSbox.

I recommend this frontend:
http://members.quick...nkendaalr/dbgl/

Although there are other front ends out there like D-Fend etc but after trying out many of them I found the one above to be the best. (At least for me).

I have all the SSI and Ultima games running through DOSBox.

You may want to check out GOG.com and possibly spend a little money there if you dont mind supporting them. They do a great job of packaging the games with DOSBox and extra stuff. Cheap too.

Edited by cimerians, Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:57 AM.

[dudeslife]

the best implementation of DOSBox is on the iPad. Check my review out.

http://dudeslife.com...spad-beta-1-97/

[Hatta]

Dosbox is awesome. If you can configure real DOS, then the extremely simplified Dosbox DOS should be no problem. Dosbox.conf is also very well documented.

[Rex Dart]

Yeah, just open up dosbox.conf, it's commented throughout and very easy to configure. If you were able to manage autoexec.bat and config.sys, you can work dosbox.

[Tempest]

I read somewhere that you could use a real Roland MT-32 with DOSBox, is that true?

[Hatta]

Dosbox's MIDI just passes through to system MIDI. I haven't used an MT-32 with it, but if it works on your host OS it should work with Dosbox.

[Pengwin]

Dosbox is great for most old games. If you're using a Mac, it is even easier if you get Boxer.

[Keatah]

Hatta, on Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:16 AM, said:

Dosbox is awesome. If you can configure real DOS, then the extremely simplified Dosbox DOS should be no problem. Dosbox.conf is also very well documented.

Agreed. Learn the ins and outs of the config file and you'll be alright. I'm jamming fine with Windows 3.1 and Microsoft Arcade under DosBox. I also regularly play Doom and Microsoft Space Simulator. There are un-official builds of DosBox that have some sort of support for Glide applications too.

If there's a certain game you can't get working let us know. Also, the DosBox forums at VOGONS is a fantastic resource!

I've also found that by using multiple config files I can go back and forth between games instantly.. Compared to the days of when real 80486 hardware was in vogue. Back then, you'd need to manage multiple autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Or carefully build a configuration that somehow "handled" everything you wanted, but then required boot disks or some other shit..

I now prefer DosBox over the older real hardware.

Edited by Keatah, Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:42 PM.

[Inky]

I first ran into DOSBox when I was a 100% Ubuntu linux guy. I was happily running old DOS games thru DOSBox on Ubuntu. (in fact, on the Ubuntuforums website, I wrote a howto about configuring the conf file to map a C: drive)

I still use it, but on windows now (My Ubuntu laptop is down until I can get a power supply). I'm currently running Duke NUkem 3D, and it works like a charm.