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DOSBox v0.74-3 Manual (always use the latest version from www.dosbox.com)

=====

NOTE:

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While we are hoping that one day DOSBox will run all programs ever made for

the PC, we are not there yet.

At present, DOSBox running on a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent

of a Pentium I PC. DOSBox can be configured to run a wide range of DOS games,

from CGA/Tandy/PCjr classics up to games from the Quake era.

======

INDEX:

======

1. Quickstart

2. Start (FAQ)

3. Command Line Parameters

4. Internal Programs

5. Special Keys

6. Joystick/Gamepad

7. KeyMapper

8. Keyboard Layout

9. Serial Multiplayer feature

10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox

11. Troubleshooting

12. DOSBox Status Window

13. The configuration (options) file

14. The language file

15. Building your own version of DOSBox

16. Special thanks

17. Contact

==============

1. Quickstart:

==============

Type INTRO in DOSBox for a quick tour.

It is essential that you get familiar with the idea of mounting, DOSBox does not

automatically make any drive (or a part of it) accessible to the emulation. See

the FAQ entry "How to start?" as well as the description of the MOUNT command

(section 4: "Internal Programs"). If you have your game on a cdrom you may try

this guide: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=8933

===============

2. Start (FAQ):

===============

START:      How to start?

AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these "mount" commands?

FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?

FULLSCREEN: My fullscreen is too large.

CD-ROM:     My CD-ROM doesn't work.

CD-ROM:     The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.

MOUSE:      The mouse doesn't work.

SOUND:      There is no sound.

SOUND:      What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?

SOUND:      The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.

KEYBOARD:   I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.

KEYBOARD:   Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)

KEYBOARD:   The keyboard lags.

CONTROL:    The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!

SPEED:      The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!

CRASH:      The game/application does not run at all/crashes!

CRASH:      DOSBox crashes on startup!

GAME:       My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.

SAFETY:     Can DOSBox harm my computer?

OPTIONS:    I would like to change DOSBox's options.

HELP:       Great Manual, but I still don't get it.

START: How to start?

    At the beginning you've got a Z:\> instead of a C:\> at the prompt.

    You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using

    the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give

    you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory

    (that was created before). In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you

    a C drive in DOSBox which points to /home/username in Linux.

    To change to the drive mounted like above, type "C:". If everything went

    fine, DOSBox will display the prompt "C:\>".

AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these commands?

    In the DOSBox configuration file is an [autoexec] section. The commands

    present there are run when DOSBox starts, so you can use this section

    for the mounting. Look at Section 13: The configuration (options) file

FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?

    Press alt-enter. Alternatively: Edit the configuration file of DOSBox and

    change the option fullscreen=false to fullscreen=true. If fullscreen looks

    wrong in your opinion: Play with the options: fullresolution, output and

    aspect in the configuration file of DOSBox. To get back from fullscreen

    mode: Press alt-enter again.

FULLSCREEN: My fullscreen is too large.

    This is can be a problem on Windows 10, if you have display scaling

    set to a value above 100%. Windows in that case will resize the screen

    on top of dosbox resizing the screen, which can happen for the output:

    ddraw, opengl, openglnb, overlay. You can disable this Windows behaviour

    by enabling a specific compatibility setting:

    - Right-click the DOSBox icon and select "Properties".

    - Go to the "Compatibility" tab.

    - Click on "Change high DPI settings".

    - Tick "Override high DPI scaling behaviour" and set it to "Application".

    - Apply the changes by clicking on "OK".

    Unfortunately, this compatibility option causes some side effects in

    windowed mode, and in this case you will need to change the resolution

    in the config/Options file for windowresolution (e.g. 1024x768).

    Alternatively, you can disable the display scaling and or use a lower

    fullresolution value.

CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work.

    To mount your CD-ROM in DOSBox you have to specify some additional options

    when mounting the CD-ROM.

    To enable CD-ROM support (includes MSCDEX) in Windows:

      - mount d f:\ -t cdrom

    in Linux:

      - mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom

    In some cases you might want to use a different CD-ROM interface,

    for example if CD audio does not work:

      To enable SDL-support (does not include low-level CD access!):

        - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -noioctl

      To enable ioctl access using digital audio extraction for CD audio

      (windows-only, useful for Vista):

        - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dx

      To enable ioctl access using MCI for CD audio (windows-only):

        - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_mci

      To force ioctl-only access (windows-only):

        - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dio

      To enable low-level aspi-support (win98 with aspi-layer installed):

        - mount d f:\ -t cdrom -aspi

    explanation: - d   driveletter you will get in DOSBox (d is the best,

                          don't change it!)

                 - f:\ location of CD-ROM on your PC. In most cases it will

                          be d:\ or e:\

                 - 0   The number of the CD-ROM drive, reported by "mount -cd"

                          (note that this value is only needed when using SDL

                          for CD audio, otherwise it is ignored)

    See also the next question: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.

CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.

    Be sure to mount the CD-ROM with -t cdrom switch, this will enable the

    MSCDEX interface required by DOS games to interface with CD-ROMs.

