Questions on DOSBOX in today's age

[Duder]

First off let me say I own MOST of the Sierra Games, many original disks and packaging as well.
I have most of these games, I want to replay and install most of them, but I need some good pointers on how to configure DOSBOX to my preference and hardware.
I don't think system specs matter a whole lot for these but here they are
Win10
M.2 Solid State
16 GB memory
Nvidia RTX 2070
Ryzen 2700x 8 core
And the most important part for this issue -1920x1080 monitor

I want these games to run in a actual 800x600 window, without Windows in the background, like a black screen border around it. I've found these games are much too pixelated full screen on the current monitors, playing on a smaller screen returns them to their former glory imo

I have tons of games to install, notably I just purchased the Larry Collection, and The PQ collection because I wasn't allowed to play many of these as a little kid back in the early 90s

I suppose I could also put together an actual old computer too but don't want to do that.

Any advice, links, etc are appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Catra]

I'm not sure about DosBox, but all of the games run via ScummVM ( https://www.scummvm.org/ )as well which is arguably better anyway. You can set all different types of scaling/sizing in the settings though I believe the default is already close to what I think you want. Which is full-screen, 2x scaling, big blocky pixels, no blurry or aliasing. Yes, it's bigger, but it looks the exact same it did all those decades ago.

Here is a screenshot I just made with KQ1SCI in 320x200. This is with override set to no scaling at all. The image will be small but the game will actually be full-screen. https://i.imgur.com/w6uTyvE.png

Here is the same game with default 2x scaling (640x400) : https://i.imgur.com/jbXJJAf.png

As you can probably see though, if you played these games with your intended black border you would have to squint pretty hard to be able to play some of these games. Try it in fullscreen, unless you are playing on a 43" screen there should not be that much difference in actual size.

[Duder]

Originally posted by Hordak:

I'm not sure about DosBox, but all of the games run via ScummVM ( https://www.scummvm.org/ )as well which is arguably better anyway. You can set all different types of scaling/sizing in the settings though I believe the default is already close to what I think you want. Which is full-screen, 2x scaling, big blocky pixels, no blurry or aliasing. Yes, it's bigger, but it looks the exact same it did all those decades ago.

Here is a screenshot I just made with KQ1SCI in 320x200. This is with override set to no scaling at all. The image will be small but the game will actually be full-screen. https://i.imgur.com/w6uTyvE.png

Here is the same game with default 2x scaling (640x400) : https://i.imgur.com/jbXJJAf.png

As you can probably see though, if you played these games with your intended black border you would have to squint pretty hard to be able to play some of these games. Try it in fullscreen, unless you are playing on a 43" screen there should not be that much difference in actual size.

Yes Scummv is another choice - many of my old games are on GOG by the way, half are running on each emulator DOSBOX and scumm
I'm not sure if you're familiar with a somewhat recent game Primordia, it was released in 2012 I believe and is a throwback to the old adventure games - got awesome reviews. It runs with that black border and looks fine, I haven't had any issue seeing anything however you may be right for the older 16 color games where I have to read text and type
I've tried the fullscreen setting and no matter the scaler for whatever reason looks stretched and just not right, maybe I'm not setting it up correctly

[zobeusz]

Jb

[Duder]

Originally posted by Zobeusz:

Jb

Huh?

[Cunin]

DOSBox is a nightmare.
You'd have to make a new config for each game if you want to achieve that, and my guess is that you'll need a fullscreen mode to get the "black background with no windows". I can't give you any help there since I gave up on DOSBox ages ago, it's just too bad if you want your games to run properly as they should: they never will.

Making an old computer to run them is a nice idea in theory, but it'd have to be VERY old (I guess a 386 should be a good compromise), able to run MS-DOS and with very common hardware, like a good VGA card and a Soundblaster audio card, and then you'll have to use a VGA CRT monitor to use it, or use some kind of converter for the video signal, which will make the image pretty bad looking, also considering the stretching and/or scaling that LCD monitors/TVs applies by default.

I know that there are some frontends for DOSBox, which probably have some default setups to achieve something close or exactly as you need, you'd just have to look for them and spend some hours trying them all until you find the right one. I believe the official DOSBox website lists at least some of them, probably in the download section.

Good luck :P

[Duder]

Originally posted by Cunin:

DOSBox is a nightmare.
You'd have to make a new config for each game if you want to achieve that, and my guess is that you'll need a fullscreen mode to get the "black background with no windows". I can't give you any help there since I gave up on DOSBox ages ago, it's just too bad if you want your games to run properly as they should: they never will.

Making an old computer to run them is a nice idea in theory, but it'd have to be VERY old (I guess a 386 should be a good compromise), able to run MS-DOS and with very common hardware, like a good VGA card and a Soundblaster audio card, and then you'll have to use a VGA CRT monitor to use it, or use some kind of converter for the video signal, which will make the image pretty bad looking, also considering the stretching and/or scaling that LCD monitors/TVs applies by default.

I know that there are some frontends for DOSBox, which probably have some default setups to achieve something close or exactly as you need, you'd just have to look for them and spend some hours trying them all until you find the right one. I believe the official DOSBox website lists at least some of them, probably in the download section.

