DOSBox FAQ
Compatibility
Q. Where can I learn about the compatibility of a specific game or application?
A. The DOSBox Wiki has two pages devoted to compatibility and configuration.
You can also search the DOSBox community forums if you cannot find what you are looking for. If you can find the answer to your question, please help out the rest of the DOSBox community by writing an article about how you made your game or application work. Be sure to include the version of DOSBox you used.
Q. What if I cannot find any information about a specific game or application?
A. This might be a bit harder but you can try and find similar applications to the one your looking for. For instance, games produced by Sierra around the same time tend to use the same engine, and issues with one game can often be seen in other games. If your application is built on top of a larger platform like GWBasic, you can look for help by searching for that platform. If your trying to write an article about how you made your complex application work, try to reference the platform in your article so it can show up in search results for people trying to solve other issues.
Q. Does DOSBox support non QWERTY keyboard layouts and will it have the KEYB command?
A. It already does. Since 0.70.
Q. How do you print out of the DOS Box? Can you use the program's print to a parallel or serial printer?
A. If your application can print to a file, you can redirect the file to a printer. On Windows at a command prompt or at the Run option, you can use
COPY /B [FILE NAME] LPT1
to send a file to a printer (connected or mapped to LPT1). If the application can print in Postscript format, utilities like Ghostscript/Ghostview can be used to send the file to the printer. Also, some custom builds of DOSBox have the ability to capture print data to a image. More information about this beta feature can be found at HAL9000's webpage
Development
Q. How difficult will it be to implement a save state system for DOSBox?
Performance
Q. My game/application runs slowly, how do I improve speed?
A. Increase cycles. Use core=dynamic. Try different output modes (e.g. output=overlay). Increase Frameskip. Disable unneeded components in the dosbox.conf such as Sound, mouse or joystick emulation. If all else fails, find a faster computer to run DOSBox on.
Also be sure to check the compatibility section of this FAQ as some game/applications are more trouble (or resource hogs) than others.
Q. The Sound/Music for my DOS game/application sounds terrible what can I do?
A. This is a complicated issue covered in the Sound section of the wiki. It's important to remember to install or setup game/applications correctly to use the correct sound devices (INSTALL.EXE, SOUNDSET.EXE and SETUP.EXE are popular program names to look for). The capabilities of the hardware as well as the preferences of the programmer vary: Therefore what may sound "best" on one particular game may not be the "best" for another. Sometimes changes need to be made to the dosbox.conf file (or a new conf file) to get the best results.
Also, game sound/music may have an impact on the speed at which the game/application runs and running DOSBox with limited resources may result in incomplete or 'choppy' sound being heard. (see previous question)
Q. How do I change the memory size so that I can run programs that require more than the default settings (eg. Windows 1.01 or some other demanding OS)?
Usage
Q. My backslash key is mapped to ']' with DOSBox in Vista. Is there a workaround?
A. Press CTRL-F1 to enter the keymapper and select the backslash with your mouse. Press the DELETE button that will show up on your screen. Then press ADD to bind backslash to another key. Simply press an unused key to bind it to this. Press SAVE and then EXIT to return to the main screen.
Q. My cursor is trapped within the DOSBox window when I click inside. How do I get the cursor out?
A. DOSBox will capture your mouse when you click inside the display window (and you have autolock=true set in the Dosbox.conf). Simply press CTRL-F10 to release the mouse.
Q. I have set Gnome to load DOSBox when I click on .COM files. How do I script it to exit DOSBox when I quit from the game?
A. with -exit as commandline parameter for DOSBox.
Q. How do I access my hard drive/cdrom in DOSBox?
A. See the information on the MOUNT command, or type intro mount or intro cdrom in DOSBox for the basics.
Q. I have an ISO image I made of files for backup purposes. How do I access it in DOSBox?
A. See the information on the IMGMOUNT command
Q. How do I unmount or change images? I need to swap CD images in the drive.
A. You don't "unmount", you may assign more than one image file to IMGMOUNT, to swap images use CTRL-F4.
Q. I have created an image from a CD that includes CD audio tracks, when I access it in DOSBox only the first (data) track is available.
A. Be sure to use the bin/cue format for mixed mode CDs (CDs with a data and audio tracks) and always pass the cue file to IMGMOUNT.