    Also try adding the correct label (-label LABEL) to the mount command,

    where LABEL is the CD-label (volume ID) of the CD-ROM.

    Under Windows you can specify -ioctl, -aspi or -noioctl. Look at the

    description of the mount command in Section 4: "Internal programs"

    for their meaning and the

    additional audio-CD related options -ioctl_dx, ioctl_mci, ioctl_dio.

    Try creating a CD-ROM image (preferably CUE/BIN pair) and use the

    DOSBox's internal IMGMOUNT tool to mount the image (the CUE sheet).

    This enables very good low-level CD-ROM support on any operating system.

MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work.

    Usually, DOSBox detects when a game uses mouse control. When you click on

    the screen it should get locked (confined to the DOSBox window) and work.

    With certain games, the DOSBox mouse detection doesn't work. In that case

    you will have to lock the mouse manually by pressing CTRL-F10.

SOUND: There is no sound.

    Be sure that the sound is correctly configured in the game. This might be

    done during the installation or with a setup/setsound utility that

    accompanies the game. First see if an autodetection option is provided. If

    there is none try selecting Soundblaster or Soundblaster 16 with the default

    settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1" (sometimes highdma=5). You might

    also want to select Sound Canvas/SCC/MPU-401/General MIDI/Wave Blaster

    at "address=330 IRQ=2" as music device.

    The parameters of the emulated sound cards can be changed in the DOSBox

    configuration file.

    If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal in DOSBox

    configuration and use some lower fixed cycles value (like cycles=2000). Also

    assure that your host operating sound does provide sound.

    In certain cases it might be useful to use a different emulated sound device

    like a soundblaster pro (sbtype=sbpro1 in the DOSBox configuration file) or

    the gravis ultrasound (gus=true).

SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?

    DOSBox emulates several legacy sound devices:

    - Internal PC speaker/Buzzer

      This emulation includes both the tone generator and several forms of

      digital sound output through the internal speaker.

    - Creative CMS/Gameblaster

      The is the first card released by Creative Labs(R).  The default

      configuration places it on address 220. It is disabled as default.

    - Tandy 3 voice

      The emulation of this sound hardware is complete with the exception of

      the noise channel. The noise channel is not very well documented and as

      such is only a best guess as to the sound's accuracy. It is disabled as

      default.

    - Tandy DAC

      Some games may require turning off sound blaster emulation (sbtype=none)

      for better tandy DAC sound support. Don't forget to set the sbtype back to

      sb16 if you don't use tandy sound.

    - Adlib

      This emulation is almost perfect and includes the Adlib's ability to

      almost play digitized sound. Placed at address 220 (also on 388).

    - SoundBlaster 16 / SoundBlaster Pro I & II / SoundBlaster I & II

      By default DOSBox provides Soundblaster 16 level 16-bit stereo sound.

      You can select a different SoundBlaster version in the configuration of

      DOSBox. AWE32 music is not emulated as you can use MPU-401 instead

      (see below).

    - Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing

      Using the printer port, this sound device outputs digital sound only.

      Placed at LPT1

    - Gravis Ultrasound

      The emulation of this hardware is nearly complete, though the MIDI

      capabilities have been left out, since an MPU-401 has been emulated

      in other code. For Gravis music you also have to install Gravis drivers

      inside DOSBox. It is disabled as default.

    - MPU-401

      A MIDI passthrough interface is also emulated. This method of sound

      output will only work when used with external device/emulator.

      Every Windows XP/Vista/7 and MAC OS has got a default emulator compatible

      with: Sound Canvas/SCC/General Standard/General MIDI/Wave Blaster.

      A different device/emulator is needed for Roland LAPC/CM-32L/MT-32

      compatibility.

SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.

    You may be using too much CPU power to keep DOSBox running at the current

    speed. You can lower the cycles, skip frames, reduce the sampling rate of

    the respective sound device, increase the prebuffer. See section 13: "The

    configuration (options) file"

    If you are using cycles=max or =auto, then make sure that there is no

    background processes interfering! (especially if they access the harddisk)

    Also look at Section 10. "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox"

KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.

    This can happen in various cases, like your host keyboard layout does not

    have a matching DOS layout representation (or it was not correctly

    detected), or the key mapping is wrong.

    Some possible fixes:

      1. Use / instead, or ALT-58 for : and ALT-92 for \.

      2. Change the DOS keyboard layout (see Section 8: Keyboard Layout).

      3. Add the commands you want to execute to the [autoexec] section

         of the DOSBox configuration file.

      4. Open the DOSBox configuration file and change the usescancodes entry.

      5. Switch the keyboard layout of your operating system.

    Note that if the host layout can not be identified, or keyboardlayout is

    set to none in the DOSBox configuration file, the standard US layout is

    used. In this configuration try the keys around "enter" for the key \

    (backslash), and for the key : (colon) use shift and the keys between

    "enter" and "L".

KEYBOARD: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)

    This may happen if Windows thinks that you have more than one keyboard

    connected to your PC when you use some remote control devices.

