Lot's of comments to reply to. Here we go:

HunterZ wrote:

I also realized that most of the game episodes are reviews of action games, and was wondering if you have any plans to dip more into other genres in the future.

Most of the games I own are action games. There are some exceptions of course and I will get around to them eventually. ;)

leileilol wrote:

Yeah let's see you do a 20 minute review of a CARD GAME! or a 40 minute review of all of the "Tommy's Toys"!

No. ;D

Well, there's almost no point reviewing a card game because 99% of the DOS card games are just traditional card games made digital, so there's virtually no creativity and it would make for an episode that simply isn't worth the effort. As for all the Tommy's Toys, I'm at a loss as to how to legally get them. The only one I legally own is Tommy's Saucer.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

Gemini000, there are some games that I'd like to see reviews of just for what nuances or strategies you might discover for them. […]
Show full quote

Gemini000, there are some games that I'd like to see reviews of just for what nuances or strategies you might discover for them. However I think there would be much more material to talk about than to show.

Alien Legacy
Lightspeed and or Hyperspeed
Mantis XF5700 Experimental Spacefighter
Millennia: Altered Destinies

I'll add those games to my requests list. I don't own any of them unfortunately but that can always change. ;)

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I'm sure if he reviewed games like Wing Commander or Monkey Island his views would sky rocket. But these games have been reviewed to death and the games he reviews have hardly been reviewed to such a thorough extent.

Maybe. I don't own those games either actually, though I have played a fair number of the Wing Commander games... and saw the movie... >_>;;;

laxdragon wrote:

Suggestion: An RSS feed would make it easier for me to catch new episodes of the show.

Yes it would. This is one of those "I want to do this but don't know how and haven't had the time to learn" situations. I'm also thinking of making a slight change to the website so that there's a page specifically for the latest ADG video to be shown, so that everyone can just bookmark that instead of the episode list.

Several People wrote:

Ultima

I was never able to get into the Ultima games partly because they require a serious time commitment, and partly because I never owned one so could only play them at friends places.

WolverineDK wrote:

What about reviewing Kaptajn Kaper in a future episode ? also the license is so long gone, and the English source is available.

Maybe... I'll have to learn more about this game first. If you do review it yourself, since you speak both languages, perhaps consider doing the review in one language and having subtitles in another?

Gemini000: if I can find the English version of Kaptajn Kaper, I will use that in my review. But the spoken language will be English, cause just because I speak Danish, then I do not have so much pride in me, that the review will be in Danish. And yes , my spoken English is not the worst, and my accent will not really be there.
But if I only find the English version of the game , then I will instead translate the text of the game into English on the fly, or at least I will try my hardest to do it orally.

Also you can play it as a Java applet here, where you choose between Danish and English with either D or E, and that is the startup. So for you, I think you should choose E.

http://www.kaptajnkaper.dk/netkaper.htm

Happy Holidays, everyone! :)

And yes, Filler #3 - DOSBox Configuration Files is online!

Basically, I go over the most important settings you can alter in a DOSBox .conf file and even show some demonstrations of what these settings can do.

Next Saturday I'm going to talk about working with the DOSBox command prompt and some of the commands you can use.

And no, that list of games in the video is nowhere near complete. Some of them are just shareware/demo versions even. :P

Filler #3 feedback:

• Why DOSBox 0.73 instead of 0.74? I'm guessing because maybe you have 0.73-based configs for lots of different games?
• I prefer output=opengl on Windows because it does hardware-accelerated bilinear filtering (smoothing) on the image. CRTs didn't have razor-sharp pixels, so simple smoothing is arguably more accurate and often easier on the eyes.
• output=openglnb is exactly like output=opengl except *without* the smoothing.
• scaler=none can reduce DOSBox's CPU load, since its scalers are software-based.
• In DOSBox 0.74 you can set the mixer output rates to 49716, which is supposedly the original OPL output rate or something. Personally I use 48000 because my sound card has a 96KHz Dolby Digital Live (AC3) link to my speakers, so it minimizes resampling. Honestly I don't notice the difference though :p
• Setting the master mixer sampling rate higher than the individual device rates might yield higher quality since DOSBox has to, for example, mix Sound Blaster DAC and Adlib OPL sounds together.

Another benefit of opengl over ddraw is that under W7 it disabled aero when you come out of fullscreen when using ddraw.

This doesn't happen with opengl or opengnb.

I guess this Forum is a tough audience for any DOSBox related video 🤣

I haven't watched it yet, can't wait!

Gemini000, and to all others . I have thought about it, and my conclusion is this. I will stop nagging about censorship, even though it irks me. And also I have realised I suck too much at playing some games. So my thoughts and plans upon making my own show is not in the cards at the moment. So no show from me in the future. And Gemini000, if you find the English version of Kaptajn Kaper aka. "Privateer", then make it "shite of the month" special, and warn people beforehand about cursing. If you get too flustered with that game. Cause the game will even put a frown upon your face. especially when you get into one of the ports with your ship, cause it will really make you pissed.

