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Dosbox 0.74 is a emulator that enables you to play most Dos games which were produced from 1982 to 1995. Running the emulator does require you have a knowledge of Ms-Dos commands, and you have to go in the .ini file to change the settings for each games. This can be a bit tedious to do every game; however, there is a way around it by configuring the .conf files and creating batch files. Every single Dos game isn’t compatible, for the most part many do work. Some are compatible, but they will not work correctly if you don’t configure the .ini file correctly. To use this emulator correctly, the learning curve is higher than most emulators; never the less, I will highlight everything you have to know. In addition, I have made many tutorial videos which will help you.
Here are the things I will cover.
Dosbox Basic Tutorial
This video will show you how to run Dosbox manually.
0.74 Running CD ROM Games
You can use various interfaces, like floppy drives, or optical drives. Most people still have optical drives, like DVD-ROM drives, so you can set your DVD-ROM drive as a CD-ROM drive. This will enable you to use Dos applications which came on CDs.
DosBox 0.74 How to Run Image ISO Files
You can run games with CDs, but it can be run in .cue or .iso format as well. IF you run it in ISO form, the game will run more smoothly
Instructions:
Mount single ISOS or CUE files
imgmount d “drive:\pathname\filename.cue” -t iso
imgmount d “drive:\pathname\filename.iso” -t iso
example:
imgmount d “c:\btech\bt.iso” -t iso
To run multiple isos or cues mount in this fashion.
imgmount d “c:\Disk_1.iso” “c:\Disk_2.iso” “c:\Disk_3.iso” -t iso
imgmount d “c:\Disk_1.cue” “c:\Disk_2.cue” -t iso
During game play to switch isos press “Ctrl” and “F4” together to swap. Every time you press those
keys together, you will be able to swap to the next disk.
For example, the game is asking for disk 3. I will have to press “Ctrl” to “F4” about 2 times. The disk
starts from disk one, and you need to press “Ctrl” + “F4” two more times to get to disk 3.
Configuring .conf file for Each Game
Configuring settings for each game every time you use Dosbox 0.74 is labor intensive, so you can shorten the process by configuring .conf files. Then, you can also create a batch file which will enable you to run the game with its settings by running the batch file.
Configuring the Dosbox.conf file is a good thing to know, because you don’t have to change the default Dosbox.conf file every time you play a different game. Instead, you can make a .conf file for each game, and run each game with its own custom settings. You can make a batch file to run each game after you make a .conf file for the game. Procedure:
1. Go to the file explorer and type in %appdata%
2. This will come out. C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming. You want to change it to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local .
3. Look for the Dosbox folder, and copy the dosbox-0.74.conf file and paste it to get a duplicate.
4. Change the dosbox-0.74.conf file name to another name. For example. wc.conf .
5. Open up notepad and copy the directory where you found the .conf file.
6. Find the dosbox directory in. It should be C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74.
7. Open a notepad and write a batch file.
8. Batch script sample. @echo off
c:
cd\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74
Start DOSBox.exe -conf “C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\DOSBox\WC.conf”
After you do this, save it as all files, and save it as a .bat file. This is just a sample, make sure you
know where you put that .conf file, and get the dosbox directory correct as well.
9. Make a menu.
Sample menu. This batch file will open all the existing batch files I created to run each game with its own .conf files. The directory will be different for you, I put my directory on my desktop, but you can put anywhere on c:, d:, e:….z:, etc.
@echo off
:start
cls
echo Select 1 for LHX
echo Select 2 for Simcity
echo Select 3 for WC1
echo select 4 for WC2
echo select 5 for WCSM2
echo select 6 for Nukewar
echo select 7 to exit menu echo.
set /p select=Please make a selection and press enter to continue.:
if %select% leq 7 (
goto part_%select%
) else (
goto start
)
:Part_1
cd “C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\Emulators\Dosbox Shortcuts”
call LHX.bat
goto start
:part_2
cd “C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\Emulators\Dosbox Shortcuts”
call simcity.bat
goto start
:part_3
cd “C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\Emulators\Dosbox Shortcuts”
call wc1.bat
goto start
:part_4
cd “C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\Emulators\Dosbox Shortcuts”
call wc2.bat
goto start
:part_5
cd “C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\Emulators\Dosbox Shortcuts”
call wcsm2.bat
goto start
:part_6
cd “C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\Emulators\Dosbox Shortcuts”
call nukewar.bat
goto start
:part_7
exit
I also have a video that highlights the commands for Dosbox, it is useful to refer to this from time to time.
DosBox Settings Reference
If you want to record game play on Dosbox 0.74, you will have to install the Dosbox Movie Codec.
Google Fixed Horizontel Ad
DosBox Movie Codec doesn’t Install on Windows 7 64 bit fix.