Dos!!!

[JackAxe]

:D Guess what's running on my G5?!! DOS. :p Ahhhh, this brings back sooooo many great memories.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1
http://www.abandonia.com/games/46/Dune.htm

I just started up Dune, now I need to figure out how to get the sound going. :) This runs fast, just like Virtual PC did on my old G3 333. Microsofts current incarnation of VPC, runs at full speed, but is a bug filled bucket of vomit. They really f*ed up a great program, I wish Connectix would've never sold out to them. But anyways, DosBox is freee and so far it runs great. :)

I don't know about you, but my fondest memories of computers were with DOS. My old 386DX 40 was my very first built from scratch computer. And this is when all of the greats were out, like Monkey Island and Wing Commander. I loved these games. :) I wouldn't trade my current comps for an old computer, but now days, things just arn't the same. I'll never be as excited about a computer as I was about my first XT, or that 386.

Blah. Rambles!!!

<]=)

[Cyker]

DOS rules. Some of the best games ever written were for DOS! :mrgreen:

Typical thing really, they couldn't do so much with the graphics so clever programming and good game design was essential. The music they managed to pull off with nothing but an Yamaha OPL3 FM synth always impresses me...

Nowadays they just throw pretty graphics at us and forget to actually make a game a lot of the time :p


I just wish I could get all my old Demoscene programs to run under emulaton - I have things like Crystal Dream 2 and Second Reality on my MindCandy DVD, but it's just not the same...!

[SamuraiCatJB]

Dos was originally very secure too.... no outside link. :p

[JackAxe]

Soooo true, to it all. :D

I loved the music from Monkey Island series. I remember trying the game when I first got my 386 without sound and didn't give it a chance. But after buying my Sound Blaster deluxe, I was instantly hooked and played soooooo many games. I could never afford the all mighty Roland, so the SB's music was great for me. :)

I need to call up some friends to gather up all the old DOS games. :)

Anyways, I'm glad we moved beyond, DOS, but I miss it sometimes, so thankfully there are these emulators.

Did anyone else play Ultima Underworld? I played it all the way to the end and encountered a bug that would not allow me to finish. I know it was a bug, because I bought the strategy guide after being stuck for a week and sure enought, the freaking game glitched. I never played it again, it took me about 3 weeks to get to that point.

<]=)

[JackAxe]

DUNE 2 is playing. :D It has sound and everything. :)

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

Soooo true, to it all. :D

I loved the music from Monkey Island series. I remember trying the game when I first got my 386 without sound and didn't give it a chance. But after buying my Sound Blaster deluxe, I was instantly hooked and played soooooo many games. I could never afford the all mighty Roland, so the SB's music was great for me. :)

I need to call up some friends to gather up all the old DOS games. :)

Anyways, I'm glad we moved beyond, DOS, but I miss it sometimes, so thankfully there are these emulators.

Did anyone else play Ultima Underworld? I played it all the way to the end and encountered a bug that would not allow me to finish. I know it was a bug, because I bought the strategy guide after being stuck for a week and sure enought, the freaking game glitched. I never played it again, it took me about 3 weeks to get to that point.

<]=)

Ultima IV is now free, V (underworld) may be released free soon (or may already be), my last check on that was months ago. :) I played the first 5 ultimas to completion, the 6th I didn't care for and the 9th I thought was back to the IV and V class, but with better graphics, but there were so many bugs in the game it was hard to play.

[strider_mt2k]

Nice!

I flew DOS originally on my 7Mhz "Turbo" XT.
Man I loved that thing. Took it about as far as it could go hardware-wise.

I liked it best on my 286 though.
286 12Mhz
2MB ram
2MB ROM card
8 bit soundblaster pro,
9600 baud internal modem
VGA graphics with a secondary monochrome card!

I used QmodemPro for DOS to connect to BBSs, and a cool little TSR to copy text (namely more BBS phone numbers) and paste them onto the monochrome secondary monitor.
Of course 486s running Windows for Workgroups were out so it was easy to cobble that stuff together at the time. :) (I rode way behind the tech curve)

[JackAxe]

My XT blew yours out of the water, it was a "10" Mhz Turbo XT with a Hercules graphic card, and a 20 Meg MFM HD split into 10 meg partitions. Later I updgraded to a VGA card. :p I had no modem though, and no sound card. Never mind, yours was better. :(

I wanted a 286 sooooo badly, but I was in high school and couldn't afford it. The XT was a hand me down from my brother. I ended up buying the VGA card and a CTX 14" VGA screen with my tax return and a few months savings. :)


Here are some more free DOS games;
http://www.the-underdogs.org/

I'm going to download Ultima 3. :) I downloaded StarControl 2, one of my all time favorites, but I need tinker with the sound settings or something. It quits back out to the DOS prompt shortly after starting. Sooo many games I want to play again. I played "Eric The Unready" for a few. That game was sooo much fun.

I need to edit the config file, so that It will automatically mount my chosesn folder as a "C" drive and enable my CD rom. I stil have Lands of Lore on CD. :)

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

don't forget Ultima 4 is also for modern OS's and DOS. :)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xu4/

[JackAxe]

Coool. The one I found earlier didn't work.. Soooo, how do I quit? :) I never played Ultima 4. :o

And why couldn't there have been more games like this for hte Clié??? :mad:

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

look in the data folder for the original DOS version there is a keyboard chart, map, spell book and other documents.

