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Modifying DosBox to emulate custom hardware.

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First post, by dicion

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Was wondering your opinion on the following subject.

I have an old system, early 90's, with custom video hardware. This hardware is required to run a certain 3d-intensive (well, for the early 90's it was pretty intensive) application. It's all DOS based.

The custom hardware is pretty much impossible to acquire anymore, any remaining video boards for it have been depot-level repaired at least half a dozen times, and its not looking good that they'll keep being repairable much longer.

Now, compared to today's 3d video hardware, this technology is ancient and slow. My idea is; to modify DosBox to emulate the functions of this ancient video hardware, so the application can be run on modern systems.

Now I am not a programmer at all, but my question is: Is this feasable? Could it be done? Could DosBox be turned into a virtual Emulator for this ancient hardware, and run it on modern day machines?

Reply 1 of 7, by vasyl

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That depends. How good are you with C++? Do you have reliable documentation for that hardware? Do you have enough time and determination to do it?
Technically, it is possible. May be easy, may be not, hard to tell. Early 90s 3D hardware should not be that sophisticated but if you are talking about old Wildcat, or E&S, or FireGL, it's not exactly piece of cake.

Reply 2 of 7, by taiken7

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Is it possible to implement the hardware features found
on the graphics hardware in software.

Yes. Ideally you have plenty of software examples with
documented output, drivers etc. It would also help if you knew
data about the board - Manufacturer, schematics / bios / chip details
Although depending on the nature of the hardware, sometimes
a simple "bios" dump (copy) will suffice -
BIOS is typically a piece of software which tests all the bells and whistles -
exposing all the features/functions in the process)

I am always interested in adding exotic features to dosbox,
please post more details

Reply 3 of 7, by dicion

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It is a custom made Video board for an Older VR System that I'm working on getting as much info on it as I can. The system ran on old IBM Server 320's. I'll keep ya updated with any information I manage to get on these boards.

Reply 4 of 7, by starik

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this maybe too obvious, but is there any reason to keep using that old soft and hardware anymore? i'm sure you could replace that software with something modern, or if you really need a custom solution, hire a contract programmer.

Reply 5 of 7, by vasyl

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If only that was so easy in every case. Some people still have to run IBM/360 software and that system was obsolete even before DOS was born. Replacing with modern solution? Sure, if you are ready to pay again the entire cost -- and that can be very expensive. Contract programmer? Good luck, but it may end up being even more expensive than rebuying software. Also, there may still be software support with that old software, believe it or not. It does not matter that the all compatible hardware already went to the landfill, if there was a lifetime contract and the original developer is still around.

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