Dosbox Vista Tutorial
This is an abridged and slightly edited version of the article originally published on videogameperfection.com. All updates to this article will now be done here. On this page we will be covering all the basics of setting up a game in DOSBox, including installing the game, running the game and configuring controllers. Initially we will create a single configuration suitable for running SVGA DOS games. Alternative configurations may be added in the future too. There are lots of types of games DOSBox can run and the best configuration for really old, 1980’s PC games isn’t always the best for games from the 1990’s for instance.
DOSBox users can get access to technology such as pixel shaders and scalers similar to those mentioned in our article on VideogamePerfection.com. However, by the early 1990’s PC games were already outputting to 640×480 screens, a resolution that most modern TVs and monitors can up-scale quite nicely. If you prefer to watch rather than read, check out this handy video tutorial. The video goes from having just installed DOSBox right up to getting a game running perfectly.
DOSBox SVGA configuration detailed guide Follow these steps if the article you are reading instructs you to use a standard DOSBox SVGA configuration. Step 1 – Download and Install DOSBox – If you haven’t installed DOSBox before, download it from. The file is downloaded as an executable installer, so simply run the installer after the download and follow the on-screen prompts. Step 2 – Create a DOSBox folder – After you have installed DOSBox, you need to create a folder on your computer to store your games if you have not done so already.
DOSBox can run old DOS programs on Windows XP and Vista. Windows Vista 64 cannot run DOS programs at all, and must use a program like DOSBox to run the programs.
You can put this folder anywhere; in the video I used C: DOSBox-c. You will need to note the path to the directory, if you don’t understand the concept of file paths, there’s a good tutorial. Step 3 – Start DOSBox and mount directories – Before you fire up DOSBox for the first time, you will want to insert your PC game CD into your CD/DVD drive and make a note of the drive letter. Now, you can start DOSBox. Before you can install the game, you will need to execute a couple of commands.
You interact with DOS PCs, and therefore DOSBox too, by typing commands and then pressing enter, rather than by clicking icons. The picture below shows a DOSBox session with the C drive mounted as a virtual hard drive. By entering the command “mount c c: dosbox-c”, we tell DOSBox to use the folder “dosbox-c” on the C drive as a virtual hard drive. To mount another folder, simply swap the “c: dosbox-c” with the correct path to the folder you want to use. Now, by entering the command “C:” we can change to this virtual drive and start working with it as if it were a real hard drive attached to our DOSBox PC. Mounting a CD-ROM is done in a similar way, but we need to tell DOSBox that the mount is a CD so that it can be handled accordingly.
The command to use is “mount d f: -t cdrom -usecd 0 -ioctl”. Substitute ‘f’ for the drive letter of your CD or DVD drive. Step 4 – Learn the basic commands – With your virtual hard drive and your CD-ROM mounted in DOSBox, there are a few handy commands you might want to learn in order to get around the emulator more efficiently.
DOS is not a case sensitive operating system, meaning you can type the commands here in capital or small letters and it will make no difference. Dir – displays a directory listing of the current directory. Directories are exactly the same concept as folders are in Windows.
Cd – change directory. For instance to change into a directory called “foo” you would type “cd foo”.
If you want to go back up to the previous directory, type “cd.”. Running a program or batch (BAT) file – To run a program, simply type the name of the program and press enter.
You can run anything labelled EXE, COM or BAT. Step 5 – Installing your game – Make sure you have mounted your games CD-ROM as described in step 3 above. Now, type “d:” and press enter to change to the ‘d’ drive (which is now your game CD). Type the “dir” command to get a list of files on the CD. Usually there will be one called “INSTALL EXE” or “INSTALL BAT” or something obvious. Type “install” or the name of the file to run and installation should then start.
Once it has completed, you can change back to your C drive (by typing c:) and then do a “dir” command again. You should see a new directory for your game.
Now it’s just a matter of issuing a “cd dirname” command (where’ dirname’ is the new folder name). You can then do a “dir” command again and find the EXE, COM or BAT file that should start the game. If we have produced a specific guide for a particular game, this step will be covered in more detail in the game guide. Step 6 – Automation – Having installed your first game, you might want to automate the mounting process we described in step 3 so that you don’t have to type long-winded commands each time.
