STOP using DOSBOX! 2 Easier ways to Run DOS Games!

The original DOSBOX has not really been updated in 12 years, and there are better and easier ways to run old DOS games and programs. Today I demonstrate 2 forks of the original DOSbox project which improve performance and ease of use.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:18 - DOSBOX-X Overview
2:19 - How to Run Programs or Game with DOSBOX-X
2:55 - How to use CD-ROMs in DOSBOX-X
6:52 - DOSBOX Staging Intro
7:40 - DOSBOX Staging Scaling Features
8:30 - Descent 2 OPL3 Comparison
8:54 - Outro

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#DOSBOX #vintagecomputing #retrogaming

[BrandonStephen-pq]

Hi DOS Storm,

Thanks for your helpful videos! I’ve been really interested in trying out Windows 3.1 games, but I’ve been struggling a lot. I’ve tried using both DOSBox and DOSBox-X, but I can’t get the games to work properly. It's frustrating because I just want a simple way to play old Windows 3.1 games without all the setup issues.

If you ever make a video or guide that explains this step-by-step, especially for people who find this kind of setup tricky, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks again for keeping these classics alive!

Brandon

[hooldenord]

"Stop using DOSBox 0.74-3, use it's forks instead!"

In Windows 10/11 and DOSBox 0.74-3 it's "overlay" output that's causing problems (e.g. crashes).
To fix this, find DOSBox configuration file with ".conf" extension and open it with Notepad.

Find in [sdl] section:
output=overlay

Replace it with:
output=openglnb

It's worth trying. If it doesn't work, switch to DOSBox Staging.

[robertgaines-tulsa]

I actually never got into DOS gaming. I didn't get into Windows gaming, either. My use of DOS was mainly at school in computer programming class back in the mid to late 90s. The teacher we had absolutely REFUSED to put Windows on the machines. He wouldn't even allow us to use mice. I guess he thought that Windows and GUI in general would just never take off. When I did get into modern computing in 2000, I hardly ever used DOS. Windows was just far more intuitive to use. When Windows 2000 reached EOL, I just switched to Linux. I mainly used DOS for running a Color Computer 2 emulator and to write and run some DOS based multimedia tools I created. I stopped creating software as I just wanted to work with multimedia.

[ableite]

Wow... Literally he just recommended forks of dosbox...

[lordplenty]

Tried DosBox-X, and I don't like the IDE (using batch files is faster, and I'm old enough to know what I'm doing :P).
I found that it has issues with PIT timer in all versions I've tried, rendering sound in many older games choppy, including a hobby retro-project of mine.

Thanks for the shout-out on DosBox Staging - I've never heard of it before. So far no issues, and I'm testing it with unusual code.

[jpdb_xl]

ScummVM is also a option. Very easy to play and load Dos and Amiga games by using the game folder. I highly recommend.

[CodeMage]

I loved hearing the music from Descent briefings in the intro!

[tek_lynx]

86box is the way to go anymore, especially if you want FM sound support that isn't just yamaha emulation. They recently added ESS support, and i'm glad we finally have another FM alternative. ESS FM can sound drastically different in some games or playing midi under dos with midier.

[anon_y_mousse]

For me, I used DOS in middle school and high school and we were just starting to get Windows when I was in high school. Our school was slightly behind the times and there was one teacher that had 3.1 and later upgraded to 95 before the school got computers running NT3.51. It was my experience with Windows at that point in time why I moved to Linux. Although, I still play a lot of games that only run for me if I use WINE or DOSBox. The first computer class I took in middle school taught us how to do low-level formatting of your hard drive, something which you can't even do now. However, learning how to bypass that DOS menu program to get at QBasic and play Nibbles and Gorilla certainly inspired my career path.

[ADreamPC]

In 1995 it took litrally all night to install and play a game. Hexen and Doom were already on from floppy disc, but Firestorm Thunderhawk 2 dam!!! Most games were still using dos aswell, but managed to master it in the end lol

[damon_]

You found a solution to the Commander Keen video stutter! Last time the game ran smoothly was 6.22. ❤

[bitsloth]

I'm going to be "that guy" and tell you all to not use save states to make booting your games easier. If there is any kind of memory corruption save states can and will keep that memory corruption alive. Instead get something like Dosbox Game Launcher and use it to configure and launch Dosbox-x. You can also turn off "close on complete" and use an empty .bat file to launch a command line. If that is too much trouble just save your current configuration and load it the next time you start Dosbox-x. I say this because I used save states in this way until a some memory corruption showed up in a Windows 3.11 install and it would crash on any game launch in Windows 3.11. The fix for my issue was easy, start with a clean Dosbox-x boot, launch Win3.11 then my game, and don't use save states as a shortcut.

[hkoizumi]

I've started gaming on the PC back in 1993 so DOS isn't new. Matter in fact, it's where I started playing on it. So, luckily for me, it's not much of intimidation. But having DOSbox does makes life easier.

[MisterVolts]

What game is that playing on the screen at 1:02?

[stgeorgetalk]

Punching in commands old school in Dos seems fun again... however I dont have enough ttime to learn linux... but this brings back memories. haha. Thanks for sharing the basics... I was scratching my head there for a bit but now makes perfect sense. +1 like

[Stratelier]

Speaking of scaling, Dosbox does have an option to fix the aspect ratio (i.e. non-square pixels), but I believe it implements this via _vertical_ scaling when horizontal scaling is more period-accurate.

[Hunikengt]

thanks!! Trying to load up my original disciples of steel CD ROM!!

[flashnb]

Your thoughts on using PCem? I figured it's worth mentioning because rather than emulating old x86 software, it instead tries to emulate era-appropriate hardware. I'll admit it isn't perfect since some games such as MechWarrior 2 are just straight up unplayable.

[RavenKitten]

the idea of dragging the exe file into dosbox was a very much big help. i didnt know that before and it changed the whole thing now. woo. Raven

[asmarttraveller]

I have a question can dosbox be used for running complex softwares like Foxpro for dos.

We have legacy software which was developed in foxpro .

Migrating to web based solutions is not actually feasible .

Unfortunately application based development is on the decline .

Now a days most applications do not have simple print options without involving pdf