Quit&Save is 'Q'

and I really don't know why no one ever adopted it for the clie... I think a lot of the old dos games would be great reborn on the handhelds. :)

Lady Mary Ellen pleads: Beat me kick me tell me lies!

[lmame]

Many thanks for this ;)

[Cyker]

Lack of Keyboard and Joystick could make it tricky on Palm :D

But al the RPG games (i.e. Ultima et al) wiuld have been awesome on PDAs...

Screen is the right size too! :D

[JackAxe]

But my NR70V has a keyboard. :D *edit* And i have a Sony joypad. :)

I found Q earlier, and it stated quit and saved, but it left me in the game. :( Thanks for the info though. I clicked away on all the keys earlier and was able to figure most of them out. I even figured out how to ask peeps to join. :)

Can I create my own character from the beginning, or am I stuck with Pissy Eyes? :eek:

Anyways, these games are simple, but so rich and would've been wonderfull for the Palm. There's the graffiti keyboard, and this game only relies on simple arrows for control. Alodon's Crossing was the only game I tried that seedm to catch on.

<]=)

[JackAxe]

Many thanks for this ;)

Cool. :) I only thought about this, because I got the itch to play "Lords of Conquest." This is such a great strategy game. I played it on my C64 and my friend mentioned it was on the PC.

<]=)

[JackAxe]

Here's a link to Lords of Conquest;
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=1425

If you have time to kill with a friend, this game is awesome.

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

I think all the 2D scrollers and the like would have made great Clie games.... :) but that is just me, I grew up in that era.... :eek:


Don't you ever sleep Jack? ;) Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[seraphim_9:11]

DOS rules. Some of the best games ever written were for DOS! :mrgreen:

Typical thing really, they couldn't do so much with the graphics so clever programming and good game design was essential. The music they managed to pull off with nothing but an Yamaha OPL3 FM synth always impresses me...

Nowadays they just throw pretty graphics at us and forget to actually make a game a lot of the time :p


I just wish I could get all my old Demoscene programs to run under emulaton - I have things like Crystal Dream 2 and Second Reality on my MindCandy DVD, but it's just not the same...!
I agree totally - I find it difficult to get a good game nowadays - everything is graphics - I like UT2004/Quake 3 once in a while - its great to let out frustation by killing people LRC ... but games like the 2D version of Prince, Pacman, BalckJack just to name a few that I played were awesome -

I am honestly thinking of reverting my system entirely back to DOS and leave it like that - but then ... :(

[strider_mt2k]

LOL I was thinking the same thing in passing, but I would hate to see how fast a llitle CGA hardware-timed game like "Bouncing Babies" would look blurring it's way along at 3.0 Ghz! :D

Prince of Persia rocked on even my 7Mhz CGA-flavored XT, and I ran SimCity as well, although it was a "leave it running all day" proposition!
I have remained true, and have had a version of SimCity on almost every machine since, including SC3K on this PC, and SimCity on my TH55!

DOS was extremely cool, and familiarity with it made all the difference when I started playing with Windows. Heck, I still catch myself calling folders directories.

[JackAxe]

I think all the 2D scrollers and the like would have made great Clie games.... :) but that is just me, I grew up in that era.... :eek:


Don't you ever sleep Jack? ;) Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Sometimes. :p

I love side scrollers also, and I was hoping for more since I havd my little tiny Sony gamepad. :) Dammit, why didn't anything support my keyboard. Grumbles. I would've thought that the directional buttons on the keypad would've worked for everything, but nooooooooooo. :(

<]=)

[JackAxe]

LOL I was thinking the same thing in passing, but I would hate to see how fast a llitle CGA hardware-timed game like "Bouncing Babies" would look blurring it's way along at 3.0 Ghz! :D

Prince of Persia rocked on even my 7Mhz CGA-flavored XT, and I ran SimCity as well, although it was a "leave it running all day" proposition!
I have remained true, and have had a version of SimCity on almost every machine since, including SC3K on this PC, and SimCity on my TH55!

DOS was extremely cool, and familiarity with it made all the difference when I started playing with Windows. Heck, I still catch myself calling folders directories.

My 386 DX ran old 286 games at the speed of blur, even with the turbo turned off. :)

<]=)

[JackAxe]

I agree totally - I find it difficult to get a good game nowadays - everything is graphics - I like UT2004/Quake 3 once in a while - its great to let out frustation by killing people LRC ... but games like the 2D version of Prince, Pacman, BalckJack just to name a few that I played were awesome -

I am honestly thinking of reverting my system entirely back to DOS and leave it like that - but then ... :(

Just install DosBox, I'm running it on a Mac. :) Sooon, Star Control 2 will be running, I just figured out how to edit the config file, so I'm creating a custom one. :) It's weird with this virtual z: drive it creates.

<]=)

[seraphim_9:11]

Just install DosBox, I'm running it on a Mac. :) Sooon, Star Control 2 will be running, I just figured out how to edit the config file, so I'm creating a custom one. :) It's weird with this virtual z: drive it creates.

<]=)
thats an idea I could use :) .. wait a minute - is it one of those Mac-only things or can I use it on anything - knowing you it would probably be Mac only :D :p ...

What is Star Control 2 ??? :confused: - or is that a really dumb question :o

[JackAxe]

DosBox is available for every platform, the link I provided in the first post will send you to a download page. :)

You've never play SC2. :eek: It's one of my favorite games, and I consider it the best of its type. It's a cross beyond Astroids and a massive Sci-Fi RPG game. Well kind of. :) Anyways I loved it and would like to play it all the way through again.

