Reaction time measurement using Dosbox \ VOGONS

Reaction time measurement using Dosbox

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First post, by ErikEriksonThorwal

Posted on 2012-01-10, 09:48

ErikEriksonThorwal Offline

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Joined: 2012-01-10, 09:42

Hello,

I have a problem. I want to use an old dos program to measure reaction times. Last time I used it I had still a real dos, now I want to try ist using dosbox. The program ist displaying a word and the subject has to respond with a button press, while the time between is recorded by the program. Since it should be accurate within the range of miliseconds, I worry about the right configuration, especially the core value and the cycles.

Can these configurations mess with the rection time recording?

Reply 1 of 3, by Dominus

Posted on 2012-01-10, 10:34

Dominus Offline

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The whole emulation thing with the SDL subsystem can be a limiting factor

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Reply 2 of 3, by Harekiet

Posted on 2012-01-10, 11:26

Harekiet Offline

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DOSBox has a worse reponse time than real dos since you'll have to wait for the operating system to actually put the key into the buffer for dosbox to receive. Then there's the problem with dosbox only checking for new keys in that buffer every so often since it has to give cpu time to emulation tasks.

Reply 3 of 3, by Zorbid

Posted on 2012-01-11, 10:04

Zorbid Offline

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Joined: 2002-08-30, 18:38

You'll be better off booting from a DOS floppy, CD, or a DOS partition on your hard disk.

http://www.freedos.org/ may be useful.

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