First post, by Neville
- Rank
- Oldbie
Just for curiosity's sake, I've been trying several old DOS-based emulators under DOSBox. A silly thing to do, really, because as far as I know they all have XP compatible (and often much better) versions.
So I've tried Caprice, and old Amstrad CPC emulator still on development, and the legendary KGEN98 Genesis / Megadrive emulator, sadly abandoned.
They both work great, and I've had a kick remembering both their strenghts and weaknesses. Just as a side note, VSYNC options (in the emulators, not in DOSBox itself) tend to screw the timing, but after I've turned them off everything has been fine.
I'm sure you'll all be tired of watching "Outrun" and "Sonic" screenshots by now, so here you have pics of two Amstrad games, "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" and "Wec Le Mans" running under Caprice.
wrote:Time to do a proper list of what works under DOSBox v0.74... […]
Time to do a proper list of what works under DOSBox v0.74...
ARCADE EMULATORS:
- Callus --> 384x224 resolution recommended.
- Callus95 --> Working, in theory. The vertical scroll games won't show graphics properly, due to emulator limitations.
- MAME --> Slow
- RAGE --> Not known issues.
- RAINE --> v0.63.4 and later recommended. Some games (NeoGeo and CPS2 specially) require more than 63 Mb. RAM, so using Yhkwong's DOSBox build is recommended. Taito F3 System and NeoGeo games using rasters are VERY slow.
- The System 16 Emulator --> Use v0.82A, not the latest beta. It needs a hell of a computer. It also requires Yhkwong's DOSBox build and its VSYNC options to regulate speed properly.
CONSOLE EMULATORS:
- Colecovision --> MEKA will do, although it moves jerkily.
- Sega Game Gear & Master System II --> Massage v1.0. For 3D games it won't "translate" the graphics, you'll need the glasses!
- Sega Megadrive --> KGEN98 v0.4 and / or Genecyst vX.XX (less accurate).
- Nintendo Gameboy --> GB'97 v2.937 and / or KiGB v2.03.
- Nintendo NES --> Nesticle vX.XX and / or LoopyNES (more accurate, but no savegame option).
- Nintendo SNES --> ZSNES v1.51 and / or Snes9x v1.26b (slower, and some extra chips not emulated)
- NeoGeo --> See RAINE entry.
- Nintendo GBA --> no$gba 2.4c or later. Slow.
- NEC PC Engine / TurboGrafx 16 --> No consensus yet.
- PSX --> AdriPSX v01.02.01. Can't tell how good the compatibility is, though.
HOME COMPUTER EMULATORS:
- Amstrad CPC --> Latest DOS versions of Caprice and / or CPCE will do. No CPC+ emulation available.
- Apple II --> ApplePC v2.52
- Commodore 64 --> CCS64 V2.0 B and / or VICE 2.3 (slower, will need higher PC).
- MSX --> fMSX-DOS v1.6b2 and / or MSKISS 0.2.4. No Turbo-R emulation available in both cases.
- ZX Spectrum --> Look for RealSpectrum v0.97.23 R14b. Warajevo and / or X128 also work, but are lesser emulators.
- Atari ST --> Pacifist v0.49. Compatibility is good but not great. Couldn't get the "Lotus" games to work, for instance.
- CBM Amiga --> DosUAE v0.7.5d and / or Fellow v0.36 R1. Compatibility in both cases is limited. No AGA emulation.
- Apple IIGS --> XGS-DOS. It works VERY slow, but some games will be playable.
Also take into account that most of these emulators will need either CWSDPMI.EXE or DOS4GW.EXE in order to run, and more often than not their packages won't include them. Same for the various BIOSes required: some are legally distributed with the emulators (i.e. Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum emulators), but others are yours to find. Same for the games / software for every system.