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php

<]=)

[ieatlotz]

Has it gotten to work with input on tungsten e2 yet?

[phreakonaleash]

hi enotar, nope, PalmDOSBox doesn't support input, and, to be quite frank, I dobut it ever will.

http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2006/09/23/a-true-x86-emulator-for-palm-first-facts-and-pics/
Pls see comments 129-134

[Church Punk]

i would love to see old DOS games on my palm (not only doom and quake and such...) like keen4e, or digger, or even triplane turmoil :)

sad... is any from our awesome developers willing to get some extra work? maybe you phreak ;) ;) I would pay a few € to be able to do this :) if possible...

[phreakonaleash]

sad... is any from our awesome developers willing to get some extra work? maybe you phreak ;) ;) I would pay a few € to be able to do this :) if possible...
Ah, hahaha... :) I only accept $, sorry, and only from non opensource projects :p
I doubt I could do much work on it. Busy with other projects :) and don't have much (any) experience writing emulators. :(

[_Em]

The project doesn't need people who write emulators, it needs people who can bind the Palm input methods to a pre-existing framework -- the heavy lifting in DOSBox was completed long ago, which is why the final bits aren't all that alluring for coders to tackle.

Also, you might want to take note of this:
http://www.emuboards.com/invision/index.php?showtopic=27399&st=105

-PalmDOSBox has been canceled, and the dev team was supposed to be working on porting QEmu instead. However, there hasn't been any activity on a QEmu port in the past year either. The source code for PDB isn't available on the sourceforge page, just the PRC (in violation of the GPL).

[phreakonaleash]

/me shrugs
Maybe Ill take a look at the code tonight (got like 40 people asking me for stuff lol)

[_Em]

Here's another saddening thread:
http://www.mail-archive.com/qemu-devel@nongnu.org/msg10535.html

Looks like it is even more unlikely to get QEmu ported than it is to get a completed version of DOSBox.

And, as I said, the Palm code is not currently available, so either someone has to hunt down Voda (Sinisa Marovic) and get him to cough it up, or it has to be redone from the general DOSBox code pool. This seems more up Metaview's alley.

[phreakonaleash]

And, as I said, the Palm code is not currently available, so either someone has to hunt down Voda and get him to cough it up, or it has to be redone from the general DOSBox code pool. This seems more up Metaview's alley.
We could call up the fsf ;-) Ill mail the dude tonight, k?

[phreakonaleash]

Here's another saddening thread:
http://www.mail-archive.com/qemu-devel@nongnu.org/msg10535.html

Looks like it is even more unlikely to get QEmu ported than it is to get a completed version of DOSBox.

:(:(:( I would love qemu for palmos :(

[phreakonaleash]

I threw the GPL card via his sourceforge address, so hopefully we will have source soon :)

[Church Punk]

if not you phreak, then maybe other developer... true about your other orojects :) but i thought maybe cuz you were posting here :D

as _em said, metaviews could do something here aswell :)

*hopes*

[_Em]

If you sent him email via his SF address, I'm pretty sure you won't get a reply; nobody has since 2006 at that address AFAIK.

[phreakonaleash]

u_u Ok, where should I mail him? Do YOU know? ;)

[_Em]

No, I don't -- but I did find his real name (listed above) which might help.

[phreakonaleash]

ok, the qemu-dev had a yahoo address, let's try it...

[Drunken Macleod]

I love Monkey Island too..but nothing beats Sam and Max...

[Church Punk]

say what? :confused:

maybe im just tired...

[_Em]

I think he got this thread confused with one for ScummVM, CP. Either that, or he's responding to some comment on the first page.

[phreakonaleash]

Hello Ryan,

sorry for not answering you before, but I was quite ill, and could not read e-mails.
It is true that PalmDOSBox is not active anymore, because I was not satisfied with it's
performance even on faster PalmOS devices. I have already sent the source code on
request to some enthusiasts. I have not heard of them since, so I do not know if they
have a new version of it. I have not released PalmDOSBox under any license, simply
because I am not owner of the original application DOSBox, so I guess by inheritance they
should have been released by the same license. Sorry, I am really not familiar with all this
licensing stuff, I have just read the one in DOSBox that states that everyone is allowed to
add or modify the code, and decided to port it to palmOS. The same approach I took when
porting amiga emulator UAE to palmOS, and nobody asked about license details.

If you have other questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

/Sinisa.
So now it's just a waiting game. I asked him to send me the source and to upload it to sf, so we'll see

[_Em]

Thanks phreakonaleash!

Funny that he read the permissive part of the license, but not the restrictive part....

[Church Punk]

cool, im interested in this thing maostly because i will love to run some old games :D

[dmitrygr]

porting dosbox is not too hard to do. the guy who did it was doing it all wrong....her was porting STL, instead of just using the normal STL source. with that included the task of porting it about 40 man-hours

[_Em]

...and that's the same issue he came across doing his UAE port, which is why Metaview's MyUAE is superior to his PalmUAE.

[phreakonaleash]

so, uh, someon go check palmdosbox's sf page. :) the downloads area, if you will. on my palm so ill knock open the source tomorrow.

[_Em]

still just the 2006 binary so far....

