Spit and polish

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Curated games: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35328265-Powered-by-DOSBox/

Boxtron

Boxtron is now installable using Flatpak, Copr, or AUR.

• Fix a bug preventing games using multiple CD images from starting - fixes e.g. The Dame Was Loaded, and presumably other FMV titles.
• Tweak Retro City Rampage 486 to use aspect=false.
• Fix several bugs around parsing user-supplied regex for MIDI synthesiser detection.
• Fix bug preventing MIDI port detection if there are no soundfonts installed.
• Add several fallback soundfont names for various Linux distributions.
• Log paths searched for soundfont files.

dosbox-staging

The latest pre-release builds of dosbox-staging include multiple smaller and bigger improvements over stock DOSBox, several bugfixes, some new features, and overall better experience (changelog, summary).

Download dosbox-staging 0.75.0-pre-392.

To use it with Boxtron in Steam, update [dosbox] section of your ~/.config/boxtron.conf:

cmd = ~/<your-path>/dosbox-staging/dosbox

To use it outside of Steam Runtime, install dependencies.

Have fun, and send us feedback :)

Speedy Staging

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Curated games: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35328265-Powered-by-DOSBox/

Boxtron

• Makefile updated to support system-wide install (system-wide installation only available in Steam Beta client at the moment). Boxtron can now be properly packaged in distro repositories.
• Improvements to CUE sheets handling (fixes e.g. music and video cutscenes in Carmageddon using software renderer - the game now runs perfectly when combined with dosbox-staging test build).
• Tweak for Lords of Realm.
• Documentation updates and other small fixes and cleanups.

dosbox-staging (2nd test build)

Users testing previous build confirmed, that it provides substantial improvements over stock DOSBox. Thank you to all testers! Let's keep the ball rolling…

How to use it

Download package (link) and unpack it somewhere.

Update [dosbox] section of your ~/.config/boxtron.conf:

cmd = ~/<your-path>/dosbox-staging-2/dosbox

Changes

• Merged with upstream SVN trunk@4272
• Implementation of dynamic core for 64-bit systems by jmarsh, which significantly improves DOSBox performance on Linux
• Workaround for NVIDIA-specific OpenGL rendering bug by Qbix
• Updated version of krcroft's audio patch
• Slight update to splash screen by me
• More compiler optimizations turned on, which significantly improves DOSBox performance compared to previous test build
• Various smaller fixes for type safety, removing memory leaks, addressing compiler warnings and static code analysis issues, etc.

Read more about dosbox-staging project in this Vogons thread; source code for this release is on po/boxtron-test-4 branch in dosbox-staging repo.

Side note: this is the very first DOSBox build I tried, that runs Stargunner at proper smooth 70FPS, as intended by developer in 1996; this is free-to-play game, check it out. :)

Sating Box Dogs

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Curated games: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35328265-Powered-by-DOSBox/

Boxtron changes

• Add an option to disable games starting in fullscreen (with ♥ for tiling WM users)
• Include several workarounds for broken or non-portable .cue files bundled with the games
• Treat *.bat files as an executable for BOXTRON_RUN_EXE
• Prepare for initial GameHub support

To accompany this Boxtron release, I prepared an experimental DOSBox build from the dosbox-staging repo. To test it, download the package, unpack it somewhere and configure Boxtron to use it by changing/adding following line in [dosbox] section of your ~/.config/boxtron.conf:

cmd = ~/<your-path>/dosbox-staging/dosbox

You can confirm it's running by looking at the window title (it should say "DOSBox staging").

I would love to hear feedback from you about the quality of this build :)

dosbox-staging changes

This version of DOSBox combines krcroft's new audio for DOSBox patch to replace SDL_sound dependency with heavily trimmed NY00123's SDL2 adaptation patch and additional changes from me to marry the two, rebased on top of the newest trunk of upstream SVN version.

You can find this work on po/boxtron-test-1 branch in dosbox-staging repo, but consider it very early and experimental state; I do not recommend merging these changes to your DOSBox fork yet.

Compared to DOSBox 0.74-3, this version has:

• Fixed input issues when playing in fullscreen
• Alt-tab working correctly
• Switching to fullscreen uses the display where window was located
• Fixed mp3 playback
• Improved ogg playback
• You can unlock mouse cursor when in fullscreen mode (Ctrl-F10)
• Steam Overlay seems to be more stable
• You can use Steam Overlay to allow cursor to leave game screen in fullscreen mode

Some games, that are significantly improved by using dosbox-staging:

• Tomb Raider 1 (software rendering)
• Carmageddon (software rendering)
• Alone in the Dark 3
• Megarace 2
• Stargunner

Known issues:

• Pressing Super to toggle Gnome Activities overview does not work
• New .cue parser is more strict, which might cause imgmount to fail for some games - happens e.g. in GOG version of MK3, and Steam version or vanilla TR1 (when running outside of Boxtron).

Right on .CUE

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Highlighted changes:

• Detect broken case-sensitive paths inside .cue files (fixes Descent 2).
• Use GUI (via Zenity) to indicate errors (e.g. when trying to start a non-DOS game).
• Change default render.aspect to true and disregard value picked by the publisher; in result number of game-specific tweaks went down. Users can still override render.aspect per-game.
• Filter out useless escape-carets from windows command line (fixes Judge Dredd 95).
• Fix mount/imgmount commands using single quotes around paths.
• Fix crash on non-DOS games invoked through Sierra Launcher.
• Add several game-specific tweaks for DOS titles distributed without DOSBox.
• Prerequisite installation instructions are now less ambiguous.

