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Reply 20 of 40, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

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For 320x200, 256 color games, I tend to go with DOSBOX, because it has more options. You could use either General MIDI or Munt MT-32 emulator for your games, you could use various smoothing techniques like 2xSAI and such.

For late DOS games --mostly hi-res, 640x480 games-- old computer is the way to go, especially, when the games need specific hardware like 3dfx Voodoo1.

Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.

Reply 21 of 40, by Jade Falcon

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Yeah a nice thing about dos box is not having to track down hard to find sound hardware.

I recall trying MW2 at 1024x768 in dosbox and even on a core2 it had a hard time but with newer system that should not be a problem. a voodoo1 on the other hand is a different story

Reply 22 of 40, by Sammy

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I prefer Dosbox because its has emulation for midi music and good sb16 support, scalers and no Problems with Memory.

Also 3dfx games look better when rendered in a higher Resolution.
(fullHD vs 640x480 for most Voodoo 1 games)
(Only on unoffical Dosbox builds)

But for SVGA dos games a real Machine with fast CPU is better.

Reply 23 of 40, by Kerr Avon

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Jade Falcon wrote:
Kerr Avon wrote:
oeuvre wrote:

86box

How does that differ from DOSBox, gaming-wise, please?

I haven't used it, but it looks more like a emu for old hardware. Where DosBox is a Dos emu with a small library of hardware being emulated.
If I'm reading it right 86box can emulate a wide range of retro hardware and run just about any 80's or 90s OS. Even voodoo1 and 2 is supported.

I see, thanks.

Reply 24 of 40, by Stiletto

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Kerr Avon wrote:
Jade Falcon wrote:
Kerr Avon wrote:

How does that differ from DOSBox, gaming-wise, please?

I haven't used it, but it looks more like a emu for old hardware. Where DosBox is a Dos emu with a small library of hardware being emulated.
If I'm reading it right 86box can emulate a wide range of retro hardware and run just about any 80's or 90s OS. Even voodoo1 and 2 is supported.

I see, thanks.

86Box is also based off PCem, so be sure to try the original (PCem) as well as trying the fork (86Box).

Note that you will need bleeding-edge Intel Core i7 processor to emulate a Pentium II at decent speeds (or something). The slower the CPU you want to emulate, the lower the hardware requirements of the emulator.

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Reply 25 of 40, by Standard Def Steve

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Stiletto wrote:

Note that you will need bleeding-edge Intel Core i7 processor to emulate a Pentium II at decent speeds (or something). The slower the CPU you want to emulate, the lower the hardware requirements of the emulator.

This has never made sense to me. Forgive me for asking what may be a fairly stupid question, but how does Dolphin manage to emulate the 733MHz PowerPC in the Wii at a full 60fps on any semi-modern PC, while DOSBox can only do a 400MHz x86(!) on the same hardware?

P6 chip. Triple the speed of the Pentium.
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Reply 26 of 40, by DosFreak

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I don't know why you'd even bother comparing a console to a PC especially when they don't even have the same games to compare with.

IIRC, Wii had a weak PowerPC 750 (?) CPU paired with an ATI GPU. Being a console games were developed strictly for this hardware. Dolphin more than likely has the host GPU doing alot of the work as well. Dolphin can use 2 cores.
http://wccftech.com/dolphin-emulator-signific … nce-boost-dx12/

DOSbox emulates a 486 CPU with a emulated video card (no GPU). Runs DOS games from 1981 all the way up to today. Obviously games weren't developed on the same hardware. CPU is doing all of the work. DOSBox pretty much just uses one core.

Same reasons as DOSBox goes for PCem mostly.

I think the last Quake benchmark on a 7700k with Quake put DOSBox in P3 1ghz+ territory.

If anything DOSBox needs to be slower (cycle accurate like pcem) as processors get faster but so far overall it's doing pretty good without and I can just imagine the layperson running a DOS game in cycle accurate mode. Why is Quake running at 20-30fps in 320x200? DOSBox is a POS!!

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Reply 27 of 40, by Malik

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I use both Dosbox and 86Box.

86box, which is based on PCem, but has many enhancements, emulates from the ground up - you get to select which motherboard you want, the graphics card and sound card (from the list of currently supported cards), to installation of OS and drivers for mouse, sound cards, etc and memory management, etc. You get the same feeling of tinkering with a real classic machines.

I find myself tinkering with 86Box for that nostalgic feeling. And I find 86Box (again, the parent project is PCem) is great for Windows 95 installation and gaming. I can finally let both my real 486 and real Win95 system rest.

Currently, 86Box still has some speed issues and occasional stuttering, but it's progress is quite good and I'm already happy with it's emulation. And I find it the best emulator to install Win95 and play Win95 games.