[phreakonaleash]

Really? It's in that directory, but it's there: http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=176196&use_mirror=superb-west&filename=palmdosbox.tar.gz&97290272

[alt236]

Is this the point where we start begging for MetaView's and _Em's intervention? :)

[MetaView]

I'll try to compile it tomorrow and then add decent support for my lovely Treo. Nothing more, nothing less :-)

[RColtrane]

I'll try to compile it tomorrow and then add decent support for my lovely Treo. Nothing more, nothing less :-)

I'll start begging... MetaView, PLEEEEEEEASE, add support for Tungsten T Series aswell (I have a T3 and I'm drolling to give it a try) :)

Well, post here your benchmark results with this new compilation.

[MetaView]

Treo and older Tungsten series, right :-)

[phreakonaleash]

So, then T|X support should come naturally? Or you'll provide the source of your tinkerings if it doesn't? ;)
Thanks for taking up the challenge, Henk. You're still a wonder at 1src :D

[Church Punk]

:agrees: :D :agrees:

[pinchies]

I tried to get this working a while back using the binaries, and speed wise it felt fine. If someone can get this "usable" i will gladly paypal something.

(P.s - Hi to all the forum "Bigwigs" - you have all (except em_) either met/helped me indirectly/directly in some way ;) )

[phreakonaleash]

(except em_)
Go figure... ;) :) :D

(-- sorry Em_ :o --)

EDIT -- Word to smilie ratio: 4:4 \o/

[MetaView]

The original stuff compiles and links and I'm actually adding things. Removing the event processing and adding an on-screen keyboard for the Tungstens and direct keyboard support for the Treos. I guess you will see something next weekend.

[BrentDC]

Awesome, this is great news MetaView!!! :)

[phreakonaleash]

Indeed it is!

[BaDZeD]

Nice Job, Henk! =) Ran pretty stable on the Centro. The 5 way nav seemed to be reversed (up instead of down, left instead of right). Also, I did't find a way to enter special characters (backslashes, dollar signs, etc., basically anything that is written above regular buttons on the treo.) But, nonetheless, seems like a great start :)

Quick question, is it possible to have resolutions other than 640x480 in palmdosbox (so that no scrolling is necessary)

Thanks again!

[alt236]

Here :)
http://metaviewsoft.de/wordpress/

[MetaView]

I've added a note about special chars on Treo.

[RColtrane]

Thanks a LOT Metaview!!! I'll give it a try as soon as I arrive at home today. I'm drooling to test some DOS games with my T3. :D

P.S. - I think It would be nice to post an announcement of this new release at the LJP forums aswell, since there are some DOS-related talking there...

Regards,
RColtrane.

[MetaView]

RColtrane:you're right, I will try to dig one thread...

[_Em]

Hmm... too bad I can't take a screenshot. A few current issues:
1) when entering DOSBox on my TX, the screen goes fullscreen, but the bottom inch is green.
2) when I bring up the keyboard, it is an orange outline that is partly over the green, partly over the black, and flickering. The orange on green is really hard to read.
3) when I press HB4 to exit, it exits and then immediately performs the function preassigned to HB4.
4) When I run it in landscape mode, the 5-way directions are inverted (left is right and right is left). No green bar though!

It's looking promising though Henk! I can actually do directory listings now :D

[BrentDC]

I can't seem to get it to run on my TX, it says "Can't load module, exiting. Tap on screen to exit."

Any ideas?

[BrentDC]

Seeing if it is a low memory issue, I ran PalmDosBox after a reset, but after the please wait screen it crashes "Bitmap.c Failed to create BitMap V3 Invalid Null Argument". I then reset, and had UDMH enabled for it at 16MB, and I was able to get it to run. There wasn't much of a keyboard though, just like a speckled area twice the height of the normal statusbar.

[_Em]

DM needs to be at least 16MB and DB needs to be memory + 2MB from my experiments. The keyboard is enabled with HB3, but it really flickers (irrespective of CPU speed and framerate setting).

[BrentDC]

Yes, before HB3 wasn't doing anything, but now it brings up the keyboard. Like you said, the keyboard does flicker, and is impossible to see at the bottom of the screen. Keep up the good work, MetaView! :)

[MetaView]

the on-screen keyboard flickers, as it dos in Doom etc. I need a real PC keyboard scan (or something like this) as bitmap to fade it in before the screen updates. Now it's done after the update. It's quite important to have quite equidistant keys to make it easier to calculate the pressed key. the green bottom comes from the screen size mismatch: 400 px height <-> 480 px height. You might turn the display
before.

BrentDC: did you try 1 MB?

_Em: The HW-keys aren't disabled yet for the OS. Something I'll do right now. The whole launcher needs to be rewritten, like it was needed in LJP etc. It's very confusing the way it is now.

[_Em]

So you need a keyboard like this?
http://www.ergo-items.com/images/products/kids_products/myboard_big.jpeg

(But a straight-on view)

[MetaView]

Well, Function-keys and numerical keypad wouldn't be bad too ;-) But basically yes.

[MetaView]

The Treo screen is 320x320, the Dos-Screen is usually 640x400. You will only see a part of the Dos Screen. The 5-way scrolls the screen.

[BaDZeD]

The scroll is reversed. up is down left is right =)

[mmulhern]

Hi, PalmDOSBox "runs" on my Clie (POS 5.0), but there is no keyboard input either and requires reset to exit. At least it gets further than the original PalmDOSBox. It displays the DOSBox help screen and Z: prompt, but does nothing else.

I know I'm pushing the envelope trying to run this on my old NX70, but I live in hope.

Great work non the less.

