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DOSBox v0.65 ===== 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. The 0.60 release has added support for "protected mode" allowing for more complex and recent programs, but note that this support is still in an early stage of development and unlike the support for 386 real-mode games (or earlier) hasn't been completed yet. Also note that "protected mode" games need substantially more resources and may require a much faster processor for you to run them properly in DOSBox. ====== INDEX: ====== 1. Quickstart 2. FAQ 3. Usage 4. Internal Programs 5. Special Keys 6. Keymapper 7. System Requirements 8. To run resource-demanding games 9. The config file 10. The language file 11. Building your own version of DOSBox 12. Special thanks 13. Contact ============== 1. Quickstart: ============== Type INTRO in DOSBox. That's it. ======= 2. FAQ: ======= Some Frequently Asked Questions: Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt. Q: My game crashes when using opengl/nb or is much slower. Q: My CD-ROM doesn't work. Q: The mouse doesn't work. Q: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird. Q: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox. Q: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. Q: The game/application runs much too slow! 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. Q: My game crashes when using opengl/nb or is much slower. A: Somehow our opengl code isn't entirely stable on some platforms. Use surface instead. 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 the most basic CD-ROM support: - mount d f:\ -t cdrom To enable low-level SDL-support: - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 To enable low-level ioctl-support(win2k/xp/linux): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -ioctl To enable low-level aspi-support (win98 with aspi-layer installed): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -apsi In the commands: - d driveletter you will get in DOSBox - f:\ location of cdrom 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: 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 or get a faster machine. You can also increase the prebuffer in the configfile. 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 your keyboard layout. 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. Start the keymapper (CTRL-F1 or add -startmapper switch to DOSBox). 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. Use keyb.com from FreeDOS (http://projects.freedos.net/keyb/). Q: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. A: Be sure to mount the CD-ROM with -t cdrom switch. Also try adding the correct label (-label LABEL). To enable more low-level CD-ROM support, add the following switch to mount: -usecd #, where # is the number of your CD-ROM drive reported by mount -cd. If you run Win32 you can specify -ioctl or -aspi. Look at the description elsewhere in this document for their meaning. Q: The game/application runs much too slow! A: Look at the section "To run resource-demanding games" for more information. Q: I would like to change the memory size/cpu speed/ems/soundblaster IRQ. A: This is possible! Just create a config file: config -writeconf configfile . Start your favourite editor and look at all the settings present. To start DOSBox with your new settings: dosbox -conf configfile Q: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate? A: DOSBox emulates several legacy sound devices: - Internal PC speaker 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 port 0x220. It should be noted that enabling this with the Adlib emulation may result in conflicts. - 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. - Adlib Borrowed from MAME, this emulation is almost perfect and includes the Adlib's ability to almost play digitized sound. - 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 configfile of DOSBox (See Internal Commands: CONFIG). - Disney Soundsource Using the printer port, this sound device outputs digital sound only. - 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. - MPU-401 A MIDI passthrough interface is also emulated. This method of sound output will only work when used with a General Midi or MT-32 device. Q: DOSBox crashes on startup and I'm running arts. A: This isn't really a DOSBox problem, but the solution is to set the environment variable SDL_AUDIODRIVER to alsa or oss. Q: Great README, but I still don't get it. A: While unlikely, this seems to happen. A look at "The Newbie's pictorial guide to DOSBox" located at http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewforum.php?f=39 might help you. You could also try the wiki of dosbox: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/ For more questions read the remainder of this README and/or check the site/forum: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net ========= 3. Usage: ========= An overview of the command line options you can give to DOSBox. Windows Users must open cmd.exe or command.com or edit the shortcut to DOSBox.exe for this. The options are valid for all operating systems unless noted in the option description: dosbox [name] [-exit] [-c command] [-fullscreen] [-conf congfigfile] [-lang languagefile] [-machine machinetype] [-noconsole] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec] dosbox -version 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. -conf configfile Start DOSBox with the options specified in "configfile". See Chapter 9 for more details. -lang languagefile Start DOSBox using the language specified in "languagefile". -noconsole (Windows Only) Start DOSBox without showing the console window. Output will be redirected to stdout.txt and stderr.txt -machine machinetype Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are: hercules, cga, pcjr, tandy, vga (default). The machinetype affects both the videocard and the available soundcards. -startmapper Enter the keymapper directly on startup. Useful for people with keyboard problems. -noautoexec Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file. -version output version information and exit. Useful for frontends. Note: If a name/command/configfile/languagefile contains a space, put the whole name/command/configfile/languagefile between quotes ("command or