    To verity this problem run cmd.exe, navigate to DOSBox program folder

    and type:

    set sdl_videodriver=windib

    dosbox.exe

    check whether keyboard started to work properly. As windib is slower it is

    best to use one of the two solutions provided here:

    https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=24072

KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags.

    Lower the priority setting in the DOSBox configuration file, for example

    set "priority=normal,normal". You might also want to try lowering the

    cycles (use a fixed cycle amount to start with, like cycles=10000).

CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!

    See if it still happens if you disable the joystick emulation,

    set joysticktype=none in the [joystick] section of your DOSBox

    configuration file. Maybe also try unplugging any joystick/gamepad.

    If you want to use the joystick in the game, try setting timed=false

    and be sure to calibrate the joystick (both in your OS as well as

    in the game or the game's setup program).

SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!

    Look at the section 10: "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox" for more

    information.

CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!

    Look at Section 11: Troubleshooting

CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup!.

    Look at Section 11: Troubleshooting

GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.

    First of all, try to find a port of the game. Those will offer a better

    experience. To fix the graphics problem that occurs in DOSBox on higher

    resolutions: Open the configuration file of DOSBox and search for

    machine=svga_s3. Change svga_s3 to vesa_nolfb

    Change memsize=16 to memsize=63

SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer?

    DOSBox can not harm your computer more than any other resource demanding

    program. Increasing the cycles does not overclock your real CPU.

    Setting the cycles too high has a negative performance effect on the

    software running inside DOSBox.

OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options.

    Look at Section 13. "The configuration (options) file"

HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it.

    For more questions read the rest of this Manual. You may also look at:

    guides located at https://www.vogons.org/viewforum.php?f=53

    the wiki of DOSBox https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/

    the site/forum: https://www.dosbox.com

===========================

3. Command Line Parameters:

===========================

An overview of the command line options you can give to DOSBox. Although

in most cases it is easier to use DOSBox's configuration file instead.

See: Section 13. "The configuration (options) file"

To be able to use Command Line Parameters:

(Windows)  open cmd.exe or command.com or edit the shortcut to dosbox.exe

(Linux)    use console

(MAC OS X) start terminal.app and navigate to:

           /applications/dosbox.app/contents/macos/dosbox

The options are valid for all operating systems unless noted in the option

description:

dosbox [name] [-exit] [-c command] [-fullscreen] [-userconf]

       [-conf congfigfilelocation] [-lang languagefilelocation]

       [-machine machine type] [-noconsole] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec]

       [-securemode] [-scaler scaler | -forcescaler scaler] [-version]

       [-socket socket]

dosbox -version

dosbox -editconf program

dosbox -opencaptures program

dosbox -printconf

dosbox -eraseconf

dosbox -erasemapper

  name

        If "name" is a directory it will mount that as the C: drive.

        If "name" is an executable it will mount the directory of "name"

        as the C: drive and execute "name".

  -exit

        DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application "name" ends.

  -c command

        Runs the specified command before running "name". Multiple commands

        can be specified. Each command should start with "-c" though.

        A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or an executable

        on a mounted drive.

  -fullscreen

        Starts DOSBox in fullscreen mode.

  -userconf

        Start DOSBox with the users specific configuration file. Can be used

        together with multiple -conf parameters, but -userconf will always be

        loaded before them.

  -conf configfilelocation

        Start DOSBox with the options specified in "configfilelocation".

        Multiple -conf options may be present.

        See Section 13 for more details.

  -lang languagefilelocation

        Start DOSBox using the language specified in "languagefilelocation".

        See Section 14 for more details.

  -machine machinetype

        Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are:

        hercules, cga, ega, pcjr, tandy, svga_s3 (default) as well as

        the additional svga chipsets listed in the DOSBox configuration file.

        svga_s3 enables vesa emulation as well.

        For some special vga effects the machinetype vgaonly can be used,

        note that this disables svga capabilities and might be slower due to the

        higher emulation precision.

        The machinetype affects the video card and the available sound cards.

  -noconsole (Windows Only)

        Start DOSBox without showing DOSBox Status Window (console).

        Output will be redirected to stdout.txt and stderr.txt

  -startmapper

        Enter the keymapper directly on startup. Useful for people with

        keyboard problems.

  -noautoexec

        Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.

  -securemode

        Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the

        bottom of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how

        the drives are mounted inside DOSBox).

  -scaler scaler

        Uses the scaler specified by "scaler". See the DOSBox configuration file

        for the available scalers.

  -forcescaler scaler

        Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of

        the specified scaler even if it might not fit.

  -version

        output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.

  -editconf program

        calls program with as first parameter the configuration file.

        You can specify this command more than once. In this case it will

        move to second program if the first one fails to start.

  -opencaptures program

        calls program with as first parameter the location of the captures

        folder.

  -printconf

        prints the location of the default configuration file.

  -resetconf

        removes the default configuration file.

  -resetmapper

        removes the mapperfile used by the default clean configuration file.

  -socket

        passes the socket number to the nullmodem emulation. See Section 9:

        "Serial Multiplayer feature."

