DOSBox FAQ
Before reading this FAQ, if you didn’t read the
Readme.txt then I really, REALLY, recommend that you read it. This file answers
a LOT of questions. Besides the Readme, I recommend you take a look at this
url:
Also when DOSBox is running, then type in intro at the Z:\
prompt.
The best way to search through the FAQ is to search for keywords, like ASPI,
Keyboard, Sound or Z drive. Most of the common questions/answers are in this
FAQ, but it isn’t complete, so don’t expect the world from this
FAQ.
Throughout the FAQ you'll find links redirecting you to other websites or other
Q&A's in this FAQ. If it is a link to another Q&A in this FAQ then the
page will scroll to the appropriate Q&A so that it is positioned at the
top of your browser window.
You can also use the links below to immediatly scroll to the appropriate section
of this FAQ.
- DOSBox related
- Crash related
- Speed related
- Drives related
- Keyboard & Joypad related
- Sound related
- Screen related
- Game related
- Is DOSBox freeware?
-
- Freeware usually means a program is free-of-charge, but you don't get
the source code, so it is not open source.
- DOSBox isn't freeware as it is opensource. You can download the source
from the folowing site : AEP
- The folowing is a nice explenation of freeware, Wikipedia
- DOSBox is protected under the GNU General Public License. Under this
license this means the folowing
(1) You are allowed to use it, copy it and modify it
freely. You are even allowed to sell it, BUT anyone who gets it from you
must have the same rights as you, so that's rather pointless.
(2) If you modify it and pass it on, you MUST give away
the modified source code as well. Same if you integrate DOSBox into a
third-party program, you have to pass on the whole resulting program.
(3) If you offer it for download, you MUST offer the
source code for download as well (on your own server). Posting a link
to the DOSBox site is not enough.
(4) You have to keep all copyright notices intact.
(5) You use it on your own risk.
- Can I install multiple DOSBox versions on one computer?
Can I install another version of DOSBox without uninstalling the other version
of DOSBox?
-
- You can install multiple versions upon one system without interference,
as long as you don’t install them both to the same directory and
overwrite the previous version.
- What is a conf file and how do I open it?
-
- A conf file is actually a simple text file where all configurations
are saved for DOSBox to use, look for a dosbox.conf file inside the directory
where you installed DOSBox to.
- To edit the file, use the standard Windows Notepad or a similar application.
- Type
config -writeconf dosbox.conf at the DOSBox Z:\>
prompt to create a new one in the DOSBox directory.
- I can’t find a dosbox.conf file in the DOSBox directory.
How do I recreate the dosbox.conf file in the DOSBox directory?
-
- Type the following at the
Z:\ prompt: config –writeconf
dosbox.conf
See Readme.txt for more information on the command.
- Does DosBox have a feature to save the current state of my game?
How can I save my game with DOSBox?
-
- DOSBox doesn’t support State Saving as of yet. The only saving
that is supported is in-game saving, saves created by the game itself.
- This option is currently not available, but is being looked into, as
it is not as easy to do as with console games.
- What is a CVS?
-
- A CVS build of DosBox is a build that is still under development. Questions
asked about this build without trying the official version first will
not be answered by the DosBox team.
- How do you install patches?
-
- Patches for DOSBox are patches for its source. So if you want to install
a patch, then download the source of DOSBox, integrate the patch into
the source and compile to get a patched version of DOSBox.
- Does DOSBox support the LPT port?
-
- Some CVS builds support LPT but the current “official” release
doesn’t.
- Does DOSBox support printing?
-
- Some CVS builds support printing but the current “official”
release doesn’t.
- Does DosBox support PC Booter games?
-
- Yes it does, look up the
boot command in the Readme.txt
- I have an old “Device” like a Joypad, floppy-drive or a modem,
can I use it in DOSBox?
-
- DOSBox can only use devices that your OS supports. If Windows/Linux
doesn’t recognize them, then DOSBox won’t either. There is
no possibility to change this.
- Can DOSBox alter my system or cause any harm?
-
- DOSBox itself cannot cause ANY harm what so ever, as it is only emulating
an entire PC with very little acces to your real PC. The DOS application
is telling DOSBox what to do, not the other way around.
- As for running any dubious programs in DOSBox without knowing where
it came from, that’s entirely up to you. Programs can create and
delete files only inside the mounted directories or rewrite them. So if
a program does something dubious, then it is constricted to only the mounted
drives. NOT mounting the real harddrive but instead a directory is therefore
highly recommended. Having a good antivirus is a must.
- The installer of DOSBox only extracts DOSBox to the given directory
and creates shortcuts in your start menu. It doesn’t alter your
systems registry or files.
- You must view DOSBox as any other high end game that stresses your CPU
a LOT. So if your CPU isn’t efficiently cooled then overheating
might occur. But this is as stated, as any other high end game.
- Do I have to type the commands everytime I restart DOSBox?
Can I permanently mount DOSBox to a directory?
-
- You can make DOSBox execute commands on startup by typing your commands
inside the AutoExec section of the conf file. To start a conf file other
then the default DOSBox.conf file, look up information about the
–conf
commandline parameter inside the Readme.txt
or use a frontend for DOSBox. See the next Q&A
in this FAQ for frontends.
- Isn’t there an application so that I can use
DOSBox in a Windows style environment?
-
- There are currently a LOT of programs able of starting games in DOSBox
with a graphical user interface or GUI. These are called DOSBox frontends.
Be sure that the used frontend supports the used DOSBox version and your
OS. Some names : "DBGL"; "D.O.G."; "D-Fend".
There are others out there, Google is
your friend.
- Drag and dropping files to DOSBox is possible BUT …
-
- Some people are used to dragging and dropping files to emulators and
it working. BUT although this is implemented in DOSBox, don’t expect
it to work very well. People have reported that using this feature, DOSBox
refuses to make captures and sometime crashes the game because of path
issues. My recommendation is, ONLY use it if the game consists of only
an exe file.
- How do I let DOSBox exit when the game stops?
-exit commandline parameter doesn’t work?
Any way to make DOSBox run games directly and auto-close afterwards?
-
- Add the Exit command as the last command in the autoexec section of
the conf file that is responsible of booting your game. Don’t forget
to use the command
call for starting batch files, because
else adding exit won’t even work. See Readme.txt
for more information.
- Disabling the console window in Windows?
-
- Start DOSBox with
-noconsole as a commandline parameter.
Please read the Readme.txt again.
- Where can I download the Games on the DOSBox site?
-
- The Games section on the internet site is a list of all games that users
have reported on how good they run in DOSBox. This is a wiki site, so
you too can report on games or other DOSBox versions.
- There are no downloads at the DOSBox site other then freeware tools
to run DOS programs, including DOSBox.
- There will NEVER be any download links listed to abandonware sites or
other such internet sites. If users on the DOSBox sites ask for such “illegal”
information, then they won’t get any answer and their request will
be removed from the site.
- Submitting such links on the DOSBox site will be promptly removed and
their user account can be removed if abuse is frequent.
- Computer reboots without warning
DOSBox crashes my system/Windows
-
- DOSBox vanishes when locking windows console? (ctrl-alt-del -> lock computer)
-
- DOSBox will crash or lockup when you do a computerlock in Windows. This
is because in this state, Windows blocks all input/output in some way
or the other and this crashes DOSBox.
- My mouse gets stuck to the DOSBox window,
Unlock/Lock Mouse in DOSbox
-
- This is by default the behaviour of DOSBox, pressing CTRL-F10 unlocks
or locks the mouse.
- Whenever I move the mouse, it travels towards the lower right corner of
the screen, regardless of which direction I move the mouse. I use a SUSE system
-
- It turns out the problem is with the driver being used by X-windows.
