DOSbox v0.73 is out!

[Shoonay]

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

Changes:
0.73
- Add two new opl2+opl3 emulators. (better speed, different implementation approach)
- Improved DRO recording/better file structure.
- Add EGA emulation.
- Add special vga machine mode. Supports more of the exotic tricks like changing the palette during screen updates, 9x16 fonts etc.
- Added special machine modes for the following svga cards: S3, Paradise, Tseng
- Fix problems with the vga split line feature.
- Improve vesa emulation.
- Add optional selection of old vesa mode for games that don't work with certain vesa features.
- Improve video BIOS emulation to behave more like a real bios.
- Fixes for emulated 4bpp graphics modes.
- Fixes to paging system.
- Various fixes and improvements for the recompiling core.
- Add arm backend for the recompiling core.
- Add some mscdex quirks when dealing with files that are exactly 8.3 long.
- Small fixes to batch file handling.
- Small fixes to the XMS memory handling.
- Various fixes for aligned memory on hosts that want it.
- Various improvements to the mouse.
- Fixes and small speed ups to the debugger.
- Fix and improve lot's of compilation problems. (curses detection, GCC 3.4 and GCC 4.X fixes)
- Added some basic auto keyboard layout handling. (windows only currently)
- Add basic support for evdev keyboard driver.
- Various fixes to the timer. (improve mode 2 timer changes, implement mode 1, improve gate2 handling)
- Add audio extraction and mci audio support. Should enable CDROM audio for Vista and adds volume control.
- Improve the directory cache speed a lot, especially with mounting slow media like network paths.
- Various fixes to the create temporary file call.
- Don't keep batchfiles open during execution. Allows rewriting of the active batchfile. (menu programs use this trick sometimes)
- Fix problems with filenames with 2 extensions.
- Add some more lowlevel dos tables.
- Fixes to hercules emulation.
- Fix flag handling for special case of ROR.
- Make the batchfile handling in regard to IF more flexible.
- Fixes to scrolling/panning feature.
- Add prefetch queue emulation.
- Make the emulated cpu type selectable. This is mainly the identification commands and the way paging works.
- Some special EMS functionality added. (OS handles, zero-page handling)
- Improve support for EMS when booting a different OS.
- Improve cdrom speed detection by games.
- Improve stability of cycle guessing code, when there is background activity.
- Fix various mscdex and cdrom detection schemes.
- Added Coremidi support on Mac OS X.
- Improve support for DOS devices when used to detect the existance of directories in various ways.
- Add IRQ 2 emulation on VRET. (ega only)
- Added video parameter table and video state functionality.
- Increase default freespace to 250 MB.
- Some fixes to the fat filesystem handling for disk images.
- Some soundblaster fixes and command additions.
- Fix mixer 16bit direct transfers on bigendian hosts.

here's hoping for a native x64 version

[keropi]

[TCD]

/me is off grabbing it...

[Shoonay]

BTW: just noticed a few configuration options had been totally changed and some have been added, so it is advised to delete or rename your old config file, restart without one and add the necessary changes based on your old one and the new available options.

[Arnie]

Nice one Shoonay

[billy]

BOO-YAH!

Thanks for the heads up!

[MethodGit]

Now if only they added support for maintaining original datestamps on the files during creation, rather than stamping today's bloody date on everything.... I'd be setup with this for life!

[TCD]

@MethodGit
Huh? Erm, not sure I get the point... If you would use a game on a real hardware it would also get the current timestamp of your system. Well, maybe this is useful for you then : http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by MethodGit

Now if only they added support for maintaining original datestamps on the files during creation, rather than stamping today's bloody date on everything....

Que? Where should that "original date" come from when a file is created?

[TCD]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Que? Where should that "original date" come from when a file is created?

Now that's a good question. Maybe DosBox should look at the other dates in the folder and choose the average one...

[PowerPie5000]

Thanks Shoonay! I am still going to try this out even if i do already have 2 old Dos/Win 95 machines now

[MethodGit]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Que? Where should that "original date" come from when a file is created?

Certain installation programs will retain original datestamps on the files it creates. Try, say, installing Doom Shareware, both natively and under DOSBox and check the dates on the files it creates each time. You'll soon see what I mean.

[Shoonay]

You mean Doom Shareware will check how long you use it and shut off if the time limit is over? Dunno, never checked it...
Why don't you dl the full version then which is available, like, EVERYWHERE.
I have not a single idea why those datestamps should be so important...

[MazinKaesar]

I still wait:

* a x64 version
* save states feature

[Kyon]

shoonay very good relase mate
i am waiting that a long while . thanks

[GraveR]

Originally Posted by MazinKaesar

I still wait:

* a x64 version

Use the source, Luke:

file /usr/local/bin/dosbox
/usr/local/bin/dosbox: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.15, not stripped

[MethodGit]

Originally Posted by Shoonay

You mean Doom Shareware will check how long you use it and shut off if the time limit is over? Dunno, never checked it...
Why don't you dl the full version then which is available, like, EVERYWHERE.
I have not a single idea why those datestamps should be so important...

Okay, look, no, I'll explain further.

I gave Doom only as an example of file generation through DOS. Start with these files....



The installation setup files that come in doom19s.zip. The game is installed by means of running this program.


Doom's installation program is one of those good examples of programs that run natively well under XP. Doing it the native way will produce these files...



Notice the 1995 dates on the right. A real DOS system/box is capable of doing this. This is what I mean by maintaining datestamps.


Now, install the program again but this time under DOSBox. And this is the result you'll get...



As you can see, the original dates have not been transferred over, and instead they're all dated from the moment the files were created!


This was tested last night under v0.73. While there is a CVS build of DOSBox that can keep original dates, it is not as up to date (most recent version was released last week but is still based on v0.72 somewhat, and it has a lot of features removed from the last proper release, which was back in 2007), and I wish to keep DOSBox as up-to-date as possible, but in turn this means I have to sacrifice datestamp retrieval in the process. =[ I have inquired one of the DOSBox build maintainers for help and information as to how one can find the datestamp code amongst ykhwong's source and subsequently merge it into the latest CVS (which will be very difficult as I have zero experience in CVS building as it is), but so far he has only got back to me once, and that in turn took him many days (practically a week even) to reply.


Now do you see what I mean?


For the record, sure it may be easier to just install DOS programs natively, but there are many cases where installers for certain games will not work properly that way (if at all), and therefore have to be run under DOSBox. I don't like seeing all the dates get messed up, particularly as it would make it more difficult to pick out newer files in the directory when necessary.

[seuden]

Great news. All I need now is DOSBox for teh iPhone.

[Shoonay]

@MethodGit: sure, I know what you mean by maintaining the date stamps, but I don't find it a problem... most my games come in preinstalled state so even if they would check for the date for something, the files are still in the original time.

[Predabot]

I wonder when DOSBoX will start to emulate the first AMD and INTEL architectures? It's only a matter of time, before it's both necessary and possible, yes?