Dosbox notes

✎ This article/section is a stub — some half-sorted notes, not necessarily checked, not necessarily correct. Feel free to ignore, or tell me about it.

Quick start

To avoid a lot of typing to get each game started:

Create a directory for your games, for example

C:\DOSGAMES

...and put the games in directories under that. For example,

C:\DOSGAMES\SCORCH

Edit dosbox.conf (probably at C:\Program Files\DosBox-something) to mount that directory as C -- under [autoexec], do something like:

MOUNT C C:\DOSBOX
C:

Note that in the first line, the first C is dosbox' own virtual drive, the path is the Windows hosts OS's real path, respectively.

The second line there (C:)changes the current drive to the thing that the games are on. Might as well.

Running the dosbox link now will place you in a C drive that has the games in that DOSGAMES directory.

You can make windows shortcuts that start specific games too; see below.

Creating links to games (windows)

Perhaps the simplest way to create a linkfor a specific game:

make a copy of the shortcut that starts dosbox.
Change its arguments (Right-click, Properties, Target field) to add the commands to start the game on the end, e.g.

-c "C:" -c "cd \scorch" -c "scorch"

Assuming the configuration mentioned above (that always mounts C) and assuming that you have Scorched Earth there, this will run it.

On speed

Emulated CPU speed

By default, Dosbox seems to run at about a 486 equivalent speed.

You can slow it down (to 286 sort of speeds) with Ctrl-F11

You can speed it up (to Pentium-like speeds) with Ctrl-F12

You can configure dosbox to always be slower or faster by tweaking the cycles line in dosbox.conf.

If you need different speeds for different games, make a copy of dosbox.conf, differing only in the cycles value, and hand the path to this config file to the dosbox shortcut / to shortcuts to games that need it (e.g. adding -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox\dosbox.slow.conf").

If games are choppy, sometimes it helps to play with more of the CPU settings.

Emulation overhead; other settings

On sound

There is an emulated Sond Blaster Pro (at the most common addresses) and a Gravis Ultrasound. This should cover almost all games, though for a number you'll still have to do some sort of setup for the game itself.