Note: If a name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation contains

     a space, put the whole name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation

     between quotes ("command or file name"). If you need to use quotes within

     quotes (most likely with -c and mount):

     Windows and OS/2 users can use single quotes inside the double quotes.

     Other people should be able to use escaped double quotes inside the

     double quotes.

     Windows: -c "mount c 'c:\My folder with DOS games\'"

     Linux: -c "mount c \"/tmp/name with space\""

A rather unusual example, just to demonstrate what you can do (Windows):

dosbox D:\folder\file.exe -c "MOUNT Y H:\MyFolder"

  This mounts D:\folder as C:\ and runs file.exe.

  Before it does that, it will first mount H:\MyFolder as the Y drive.

In Windows, you can also drag directories/files onto the DOSBox executable.

=====================

4. Internal Programs:

=====================

DOSBox supports most of the DOS commands found in command.com.

To get a list of the internal commands type "HELP" at the prompt.

In addition, the following commands are available:

MOUNT "Emulated Drive letter" "Real Drive or Directory"

      [-t type] [-aspi] [-ioctl] [-noioctl] [-usecd number] [-size drivesize]

      [-label drivelabel] [-freesize size_in_mb]

      [-freesize size_in_kb (floppies)]

MOUNT -cd

MOUNT -u "Emulated Drive letter"

  Program to mount local directories as drives inside DOSBox.

  "Emulated Drive letter"

        The driveletter inside DOSBox (for example C).

  "Real Drive letter (usually for CD-ROMs in Windows) or Directory"

        The local directory you want accessible inside DOSBox.

  -t type

        Type of the mounted directory.

        Supported are: dir (default), floppy, cdrom.

  -size drivesize

	(experts only)

        Sets the size of the drive, where drivesize is of the form

        "bps,spc,tcl,fcl":

           bps: bytes per sector, by default 512 for regular drives and

                2048 for CD-ROM drives

           spc: sectors per cluster, usually between 1 and 127

           tcl: total clusters, between 1 and 65534

           fcl: total free clusters, between 1 and tcl

  -freesize size_in_mb | size_in_kb

        Sets the amount of free space available on a drive

        in megabytes (regular drives) or kilobytes (floppy drives).

        This is a simpler version of -size.

  -label drivelabel

        Sets the name of the drive to "drivelabel". Needed on some systems

        if the CD-ROM label isn't read correctly (useful when a program

        can't find its CD-ROM). If you don't specify a label

        and no lowlevel support is selected (that is omitting the -usecd #

        and/or -aspi parameters, or specifying -noioctl):

          For Windows: label is extracted from "Real Drive".

          For Linux: label is set to NO_LABEL.

        If you do specify a label, this label will be kept as long as the drive

        is mounted. It will not be updated !!

  -aspi

        Forces use of the aspi layer. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under

        Windows systems with an ASPI-Layer.

  -ioctl (automatic selection of the CD audio interface)

  -ioctl_dx (digital audio extraction used for CD audio)

  -ioctl_dio (ioctl calls used for CD audio)

  -ioctl_mci (MCI used for CD audio)

        Forces use of ioctl commands. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under

        a Windows OS which support them (Win2000/XP/NT).

        The various choices only differ in the way CD audio is handled,

        preferably -ioctl_dio is used (lowest workload), but this might not

        work on all systems, so -ioctl_dx (or -ioctl_mci) can be used.

  -noioctl

        Forces use of the SDL CD-ROM layer. Valid on all systems.

  -usecd number

        Valid on all systems, under windows the -noioctl switch has to be

        present to make use of the -usecd switch.

        Enables to select the drive that should be used by SDL. Use this if

        the wrong or no CD-ROM drive is mounted while using the SDL CD-ROM

        interface. "number" can be found by "MOUNT -cd".

  -cd

        Displays all CD-ROM drives detected by SDL, and their numbers.

        See the information at the -usecd entry above.

  -u

        Removes the mount. Doesn't work for Z:\.

  Note: It's possible to mount a local directory as CD-ROM drive,

        but hardware support is then missing.

  Basically MOUNT allows you to connect real hardware to DOSBox's emulated PC.

  So MOUNT C C:\GAMES tells DOSBox to use your C:\GAMES directory as drive C:

  in DOSBox. MOUNT C E:\SomeFolder tells DOSBox to use your E:\SomeFolder

  directory as drive C: in DOSBox.

  Mounting your entire C drive with MOUNT C C:\ is NOT recommended! The same

  is true for mounting the root of any other drive, except for CD-ROMs (due to

  their read-only nature).

  Otherwise if you or DOSBox make a mistake you may lose all your files.

  Also never mount a "Windows" or "Program Files" folders or their subfolders

  in Windows Vista/7 as DOSBox may not work correctly, or will stop working

  correctly later. It is recommended to keep all your dos applications/games

  in a simple folder (for example c:\dosgames) and mount that.

  You should always install your game inside DOSBox.

  So if you have the game on CD you always (even after installation!)

  have to mount both: folder as a harddisk drive and a CD-ROM.