To do this, you need to edit the DOSBox settings file. Open the Start Menu or Start screen and search for “DOSBox options” and click on the icon. A configuration file should open in Notepad.
Scroll right down to the bottom of the text file, to where it says “# Lines in this section will be run at startup. # You can put your MOUNT lines here.” Below this comment, add the mount commands as discussed in part 3, one per line. In our example that was “mount c c: dosbox-c” and “mount d f: -t cdrom -usecd 0 -ioctl” (without the quotation marks of course).
In the picture, the user has mounted their virtual C drive to G: ROMS DOS and their CD-ROM’s letter is ‘h’. Step 7 – Configuring controllers – After completing step 6, you should be able to start DOSBox and go instantly to your C drive and run your game. If you want to use keyboard controls only, then you are all set. For the rest of us, it’s time to test and remap some controllers.
To test joystick controls in DOSBox, there’s a handy utility called JOYTEST. You can download this program from. Place it in your DOSBox virtual C folder and you can then run it through DOSBox. This utility will then give you an overview of how your controls are mapped inside DOSBox. The picture below shows the program running. If you are using an Xbox 360 controller and it doesn’t appear to be working correctly, you may need to change a setting in the DOSBox configuration file.
Edit the DOSBox settings file as described in step 6 and locate the joystick section of the configuration file. Change the following line:- timed=true to read timed=false To reassign controllers, hold down the control key on your keyboard and press F1. This takes you to the remapping screen:- To use this screen, click on a control and then click “Add” to add a new mapping or “Del” to remove the current mapping. In the video tutorial the Xbox 360 controller is remapped so that up and down are configured to the left and right analogue triggers. This mapping is ideal for driving games. On an old fashioned joystick, the player would push up to accelerate and pull back to brake.
By reconfiguring the controls so that the analogue triggers are up and down, we effectively give this old game a more modern, comfortable control system. Pay attention to the positive and negative axis. If you map a positive axis on your controller to a negative axis in DOSBox, you will likely confuse the game and you won’t be able to complete controller calibration. Don’t forget to click Save when you are done remapping controls. Changes you make here will persist across DOSBox sessions. You can now test your new mappings in Joytest and then start your game. Most DOS games require controllers to be calibrated before they can be used.
To do this, select the appropriate option from the games menu. If you configured the controllers correctly you should be able to quickly calibrate them in the game and then start playing. Xpadder If you need to remap keyboard controls to your joypad while using DOSBox, we recommend using Xpadder. Although you can do this using the mapping screen in DOSBox, Xpadder is far more user friendly and pretty much anyone who is serious about PC gaming should own a copy anyway. We discuss Xpadder in more detail on on VideogamePerfection.com, but using it is easy.
Simply setup the controls for the game you are playing and then play.
Hi All I have been successfully using Dosbox in Vista for a number of old games. The problem i am having is specific to Xcom1 (UFO Enemy unknown) Dos version. I get no sound no matter which variation i use duing sound setup. Dosbox is loading SB16 on 220, 7, 1 but even with those setting on the setup i get no sound whatsoever. This is very weird as every other old dos game runs with no problems on Dosbox under Vista. Including TFTD.which is practically using same game and sound drivers as Xcom 1.
Can anyone please suggest why my sound wont come through. The game itself starts fine except for the sound. Another thing i noticed is that everytime o go back into the sound setup.it doesnt appear to remember the last settings i tried.
So the current settings is always blank. Could this have something to do with it? Perhaps its not actually saving the sound settings? Any help muich appreciated - I really need tyhis game to work w/sound or i may die And please no anti-Vista comments as all the other games i have tried recently work fine with sound in Vista/Dosbox.72 Newbie Posts: 15 Joined: 2007-11-28 @ 11:52. I was thinking maybe there is another solution.
Could someone please post their sound.cfg file for xcom with sb settings? Because i am conviced that my setup program is not actually doing anything to the sound settings in the config file.
I compared the cgf file with the one for TFTD whicvh i have.and with working sound.and the markings seem v different. In my Xcom 1 config file the mark is a simple Its been like that since installed xcom and it never changes no matter which sound settings i select in the setup. Or if someone could just open up their sound.cfg and copy/paste its content into this thread would be much appreciated. Newbie Posts: 15 Joined: 2007-11-28 @ 11:52. The 'sound.cfg' file is binary, so it's not important if it looks the same, it has to be the same in a byte-by-byte-compare. Anyway, i've played around with the sound config, and noticed some strange things. First, the sound setup prog doesn't seem to display previously configured settings, which is quite stupid IMHO.