If I use a generic three button PS/2 mouse, everything behaves properly
in dosbox. If I use the wheel mouse it doesn't.
- I have the same problem and found out that it is caused by the ATI proprietary
X Server. When I replace "fglrx" in the driver section with
"radeon" or "vesa" the mouse works again.
- I’m getting a message, "Load error: no DPMI - Get csdpmi*.zip"
-
- This is because DOSBox hasn’t got a DPMI server built in. To enable
DOSBox with DPMI, get CWSDPMI
(Unstable server though), extract to a directory. Then start cwsdpmi.exe
with the following commandline:
cwsdpmi -p inside DOSBox
before starting the game. Then start the game.
- You can also try to just extract the CWSDPMI packaged exe’s to
the game’s directory. Most of the games start CWSDPMI themselves.
- "This is a windows 95 executable."
"This program must be run under win32"
"This program must be run under Microsoft Windows"
"This program requires Microsoft Windows"
"This program could not be run in dos mode"
“Illegal command: win”
-
- Could be that your running a Self Extracting Archive in DOSBox. Use
programs such as WinZip and WinRar to extract them.
- Well it is what it said, a Windows executable. DOSBox is only a DOS
emulator, so it can only run DOS executables, nothing else. You can run
Windows 3.11 and run games from within it but, that is as far as it goes
for the moment.
- If the game manual said it is DOS compatible, then search for an exe
that hasn’t got “win” in its name, unless “win”
is part of the gamename itself.
- What does "out of memory! try unloading some
of your TSR's" mean?
I get a message : “Not enough memory for 16 color version. Release TSRs
and retry.”
-
- Whenever this problem pops up, it means that the game has a problem
with the amount of memory available from DOSBox. It isn’t actually
an Out of Memory problem, but actually a Too Much Memory problem. To solve
this problem, try reducing the amount of memory available from DOSBox
by reducing the
memsize in the conf file and/or applying
loadfix. See the Readme.txt for
more info.
- Exit to error: "Protected mode not supported"
-
- This problem should in recent times not occur, but if it occurs, it
just means your running an old version of DOSBox and it can’t run
the game you tried. Upgrade DOSBox to a newer version.
- Game crashes without warning, or game reports on an unknown error.
Unable to open file
Error : “File Creation Failed”
-
- You might have mounted the drives incorrectly.
For example with the game in "C:\DOSBox\Game\":
mount C C:\DOSBox\
mount D C:\DOSBox\Game\ –t cdrom –ioctl
- You might be running the game straight off the CD-Rom witch in fact
is only Read-Only, don’t expect a CD-RW to work either. Some burner
software supports this; some don’t and besides this will be horribly
slow.
- You might be running the game straight off the floppy with write protection
for the disk on. This might be an easy solution to the “garbage”
collecting upon your hard drive, but it isn’t recommended because
an error in the software might corrupt the entire disk.
- You might have set some files of the game to Read-Only or to hidden.
All files are recommended to be read and writeable and non-hidden. This
may be because you want to protect the game at all costs, but this in
fact blocks the game from setting itself up, upon the DOSBox OS. The best
way to protect your game is to make an alternative copy to a CD-ROM.
- There might be an incompatibility with DOSBox so that it can’t
run the game as of yet, or there might be a fixable problem. See the game
specific Q&A’s in this FAQ.
- "Can't init SDL Unable to open mouse" in a Linux environment,
-
- This can be due to a wrong installation of X for Linux, or maybe an
outdated version. Or it can be that your Linux version doesn’t have
X installed by default. Reinstall X to solve the problem.
- Game crashes with the error : "not enough memory"
-
- To solve this you must change the
memsize in the conf file
to a higher value, 63 is the maximum.
- Himem.sys reports no extend memory found.
-
- Set the following parameters in the conf file
xms=false
and ems=false.
- Can I change the files variable or something in affect inside DOSBox?
Can Config.sys and Autoexec.bat be altered?
-
- The only way to alter DOSBox in any way is by altering its conf file.
Config.sys and Autoexec.bat don’t exist for DOSBox.
- Some programs physically check an autoexec.bat and config.sys file.
To try and fix the problem, create an autoexec.bat and config.sys file
and place them into a mounted C:\. There is no guarantee this will work.
- DOSBox sets the “Files” variable, the number of allowed
opened files, to 100 by default and cannot be changed.
- ANSI.sys not fully supported?
-
- DOSBox is a gaming project, developed to run games, therefor ANSI isn't
needed and thus not built in. You might have more luck with the programs
Ansi.com or nnansi.com
- Can’t play the recorded video/movie capture.
-
- You need the ZMBV (Zip Motion Block Video) codec installed on your system
to play the movies.
You can download the codec from the
ZMBV site
- For MS Windows:
Download the files zmbv.dll and zmbv.inf to your harddrive, both in the
same directory. Do not change their names. Then do a right click upon
the zmbv.inf file and select Install. This will copy the files and install
the codec. To remove the codec, go to the software section in Windows
configurationscreen and select “Zip Motion Block Video” to
uninstall. After the installation, you may remove the downloaded dll and
inf files.
- For DOSBox 0.70 users:
The codec is bundled in the DOSBox package. For Windows users, look for
the link called "Install movie codec" in the Start menu.
- Dosbox and Windows 95 or 98
-
- These OS’s currently do not work. They install well, but up to
the point of the diskscan, then the installation fails. Windows is only
supported up to 3.11.
- When I run some games in DosBox I receive this error message: "EMS
driver is not VCPI compliant".
-
- Change the
ems parameter in the conf file to false.
- I’m getting an error "Illegal opcode",
-
- This means that DOSBox doesn’t support the opcode the game is
using. An opcode is a CPU instruction and as DOSBox uses a software CPU
it is still possible that it doesn’t support an exotic or unreported
opcode. The best thing to do is to go to the VOGONS DOSBox forum and report
the Game name AND the illegal opcode if stated, together with information
on your used core and the OS your running DOSBox under and of course the
version of DOSBox used.
- “Exit to Error: CALL: descriptor type XX unsupported”
-
- This means that DOSBox doesn’t support the given software as of
yet.
- Try a CVS build. Or see the game related Q&A's.
- I’m getting nothing but ring messages like “RX add R”
I’m getting a constant ringing sound.
-
- This is because a telenet program is running upon your network accessing
your UDP port 23. To solve this, disable any modems you configured in
the conf file. See Readme.txt for more information.
- I’m getting a warning of my firewall that DOSBox is trying to acces
the internet?
Why is DOSBox trying to Telnet?
-
- This is because a modem or IPX is activated in your conf file. See the
serial 1-4 parameters and the IPX parameter
in the conf file. See Readme.txt for more information.
- I'm getting an error "Runtime error 008".
-
- This is because the DOSBox version you're trying, doesn't have a fake
LPT port built in.
Try out the latest CVS. See CVS
Compile - dosbox compile.
- Can PIF files be run/used in DOSBox?
-
- PIF files can not be used with DOSBox. A PIF file is actually a configuration
file for the NTVDM of Windows. This file contains information on how Windows
needs to run the given DOS application and doesn't contain an executable.
If you "start" a pif file then this is like using a Windows
link. Do a right click->Properties to find out where the pif file links
to.
- 16-bit subsystem error "Your system is not suitable for running 16-bit
apps"
-
- DOSBox crashes when starting it.
- Check and see if you’re using the latest version of DOSBox. The current
version of DosBox as of 05/21/2007 is 0.70. See the
DOSBox news page.
- First try changing the
output parameter in the conf file. It might be
possible that your video card doesn’t support the required output.
- Try updating your video card drivers.
- Try updating DirectX. See the Microsoft DirectX home page
- Try a new version of SDL.dll. See the SDL home page.
