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Basic Setup and Installation of DosBox

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$ Basic %oncepts & Installation ' (unning a game ) *lte!nate methods fo! !unning a game + ,e!fo!mance - .the! /seful featu!es o -.$ 0uick sta!t
o

-.& 1ull Sc!een

Basic Concepts
D.SBox is an emulato! that !ec!eates a 2S3D.S compatible envi!onment 4complete with Sound Input 5!aphics and even basic netwo!king6. 7his envi!onment is complete enough to !un man8 classic 2S3D.S games completel8 unmodified. In o!de! to utili9e all of D.SBox:s featu!es 8ou need to fi!st unde!stand some basic concepts about the 2S3D.S envi!onment.

2ount a D!ive D!ives Sound Displa8 Input %onnectivit8 42odems/;etwo!king6

Installation
7he fi!st step is to install D.SBox. 7his guide will use the <.=& >indows '& ve!sion which is available fo! download. Download the !elease fo! 8ou! ope!ating s8stem. If 8ou a!e a >indows use! get the Win32 installer.

*fte! downloading install D.SBox to an8 di!ecto!8. *lso make a folde! to put all 8ou! old games in. I put D.SBox in C:\DOSBox and m8 old games di!ecto!8 is C:\OLDGAMES. I put a game in m8 OLDGAMES di!ecto!8 TESTDRIV which is 7est D!ive an old !acing game. ?ou! di!ecto!ies should look like this:

Running a game
;ow the ha!dest pa!t getting games to !un. 1i!st !un dosbox exe in 8ou! D.SBox folde!. (emembe! that OLDGAMES di!ecto!8 8ou c!eated in Step $@ ?ou have to basicall8 set that as new di!ecto!8 Aust fo! D.SBox. Bssentiall8 it:s going to become the C!"# d!ive of D.SBox. So t8pe:
Z:\>MOUNT C C:\OLDGAMES Drive C mounted as local directory C:\OLDGAMES\

7o dissect the above:

$O%&': 7ells the p!og!am to mount a di!ecto!8 C: 7ells the p!og!am what 8ou want 8ou! new d!ive to be called 4leaving it as %: is fine6 C!"O(D)*$+S: 7his is the di!ecto!8 I want to set as the new d!ive fo! D.SBox because all m8 games a!e in it. If 8ou c!eated a diffe!ent di!ecto!8 w!ite in the di!ecto!8 8ou c!eated.

(Note: If you want to mount a CD-ROM instead of a folder, type this:

Z:\>MOUNT D D:\ -t cdrom MSCDEX installed. Drive D is mounted as CD om D:\

(Note: "cdrom" is case sensitive and must e lowercase!" In this example D!" ,' cdrom tells D.SBox that m8 D:C d!ive is a %D3(.2 d!ive and the fi!st D tells D.SBox what m8 new d!ive name should be called. If 8ou a!e !unning 8ou! game off a %D3(.2 then make su!e to use D! in place of C! in the following examples. ?ou can find inst!uctions on how to mount othe! devices such as flopp8 d!ives in the mount section6. *fte! 8ou:ve done this 8ou will be p!ompted with a -!"#. ;ow Aust w!ite what 8ou wanted to call 8ou! new D.SBox d!ive which as I said above we called C. 7o navigate to that newl8 mounted d!ive Aust t8pe in:

Z:\>C: C:\>

Dopefull8 8ou:!e all setE ;ow it:s time to !un the game. ,!eviousl8 I had mentioned a game called TESTDRIV in m8 OLDGAMES folde!. I now want D.SBox to go to that folde!. So t8pe in:
C:\>CD TESTDRIV C:\!ES!D "#>

