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Dosbox Tandy 1000 Graphics Emulation (Solved)

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First post, by thothie

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I can't seem to get the 16-color Tandy Graphics emulation to work within DOSBox v0.72. The old pc-speaker three channel sound works fine - but graphics fail to display entirely.

Currently I'm trying to get it to work Thexder (ooo the nostalgia of wasted youth!), as well as Defender of the Crown.
(Edit out those links if we're not allowed to link abandonware, plzkthx, and sorry in advance) (edited! --HunterZ)

Both games run on a more generic configuration, but they switch to CGA mode, and sound much worse than that which I grew up with.

If the Tandy graphics emulation is simply incomplete, is it possible to somehow emulate the Tandy Sound and use the EVGA graphics? (I think Thexder, at least, supports EGA)

Here's the config I'm using:
tandy.conf

[sdl]
# fullscreen -- Start dosbox directly in fullscreen.
# fulldouble -- Use double buffering in fullscreen.
# fullfixed -- Don't resize the screen when in fullscreen.
# fullresolution -- What resolution to use for fullscreen, use together with fullfixed.
# output -- What to use for output: surface,overlay,opengl,openglnb,ddraw.
# hwscale -- Extra scaling of window if the output device supports hardware scaling.
# autolock -- Mouse will automatically lock, if you click on the screen.
# sensitiviy -- Mouse sensitivity.
# waitonerror -- Wait before closing the console if dosbox has an error.
# priority -- Priority levels for dosbox: lower,normal,higher,highest.
# Second entry behind the comma is for when dosbox is not focused/minimized.
# mapperfile -- File used to load/save the key/event mappings from.

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullfixed=false
fullresolution=1024x768
output=ddraw
hwscale=true
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper2.txt

[dosbox]
# language -- Select another language file.
# memsize -- Amount of memory dosbox has in megabytes.
# machine -- The type of machine tries to emulate:hercules,cga,tandy,vga.
# captures -- Directory where things like wave,midi,screenshot get captured.

language=
machine=tandy
captures=capture
memsize=31

[render]
# frameskip -- How many frames dosbox skips before drawing one.
# aspect -- Do aspect correction.
# scaler -- Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# Supported are none,normal2x,advmame2x,advmame3x,advinterp2x,interp2x,tv2x.

frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=advmame3x

[cpu]
# core -- CPU Core used in emulation: simple,normal,full,dynamic.
# cycles -- Amount of instructions dosbox tries to emulate each millisecond.
# Setting this higher than your machine can handle is bad!
# cycleup -- Amount of cycles to increase/decrease with keycombo.
# cycledown Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

core=dynamic
cycles=50000
cycleup=5000
cycledown=5000

[mixer]
Show last 120 lines
# nosound -- Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.
# rate -- Mixer sample rate, setting any devices higher than this will
# probably lower their sound quality.
# blocksize -- Mixer block size, larger blocks might help sound stuttering
# but sound will also be more lagged.
# prebuffer -- How many milliseconds of data to keep on top of the blocksize.

nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

[midi]
# mpu401 -- Enable MPU-401 Emulation.
# intelligent -- Operate in Intelligent mode.
# device -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.
# This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.
# config -- Special configuration options for the device.

mpu401=none
intelligent=true
device=default
config=

[sblaster]
# type -- Type of sblaster to emulate:none,sb1,sb2,sbpro1,sbpro2,sb16.
# base,irq,dma,hdma -- The IO/IRQ/DMA/High DMA address of the soundblaster.
# mixer -- Allow the soundblaster mixer to modify the dosbox mixer.
# oplmode -- Type of OPL emulation: auto,cms,opl2,dualopl2,opl3.
# On auto the mode is determined by sblaster type.
# oplrate -- Sample rate of OPL music emulation.

type=none
base=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=44100

[gus]
# gus -- Enable the Gravis Ultrasound emulation.
# base,irq1,irq2,dma1,dma2 -- The IO/IRQ/DMA addresses of the
# Gravis Ultrasound. (Same IRQ's and DMA's are OK.)
# rate -- Sample rate of Ultrasound emulation.
# ultradir -- Path to Ultrasound directory. In this directory
# there should be a MIDI directory that contains
# the patch files for GUS playback. Patch sets used
# with Timidity should work fine.

gus=false
rate=44100
base=240
irq1=5
irq2=5
dma1=3
dma2=3
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

[speaker]
# pcspeaker -- Enable PC-Speaker emulation.
# pcrate -- Sample rate of the PC-Speaker sound generation.
# tandyrate -- Sample rate of the Tandy 3-Voice generation.
# Tandysound emulation is present if machine is set to tandy.
# disney -- Enable Disney Sound Source emulation.

pcspeaker=true
pcrate=44100
tandyrate=44100
disney=false

[bios]
# Nothing to setup yet!


