VOGONS


First post, by milicognj

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Hi,

I know that DOSBox officially does not support Windows 95 as it is not the game especially not the DOS game. However it is possible to install it with limited functionality. You can get some additional features using Daum DOSBox builds. What I mostly lack is CD-ROM emulation support that could be used under Windows 95. As this comes from incomplete IDE hardware emulation.
I would like to contribute and develop this by myself. In order to save time I would really appreciate some guidance from DOSBox developers. It would be useful to know where I should start and which documentation (Hardware reference manuals, protocols etc I should look into), what are known gaps etc. By this I don't mean where to find SVN repository or how to build DOSBox.

Regards

Reply 1 of 7, by Dominus

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Look at dosbox-x, it provies cd-rom emulation

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 2 of 7, by milicognj

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Thakn you very much Dominus. I started it up. Is there any guide how to install CD-ROM in Win 95 in this branch you or some of you know about?

Reply 3 of 7, by Dominus

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There is some information in the dosbox-x thread but not extensive.
I think if you write out the config file in dosbox-x you get a lot of documentation in the conf file.
Config -all -writeconf pathforconffile

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 4 of 7, by milicognj

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I did this, but I didn't find anything special there. It looks the same as Daum config. Thank you anyway. I'll post on Dosbox-x topic about this.

Reply 5 of 7, by kjliew

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What I mostly lack is CD-ROM emulation support that could be used under Windows 95. As this comes from incomplete IDE hardware emulation.

The SVN version is fully capable of running Win98SE. Storage drivers will run in compatibility mode though instead of 32-bit protected mode, but I find this hardly make any difference for emulators. Win98SE runs under QEMU which has full IDE emulation does not feel any better than Win98SE runs under DOSBox SVN. DOSBox video subsystem is much more optimized than QEMU cirrus-vga emulation. And, if you search the forum, you can even get accelerated 3Dfx support from DOSBox for running DirectX 5.0 D3D games in Win98SE.

CD-ROM emulation can be done by other software within Win98SE, such as Daemon Tools or MagicDisc. They can mount ISO/CUE image as CD-ROM to install and play games under Win98SE just like a real CD-ROM. Today's multi-TB storage is so cheap, it would just easier to rip the CDs into ISO/CUE and using it in CD-emulators even for real computer. I do that with both my desktop PCs and laptops.

Reply 6 of 7, by milicognj

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I know about DirectX and voodoo. I successfully installed it in Windows 95. However I couldn't install CD-ROM drivers (32-bit or compatibility).
I tried both mounting ISO image and my virtual CD-ROM drive on host OS (windows 7). So the question is how to recognize CD-ROM from Windows 95? To install some DOS drivers as OAKCDROM and run MSCDEX?

Reply 7 of 7, by Dominus

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look through the conf more carefully and/or the dosbox-x thread. You need to assign an IDE drive stuff stuff. It's not as easy as just mounting and being done with it.

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper