I hope we are getting DOSBox Pure at some point.

@darksavior it seems eventually there will be no limit to what vintage game the Raspberry Pi can run, it has already emulated the overwhelming majority of gaming systems out there, the one thing it appears to be missing is full DOS x86 emulation with 3D acceleration and support for Windows 9x, which was also used as a gaming OS by many.

retropieuser555

@xwons nice write up! So which games have you tried and found don't run quite so well? I've also noticed putting games in zips makes them load slower.

xwons

@retropieuser555 For some reason, I was not able to run any games that need to mount a CD image to work. I kept receiving errors that the CD could not be mounted. I must look into it. Maybe being inside a Zip file is the reason? I left them that way for convenience.

Many games ask what sound card you want to use when starting. Selecting SoundBlaster usually works fine, but selecting other options often crashes the game.

Also, some games run slow, like Duke Nukem 3D, or are not configured to use a gamepad (e.g. Simcity 2000 or Street Fighter II).

ecto

@xwons said in I hope we are getting DOSBox Pure at some point.:

@retropieuser555 For some reason, I was not able to run any games that need to mount a CD image to work. I kept receiving errors that the CD could not be mounted. I must look into it. Maybe being inside a Zip file is the reason? I left them that way for convenience.

I think on the DosBox Pure Git page it is mentioned that tere is a bug and the CD image has to be in any subfolder. This will certainly be fixed sonn, I guess.

BugAttack

@xwons thanks for the write-up, I installed the latest version (0.4) from GitHub based on your instructions and was impressed how easy/well the couple of games worked that I tested. Hopefully it will soon be added as a standard option for RetroPie.

acril

@xwons thank you for your writeup - it was really helpful. I had one issue with EmulStation which did not want to load my DOS games. It was actually my fault, because I was making changes in /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg earlier and it seams that it has higher priority to /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg.

Now I have different issue -> I have poor performance on DOSBox Pure 0.5 (display is fine I guess, but sound is bad).

Probably I messed up with Retroarch configuration, but I am not sure what exactly. Could anyone share some screenshots of Retroarch options directly from game? I 've tried to make some tweaks but with bad results.

BTW, I am on RPI 4B, 2GB RAM, overclocked: arm 1850, gpu 750, v3d 750, overvoltage 5. Probably not relevant, because other platforms works just fine.

acril

Update to previous message:
I am able to successfully play games (without weird sound) when started RetroArch directly from RetroPie menu instead of starting the game from PC / MS DOS menu. I checked configuration I've tried copy saved config file when everything seams to working directly to /opt/retropie/configs/pc/retroarch.cfg and ~/.config/retroarch/config/dosbox_pure_libretro.cfg, but sound is the same.

I am confused, why opening with RetroPie menu -> RetroArch works well and opening directly a game from Emulastation creates such crackling noise...

ZzackK

When will be add to experimental packets in retropie?

BenMcLean

The problem with DOSBOX Pure is that its format encourages game rips which is bad for game preservation because we need to preserve installation media. DOS needs a standard archiving format which includes installation media and (for CD games) disc images.

hooperre

@benmclean Do you mind explaining why it encourages game rips over full disc images?

retro81

@themazingness awesome lr fork! Just a small question: anyone knows the game names on minute 2:00 and 3:00? I remember playing these years ago but can’t remember the names! Thanks

retro81

Found them with google lens: Xenon 2 and Jagged Alliance ;-)

BenMcLean

@hooperre said in I hope we are getting DOSBox Pure at some point.:

Do you mind explaining why it encourages game rips over full disc images?

Cause all it does is run game rips and treats the game rips like as if they're console ROMs. If that format is popularized for DOS games then the installation media won't get preserved.

Might be better if the "console ROM" like part had the installation media in it and the "save state" like part was where the installed version went.

themazingness

@benmclean Interesting point. I'd counter that it encourages archiving formats and archiving is preservation. I'd also argue that it isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. As an SVN it is a branch of DosBox, not the definitive one. It's merely one option.

I've settled on DosBox-X because it actually feels like I'm using DOS. I think it's cool that this one focuses a bit more on making it a console like experience.

As romantic as your idea sounds, floppies and cds are all volatile and won't last forever. CDs scratch. Floppies are an endangered species and easily deteriorate. I admire the idea of preserving these as best as possible though.