Thanks for the report Jim, looking forward to check that one out too.
Nevertheless, the important question remains: will it run Ultima 7 with its Voodoo Memory System? >;)
--
Pedro R. Quaresma
Salvador Caetano IMVT
Div. Sistemas de Informação / Systems and Information Division
Administração e Desenvolvimento Lotus Notes /
Lotus Notes Administration and Development
[EMAIL PROTECTED] // +351 22 7867000 (ext. 3492)
Toyota Prius '01, Aqua Ice Opalescent, 37K km., "Esperanza"
'People don't quit playing because they grow old. They grow old because they quit playing.' - Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Para: [EMAIL PROTECTED] A/C: Ref: cc: Assunto: [SWCollect] DOSBox: Getting DOS games to run easily | |
| Jim Leonard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
13-01-2004 21:01 | ||
| Solicita-se resposta a swcollect
|
I've been tinkering with this for a month now and have had such great
success that I thought I'd inform everyone about it:
dosbox.sourceforge.net
It emulates a "generic" x86 with VGA/EGA/CGA/Tandy and Adlib/Sound
Blaster/Tandy sound. You can dial the cycles per second so you can
adjust the speed of the emulation exactly. You can even take perfect
screenshots and dump sound to .wav files.
And the scary thing is: It works. I mean, it works REALLY well. Even
timing-dependant games that output digitized sound through the PC
speaker work (and you can dump it to a .wav!). Everything is loaded
high except the interrupt table, so you get 637K free DOS RAM (that is
not a typo). And you can dial the speed of the emulation using hotkeys
while the game is running to make fine adjustments. For slower
machines, you can skip video frames to free up CPU time. I can get most
older games running on a 333MHz machine by setting the frameskip to 4
(~17fps) or 5 (14fps), which is the speed most games ran at on an 8086
anyway. If you have a VERY fast machine (2.5GHz-like speeds or higher)
you can emulate a 486/66.
Places needing improvement:
- MT-32 is emulated, but only by passing MIDI commands to Windows, so it
sounds a bit off. No custom instruments.
- Creative Music System ("Game Blaster") sound appears to not work in
0.60. Not a big deal if the game also supports Adlib.
- The Adlib emulation is very good, but not perfect.
- 386 games requiring protected mode sometimes work, sometimes doesn't.
Stuff already in CVS (upcoming releases):
- Better 386 emulation (goal is to get all DOS4GW games working like
Duke Nukem)
- Gravis Ultrasound emulation (already 99% finished)
Specific uses for this particular group:
- Run your old collectable games again, under Windows!
- Hear sound and see graphics you've never seen before (IBM PCjr/Tandy
graphics and sound, like King's Quest 1-3, etc.)
- Hear Sound Blaster sound you may have not heard before due to poor
compatibility (Rise of the Dragon, Stellar 7, Tongue of the Fatman)
- Run games that simply do not work properly on anything fast (Mean
Streets, Dark Castle, It Came From The Desert, Moebius, Windwalker,
Sorcerian)
- Take screenshots of your favorite games for personal webpages
- Record your favorite Adlib and Tandy game tunes to .WAV (be sure to
set the Adlib emulation to 44100Hz output for best fidelity)
I am not associated with the project, but I love the product.
--
Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
World's largest electronic gaming project: http://www.MobyGames.com/
A delicious slice of the demoscene: http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/
Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/
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