Use a modern program. It's too much hassle to work with the old ones (and dosbox doesn't support apps)

Dominus wrote:

Use a modern program. It's too much hassle to work with the old ones (and dosbox doesn't support apps)

Any recommendation? My copy of CS5 Photoshop is flaky, and Adobe is zero help, unless I upgrade my support package.

Think GIMP or MTPaint on Mint17 or Haiku would do the job? I'm mainly after creating pixel art, sprite sheets, background layers, etc..

No idea, not my cup of tea

DOS apps should work, but they're not guaranteed to work and, more important, not supported.

There are known issues with DOSBox (lack of file locking, missing instructions on FPU) that could ruin your work, but I guess Deluxe Paint should work fine.

If nostalgy is not that important, there are some programs for Windows (GIMP, Pixia, Artweaver, etc) that can fill your pixel wishes. Also there were a GIMP companion (GAP) for animations, but I haven't looked into it.

The only way to know if a particular DOS application will work with DOSBox is to just use it and see where you end up. I actually do indeed use programs like QBASIC, Deluxe Paint 2E, and Impulse Tracker without issues in DOSBox for sake of productivity, but that's not to say problems CAN'T happen, so make sure you save routinely and keep backups of your work. A crash issue that wipes out your application's data may be extraordinarily unlikely, but not impossible.

...if it does happen though, consider buying a lottery ticket. ;D

Also, make sure you ONLY mount the minimum amount of folders necessary to run your application. Don't mount entire sets of application folders and ESPECIALLY don't mount things like "Program Files" itself or the root of your drive. That's just BEGGING for a total system failure. :P

Gemini000 wrote:

A crash issue that wipes out your application's data may be extraordinarily unlikely, but not impossible.P

The likelihood of this happening on an authentic DOS rig is probably far higher 😜

Seriously, though, I've played around with DOS applications like QuickBASIC, Word 5.5, and Borland C, and have yet to have any DOSBox-related issues. Non-gaming programs may not be officially supported, but it seems like the compatibility is pretty solid.

If you're doing any graphics-related work, though, allow me to highly recommend GIMP. The interface may seem a little awkward if you're used to fancy-schmancy commercial software, but the program itself is immensely powerful. Good support for animated GIFs too, as I recall.

Best of all, it's free and runs anywhere. You can even get an old version for Windows 98.

I really like Paint.net, but then I'm not an artist. It might be too basic.

ElectricMonk wrote:

Without going into a very long story, a good friend of mine and I were talking about my deceased Best Friend, and it got me thin […]
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Without going into a very long story, a good friend of mine and I were talking about my deceased Best Friend, and it got me thinking.

He was just as big of a classicgaming nerd as I, and I started thinking a fitting tribute would be to either create a playable 16 bit beat 'em side-scroller, or at least a youtube animation, like that Australian animator (whose name eludes me at the moment).

Would something like a DOS version of Deluxe Paint, or Deluxe Animator work in DOSBox, or would I be better off finding a pixel art/animator in Linux or Windows?

Thoughts?

Any app that runs under DOSBox, does so by chance rather than by design. DOSBox is designed to run games, not apps. It is not a full implementation of DOS so if an app makes a call that isn't supported, it will probably freeze up or crash and you'll lose any unsaved data.

No I have used dos box to run clipper a dbase program and it gave the following exception:
Environmental Value ' Clipper Value=F39' missing ,ensure files > 45 in config.sys either of which I do not know how to fix in windows 8 with dos box...may be some of you have a solution that I may try?

Zup wrote:

DOS apps should work, but they're not guaranteed to work and, more important, not supported.

Auto-quote!

Some apps will work, others no.

FILES= is not supported on DOSBox. File locking is not supported, also. Two important features to run database apps.

You can find those answers everywhere on this forums (why is the search button so hard to find?). There was no need of hijacking threads.

oops!

ElectricMonk wrote:

Any recommendation? My copy of CS5 Photoshop is flaky, and Adobe is zero help, unless I upgrade my support package.

Think GIMP or MTPaint on Mint17 or Haiku would do the job? I'm mainly after creating pixel art, sprite sheets, background layers, etc..

The closest thing I've found to Deluxe Paint in a modern program is Ultimate Paint;

http://www.ultimatepaint.com/

The freeware edition is fully functional, except that it's lacking the graphics filters of the paid version. It has some rough spots, like that holding Shift to constrain mouse movement doesn't work reliably and on rare occasions, it has crashed, so save your work often. It's very user friendly though. Left button draws, right button erases in all modes, hold on the tool icons for extra options. You can scroll the screen in zoom mode without breaking the current operation. You can hold the CTRL key to select multiple regions at once.

Unfortunately, there aren't any animation options though.

Another similar program is Saint Paint;

http://www.saintpaint.com/

It has animation options and its transparency mode works much better than in Ultimate Paint (as long as you hold down the button, the color you're applying won't mix with itself, like you're applying it to a different layer), but it also has some quirks. Like that when you cut out part of the image, it's always one pixel smaller than the selection frame. In other words, cut part of the image and then paste it back in exactly the same spot and you'll have a one-pixel gap around it.

It used to be shareware, but I don't see any option on the site to pay for it, so I guess it's free now.

Rekrul wrote:

The closest thing I've found to Deluxe Paint in a modern program is Ultimate Paint; […]
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ElectricMonk wrote:

Any recommendation? My copy of CS5 Photoshop is flaky, and Adobe is zero help, unless I upgrade my support package.

Think GIMP or MTPaint on Mint17 or Haiku would do the job? I'm mainly after creating pixel art, sprite sheets, background layers, etc..

The closest thing I've found to Deluxe Paint in a modern program is Ultimate Paint;

http://www.ultimatepaint.com/

The freeware edition is fully functional, except that it's lacking the graphics filters of the paid version. It has some rough spots, like that holding Shift to constrain mouse movement doesn't work reliably and on rare occasions, it has crashed, so save your work often. It's very user friendly though. Left button draws, right button erases in all modes, hold on the tool icons for extra options. You can scroll the screen in zoom mode without breaking the current operation. You can hold the CTRL key to select multiple regions at once.

Unfortunately, there aren't any animation options though.

Another similar program is Saint Paint;

http://www.saintpaint.com/

It has animation options and its transparency mode works much better than in Ultimate Paint (as long as you hold down the button, the color you're applying won't mix with itself, like you're applying it to a different layer), but it also has some quirks. Like that when you cut out part of the image, it's always one pixel smaller than the selection frame. In other words, cut part of the image and then paste it back in exactly the same spot and you'll have a one-pixel gap around it.

It used to be shareware, but I don't see any option on the site to pay for it, so I guess it's free now.

I'll have to download those in a bit. I grabbed graphicgale, so I'll these a shot, too.