7hat:s itE %D stands fo! F%hange Di!ecto!8F so 8ou:ve changed the di!ecto!8 to 7BS7D(IG. ?ou can find inst!uctions on how to use the %hange Di!ecto!8 command in the %D section of the %ommands a!ticle. .ne mo!e step !unning the gameE 2ost games have an BHB file in thei! di!ecto!8 that 8ou can !un. Doweve! some might !eIui!e a B*7 file o! %.2 file 4common in demos and !eall8 old games6. 2ost of the time the file is in the !oot folde!. ,lease consult the documentation of 8ou! game fo! which file is needed to sta!t the game. In the case of 7est D!ive it:s 'DC)* +.+. So now I Aust t8pe this:
C:\!ES!D "#>TDCGA.EXE

7hat:s itE De!e:s a pictu!e of all of the commands I:ve w!itten about in Step &:

*lternate met/ods for running a game

7he steps desc!ibed above a!e closel8 aligned with how D.S Based ope!ating s8stems behave nativel8. Doweve! mode!n ope!ating s8stem allow fo! mo!e use! f!iendl8 4although less authentic6 wa8s of pla8ing 8ou! favo!ite games. If the steps above seem tedious o! confusing 8ou can t!8 some of these othe! guides. In most cases these guides will still !eIui!e 8ou to setup a wo!king D.SBox envi!onment.

/sing 1!ontends %!eating desktop sho!tcuts o in 2ic!osoft >indows o in *pple .SH o in Jinux 5;.2B

;.7B: If 8ou have p!oblems with launching the game un!ecogni9able e!!o!s being spit out saving settings o! having the game d!op out while !unning it one thing to t!8 is to make su!e all the files a!e not set to (ead .nl8. In >indows select the folde! of the game !ight click and hit p!ope!ties uncheck Read Onl0 if it is checked and appl8 to all sub folde!s. If 8ou have othe! e!!o!s please sea!ch the fo!ums fi!st befo!e posting a Iuestion.

1erformance
?a8 8ou:ve gotten 8ou! game to !unE But ma8be 8ou:!e expe!iencing slowdown@ Dow do 8ou fix this@ >ith the following commands:
CTRL+F K Dec!eases f!ameskip CTRL+F! K Inc!eases 1!ameskip CTRL+F"" K Slows down the game CTRL+F"# K Speeds up the game

,!ess CTRL+ALT+DEL to open the 7ask 2anage! and click the ,e!fo!mance tab. Sta!t b8 p!essing CTRL+F"# until 8ou! %,/ /sage level begins to go above L+M. *fte! that if 8ou still need a pe!fo!mance boost hit CTRL+F! to have D.SBox not !ende! some f!ames. 7he console window will displa8 all of the changes 8ou:ve made and the top of the game window will displa8 the cu!!ent settings. *dAust these settings as needed until 8ou! game goes smoothl8. Please keep in mind that not all games will run smoothly on DOSBox.

Ot/er %seful features

2uick start

?ou can save 8ou!self some time b8 having D.SBox automaticall8 2./;7 8ou! folde!s and change the d!ive to C!. In o!iginal D.S based ope!ating s8stems a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT contained an8 commands that the use! wanted executed eve!8 time the compute! booted up. 7his functionalit8 is simulated b8 the "autoexec# section of the dosbox.conf file. 1o! D.SBox ve!sions olde! than <.=' b!owse into p!og!am installation folde! and open the dosbox.conf file in an8 text edito!. 1o! ve!sion <.=' go to Sta!t 2enu and click on F%onfigu!ationF and then FBdit %onfigu!ationF. 7hen sc!oll down to the ve!8 end and add these lines:
MO$%! C C:\OLDGAMES C:

;ow those commands will be executed automaticall8 when sta!tingE If 8ou:!e having t!ouble with that make su!e it looks like this 4look at the bottom6:

Full Screen
Just p!ess ALT+ENTER to go into and out of full sc!een. *lte!nativel8 8ou can open the dosbox.conf file as mentioned above and change Ffullsc!eenKfalseF to Ffullsc!eenKt!ueF. D.SBox will then !un in full sc!een mode when 8ou open it.