DOSBox 0.63 ported

[Guest pdosbox]

I have ported DOSBox 0.63 for my own personal use on my PPC 2003SE Phone Edition. I call it pDOSBox (http://www.geocities.com/pdosbox/). I am pretty sure it should also run just as well on an ARM-based smartphones with WM2003/WN2002 for smartphone. Just need to iron out the display and key input part of it.

I am looking for technically inclined smartphone owners, who are interested in x86/DOS emulation in their smartphones, to help test and tune pDOSBox for smartphones.

Thanks

Wall

[Guest looeee]

the pocketconsole cab won't install. says its not intended for this device (c500 win2k3se)

looeee

[Guest pdosbox]

the pocketconsole cab won't install.  says its not intended for this device (c500 win2k3se)

looeee

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You don't need pocketconsole to run pDOSbox, unless you are trying to run it in mapper mode to map your c500's key combinations into a full keybaord set. I assume you are trying to do that. If so, you will also need a virtual display driver (like Nyditot) for your c500 because pDOSBox in mapper mode need 640x480 screen resolution to display the entire key range.

I don't know much about smartphones, so I would welcome any smartphone gurus out there to chip in here:

You can disable your c500 cab-signature checking before installing the pocketconsole. If you are unwilling to do that, you can get any other console driver for smartphones out there which can be cab-installed by your c500. I don't know if one existed. Anybody?

Wall

[Guest roozbeh]

You don't need pocketconsole to run pDOSbox, unless you are trying to run it in mapper mode to map your c500's key combinations  into a full keybaord set.  I assume you are trying to do that.  If so, you will also need a virtual display driver (like Nyditot) for your c500 because  pDOSBox in mapper mode need 640x480 screen resolution to display the entire key range.

I don't know much about smartphones, so I would welcome any smartphone gurus out there to chip in here:

You can disable your c500 cab-signature checking before installing the pocketconsole.  If you are unwilling to do that, you can get any other console driver for smartphones out there which can be cab-installed by your c500.  I don't know if one existed.  Anybody?

Wall

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yeah i like to see it....as sometimes ago i tried to port that to sps but didnt find time to finish it....but good to hear there is one now!

i dont think there is anything like virtual display driver for smartphones so no 640x480 res.

an besides how much is resolution of texmode 80*25?

i am going to check ur site

[Guest roozbeh]

well the result for me on 2002 was just a blank black screen and nothing else!

also eating all the free memory and causing a reset!

i changed the res to 176*220 and also disabled xms/emm but no good results!

Edited April 26, 2005 by roozbeh

[Guest pdosbox]

well the result for me on 2002 was just a blank black screen and nothing else!

also eating all the free memory and causing a reset!

i changed the res to 176*220 and also disabled xms/emm but no good results!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Your physical 176*220 was right in the middle of the virtual 320*240, which is probably a black area at start-up. If you can find a way to key in "DIR" and hit , you probably can see some text fly thru your physical 176*220.

Someone need to first run it in mapper mode to create a mapper file which can be used by everybody else to enter text. I would have done that if I have a smartphone. The mapper file (mapper.conf) at my site is meant for PPC's SIP (Soft Input Panel) , not smartphones keys.

With no virtual display for smartphones, I don't see any other way to solve the screen size problem other than to introduce a smaller character resolution (e.g. 30x20 character screen) for DOS text screen. This will affect some old DOS cursor-type programs which depends on character location on a standard 80x25 character screen to display a text menu properly (e.g. the good old Turbo C/Pascal screen). Graphics programs are less problematic.

On my 64MB PPC, its eating up about 13-14 MB of program memory, which is still OK. With ActiveScreen still running, in fact I am using ActiveScreen Remote Display on my desktop to see the emulation. And I still have plenty in reserve running other stuff like Pocket Outlook and Windows Media Mobile. How much typical memory do smartphones have nowadays?

Anyway, I have received your email just now, and we will discuss this further there.

Cheers

Wall

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Hi I am trying to get this to work on my E200, I have adjusted the mapper.conf as suggested on the geocities web page and I have a shortcut with -startmapper as well.

