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DOSBox v0.74 Manual (always use the latest version from www.dosbox.com) ===== NOTE: ===== While we are hoping that one day DOSBox will run all programs ever made for the PC, we are not there yet. At present, DOSBox running on a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent of a Pentium I PC. DOSBox can be configured to run a wide range of DOS games, from CGA/Tandy/PCjr classics up to games from the Quake era. ====== INDEX: ====== 1. Quickstart 2. Start (FAQ) 3. Command Line Parameters 4. Internal Programs 5. Special Keys 6. Joystick/Gamepad 7. KeyMapper 8. Keyboard Layout 9. Serial Multiplayer feature 10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox 11. Troubleshooting 12. DOSBox Status Window 13. The configuration (options) file 14. The language file 15. Building your own version of DOSBox 16. Special thanks 17. Contact ============== 1. Quickstart: ============== Type INTRO in DOSBox for a quick tour. It is essential that you get familiar with the idea of mounting, DOSBox does not automatically make any drive (or a part of it) accessible to the emulation. See the FAQ entry "How to start?" as well as the description of the MOUNT command (section 4: "Internal Programs"). If you have your game on a cdrom you may try this guide: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=8933 =============== 2. Start (FAQ): =============== START: How to start? AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these "mount" commands? FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen? CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work. CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work. SOUND: There is no sound. SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate? SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird. KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox. KEYBOARD: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only) KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags. CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction! SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast! CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes! CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup! GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems. SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer? OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options. HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it. START: How to start? At the beginning you've got a Z:\> instead of a C:\> at the prompt. You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory (that was created before). In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you a C drive in DOSBox which points to /home/username in Linux. To change to the drive mounted like above, type "C:". If everything went fine, DOSBox will display the prompt "C:\>". AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these commands? In the DOSBox configuration file is an [autoexec] section. The commands present there are run when DOSBox starts, so you can use this section for the mounting. Look at Section 13: The configuration (options) file FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen? Press alt-enter. Alternatively: Edit the configuration file of DOSBox and change the option fullscreen=false to fullscreen=true. If fullscreen looks wrong in your opinion: Play with the options: fullresolution, output and aspect in the configuration file of DOSBox. To get back from fullscreen mode: Press alt-enter again. CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work. To mount your CD-ROM in DOSBox you have to specify some additional options when mounting the CD-ROM. To enable CD-ROM support (includes MSCDEX) in Windows: - mount d f:\ -t cdrom in Linux: - mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom In some cases you might want to use a different CD-ROM interface, for example if CD audio does not work: To enable SDL-support (does not include low-level CD access!): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -noioctl To enable ioctl access using digital audio extraction for CD audio (windows-only, useful for Vista): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dx To enable ioctl access using MCI for CD audio (windows-only): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_mci To force ioctl-only access (windows-only): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dio To enable low-level aspi-support (win98 with aspi-layer installed): - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -aspi explanation: - d driveletter you will get in DOSBox (d is the best, don't change it!) - f:\ location of CD-ROM on your PC. In most cases it will be d:\ or e:\ - 0 The number of the CD-ROM drive, reported by "mount -cd" (note that this value is only needed when using SDL for CD audio, otherwise it is ignored) See also the next question: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM. Be sure to mount the CD-ROM with -t cdrom switch, this will enable the MSCDEX interface required by DOS games to interface with CD-ROMs. Also try adding the correct label (-label LABEL) to the mount command, where LABEL is the CD-label (volume ID) of the CD-ROM. Under Windows you can specify -ioctl, -aspi or -noioctl. Look at the description of the mount command in Section 4: "Internal programs" for their meaning and the additional audio-CD related options -ioctl_dx, ioctl_mci, ioctl_dio. Try creating a CD-ROM image (preferably CUE/BIN pair) and use the DOSBox's internal IMGMOUNT tool to mount the image (the CUE sheet). This enables very good low-level CD-ROM support on any operating system. MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work. Usually, DOSBox detects when a game uses mouse control. When you click on the screen it should get locked (confined to the DOSBox window) and work. With certain games, the DOSBox mouse detection doesn't work. In that case you will have to lock the mouse manually by pressing CTRL-F10. SOUND: There is no sound. Be sure that the sound is correctly configured in the game. This might be done during the installation or with a setup/setsound utility that accompanies the game. First see if an autodetection option is provided. If there is none try selecting Soundblaster or Soundblaster 16 with the default settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1" (sometimes highdma=5). You might also want to select Sound Canvas/SCC/MPU-401/General MIDI/Wave Blaster at "address=330 IRQ=2" as music device. The parameters of the emulated sound cards can be changed in the DOSBox configuration file. If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal in DOSBox configuration and use some lower fixed cycles value (like cycles=2000). Also assure that your host operating sound does provide sound. In certain cases it might be useful to use a different emulated sound device like a soundblaster pro (sbtype=sbpro1 in the DOSBox configuration file) or the gravis ultrasound (gus=true). SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate? DOSBox emulates several legacy sound devices: - Internal PC speaker/Buzzer This emulation includes both the tone generator and several forms of digital sound output through the internal speaker. - Creative CMS/Gameblaster The is the first card released by Creative Labs(R). The default configuration places it on address 220. It is disabled as default. - Tandy 3 voice The emulation of