Welcome to forum iam new user as well and noticed all admins were dosbox developer oriented so i think , vogons maybe launch as dosbox forum or not 😀)))

Welcome to the forum.
People in here are from all over the world.

I am from the United States.

qdsong88@ wrote on 2024-01-25, 11:58:

I would like to know, where do most of the users of this forum come from?Europe?North America?Australia?
Maybe this is a stupid question, but as a newly registered Asian user, I would like to know some information about the forum, including how it developed, including who is the boss of this forum?
Don't tell me to use the search function to learn more slowly. Reading English is a headache for me, and it will be even more of a headache if I use translation software...

I come from the European Union.
Exactly, it is Upper Austria, but now I live in Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany.
Headaches will become less.

There are people here from all over the world, but most of us are probably from various places in the Anglosphere, or other European nations. There is also a strong Eastern European contingent, and a few Asians such as yourself.

The forum administrators are listed here: memberlist.php?mode=group&g=3338

All I know about them is that they are probably all native English speakers, for whatever that's worth. Probably Americans.

The forum formed around the DOSBox community sometime in the early 2000s, although I don't know which came first.

I think it's safe to say that the majority are American. That probably applies to most English speaking message boards. While I don't usually pay much attention to it, I have noticed that most people who have their location filled in are from the states. I can tell that a lot of people here are American when eBay comes up because they can get stuff shipped for way less than it is for us Canadians. The forum is most active during times when North Americans are usually awake as well.

qdsong88@ wrote on 2024-01-25, 11:58:

I would like to know, where do most of the users of this forum come from?Europe?North America?Australia?
Maybe this is a stupid question, but as a newly registered Asian user, I would like to know some information about the forum, including how it developed, including who is the boss of this forum?
Don't tell me to use the search function to learn more slowly. Reading English is a headache for me, and it will be even more of a headache if I use translation software...

If this is representative of your grasp of English, you are underestimating yourself. I wouldn't have guessed that English isn't your first language without you mentioning it.

This forum was originally named OGONS and was created by Snover due to the need for a better forum than what VDMSound used and for other discussions concerned with running old games on new systems.
DOSBox was added a couple of months later since I want to say there were at least two of them (I think), modding and administering a forum is a pain and the same game discussions cropped up on both. Also DOSBox needs original hardware as well to troubleshoot so it fit.

Ironically, this forum seems to have more posts about old hardware than running old games on new systems. We'll have to rename it to Vogoos instead (-:

And servers are located at usa i think.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-01-25, 18:23:

Ironically, this forum seems to have more posts about old hardware than running old games on new systems. We'll have to rename it to Vogoos instead (-:

:)Perhaps the appeal of old hardware is greater to most people than old games.Because it cannot be copied and pasted

keenmaster486 wrote on 2024-01-25, 17:44:

There are people here from all over the world, but most of us are probably from various places in the Anglosphere, or other Euro […]
Show full quote

There are people here from all over the world, but most of us are probably from various places in the Anglosphere, or other European nations. There is also a strong Eastern European contingent, and a few Asians such as yourself.

The forum administrators are listed here: memberlist.php?mode=group&g=3338

All I know about them is that they are probably all native English speakers, for whatever that's worth. Probably Americans.

The forum formed around the DOSBox community sometime in the early 2000s, although I don't know which came first.

very thanks！World's foremost 486 enjoyer.😄

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-01-25, 18:23:

Ironically, this forum seems to have more posts about old hardware than running old games on new systems. We'll have to rename it to Vogoos instead (-:

It wasn't like this until 2008ish. I had originally revived my old PCs for DOSbox/PCem crosschecking (and spreading some PowerVR awareness 😀 )

qdsong88@ wrote on 2024-01-26, 00:54:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-01-25, 18:23:

Ironically, this forum seems to have more posts about old hardware than running old games on new systems. We'll have to rename it to Vogoos instead (-:

:)Perhaps the appeal of old hardware is greater to most people than old games.Because it cannot be copied and pasted

I get the impression that many people spend more time collecting and working on hardware than playing games. I think people get a dopamine hit from finding rare computers or parts. It's like a treasure hunt!