[dos]
# xms -- Enable XMS support.
# ems -- Enable EMS support.

xms=false
ems=false

[modem]
# modem -- Enable virtual modem emulation.
# comport -- COM Port modem is connected to.
# listenport -- TCP Port the modem listens on for incoming connections.

modem=false
comport=2
listenport=23

[directserial]
# directserial -- Enable serial passthrough support.
# comport -- COM Port inside DOSBox.
# realport -- COM Port on the Host.
# defaultbps -- Default BPS.
# parity -- Parity of the packets. This can be N, E or O.
# bytesize -- Size of each packet. This can be 5 or 8.
# stopbit -- The number of stopbits. This can be 1 or 2.

directserial=false
comport=1
realport=COM1
defaultbps=1200
parity=N
bytesize=8
stopbit=1

[ipx]
# ipx -- Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=false

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
mount c "d:\Games\"
c:
dir /ad /w

edit: Updated config due to Dosbox 0.73 messages - same result.

Last edited by thothie on 2009-09-09, 10:24. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 3 of 12, by thothie

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Nope, that didn't fix it. It did give me an annoying dos-box logo pop-up I didn't have to deal with before though. 🙁

Not sure if this is the right forum section for this either... Dos Box general help says not to post ap-specific issues - although this is more machine emulation specific - not sure...

I'd try MESS, but I can't seem to find a Tandy 1000HX ROM.

Reply 6 of 12, by thothie

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Hrmm... I might understand that with one game, but two? Also Thexder didn't have any copy protection to crack - I know because I remember making several backup disks and playing from them. Too bad they are all long gone now. :\

Could you post me the .conf you use for Thexder?

Reply 7 of 12, by collector

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You are asking for help with abandonwarez, which is not supported on VOGONS. I suggest you ask the people that illegally have the games for download.

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 9 of 12, by thothie

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Nah I had the box and all... Bought it at my friendly neighborhood Radioshack with my hard earned allowance. 😉 We didn't have internet back then, or even good BBS dial-ups, so getting pirated software was HARD. (Up until the 90's the only "pirated" software I ever saw was via five-finger discount - not that it didn't exist mind you, but you more or less had to know the pirate in person.)

As for the pirating remarks - I think it's more than a little unrealistic to expect people to find working software from 1989. Even if I still had my disk, I really doubt it would still function. Floppy shelf life is considerably less than 20 years (I do have some floppies that old, with novels and such I used to write, and only a few of them work). The only ones I see on eBay are definitely pirated - while they show photos of both the box and floppy - the floppies have dot-matrix printed labels - not the fancy full-color produced ones they originally came on. If not for the archiving efforts of "pirates" a lot of these games would have ceased to exist long ago. (And alas, many have.)

Rudeness aside, it turns out I simply have the wrong revision of Thexder. I managed to acquire a copy of revision A1 that has the full Tandy support. So Collector is half-right, it isn't DosBox's fault. I suspect something similar is going on with Defender of the Crown - probably need a special Radio Shack edition.

Reply 10 of 12, by HunterZ

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Thexder definitely had dirty sector copy protection, as did many Sierra games that came on only a couple of floppy disks.

Maybe you used a special disk copy tool that was able to replicate the intentionally corrupted sectors, or maybe you cracked it and forgot.

Reply 11 of 12, by collector

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HunterZ wrote:

Thexder definitely had dirty sector copy protection, as did many Sierra games that came on only a couple of floppy disks.

Maybe you used a special disk copy tool that was able to replicate the intentionally corrupted sectors, or maybe you cracked it and forgot.

He said that he downloaded these games from an abandonware site and linked to the in his first post. I'm surprised that a mod has not edited out the links and locked this thread.

Reply 12 of 12, by HunterZ

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collector wrote:
HunterZ wrote:

Thexder definitely had dirty sector copy protection, as did many Sierra games that came on only a couple of floppy disks.

Maybe you used a special disk copy tool that was able to replicate the intentionally corrupted sectors, or maybe you cracked it and forgot.

He said that he downloaded these games from an abandonware site and linked to the in his first post. I'm surprised that a mod has not edited out the links and locked this thread.

He also stated that he remembered playing from backup copies of original Thexder disks without any issues.

Good point about locking the thread though. Looks like the issue was resolved anyways.