Microphone input is not a development priority because it is rarely used by games. However, DOSBox uses the SDL library, which I believe does support microphone input, and open source means someone could develop the feature unofficially. If a microphone input patch works well and doesn't add too much code then it would likely be considered for official inclusion.

ripsaw8080 wrote on 2022-12-16, 15:10:

Microphone input is not a development priority because it is rarely used by games

ROTT's one (supposedly)

Didn't some 3.1/95 era games have a primitive form of voice chat? I vaguely remember one that did but can't recall the name.

I've been playing with Dosbox-x for about a month now, certainly not expert in configuration, but there are options in the SOUND tab to increase or decrease recording volume.

akallio wrote on 2022-12-21, 17:31:

I've been playing with Dosbox-x for about a month now, certainly not expert in configuration, but there are options in the SOUND tab to increase or decrease recording volume.

DOSBox-X also does not support recording.

Good news - microphone input now works in DOSBox-X!

I've implemented real microphone capture using Windows WASAPI. It supports both DMA recording (DSP commands 0x24, 0x2C, etc.) and Direct ADC mode (DSP command 0x20).

Tested specifically with Talking Parrot (Creative Parrot) - it works well!

To use it, add this to your dosbox-x.conf in the [sblaster] section:

1recording source=microphone

There's an experimental pre-built Windows binary available for testing:
Download DOSBox-X with Microphone Support

Pull request submitted to DOSBox-X:
PR #6041

Important notes:
- Only tested with Creative Parrot so far
- Windows only (uses WASAPI)
- Not tested on different Windows versions or with other recording programs

Would appreciate feedback from anyone who tries it with other DOS recording software!

meldro wrote on 2026-01-05, 02:49:

Good news - microphone input now works in DOSBox-X! […]
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Good news - microphone input now works in DOSBox-X!

I've implemented real microphone capture using Windows WASAPI. It supports both DMA recording (DSP commands 0x24, 0x2C, etc.) and Direct ADC mode (DSP command 0x20).

Tested specifically with Talking Parrot (Creative Parrot) - it works well!

To use it, add this to your dosbox-x.conf in the [sblaster] section:

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1recording source=microphone

There's an experimental pre-built Windows binary available for testing:
Download DOSBox-X with Microphone Support

Pull request submitted to DOSBox-X:
PR #6041

Important notes:
- Only tested with Creative Parrot so far
- Windows only (uses WASAPI)
- Not tested on different Windows versions or with other recording programs

Would appreciate feedback from anyone who tries it with other DOS recording software!

I just gave it a whirl with the Talking parrot. I'm running Windows 10 and downloaded 32-bit and 64-bit portable versions of DOSBox-X along with the microphone patch EXE.

It does detect audio from my microphone, but the sound that is played back by the Parrot of the 'heard'/recorded audio (at varying pitches, of course) is horribly distorted and illegible. It didn't matter where I set the microphone audio gains in the Windows sound mixer. I'm REALLY excited to get/hear this thing working, any idea of what the problem could be?

Note that my microphone (a standard 1/8" audio plug mic) works fine; I can record audio in Windows using the old GoldWave program, as well as using it for Steam and TeamSpeak voice chat.

What I always used for a microphone input is a multi-channel audio mixer with a mic input (as well as several line inputs) and line level output - let me adjust all input levels & had metets to monitor output levels.

Prob. more than most want but worked reallly well!