The machines people were running dosbox on when it was initially written are now old. There are now many generations of old computers, which many of these machines of the past still work. I think the key is this is a place where people want to keep their games, and their computers, running.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-01-26, 01:44:

I get the impression that many people spend more time collecting and working on hardware than playing games. I think people get a dopamine hit from finding rare computers or parts. It's like a treasure hunt!

I think it's more due to stuff like DOSBox and SCUMMVM reaching a level of maturity that resolved most of the issues related to running old games on new systems. So outside of occasional questions on that front most of the active discussion gravitated towards old hardware. I suspect in general (without restricting things to this forum in particular) retro PC game players outnumber those who tinker with old hardware by a considerable margin.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-01-25, 18:23:

Ironically, this forum seems to have more posts about old hardware than running old games on new systems. We'll have to rename it to Vogoos instead (-:

In the 2000s, DOSBox was still evolving a lot and people had given feedback about what works and what not.

Other PC emulators did barely exist for x86 PC platform. There was QEMU (+kqemu), Bochs..

Then a few virtualizers like Virtual PC 2004/2007 and early Virtualbox, VMware Player. However, they weren't DOS or Windows 9x friendly. Graphics and Sound Blaster support were poor.

Virtual PC had an S3 and a broken SB16 emulation (OPL3 sounded wrong, probably because emulated SB was an SB Pro 1 originally).

Ok, strictly speaking there also was VDMSound project that did enhance Windows XP's NTVDM, so people could play DOS games on XP.
But it only worked with non-timing sensitive-games and only so long as
graphics cards had shipped VGA compatible drivers for Windows.
Later graphics drivers no longer allowed DOS full-screen graphics on XP.
Still VDMSound was a neat thing in its own reign. It allowed power hungry games to run smoothly.

So all in all, that's why DOSBox was so much needed. It had all those special hardware from the DOS era being emulated.

You could run Windows 3.1 in DOSBox, even. Though initially merely in Standard Mode (WIN /S).
That was releated to the type of emulated EMS, which conflicted somehow with Windows in 386 Enhanced-Mode.
Must have been in the days of DOSBox v0.61 to v0.63, not sure.

Anyway, the point is that DOSBox was improving a lot in that time.
Now the dust has settled, so to say. DOSBox has reached a certain level of maturity and most things "just work". 😎
That's why the DOSBox forum is being less frequently being used, I think.

Btw, I think that DOSBox also had renewed an general interest in DOS games as such.
Many people started to re-build their childhood PCs just after enjoying their long lost and forgotten favorites in DOSBox.

So I think DOSBox isn't being irrelevant or forgotten whatsoever. It's just working so well by now that people stopped to complain (report bugs). 🙂👍

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-01-26, 01:44:

...
I get the impression that many people spend more time collecting and working on hardware than playing games. ...

That's because old hardware requires a lot of work.
You leave them in perfect working order, and the next time you turn them on, they are broken.

So, yes, generally it is required more time to fix stuff than use them.
That's also way a lot of the people involved in retro stuff are also like electronic.
Old stuff are perfect to work with, because you just need few tools, and all of them are cheap now, even stuff like oscilloscopes, that once was very expensive.

majinga wrote on 2024-01-27, 09:19:

That's because old hardware requires a lot of work. You leave them in perfect working order, and the next time you turn them on, […]
Show full quote

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-01-26, 01:44:

...
I get the impression that many people spend more time collecting and working on hardware than playing games. ...

That's because old hardware requires a lot of work.
You leave them in perfect working order, and the next time you turn them on, they are broken.

So, yes, generally it is required more time to fix stuff than use them.
That's also way a lot of the people involved in retro stuff are also like electronic.
Old stuff are perfect to work with, because you just need few tools, and all of them are cheap now, even stuff like oscilloscopes, that once was very expensive.

I think buying hardware is a bigger factor than stuff breaking down. The threads describing the new hardware that people bought are very popular. Some people here own hundreds of sound cards and dozens of computers. It's addictive because it's like a treasure hunt.

Yes, old hardware breaks down, but I wouldn't describe it as happening each time you turn it on again. Replacing the capacitors and batteries can give an old computer years of life again.

Well, in that case, it's me. Because I do have a lot of broken stuff to fix, and no time to do it.
And most of the time the problem is not just some old capacitor or battery.

But, that's the main purpose of a forum. A place where we can help each other. And share, and make available to everyone the problem we have, hand how to fix it.