  HardDisk should always be mounted as c

    CD-ROM should always be mounted as d

    Floppy should always be mounted as a (or b)

  Basic MOUNT Examples for normal usage (Windows):

   1. To mount a folder as a harddisk drive:

          mount c d:\dosgames

   3. To mount your CD-ROM drive E as CD-ROM drive D in DOSBox:

          mount d e:\ -t cdrom

   2. To mount your drive a: as a floppy:

          mount a a:\ -t floppy

  Advanced MOUNT examples (Windows):

   4. To mount a hard disk drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (simple version):

          mount c d:\dosgames -freesize 870

   5. To mount a drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (experts only, full control):

          mount c d:\dosgames -size 512,127,16513,13500

   1. To mount c:\dosgames\floppy as a floppy:

          mount a c:\dosgames\floppy -t floppy

  Other MOUNT examples:

   3. To mount system CD-ROM drive at mountpoint /media/cdrom as CD-ROM drive D

      in DOSBox:

          mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom -usecd 0

   6. To mount /home/user/dosgames as drive C in DOSBox:

          mount c /home/user/dosgames

   7. To mount the directory where DOSBox was started as C in DOSBox:

          mount c .

          (note the . which represents the directory where DOSBox was started,

          on Windows Vista/7 don't use this if you installed DOSBox

          to your "Program Files" folder)

  If you want to mount a CD image or floppy image, check IMGMOUNT.

  MOUNT also works with images but only if you use external program,

  for example (both are free):

  - Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),

  - Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).

  Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.

MEM

  Program to display the amount and type of free memory.

VER

VER set major_version [minor_version]

  Display the current DOSBox version and reported DOS version

  (parameterless usage).

  Change the reported DOS version with the "set" parameter,

  for example: "VER set 6 22" to have DOSBox report DOS 6.22 as version number.

CONFIG -writeconf filelocation

CONFIG -writelang filelocation

CONFIG -securemode

CONFIG -set "section property=value"

CONFIG -get "section property"

  CONFIG can be used to change or query various settings of DOSBox

  during runtime. It can save the current settings and language strings to

  disk. Information about all possible sections and properties can

  be found in Section 13: "The configuration (options) file".

  -writeconf filelocation

     Write the current configuration settings to a file in a specified location.

    "filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive in DOSBox.

     The configuration file controls various settings of DOSBox:

     the amount of emulated memory, the emulated sound cards and many more

     things. It allows access to AUTOEXEC.BAT as well.

     See Section 13: "The configuration (options) file" for more information.

  -writelang filelocation

     Write the current language settings to a file in a specified location.

     "filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive

     in DOSBox. The language file controls all visible output of the internal

     commands and the internal DOS.

     See Section 14: "The Language File" for more information.

  -securemode

     Switches DOSBox to a more secure mode. In this mode the internal

     commands MOUNT, IMGMOUNT and BOOT won't work. It's not possible either

     to create a new configfile or languagefile in this mode.

     (Warning: you can only undo this mode by restarting DOSBox.)

  -set "section property=value"

     CONFIG will attempt to set the property to new value.

     Currently CONFIG can not report whether the command succeeded or not.

  -get "section property"

     The current value of the property is reported and stored in the

     environment variable %CONFIG%. This can be used to store the value

     when using batch files.

  Both "-set" and "-get" work from batch files and can be used to set up your

  own preferences for each game. Although it may be easier to use separate

  DOSBox's configuration files for each game instead.

  Examples:

    1. To create a configuration file in your c:\dosgames directory:

        config -writeconf c:\dosgames\dosbox.conf

    2. To set the cpu cycles to 10000:

        config -set "cpu cycles=10000"

    3. To turn ems memory emulation off:

        config -set "dos ems=off"

    4. To check which cpu core is being used.

        config -get "cpu core"

LOADFIX [-size] [program] [program-parameters]

LOADFIX -f

  Program to reduce the amount of available conventional memory.

  Useful for old programs which don't expect much memory to be free.

  -size

        number of kilobytes to "eat up", default = 64kb

  -f

        frees all previously allocated memory

  Examples:

    1. To start mm2.exe and allocate 64kb memory

       (mm2 will have 64 kb less available):

       loadfix mm2

    2. To start mm2.exe and allocate 32kb memory:

       loadfix -32 mm2

    3. To free previous allocated memory:

       loadfix -f

RESCAN

  Make DOSBox reread the directory structure. Useful if you changed something

  on a mounted drive outside of DOSBox. (CTRL - F4 does this as well!)

MIXER

  Makes DOSBox display its current volume settings.

  Here's how you can change them:

  mixer channel left:right [/NOSHOW] [/LISTMIDI]

  channel

     Can be one of the following: MASTER, DISNEY, SPKR, GUS, SB, FM [, CDAUDIO].

     CDAUDIO is only available if a CD-ROM interface with volume control is

     enabled (CD image, ioctl_dx).

  left:right

     The volume levels in percentages. If you put a D in front it will be

     in decibel (Example: mixer gus d-10).

