Dosbox 0.72 Pre-release Info

[Pickle]

Well Im very close to releasing a version of dosbox for the GP2X.

1. I have made a couple memory saving changes. I have found many of the crashes users experience are a result of being "out of memory". All games/programs tested seem to run. I havnt heard or tried anything that doesnt run.
2. I have profiled the code, seems to give the expected 20% increase in speed.
3. I have compiled in DJWillis SDL touchpad code (there is still work to do in this area)

The touchpad does work, just not ideal. Once we explore this some more the new version will be made public.

I can run many EGA/PC Sound games like duke nukum at 200 Mhz. I have played stunts on the lowest settings and it was playable to some degree. It seems in general some vga titles can run decently with no sound.

 

[Manjuu]

Wonderful news.

Many thanks for your hard work.

 

[slaanesh]

This is excellent news! I've been thoroughly into DOSBOX at the moment... on the PSP <_<

A GP2X version will be most welcome.

Just wondering if a Dyna-Rec version of the CPU engine will be available for the GP2X?
Also an easy means of configurating controls?

The PSP version has a nice way of defining controls and clock speed using .BAT files.
For example, the following keen.bat file would be placed in the same DOS directory as the keen executable.
The .BAT file contains instructions on how to map PC keyboard to PSP PAD/Buttons as well as what clock speed to run. The last command starts the executable.
I have found that the PSP can run old CGA and VGA games like "Time Bandit", "Gauntlet" and "Summer Games II" with sound at 222Mhz with the Dyna-Rec.

CODE
SYSOPT clock 222
INPUTMAP up up
INPUTMAP right right
INPUTMAP down down
INPUTMAP left left
INPUTMAP cross enter
INPUTMAP square alt
INPUTMAP exec keen4e


Looking forward to the GP2X version!

One last question, how much memory is required to run DOSBOX? I guess this is dependent on the demands of the emulated software. Games like "Civilization" for example only need 640K - so DOSBOX needs presumably at least this plus whatever the core needs to run.
My question is: how much RAM does the core require to function?

 

[sehs33]

I had an unpleasant experience with an earlier version of Dosbox, but I have "an inaccurate" question:
I am interested in knowing if the new version would run Dos games that were released in the year 1988, I have a collection of Dos games that were all released in that year, and I am wondering, in general, will good percentage of them be playable or not?
Thanks in advance for answering.

 

[sbock]

That's very exiting news, Pickle! I can't wait to check out the release.

Regards,
Stephan

 

[Hitnrun]

I am testing Dosbox with Pickle's, and I can say it is wonderful, it played all (yes all) games that I tried.

- The Incredible Machine
- Pinball Fantasies
- Master of Orion
- Alleycat
- 2nd Reality demo
- Ancient art of war
- Cobra Mission
- Alone in the Dark
- Railroad Tycoon

Most games are very playable without sound, some like Pinball Fantasies messing with the config and some overclock are very near to be 100% playable with sound.

 

[Alex.]

Nice job Pickle, the old PC is the only 'retro' system I came in direct contact with besides a ZX-Spectrum clone, so you bet I too think this is great news Looking forward to the public release!

This one is a 1991 title, but does Prehistorik (1, I don't dare ask about 2) run? :unsure: What about Dangerous Dave, or King's Bounty?

 

[Pickle]

This is excellent news! I've been thoroughly into DOSBOX at the moment... on the PSP <_<

A GP2X version will be most welcome.

Just wondering if a Dyna-Rec version of the CPU engine will be available for the GP2X?
Also an easy means of configurating controls?

The PSP version has a nice way of defining controls and clock speed using .BAT files.
For example, the following keen.bat file would be placed in the same DOS directory as the keen executable.
The .BAT file contains instructions on how to map PC keyboard to PSP PAD/Buttons as well as what clock speed to run. The last command starts the executable.
I have found that the PSP can run old CGA and VGA games like "Time Bandit", "Gauntlet" and "Summer Games II" with sound at 222Mhz with the Dyna-Rec.

Looking forward to the GP2X version!

One last question, how much memory is required to run DOSBOX? I guess this is dependent on the demands of the emulated software. Games like "Civilization" for example only need 640K - so DOSBOX needs presumably at least this plus whatever the core needs to run.
My question is: how much RAM does the core require to function?

The joystick keymapping is using the same code from the beginning. Although I think your method using a built-in mapper could work too. I think ive read about it, i did not know it could be accessed by internal command.

The PSP i believe is a MIPS cpu? which makes it incompatible with the GP2X a ARM cpu. I do not know of a dynarec for ARM. Zodttd was going to look into making, but he went to the dark side..i mean iphone

Your right about the memory requirements the lower the requirement the better chance you have of running dosbox, at least that was true with the previous versions. If you read the readme you learn dosbox at a min always allocates 1 mb for ram. But if you have games that require 4 or 8 mb then dosbox has to alloocate more memory. There were also some internal memory allocation that wasnt needed. See the PORTING file with the source code. So I guess I cant answer exactly how much memory is used, but the changes I did were to save memory, but not limit dosbox on the gp2x.

 

[Pickle]

I had an unpleasant experience with an earlier version of Dosbox, but I have "an inaccurate" question:
I am interested in knowing if the new version would run Dos games that were released in the year 1988, I have a collection of Dos games that were all released in that year, and I am wondering, in general, will good percentage of them be playable or not?
Thanks in advance for answering.