[dskit870]

Hmm... too bad I can't take a screenshot. A few current issues:
1) when entering DOSBox on my TX, the screen goes fullscreen, but the bottom inch is green.
2) when I bring up the keyboard, it is an orange outline that is partly over the green, partly over the black, and flickering. The orange on green is really hard to read.
3) when I press HB4 to exit, it exits and then immediately performs the function preassigned to HB4.
4) When I run it in landscape mode, the 5-way directions are inverted (left is right and right is left). No green bar though!

It's looking promising though Henk! I can actually do directory listings now :D

I hav the same problem

bout the green color on bottom, after i disable 123-launcher it solve

[phreakonaleash]

Batt dead... :( Will try my hand tmrw :)

[RColtrane]

DosBox and Tungsten T3 with UDMH 5.3 and Warpspeed @533Mhz...

It worked just fine on my T3!!! I tried it first with Crime Wave and the screen appears perfectly aligned at the top of the screen. At the bottom (black part of the screen) it pops up the virtual orange keyboard which again, works just fine. Only a little bit of flickering occurs like some people mentioned, but it works fine. If possible, try to hide that 'White-boxed' opcode messages that appears behing the keyboard. It would be nice. :)

I've used it with all processing modes (Simple/Normal/Full) with 6Mb of available memory but I couldn't notice any changes.

About the game: It runs at about 40% with maximum frameskipping. It increased the speed to the point where the game becomes playable. The game runs flawlessly and the emulator is very solid now, without crashes. The unique issue here is probably the compatibility (I don't know why, since it's based on the latest DosBox source (I presume)): When I lost the 1st life, the game started to increase my score for ever (it enters into some sort of a loop) and to quit the game I had to do a reset. I remember seeing this same bug with this same game in earlier DosBos versions (curiously it's back). But I'll try another games to post more results here.

Thanks again and keep with the great work Metaview!!
Regards,
Roger.

[_Em]

This isn't the latest DOSBox; it is the one from 2006 that was originally posted on SourceForge (version 0.65). The latest version is 0.72. Maybe Henk will roll the more recent changes in while getting the rest of it to function ;)

[MetaView]

mmulhern: don't your Clie has hardware buttons?

The DosBox version is 0.65. I will check a diff to 0.72 and see if I can do the update. the other issues I will try to fix, step by step. I guess next weekend I release another update.

[_Em]

Metaview: you might find that you don't want to go all the way to 0.72: IIRC, they cleaned up memory management etc. significantly after 0.65 (0.70 or so?) but then added in more video handling code etc. in 0.71 or so that adds more bloat to the system without adding much to the system as a whole, other than supporting a couple of games that previously couldn't be played.

Well, maybe I'll just post the changelogs so that we can figure it out in a more accurate way than my somewhat vague memory:
0.72 (2007-08-26 11:36):
- Fixed unitialized variable in joystick. (Fixes crashes on Vista and
Mac OS X)
- Some bugfixes and speedups to the 64 bit recompiling core.
- Fixed sign flag on soundblaster dma transfers (Space Quest 6 intro)
- Fixed a bug in keyboard layout processing code and fixed certain
layouts.
- Fixed Dreamweb.
- Improved speed unlocking when running cycles=max.
- Fixed a crash related to the tab completion in the shell.
- Improved aspect correction code. Should now be like how a real monitor
handles it.
- Fixed a bug in the xms status report code. (Blake Stone 1.0 shareware)
- Added a lot more keyboard layouts.
- Fix crash related to changing the scaler before a screen was created.
- Hopefully fixed compilation on *bsd.
- Enabled auto cpu core selection for recompiling core as well.
- Made the used joystick selectable when 4axis is specified.
- Added some hints for inexperienced DOS users to the shell.

0.71 (2007-07-30 01:29):
- Add a new recompiling cpu core, which should be easier to port.
- Add 64 bit version of the recompiling core.
- Add mipsel 32 bit version of the recompiling core.
- Fix a few small problems with FCBs. (fixes Jewels of darkness and
cyrus chess)
- Raise some more exceptions. (fixes vbdos)
- Fix a few problems with the dynamic core. (fixes Inner Words,
Archmimedean Dynasty and others)
- Improve/Fix fallback code for certain graphics cards.
- Fix a few cd audio related bugs.
- Add an undocumented MSCDEX feature. (Fixes Ultimate Domain)
- Fix some pcspeaker mode. (fixes Test Drive and similar games)
- Improve dos keyinput handling. (fixes Wing Commander 3 exit dialog)
- Remove Exit condition on fully nested mode. (fixes some demo)
- Add image file size detection.
- Add/Fix some ansi codes. (fixes PC Larn and certain versions of
infocom games)
- Several general DOS fixes. (fixes nba95, hexit and various other games)
- Add some valid input checks. (fixes 3d body adventure and similar
games)
- Fix digital joystick centering problem.
- Reenable textmode 54 and 55.
- Fix a pelmask problem with univbe 5.0 lite. (fixes Panzer General)
- Fix minor mixer underflow.
- Some general image and bios disk emulation fixes.
- Hopefully fix compilation on BSD and darwin.
- Try using ioctl cdrom access by default if possible.
- Fix some svga detection routine. (fixes Grandest Fleet 2 and Bobby Fischer
Teaches Chess)
- You can now close DOSBox using the status window in win32.
- Add support for NX enabled systems.
- Fix a casting error which only showed with certain compilers. (fixes
various games under mac os x and 64 bit linux)
- Improve timer and add gate 2 support. (fixes various games and
joystick problems)
- Improve mouse. Add undocumented backdoor. (fixes Last half of Darkness,
PC-BLOX and others)
- Add/improve support for ~ and ~username in all commands.
- Fix a font problem with the pcjr/tandy. (fixes personal deskmate 2)
- Change dma routine a bit. (fixes ticks in sound in various games)
- Allow read-only diskimages to be booted. (fixes various booter
games)
- Add basic hidden file support on cdrom images. (fixes Player
Manager 2)
- Add some rarely used functionality to the int10 mode setup. (fixes
WW2 Battles of the South pacific)
- Add ability to force scaler usage.
- Speed up flag generation and make it more 386-like.
- Some colourful feedback in the mapper.
- General code cleanup.

