[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Recommended MS-DOS emulators

2.1 n0p's DOSBox port (current version: 0.63)

As has already been stated, this emulator is the most recommended generic MS-DOS emulator. It's way faster than any other DOSBox port. Its only problems are the following:

the complete lack of support for high-resolution (for example, VGA) devices

being a heavily simplified version of the desktop counterpart, it doesn't support various goodies like MIDI sound (which is way better than the FM synthesizer-based AdLib cards) or emulated modem via Internet / LAN connections for multiplayer (or generic communication).

It, on the other hand, is VERY fast and has a lot of goodies none of the other Windows Mobile DOSBox ports can boast of:

SPEED!

Automatic cycles setting, always providing the best compromise (no need to manually set the cycles)

Very good AdLib / SoundBlaster (SB) emulation

Transparent software input panel (SIP)

It's based on DOSBox version 0.63, which isn't the latest DOSBox version; it's still definitely newer than 0.61, on which some other (not recommended) DOSBox ports are based on (including n0p's own old 0.61 port and that of Mamaich).

n0p is Russian and mostly contributes to Russian forums. Currently, he doesn't plan to update his port to 0.70 (the, currently, latest-and-greatest desktop DOSBox version). It's highly unlikely he will release a version with VGA support either. I'll try to convince him to visit English language forums too so that non-Russian speakers can also speak to him and maybe convince him to develop his emulator further.

2.1.1 Major differences between the original (desktop) and the Windows Mobile versions

While the emulation core is here, n0p’s port (as with other WM ports) lack several ‘goodies’. One of them is MPU-401 (for example, MT32) emulation (see for example the difference between AdLib and MT32 with the infamous game Spellcasting 101: start the game as S101 MT32 2 330 and compare it to the case of running SB-SOUND.COM /b24 and starting S101 without parameters. Also see THIS, THIS and THIS).

Another is connectivity for, say, multiplayer games like F29 Retaliator or Populous (also see: Directserial and Modem Guide; DosBox Guide to Multiplayer Games). While in the desktop version everything is supported (IPX over net; modem and direct serial emulation), in n0p’s version, modem emulation is surely not supported (I’ve thoroughly tested with both F29 Retaliator and Populous); I don’t think IPX is, either. I haven’t tested direct serial connections.

Finally, other goodies like making screenshots of the current screen or capturing WAV / MIDI files are also impossible with the mobile version.

The mobile version, on the other hand, has automatic cycles setting. This isn’t really needed on the desktop (where the CPU, with current PC’s, is powerful enough to run anything “old” at the highest cycles available); on current Windows Mobile devices, however, is a godsend.

2.1.2 Usage

First, download either the XScale or the more generic ARM version from the download page. Uncompress it with (if you aren’t using for example Total Commander) WinRAR to anywhere on your WM handheld (including storage cards). Start dosbox.exe (you can also create a link to it into \Windows\Start Menu\Programs or one of its subfolders like Games if you want to so that you can start it without having to use a file explorer tool).

After starting the emulator, you’ll see something like this (showing the mount command listed at the end of the original configuration file didn’t work):

Now, enter the “mount c "\Storage Card"” command, where change “Storage card” to the name of your storage card (for example, “CF Card” or “SD Card”) if it’s named so as in, say,

mount c "\SD card"

Then, enter the

c:

command to change to the now-mounted virtual drive. Then, by using the “cd” (Change Directory) command, you can step into any directory to execute any programs in there by just entering its name – as was the case with the “real” MS-DOS.

You will also want to include the two commands (or, more precisely, change the “mount c "\cf card\drive"” command already in there) in the dosbox.conf file in the same directory where you’ve unpacked the original, compressed DOSBox distribution. Then, after exiting the emulator (by clicking the exit icon in the upper right corner of the on-screen keyboard) and restarting the emulator. This is shown in this screenshot).

Note that you can also mount virtual CD-ROM's with the same command, by adding the "-t cdrom" parameter. Prefer using the virtual drive D: to mount directories containing the root of the CD file system! Also see THIS (and, with the forthcoming PocketDOS, THIS). An example command:

mount d "\SD card\7thguestCD" -t cdrom

Also note that in order to bring up the full keyboard, you will need to tap the upper left corner of the screen. Then, the keyboard is shown in its entirety (screenshot), part of it transparently (that is, you see what’s under it). Click the corner again to hide the transparent portion. (By the way, this transparency is one of the best features of this emulator). Alternatively, you can also use the “scroll bar” dragging area (screenshot) to quickly drag up and down the keyboard.

2.1.3 dosbox.conf tweaking

If you know the desktop DOSBox version, you may also have heard of its configuration file 'dosbox.conf', already mentioned in the previous section. With the desktop version, you may want to spend some time on learning what the individual parameters are and how they should be configured to achieve the best performance, set up your virtual modem configuration so that you can play for example Populous in multiplayer mode with anyone in the world and so on. (You can find a description of the desktop version HERE).

With n0p's port, most of the parameters that need to be tweaked in the desktop version don't really need to be touched if you want to have better performance. In the desktop version, you may want to spend considerable time testing for example how the OpenGL version of the emulator behaves compared to the normal one. In the WM version, this is not necessary because OpenGL (and other, alternative screen output methods) are simply not supported. This is certainly good in that you don't need to spend any time on fine-tuning the emulator - it'll deliver the best performance "out of the box".

However, there are still some parameters you may need to know of; most probably, the following ones:

core (the most important one - you'll need to edit it if you plan to run 80386+ apps / games)

memsize (if the default three Mbytes of EMS / XMS wouldn't be sufficient. It's only with few titles that it isn't; for example, with Heroes of Might and Magic, which requires 4434 kbytes of XMS / EMS and 374 kbytes of conventional memory)

finally, the autoexec section, where you should put at least mounting in your storage card(s) and changing to there so that you can save you some typing

And, some less important, but still useful parameters:

dpadmouse (if you plan to play a game that doesn't support the other two forms of mouse emulation. There are very few cases you will ever need this.)

hwkeyX and hwkeyX_ma (if you want to redefine what the four hardware keys do and what their effect on the mouse buttons are)