HunterZ wrote:

Why DOSBox 0.73 instead of 0.74? I'm guessing because maybe you have 0.73-based configs for lots of different games?

Actually, it has to do with video capture. For some reason, the video capture in 0.74 is seemingly more CPU intensive than in 0.73, not to mention if you try to do it with the max/auto settings the framerate will slowly get worse and worse. I do indeed have 0.74 and 0.72 so I can use any version I want to.

HunterZ wrote:

I prefer output=opengl on Windows because it does hardware-accelerated bilinear filtering (smoothing) on the image. CRTs didn't have razor-sharp pixels, so simple smoothing is arguably more accurate and often easier on the eyes.

output=ddraw does this too.

HunterZ wrote:

output=openglnb is exactly like output=opengl except *without* the smoothing.

Yes, but there's a reason why I didn't recommend this and that reason is "aliasing", which will cause some of the pixels to look bigger than others. Using the normal3x scaler along with ddraw/opengl will smoothly stretch an image that's perfectly using 3x3-sized pixels to your display, which results in negligable bleeding between pixels and greatly reduces the aliasing that would normally be present in the openglnb mode. This is actually the same trick used by digital graphics artists in that the larger something is drawn at, the better it will look when you resize it.

HunterZ wrote:

scaler=none can reduce DOSBox's CPU load, since its scalers are software-based.

True. It may not be a HUGE difference, but certainly would help on a lower-end system.

HunterZ wrote:

In DOSBox 0.74 you can set the mixer output rates to 49716, which is supposedly the original OPL output rate or something. Personally I use 48000 because my sound card has a 96KHz Dolby Digital Live (AC3) link to my speakers, so it minimizes resampling. Honestly I don't notice the difference though :p

Once you pass 44100 KHz you start to get into an accuracy range that the average person can't distinguish, not to mention most people already can't hear sounds that are over 15 KHz in frequency. Going over 44100 simply helps to eliminate the smallest of frequency artifacts, most of which would probably go unnoticed, which leads into your last observation...

HunterZ wrote:

Setting the master mixer sampling rate higher than the individual device rates might yield higher quality since DOSBox has to, for example, mix Sound Blaster DAC and Adlib OPL sounds together.

...which is something I actually never considered. Many games generate sound effects on multiple components at a time and on actual hardware this would be done at the hardware level, but DOSBox has to do this at the software level.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Another benefit of opengl over ddraw is that under W7 it disabled aero when you come out of fullscreen when using ddraw.

I would never have noticed that. I'm still on an XP system. :P

WolverineDK wrote:

Gemini000, and to all others . I have thought about it, and my conclusion is this. I will stop nagging about censorship, even though it irks me.

Sooner or later, you'll probably find it hilarious instead of annoying. ;)

WolverineDK wrote:

And also I have realised I suck too much at playing some games. So my thoughts and plans upon making my own show is not in the cards at the moment. So no show from me in the future.

It really is a serious commitment to do a regularly updated web show. I've probably burned hundreds of hours of gaming, voice recording, graphics design and editing to do mine and I haven't even reached my 50th episode yet. Don't let that stop you from doing casual videos though. Places like YouTube exist because people like sharing their life and/or talents. :)

Gemini000 wrote:

HunterZ wrote:

I prefer output=opengl on Windows because it does hardware-accelerated bilinear filtering (smoothing) on the image. CRTs didn't have razor-sharp pixels, so simple smoothing is arguably more accurate and often easier on the eyes.

output=ddraw does this too.

Guess it depends on the system. The first one I ran DOSBox on regularly didn't smooth with output=ddraw, so I switched to opengl and never went back.

HunterZ wrote:

output=openglnb is exactly like output=opengl except *without* the smoothing.

Yes, but there's a reason why I didn't recommend this and that reason is "aliasing", which will cause some of the pixels to look bigger than others. Using the normal3x scaler along with ddraw/opengl will smoothly stretch an image that's perfectly using 3x3-sized pixels to your display, which results in negligable bleeding between pixels and greatly reduces the aliasing that would normally be present in the openglnb mode. This is actually the same trick used by digital graphics artists in that the larger something is drawn at, the better it will look when you resize it.

Doh, forgot about that. You're right that integer-multiple scaling is definitely the right way to go for non-smoothed rendering modes.

I've send you an updated build for the recording problem. We were writing the index too often to the avi file. (as the index increases the longer the movie is being recorded, the more obvious it became with longer recordings)

Qbix wrote:

I've send you an updated build for the recording problem. We were writing the index too often to the avi file. (as the index increases the longer the movie is being recorded, the more obvious it became with longer recordings)

I just downloaded the file. I'll check it out and let you know if there's any other recording problems with it. And thanks for the news post on the DOSBox website too! :)

I see filler #4 is up.