0.70 (2007-03-02 11:19):
- Improve register handling and support with XMS.
- Fix some issues with deleting open files.(windows only issue)
- Add dummpy LPT1 class. (windows only issue)
- Improve some of the internal dos commands. (choice, copy and shift)
- Improve ROM area. (for games that use it for random numbers or
overwrite it as some sort of detection thing)
- Improve compatibility of dynamic core by making it handle certain
pagefaults earlier.
- Move internal dos tables around so we have more umb memory.
- Add some dos tables.
- Dynamic core supports io exceptions.
- Move some interrupt handlers to XT Bios locations.
- Add a dynamic fpu on x86.
- Improve fpu on non-x86.
- Trapflag gets strickt priority over hardware IRQs.
- Trapflag support for the dynamic core.
- Add dummy TRx handling.
- Fix a few rarely used character functions.
- Improve auto cycle guessing code.
- Improve and extend the joystick support.
- Add autofire support.
- Improve the mapper so you can map keys to the joystick and vice versa.
- A few game specific video card fixes.
- Fix some 64 bit cpu bugs.
- Add support for certain cdrom detection schemes.
- Improve HSG/Red Book support.
- Improve MSCDEX.
- Improve dynamic core support under intel macs.
- Add basic support for clipper programs.
- Add support for different keyboard layouts.
- Add auto core guessing.
- Fix a few flags bugs.
- Fix a few small cpu bugs.
- Improve soundblaster detection rate by various programs.
- Improve EMS emulation. (allow mapping of non standard regions)
- Improve keyboard input codes on various OS-es.
- Fix problems with filenames having stackdata in them.
- Changed a few basic operations in DOSBox so they take emulated time.
- Improve dos ioctl functions.
- Extend cpu core so they are capable of detecting and raising a few
more exception types.
- Improve DOS functions when dealing with virtual drive.
- Improve FAT drives.
- Better handling of volume-labels in file functions.
- Image disk cycling capability. (prompt)
- Try to reduce the impact of using an analog joystick.
- Several measures to avoid code invalidation on certain types
of self modification in the dynamic core.
- Add dynamic core memory function inlining.
- A few small mouse improvements. (some games are using things they
shouldn't)
- Add nullmodem emulation.(h-a-l-9000)
- Some small cga and hercules fixes.
- Add more scalers (hq2x/hq3x/sai). (Kronuz)
- Change configuration file loading support. It now supports
multiple configuration files.
- Make dynamic core capable of running some win32s programs.
- Fix and add some rare soundblaster modes. (Srecko)
- Better soundblaster mixer controls. (Srecko)
- Make soundblaster installation under windows much easier.
- Add device control channel handling.
- GEMMIS support (ems under windows).
- Support more colours in win 3. (vasyl)
- Don't show unmounted drives in windows filemanager.
- Fix some bugs in the int13 handler.
- Simulate some side-effects of bios interrupt handlers on flags.
- Add IPX functions needed by netbios.
- Make ports take emulated time.
- Tabcompletion is now aware of the CD command.
- Add suppport for the dac pel mask.
- Fixes to hercules emulation, better detection and bank switching.
- Fixes to tandy emulation, 640x200x16 mode and different sizes bank.
- EGA/VGA memory changes detection for faster rendering.
- Gus 16 bit fixes.
- Many timer improvements.
- Some pcjr fixes.
- Some booter fixes.
- Many small fixes.

