DOSBox-X 0.83.5 Released!

A new version of this emulator is out! Here is what's new:

• Windows installer now offers the option to upgrade the DOSBox-X config file (dosbox-x.conf) to the latest version format automatically while keeping users' current settings. It can also add a context menu for executables (.exe, .com, .bat), config files (.conf) and folders in the Windows Explorer so that you could quickly run or open them with DOSBox-X from the Windows Explorer. More icons are added to the DOSBox-X program group within the Start menu as well. (Wengier)
• Added config option "startbanner" in [dosbox] section which if set to "false" would skip the welcome banner when DOSBox-X starts. Also added config option "fastbioslogo" which if set to "true" will skip the BIOS logo (replacing the command-line option -fastbootlogo). A new command-line option "-fastlaunch" is added to enable fast launch mode by skipping both the logo and the banner. (Wengier)
• Added config option "ega per scanline hpel" in [dosbox] section to control whether EGA emulation latches hpel at display start (as VGA emulation does) or allows hpel to change per scanline. Setting the option to false is needed for some games like Commander Keen.
• Support for mounting CD images with a sector size of 2448, used by for example the MDF image of the game Grand Theft Auto. (Wengier)
• Allowed Sound Blaster to be enabled by the games "Desert Strike" and "Jungle Strike". (Wengier)
• Sound Blaster Pro emulation now maps DSP commands 0x41 to 0x47 as aliases of 0x40 (set time constant) to support broken demoscene code that uses 0x41 in that way. Yes, such code would obviously break on clone cards and the SB16. Added a config option "dsp command aliases" in [sblaster] section to turn it off for debugging. Alias is documented on Vogons forums where someone made a SB Pro clone card.
• Fixed the issue with CD audio play by porting the audio code from DOSBox ECE. (Wengier)
• COPY command now assumes /Y automatically when running in the batch file or with CALL command (or COMMAND /C) as in real DOS. (Wengier)
• DOSBox-X will allow control characters 8 (BS), 9 (TAB), 26 (SUB), and 27 (ESC) when executing GOTO command in batch files without warnings. (Wengier)
• Normal core: REP MOVSD now checks segment limits for ES:(E)DI and throws a GP fault if exceeded. Demoscene productions marked as using VESA BIOS modes and scribbling on the VGA BIOS are relying on segment limits and GP faults to fake a linear framebuffer.
• Added config option "vesa bank switching window range check" to allow disabling the VESA BIOS window number range check when called on to bank switch. Needed for "Pill" by Opiate in the end credits, which for some reason requires a call for window number 0xFFFF to succeed in order to draw credits without glitching.
• Added config option "vesa bank switching window mirroring" for instructing VESA BIOS to ignore bank switching window parameter when asked to get/set bank switching window setting. Needed for some old demoscene and game applications that assume Window B is available, and will not render SVGA properly without it.
• Added config option "quit warning" to indicate if DOSBox-X should warn show a warning message when you try to close the DOSBox-X window. If set to "auto" (default), DOSBox-X will warn only if at least one file handle is still open, or you are currently running a guest system. (Wengier)
• Add command-line option "-defaultdir" to specify a directory (instead of the current directory) as the working directory. DOSBox-X will look for the dosbox-x.conf file in this directory. (Wengier)
• The -winrun command-line option will also enable LFN support with "lfn=auto" on Windows. (Wengier)
• VER /R now shows DOSBox-X's Git commit SHA1, in addition to the build date and other version information shown by the VER command. (Wengier)
• Fixed that joystick may not work with the setting "usescancodes=auto" when a non-US keyboard layout is activated on the SDL1 build. (Wengier)
• DOSBox-X will now search for system fonts if the fonts required for the printing feature cannot be found in the FONTS directory. (Wengier)
• Added menu item "Send form-feed" under the DOS menu for manually ejecting new pages to print. (Wengier)
• Added "Quick launch program..." menu (under "DOS") to quickly run the specified program as selected by the Windows file browser in DOSBox-X. (Wengier)
• Added "Drive information" menu item under "Drive" menu to show information for the specified drive, and added "Show mounted drive numbers" menu item under "DOS" menu to show details for all mounted drive numbers (0-5). (Wengier)
