DOSBox Staging is the fork of the original emulator with an aim to modernize it and give it some more advanced features, with the latest release out now.
An important project because DOSBox itself is a vital bit of free and open source software, one that has enabled us not to lose out on thousands of classic games. Ensuring that it keeps working on modern systems using modern features with DOSBox Staging is awesome.
This release is a big one covering many parts of it enhancing "the quality of audio emulation (GUS, built-in MIDI, PC speaker), improved support for PowerPC and POWER8 architectures, and a healthy mix of usability, documentation, code quality improvements". They go into a lot more detail in the lengthy release notes, which make for an interesting read.
I'm a huge retro fan, which regular readers will know quite well by now. So with the inclusion of built-in GLSL shaders to emulate the visual look of an analog CRT monitor, I couldn't be happier with this release. Seems like it works quite well too:
Jazz Jackrabbit (Holiday Hare 1995 Edition) - showcasing crt-fakelottes-flat, source: DOSBox Staging
Even if I don't want to play it like that now, it's interesting for historical purposes. Perhaps more interestingly though, is that they've even added in integer scaling (pixel-perfect) option for OpenGL, which should make playing the classics just that little bit nicer especially on Linux as it allows for a resizable window now too.
The Lost Vikings (1993) with integer scaling, source: DOSBox Staging
Plenty of other exciting features included for retro gamers, worth taking a look.
See the release notes of 0.76.0 here and on GitHub. You can also grab it as a Snap.
Did you know you can use DOSBox with Steam Play on Linux? Thanks to Boxtron, another open source project, you can run almost any game on Steam that uses DOSBox quite easily.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last edited by dreamer_ on 6 December 2020 at 2:41 pm UTC
legluondunet Dec 4, 2020
Last edited by legluondunet on 4 December 2020 at 5:59 pm UTC
3dfx support is still work-in-progress right? (Not that 3dfx is super essential, the other changes are way more important)
Quoting: BladeforceQuoting: jensVery cool, thanks for the hard work and cool to see dosbox (staging) moving forward!
3dfx support is still work-in-progress right? (Not that 3dfx is super essential, the other changes are way more important)
Dosbox ECE has DOS 3dfx game support
Thanks, yeah I know, though that version misses all the other good stuff from dosbox-staging ;)
no_information_here Dec 4, 2020
I believe there is also a 64-bit version for MacOS being worked on, which is nice for any Macs running Catalina or Big Sur. Edit: It looks like 0.76 is now 64-bit on the Mac. Super!
Last edited by no_information_here on 4 December 2020 at 7:30 pm UTC
slaapliedje Dec 4, 2020
Quoting: BladeforceI hadn't heard of Dosbox ECE, but DosBox-X does as well, but unfortunately you have to compile it yourself in Linux (unless maybe Arch has an PKGBUILD for it or something, I had to build it for Debian / Pop_OS) because the flatpak doesn't include some x11 libs, so menus don't work.Quoting: jensVery cool, thanks for the hard work and cool to see dosbox (staging) moving forward!
3dfx support is still work-in-progress right? (Not that 3dfx is super essential, the other changes are way more important)
Dosbox ECE has DOS 3dfx game support
It's been a LONG time since dosbox mainline had a proper new release.
legluondunet Dec 4, 2020
Quoting: slaapliedjeDosBox-X does as well, but unfortunately you have to compile it yourself in Linux (unless maybe Arch has an PKGBUILD for it or something, I had to build it for Debian / Pop_OS) because the flatpak doesn't include some x11 libs, so menus don't work.
Dosbox ECE has far better 3DFX support than dosbox-x.
Quoting: jensVery cool, thanks for the hard work and cool to see dosbox (staging) moving forward!Yes, it's on our roadmap for 0.77.0.
3dfx support is still work-in-progress right? (Not that 3dfx is super essential, the other changes are way more important)
Quoting: slaapliedjeIt's been a LONG time since dosbox mainline had a proper new release.10.5 years since last major release (0.74) and 15 months since last tiny security bugfix (0.74-3)…
Last edited by dreamer_ on 5 December 2020 at 12:55 am UTC
slaapliedje Dec 5, 2020
Quoting: dreamer_Holy crap! No wonder there are several forks. And people whine that there hasn't been a version bump for Xorg.Quoting: jensVery cool, thanks for the hard work and cool to see dosbox (staging) moving forward!Yes, it's on our roadmap for 0.77.0.
3dfx support is still work-in-progress right? (Not that 3dfx is super essential, the other changes are way more important)
Quoting: slaapliedjeIt's been a LONG time since dosbox mainline had a proper new release.10.5 years since last major release (0.74) and 15 months since last tiny security bugfix (0.74-3)…
slaapliedje Dec 5, 2020
Quoting: legluondunetNice, do they support Linux better? (As in not having a broken Flatpak?)Quoting: slaapliedjeDosBox-X does as well, but unfortunately you have to compile it yourself in Linux (unless maybe Arch has an PKGBUILD for it or something, I had to build it for Debian / Pop_OS) because the flatpak doesn't include some x11 libs, so menus don't work.
Dosbox ECE has far better 3DFX support than dosbox-x.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me