0.65 (from 0.63) (2006-03-30 00:42):
- Fixed FAT writing.
- Added some more missing DOS functions.
- Improved PIC so that it actually honours irq 2/9.
- Improved intelligent MPU-401 mode so that more games work with it.
- Some mouse fixes.
- Changed DMA transfers a bit so they bypass the paging tables.
- Added S3 XGA functionality.
- Improved paging so that read and write faults are handled differently.
- Rewrote exception handling a bit (no exception 0x0B with dos4gw anymore).
- Added IO exceptions in all but the dynamic core.
- Some ems improvements.
- Added midi-device selection code for the windows hosts.
- Fix crashes/segfaults related to the disabling of the pcspeaker.
- Added some more FILES=XX detection tricks.
- Fixed some vga detection schemes.
- Fixed screenshot corruption when using -noconsole in a read-only directory.
- Fix wrong scaled screenshots.
- Added some hidden file functions when using diskimages. (helps with cdrom
detection schemes)
- Fixed a bug in the mixer code, that muted the music in certain games.
- Added an assembly fpu core.
- Made the shell more flexible for batch files.
- Check for unaligned memory acces fixes hangups on ARM processors.
- Some 64 bit fixes.
- Added code to change configuration at runtime.
- Improved ADPCM emulation.
- Fixed a few cpu instructions.
- Always report vesa 2.0 and fix some colour issues with vesa games.
- Fix video mode 0x06 and 0x0a.
- Improvements to the joystick emulation. 4 buttons are supported as well.
- Add VCPI emulation for Origin games.
- Fixed a lot of things in the boot code. Most booters work now.
- Lots of improvements to the IPX emulation.
- Rewritten modem emulation. Should work with more games.
- Improvements to the dos memory managment routines.
- Add UMB (upper memory blocks) support.
- Emulate the pause key.
- Improve Composite CGA mode emulation.
- Lots of vga compatibility changes.
- Improved support for chained video modes.
- Improved mode and palette handling in cga modes.
- Mount accepts ~ now.
- Added a few of the EGA RIL functions.
- Added TandyDAC emulation.
- OS/2 support.
- Improved and speed up the dynamic cpu core.
- Fix some errors in the CD-ROM emulation layer.
- Added an automatic work-around for some graphics chipsets.
- Add PCjr support.
- Allow mousedriver to be replaced. Fixes a few games that come with their
own (internal) driver.
- Improved dynamic cpu core so it can handle pagefaults and some obscure
types of self-modifying code.
- Added -noautoexec switch to skip the contents of [autoexec] in the
configuration file.
- Improved v86 mode emulation (mainly for Strike Commander).
- Improved timer behavior.
- Improved extended keyboard support.
- Enhanced and added several DOS tables.
- Made core_full endian safe.
- Made pagefaults endian safe.
- Add support for moviecapturing
- Add support for 15/16/32 bit videomodes.
- Add some more VESA modi (4 bit).
- Add 1024x768 output.
- Changed screenrendering so it only draws changes to the screen.
- Allow remapping of the EMS page when the dma transfer was started from
the page frame
- Made EMS and DMA work together when playing from a mapped memory page.
- Renamed several configuration options, so that they are unique.
- Merged mpu and intelligent into one option.
- Merged fullfixed and fullresolution.
- Extended keys should be handled better.
- F11 and F12 work.
- Compilation fixes for various platforms.
- Fix a few crashes when giving bad input.
- Removed interp2x and added few new scalers.
- Reintroduce the lockfree mouse. (autolock=false)
- Add a larger cache for the dynamic cpu core.
- Improved soundblaster DSP, so it gets detected by creative tools.
- Lots of bugfixes.
- Even more bugfixes.

[MetaView]

There seems to be some fixes in 0.71 regarding the dos emulation. Well I need to get the 0.72 source and check the differences. Maybe I can add at least some of the fixes.

[mmulhern]

mmulhern: don't your Clie has hardware buttons?


Yes, the NX70 has keyboard, but no key press registers.

I was just hoping DOSBox would run, as it would make a good companion to the Apple ][ emulator I use on the Clie.

Is there anything I can do to help/support?

[jaTELEVISION]

Yeah! Accolade Grand Prix Circuit is running!

[MetaView]

mmulhern: The real keyboard on Sony devices isn't supported. There is now documented way to poll for key presses. I talk about hw-buttons like: launcher, calendar, address and memo.

jaTELEVISION: cool :)

[RColtrane]

Stellar Date 43437663 - T3 user report:

Yesterday I did a test with another game: Bruce Lee (Datasoft 1987). It runs TOOOOOO fast to be playable, even with no frameskipping and 1m of memory. I couldn't even select the video mode because the screen appears for less than a second!!

I think that increasing the amount of options inside dosbox.conf, like introducing CPU cicles and game resolution would give us more control over different games speed. mainly for games that don't have a built-in CPU clock controller (like the old CGA games).

Another question: When I select the 'cursor keys' mode to play games using the Dpad, the other keys (calendar/todo...) cannot be used. Is there a way to include in the app top menu to configure these keys to play a game? I mean, into another apps, you can redefine the function keys as some keyboard keys (for example: assign the 'Calendar' key as a regular keyboard 'Ctrl' key and so on). This would be like LJP's config options, where you can assign Palm function and 8way Dpad buttons to be a specific console button.

I hope I'm not pushing you too hard on this... :o

[_Em]

I think that increasing the amount of options inside dosbox.conf, like introducing CPU cicles and game resolution would give us more control over different games speed. mainly for games that don't have a built-in CPU clock controller (like the old CGA games).
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf - I thought CPU Cycles could be configured just fine?

Another question: When I select the 'cursor keys' mode to play games using the Dpad, the other keys (calendar/todo...) cannot be used. Is there a way to include in the app top menu to configure these keys to play a game? I mean, into another apps, you can redefine the function keys as some keyboard keys (for example: assign the 'Calendar' key as a regular keyboard 'Ctrl' key and so on). This would be like LJP's config options, where you can assign Palm function and 8way Dpad buttons to be a specific console button.
All in good time... first he had to get it actually working, now he's starting to add the useful features ;)

[_Em]

I've got another question though: how hard would it be to introduce a 0.667 scaler so we could run VGA graphics at 426x320? A 0.5 scaler to run at 320x240 would also be useful I think :)

[MetaView]

A 0.5 scaler is the next I will implement...

[mmulhern]

mmulhern: The real keyboard on Sony devices isn't supported. There is now documented way to poll for key presses. I talk about hw-buttons like: launcher, calendar, address and memo.

Hardbuttons Results:
Datebook := nothing
Address := nothing
ToDo:= Toggle Virtual Keyboard (Hurrah!)
Memo:= Exit (sometimes to Home other times to Memo Pad????)

Softbuttons Results:
Home := nothing
Menu := nothing
Calc := nothing
Find := nothing

Let me see what doco is available so I can find out how to load floppy and CD images, and setup config file.

I think I'm going to really like this!!