Quick stats since previous release:

• Curated games: 157 (+4)
• Tested games: 79 (+6) (~92% Platinum)
• Games with MIDI auto-setup: 17 (+2)

Boxtron

Join us at Discord server: https://discord.gg/8mFhUPX

This project will be called "Boxtron" from now on and is developed in parallel to Luxtorpeda, sharing the organization name, domain, etc.

After previous releases, I received some feedback indicating that users think this project is enabling support for games one-by-one (which is not the case). For this reason, from now on, I will rather do summary status updates instead of pointing out exactly which games improved. Please read the "features" section in README.md file if you want to know more about this tool :).

At the moment we know about 153 DOS titles on Steam, 73+ were tested (with slightly above 90% of games rated Platinum so far). Boxtron provides automatic MIDI support for 15 games (plus few, that can handle MIDI auto-detection on their own). It also fixes various problems in several more games (applies missing patches, brings back DOS support, etc.), making them playable out-of-the-box.

This release focused on internal changes dictated by the project rename:

• Configuration file steam-dos.conf is automatically upgraded to a newer format and renamed to boxtron.conf, preserving user options inside.
• All environment variables now use prefix BOXTRON instead of SDOS. Old names still work to preserve backwards-compatibility but are deprecated until future 1.0.0 release.
• Game configuration files are re-created and now use prefix boxtron. Content of some sections was moved to automatic configuration. As a consequence of these two changes, some of your games might now work faster, but your other DOSBox settings (e.g. scaler) might be set back to default.
• Logs now mention boxtron instead of steam-dos
• Code and documentation were updated to replace the project name.

Configure let MI DIs for you

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Check our wiki for compatibility reports and follow Powered by DOSBox curator on Steam! :)

• Auto-detection of certain MIDI hardware setups to take precedence over starting software synthesiser; tested with Casio CTK-4200, Roland UM-ONE mk2, and Ensoniq AudioPCI.
• User can now select MIDI sequencer by name, using midi.use_sequencer setting or SDOS_USE_MIDI_SEQ environment variable. More details in configuration article.
• Look for soundfonts in XDG_DATA_DIRS
• Prepare for flatpak packaging
• Implement basic support for Windows batch variables (fixes Descent)
• Implement forced tweak override for Sound Blaster port (fixes MegaRace)
• Use official patch to fix broken music in HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
• Improved Python 3.5 compatibility and other small improvements

Indian-head test pattern

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Check our wiki for compatibility reports and follow Powered by DOSBox curator on Steam! :)

Highlights for this release:

• Resolve performance issues in a number of real mode games.
• Bring back DOS version of Fallout to Steam. Support is provided by automatically downloading and installing official 1.1 DOS patch, which includes DOS version of the game.
• Add support for Shadow Warrior Classic (1997) bundled with Shadow Warrior Classic Redux.

Sandbox that DOSBox

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This release provides:

• Better support for using DOSBox sandboxed through Flatpak (read more on project wiki)
• Fix autoexec section for games implementing complex menu systems as bat files (fixes e.g. Arctic Adventure)
• Automatically unpack DOS version of Retro City Rampage
• Initial support for Quake
• Other small bugfixes and improvements…

Also, support for MIDI auto setup for:

• Duke Nukem 3D (Classic)

Check our wiki for growing list of compatibility reports and follow Powered by DOSBox curator on Steam! :)

The X release

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This release introduces MIDI auto-configuration for more games:

• STAR WARS™ - X-Wing: Classic Edition
• STAR WARS™ - X-Wing: Collector's CD-ROM Edition
• System Shock: Classic
• The Ultimate DOOM
• Final DOOM
• DOOM II
• Master Levels for DOOM II
• Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
• Hexen: Beyond Heretic

Some other changes:

• Fix startup issue: Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love for Sail
• Fix startup issue: Super 3D Noah's Ark
• Fix startup issue when ALSA does not expose MIDI sequencer list in procfs
• User can now select preferred software synthesiser with midi.synthesiser setting
• Lots of documentation improvements: check out Wiki on GitHub or GitLab (to contribute to the wiki through GitLab you need to request project access).

This week DOSBox received 0.74-3 update - poke your distribution package maintainers to include it in repos ASAP! :)

Gib mi MIDI

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This release introduces MIDI auto-configuration for selected titles:

• STAR WARS™ - Dark Forces
• X-COM: UFO Defense
• X-COM: Terror From the Deep
• Jagged Alliance Gold
• Jagged Alliance Deadly Games

Just click "Play" and enjoy glorious MIDI music, there's no need to hunt those pesky SETSOUND.EXE programs.

If you don't like MIDI music, then turn it off with midi.enable = false or SDOS_NO_MIDI and these games will be reconfigured back to use emulated Sound Blaster for music.

Other changes:

• dosbox.bin configuration option renamed to dosbox.cmd and now accepts full commands and not only paths.
• fix last-chance fallback for midi soundfont to default.sf2