- Try updating Windows.
- Check and see if the environment variable “SDL_VIDEODRIVER”
exists. If set, delete the variable
and try again. This can result in errors/slow DOSBox’s if this variable
is set incorrectly. To change the variable, see "How
To Manage Environment Variables in Windows XP" from the Microsoft Knowledge
Base
- Try setting the environment variable “SDL_VIDEODRIVER” to "windib".
- If all else fails try the CVS version of DOSBox, this is the alpha version of the next DOSBox. There is no support what so ever for this version!
- The game was running, but suddenly crashes.
- Check and see if you’re using the latest version of DOSBox. The current
version of DosBox as of 05/21/2007 is 0.70. See the
DOSBox news page.
- If you are running the game under the dynamic core, try out the normal or full core. In the conf file set
core to normal.
- If the game still crashes, look for a sollution in the Game Related section.
- If you can't find a sollution in there or in the DOSBox Forum, then post in the DOSBox Games Forum. State the game you were running, the conf file used and how and when the game crashes.
- While switching between fullscreen and windowed mode DOSBox crashes.
- Check and see if you’re using the latest version of DOSBox. The current
version of DosBox as of 05/21/2007 is 0.70. See the
DOSBox news page.
- If you are running the game under the dynamic core, try out the normal or full core. In the conf file set
core to normal.
- If the game still crashes, look for a sollution in the Game Related section.
- If you can't find a sollution in there or in the DOSBox Forum, then post in the DOSBox Games Forum. State the game you were running, the conf file used and how and when the game crashes.
- Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)
DOSBox crashes every run and I’m not able to see anything.
- Check and see if you’re using the latest version of DOSBox. The current
version of DosBox as of 05/21/2007 is 0.70. See the
DOSBox news page.
- First try changing the
output parameter in the conf file. It might be
possible that your video card doesn’t support the required output.
- Try updating your video card drivers.
- Try updating DirectX. See the Microsoft DirectX home page
- Try a new version of SDL.dll. See the SDL home page
- Some people have reported this to be also a Windows XP problem. People
who got this error, fixed it by reinstalling XP, reinstalling DOSBox,
or running the System File Checker by doing the following:
sfc /scanonce
from the "Execute" option of the start menu and reboot.
- Game runs slow
The graphics stutter.
How can I make DosBox run faster?
- You need to increase the amount of cpu cycles DOSBox emulates, do this
by pressing CTRL-F11 to slow down or CTRL-F12 to speed up. Don’t
go too high so that your real CPU usage goes to 100%. See “My
sound stutters/hangs” in this FAQ.
- Use CTRL-F7 / CTRL-F8 to decrease / increase frameskip. Increasing Frameskip
will reduce the games graphics fluidness, but decreases the real CPU power
needed to run the game.
- Try out the dynamic core of DOSBox by setting the
core parameter in the
conf file to dynamic. This core can be error prone on some games
and cause game crashes, but it is a LOT faster.
- Try a lower value of resolution, by selecting a lower value for the
fullresolution
and windowresolution parameters in the conf file. This reduces DOSBox workload
for the real CPU.
- Try another value for the
output parameter in the conf file.
- Try setting the
cycle parameter in the conf file to auto or max. Setting
it to max will use your CPU to its fullest potential. Auto will try to guess
what cycles the game needs.
- If you have any NONE-USB or gamepads connected to the computer then it
is recommended to disconnect them as they slow down DosBox dramatically. There
is no solution for this at the moment.
- Check and see if the environment variable “SDL_VIDEODRIVER”
is set to “windib” or anything other. If set, delete the variable
and try again. This “SDL_VIDEODRIVER” variable can result in errors/slowdown
DOSBox’s if this variable is set incorrectly. This variable is best
left deleted. To change the variable, see "How
To Manage Environment Variables in Windows XP" from the Microsoft Knowledge
Base
- Try running DOSBox in a 16-bit screen depth desktop. 32bit and 24bit
are slower, 24bit is the slowest.
- Are you capturing anything, like sound or video? If so, shut it off.
- Shut down any virus scanners or software that run a LOT of checks, or slow
down your system dramatically.
- Try out a new version of SDL.dll. See the SDL home page.
- Some problems can arise with faulty video drivers, DOSBox/SDL are very
picky if it comes to video drivers. If other games work perfectly with the
current video driver, then it won’t mean that DOSBox should and need
to run perfectly too. Try updating the video driver; remember that a beta
driver is not a stable driver, at all. Changing the video driver back to its
original from when you bought it could help too.
- I can not pass the 50% cpu usage in XP with a dualcore
- This is because DOSBox isn’t multithreaded, meaning it can’t
and won’t run multiple tasks at one time side by side and can’t
divide them over all present CPU’s. If you look at the CPU usage of
the core DOSBox uses, then it will go to a 100%, but the other core won’t
even reach 1%, hence 51% for the total used CPU time for DOSBox.
- Why is DOSBox so slow?
- DOSBox emulates an entire PC, complete with CPU, FPU, SoundBlaster, Gravis
Ultrasound card and a S3 graphics card. This can’t be compared to Virtual
PC or similar products, because DOSBox emulates a CPU and Virtual PC uses
the real thing. Because DOSBox uses a software CPU, games have a better chance
of running within DOSBox than in Virtual PC or a similar product, DOS games
won’t run on a 64-bit Windows, but with DOSBox they will.
- If you’re looking to increase the speed of the game within DOSBox
then look at the Q&A "Game runs slow".
- What is the relation between the cycles and my computers
processing power, so that I can configure DOSBox to become a computer with xx
MHz?
- There is no exact relation between the number of cycles DOSBox emulates
and the CPU power emulated. In other words there is no possible way to set
DOSBox to emulate exactly a 66MHz or a 33MHz machine.
- The only way to set DOSBox to the best number of cycles, is trial and error,
or by letting DOSBox try and find it for you by setting
cycles parameter in
the conf file to auto or max.
- After mounting my CD-Rom and starting the game’s installer I got an
error that it couldn’t create a directory?
-
- What is this Z drive
-
- Drive Z is a system drive, this drive cannot be altered in any way possible.
This drive allows you to mount drives and set variables. See Readme.txt
for more information and the next Q&A of this FAQ.
- Where are my drives, my drives don’t exist.
-
- DOSBox is highly modular. To make a drive available do the following
in the Z drive:
Hard drive: mount D C:\Dir\ for real directory C:\Dir\ to
become available as D:\
CD-Rom : mount E D:\ -t cdrom to make a CDRom D:\ available
as E:\ in DOSBox
See Readme.txt for more information.
cd C:\ doesn’t work what is the deal?
I can’t change Z:\ to C:\-
- First the C:\ you are trying to refer to is a virtual drive that has
to be mounted before being accessible.
- Second
cd C:\ doesn’t work, the proper DOS command
is C:, "cd" is used only for directories not drives.
- When I try to do the "cd" command like:
cd games
it always says: Unable to change to: games
I mounted everything right, but I can’t change the directory…
-
- I can’t use directories with names longer then 8 characters.
What is this “~1” thingy?
Doesn’t DOSBox support long filenames?
-
- In the age of DOS all names were restricted by the 8.3 rule. No name
could be longer then 8 characters and no extension was allowed to be bigger
then three characters. DOSBox translates the long names used in Windows
to the DOSBox standard; all names not conform to the rule are translated
to a DOSBox standard with a flag, “~1; ~2; …” added.
This behaviour cannot be changed.
- To find out what DOSBox made of your long name, browse your directory
as far as you can go with the command
cd, and then do a dir command in
the directory for witch the next cd command fails. This will reveal witch
files/directories are in the directory with what names.