[MetaView]

Hardbuttons Results:
Datebook := nothing
Address := nothing

Joystick Button 1 and 2. In the next update you can also define 2 other keys for use in cursor-move mode.

Hardbuttons Results:
Memo:= Exit (sometimes to Home other times to Memo Pad????)


Will be fixed in the next update.

[mmulhern]

Thanks for the update. Just been over to the EMU forum, read the quick guide and set-up dosbox.conf, and basic folders for CDRIVE. Copied these to the root of my Memory Stick, and it is working.

Next stop, drag out my old CIV1 installer CD and set it up.

What would be interesting (though somewhat perverse) is that later versions of DOSBox support the installation and running of Windows 3.x, which I do on my MacBook Pro to play my old copy of Civ2. . . . . .

[AletheianAlex]

First off, THANX for ressurecting palmdosbox. I have a few questions though.

First... a VERY important feature for the next update... a feature that would make it 1,000x easier to run would be adding / and \ and " to the keyboard!!! I searched high and low, and could enter a bunch of crazy symbols with the ALT key, but no slashes or quotes. Without it, you can't mount or change directories.

BUT... my question is: in the meantime you have to mount in the autoexec section... fine... BUT: how do you get a directory to mount in the [autoexec] section?!! I have tried everything and I can't get it to happen. I have been using dosbox for years on OSX, Linux and Windows so I am used to the syntax, and always use the autoexec to automount, but I can't get it to work in this case. I am trying to get it to run on my E2, and here is what I have tried:

mount c c:~/

mount c c:"~/"

mount c c:~\

mount c c:"~\"

mount c ~/

mount c "~/"

mount c ~\

mount c "~\"

mount c d:~/

mount c d:"~/"

mount c d:~\

mount c d:"~\"

None of those worked, so I tried creating a DOS directory in the top level of my SD card and also in the top level of my internal card as well as the hidden internal memory and tried:


mount c c:~/DOS

mount c c:"~/DOS"

mount c c:/DOS

mount c c:"/DOS"

mount c ~/DOS

mount c "~/DOS"

mount c /DOS

mount c "/DOS"

mount c d:~/DOS

mount c d:"~/DOS"

mount c d:/DOS

mount c d:"/DOS"

NONE of those options worked!!! I always got an error saying:

Directory <whichever option I tried> doesn't exist

I also tried following the mount line up with :

Set Path=C:\DOS;Z:\
C:

and also PRE-ceeding that like with and without:

@Echo Off

And NOTHING NOTHING works. it took about 4 hours to try all that because i have to open the dosbox.conf file in a text editor, change it, soft reboot and launch after every option!

So PLEASE someone bail me out! Is this user error, or is it a problem with my PALM E2? Just to get it straight... is this the setup that SHOULD work?:

-Install PalmDOSBox.prc on your main PALM internal memory, not your SD card?
-create a folder on the top level of your SD card to mount as your C drive?
-create dosbox.conf and put it on your SD card, top level?

I tried all permutations... disbox on SD and on PALM and under programs on PALM, c drive folder on SD, on PALM, in the launcher folder, in the programs folder, etc etc...

Thank you!

[MetaView]

"mount c dos" is doing the trick...

And you are right, the on-screen keyboard is missing several things. It's already fixed and I will release it when I got the time to work further on it, next week, I hope...

[AletheianAlex]

"mount c dos" is doing the trick...

And you are right, the on-screen keyboard is missing several things. It's already fixed and I will release it when I got the time to work further on it, next week, I hope...
RATS! doesn't work for me. I tried 3 different brand SD cards too. Maybe it is an E2 specific problem. I'll keep trying


EDIT:

I found the problem. I'll post it in case it helps someone else. If I load the SD card into a reader and create directories on it, and then insert the card into my PALM, then DOSbox can't read them. Strange. So I have to create a directory in FileZ and then use that.

Then I have to use EXACTLY this syntax:

[autoexec]
@Echo Off
Mount C "/DOS"
C:

If I do that, it mounts properly, BUT I get an error message:

Drive C is mounted as local directory /DOS
Illegal command dirC:\;Z:\.
Illegal command C:S;Z:\.

It still works though, so I don't know what that whole error mess is about.

Thanx

[Murrfk]

I can't get this to run on a Tungsten E2. If I try to run the program, I get the famous"

Fatal Alert

Bitmap.c, Line:1406,
BmpCreateBitmapV3:
invalid NULL argument

Reset

error.

I can get around this error by running UDMH (which I have heard reports should not be run on an E2 for fear of disastrous irrecoverable errors on an E2). I can then get the DOSBOX screen, but when I hit the start button, I get a "Insufficient Ram. Try more realistic settings" dialog box, which makes me think UDMH is not working properly with the E2.

Any suggestions? Am I missing something?

[icefireicefire]

UDMH is SAFE on the E|2. The bricking was only <5.0, but dmitry fixed that.

[Murrfk]

Thanks. I have had no problems with UDMH, but I still can't get past the opening start with Dosbox.

[_Em]

Someone (I think Metaview) compiled a version with working on-screen keyboard support. You have to either use this, or create an autoexec.bat to launch the files/change to C:.

You'll also likely have to change some of the memory settings, even WITH UDMH and CleanStart.

[Murrfk]

I really appreciate the assistance. I have a demo version of UDMH that will only last 6 days. I will purchase it if I can get this to work. I do not have cleanstart.

How do I set the memory properly?

I have the latest version of the Dosbox, and a dosbox.conf file that I believe is set up properly on my SD card.