DOSbox?

Has anyone used this?
DOSBOX Link

If so, how well does it work, and what games have you gotten to run?

I've tried to use it on a number of DOS games, but I've always had to find other ways to get them to work. BUT I've HEARD people say they've used it! Maybe I'm just a dork.

I haven't tried playing with it in a long time, but when I did, it didn't support games with copy protection.

It runs games without copy protection just fine that require DOS. I got some games, free for download, to work with DOSBox when they didn't work on Windows XP virtual DOS. So, for games like that, it should be ok to use. Other games, I wouldn't rely on it too much.


Gamehound

I've used it to play the first Gabriel Knight game. Ran without flaw at least for that one.

The latest version, 0.61, is absolutely fantastic . I've gotten 99% of my older (pre-1994) games to run without problem, including the CD version of Shadow of the Comet. I've run into little if any problems, and most speed problems and choppy sound are easily resolved by turning up the frameskip .

All in all, it's worth downloading and having around , especailly for those DOS games that XP hates. I've heard people have even been able to get Ultima VII and Under A Killing Moon to run.

I still have trouble getting my older DOS games to run, even on my Win95 machine. Often times there is no sound. I realise that there is a fix for this (something about configuring the files), but I've been leary about doing that. Would downloading DOS box to my Win98 ( or even Win95 for that matter) allow me to paly older games without changing the configuration? The games in question are Death Gate and Lost in Time.

Hi

I would be VERY interested to know if and how ANYONE got Lost In Time to run....speech and sound effects would do....could manage without the music....

So if you get to know, Colpet, PLEASE get in touch with me. OK ??


Cheers.

Mad

Will do, Mad.

I have it bookmarked now. Thanks! They have lists of the games they've gotten to run with it ! The list includes Freddy Pharkas (sure would be nice to have sound back), Death Gate, & Lost in Time. Looks promising

Thanks for the referral. I am definitely going to try it!

Susan

I am going to give it a try too- I would love to be able to play Xanth and Shannara again!

I downloaded it and LSL2 ran on it without any trouble. There wasn't even any setup required. Nice application!!

Could someone tell me if DOSbox is only for XP use? Could I load it on to my Win95 and Win98 machines as well?

colpet,

You can find the answer to your question HERE .

Here's the blurb:

DOS Emulator - Runs some DOS games better than Windows

Want an easy way to run some DOS games in Windows better than Windows does? Try DOSBox. It works in Win95, 98, and ME, but is probably more helpful for Windows XP/2000 users who don't have a "real" version of DOS on their machines, DOSBox is a DOS emulator, meaning it simulates DOS on your computer. (Similarly to Microsoft's "Command Prompt", but better.) It includes SoundBlaster support, and is constanly being improved to work with more games. If a game doesn't work in WinXP, try running it in DOSBox instead!

Well, I downloaded Dosbox, but was utterly defeated by its opaque operation.

I don't know what to do with the "Z" drive.

I tried the instructions in the readme, but nothing works. I try running the "dosbox" command and get "illegal command."

Does anyone know of documentation for this product that wasn't written strictly for DOS experts? {whine}

Ray, there's a step by step on getting DOSBox to work with GK1 here
Gabriel Knight with Dosbox

Perhaps that could be adapted to whatever you're playing.

Thanks for that link Jenny. I've messed around with DosBox a little bit but it is only like once a month or so and by the time I use it again I've forgotten all the commands. This explains it a lot more clearly than other instructions I've seen and can easily be adapted for any Dos game.

Thanks, Jenny!

Unfortunately the "Mount" step doesn't work when I try it, using those exact directins. It says it's mounted C, but then won't let me change to it.

I jumped around the site and found that they have three "front enders" that make using DosBox much easier.

One of them is called Boxer. Also, DosBox forums has more specific instructions

I just finished dl DosBox and am checking these now but I just got the Uru expansion file up on the computer tonight so retro gaming is gonna have to wait a day or two. Woohoo!

Susan

Has anyone gotten Riddle of Master LU to work in DOSbox? Mounted my CDRom drive then opened it up and typed instal got a bunch of error messages. Copied all the CDROM files to my HD, mounted my C: drive with the directry C:\games\Riddle then typed install still got the error messages. Then I tried to work directly with the EXE Which is in a subdirectory Goodstuf. DOSbox wouldn't recognize the Goodstuf directory. There is no resource file like the one that was in the link that Jenny gave. This game is listed as being fully supported so why won't it run?

Llewton did you ever get Master Lu to run? I think I spent more time geeting it to run than the length of the game!

Here is a step by step method of getting those old DOS games going.

1. First you need to download the latest Dosbox. And then download a frontend. My humble suggestion is this 'old, discontinued' yet 'simple and easy-to-use' frontend. No bells and whistles but it gets games running with the fewest clicks. I tried the three frontends but I still use this one. Here's the download (In courtesy of Post Adventure).

Dosbox: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dosbox/DOSBox0.61-win32-installer.exe?downloadmain=1
Frontend: http://game.ivyro.net/zeroboard/data/toon/doboxfro.zip

2. Let's Install dosbox and unzip the frontend(the frontend is for windows users) in the directory where dosbox is installed.

4. If the Dos game is not installed, let us wait a moment.

5. Now let's go to the directory where dosbox and its frontend is. Let's run the frontend. It's the executable with the building icon.

6. The frontend has one catch. The directories where the game we want to play CANNOT HAVE SPACES. None of these examples will do.
c:\sam and max\
c:\dos games\gabriel knight 1\

They must change to

c:\samandmax\
c:\dosgames\gabrielknight1\

7. When the directories are all set, we're ready to go. Let's just say we want to install The Riddle of Master Lu. Then we should put in the CD, run the frontend and then:
a: press the top button that says "File which you want to start" An install.exe / setup.exe etc. should install the game.
b: press "Start" button on the bottom.
c: press Alt+Enter to get the program running faster. Dosbox runs faster in Full Screen.

