DOSBox is not allowed for submissions on this site.
DOSBox is a cross-platform PC-DOS emulator released under the General Public License.
Bisqwit has modified DOSBox to include rerecording. It is very unstable, and no method is known that can play movies on other systems without desync. It seems to work best in Linux. Windows users cannot record AVI without an external tool. It is not supported at this site.
This modified form of DOSBox was experimental, but is no longer worked on. Use at your own risk.
Download modified DOSBox from this thread: Forum/Topics/5285
The official homepage of DOSBox is http://dosbox.sourceforge.net.
Links:
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/dosbox-rerecording-exe-a3.zip
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/dosbox-rerecording-exe-a4.zip
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/dosbox-rerecording-exe-a5.zip
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/patch-dosbox-0.70-rerecording-alpha3.gz
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/dosbox-rerecording-exe-a3.zip
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/dosbox-rerecording-exe-a4.zip
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/dosbox-rerecording-exe-a5.zip
https://files.tasvideos.org/emulatordownloads/dosbox/patch-dosbox-0.70-rerecording-alpha3.gz
Important: The following was a past recommendation of settings.
Nothing is accepted now and may not be accepted ever.
Dosbox: Use a pristine install of the game
In PC game installs, your game install should be as pristine as possible.
- No previously saved games
- No userdesigned scenarios
- Not even configuration files saved by a setup program.
- No temporary files.
Basically, it should be set to a state that is precisely duplicatable by
anyone else without knowing what kind of settings you have set on your game.
It is recommended that once have a few minutes of movie ready, you go to another
computer, and attempt to install/copy your game there and copy your movie
there and view it using dosbox on that computer.
If you cannot get your movie working on another computer despite trying, chances are nobody else can either, and that movie cannot be accepted.
If you cannot get your movie working on another computer despite trying, chances are nobody else can either, and that movie cannot be accepted.
Dosbox: Do not use absolute paths
Do not use absolute paths in your game. When you start the game, you should
launch Dosbox in the game's directory, and mount the the game's directory
using a simple
mount c . command. Anything resembling mount c c:\games\sierra\larry cannot be accepted, because playing back such a movie would require that the viewer constructs the identical path structure on their own system. It also makes your movie longer than it needs to be.
Dosbox: No autoexec commands, no bat files.
You must not use autoexec commands in your dosbox.conf file. If you need
to type commands to start the game, you must type them in the movie, not
in the configuration file.
Same goes for bat files: You are not allowed to use a "p.bat" file that
launches a "pirates.exe" to save in keyboard input (p is shorter than pirates).
Dosbox: Use best settings, not better.
Use best settings, but not better. This will produce the best
possible AVI (i.e. viewing experience), while not making your
savestates more cumbersomely large than they need to be.
- Estimate the amount of memory required by your game, in megabytes. Set the memsize= setting in dosbox.conf accordingly. Hint: If the game runs on 286, use 1 (unless its README talks about EMS or XMS, in which case you should use 2 or 4). If uncertain, use 16.
- Estimate the CPU power wanted by the game in megahertz. Multiply by 1000, and set it in the cycles= setting in dosbox.conf. For example, if it requires 3 MHz, set cycles=3000. If it requires 120 MHz, set cycles=120000. Use the largest possible value that you think makes the game run more fluently, but not larger. If uncertain, use 40000. This corresponds to an average 486. Do not set "cycles=max", it will cause your movie to desync.
- Note: Aim for the "optimal" case wanted by the game, not for the "minimum" case required by the game.
- Special case: In case of old games that become ridiculously fast when run on fast computers (such as Alley Cat), you must not use a high cycles= value to artificially speed up the game. You should use a value that corresponds to the typical computer of the era of the game's creation.
- Use the "simple" or "normal" core.
- You should adjust the soundcard mixing settings. Disable those cards which are not needed by your game, and set the mixing rates accordingly. If your game produces 44 kHz digital sound, then you should set the mixing rate at 44 kHz. If it only produces 11 kHz sound, you should set it at 22 kHz or 11 kHz. If uncertain, set every rate at 44100.
- You should configure the game to use the sound settings that produce the best sound. Experiment on the settings (outside of movie recording) and check which sounds best. Usually, you should set the maximum mixing rate. If uncertain, ask on the forums.
- Set "keyboardlayout=" . Do not use "auto", it will cause portability problems.
- If possible, configure the game to use a screen resolution as close to 640x400 as possible. 320x200 is very typical, and perfectly ok. Yes, this means you will have USA layout but that's a minor evil that probably wins some compatibility.
- Do not use frame skipping. Ensure that there is "frameskip=0" in your dosbox.conf file.
- Disable mouse sensitivity unless the mouse is absolutely necessary and mouse recording is supported. Set "sensitivity=0".
- If your game contains rendering quality controls, you should maximize them. Increase the cpu cycles (in .conf) if required to make that quality useable.
Note: Many of these settings mean that dosbox will not run in real time. The sound will chop and video will be laggy. Do not be alarmed. When an AVI is created, all the lag is ignored and the end result will look just like it should on the computer of that speed which you specified in the configuration file. During the movie making, some imagination skills are required to realize the end result.
The choice of "scaler" does not matter. Use whichever you like.