First post, by HunterZ
- Rank
- l33t++
Okay I ran some tests on the DosBox v0.58 release candidate that Snover posted elsewhere on VOGONS, and here are some results:
General Comments:
- I noticed that DosBox now uses around 30-60% of my CPU (PIII-550 + 512MB RAM + WinXP corp SP1 + DX8 + GF2MX 32MB AGP + SB Live) instead of the steady 100% used by DosBox 0.57.
- Sound stuttering seems to be gone.
- Some games using PC speaker or primitive Sound Blaster digitized sound effects seem to sound too low-pitched (usually so much that they are not recognizable).
Hyperspeed (Microprose, VGA):
- Doc check screen didn't respond to keyboard input when using the Neverlock loader (HYPERS_K.EXE), but it worked fine without the loader (I found my old manual). The game seems to run very well now (not choppy like in 0.57 or the CVS build I made about a month ago). No crashes (yet).
Ultrabots (Novalogic, VGA):
- Detects 386 (but it doesn't use protected mode so it's safe to use 386). Beeps in the setup screens are stuttery.
- Intro runs fine, including Roland/Adlib music.
- When you try to play the actual game, it crashes DosBox with an unsupported feature message (no other info). I think it happens when it tries to play sounds out of the PC speaker (whcih it does regardless of sound card setting because it uses the PC speaker for digital sounds no matter what). As a result, I'm not able to really play this game.
Budokan (Electronic Arts, VGA):
- Music plays fine in PC Speaker, Adlib, Roland MT-32, and CMS modes (when CMS emulation is enabled). CMS sounds weird but I've never heard a real one. Tandy 1000 sound isn't supported apparently.
- The digitized sound effects (PC speaker based) are incomprehensible and too low-pitched.
(The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in) Dr. Doom's Revenge (Paragon, EGA):
- Seems playable (crappy game though). Might run a little slow but I'm not sure.
- Can't hear sound effects or music, but I'm not sure if I set it up right.
Wizardy 7 (Sir-Tech, VGA):
- LAPC-1/Adlib music sounds good. Game is minimally playable. Grey arrow keys seem to act like they are pressed twice when you hit them to move/turn in the game.
- Sound Blaster sound effects are too low-pitched. Wiz7 doesn't use DMA buffers for sound effects, so it's a problem game in this area.
- PC speaker sound effects sound perfect, but there is a large delay before they are heard. Much better than nothing though.
- Text fading effects in the intro credits seem smeared, as if the video is not being emulated the way the game intends it to look (maybe the fade effects are too slow/choppy?)
I tried to put smilies next to each bullet to be cute, but the forum choked. 😠 😠 😠 Snover! 😠 😠 😠