Emulation: DOSBox-X 0.83.19 released

Popular DOS emulator DOSBox-x has been updated to 0.83.19. Check the release notes below for a list of changes in this version.

What is DOSBox-X

(From the official page)

DOSBox-X (homepage: https://dosbox-x.com or http://dosbox-x.software) is a cross-platform DOS emulator based on DOSBox. Like DOSBox, it emulates a PC necessary for running many MS-DOS games and applications that simply cannot be run on modern PCs and operating systems. However, while the main focus of DOSBox is for running DOS games, DOSBox-X goes much further than this. Started as a fork of the DOSBox project, it retains compatibility with the wide base of DOS games and DOS gaming DOSBox was designed for. But it is also a platform for running DOS applications, including emulating the environments to run Windows 3.x, 9x and ME and software written for those versions of Windows.

DOSBox-X is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS platforms.

What’s new in DOSBox-X 0.83.19

From the release notes:

• Reorganized the “List network interfaces” and “List printer devices” dialogs (under the “Help” menu) to allow the use of scroll bars. (Wengier)
• Added menu option “Reset TTF color scheme” to reset the current color scheme for TTF output. (Wengier)
• Added config option “righttoleft” in [TTF] section which when set to “true” will cause DOSBox-X to display text from right to left (instead of left to right) for the TTF output. It can also be toggled from the menu (“Video” => “TTF options” => “Display text from right to left”). (Wengier)
• Added config option “vga fill active memory” which when set to “true” will fill inactive video memory regions with RAM rather than mapping them as empty. This allows the ETen Chinese DOS system (倚天中文系統) 3.5/2000 (e.g. ET16V and ET24VA) to run. (Wengier)
• Added config option “middle_unlock” ([sdl] section) to control whether to unlock the mouse with middle mouse button click. (Wengier)
• Added config option “dosvfunc” in [ttf] section to support DOS/V applications when country information is set to Japan in TTF output. (nanshiki)
• Added “VTEXT” command to view or change the current V-text mode for the DOS/V emulation. Also improved the font support for 24-pixel font DOS/V mode, such as supporting HZK24? fonts for Simplified Chinese DOS/V mode and STDFONT.24 from ETen Chinese system for Traditional Chinese DOS/V mode. If a Chinese font is specified via “fontxdbcs”, “fontxdbcs14” or “fontxdbcs24” options, it will be loaded before system font even with “getsysfont=true”. (Wengier)
• Commands like 80×25, 80×43, … now use internal function for better compatibility with the TrueType font (TTF) output. (Wengier)
• MODE command without a parameter will now print the current lines/columns instead of usage. (Wengier)
• INTVEC debugger command now correctly outputs addresses when in protected mode. (Allofich)
• Fix horizontal lines in the debugger window being rendered as unrelated characters in some code pages. (Allofich)
• INT 21 AX=4B03 now sets AX to 0000 like MS-DOS does. Fixes missing music in “聊齋誌異之幽谷傳奇” (Liáozhāi zhì yì zhī yōugǔ chuánqí) (Allofich)
• Use 0x1E to 0x3E for the keyboard buffer of the CGA machine, which fixes the controls locking up in the PC booter version of Apple Panic. (Allofich)
• Allowed machine types “pcjr_composite” and “pcjr_composite2”, similar to “cga_composite” and “cga_composite2”, instead of having to switch the composite type manually. (Wengier)
• If machine is PCjr, place PC BIOS reset code at F000:0043 to match that of the real BIOS.
• Fix PCjr NMI handler to load DS with segment 0x0040. Fixes crashes in SHAMUS. (Allofich)
• Fix PCjr NMI handler to use 8086-level instructions when loading DS with segment 0x0040 so that it works properly with cputype=8086.
• Remove useless check for signed divide quotient of 0x80/0x8000/etc. (the result was -0x80/0x8000/etc anyway. Add code to check specifically for these values after signed divide if cputype=8086 and trigger divide overflow exception, to match behavior described for the 8086 processor.
• Modify exception handling so that for cputype=8086 the return address for an exception handler points at instruction after fault location.
• Fix IDIV instruction incorrectly raising a divide error exception for some borderline values. Fixes Microsoft Flight Simulator. (Allofich)
• IBM PC BIOS emulation fixed to place key pieces of code and entry points at fixed legacy locations required by some older DOS games, instead of by dynamic allocation. Added code to BIOS allocation to reserve F000:E000 or higher for fixed allocation and force dynamic allocation below that address to prevent further conflicts should others submit pull requests for additional fixed locations. This fixes some games like “聊齋誌異之幽谷傳奇” (Liáozhāi zhì yì zhī yōugǔ chuánqí) which appear to assume some of these fixed BIOS addresses and will crash if they are wrong.
• Added tool EMSMAGIC.COM as alternative EMS manager, which can be dynamically installed or uninstalled with the setting ems=false. (Wengier)
• If a program is provided in the command-line when launching DOSBox-X, it will now be executed after any commands in the [autoexec] section by default. A command-line option “-prerun” is added to force the program run before any commands in [autoexec] section like before. (Wengier)
• Added auto-detection for single-wide DBCS-encoded characters for the TTF output (non-PC98). (Wengier)
• Improved the menu option “Restart DOSBox-X with language file…” (under “Main”) for switching between DBCS languages. (Wengier)
• Disabled the Alt+F4 key for closing the DOSBox-X window in MinGW SDL2 builds. (Wengier)
• Fixed program or config file containing Unicode characters passed from command-line when launching DOSBox-X in Windows SDL2 builds. (Wengier)
• Fixed issue with DELETE key in PC-98 mode. (Wengier)
• Fixed COLORS config option (in [ttf] section) not working in the previous version. (Wengier)
• Fixed issues after resetting the virtual machine when using DBCS language files. (Wengier)
• Fixed some issues related to system IME support for CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) languages, for both Windows SDL1 and SDL2 builds. (nanshiki & Wengier)
• Fixed bugs in the region memory allocator C++ class that claimed the entire free block even if the size wanted was smaller. Added field to remember if the allocated block was allocated for fixed or dynamically allocated memory. Cleaned up allocator code and removed redundancy.
• Fix SELINFO command not showing output correctly in the debugger window. (Allofich)
• Better CMOS register B and C emulation. (Allofich)
• Integrated commits from mainline (Allofich)
  Support for DMF floppy disk images.
  Zero-out DX in EXEC overlay command.
  Improve stack check for wrap-around cases. Change to misc_output for SVGA_S3Trio.

Download

You can download the latest release from the projects’s github, or from the official site.