Thank you for the updates! That's brilliant work on debugging and correcting the mouse issues in NT. I think if ReactOS can boot, then people will have a non-Windows solution for gaming; an alternative is to customize a linux distribution (some apparently have booted linux inside regular dosbox).

I believe danoon is working on porting wine to SDL (with bits from dosbox), so that may offer code to augment your great progress in dosbox-x; assuming any native Windows emulation layer is a herculean task to create. 😀

TheGreatCodeholio wrote:

therock247uk wrote:

Which vs version do we use to compile this? or should one try mingw or something?

I use Visual Studio 2008 to compile the Win32 version. I've never tried it with mingw, yet.

I compiled it on VS2010 Express with only very minor tweaking.

oh? nice! what did you need to change? vs 2010 is my main vs compiler ive only got 2008 in a vm.

thanks"

Just adding another voice asking for help with getting it compiled in VS2010 Express! Thanks for any and all details.

I have not compiled it in a while, so I don't remember exactly what I had to do, but it wouldn't have been much more than things like correcting paths to a few libraries. Just pay attention to the output window to see where it fails.

hmm, when I click in the menu or window when booting the setup disk of NT 3.1, it traps out.

I'll be very grateful if anyone can help with one error that keeps me from compiling the latest source in Visual C++ 2008 Edition. I've followed these steps:

1. Install VC++2008 Express (a free download)
2. Install the 2008 DirectX SDK
3. Integrate the DirectX SDK into VC++2008 Express by following the instructions in the first answer here:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US … rum=Vsexpressvc

An attempt to build always fails with this message:

5>LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'D:\Development\dosbox-x\vs2008\\..\zlibstat.lib'

The Project Explorer shows zlibstat as (unavailable) - The project file cannot be opened.

I tried following the instructions for building zlib that I found in vs2008\zlib\contrib\vstudio\readme.txt, but they didn't help, and the last two items under "Build instructions for Visual Studio 2008" both failed with error messages.

Maybe the answer is simply "Get a copy of Visual Studio 2008" but I hope someone can help with instructions for building under VC++2008 Express. Thanks for any help at all.

None 64bit os? the project files for the zlibstat etc reference files in the C:\Program Files (x86) dir which causes it to not build i found this on my xp 32bit vm that has vs 2008 installed. once you fix this all builds fine.

Edit this is the end of the buld log for vs 2010 to even get this far you have to build zlib manually from dosbox-x\vs2008\zlib\contrib\vstudio\vc10\zlibvc.sln then copy the libs to the right directory http://pastebin.com/dGhPJdZ9

Here's one answer to my own question in the message above, about building TheGreatCodeholio's great code for DOSBox-X without a full copy of Visual Studio 2008. This is only one way to build it - and certainly not the best way, because at one point I did the equivalent of hitting the code with a hammer to make it go, instead of solving a problem in the simplest possible way. So:

One way to build DOSBox-X in Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition under 32-bit Windows 7

1. Download and install Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition (free download; search for it).

2. Download and install the 2008 version of the DirectX SDK (also free)

3. Integrate the DirectX SDK into VC++ by following the instructions in the first answer here:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US … rum=Vsexpressvc

4. Download and extract the latest source code for DOSBox-X from the link in TheGreatCodeholio's first message in this thread.

5. In the source code directory, use VC++2008 Express Edition to open vs2008\dosbox-x.sln

6. I got an error message about a file that failed to load in \vs2008\zlib\contrib\vstudio\vc9\zlibstat.vcproj. There is probably a simple way to fix this in the GUI, but I couldn't find it, so here is a brute-force way to do it that seems to work:

7. In the Solution Explorer, right-click on "zlibstat (unavailable)" and choose "Edit zlibstat.vcproj". In the XML file you will find ten lines that begin with the string:

InheritedPropertySheets="

and with a path and filename between quotation marks. In each of these lines, remove the string between the quotation marks so that the lines all read:

InheritedPropertySheets=""

Save and close the XML file. Right-click again on "zlibstat (unavailable)" and choose Reload Project.

8. Right-click on Solution 'dosbox-x' (6 projects), choose Build.

Someone who knows something about C++ (I don't know anything about it) will probably figure that out in two minutes, but it took me a few hours of trial and error. Anyway, I hope this may be useful to other complete beginners like myself.

Edit: I tested this on a 32-bit Windows 7 system, by the way, not 64-bit.

I set it up in VS Express from scratch again to remember for sure what I had done before, since I had not remembered it being that big of a deal. The main point of failure is that it was not finding the DirectX SDK. 2010 has deprecated the "Tools>Options>Projects and Solutions>VC++ directories". This has been replaced by a per user property sheet, which is added to all new and converted projects. I had been manually adding the DirectX lib path to each project since I had installed the DirectX SDK after I had installed VS2010 Express.

I just now added the path to the $(USERPROFILE)\appdata\local\microsoft\msbuild\v4.0\Microsoft.cpp.x86.users and it now adds the path automatically for me.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US … forum=vcgeneral

Now it will build right after VS2010 updates the project upon first opening the VS2008 project.

found out the issue why the NT 3.1 installer and itself (the whole OS) goes on nuts when I click anything in DOSBox-x menu or in the window (not in the guest)?

SA1988 wrote:

found out the issue why the NT 3.1 installer and itself (the whole OS) goes on nuts when I click anything in DOSBox-x menu or in the window (not in the guest)?

It sounds like you're running a version of DOSBox-X that pre-dates the mouse INT33h emulation fix I described several post up. Latest versions of DOSBox-X do not have that issue.

Edit: Also need to mention the latest version does not yet have a Win32 equivalent build

actually, I compiled your latest source from last April 17th and it still happens

SA1988 wrote:

actually, I compiled your latest source from last April 17th and it still happens

Really? Could you provide your dosbox.conf?

okay, here it is + screenshot

btw, you might have better luck with the UniAta driver for NT 3.5x, 4.0 and 2000.

SA1988 wrote:

okay, here it is + screenshot

I see the problem:

1core=normal

Change it to:

1core=dynamic

I wish I had the time to look deeper into it but the normal, full, and simple cores can't run Windows 9x/ME/NT properly without crashing.

also, I never considered yet running NT with cycles=max before, thanks for showing me that works 😀

still happens 😒

SA1988 wrote:

still happens 😒

Did you compile it 32-bit or 64-bit?

A 64-bit build as far as I know does not provide a dynamic core. The dynamic core is x86-32 only.

TheGreatCodeholio wrote:

SA1988 wrote:

still happens 😒

Did you compile it 32-bit or 64-bit?

A 64-bit build as far as I know does not provide a dynamic core. The dynamic core is x86-32 only.

compiled with MinGW-builds and to be 32-bit.
Edit: I compiled it with --enable-core-inline in my MinGW environment and my host is Win7 64-bit SP1 Ultimate. Now re-compiling it without enable-core-inline.