  /NOSHOW

     Prevents DOSBox from showing the result if you set one

     of the volume levels.

  /LISTMIDI

     In Windows lists the available midi devices on your PC. To select a device

     other than the Windows default midi-mapper, change the line 'midiconfig='

     in the [midi] section of the configuration file to 'midiconfig=id', where

     'id' is the number for the device as listed by LISTMIDI. eg. midiconfig=2

     In Linux this option doesn't work, but you get similar results by using

     'pmidi -l' in console. Then change the line 'midiconfig=' to

     'midiconfig=port', where 'port' is the port for the device as listed by

     'pmidi -l'. eg. midiconfig=128:0

IMGMOUNT

  A utility to mount disk images and CD-ROM images in DOSBox.

  IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile] -t [image_type] -fs [image_format]

            -size [sectorsbytesize, sectorsperhead, heads, cylinders]

  IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN] -t cdrom -fs iso

  imagefile

      Location of the image file to mount in DOSBox. The location can be

      on a mounted drive inside DOSBox, or on your real disk. It is possible

      to mount CD-ROM images (ISOs or CUE/BIN or CUE/IMG) too.

      If you need CD swapping capabilities, specify all images in succession

      (see the next entry).

      CUE/BIN pairs and cue/img are the preferred CD-ROM image types as they can

      store audio tracks compared to ISOs (which are data-only). For

      the CUE/BIN mounting always specify the CUE sheet.

  imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN

      Location of the image files to mount in DOSBox. Specifying a number

      of image files is only allowed for CD-ROM images.

      The CD's can be swapped with CTRL-F4 at any time.

      This is required for games which use multiple CD-ROMs and require the CD

      to be switched during the gameplay at some point.

  -t

      The following are valid image types:

        floppy: Specifies a floppy image. DOSBox will automatically identify

                the disk geometry (360K, 1.2MB, 720K, 1.44MB, etc).

        cdrom:  Specifies a CD-ROM image. The geometry is automatic and

                set for this size. This can be an iso or a cue/bin pair or

                a cue/img pair.

        hdd:    Specifies a harddrive image. The proper CHS geometry must be set

                for this to work.

  -fs

      The following are valid file system formats:

        iso:  Specifies the ISO 9660 CD-ROM format.

        fat:  Specifies that the image uses the FAT file system. DOSBox will

              attempt to mount this image as a drive in DOSBox and make

              the files available from inside DOSBox.

        none: DOSBox will make no attempt to read the file system on the disk.

              This is useful if you need to format it or if you want to boot

              the disk using the BOOT command. When using the "none"

              filesystem, you must specify the drive number (2 or 3,

              where 2 = master, 3 = slave) rather than a drive letter.

              For example, to mount a 70MB image as the slave drive device,

              you would type (without the quotes):

                "imgmount 3 d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142 -fs none"

                Compare this with a mount to be able to access the drive

                within DOSBox, which would read as:

                "imgmount e: d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142"

  -size

     The Cylinders, Heads and Sectors of the drive.

     Required to mount hard drive images.

  An example how to mount CD-ROM images (in Linux):

    1. imgmount d /tmp/cdimage1.cue /tmp/cdimage2.cue -t cdrom

  or (which also works):

    2a. mount c /tmp

    2b. imgmount d c:\cdimage1.cue c:\cdimage2.cue -t cdrom

  (in Windows):

    imgmount d f:\img\CD1.cue f:\img\CD2.cue f:\img\CD3.cue -t cdrom

    imgmount d "g:\img\7th Guest CD1.cue" "g:\img\7th Guest CD2.cue" -t cdrom

  Don't forget that you can also use MOUNT with images, but only if you use

  external program, for example (both are free):

  - Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),

  - Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).

  Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.

BOOT

  Boot will start floppy images or hard disk images independent of

  the operating system emulation offered by DOSBox. This will allow you to

  play booter floppies or boot other operating systems inside DOSBox.

  If the target emulated system is PCjr (machine=pcjr) the boot command

  can be used to load PCjr cartridges (.jrc).

  BOOT [diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img] [-l driveletter]

  BOOT [cart.jrc]  (PCjr only)

  diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img

     This can be any number of floppy disk images one wants mounted after

     DOSBox boots the specified drive letter.

     To swap between images, hit CTRL-F4 to change from the current disk

     to the next disk in the list. The list will loop back from the last

     disk image to the beginning.

  [-l driveletter]

     This parameter allows you to specify the drive to boot from.

     The default is the A drive, the floppy drive. You can also boot

     a hard drive image mounted as master by specifying "-l C"

     without the quotes, or the drive as slave by specifying "-l D"

   cart.jrc (PCjr only)

     When emulation of a PCjr is enabled, cartridges can be loaded with

     the BOOT command. Support is still limited.

IPX

  You need to enable IPX networking in the configuration file of DOSBox.

  All of the IPX networking is managed through the internal DOSBox program

  IPXNET. For help on the IPX networking from inside DOSBox, type

  "IPXNET HELP" (without quotes) and the program will list the commands

  and relevant documentation.

