README (assembler)

DOSBox v0.73

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NOTE:

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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 486 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.

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INDEX:

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1. Quickstart

2. FAQ

3. Usage

4. Internal Programs

5. Special Keys

6. Mapper

7. Keyboard Layout

8. Serial Multiplayer feature

9. How to run resource-demanding games

10. Troubleshooting

11. The config file

12. The language file

13. Building your own version of DOSBox

14. Special thanks

15. Contact

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1. Quickstart:

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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 "I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt" as

well as the description of the MOUNT command (section 4).

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2. FAQ:

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Some Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt.

Q: Do I always have to type these commands? Automation?

Q: How do I change to fullscreen?

Q: My CD-ROM doesn't work.

Q: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.

Q: The mouse doesn't work.

Q: There is no sound.

Q: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.

Q: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.

Q: The keyboard lags.

Q: The cursor always moves into one direction!

Q: The game/application runs much too slow!

Q: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!

Q: Can DOSBox harm my computer?

Q: I would like to change the memory size/cpu speed/ems/soundblaster IRQ.

Q: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?

Q: DOSBox crashes on startup and I'm running arts.

Q: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.

Q: Great README, but I still don't get it.

Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt.

A: 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.

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:\>".

Q: Do I always have to type these commands? Automation?

A: 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.

Q: How do I change to fullscreen?

A: 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 option fullresolution in the

configuration file of DOSBox. To get back from fullscreen mode:

Press alt-enter again.

Q: My CD-ROM doesn't work.

A: 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):

- mount d f:\ -t cdrom (windows)

- mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom (linux)

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

In the commands: - d driveletter you will get in DOSBox

- f:\ location of CD-ROM on your PC.

- 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.

Q: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.

A: 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 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-internal IMGMOUNT tool to mount the image (the CUE sheet).

This enables very good low-level CD-ROM support on any operating system.

Q: The mouse doesn't work.

A: 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.

Q: There is no sound.

A: 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 soundblaster16 with the default

settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1". You might also want to select

midi at address 330 as music device.

The parameters of the emulated soundcards can be changed in the DOSBox

configuration file.

If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal 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).

Q: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.

A: You're using too much CPU power to keep DOSBox running at the current speed.

You can lower the cycles, skip frames, reduce the sampling rate of

the respective sound device (see the DOSBox configuration file) or

the mixer device. You can also increase the prebuffer in the configfile.

If you are using cycles=max or =auto, then make sure that there is no

background processes interfering! (especially if they access the harddisk)

Q: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.

A: This can happen in various cases, like your host keyboard layout does not

have a matching DOS layout representation (or it was not correctly detected),

or the key mapping is wrong.

Some possible fixes:

1. Use / instead, or ALT-58 for : and ALT-92 for \.