I'm confused as to what you're trying to accomplish. Are you running the actual door game software inside of DOSBox? What would you need Qmodem for then? (most games can be run "locally" directly from a DOS prompt)

Or, are you telnetting (via DOSBox's modem-over-TCP emulation) into an SBBS and launching the door game from there? It seems that this would work better with a good telnet client.

Or, are you running two DOSBoxes, one with SBBS for DOS and one with Qmodem?

About your questions:
- You shouldn't have to put anything in config.sys or autoexec.bat. In fact, DOSBox doesn't support those unless you're booting an actual MS-DOS install. All the relevant settings are in dosbox.conf instead.
- Some VESA support exists in DOSBox (in the CVS versions anyways). Many of the CVS builds also include experimental SVGA emulation.
- You only need to install drivers if they are required by the game. Think of DOSBox as a real DOS computer that has a Sound Blaster, Gravis Ultrasound, MPU-401, and PC Speaker for sound, and an S3 video card with VESA support. You can control whether HIMEM.SYS and/or EMM386.EXE are loaded by toggling the xms= and ems= options in dosbox.conf.

If you're wondering why I'm asking all these questions: I'm pretty interested in knowing how this telnet BBS stuff works these days, as I used to run a DOS SBBS using Win3.1 and Win95 in the late '90s. I'm too lazy to play with it myself though, as I don't really have an interest in starting a BBS up again.

HunterZ wrote:

I'm confused as to what you're trying to accomplish. Are you running the actual door game software inside of DOSBox? What would […]
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I'm confused as to what you're trying to accomplish. Are you running the actual door game software inside of DOSBox? What would you need Qmodem for then? (most games can be run "locally" directly from a DOS prompt)

Or, are you telnetting (via DOSBox's modem-over-TCP emulation) into an SBBS and launching the door game from there? It seems that this would work better with a good telnet client.

Or, are you running two DOSBoxes, one with SBBS for DOS and one with Qmodem?

About your questions:
- You shouldn't have to put anything in config.sys or autoexec.bat. In fact, DOSBox doesn't support those unless you're booting an actual MS-DOS install. All the relevant settings are in dosbox.conf instead.
- Some VESA support exists in DOSBox (in the CVS versions anyways). Many of the CVS builds also include experimental SVGA emulation.
- You only need to install drivers if they are required by the game. Think of DOSBox as a real DOS computer that has a Sound Blaster, Gravis Ultrasound, MPU-401, and PC Speaker for sound, and an S3 video card with VESA support. You can control whether HIMEM.SYS and/or EMM386.EXE are loaded by toggling the xms= and ems= options in dosbox.conf.

If you're wondering why I'm asking all these questions: I'm pretty interested in knowing how this telnet BBS stuff works these days, as I used to run a DOS SBBS using Win3.1 and Win95 in the late '90s. I'm too lazy to play with it myself though, as I don't really have an interest in starting a BBS up again.

I run Dosbox through Windows XP Pro, while in dosbox I use Qmodem (DOS) to connect to SBBS(Win32) (Rat's Nest BBS = my bbs) on the same system, then finally after I select the doorgame I want to play through SBBS(Win32)(via qmodem dos access) I press Page Down for the external programs menu(in Qmodem(dos)) and select the terminal program wanted, Qmodem(DOS) then drops to dos and runs a bat file(for the terminal program) along with com port and baud rate in which gets passed to the doorgame terminal(DOS program also), so I can hear sound(old sound intialization) and see video(VESA MODE). This is done on the same computer. I couldn't do that without Dosbox.

Hope this helps.. I know my fingers grow tired. 😜

P.S. You might of been a sysop a while ago but SBBS for win32 is much better than a SBBS of old. Has HTTP, Mailserver, FTP Server, NNTP, IRC Server, Telnet Server. Its a whole package deal now. Not too hard to configure either. Not to mention I have FIDONET, and DOVE-Net (Creator's Message areas).

Oh, so you've got a special terminal client that you launch from Qmodem inside of DOSBox to take advantage of special features in some door games? Makes sense.

Yeah I figured they've added lots of neat things in the new Win32 versions. My BBS (Mars Base) and a couple others where I used to live (southwest Washington) used to carry a couple of DoveNet forums too. I think one of us would dial into an ISP and then telnet into Vertrauen to get to QWK packets, and then the others would dial into that BBS to sync with it. I think one of them - Time Warp BBS - may still be around.