8. After getting the game installed, let's make a profile for this game. A profile would be your short-cut to the game, quite convienient. Pressing "New" would start a project. Let's type 'The Riddle of Master Lu'. Nothing seem to happen. We have to tell what game it would play. The "File which you want to start" button should do the trick. After choosing the right executable file that starts the game, press "Save". Now we have a profile. We can just choose the profile, press "Start" and get our game going whenever we want to.

9. Unfortunately, this is retro-gaming. We have to setup the graphics and sounds. Old-time gamers would get my point but let's be thorough. There should be a install, setsound, setup ..... an executable for seting up graphics and sound. Most Sierra classics will have install.exe. This file doesn't reinstall the game. It's for configuration.

10. We can see that the "File which you want to start" button is like a Windows File Manager and the profiles are like whatchmacallit(using a non-English windows), are they called shortcuts? Anyway you'd get my drift. The frontend has some functions for tweaking and you can fiddle with them for different results. The profile will save the function changes. Remember to save profile changes.

11. Dosbox has three great features, screen capturing, music capturing and frameskip.

CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot.
CTRL-F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file.
CTRL-F7 Decrease frameskip.
CTRL-F8 Increase frameskip.

Try these functions while playing the game. Capturing and printing those ending screenshots would definately complement your album or diary.

12. Note that dosbox can't run all DOS games. It hasn't yet supported 16bit graphics which means The 11th Hour will need the Windows patch. I couldn't get Rama working which is a shame. Some games like Calahan's Crosstime Saloon run slow for my computer (a P3-700). But most games ran without problems. Hope you enjoy. (This writing needs to be preserved for many to see. I've worked too hard on this.)

And here's a link for a special comic that I've semi-made.
http://game.ivyro.net/zeroboard/data/toon/admanga7_english.jpg

Oh, I forgot. Two people at Post Adventure got The Riddle of Master Lu working with Dosbox. The game should run well using the methods shown above.

Thanks scrolly :kiss: I may yet get this game to work...

Hugs

Tig

Hi Magicscroll

That's great that you are giving step by step stuff

Should these same instructions you give get Lost in Time up and running ??

Cheers.

Mad

Well hello Mad
It should be the same with Lost in Time. Let me know if you have any trouble.

Hi

Thanks VERY much

Cheers.

Mad

Thanks for taking the time to post that step by step explanation, Magicscroll.

I downloaded Dosbox to play Lost in Time.I had trouble understanding the Dosbox instructions, so I gave up. As a last ditch effort I reinstalled Lost in Time to a previous Sierra folder and applied the patch. Low and behold, it's working now without Dosbox. I've got Win98.
Since I still want to try other Dos games (like Deathgate), I'm going to keep Dosbox and print out
Magicscroll's instructions. Thanks for putting together a step by step list .

I've tried out the front end program with Deathgate. How do you install the game with it? I put in the CD and click on 'file which you want to start'and choose F:\install.exe. Then I click on start and nothing happens. What am I missing?

Hi Colpet

You got Lost in Time working ??

Do you have speech, sound effects and music ??

[I'm passing all these instructions on to my son in law (he has the game at the moment) for when he has time to visit and experiment with it all for me ]

Well done you !!!!

Cheers.

Mad

Yes, I was surprised too. It seems to have all the bells and whistles. It is a good game so far, well worth the effort it may take to load it up.
Jo

At least an error message should come out when everything is in order. You would need more than the frontend. Did you download dosbox 0.6.1?

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dosbox/DOSBox0.61-win32-installer.exe?download

If the frontend is located in a different directory, the directory where dosbox is located has to be configured. Check "Dir from Dosbox" and press "Dosbox" and locate the directory where dosbox is installed. I don't advise this; some troubles occured for me. Best to have the two programs in one directory.

Emulators take a bit of trial-and-error to get used to them. But once you get the hang of things, the benefits outweigh the trouble. Good luck!

Sorry to be such a pain, but I'm still stuck. I redid the unzip of the front end to the DOSbox 6.1 folder. Then I started the front end and got the window. I put Deathgate into my 'F' CD-R drive
and clicked on 'file which you want to start'. I found the install.exe and opened it. Then DOSbox came up in another window with this:

z:\>set blaster=A220 17 D1 T4
z:\>set ultrasnd=240,3,3,5,5
z:\>set ultradir=C:\ultradir
z:\>mount C "F:"
Directory F: doesn't exist
z:\>C:
Drive C does not exist
Z:\>install.exe
Illegalcommand instal.exe
Z:\>_

Since I may be going off topic here, please contact me by e-mail if you have any suggestions.
Thanks for taking the extra time to help out.
Jo

I'm not troubled. Don't sweat it.
I see there is a bug in this frontend.

A: First try installing the game from windows by putting in the CD and search the CD by 'right-clicking->search' the CD drive in 'my computer' Double click the install executable.

B: [A] rarely fails you but you can try the frontend's 'directory which you want to start' button. Set it to f:\ and start. In the box, type manually 'install' and press enter.

If the game is installed, try the step-by-step. The game may not read the CD....... Add this line to the [Commands:] mount d f:\ -t cdrom
Unfortunately, you may have to type this over and over. (Or use a better frontend with a higher learning curve)

Darn, the frontend failed me. A better step by step is in order.

When the CD doesn't run.....(and the game is installed)

1. Go straight to dosbox.
2. type mount d f:\ -t cdrom (or d:\ for others)
3. If the game is installed on c:\game , type mount c c:\game
4. If the executable is play.exe first type c:\ [enter] -> play [enter]