Dosbox just makes everything simpler for DOS gaming. It's the easiest way to play DOS games currently on modern systems. There's no memory management headaches. No need to worry about drivers. Supports intelligent MIDI routing to actual MIDI units or MUNT or other MIDI software.

And one of the many usefulness of Dosbox is speed control for games. You can set the speed for certain games for the right speed. A real 486 maybe too fast for some games while a real 286 or 386 maybe too slow for others. With Dosbox, you can set the cycles to the most appropriate speed for those speed sensitive or speed intensive games.

In terms of ease of play of DOS games, convenience, smoothness, hassle-free setups, nothing beats Dosbox.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 28 of 40, by Jade Falcon

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I glad everyone here has good luck with dosbox, I almost always seem to have problems with it. 😒

More then anything games don't start after being installed.

Reply 29 of 40, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

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Someday there will be machine fast enough to emulate 640x480 3D games in DOS, 3dfx, Windows 9x, and Aureal 3D with perfection.

Until the day come, I'm keeping my old computers.

Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.

Reply 30 of 40, by ripsaw8080

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Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Someday there will be machine fast enough to emulate 640x480 3D games in DOS, 3dfx, Windows 9x, and Aureal 3D with perfection.

By then future concepts of perfection will have superseded old ones -- it's already happening, such as people that want their pixels rectangular with razor-sharp edges.

Reply 31 of 40, by Jade Falcon

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Honestly I gave MW2 a try in dosbox on my 1366 system, the FPS were grate at 640x480 but it was still glitchy.
It also was ok at 1024x768 not 60fps but more then playable. Probably 45fps or close to it.
The game would crash after every level.

Last edited by Jade Falcon on 2017-07-01, 05:09. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 32 of 40, by carlostex

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DOSBox got me into DOS games again, but i found that being on a modern machine using DOSBox distracted me way too much from the gaming experience. So i use dedicated DOS computers, which i admit is not for everybody, but i just love old hardware.

Reply 33 of 40, by James-F

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When I connect my CRT to my main i7 machine with DVI->VGA adapter, I get proper resolutions and refresh rates like 320x200@70, then the experience of DOSBox is almost indistinguishable from the real machine.
I also use AutoHotKey to disable Windows keys, context menu key, and shortcuts like alt+tab, which enhances the experience even further.


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Reply 34 of 40, by blurks

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Well if you're a purist you probably don't want to miss the feeling of playing on original hardware but I wouldn't recommend it if you're just planning on playing every now and then. Fiddling around with old floppy drive belts, jumper settings, autoexec.bat, config.sys etc. can be tedious and a real mood killer. DosBox is a wonderful substitution and works fantastic. I wouldn't want to invest time and money in research, getting the parts, trying out configs to free up conventional memory etc...

But whatever floats your boat man...

Reply 35 of 40, by Jade Falcon

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blurks wrote:

Well if you're a purist you probably don't want to miss the feeling of playing on original hardware but I wouldn't recommend it if you're just planning on playing every now and then. Fiddling around with old floppy drive belts, jumper settings, autoexec.bat, config.sys etc. can be tedious and a real mood killer. DosBox is a wonderful substitution and works fantastic. I wouldn't want to invest time and money in research, getting the parts, trying out configs to free up conventional memory etc...

But whatever floats your boat man...

I never once had any of these problems, well other then the jumper one and that's a one time thing. Sucks when a board doesn't have the jumper settings labeled. And I repair computers for a living and never once seen a belt fail. Not that cd drivers arnt replaceable with software even in dos there's ISO mounting software.

Reply 36 of 40, by DosFreak

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Thread cleaned up.

Stay on topic.

As far as the removed threads subject matter: We will continue to close threads with bot-like behavior or that do not contribute to the forum.

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Reply 37 of 40, by Bandock

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As someone who has dealt with MS-DOS one way or another back then, I definitely prefer DOSBox for most applications and games. One of the best perks about DOSBox is being able to play modem games without having to worry about needing both a modem card and a working phone (thanks to emulation under TCP/IP). Null Modem/Serial emulation is also awesome on DOSBox (also under TCP/IP) if you want to play certain multiplayer games that only supported both modem and serial. Being able to play IPX over UDP is very nice (which is definitely needed for games like Doom (DOS version) and others).

Another benefit is if you're into creating retro programs and games (like in pure assembly or through IDEs like Open Watcom), DOSBox is a nice way of testing such programs without having to brick a real system. 😜

Reply 39 of 40, by dr_st

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I haven't encountered such games, but some may need specific settings.

The only thing that may be more difficult with DOSBox is that it does not natively support AWE, but it's a minor thing since it support General MIDI, and if you have a good MIDI synthesizer driver, it will be just as good or better as the native AWE option for the games that have it. It does require a bit more tweaking rather than just loading up your pure DOS machine with an AWE32/64 and launching the game.

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