• The command "Swap CD" now swaps only CD drives (as the name), not all non-floppy drives. Also added "Swap disk" menu item under the "Drive" menu for swapping individual mounted drives. (Wengier)
• IMGMAKE now tries to resolve home directory (~) on Linux and macOS platforms. Also improved the help message for this command. (Wengier)
• Fixed unmounting swap disks when unmounting drives with MOUNT or IMGMOUNT command. (Wengier)
• Fixed possible failure when mounting .VHD images, and the issue that leading colon (:) or read-only marker may not work for such images. (Wengier)
• IMGMOUNT command without parameters now shows the disk position and number of swap disks, as well as IDE controller (if applicable). Also added option -examples to show its usage examples. (Wengier)
• Add "-ro" option for IMGMOUNT command to mark all disk images as read-only at once. You could also mark read-only disk images individually using the leading colon as in previous versions. (Wengier)
• The default value for "output" (in "sdl" section) is now "default", which will default to the value according to your platform. (Wengier)
• The -Q (quiet) option of MOUNT, BOOT and RESCAN commands now silences virtually all outputs (error and normal messages) of these commands. (Wengier)
• Worked around the mounting issue with LaunchBox, by allowing a mounting command-line with single quotes like MOUNT C 'X:\DOS' on Windows. (Wengier)
• Unmounting ISO drives will auto-unmount associated El Torito floppy drives (if any) too. (Wengier)
• Updated xxHash library by Yann Collet from 0.7.4 to the stable version 0.8.0. (Wengier)
• Added support for the OPL2 audio board by setting the config option "oplemu=opl2board".
• The save state feature now tries to save and then restore the mounted drives of all types (if the paths or image files still exist on host system). This fixes the "save state corrupted" error while trying to load saved states but the drives are not yet mounted in DOSBox-X. (Wengier)
• The save state feature now verifies the emulated machine type (VGA, PC98, etc) too when loading a saved state. All confirm and error dialog boxes for saving or loading states appear in a cross- platform manner now, instead of only on Windows systems. Also added the option to remove the saved state in the selected save slot. (Wengier)
• Increased the number of save slots from 10 to 100. Each page in the save slot menu (under "Capture") still shows 10 slots as before, but you can now go to the previous or next page (up to 10 pages) for more save slots (100 in total). (Wengier).
• The [pci] section is now the [voodoo] section, and the config option "voodoo" (the only option of that section) is now named "voodoo_card" within the [voodoo] section to make clear it is for emulating the Voodoo card hardware. Also added config option "voodoo_maxmem" (default: true) to specify whether to use the maximum memory size (12MB instead of the standard 4MB) for the Vooodoo card. (Wengier)
• Added support for Glide wrapper. It can be enabled with the new config option "glide" set to "true" in [voodoo] section. The library file glide2x.dll (Windows)/libglide2x.so (Linux)/libglide2x.dylib (macOS) is required for Glide to work. Be sure to use 32-bit dll for 32-bit DOSBox-X binary, and 64-bit dll for 64-bit DOSBox-X binary. (Wengier)

What is DOS BOX-X?DOSBox-X emulates a PC necessary for running many DOS games and applications that simply cannot be run on modern PCs and operating systems, similar to DOSBox. 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. By adding official support for Windows 95, 98, and ME emulation and acceleration, we hope that those old Windows games and applications could be enjoyed or used once more.

Our goal is to eventually make DOSBox-X a complete DOS emulation package that is both fully-featured and easy to use. We implement new features with each official release, and also try our best to deliver a consistent cross-platform experience for users. In order to help improve the general DOS emulation and also to aid retro-development, it is our desire to maintain and implement more accurate emulation, but at the same time we are also making efforts to improve emulation quality, speed, and usability for end users. DOSBox-X features a flexible configuration, as we believe a better way to emulate the DOS platform is to give users all the options to configure the DOS virtual machine. We hope to improve the out-of-the-box experience for new users who want to run DOS programs or games, as well as implementing emulation that is accurate enough to make retro-programming possible with confidence the program will run properly on actual hardware.

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