Nothing shows up in the DosBox console?

Hello! I realize this is a rather old post and the original poster has probably long since moved on, but I'm having the exact same trouble.

I'm trying to run DataEase 5.15 on a Vista 64-bit machine through DOSBox. As on our Win98 machines, when you initiate the program, it says "DataEase..." and blinks the cursor for a few seconds, but unlike the Win98 machines, it just keeps blinking the cursor endlessly instead of starting up the program.

Here's what I did to get to this point:

Z:\>SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 T6 (this done by DOSBox automatically)

Z:\>mount c c:\
Mounting c:\ is NOT recommended. Please mount a (sub)directory next time.
Drive C is mounted as local directory c:\

Z:\>c:

C:\>cd dease

C:\DEASE>de16m
DataEase...

And here's what the console shows:

DOSBox version 0.73
Copyright 2002-2009 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
---
CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file C:\Users\(***)\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-0.73.conf
MIDI:Opened device:win32

And that's it. It just sits there and blinks at me.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Could be caused by a multitude of limitations in DOSBox. E.g. something to do with file attributes (not fully supported), special ways of accessing files, drivers it tries to load, etc, etc. A lot of things. You need a real DOSBox guru with access to a copy of the program to debug this problem. Remember, DOSBox is meant for gaming - that it works for other purposes is pure luck and coincidence.

Now, you could try changing the core setting before launching the program. Either edit the configuration file, or simply use a command like

C:\> core=normal

before running the program. Look in the config file (and the README) for valid settings.

Edit: Doh!! core, not cycles!

and if you are bored you can run the debug version of DOSBox (found in dev forum)
and see if something pops up

MiniMax wrote:

Now, you could try changing the core setting before launching the program. Either edit the configuration file, or simply use a command like

C:\> cycles=normal

I think he means "core=normal".

> keeps blinking the cursor endlessly

How long did you wait? maybe increase speed.

A-ha!

"Core=normal" did the trick!

Thanks greatly for the help, sorry I couldn't have provided a bigger challenge for all you eager fellows... 😀