Several games expect to have a certain directory structure so I wouldn't mount the game's own folder as with Xargon and TV. Instead mount the directory that holds that folder, dosfiles. It may not make a difference to those games but in general the mounting should be the same as when that game was installed.

True, but with those games it's usually better to create a folder for them which you'll mount as the root, then allow the game itself to create its own directory structure within that root directory inside DOSBox. It's a little redundant, but it's preferrable to mounting one's entire folder worth of games. I don't know the specifics of why it's not good to mount entire folders worth of games, or even the root of one's hard drive, but the documentation for DOSBox recommends against it so that's the way I handle it.

And yep, Filler #4 - DOSBox Command Prompt is online! :)

I'm sure most people here know how to use the command prompt, but there's probably lots of people out there who aren't playing DOS games because using the command prompt can be intimidating. So I figured I'd give a quick run-down of the most important commands in DOSBox.

Next Saturday, Ancient DOS Games resumes!

And BTW, Happy New Year, everyone! :D

Gemini000 wrote:

True, but with those games it's usually better to create a folder for them which you'll mount as the root, then allow the game itself to create its own directory structure within that root directory inside DOSBox. It's a little redundant, but it's preferrable to mounting one's entire folder worth of games.

I have done that a few times. Often I'll use a "sub-root" for organizing the folders. Like if a game expects a weird structure and places its directory in a company directory, I'll then place that in another directory named after which game it is to keep it organized without disrupting it. Also for games that belong to a series like Terminator or Tex Murphy I have them together in a separate mounting. I've also seen games that place files in the root instead of their own directory.

Usually, though, I only have one game in my mounted folder. Everything else that was DOSBox installed is compressed to zip files and stored on another drive.

Gemini000 wrote:

I don't know the specifics of why it's not good to mount entire folders worth of games, or even the root of one's hard drive, but the documentation for DOSBox recommends against it so that's the way I handle it.

You don't want to mount your actual hard drive root because you could accidentally delete an entire drive if you had a poorly written batch file or a program error capable of that. Similarly if that were to happen in a mounted folder all the programs within would be effected so confining them that way would limit the impact.

Still, in the episode it looks like you mounted the directory that was created when the games installed.

I don't know the specifics of why it's not good to mount entire folders worth of games, or even the root of one's hard drive, but the documentation for DOSBox recommends against it so that's the way I handle it.

I'm sure somebody out there may install win31 in such a configuration and
overwrite a nice bunch of files of the c:\windows folder (real HD) in that process.
Simplest case of why that message is there.

Other than that the general recommended way is to have one dosgames folder
somewhere that's always mounted as C drive in dosbox (like a virtual hard disk)
so you can install all nice games there. But that's of course just one way of doing it.

I do it like wd suggests: the [autoexec] section of my default dosbox.conf mounts c:\users\public\games\dos as c:\ and then games install themselves into subdirectories of that.

Edit: Watching filler #4 now. It may be worth noting that "dir" is short for "directory".

You mentioned Rasterscan, cool 😜

Wonder if "Drive X does not exist" should be changed to "Drive X is not mounted".

Also should probably use the official ver of DOSBox for those recordings. Users who need videos to teach them how to use DOSBox shouldn't be using SVN versions.

DosFreak wrote:

Also should probably use the official ver of DOSBox for those recordings. Users who need videos to teach them how to use DOSBox shouldn't be using SVN versions.

DOSBox 0.74 has recording issues, as explained previously by Gemini. I guess he's now using the special build that Qbix made for him to fix that issue.

Yeah might be better to hide the intro screen then 😉

The only people who are going to notice that without someone else pointing it out are people who load DOSBox to its command prompt on a routine basis. ;)

Besides, eventually there'll be a v0.75 and even a video using 0.74 would appear wrong... or I could've used DOSBox 0.72 and freaked everyone out in the process! ;D

Ancient DOS Games Episode 30 - Covert Action is online!

I picked up a new video camera and microphone, but only managed to get the video camera working properly. The mic I got works perfectly fine but the sound card in my main computer has severe static on its mic channel and can barely pick it up on its line-in channel, whereas my secondary computer recently began making all kinds of horrible noises which would've ended up in the background of any recording attempt with it.

Thankfully, the camera mic is actually fairly decent as far as camera mics go, and is FAR better than what I was using before, so it'll do for now. ;)

I did neglect to mention a few minor things during this episode so I put them in the corrections section below the video window at the link above. I also added a correction to my Thexder episode, #12, as I recently learned thanks to other VOGONS members that there really is an MCGA mode in it that I was completely unaware of. (Granted, it doesn't really look much different than the Tandy mode... a little bit, but it's hard to notice.)