Doubt about DOSBox

**F_style** · 17-Oct-2013, 16:24

I tried DOSBox, which fortunately seems installed by default on openSUSE, at least on GNOME, for first time, with an old Apogee game called Hocus Pocus (childhood...). I managed to run it well, at least what I can say from the quick tests I did. But when trying to turn on music the game said "sound card needed for this", or something like that. How can I activate sound or music on DOSBox?

Thanks...

**vazhavandan** · 17-Oct-2013, 20:21

F style wrote:
>
> I tried DOSBox, which fortunately seems installed by default on
> openSUSE, at least on GNOME, for first time, with an old Apogee game
> called Hocus Pocus (childhood...). I managed to run it well, at least
> what I can say from the quick tests I did. But when trying to turn on
> music the game said "sound card needed for this", or something like
> that. How can I activate sound or music on DOSBox?
>
> Thanks...
>
>
sound plays out-of-box n my machine when i play this game
http://www.artsoft.org/RELEASES/msdo...s/rocks310.zip

i run the game like this:-

dosbox ~/Downloads/rocks-3.1_0/rocks.exe

--
GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop

**F_style** · 17-Oct-2013, 20:51

Your way of running games actually helped me fairly (I used to do all manually: opened DOSBox, mounted in c: the game's directory, and ran the game --old times...--).
In terminal I got some log which could describe the problem:

Code:

user@linux-loyv:~> dosbox ~/Documents/hocus-pocus/hocus.exe
DOSBox version 0.74
Copyright 2002-2010 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
---
CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/jc_lara/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
MIXER:Got different values from SDL: freq 44100, blocksize 512
ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0) nor (17:0)
MIDI:Opened device:none

Now that I think about it, most of DOS games used MIDI for sound, didn't they? But anyway, do you have actually Timidity installed?

**vazhavandan** · 17-Oct-2013, 21:16

F style wrote:
>
> Your way of running games actually helped me fairly (I used to do all
> manually: opened DOSBox, mounted in c: the game's directory, and ran the
> game --old times...--).
> In terminal I got some log which could describe the problem:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> user@linux-loyv:~> dosbox ~/Documents/hocus-pocus/hocus.exe
> DOSBox version 0.74
> Copyright 2002-2010 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
> ---
> CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/jc_lara/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
> MIXER:Got different values from SDL: freq 44100, blocksize 512
> ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0) nor (17:0)
> MIDI

pened device:none
> --------------------
>
> Now that I think about it, most of DOS games used MIDI for sound, didn't
> they? But anyway, do you have actually Timidity installed?
>
>

I did have timidty but un-installed it and tried the game I mentioned
earlier,I get similar messages as you but sound "does" work in my game

No special configuration done. Dosbox takes care of all those things I
guess. you can optionally try the game I have mentioned and check
whether sound works . The download size is about 3.4 MB

Code:

$dosbox ~/Downloads/rocks-3.1_0/rocks.exe
DOSBox version 0.74
Copyright 2002-2010 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
---
CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file
/home/dartmouth/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
MIXER:Got different values from SDL: freq 44100, blocksize 512
ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0) nor (17:0)
MIDI:Opened device:none
DOSBox switched to max cycles, because of the setting: cycles=auto. If
the game runs too fast try a fixed cycles amount in DOSBox's options.
$

--
GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop

**F_style** · 17-Oct-2013, 21:26

Oh, sfx sound (or sound effects, if I could call them that way) does work. What doesn't is music. Game says "a sound card is needed for music". Installed Timidity but didn't work. In fact I get the same terminal log.
Game here:
Download Hocus Pocus - My Abandonware

**vazhavandan** · 17-Oct-2013, 21:57

F style wrote:
>
> Oh, sfx sound (or sound effects, if I could call them that way) does
> work. What doesn't is music. Game says "a sound card is needed for
> music". Installed Timidity but didn't work. In fact I get the same
> terminal log.
> Game here:
> 'Download Hocus Pocus - My Abandonware'
> (http://www.myabandonware.com/game/hocus-pocus-1vp)
>
>
Success!Yipee! with hocus pocus has been achieved. i have sound

we seem to have forgotten as to how old DOS games work

we should "setup" our sound first using setup executable and then go on
to play the game.