- I cannot see the new just-copied/created files in DOSBox.
How to swap a CD-Rom in my drive. I don’t see anything changed for my
first CD-Rom.
-
- When creating/changing files outside of DOSBox control then these files
won’t be in DOSBox’s cache. To renew the cache, type the
rescan
command inside the directory or press CTRL-F4.
- Can’t I mount more then one boot image?
How to swap virtual disks in DosBox?
-
- See imgmount in Readme.txt for more info on
the command. To swap to the next image mounted through
imgmount, use CTRL-F4.
- Game can’t find my CD-Rom although it is inserted.
-
- This is probably because you either,
- Didn’t mount the CD-Rom
- Under Windows 98 didn’t mount it with
-aspi or didn’t
install the ASPI ability properly
- Under Windows 2000/XP didn’t mount it with
-ioctl
- Forgot the game “copy protection” requires a label to
be assigned to the drive, see
-label in the Readme.txt under
the mount command.
- My mounted harddrive has only 105MB, even though I’ve have plenty
more space on the harddrive.
-
- The 105MB harddrive limitation is a standard value when mounting a harddrive/directory
without setting its virtual size. To increase this size, you need to use
the
–size or the –freesize option when mounting a drive. See
the Readme.txt file for more information. But
be warned, some old games don’t work well with harddrives greater
then 200MB or 2GB, so don’t standardise it for all games. I would
recommend to keep your virtual harddrive size below 2GB at all times and
sometimes below 200MB.
- MSCDEX not found?
"Error initialising mscdex.exe"
-
- To make MSCDEX available inside DOSBox, you’ll have to mount a
CD-Rom.
- If you have a patched version of game that contains all its files in
one directory, then mount the parent directory as a harddrive and ALSO
as a CDRom.
For example with the game in "C:\DOSBox\Game\":
mount C C:\DOSBox\
mount D C:\DOSBox\Game\ –t cdrom –ioctl
See Readme.txt for more information.
- Some games have been reported to run some other non-default way of detecting
mscdex and aren’t yet supported.
- “MSCDEX: Failure: Drive-letters of multiple CDRom-drives have to be
continuous.”
-
- This means that, or you’re mounting cdrom drives with driveletters
before harddrives, or your drives aren’t sequentially mounted.
For Example:
Problem mounting:
mount c c:\
mount d d:\
mount e e:\
mount f f:\ -t cdrom
mount h h:\ -t cdrom
Fixed mounting:
mount c c:\
mount d d:\
mount e e:\
mount f f:\ -t cdrom
mount g g:\ -t cdrom
mount h h:\ -t cdrom
- My keyboard is AZERTY, but I’m getting QUERTY in DOSBox
I can’t type \ but I can type /. Where has this key gone to?
I can’t type a backslash.
I can’t type a ‘:’?
-
- This is because DOSBox uses the US standard, as the original DOS does.
To change the keyboard layout, you need to use the KeyB program from FreeDos.
To use it inside DOSBox, the best way is to start KeyB by configuring
it in the Autoexec section of the conf file of DOSBox. Do the following,
mount the directory, where keyb is installed to, with an unused drive,
like Y or something. Then do the following to start for example the Belgian
layout. For other layouts, you’ll have to look them up on the net.
mount Y C:\KeyB\
Y:\
cd/
keyb be
- See the FreeDOS Keyb home
page. Download the keyb binary and the precompiled keyboard layouts,
extract the keyb.exe to a directory and extract the sys files from the
second archive to the same directory. Then run keyb as stated above.
- DOSBox 0.70 has a
keyboardlayout parameter in its conf
file that can be set to the keyboard layout you would else use with keyb.
If DOSBox returns with "Error loading keyboard layout XX", then
you'll have to download the sys files from the
FreeDOS site, see the previous answer to this question, and add those
to the DOSBox directory.
- DOSBox does not detect my USB Joypad.
-
- The SDL.DLL delivered with previous DOSBox's are buggy on that part, use the one on this forum thread : DOSBox Forum
Save the give SDL.DLL to the DOSBox directory and it should correct the problem, if not report it in that forum's thread.
- I can use only 2 buttons of my 12 button or 32 button Joypad what is up
with that?
6 Button Gamepad Supprt?
Can I set a key combination to my joypad buttons?
-
- In the old days of DOS, the best joypads where only with a maximum of
two buttons, possibly four. The emulation will try to map your recent
joypad to an old joypad, so that your old DOS game recognizes this new
Joypad.
- DOSBox 0.65 and lower do not allow you to map a key combination to any
button on your joypad. For this you’ll have to use alternative programs
such as Joy2Key
).
- DOSBox 0.70 allows you to map a key combination for the 4 simulated
joypad buttons using the keyboard mapper. If you want to use a joypad
with a game not supporting a joypad or you want to use the rest of the
joypad buttons too, then you'll have to use alternative programs such
as Joy2Key.
- None of the ctrl+f combinations work.
-
- If you are using a keyboard that allows you to reconfigure these keys
to other “key combinations” then I would suggest you disable
this feature or reset it to the default values.
- Do you have a "F Lock" key on your keyboard? Most of the time
above the ESC key. By default I am unable to use the F1-F12 keys as the
original functions. I have to press this F lock key to use those F1-F12
keys as F1-F12 keys.
- Try updating the SDL.dll library. See the
SDL home page
- See if you have a mapper.txt file in the DOSBox directory, or linked
to one in the
mapperfile parameter in the conf file. Remove it.
- My keyboard isn’t working at all in DOSBox,
-
- Some people have reported this problem and they mentioned that it was
fixed by disconnecting their Joypad/JoyStick
- When pressing MAY/SHIFT key a '1' appears.
-
- You can try to fix this issue by remapping the keys inside DOSBox or
changing the Windows Keyboard layout. This problem has not been reported
after version 0.63 of DOSBox, try to update your DOSBox version.
- How do you turn off the Ctrl-<function> keys?
-
- Use the DOSBox mapper, by pressing CTRL-F1 in the DOSBox prompt. See
Readme.txt for more information.
- Keyboard seems to work inconsistently in particular with keyboard combos
like CTRL-L.
-
- Use a DOSBox version higher or equal to 0.63.
- How do you activate VDMS sound once DOSBox is loaded?
When I run DOSBox in VDMS it crashes.
-
- There is no reason what so ever to run VDMS together with DOSBox. DOSBox
does everything VDMS does, and more. There DOSBox is a Windows program
and not a DOS program, running it in VDMS will result in a crash or warning.
VDMS was designed to emulate a SoundBlaster for the Windows XP system
when running DOS games within the NTVDM, this is the virtualization layer
of Windows. Check the “I have no sound at all.” Q&A below
in this FAQ for more information on how to configure sound in DOSBox.
- My sound stutters/hangs.
The sound "skips".
-
- This problem occurs when your real CPU usage goes above 100%. This means
DOSBox can’t emulate the sound fast enough so that it forms a continuous
sound. The only way to solve this problem is to decrease the amount of
cycles DOSBox emulates, by pressing CTRL-F11 or increasing the frameskip
by CTRL-F8. If your graphics start to become choppy but the sound, sounds
great, then you need to decrease the amount of cpu power the game itself
needs to run. Shut off any scalers, reduce the games resolution and so
on.
- Try fiddling around with the
blocksize and the prebuffer
parameters in the conf file if your sound stutters even with a normal
load on the CPU.
- Try another sample rate for the mixer and the sound cards DOSBox emulates.
Some reported that a higher rate like 44100 was better.
- Try to reduce the options used by the graphics card. ATI and nVidea
have programs to set options on their card to add special rendering features
without the game supporting them like AlphaBlending and so on. If VSync
is on, this might be better when turned off, but no guarantees.