When I start DosBox the black screen comes up then closes immediately :?:

Also you mentioned a display driver like Nyditot, but from what I can see that appears to be designed for PocketPc not SmartPhone :?:

Is there anything else I need to do to make it run :?:

[Guest pdosbox]

Hi I am trying to get this to work on my E200, I have adjusted the mapper.conf as suggested on the geocities web page and I have a shortcut with -startmapper as well.

When I start DosBox the black screen comes up then closes immediately :?:

Also you mentioned a display driver like Nyditot, but from what I can see that appears to be designed for PocketPc not SmartPhone :?:

Is there anything else I need to do to make it run :?:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey Doc,

Saw you posts at PocketDOS forum and was wondering when you are going to turn up here. I'll try to make a version with less runtime memory footprint, and also start up in a proper resolution for you.

PM me to let me know how I can contact you directly.

Wall

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Hey I give up looking at the PocketDos forum, it was so stagnant it started to grow roots ;)

But I have to say I did not notice this till the other day and seeing that other users have got it working I jumped in.

Thanks

PM Sent

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Me again, I did some tinkering to the dosbox.conf and I managed to get the dosbox to stay open. But I all I get is a black box. If I try and type DIR via my keypad nothing happens.

All the keys appear to be dead and the only key that produces a response it the home key which takes me to my home screen. What I noticed as odd was when I press my speeddial for task manager dosbox closed by itself :?:

I tried this a few times and I could leave dosbox running for quite a while but as soon as I go to start task manager it closes itself.

Anyway I have tinkered with the dosbox.conf file and now I get a screen with what looks like the bottom right row of a keyboard (tried to take a screen dump but nothing worked), a long box, then a rectangle with the word ALT then what looks the start of another box with the letter C. Then 5 boxes with...

Shutdown, Cap mouse

Dec Fskip, Inc Fskip

Swap Image

At the bottom of the screen it says "ct an event to change" but nothing I press make any difference and I have to end-task to come out.

I assume that the program has launched but it is waiting for one of the boxes to be 'tapped' but I dont have a touch screen ;)

I did add DIR to the autoexec section to see if that made any difference, but I could not see anything. I suspect that the mapper file will need lots of modification to make it work with a smartphone but I have no idea what the key values are. I dont mind experimenting if someone can give me just one key value as I can work up and down the list.

Anyone else get further :?:

[Guest pdosbox]

Latest news.....

I made a smartphone-friendly version today. Dr. StrangeTrick have been kind to help me tweak a few things and he got it up and running. Apparently, the original PPC version eats up too much memory.

A few more things to do before releasing to smartphone users as freeware:

1) Key mapping -- mapping various smartphones models' key combinations into a full keyboard set. No code change required. Just mapper files.

2) Refine display on smartphones -- basically re-mapping SDL surface to fit smartphone's screen.

3) Etc

Cheers

Wall

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Just to keep everyone up to date, dDosBox and Roozbeh (yes you heard right) are almost done.

We have a separate SmartPhone version as the original pDosBox needs too much memory and at the same time we should have WM2002 compatibility as well.

Any requests or ideas post here.

[Guest Magnetic_dud]

What file I have to download? I see only the ppc cab file

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

The PPC cab runs on the SmartPhone but you need to make sure you have loads of free memory.

For the smaller footprint beta SmartPhone version you would need to PM pDosBox.

[Guest matoster]

Any new version for smartphones?

Thanx

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Hi Matoster, I have to say I don't know.

I was involved in the early testing stages but I haven't heard a thing in ages and they haven't replied to me either.

[Guest matoster]

Sorry to hear that. It would be great to play some old DOS games on mobile.

Thanx for answer.

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Hi Matoster, if you want to play or run DOS Games/Apps then check out PocketDos this runs quite quick and handles anything I can throw at it but its not free :cry: but I don't know if it is fast enough for DOS games.

[Guest matoster]

Thanx. I'll try it.

I want to play realy old games, like Bard's tale 1,2,3 or some Infocom text adventures.

At the moment there is no Z-mashine interpretor for Smartphones, and no Atari ST emulator so I though it could be done through DOSbox emulator.

Is it hard to port some of freesource emulators from PPC to Smartphones?

Arisme's SCUMM emulator works great for PPC and Smartphones, and I think he just changed screen resolution.

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Not being a programmer I could not say but reading the other threads for emulators like MAME it looks like its a big job