DOSBox-0.72

DOSBox v0.72 ===== 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 486 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. FAQ 3. Usage 4. Internal Programs 5. Special Keys 6. Mapper 7. Keyboard Layout 8. Serial Multiplayer feature 9. How to run resource-demanding games 10. Troubleshooting 11. The config file 12. The language file 13. Building your own version of DOSBox 14. Special thanks 15. 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 parts of it) accessible to the emulation. See the FAQ entry "I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt" as well as the description of the MOUNT command (section 4). ======= 2. FAQ: ======= Some Frequently Asked Questions: Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt. Q: Do I always have to type these commands? Automation? Q: How do I change to fullscreen? Q: My CD-ROM doesn't work. Q: The mouse doesn't work. Q: There is no sound. Q: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird. Q: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox. Q: The keyboard lags. Q: The cursor always moves into one direction! Q: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. Q: The game/application runs much too slow! Q: Can DOSBox harm my computer? Q: I would like to change the memory size/cpu speed/ems/soundblaster IRQ. Q: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate? Q: DOSBox crashes on startup and I'm running arts. Q: Great README, but I still don't get it. Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt. A: 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. 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:\>". Q: Do I always have to type these commands? Automation? A: 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. Q: How do I change to fullscreen? A: 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 option fullresolution in the configuration file of DOSBox. To get back from fullscreen mode: Press alt-enter again. Q: My CD-ROM doesn't work. A: 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): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom To enable low-level CD-ROM-support (uses ioctl if possible): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 To enable low-level SDL-support: - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -noioctl To enable low-level aspi-support (win98 with aspi-layer installed): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -aspi In the commands: - d driveletter you will get in DOSBox - f:\ location of CD-ROM on your PC. - 0 The number of the CD-ROM drive, reported by mount -cd See also the question: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. Q: The mouse doesn't work. A: 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. Q: There is no sound. A: 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 soundblaster16 with the default settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1". You might also want to select midi at address 330 as music device. The parameters of the emulated soundcards can be changed in the DOSBox configuration file. If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal and use some lower fixed cycles value (like cycles=2000). Also assure that your host operating sound does provide sound. Q: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird. A: You're 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 (see the DOSBox configuration file) or the mixer device. You can also increase the prebuffer in the configfile. If you are using cycles=max or =auto, then make sure that there no background processes interfering! (especially if they access the harddisk) Q: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox. A: This is a known problem. It only occurs if your keyboard layout isn't US. Some possible fixes: 1. Switch the keyboard layout of your operating system. 2. Use / instead. 3. Open dosbox.conf and change usescancodes=false to usescancodes=true. 4. Add the commands you want to execute to the "configfile". 5. Change the DOS keyboard layout (see Section 7 Keyboard Layout). 6. Use ALT-58 for : and ALT-92 for \. 7. for \ try the keys around "enter". For ":" try shift and the keys between "enter" and "l" (US keyboard layout). 8. Try keyb.com from FreeDOS (http://projects.freedos.net/keyb/). Look for keyb2.0 pre4 as older and newer versions are known to have a bug in the loader routines. Q: The keyboard lags. A: Lower the priority setting in the DOSBox configuration file like set "priority=normal,normal". You might also want to try lowering the cycles. Q: The cursor always moves into one direction! A: 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. 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). Q: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. A: 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 enable lower-level CD-ROM support, add the following switch to mount: -usecd #, where # is the number of your CD-ROM drive reported by mount -cd. Under Windows you can specify -ioctl, -aspi or -noioctl. Look at the description elsewhere in this document for their meaning. Try creating a CD-ROM image (preferably CUE/BIN pair) and use the DOSBox-internal IMGMOUNT tool to mount the image. This enables very good low-level CD-ROM support on any operating system. Q: The game/application runs much too slow! A: Look at the section "How to run resource-demanding games" for more information. Q: Can DOSBox harm my computer? A: 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. Q