- Try a newer version of the SDL.dll. See the
SDL home page
- If you have any NON-USB joypad connected to the computer it is recommended
to disconnect them as they slow down DOSBox dramatically. This is an SDL.dll
problem.
- If all else fails, you need a faster computer or wait for the next DOSBox
release.
- If on a Linux machine then it might also be an X problem if your Linux
version depends on it. Try increasing the frameskip (ctrl-f8) see if the
stuttering disappears or becomes less. If so. Then X is the problem. Like
solutions. Look at Xfree.0.log for any Errors or warnings. Especially
a non optimized X server is bad and missing MTRR is evil as well. Futher
you can create a configfile for dosbox and disabling the automatic doubling
of the screen (saves X, 4 times work)
- I have no sound at all.
The sound is garbled or bad.
-
- Lower the number of cycles in DOSBox and restart the game. Some older
games require low processor speeds to work correctly. Some even below
1000 cycles.
- Check your sound volume for Windows or Linux. Check if there aren’t
any volumes set to zero.
- Check if you can play mp3’s and midi’s. If you can, then
the OS is not the problem.
- If your talking about the music, then check if you can play these tracks
on your computer using a AudioCD player. You won't see the cda files as
you would with an Audio only CD, so playing these with WinAmp is out of
the question.
- Check if the SoundBlaster, Gravis Ultrasound, pc speaker and the mixer
are enabled in the conf file of DOSBox.
- Check that the game is configured to match DosBox's emulated sound hardware.
If the game is not configured properly then the sound will not work very
well or may not work at all. Some games may have the wrong sound card
selected by default or misconfigured.
- Some setup programs might select the wrong soundcard for the job if
doing an autodetect. Some select the gravis Ultrasound while this might
be a bad choice if you can select the SoundBlaster in stead. Or it might
also be the other way around. This is trial and error.
- The sound card settings in DosBox have nothing to do with your real
computers hardware. Do not confuse the two.
- Using a real MT-32 with DOSBox
-
- Slow down DOSBox to very low cycles until the MT-32 is initialized,
after that increase the cycles. The problem is well known and is partially
a DOSBox bug, it allows the commands to be sent to the soundcard at lightning
fast speeds.
- Configure your operating system to send MIDI on MPU-401.
- MIXER:Can't open audio: DirectSoundCreate: Invalid parameter , running in
nosound mode.
-
-
- How do I run DOSBox in fullscreen?
-
- You do this by either setting the
fullscreen parameter in the conf file
to true or by pressing
ALT-ENTER. See the conf file or the Readme.txt
for more information.
- When I try to run dosbox in fullscreen, I get fullscreen, but rotated.
-
- Check your driversettings for ATI or similar, if you have set it to
rotate or not.
- Try changing the
fullresolution, output, aspect
and scaler parameters in the conf file to other values.
- DOSBox in fullscreen looks blurred.
-
- This problem is a result from running DOSBox or any other Game with
a TFT/Flat screen. TFT’s tend to blur the output when running a
non-standard resolution. Resolutions such as 640-480, 800-600, 1024-768
tend to be well supported and not blurred, but as your running DOS programs,
witch only support resolutions below or equal to 640-480. These tend to
be blurred. To fix this is to force a game into 640-480 or higher by setting
the
fullresolution in the conf file to 640-480 or higher.
You can also run the game in windowed mode.
- This can also result with CRT’s, but that’s most of the
time because either your graphics card or CRT monitor doesn’t support
the output resolution. To fix this is to force a game into 640-480 or
higher by setting the
fullresolution in the conf file to
640-480 or higher. You can also run the game in windowed mode.
- This problem can also be a result of a bad refresh rate that your monitor
does not support or supports, but doesn’t do well. To alter the
refresh rate, see "How
To Change the Screen Refresh Rate of Your Monitor in Windows XP" from
the Microsoft Knowledge Base
The most common refresh rates are 60Hz or 70Hz.
- The game (sometimes or always) shows black bars at the top/bottom/left
or right.
The game (sometimes or always) is cut off at the top/bottom/left or right.
Small screen in fullscreen dosbox
-
- This is due to the scaling done by DOSBox to fit the game’s resolution
inside your chosen
fullresolution in the conf file. To remove
the black bars, set aspect in the conf file to false, but
remember this will stretch the game’s screen output a bit. Setting
the appropriate scaler can improve the stretched image.
- You can also try another resolution by altering the
fullresolution
parameter inside the conf file.
- Try changing the
output parameter in the conf file to another value.
- If you’re using a widescreen TFT or CRT then this is the normal
behaviour of your screen. It resizes the input from your videocard to
its screen. Because it is a WIDE-screen, you will get black bars on the
left and the right.
- Try updating DirectX. See the
Microsoft DirectX home page
- Try updating SDL.dll. See the SDL home
page
- Try updating your video card drivers.
- This can also be a problem of a badly-configured bios. To know if this
is true, just look at any game running in fullscreen that uses DirectX,
if they all do the same cropping then it is recommended you get in touch
with your local computerfreak.
- On execution of DosBox I receive this error message: "Exit to error:
an unsupported feature"
Or DOSBox crashes when in fullscreen mode.
SDL:You are running in 24 bpp mode, this will slow down things!
-
- This is probably a result of running DOSBox inside a 24bit colordepth
environment. Because DOSBox is only 16bit or 32bit compatible, it will
crash or slow down dramatically. The solution is to set your desktop environment
to 16bit or 32bit mode.
- The screen resolution isn’t supported by your graphics card or
screen. This could result in a crash if your drivers don’t handle
that situation very well. See the Q&A
on resolution glitches for more info on this issue.
- The least likely of culprites is a bad refreshrate for the used screen
resolution when in fullscreen mode. To change it, see "How
To Change the Screen Refresh Rate of Your Monitor in Windows XP" from
the Microsoft Knowledge Base
The most common refresh rates are 60Hz or 70Hz.
- DOSBox shows a black screen when in fullscreen
I don't get any picture at all. The screen goes to sleep mode or makes funny
noises.
I get an "Out of range; Sync. Out of Range; Refresh Rate not supported.;
Mode not supported" error on my screen
The DOSBox.window is blinking,
Everytime I switch from windowed to full screen mode my screen gets messed
up.
When in fullscreen I always lose a part of my output screen. It is shifted
outside the visual range of my monitor.
-
- If you’re getting a black screen even in windowed mode, then there
is a game problem or an SDL problem. Goto the SDL site and try to update
the SDL.dll. See the SDL home page
- The screen resolution isn’t supported by your graphics card or
screen. Change the resolution by setting the
fullresolution
parameter in the conf file to another value.
- Try to change the
output parameter in the conf file.
- Try to use the buttons on your monitor to correct the picture if the
picture is shifted.
- Try to change the refreshrate for the used screen resolution if you
are certain your graphics card and screen can handle the used resolution.
To change it, see "How
To Change the Screen Refresh Rate of Your Monitor in Windows XP" from
the Microsoft Knowledge Base
- Check and see if the environment variable “SDL_VIDEODRIVER”
is set to “windib” or anything other. If set, delete the variable
and try again. This can result in errors/slow DOSBox’s if this variable
is set incorrectly. To change the variable, see "How
To Manage Environment Variables in Windows XP" from the Microsoft Knowledge
Base
- Some problems can arise with faulty video drivers, DOSBox/SDL are very
picky if it comes to video drivers. If other games work perfectly with
the current video driver, then it won’t mean that DOSBox should
run perfectly too. Try updating the video driver, remember that a beta
driver is not a stable driver at all. Changing the video driver back to
its original from when you bought it could help too.
- I want to make the DosBox window bigger.
How can I resize the DOSBox window?