  With regard to actually setting up a network, one system needs to be

  the server. To set this up, type "IPXNET STARTSERVER" (without the quotes)

  in a DOSBox session. The server DOSBox session will automatically add

  itself to the virtual IPX network. For every additional computer that

  should be part of the virtual IPX network, you'll need to type

  "IPXNET CONNECT ".

  For example, if your server is at bob.dosbox.com, you would type

  "IPXNET CONNECT bob.dosbox.com" on every non-server system.

  To play games that need Netbios a file named NETBIOS.EXE from Novell is

  needed. Establish the IPX connection as explained above, then run

  "netbios.exe".

  The following is an IPXNET command reference:

  IPXNET CONNECT

     IPXNET CONNECT opens a connection to an IPX tunneling server

     running on another DOSBox session. The "address" parameter specifies

     the IP address or host name of the server computer. You can also

     specify the UDP port to use. By default IPXNET uses port 213 - the

     assigned IANA port for IPX tunneling - for its connection.

     The syntax for IPXNET CONNECT is:

     IPXNET CONNECT address 

  IPXNET DISCONNECT

     IPXNET DISCONNECT closes the connection to the IPX tunneling server.

     The syntax for IPXNET DISCONNECT is:

     IPXNET DISCONNECT

  IPXNET STARTSERVER

     IPXNET STARTSERVER starts an IPX tunneling server on this DOSBox

     session. By default, the server will accept connections on UDP port

     213, though this can be changed. Once the server is started, DOSBox

     will automatically start a client connection to the IPX tunneling server.

     The syntax for IPXNET STARTSERVER is:

     IPXNET STARTSERVER 

     If the server is behind a router, UDP port  needs to be forwarded

     to that computer.

     On Linux/Unix-based systems port numbers smaller than 1023 can only be

     used with root privileges. Use ports greater than 1023 on those systems.

  IPXNET STOPSERVER

     IPXNET STOPSERVER stops the IPX tunneling server running on this DOSBox

     session. Care should be taken to ensure that all other connections have

     terminated as well, since stopping the server may cause lockups on other

     machines that are still using the IPX tunneling server.

     The syntax for IPXNET STOPSERVER is:

     IPXNET STOPSERVER

  IPXNET PING

     IPXNET PING broadcasts a ping request through the IPX tunneled network.

     In response, all other connected computers will respond to the ping

     and report the time it took to receive and send the ping message.

     The syntax for IPXNET PING is:

     IPXNET PING

  IPXNET STATUS

     IPXNET STATUS reports the current state of this DOSBox session's

     IPX tunneling network. For a list of all computers connected to the

     network use the IPXNET PING command.

     The syntax for IPXNET STATUS is:

     IPXNET STATUS

KEYB [keyboardlayoutcode [codepage [codepagefile]]]

  Change the keyboard layout. For detailed information about keyboard layouts

  please see Section 8: "Keyboard Layout"

  [keyboardlayoutcode] is a string consisting of five or less characters,

     examples are PL214 (Polish typists) or PL457 (Polish programmers).

     It specifies the keyboard layout to be used.

     The list of all layouts built into DOSBox is here:

     https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=21824

  [codepage] is the number of the codepage to be used. The keyboard layout

     has to provide support for the specified codepage, otherwise the layout

     loading will fail.

     If no codepage is specified, an appropriate codepage for the requested

     layout is chosen automatically.

  [codepagefile] can be used to load codepages that are yet not compiled

     into DOSBox. This is only needed when DOSBox does not find the codepage.

     If no codepagefile is specified, but you place all ten ega.cpx files

     (from FreeDOS) in the DOSBox program folder, an appropriate codepagefile

     for the requested layout/codepage is chosen automatically.

  Examples:

    1. To load the polish typist keys layout (automatically uses codepage 852):

         keyb pl214

    2. To load one of russian keyboard layouts with codepage 866:

         keyb ru441 866

       In order to type russian characters press ALT+RIGHT-SHIFT.

    3. To load one of french keyboard layouts with codepage 850 (where the

       codepage is defined in EGACPI.DAT):

         keyb fr189 850 EGACPI.DAT

    4. To load codepage 858 (without a keyboard layout):

         keyb none 858

       This can be used to change the codepage for the FreeDOS keyb2 utility.

    5. To display the current codepage and, if loaded, the keyboard layout:

         keyb

For more information use the /? command line switch with the programs.

================

5. Special Keys:

================

ALT-ENTER     Switch to full screen and back.

ALT-PAUSE     Pause emulation (hit ALT-PAUSE again to continue).

CTRL-F1       Start the keymapper.

CTRL-F4       Change between mounted floppy/CD images. Update directory cache

              for all drives.

CTRL-ALT-F5   Start/Stop creating a movie of the screen. (avi video capturing)

CTRL-F5       Save a screenshot. (PNG format)

CTRL-F6       Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file.

CTRL-ALT-F7   Start/Stop recording of OPL commands. (DRO format)

CTRL-ALT-F8   Start/Stop the recording of raw MIDI commands.

