I can't imagine why anyone would leave a bad comment...unless they really have an axe to grind. Dosbox is the single best free software I use 😁 Firefox comes second 😊

You'd be suprised.

There are the DOSEMU fanatics that refuse to use anything else. (Of course there may be DosBox fanatics that refuse to use DOSEMU 😉 )
The Old PC fanatics that refuse to use any emulation.

The 2 mentioned above seem to have the most dislike for DosBox for some odd reason.

I personally believe on using the best tool for the job whatever that may be but other people....

Isn't dosemu only for Linux? I don't use Linux, so I don't use dosemu :p

If you read my early posts on VOGONS, you'll see that DOSBox was a hard sell for me, but now I really like it. A lot. I also respect Qbix and Harekiet's vision and dedication (although I think their views on the possible uses and development avenues are a bit more conservative than mine) and above all I am impressed with the DOSBox community. VOGONS (the regulars, the mods, and of course our Fearless Leader, Snover) is great (I can only think of one person who I've butted heads with in the last few months), as are the mad scientist crew of freelance devs and the dedicated, patch-hungry CVS build releasers. I doubt there are many open source projects that have such dedicated, active communities.

On the subject of VOGONS: Someone ought to mention this forum in the Wikipedia article on Vogons.

Edit: Read a little of the linked thread. I feel I should address their criticisms on DOSBox's higher requirements by emphasizing the fact that it's probably largely due to Qbix & Harekiet's forward-thinking approach of making it cross-platform so that it will continue to run on future platforms. Dosemu and QEMU are probably going to fall by the wayside eventually (like when x86 finally goes out of style), but DOSBox will still be around in some form or another as long as there are people interested in playing old DOS games.

HunterZ wrote:

DOSBox will still be around in some form or another as long as there are people interested in playing old DOS games.

I know I will. 😉

As far as people wanting to play DOS game:

I think if we can:

get the zip support into CVS,
figure out a standard as far as archives go..what format...etc.
Mabye include games images/title screen for loaders into zip?
checksum capability for .zip or individual files
Figure out what each game needs and capabilities required
Find some place to host all this and offer downloadable games (Free/Shareware/Demo....and mabye FULL depending on the company) mabye VOGONS in some far distant future?

Then we wouldn't have anything to worry about as far as getting people to play DOS games but currently even though DosBox makes things MUCH easier, the common person is too spoon-fed and overadvertised (Graphics,Graphics, GRAPHICS!) that DosBox is still too complicated for 'em.

Dosbox was made for the retro gamers. Most of use know dos was complicated and how annoying getting the right memory free and sound blaster settings correct and the long battles with windows that we feel dosbox as being actually "easier" than running an older PC (at least it is to me..)

Occasionally we are going to get a newbie but my opinion is that if they even know what dos was, I'm sure they can figure out dosbox's basic features.

I'd have to agree with avatar in that you should be prepared to learn enough about DOS to get games working if you expect to be able to use DOSBox. A lot of people who are unfamiliar with DOS report good luck with D-Fend though, so I often recommend it when people seem lost with the DOS interface.

HunterZ wrote:

I'd have to agree with avatar in that you should be prepared to learn enough about DOS to get games working if you expect to be able to use DOSBox. A lot of people who are unfamiliar with DOS report good luck with D-Fend though, so I often recommend it when people seem lost with the DOS interface.

I use D-fend and I know dos....I just prefer having a complete list of games already setup for me. Less tweaking = more fun. 😉 Well, that and laziness is a factor....but lets stick with ease of use. 😁

One thing that bothers me is whether dfend will be developed for upcoming CVS options that aren't supported in the GUI. They can be added manually, but it would be nice to get a polished new version.

Actually, laziness is why I've never checked out D-Fend for myself 😀

Agreed. Even now in this Windows reign' times, I use some command-line apps. Once you type in what you want, you have full control. GUIs are nice but deceptive... 😁