Using DOSBox

[prism]

I just installed DOSBox and want to play X-Com. However, I need to set the CPU cycles at a lower setting, and I can't maximize the screen. Can anyone help me out? Thanks!

 

[CP5670]

Use alt-enter to switch to fullscreen mode.

The controls for the CPU cycles are ctrl-F11 and ctrl-F12, but they do things a bit strangely by default. F12 increases the cycles by a fixed amount while F11 decreases them by a percentage for some reason. You can change this behavior easily in the dosbox.conf file though.

 

[prism]

I tried using the function key commands, but my keyboard is a Logitech wireless media one (I forget the model number), and every time I use a function key by itself or with conjunction with the ctrl key, it just wants to map a new function to it. I tried mounting the dosbox folder in dosbox, but it won't let me use the command "dosbox.conf". It's been ages since I've used dos commands, so is there something else I need to do?

 

[stevty2889]

You can go to the folder dosbox is installed to and edit the dosbox.conf file with notepad. What CPU do you have? I have my cycles set to 50000, and X-Com runs well with that. This is with a 1.6ghz Dual core(Yonah). Here are the CPU settings in my dosbox.conf file:

[cpu]
# core -- CPU Core used in emulation: normal,full,dynamic.
# cycles -- Amount of instructions dosbox tries to emulate each millisecond.
# Setting this higher than your machine can handle is bad!
# cycleup -- Amount of cycles to increase/decrease with keycombo.
# cycledown Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

core=normal
cycles=50000
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

 

[skace]

Use a dosbox front end. like dfend (think its called). Save yourself tons of time.

 

[AdamK47]

I got your original PM on this. I'll try to copy and paste what I have in my .conf file and send you the command line from my X-Com shortcut. I create seperate .conf files for each of my DOS games and point to them through the shortcut command line.

 

[skace]

* D-Fend Reloaded - DOSBox-Frontend Reloaded

In some way D-Fend Reloaded is a successor of the discontinued software D-Fend. Both environments look alike and D-Fend Reloaded contains all the features of D-Fend. Even the D-Fend config files are compatible with D-Fend Reloaded. However, unlike D-Fend, D-Fend Reloaded is open source. The development objective for D-Fend Reloaded was (besides 100% D-Fend compability) to make the program operation more simple with respect to DosBox beginners. Simultaneously more features for administration and configuration became available.

Website: http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/


- From the wiki (http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/DOSBoxFrontends)

Seriously, even if you figure this out, you could be saving yourself a ton of time by running a proper front end. Even you Adam.

 

[prism]

Everything's working fine in X-Com after turning the in-combat speed settings way down, except for the passage of time on the geoscape screen goes way faster than it should. I tried setting the cycles to 50,000 using notepad in the dosbox.conf file, but when playing it still says that the CPU cycles are at max. Only other quibble is that when I make the game full-screen it cuts off a small portion of the left side. Any way to fix this?

Thanks a ton for all the info thus far everyone!

 

[CP5670]

I had some issues with the screen sizes at one point. It might not be related to your problem, but the following settings seem to work well in all the games I play:

fullresolution=640x480
windowresolution=640x480
output=overlay

As for the game speed, try experimenting with lower CPU cycles. 50000 is on the high side and is good for the later, protected mode DOS games (from roughly 1995 onward), but may be too much for earlier games.

 

[BladeVenom]

Can you get a game that was made for modem play to play on a LAN? I haven't messed around with DOSBox.