-
- Set
scaler= (Which uses a scaler to scale your image)
or hwscale= (A scaler explicitly for increasing image size
but not image quality, only available in DOSBox 0.63)
- Set the
fullresolution / windowresolution
parameter in the conf file to another value you like.
- Multi monitor problem: on 2nd monitor app runs slow or crashes?
-
- Because your running two graphics cards, you need to do everything described
in this faq separate for each graphics card there is installed on your
computer. If DOSBox runs slow or doesn’t crash on one card/monitor,
then don’t expect it to run as fast on the second one. Or vise versa.
- My screen looks squished, like a widescreen.
-
- This problem occurs because the native resolution of the game is not
a multiple of the fixed resolution set inside the conf file, by setting
fullresolution to a resolution and not original.
You need to activate the aspect correction for the game by setting aspect
to true inside the conf file, or running the game in its native resolution
by setting fullresolution to original. See Readme.txt
for more information.
- Getting inverted colors in 16-color games
-
- After a time the colors of DOSBox get screwy, Blue turns out gray, yellow
gets black and so on
Every minute or so, the colors suddenly flash to like 8 colors
Sudden color change while playing?
- This problem can be a result from three things,
- Power saving is turned on while playing DOSBox,
- Your screensaver turned on while playing DOSBox
- An alternate program is altering the screen/desktop, like wallpaper
changers, or themes. Terminate them before playing.
- "SDL lock failed"
-
- On execution of DosBox I receive this error message: "Failed to create
a rendering output!"
-
- This might be because you’re running an older version of DOSBox,
use a version greater or equal to 0.65.
- This might be because you’re running DOSBox in an 24bit screen
depth environment. DOSBox supports only fully 16bit and 32bit screen depths.
- For this you need to set the environment variable “SDL_VIDEODRIVER”
to “windib” and set the
output parameter of the conf file
to surface just to be sure. To change it, see "How
To Manage Environment Variables in Windows XP" from the Microsoft Knowledge
Base. Don’t forget to delete the variable if this doesn’t
work for you.
Also make sure that video Hardware Acceleration is set to FULL in DirectX.
List of affected video card:
Pre-Radeon ATI cards
ATI Rage XL PCI
S3 video cards
Trident Cyber9525
- Small color palette problem.
When switching between DOSBox and the Windows Desktop then colors are altered.
-
- This can be due to an old driver for your graphics card, try updating
them.
- “SDL: Can't set palette”
-
- Try other
fullresolution values in the conf file.
- Try other
output parameter values in the conf file.
- Try changing your desktop screen depth to 16bit before starting DOSBox.
- No EGA machine mode?
-
- VGA and EGA are very similar, use VGA mode instead for the
machine
parameter in the conf file.
- Problems with brightness.
-
- Try
fullfixed=true, fullresolution=800x600
or something suitable and output=overlay or openglnb or opengl
(don't use output=surface).
- Try setting a lower refresh rate in your video drivers.
- Try the buttons on your monitor.
- “D3d error : Cannot lock texture.”
-
- If you don’t actually want to use Direct3D then try another value
for the
output parameter in the conf file.
- This is a result from driver issues. Try updating your video card drivers.
- "Failed to create ddraw surface, back to normal surface."
-
- The problem is the SDL.dll used together with DOSBox in DirectDraw mode.
To fix this, download an official build of DOSBox and replace the current
SDL.dll you’ve got with the one gotten from the official build.
Be sure the DOSBox package you download has the same version number as
you already have.
See the DOSBox
download page
Check and see if you’re using the latest version of DOSBox. The current
version of DosBox as of 05/21/2007 is 0.70. See the
DOSBox news page.
All games are alphabetically sorted.
Aces over Europe
- The sound is horrible, it squeaks.
- Open “resource.cfg” with a plain text editor and edit soundDrv
= XXXX.drv to ADL.DRV
Alone in the Dark 1 & 2
- I can't get my character to run fast.
- To get your character to run, you must press the walk key two times
and hold. If your cycles are too high then this pressing can be too difficult.
Use lower cycles and this will be easier to do. Do not use auto or max
for the cycles as then running will be nearly impossible.
Amberstar
- Error of installer : V1.3 D:5 L:0 Need HD !!
- This problem is because the installer of Amberstar tries to read the first
sector of the Harddrive. Because this isn’t supported at all by Windows
2000 or XP, DOSBox can’t do it too. The work around for the problem
is to mount the install medium with
-t floppy. This enables fake diskreads.
Ascendancy
- I’m getting an annoying “ding” sound every time I click with the mouse.
- Well this “ding” sound is played by the game itself, not DOSBox
or Windows. The only way to get rid of the sound is to disable the sound-FX
all together in the game’s setup.
Atlantis The Lost Tales (4 CDs)
- The mouse doesn't work.
Bandit Kings of Ancient China
- When I run the game it is just black and white and I can't get any colour
and I don't know how.
- Start the game with “koei.com” not the “main.exe”
Battle Isle 2
- When I want to start the game, it starts, but then I
get back to the screen, where I typed
battle2.exe
- Don’t run battle2.exe, you have to run bi2.bat
Betrayal at Krondor
- Betrayal at Krondor hangs at the loading screen.
- Betrayal at Krondor loads slow. You can increase the cycles to decrease
the wait.
Bridge Deluxe II
- "Cannot render?" Cant get DOS32A to work..."cannot
find paths error" …
- To get a more stable game, you’ll have to tweak this game. First
make an ISO with UltraISO, WinISO or another similar app. Delete the DOS4GW.exe
and copy DOS32a.exe inside the ISO. Then rename the DOS32a.exe with DOS4GW.exe
inside the ISO. Then mount this ISO in DOSBox with the command imgmount. See
the DOS32a home page
for DOS32a.
Champions of Krynn
- Whenever I attempt to create / save characters, I'm prompted
with a "put save disk in a:" message.
- Try to edit the krynn.cfg file with a simple text editor.
Championship Manager 2
- “Can not find Laserlok cd_rom in any drive.”
- Don’t forget to mount the cdrom as a cdrom.
- Try the
–ioctl or the –aspi command when
mounting the cdrom.
- This means that you need a cracked/noCD exe to run it if the anwers above
fail.
Chaos Engine
- My keyboard doesn’t work.
- Run the game's install program. It is probably set to "Joystick and
Keyboard", so it expects joystick input for player 1, keyboard input
for player 2. Switch that around by selecting "Keyboard and Joystick"
(in the "Control" menu for the installation program).
Command and Conquer
- I can’t use the CTRL-Number key to assign troops
to a number, because it is used by DOSBox.
- Use the keyboard mapper to remap that dosbox function to a different key.
Corporation (Core Design'91)
- Buffer Overflow
- You have to set
cycles=180 or lower and also set intelligent=true
in the conf file.
Dark Sun 1
- I can’t get sound to work with SoundBlaster or
Gravis Ultrasound.
- The game has problems with detecting the emulated SoundBlaster when selecting
SoundBlaster in the games setup program. To make the game work, select the
"Media Vision Thunder Board" for sound instead in the games setup
program.
- Buffer Overflow
- You have to set
cycles=180 in order not to have a buffer overflow,
DiscWorld
- "Discworld cannot locate the Discworld CD"
- Mount the cdrom different, like
mount d d:\ -t cdrom -ioctl, this must
be the same driveletter as with the installation. Also try to keep the volume
label of the cdrom by using -label in combination.
- Can’t save my game, the save disappears.
- Some installations require it to be installed to c:\discwld.
- Don’t run it straight off the CD-Rom.
