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Sticking cursor keys

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First post, by markoldgamer

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I've been using Dosbox for a few months to go back through some of my old favourite games and have to say it's brilliant. The only games I can't get to run are those with copy protected disks (Duke3D Atomic & Lemmings), but I'm not worried about that as I can get access to a real Dos machine to run those. For the rest, Dosbox is more convenient and in some cases runs them better than real dos on a semi-recent platform. Which brings me to the problem.

I am running Dosbox 0.72 on an Athlon XP2000+ with 512MB under WinXP SP3 (more details can be provided if necessary). Most games run fine, but I have a problem with Doom based games (including Doom2 & Hexen) and Duke3D (standard version). If I move forward using the cursor keys (steering with the mouse) sometimes things get stuck and I keep going forwards, the mouse stops responding and the other cursor keys give no response for up to a couple of seconds, then everything goes back to normal. This usually happens when I've held the key for a few seconds, and it also happens if I'm using another cursor key in the same way (e.g. running backwards). The problem is noticably worse if something serious is going on in the background (not that I intentionally leave it running). I can get some improvement by reducing the cycles from max and can get Doom reliable if a little jerky, but Duke3D being more demanding on the hardware doesn't improve enough to be reliable before it gets too slow & jerky to play. As a test I tried running Dosbox alongside an intensive application and found that sometimes when typing the keys would sometimes get repeated many times (10 or so) then things would return to normal for a bit. Is this simply my PC lacking the grunt to run these games properly or is there a deeper problem? I have run the games under real Dos 6.22 on the same PC, and apart from a lack of sound (neither much like the Dos mode emulation of my SBLive sound card) they run fine, so I know the problem isn't a gummed up keyboard!

Before anyone suggest I get one of the modern ports of these games, please don't. I am lucky enough to own the originals and want to get the full experience of the originals. Besides, I'm stubborn and don't like failing and really want to get these working properly in dosbox. If that means I need to upgrade to a faster PC I suppose I'd better start saving.

Thanks in advance

Reply 1 of 2, by DosFreak

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Yep, those games are very demanding and your processor is just too slow to handle them (2002 era processors and full blown emulation are not a good mix). You could try dropping down to a lower resolution but you'd be better off waiting until you have a better computer if you want to play those games in DOSBox.

You could try downloading a AEP CVS build of DOSBox (link in my signature). I highly doubt you'll get any speed improvement but you could try playing around with core=, cycles=, and output to see if you can free up a few more cycles.

If you insist on not using ports of the games then you can try running the games in Windows NTVDM with VDMSound.....it's not ideal and may require some playing around to get the games to work but you shouldn't have any speed issues with those games.

As for saving up for a computer good enough to run the latest DOS games in DOSBox. My Athlon XP 2800+ which I got rid of the beginning of 2007 was just good enough for my DOSBox needs. Upgrading to a C2D removed any lingering issues whatsoever with the games I play. So even if you bought a 2007 era C2D processor you'd still be good to go. (Of course don't do that you should really get a Core i7).

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Reply 2 of 2, by markoldgamer

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Many thanks, thought that was probably the case. Time to start saving then, and I suppose I'd better not try running the Dos version of Quake 😉. I have tried both problem games directly under XP, and whilst they run at a good speed, the sound doesn't work properly. In fact, for Duke3D I have to disable the sount altogether!

I'd love to get a Core i7, but unless I go with the entry level chip prices are silly, plus the Ram and motherboards aren't cheap either. So, I'll be looking downscale, probably at the faster Core2Quad or PhenomIIx4, but that will depend on the budget

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