file name"). For example: dosbox c:\atlantis\atlantis.exe -c "MOUNT D C:\SAVES" This mounts c:\atlantis as c:\ and runs atlantis.exe. Before it does that it would first mount C:\SAVES as the D 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. In addition, the following commands are available: MOUNT "Emulated Drive letter" "Real Drive or Directory" [-t type] [-aspi] [-ioctl] [-usecd number] [-size drivesize] [-label drivelabel] [-freesize size_in_mb] MOUNT -cd MOUNT -u "Emulated Drive letter" Program to mount local directories as drives inside DOSBox. "Emulated Drive letter" The driveletter inside dosbox (eg. C). "Real Drive letter or Directory" The local directory you want to have inside dosbox. (Under Win32 usually the same as "Emulated Drive letter". For Example: mount c c:\ ) -t type Type of the mounted directory. Supported are: dir (standard), floppy, cdrom. -size drivesize Sets the size of the drive. -freesize size_in_mb Sets the amount of free space available on a drive in MB's. This is a simpler version of -size. -label drivelabel Sets the name of the drive to "drivelabel". Needed on some systems if the cd label isn't read correctly. Useful when a program can't find its cdrom. If you don't specify a label and no lowlevel support is selected (-usecd # and/or -ioctl/aspi): For win32: 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 cdrom under Windows systems with an ASPI-Layer. -ioctl Forces use of ioctl commands. Only valid if mounting a cdrom under a Windows OS which support them (Win2000/XP/NT). -usecd number Forces use of SDL cdrom support for drive number. Number can be found by -cd. Valid on all systems. -cd Displays all detected cdrom drives and their numbers. Use with -usecd. -u Removes the mount. Doesn't work for Z:\. Note: It's possible to mount a local directory as cdrom drive. 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. It also allows you to change the drive's letter identification for programs that demand specific drive letters. For example: Touche: Adventures of The Fifth Musketeer must be run on your C: drive. Using DOSBox and its mount command, you can trick the game into believing it is on the C drive, while you can still place it where you want it. For example, if the game is in D:\TOUCHE, the command MOUNT C D:\ will allow you to run Touche from the D drive. Mounting your entire C drive with MOUNT C C:\ is NOT recommended! If you or DOSBox makes a mistake you may loose all your files. It's recommended to put all your applications/games in a subdirectory and mount that. General MOUNT Examples: 1. To mount c:\DirX as a floppy : mount a c:\DirX -t floppy 2. To mount system cdrom drive E as cdrom drive D in DOSBox: mount d e:\ -t cdrom 3. To mount system cdrom drive at mountpoint /media/cdrom as cdrom drive D in dosbox: mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom -usecd 0 4. To mount a drive with 870 mb free diskspace (simple version): mount c d:\ -freesize 870 5. To mount a drive with 870 mb free diskspace (experts only, full control): mount c d:\ -size 4025,127,16513,1700 6. To mount /home/user/dirY as drive C in DOSBox: mount c /home/user/dirY MEM Program to display the amount of free memory. CONFIG [-writeconf] [-writelang] localfile 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 9 (The Config File). -writeconf localfile Write the current configuration settings to file. "localfile" 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 soundcards and many more things. It allows access to AUTOEXEC.BAT as well. See section 9 (The Config File) for more information. -writelang localfile Write the current language settings to file. "localfile" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive in DOSBox. The language file controls all visible ouput of the internal commands and the internal dos. -set "section property=value" CONFIG will attempt to set the property to new value. At this moment 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. Examples: 1. To create a configfile in your current directory: config -writeconf 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 memory available. Useful for old programs which don't expect much memory to be free. -size number of kb 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. left:right The volume levels in percentages. If you put a D in front it will be in deciBell (example mixer gus d-10). /NOSHOW Prevents DOSBox from showing the result if you set one of the volume levels. /LISTMIDI Lists the available midi devices on your pc (Windows). To select a device other than the Windows default midi-mapper, add a line 'config=id' to the [midi] section in the configuration file, where 'id' is the number for the device as listed by LISTMIDI. 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] imagefile Location of the image files to mount in DOSBox. The location is on a mounted drive inside DOSBox. CD-ROM images can be mounted directly as well. They don't have to be on a mounted drive. -t The following are valid image types: floppy: Specifies a floppy image or images. DOSBox will automatically identify the disk geometry ( 360K, 1.2MB, 720K, 1.44MB, etc). iso: Specifies a CD-ROM iso image. The geometry is automatic and set for this size. This can be an iso or a cue/bin. 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: "imgmount 3 d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142 -fs none" (without the quotes) Compare this with a mount to read the drive in DOSBox, which would read as: "imgmount e: d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142" -size The Cylinders, Heads and Sectors specification of the drive. Required to mount hard drive images. An example of CD-ROM images: 1a. mount c /tmp 1b. imgmount d c:\myiso.iso -t iso or (which also works): 2. imgmount d /tmp/myiso.iso -t iso 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 to other operating systems inside DOSBox. BOOT [diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img] [-l driveletter] 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" 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. The following is an IPXNET command reference: IPXNET CONNECT IPXNET CONNECT opens a connection to an IPX tunnelling 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 tunnelling - for its connection. The