javispedro1 wrote on 2023-02-05, 16:14:
You can also get a small x86 tablet and use regular Windows and regular Dosbox on it. E.g. older "Atom"-based Surface Gos are likely available for 200-300$ now and they have more than enough horsepower for Dosbox (not for 86Box, though).
I used to run my own fork of Dosbox on Nokia Maemo phones (e.g. the popular N900, a 3.5'' device) many years ago, that's when I started fiddling with mouse drivers for DOS and Win3.x since they are basically mandatory when your device only supports touchscreen input.
Eventually I gave up, smartphones (and Android tablets) are just too locked down these days. Nowadays I just carry an actual x86 tablet and run VirtualBox on it.
Thanks, over the years, I really have tried everything I could think of...
Before responding more, I should give you a little background.
I don't think I'm a "typical" DosBox user ... I'm not looking to play games!
I've been a "DOS guy" since the days of the original "IBM PC".. (Have a look on
"Daves Old Computers" to see much of what I've been through!)
I've written tons of software for DOS, I founded my company in the 80's selling some of this stuff...
I do have a couple of Win tablet - Acer W500 (bigger/detachable keyboard - customs treats it
like a laptop) and Digital-2 (small/bluetooth keyboard), which I've been using a fair bit so far.
I also have several of the original Acer Netbooks (XP) which are my preferred travel platform.
(thicker but otherwise not a whole lot bigger than a tablet, decent PC keyboard, good size "real" hard
drive, USB ports etc...) but... they do have to be unpacked/repacked through customs.
-- Both of these are good DOS platforms, 32-bit Win has decent DOS compatibility, no need for DosBox!
But, being retired now, and wishing to travel more, I'm trying to cut down how much "stuff" I need to bring
with me... with most travel related places having an "app" you need to use, and having some reduced vision
now... I'd like to be able to use something bigger than my phone sometimes.
I'm not doing nearly as much DOS stuff as I used to, but I still like to "dabble" with writing stuff in DOS (I use my own
compiler under DOS which I know *very* well, and it's just far easier (for me) to "rip something out" than on any of the
newer setups I've tried! So I actually find DosBox quite able to do what I want on such trips, all the while having a bigger
device for "apps" helps!
Back in the day, It was easy ... I could put on several different Tablet versions of DosBox
and switch between them as I wanted.... I could put my DOS files in a separate directory on my SD card,
where it was easy to get to, and access them "from anywhere".
But Android has changed to make this more difficult... At first it would just require you to allow the
first access to "non app"... but it got worse...
It's truly amazing me me that so many people will download something like "CuteDancingMonkey" and when It runs,
it says "Too see a Cute Dancing Monkey - this program needs access to your tablet - you have to answer Yes to
the system prompt!"
The system they says "Allow CudeDangingMonkey to read and write all of your files?"
People answer yes, and then while a badly drawn monkey dances, the program encrypts all of their files
before giving them some method of sending a ransom...
So... now an app needs to perform more than just try to access public storage (which means nothing pre-existing
can be made to work), doing this requires getting "authorized" and given that most people don't want (or know how)
to access the full file system on their device - most developers haven't had incentive to make the needed changes!
As stated in my original post, "MagisDosBox" is the only one I've found which does this, and I am curious to know
if anyone can suggest something else to try! (any any other info on which Tablet DosBoxs are best is welcome!)
btw - prior to my "2019 incident" I had started my own fork of DosBox as well -- but during that long layup, a lot of
my most recent files/information (including a fair bit of recent memory - brain kind, not RAM ) was lost... Just have
to "start over" again (recommendations on a good/suitable development platform?)
Dave Dunfield ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com
or: "Daves Old Computers" -> Personal (near bottom)