- Try the patch disc104n.zip at
The L-Space Web file server
DOOM
- Game mode indeterminate
- DOOM is looking for the doom*.wad file that it needs. This could mean that
you have not installed a doom*.wad file, that more than one of doom1.wad,
doom.wad, or doom2.wad is available, or that you have an incorrect setting
for the DOOMWADDIR environment variable that DOOM uses to locate doom*.wad. To change the variable, see "How
To Manage Environment Variables in Windows
The name of the WAD file is significant and is used to determine what mode
the game should run in, like this:
doom1.wad
Run in shareware mode (no -file switch, only the first episode is available)
doom.wad
Run in registered mode (-file switch works, three episodes available)
doom2.wad
Run in DOOM II mode (-file switch works, one episode of 32 levels)
Eye of the beholder II
- Moving around using my 7,8,9 on the numeric keyboard
for easier search and movement ingame. The problem is that when I move to fast
around with 9 (turn right) then it stops reacting and only works once in a while.
- This is a bug in the game itself.
Fable
- Disc doesn´t exist error.
- This problem is because the installer of Fable tries to read the first
sector of the Harddrive. Because this isn’t supported at all by Windows
2000 or XP, DOSBox can’t do it too. To work around the problem is to
mounting the install medium with
-t floppy. This enables fake diskreads.
Flight of the Amazon Queen
- No Sound even when sound setup worked perfectly.
- Copy the entire CD-Rom to the “queen” directory. Run the setup
again. If you then run the install/setup, a new folder will appear (SAV.dir
or something) containing a file with your setup-data, and thus remembering
what music and sound options you made.
- Use a mounted C drive, see the
Q&A below on "randomly crashes".
- Randomly crashes.
- The game is quite picky about what drive letters it gets for a hard drive.
It is recommended you mount a directory with a C drive in stead of any other.
Don’t mount the game directory itself because this isn’t liked
by the game either. Use something similar :
Mount C “D:\DOSBoxC\”
With “D:\DOSBoxC” being a directory on your harddrive, containing
the “queen” directory.
Flight Unlimited
- I'm getting continuesly "illegal read from...".
-
Gameblaster
- If you're having trouble getting it to work.
- Try setting
oplmode=cms in the [sblaster] section of your dosbox.conf
Gann Trader
- Application Gann Trader (graphical) that run under DOS cannot run on a resolution
higher than 640x480 (the base resolution) under XP nor under DOSBox.
- Just delete Univbe.drv after configuring the program. Then, run it as
usual.
Genewars
- During missions all graphics are distorted.
-
- Delete the file "Fade.dat" in the gamefolder and restart the game. This
file will be recreated when running the game.
- The game won't start and gives errors like "Illegal read ...".
The game shows only a black screen.
-
- The file in the gamefolder "config.ini", set the folowing parameters as following :
CD=".\"
InstallDrive=".\"
In Search Of The Most Amazing Thing
- You get a BASIC error
( 5800 P=8:GOSUB 5280:LOCATE 1,9:FOR XX= 1 TO LEN(B$):A$=MID$(B$,XX,1):IF
A$=";" THEN A$="":GOSUB 5818:FOR TIMER= 1 TO 2400:NEXT:LOCATE
1,6:PRINT"30 SPACEBAR SPACES";:FOR TIMER= 1 TO 150:NEXT:LOCATE 1,9
)
-
- This is a problem with the BASICA interpreter delivered with the game,
it is not compatible with older games. The game uses TIMER as a variable
while this is a reserved keyword that may not be used as a variable.
- To fix it:
Go into DOSBox and give the following commands:
BASICA ( See Network54
Realm Basic Programs to download and Wikipedia
for more information)
LOAD "ELEV.BAS"
LIST 5800
(LIST 5800 shows code line 5800 of the file)
(now edit the line to replace both occurrences of "TIMER" by
"XXTXX" and press ENTER while the cursor is on that line)
SAVE "ELEV.BAS
SYSTEM
Do the above instructions for the following *.bas files and the given
lines.
File : "Elev.bas" ; Lines : ( 5800 , 4490 )
File : "Fly.bas" ; Lines : ( 8232 )
File : "Bcomp.bas" ; Lines : ( 8232 )
James Bond: The Stealth Affair
- There is a lot of flickering while running this game.
- In the INSTALL program, change VGA to MCGA.
Jutland
- I cannot get the game menu screen to activate, the manual
says to press the spacebar or mouse button, but this has no effect.
- Set the
ems and xms to false in the conf file.
Kyrandia 2 (The Hand of Fate)
- "Lib error 3" message occurs after clicking on "Start a new
game"
- Your DOSBox is outdated, use the newest DOSBox available.
Leisure Suit Larry VI
- The mouse doesn't work.
- Open "resource.cfg" in the game directory with Notepad or a similar program
and add the line "mouse.drv = STDMOUSE.DRV".
Lemmings
- I’m only getting sound out of one of my speakers?
- Lemmings uses the SoundBlaster Pro 1 and that’s a mono card. So unless
your soundcard handles mono well, it will do that.
- Sound doesn’t work.
- Lower the number of cycles in DOSBox to about 1000 cycles and restart the
game.
- It sometimes freezes when in fullscreen mode.
- Try swapping to windowed mode, this has been reported to “fix”
the freezing.
Mario is Missing
- The keyboard isn't working.
Master of Magic
- I got the error at the dos prompt: “Could not find cd volume mpsmagic._cd”.
- This means that you need to mount the CD-Rom with a label “mpsmagic._cd”.
See the Readme.txt for more information on
-label.
- I got the error at the dos prompt: “SNDDRV.LBX [entry 2] cound not
be found.”.
- This means that it is having a path issue. Be sure to mount the game
exacly as it was installed, otherwise you'll have to reinstall the game.
The default installation directory is "C:\MPS\Magic".
MegaRace
- I’m getting when installing MegaRace: “Error
while creating file: …\dune$$$$.$$$ refused acces”
NBA Jam
- When starting a game through the game’s menu pressing
PLAY or START GAME I get a black screen.
- Look for the subject DOSBox shows a black screen when in fullscreen
- Try changing DOS4GW to DOS32a. See the DOS32a home page
for DOS32a.
Pinball Fantasies
- No sound, sound blaster doesn’t get detected.
- Lower the number of cycles emulated to around 1000.
Pinball Magic
- The game won’t start or crashes or reports on files
not found.
- Pinball Magic requires the game to be located on A:\ witch is the old days
disk drive. To run the game without an actual disk drive, mount the game with
mount A “C:\Pinnball” -t floppy and all is ok.
Prince of Persia
- Command line switches for selecting video modes
- HERCULES
- CGA
- EGA
- TANDY
- MCGA/VGA
- Command line switches for selecting sound:
- You will need VERY LOW CYCLES (2500 is fine for my Athlon XP 1800+)
for Sound Blaster card to work *under dynamic core* - that's how I tested
it. Just run prince.exe without parameters. It will autodetect best settings
for you.
- STDSND
- ADLIB
- COVOX
- GBLAST
- IBMG
- SBLAST
- TANDY
Quest for Glory IV
- Text flies by very fast
- This happens when you have the game set for both speech and text and the
game can't find the audio resource file. Be sure that you have mounted your
CD in DOSBox and that your config file points to the audio resource file on
the CD, or set the game to run with just text.
- If I enable ANY sound options (Sound Blaster, midi, etc)
from the install.exe setup program the game crashes with the error "Error
number: 29 ..\audio.cpp:1167:0:0" and it will not launch.
- Change the following parameters in the resource.cfg file in the game’s
directory to these values
soundDrv = ADL.DRV
audioDrv = DACBLAST.DRV
Also try out :
audiosize = 45k
Return of the Phantom
- "The game needs 0 bytes of disk space. You only have 0 bytes available".
Screamer 2
- How to start the game.
- Run the STARTL.EXE directly.
