I hope we are getting DOSBox Pure at some point.

xwons

Ok, so first of all, let's assume you have the latest version of Retropie. I tried it in a raspberry pi 4, but it should work on a rpi3 as well.

Let's start by connecting to your RPi via ssh and downloading the source and compiling it:

git clone https://github.com/schellingb/dosbox-pure
cd dosbox-pure
make

After a while, it will compile a file called dosbox_pure_libretro.so. We have to copy it somewhere where Retropie can find it, the folder where the libretrocores are stored:

mkdir /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-dosbox-pure
cp dosbox_pure_libretro.so /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-dosbox-pure/

And now we have to tell retropie to use that core when launching DOSBox games. I find it easier if we first install the official (non-retroarch) dosbox package with the Retropie-setup script.
Run:

sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

and select Manage packages, Manage optional packages, dosbox, and install via binary files.
(this will add the MS-DOS entry to EmulationStation and create the pc folder in ~/RetroPie/roms/ where you can place your games).

Now we add dosbox-pure as an emulator for "pc" games:
Edit the /opt/retropie/configs/pc/emulators.cfg file with your preferred text editor and leave it like this:

dosbox = "bash /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Start\ DOSBox.sh %ROM%"
lr-dosbox-pure = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L  /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-dosbox-pure/dosbox_pure_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/pc/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
default = "lr-dosbox-pure"

Finally, since dosbox-pure can run games directly in .zip format, we tell EmulationStation to include Zip files in the list of games:
Edit the /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg, search for the section corresponding to the pc system, and add .zip and .ZIP as valid extensions. It should look like this:

<system>
   <name>pc</name>
   <fullname>PC</fullname>
   <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc</path>
   <extension>.bat .com .exe .sh .conf .zip .BAT .COM .EXE .SH .CONF .ZIP</extension>
   <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ pc %ROM%</command>
   <platform>pc</platform>
   <theme>pc</theme>
 </system>

Save, and restart Retropie. MS-DOS should now be an entry and your games should be listed in there. Many games will already be preconfigured to use a gamepad, and you can bring up a virtual keyboard by pressing L3 (the left analog stick in Playstation-like controllers).

Enjoy!

A Former User

@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.

dinth

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

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.

I understand your concerns about the preservation of installation media for dos games and I support the cause - keep all my original media backed up on a NAS and crashplan and take pride of my collection. But on the other hand, often i just want to play a game on my TV with a gamepad in my hand and then Dosbox-pure is perfect for me, not only allowing me to play old games but also having an added benefit of treating them as a console game - just switch on the tv, choose a game and jump straight into it. I believe those are two completely different use cases and its great that now both have dedicated tools.

BTW. Dosbox-pure is now available in experimental repo of RetroPie and so far it works perfectly fine on Raspberry 4

patomax

I'm testing it on a Rpi 3B + and it works flawlessly with Fuzzy and Little Big Adventure, my only complaint is that it saves the configuration to a .zip file in the same Rom folder, and ES confuses it with a game.

I saw that you can change the extension of the games to .dosz, I will have to do that for a while and remove it from looking for .zip files from es_config.

I also noticed that it detects the .map files automatically

retro81

@patomax there’s an easier workaround for this: change the default retroarch settings from saving saves to <content directory> to a folder of your choice, in my case I created “saves” in the default retroarch config fldr along with all the other retroarch stuff

williambarty

@xwons

Thanks so much for posting the step-by-step installation guide for DOSBox Pure -- incredibly clear and helpful!

patomax

@retro81 1332 / 5000
thank you, but in the end I decided to leave them in .dosz format because anyway you have to create the compressed file and in Pegasus frontend a strange bug happens that takes files from other folders.
These are the games that I put in dosbox Pure.

alt text

some games where the control configuration is detected automatically are missing important keys, for example in Pinball Illusion there is the ESC key to exit the table but the Y key is missing to confirm, in prince of persia 2 the ENTER key is missing to change options, the on-screen keyboard helps but does not always look good and the idea is to avoid its use if there are still buttons available on the control to use, at least they can still be assigned one by one, but key combinations cannot be assigned or at least I don't know how to do it.

I tried the MT-32 ROM I had in lr-scummvm in PURE and surprisingly it works, in some games it does not affect performance but in others it affects them in certain sections, more tests are required.

Some games that used images and that I transferred from my old Dosbox installation did not work, the best option is to just compress the image and install the game, the .Zip file works like the virtual hard disk. The games I install from GoG such as LBA have .Bin and .Cue images but they have the extensions changed to .GoG and .Dat respectively, they must be renamed and the emulator detects them.

that for now, I'll keep adding games.