Secondly, there are two sound.cfg files: one in the directory the game has been installed to, and one in the 'sound' subdirectory. After changing settings, the file in the 'game root' dir isn't updated (file date doesn't change), but the one in the 'sound' subdir is. The latter one seems to hold the settings. I presume the game should be started by one of the batch files (there are a few, with different names, but identical content). The batch executes a 'sound sndstart' command before launching the main exe(s), and a 'sound sndend' command afterwards. I guess these are important for sound support.
Does anyone remember if there was music playing during the game (in the Geoscape or Tactical screens)? I have sound effects in the intro and during the game, but only got some music during the intro. I only played for a short while, though.
Can't remember what the game's supposed to sound like. I've used the latest ykhwong build for testing. The game is the floppy version, updated to v1.2 and then v1.4. Digital sound was set to SB16 (DOSBox defaults), and music to GM. EDIT: there is music during different parts of the game, but it's so silent it's very hard to hear.
My mixer settings are default, and i didn't have any troubles with MIDI so far (and i've played a lot of games in DOSBox). Can anyone verify this effect? EDIT2: I tried the CD-ROM version of the game (v1.4, 1996), and the 'music too silent'-problem has gone away, it seems. Now, i have full sound and music during the game. On a different note: i have very fond memories of this game, but after playing through Jagged Alliance some days ago, UFO feels like a game on the C-64 (;. Oh, and i forgot to mention that i'm running DOSBox under XP. I'd rather throw my PC's out of the window than installing Vista, aka Windows ME v2.0.
Oldbie Posts: 1170 Joined: 2007-2-02 @ 15:07 Location: Retroland. Addict, I tried copying that file into the xcom root directory. It does seem to change according to the sound setup but it didnt give me sound. I could play xcom if i atleast had sound effects. The wepaon sounds and people screaming durng terror missions gives it alot of the atmosphere.
But I could without the music no probs. By the way, Ive notcied the sound.cfg stays at 18 bytes size no matter which setting is made in sound setup - even though the binary is changing. Newbie Posts: 15 Joined: 2007-11-28 @ 11:52.
Red Avatar Oh great. That version must be the one i have. I originally bought Xcom 1 on a buget title in about 96/7 - lost the cd though i still have the manual. The version i downloaded was the dos zip from Abandonia.
Maybe I'll try some other sites and see if any work instead. I dont suppose using the sound file from the Windows version with the Dos version would make any difference? On the Windows version - without dosbox - i do get sound but no video on Vista! What a joke Neville, Im trying this from a clean install - not an updated version of xcom.
I am starting to think it may be as Red Avatar has mentioned - i am using a duff version. Thanks for all your helps. Newbie Posts: 15 Joined: 2007-11-28 @ 11:52.
Thanks for the help guys. I have found a working version for Dosbox and Vista. Red Avatar and Neville were both correct. I tracked down the 1.2 dos version of xcom 1 and it works great.sound, effects and everything!
Dosbox at 3000 cycles also seems to slow down the scroll on the battlemaps - which i was concerned about because in TFTD the map scrolling is ridiculous and almost makes it unplayable but for the most patient. The scroll is way slower in xcom 1.2 - YAY When i heard the intro music for the first time I almost wet myself. By the way, is there a bug problem with 1.2? Newbie Posts: 15 Joined: 2007-11-28 @ 11:52. Coldcall: consider yourself slapped in the face, hard.
Why didn't you mention that you've tried to play an illegal 'Abandonware' version of the game?! If i knew that, i wouldn't have tried to help you in the first place.
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Your 'problem' is a very good example why 'Abandonware' should not be supported. I've tried the mantra before, but i hope i'll remember next time: NOTE TO SELF - ASK ABOUT THE GAME'S SOURCE BEFORE TRYING TO HELP! Well, the positive thing is that i'm currently playing the game (the v1.4 CD version), and enjoying it. Works perfectly well in DOSBox.
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Oldbie Posts: 1170 Joined: 2007-2-02 @ 15:07 Location: Retroland.