- Don’t forget to
-ioctl your CD-Rom if your running the
CD-Rom version.
SIERRA Games
- Tandy sound in Sierra's AGI games (ie KQ1, KQ2, KQ3, SQ1, SQ2, etc ... )
- Set the Tandy machine.
- There is a way to get Tandy sound in Sierra's AGI games without having
to emulate a Tandy video mode. Run "sierra.com" with the command
line "-t" after it.
- Sound problems,
- Sierra games have had always been troublesome with sound, even in the
real DOS age. The best way is to look for a specific way to configure
the DOSBox sound, or to look for a patch or update for the game. If the
sound stutters or hangs, see the Q&A "My
sound stutters/hangs".
Sim City
- "out of memory! try unloading some of your TSR's"
Space Crusade
- The mouse won't work/lock.
- Press CTRL-F10 when the game is running.
Space Marines
- Graphics glitches in the mouse cursor or screen.
-
Star Trek: Final Unity
- CD-ROM drive isn't fast enough
Stonekeep
- Error : "config.sys needs to be edited with FILES=15"
- The problem is that your running version 1.05, and this one needs files
to be set to 15, in stead of DOSBox’s 100. To solve this error, use
the 1.02 version in stead.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - The Arcade Game
- Error : "Not enough memory"
-
- You need to set
ems=off and umb=max if using DOSBox
0.65. Also set memsize to 32.
- Using DOSBox 0.70 this problem shouldn't occur.
Terminator: SkyNET
- The game starts up with an error "Error: SysInit (Couldn't open archive)."
- This is because the game is mounted incorrectly. Open the Install.dat file in the game directory and see that when
the harddrive is mounted, that the game directory (in DOSBox) is the same as in the Install.dat file.
- The Install.dat file does not have the correct pathnames saved in it. Manually change them to be the
same as the Terminator directory when mounted.
The Elder Scrolls Arena 2 : Daggerfall
- The game starts up and runs OK with graphics and sound/music. I can do character creation and then
view the two intro animations (the book and the meeting with the emperor)... then it goes to a
black screen and just hangs there.
- This is because the game is mounted incorrectly. Open the z.cfg file in the game directory and see that when
the harddrive is mounted, that the game directory (in DOSBox) is the same as in the z.cfg file.
- The z.cfg file does not have the correct pathnames saved in it. Manually change them to be the
same as the Daggerfall directory when mounted EA(C:\DAGGER\ARENA2).
Theme Hospital
- I get a heap allocation failure (reason code: 2) when trying to run.
- Try playing with memory options
xms and ems in the
conf file. Also, try executing loadfix before running the game.
Third Reich
- “Can not find Laserlok cd_rom in any drive.”
- Don’t forget to mount the cdrom as a cdrom.
- Try the
–ioctl or the –aspi command when mounting the cdrom.
- This means that you need a cracked/noCD exe to run it if the anwers above fail.
TIE Fighter CD Edition
- Can’t get the game to recognize my CD-Rom.
- TIE Fighter CD Edition, recognizes its cd-rom by doing a cd label check.
Be shure to set the correct label to the cd-rom when mounting it.
- When I try to run the tie fighter in the DOSBox, it doesn't
work and tells me this message :
"Using 2000K of EMS will add more music and speech set FILES=30
in your config.sys" …
- Expanded memory means the game wants
ems=true, the
xms/umb
switches shouldn't matter (but you can try to set them to false as long
as ems remains true).
Titus the Fox
- No Adlib sound
- You will need very low cycles for Adlib card to be detected (maybe cycles < 3000).
Tomb Raider 1
- How do I play Tomb Raider 1 in Glide with a Glide capable CVS of DOSBox?
-
- To do this you should use ykhwong’s CVS DOSBox build.
Open dosbox.conf and change the glide parameter to true.
Leave the port parameter alone on 300.
Download the Glide2x.ovl file from ykhwong’s Daum Café page
in the Data Section and copy this file to the Tomb Raider directory.
Goto the
Tomb Raider Chronicles Windows patches page and download the Tomb
Raider I Installer. Then pop in the Tomb Raider CD-Rom and start the just
downloaded installer. Install Tomb Raider with the dgVoodoo Glide version.
Then start the game with ykhwong’s CVS DOSBox build and all should
work.
- “CALL:Descriptor 12 unsupported”
-
- You tried running the Glide version of Tomb Raider without the Glide2x.ovl
in the game directory. Read the previous Q&A on Tomb Raider.
- You tried to run the Glidos Glide version of Tomb Raider. You need to
use the dgVoodoo version of Tomb Raider. Read the previous Q&A on
Tomb Raider.
- I’m getting a report of an unsupported Dynamic core feature when starting
Tomb Raider in Glide.
-
- Start DOSBox in Full core mode and then, when you’re at the menu
of Tomb Raider, set the core to dynamic by using the DOSBox menu. (Only
for ykhwongs build.)
- Tomb Raider has a strange bug, see image.
-
Transylvania
- The top of the screen is corrupted when running the game in pcjr machine mode.
- To fix this, use the
loadfix command before starting the game.
Tyrian 2000
- When I exit out of the sound setup after making sure
that everything was right for my computer, when I then time type in the game
I get an error telling me that certain setup files are missing or damaged, and
it cannot run the game.
- Running File0001.exe instead should work fine.
Ultima Underworld 1 & 2
- I don’t have any speech, but i do have music
- Change the settings in uinstall or UWSound on both UW 1&2 from Sound
Blaster Pro to Sound Blaster, so that all parameters of the SoundBlaster resemble
the values in the dosbox.conf file, “IRQ, DMA” and so on must
be correct.
Ultima V
- The numpad doesn't work.
-
Ultima VII Black Gate
- Remove all EMS Memory Managers
- For this you need to change the
ems option in the conf file to false.
Under a Killing Moon
- When the game starts it just pops up a window saying
"please insert Disk #1 into drive d"
- This means you need to mount the cdrom’s with labels attached. See
the Readme.txt for more information on
-label.
- One user fixed it by mounting as follows.
mount d d:\ -t cdrom -ioctl -label DISK1
mount e d:\ -t cdrom -ioctl -label DISK2
mount f d:\ -t cdrom -ioctl -label DISK3
mount g d:\ -t cdrom -ioctl -label DISK4
Warcraft II
- The game keeps saying my CD-Rom can't be found and I have followed the instructions
in the Q&A "Game can’t find my CD-Rom although
it is inserted.".
-
- Look in the game's directory for a file called "war2.ini",
open this file with notepad or a similar program. Change "cdpath"
to resemble the mounted CD-Rom in DOSBox.
Windows 3.11
- “Unsupported expanded-memory driver already installed.
Remove the driver from CONFIG.SYS”
- You need to set the
ems parameter in the conf file to “false”.
Wing Commander 3
- The game finds my joystick, calibrates it and when flying only the fire
button works. You can't turn left, right, up or down.
Wizardry 7
- Every time I try to save the game I get a yellow button that says disc error.
- If, like me, you set up c: to really point to C:\dsavant then when saving
change the directory to just c: and not c:\dsavant. C:\dsavant would be
an invalid directory that actually points to c:\dsavant\dsavant, which
doesn't exist.
X-Com UFO Defense ( X-Com Enemy Unknown )
- The game freezes when starting a mission.
- You'll have to reconfigure the game not to use the Gravis Ultrasound. Use the SoundBlaster instead.
X-Com Terror From the Deep
- Sound channels are reversed
- Run the setup.exe that comes with TFTD and choose "swap stereo channels".
Pool of radiance
- I'm getting a message "Insert drive X in drive c:"
- This means that you have mounted the game wrong. To correct the problem the game needs to be mounted so that it ends up in "C:\PoolRad\".