--
GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop

**F_style** · 17-Oct-2013, 22:19

Well, actually my uncle did all the installing stuff back then and just let me play... When I began learning computing those times were already passing to history...

In setup.exe, for either Music sound and SFX sound I'm given several choices. Guess I must select a sound card to begin with. But I'm not sure how to check what sound card I have on my system.... Also, what options do you pick when asked in SFX sound how many voices and what quality?

**vazhavandan** · 17-Oct-2013, 23:19

F style wrote:
>
> Well, actually my uncle did all the installing stuff back then and just
> let me play... When I began learning computing those times were already
> passing to history...
>
> In setup.exe, for either Music sound and SFX sound I'm given several
> choices. Guess I must select a sound card to begin with. But I'm not
> sure how to check what sound card I have on my system.... Also, what
> options do you pick when asked in SFX sound how many voices and what
> quality?
>
>
Sorry,for not explaining stuff. I Guess it not "so" obvious after all.
Here is a detailed explanation :-

As soon as you run the command dosbox from terminal/konsole you should
have noticed the clue. There is only one choice that one can ideally
make. The default sound card for dosbox is as shown/Highlighted in the
picture below. Soundblaster

Now proceeding to setup
==>start dosbox

Code:

dosbox

==>inside dosbox mount the game folder as c: and change to c:

Code:

mount c: ~/Downloads/hocus-pocus
c:

==>run setup.exe and configure

Code:

setup.exe

*Select Music card ==> Sound blaster
*Select Sound Effects card ==> Sound blaster ==> select number of voices
==> Four(default) ==>16bits
*Select Controller ==>Keyboard
*Finally "Save settings"

==>Play game by running command hocus. You should hear weird sounds and
ghoulish laughter when game starts

Happy gaming

From next time you play game no mounting required. Play using command

dosbox ~/Downloads/hocus-pocus/hocus.exe

--
GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop

**F_style** · 18-Oct-2013, 08:43

Thanks very much again, mr Vazhavandan!

Just as the DOSBox wiki says about sound, back in those times sound devices were not "standardized". Games or software had to include separate support for different sound devices, and since each one had its own features games could sound different according to device. With Hocus Pocus happened something similar with Monster Bash (another from Apogee), with sound configured it sounded different than MIDI-like.

By the way, instead of entering setup.exe manually I just did "dosbox ~/Documents/hocus-pocus/setup.exe" and it worked. Was there actually a difference by doing manually?

Oh, if only I was a bit expert back then, I'd probably have enjoyed those times more...

**vazhavandan** · 18-Oct-2013, 09:20

Originally Posted by F_style

Thanks very much again, mr Vazhavandan!

you are welcome.

Originally Posted by F_style

Just as the DOSBox wiki says about sound, back in those times sound devices were not "standardized". Games or software had to include separate support for different sound devices, and since each one had its own features games could sound different according to device.

I am not sure if dosbox supports/can emulate various types of sound cards. That would be an interesting research. Did you find any documentation about the types of sound cards dosbox can emulate ?

Originally Posted by F_style

By the way, instead of entering setup.exe manually I just did "dosbox ~/Documents/hocus-pocus/setup.exe" and it worked.

Not much of difference, i guess . I just auto-mounts "~/Documents/hocus-pocus/" as c: which is really convenient.

Originally Posted by F_style

Oh, if only I was a bit expert back then, I'd probably have enjoyed those times more...

Now that I think about it I remember playing "prince of persia" on a black & white CRT screen

long, long ago.

My next task would be to investigate a way to create a launcher for a dosbox+game so that i can open the game by just clicking on a icon in GNOME Shell==> Activities