SB16 Emulation in XP?

[Oifish]

I really want to play some old dos games, but I don't know how to get SB16 Emulation working. Do I just find the .inf file and load it that way or do I have to download new drivers. Please help.

 

[Brian48]

I could never get it work correctly in WinXP. At least not to the point where Duke3d could run properly.

 

[Oifish]

Well, when I used to have ME the guy at creative said that it's only possible on XP or 2000. I was planning on getting XP anyways, and it works great except for the fact that the emulation wont work.

 

[bluemax]

Trust me, having a cheap-as-free old PC around for DOS stuff is the easiest (and best) way.

I'll check exactly what, but I know there's an emulator out there that emulates a DOS box with genuine Sound Blaster for DOS stuff.... but it's all emulation and requires a hefty CPU.

 

[Jigglelicious]

Yep, that Dos box emulator is called, oddly enough, DOSBox. Depending on the speed of your CPU, you can get ~486 speeds going, with full Soundblaster and GUS support. If you're trying to get old DOS games that mess with conventional memory running, there is really no better alternative than DOSBox.

 

[bluemax]

I didn't know it did software GUS!! Wow! That'll be WICKED for all the hundreds of old demos I still have from that era!

Those Demos were either GUS or NO SOUND. Ahhhh... the tracker days.... how I miss them!

 

[Bar81]

Wow, that's outstanding. I had no idea such a program existed. Gold Box games here I come

 

[RobCur]

dosbox is very slow even on my duron1600@2ghz machine, games like omf2010 ran half as slow as it was on my 486dx 40mhz, get this 512kvga, with only 4mb of ram and a 120mb hd.

 

[Oifish]

Thanks, I'll download that and see if my computer can run it with a high fps. So getting the sb16 emulation just isn't worth it.

 

[Oifish]

AWW this is sweet. It's a bit slow, but I bet that'll be improved in the next couple of updates. Thanks guys.

 

[Jigglelicious]

Originally posted by: bluemax
I didn't know it did software GUS!! Wow! That'll be WICKED for all the hundreds of old demos I still have from that era!

Those Demos were either GUS or NO SOUND. Ahhhh... the tracker days.... how I miss them!

Yep, I was able to get several old demos/intros to run in DOSBox with perfect speed and sound. Its like having that old 386, but without the 13" monitor and $10 speakers

 

[Oifish]

Is it slow because DOSbox is only on v .61 or is it my processor speed. Adjusting it using ctrl- f11 and ctrl-f12 helps a little.

 

[Jigglelicious]

Your sig doesn't mention what your processor speed is. However it depends on a lot of factors besides that - some games just aren't optimized for yet, and will run slow. The best way to get games running well is as follows:

1.) Run DOSBox in a window, and hit alt-ctrl-del to view your CPU usage meter
2.) Run your game, and increase the cycles until your CPU just barely reaches 100% usage. If you give DOSBox more cycles than your CPU can handle, the game will begin to choke and stutter
3.) Once you barely reach 100%, Increase your frameskip by 1 or 2 points. CPU usage will now drop considerably.
4.) Repeat steps 2 and 3 until your game runs smoothly. Just remember never to push the processor more than 100%.

 

[Oifish]

Thanks that helps a lot. I thinking about upgrading to a 2600+ @2.1 Ghz and 512 RAM. The faster cpu will help but I the RAM won't because the emulator only uses about 16mb, right?