Which are the differences between DOSBox core and svn?

General
#1

Thanks for read. I not see any information about dosbox core svn. Which are the differences between DOSBox core and svn ?

Thanks for your reply.

#2

I believe dosbox core is still being synced to upstream and is actively supported.

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#3

Dosbox-svn does not have a maintainer and is based on a version of dosbox from 2020. It still works fine though and is useful for systems where dosbox-core is not available.

If dosbox-core is available for your system though, it’s the better choice. It’s up to date, and has some additional features documented here: https://github.com/realnc/dosbox-core#dosbox-core

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#4

Hi, and could you please tell us the differences between DOSBox core and DOSBOX PURE ? the 2nd is the best choice ? thanks regards

#5

(Disclosure: I’m the maintainer of dosbox-core.)

Dosbox-pure is useful for people who aren’t very familiar with dosbox and want DOS games to look like ROMs as much as possible. The core configuration options are also simplified as much as possible to not confuse users who don’t understand MS-DOS-era PCs very well. It also attempts to auto-configure input by consulting a game input database. It also runs on more platforms (like Vita and Nintendo Switch.) And it also supports save states (with most games, at least). Dosbox-core does not.

Dosbox-core on the other hand focuses on being as close to upstream dosbox as possible, including using .conf files to run games and being able to use external MIDI synths (like the Roland Sound Canvas VA, the Yamaha S-YXG50, or whatever else.) In general, you can get much higher quality MIDI music in dosbox-core. It also provides as many DOS configuration options as possible so you can fully configure the emulated machine. It’s also a little bit better when it comes to input lag, but it’s nothing major (it’s like half a frame lower lag on average or so.) It doesn’t support as many platforms as dosbox-pure though. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS and Android. Things like Vita and Switch are not supported.

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#6

thank you for all these details. very instructive thanks again

#7

DOSBox-Pure is a godsend if you want to add DOS games on a couch gaming setup.

It also works really well with the ExoDOS pack, without needing to unzip the archives, which makes organizing, backing up and scrapping a breeze. It does feel like launching regular roms.

Also, i’m pretty sure it’s also close to upstream and up to date, at least the change logs say so.

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#8

Totally, the Pure build is the best I’ve tried so far.

#9

With “close to upstream”, I meant the way it behaves.

I have a lot of per-game conf files, laid out in a folder with DOS installs of games inside subdirectories, all expecting to be installed in C:\GAMES\GAMENAME inside the DOS environment, with some utilities elsewhere (like GUS drivers in C:\ULTRASND, or standard DOS programs like EDIT installed in C:\DOS, Norton Commander in C:\NC, etc.)

This is a typical setup when using stand-alone dosbox, and so this is the primary use of dosbox-core. Being able to easily switch between stand-alone dosbox and dosbox-core to run the games in the exact same configuration is an important aspect of this core.

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#10

Well, Standalone Dosbox is still light years superior to the cores in retroarch. Mainly ECE by Yesterplay80 and Dosbox-X, both made by the guys at VOGONS.

plus now you have DBGL, launchbox and D-Fend to sort it out these issues. Also DOS games aren’t roms to be downloaded with, each has its own config and more, that also counts soundfonts, video configs and so on, which Retroarch doesn’t support none of it, even glide, so you need ECE and X to run MT32 and VMS or Roland VTSi for SC-55 sound.

#11

Thanks for all replies. Having games not starting if selected Dosbox-pure. Perhaps an file having multiples exes and coms ?

#12

maybe. If you can get a verbose log, it will usually give some hints about what’s up.

#13

Possibly dosbox pure not start some games because have serveral exes. Thus an possible fix is first start the game using dosbox core and see if have an install option. Install the game and after in save (NVRAM) folder see if was created an file with the name of game. If was created try open that file using core pure. In moment all games not starting with core pure are games having inside installers in root folder.

#14

MT-32 works fine with both cores. The Roland VSTi works fine in dosbox-core. There’s even a screenshot of it on the frontpage, for fuck’s sake… https://github.com/realnc/dosbox-core#dosbox-core

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#15

Have you tried DOSBox pure?

Some of the things you mention work fine in Pure. You can change soundfonds, video configs, CPU cycles, etc and save different ones per game. It’s also not a bad thing that it runs games as “roms” in a single archive because it saves any configs and changes you make separately. Which means the archived games are always safe/defaults.

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#16

Pure doesn’t really start the games as roms though. First it gives you a menu of all the things you can run. in there you can find all the different exes a game might have, for instance the setup exe in DOOM where you can change the sound options. These get saved normally and if you want, you can set a default exe so you won’t have to see that menu again.

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