I think so, the older the more of a chance they have of running. Have you tried to run them in a x86 version of dosbox?

Nice job Pickle, the old PC is the only 'retro' system I came in direct contact with besides a ZX-Spectrum clone, so you bet I too think this is great news Looking forward to the public release!

This one is a 1991 title, but does Prehistorik (1, I don't dare ask about 2) run? :unsure: What about Dangerous Dave, or King's Bounty?

Thanks, I was playing with Dangress Dave Haunted Manison last night is that the one you talking about?

 

[craigix]

This sounds really nice, and I'm also excited about the fact it will run at least 3.5x as fast on the Pandora with just a recompile of the GP2X code

 

[Pickle]

This sounds really nice, and I'm also excited about the fact it will run at least 3.5x as fast on the Pandora with just a recompile of the GP2X code

Provided SDL supports and is recompilied for pandora.

 

[sehs33]

Thanks for the answer Pickle, I will try making some tests over this weekend and report back.

 

[fusion_power]

I can run many EGA/PC Sound games like duke nukum at 200 Mhz. I have played stunts on the lowest settings and it was playable to some degree. It seems in general some vga titles can run decently with no sound.

STUNTS on GP2X? Nice! Is it complicated to make per-game configs for Dosbox onto the GP2X? Could be some configs included in the release?
And does Keen4 run Full-Speed? ^_^
And is "Stunt Island" possible?

 

[Pickle]

I can run many EGA/PC Sound games like duke nukum at 200 Mhz. I have played stunts on the lowest settings and it was playable to some degree. It seems in general some vga titles can run decently with no sound.

STUNTS on GP2X? Nice! Is it complicated to make per-game configs for Dosbox onto the GP2X? Could be some configs included in the release?
And does Keen4 run Full-Speed? ^_^
And is "Stunt Island" possible?


I dont have the other games your asking about. Keep in mind stunts is playable, i dont know if I would consider it full speed, but playable with the lowest settings.

 

[Rivroner]

How fast is running with sound Alone in the Dark? Thank you

 

[gruso]

Love your work Pickle, I can't wait to try it out.

I've been testing (and testing and testing) all my old EGA favourites with the intention of contributing a heap of config files to the archive, but my momentum eventually slowed to match the average frame rate I was getting. This release could see my plan back on track!

 

[Hitnrun]

How fast is running with sound Alone in the Dark? Thank you

I don't know how it was on the previous version (it didn't run on my F200), but on this version, without overclocking, I guess it runs at about 8-10fps with sound, is playable if you are a very patient person B)

 

[Pickle]

How fast is running with sound Alone in the Dark? Thank you

I don't know how it was on the previous version (it didn't run on my F200), but on this version, without overclocking, I guess it runs at about 8-10fps with sound, is playable if you are a very patient person B)
I would agree with that. The Tyrian 2000 demo is very smooth at the lowest settings.


QUOTE

Is it complicated to make per-game configs for Dosbox onto the GP2X? Could be some configs included in the release?



I dont plan on releasing any configs with this release, maybe one for the default script.
I want to add I asked Evildragon to create a sub section for dosbox configs while back. I plan to upload mine there. Thats where everyone should put them and get them.

 

[zodttd]

Great to hear Pickle. Yeah the dark side of Apple has been keeping me busy as of late. Though with Pandora on the horizon I will be back.

From what I've seen, DOSBox's dynarec is (was? been awhile) recompiling calls to functions to handle the emulation. This is deemed a "C Dynarec" by some. I still wonder how much it will help on a platform such as the GP2X. Someone did a MIPS (PSP) based dynarec for DOSBox, and I would like to know the gains in performance received by it. Anyone know offhand?

I still want to work on an ARM dynarec for DOSBox but each time I plan on doing it, something else pops up that needs attention. I'll just have to pick up the code and start going at it til it's done. With news of people still working on ARM based DOSBox ports, its definitely encouraging.

Thanks Pickle for the update. How hard was it to profile? I wonder what slowed it down so much!

 

[Pickle]

Great to hear Pickle. Yeah the dark side of Apple has been keeping me busy as of late. Though with Pandora on the horizon I will be back.

From what I've seen, DOSBox's dynarec is (was? been awhile) recompiling calls to functions to handle the emulation. This is deemed a "C Dynarec" by some. I still wonder how much it will help on a platform such as the GP2X. Someone did a MIPS (PSP) based dynarec for DOSBox, and I would like to know the gains in performance received by it. Anyone know offhand?

I still want to work on an ARM dynarec for DOSBox but each time I plan on doing it, something else pops up that needs attention. I'll just have to pick up the code and start going at it til it's done. With news of people still working on ARM based DOSBox ports, its definitely encouraging.

Thanks Pickle for the update. How hard was it to profile? I wonder what slowed it down so much!

Welcome back! Actually im glad to see you around. (now drop that iphone and stomp on it )
I would love to see a ARM dynarec, i think its beyond my current knowledge of ARM/X86 to develop.

The profile really isnt hard, but it's a little time consuming. The awesome steps are described by Notaz here:
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showt...28490&st=15

So basically create the "profile" build and ran it, copied all the new stuff back and recompiled. It can take time because it slows dosbox down even more than usual.
I actually used stunts for the first profile and the second I ran the doom demo. For the final Im going to try to chain up a few these so I hit as much code as possible.