Good luck :P

The consensus seems to be Scummv
I mentioned DOSBOX because I hardly ever messed with scumm's settings

[HD]

"I've tried the fullscreen setting and no matter the scaler for whatever reason looks stretched"

Is Aspect set to True in the games dosbox config file? GOG usually have this set to false

here is what i use and it isn't stretched

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=1920x1080 set this to whatever your monitor resolution is or any resoloution you want
windowresolution=original
output=openglnb or try ddraw opengl. opengl is bilinear filter
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true


aspect correction is under [render]


[render]
# frameskip: How many frames DOSBox skips before drawing one.
# aspect: Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.
# scaler: Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# If 'forced' is appended, then the scaler will be used even if the result might not be desired.
# Possible values: none, normal2x, normal3x, advmame2x, advmame3x, advinterp2x, advinterp3x, hq2x, hq3x, 2xsai, super2xsai, supereagle, tv2x, tv3x, rgb2x, rgb3x, scan2x, scan3x.

frameskip=0
aspect=true This will stop it stretching
scaler=none or try normal2x normal3x

You don't need to make new config files to run the GOG games in fullscreen just need to edit the config file in game directory

Also there are newer versions of Dosbox

https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/SVN_Builds

https://dosbox-staging.github.io/v0-75-0/

https://dosboxece.yesterplay.net/

Dosbox is more accurate than scummvm and doesn't have the audio issues Scummvm has with some of the space quest and quest for glory games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_aJODEsgzw

[Duder]

Originally posted by HD:

"I've tried the fullscreen setting and no matter the scaler for whatever reason looks stretched"

Is Aspect set to True in the games dosbox config file? GOG usually have this set to false

here is what i use and it isn't stretched

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=1920x1080 set this to whatever your monitor resolution is or any resoloution you want
windowresolution=original
output=openglnb or try ddraw opengl. opengl is bilinear filter
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true


aspect correction is under [render]


[render]
# frameskip: How many frames DOSBox skips before drawing one.
# aspect: Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.
# scaler: Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# If 'forced' is appended, then the scaler will be used even if the result might not be desired.
# Possible values: none, normal2x, normal3x, advmame2x, advmame3x, advinterp2x, advinterp3x, hq2x, hq3x, 2xsai, super2xsai, supereagle, tv2x, tv3x, rgb2x, rgb3x, scan2x, scan3x.

frameskip=0
aspect=true This will stop it stretching
scaler=none or try normal2x normal3x

You don't need to make new config files to run the GOG games in fullscreen just need to edit the config file in game directory

Also there are newer versions of Dosbox

https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/SVN_Builds

https://dosbox-staging.github.io/v0-75-0/

https://dosboxece.yesterplay.net/

Dosbox is more accurate than scummvm and doesn't have the audio issues Scummvm has with some of the space quest and quest for glory games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_aJODEsgzw

I've since converted to Scummv. So much more user friendly and found all of my old games with a scan, just set the resolution to your liking and done.

[HD]

Originally posted by Duder:

Originally posted by HD:

"I've tried the fullscreen setting and no matter the scaler for whatever reason looks stretched"

Is Aspect set to True in the games dosbox config file? GOG usually have this set to false

here is what i use and it isn't stretched

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=1920x1080 set this to whatever your monitor resolution is or any resoloution you want
windowresolution=original
output=openglnb or try ddraw opengl. opengl is bilinear filter
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true


aspect correction is under [render]


[render]
# frameskip: How many frames DOSBox skips before drawing one.
# aspect: Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.
# scaler: Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# If 'forced' is appended, then the scaler will be used even if the result might not be desired.
# Possible values: none, normal2x, normal3x, advmame2x, advmame3x, advinterp2x, advinterp3x, hq2x, hq3x, 2xsai, super2xsai, supereagle, tv2x, tv3x, rgb2x, rgb3x, scan2x, scan3x.

frameskip=0
aspect=true This will stop it stretching
scaler=none or try normal2x normal3x

You don't need to make new config files to run the GOG games in fullscreen just need to edit the config file in game directory

Also there are newer versions of Dosbox

https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/SVN_Builds

https://dosbox-staging.github.io/v0-75-0/

https://dosboxece.yesterplay.net/

Dosbox is more accurate than scummvm and doesn't have the audio issues Scummvm has with some of the space quest and quest for glory games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_aJODEsgzw

I've since converted to Scummv. So much more user friendly and found all of my old games with a scan, just set the resolution to your liking and done.

Scummvm is great. Space quest 4 is the only game i have trouble with so use dosbox ECE for that.

"Dosbox is more accurate than scummvm" maybe in the past this was the case. I've never seen or heard anything inaccurate myself but some of the classic game players prefer dosbox.
I think it's great to have two options to get old games going

[Duder]

Originally posted by HD:

Originally posted by Duder:

I've since converted to Scummv. So much more user friendly and found all of my old games with a scan, just set the resolution to your liking and done.

Scummvm is great. Space quest 4 is the only game i have trouble with so use dosbox ECE for that.

"Dosbox is more accurate than scummvm" maybe in the past this was the case. I've never seen or heard anything inaccurate myself but some of the classic game players prefer dosbox.
I think it's great to have two options to get old games going

Thanks for the reply albeit late lol

I since switched. All my dos games run on Summv now, however if I must complain the launcher could use some work.
They're all there though, I installed all my real oldies on my storage HDD and it detected them all.