syntax for IPXNET CONNECT is: IPXNET CONNECT address <port> IPXNET DISCONNECT IPXNET DISCONNECT closes the connection to the IPX tunnelling server. The syntax for IPXNET DISCONNECT is: IPXNET DISCONNECT IPXNET STARTSERVER IPXNET STARTSERVER starts and 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 tunnelling server. The syntax for IPXNET STARTSERVER is: IPXNET STARTSERVER <port> IPXNET STOPSERVER IPXNET STOPSERVER stops the IPX tunnelling 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 tunnelling server. The syntax for IPXNET STOPSERVER is: IPXNET STOPSERVER IPXNET PING IPXNET PING broadcasts a ping request through the IPX tunnelled 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 tunnelling network. For a list of all computers connected to the network use the IPXNET PING command. The syntax for IPXNET STATUS is: IPXNET STATUS 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. CTRL-F1 Start the keymapper. CTRL-F4 Change between mounted disk-images. Update directory cache for all drives! CTRL-ALT-F5 Start/Stop creating a movie of the screen. CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot.(png) CTRL-F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file. CTRL-ALT-F7 Start/Stop recording of OPL commands. 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). These are the default keybindings. They can be changed in the keymapper. Saved/recorded files can be found in current_directory/capture (can be changed in the configfile). The directory has to exist prior to starting DOSBox, otherwise nothing gets saved/recorded ! NOTE: Once you increase your DOSBox cycles beyond your computer's maximum capacity, it will produce the same effect as slowing down the emulation. This maximum will vary from computer to computer; there is no standard. ============= 6. Keymapper: ============= When you start the keymapper (either with CTRL-F1 or -startmapper as a command line argument to the DOSBox executable) you are presented with a virtual keyboard. This virtual keyboard corresponds to the keys DOSBox will report to its applications. If you click on a key with your mouse, you can see in the lower left corner which key on your keyboard corresponds to it. Event: EVENT BIND: BIND Add Del mod1 hold Next mod2 mod3 EVENT The key DOSBox will report to the applications being emulated. BIND The key on your keyboard (as reported by SDL) which is connected to the EVENT. mod1,2,3 Modfiers. These are keys you need to have pressed as well, 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 which will produce the key EVENT in DOSBox. Del Delete the BIND to this EVENT. If an EVENT has no BINDS, then it's not possible to type this key in DOSBox. Next Go through the list of keys(BINDS) 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". If you change the default mapping, you can save your changes by pressing "Save". DOSBox will save the mapping to a location specified in the configfile (mapperfile=mapper.txt). At startup, DOSBox will load your mapperfile, if it's present in the configfile. ======================= 7. System requirements: ======================= Fast machine. My guess would be pentium-2 400+ to get decent emulation of games written for an 286 machine. For protected mode games a 1 Ghz machine is recommended - don't expect them to run fast, though! Be sure to read the next section on how to speed it up somewhat. =================================== 8. To run resource-demanding games: =================================== DOSBox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and some other stuff, all at the same time. You can overclock DOSBox by using CTRL-F12, but you'll be limited by the power of your actual CPU. You can see how much free time your true CPU has by looking at the Task Manager in Windows 2000/XP and the System Monitor in Windows 95/98/ME. Once 100% of your real CPU time is used there is no further way to speed up DOSBox unless you reduce the load generated by the non-CPU parts of DOSBox. So: Close every program but DOSBox Overclock DOSBox until 100% of your CPU is used (use the utilities above to check) Since VGA emulation is the most demanding part of DOSBox in terms of actual CPU usage, we'll start there. Increase the number of frames skipped (in increments of one) by pressing CTRL-F8. Your CPU usage should decrease. Go back one step and 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 You can also try to disable the sound through the setup utility of the game to reduce load on your CPU further. =================== 9. The Config File: =================== A config 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 internal programs section of the readme for usage of CONFIG.COM. You can edit the generated configfile to customize DOSBox. The file is divided into several sections (the names have [] around it). Some sections have options you can set. # and % indicate comment-lines. The generated configfile contains the current settings. You can alter them and start DOSBox with the -conf switch to load the file and use these settings. If no configfile is specified with the -conf switch, DOSBox will look in the current directory for dosbox.conf. Then it will look for ~/.dosboxrc (Linux), ~\dosbox.conf (Win32) or "~/Library/Preferences/DOSBox Preferences" (MACOSX). ====================== 10. The Language File: ====================== A language file can be generated by CONFIG.COM. Read it, 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 config file in the [dosbox] section. There's a language= entry that can be changed with the filename. ======================================== 11. Building your own version of DOSBox: ======================================== Download the source. Check the INSTALL in the source distribution. =================== 12. Special Thanks: =================== Vlad R. of the VDMSound project for excellent SoundBlaster info. Tatsuyuki Satoh of the Mame Team for making an excellent FM emulator. The Bochs and DOSemu projects, which I used for information. Freedos for ideas in making my shell. Pierre-Yves GΘrardy for hosting the old Beta Board. Colin Snover for hosting our forum. The Beta Testers. ============ 13. Contact: ============ See the site: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net for an email address (The Crew-page).