CTRL-F7       Decrease frameskip.

CTRL-F8       Increase frameskip.

CTRL-F9       Kill DOSBox.

CTRL-F10      Capture/Release the mouse.

CTRL-F11      Slow down emulation (Decrease DOSBox Cycles).

CTRL-F12      Speed up emulation (Increase DOSBox Cycles)*.

ALT-F12       Unlock speed (turbo button/fast forward)**.

F11, ALT-F11  (machine=cga) change tint in NTSC output modes***

F11           (machine=hercules) cycle through amber, green, white colouring***

*NOTE: Once you increase your DOSBox cycles beyond your computer CPU resources,

       it will produce the same effect as slowing down the emulation.

       This maximum will vary from computer to computer.

**NOTE: You need free CPU resources for this (the more you have, the faster

        it goes), so it won't work at all with cycles=max or a too high amount

        of fixed cycles. You have to keep the keys pressed for it to work!

***NOTE: These keys won't work if you saved a mapper file earlier with

         a different machine type. So either reassign them or reset the mapper.

These are the default keybindings. They can be changed in the keymapper

(see Section 7: KeyMapper).

In MAC OS you can try using cmd(applekey) together with Ctrl if the key doesn't

work eg. cmd-ctrl-F1, but some keys may still need remapping (in Linux too).

Saved/recorded files can be found in:

   (Windows)    "Start/WinLogo Menu"->"All Programs"->"DOSBox-0.74-3"->Extras

   (Linux)      ~/.dosbox/capture

   (MAC OS X)   "~/Library/Preferences/capture"

This can be changed in the DOSBox configuration file.

====================

6. Joystick/Gamepad:

====================

The standard joystick port in DOS supports a maximum of 4 axes and 4 buttons.

For more, different modifications of that configuration were used.

To force DOSBox to use a different type of emulated joystick/gamepad, the entry

"joysticktype" in the [joystick] section of the DOSBox configuration file can

be used.

none  - disables controller support.

auto  - (default) autodetects whether you have one or two controllers connected:

          if you have one - '4axis' setting is used,

          if you have two - '2axis' setting is used.

2axis - If you have two controllers connected, each will emulate a joystick

        with 2 axes and 2 buttons. If you have only one controller connected,

        it will emulate a joystick with only 2 axis and 2 buttons.

4axis - supports only first controller, emulates a joystick

        with 4 axis and 4 buttons or a gamepad with 2axis and 6 buttons.

4axis_2 - supports only second controller.

fcs   - supports only first controller, emulates ThrustMaster

        Flight Control System, with 3-axes, 4 buttons and 1 hat.

ch    - supports only first controller, emulates CH Flightstick,

        with 4-axes, 6 buttons and 1 hat, but you cannot press more

        than one button at the same time.

You also have to configure controller properly inside the game.

It is important to remember that if you saved the mapperfile without joystick

connected, or with a different joystick setting, your new setting will

not work

properly,

or not work at all, until you reset DOSBox's mapperfile.

If controller is working properly outside DOSBox, but doesn't calibrate properly

inside DOSBox, try different 'timed' setting in DOSBox's configuration file.

=============

7. KeyMapper:

=============

You start the DOSBox mapper either with CTRL-F1 (see section 5. Special Keys)

or -startmapper (see Section 3. Command Line Parameters).

You are presented with a virtual keyboard and a virtual joystick.

These virtual devices correspond to the keys and events DOSBox will

report to the DOS applications. If you click on a button with your mouse,

you can see in the lower left corner with which event it is associated

(EVENT) and to what events it is currently bound.

Event: EVENT

BIND: BIND (the real key/button/axis you push with your finger/hand)

                                    Add   Del

mod1  hold                                Next

mod2

mod3

EVENT

    The key or joystick axis/button/hat DOSBox will report to DOS applications.

    (the event that will happen during the game, (eg. shooting/jumping/walking)

BIND

    The key on your real keyboard or the axis/button/hat on your real

    joystick(s) (as reported by SDL), which is connected to the EVENT.

mod1,2,3

    Modifiers. These are keys you need to have to be pressed while pressing

    BIND. mod1 = CTRL and mod2 = ALT. These are generally only used when you

    want to change the special keys of DOSBox.

Add

    Add a new BIND to this EVENT. Basically add a key from your keyboard or an

    event from the joystick (button press, axis/hat movement) which will

    produce the EVENT in DOSBox.

Del

    Delete the BIND to this EVENT. If an EVENT has no BINDS, then it is not

    possible to trigger this event in DOSBox (that is there's no way to type

    the key or use the respective action of the joystick).

Next

    Go through the list of bindings which map to this EVENT.

Example:

Q1. You want to have the X on your keyboard to type a Z in DOSBox.

    A. Click on the Z on the keyboard mapper. Click "Add".

       Now press the X key on your keyboard.

Q2. If you click "Next" a couple of times, you will notice that the Z on your

    keyboard also produces an Z in DOSBox.

    A. Therefore select the Z again, and click "Next" until you have the Z on