Talk:DOSBox Wii

OH SNAP!

Dude, this look awesome. Everytime I see "Tantric" I know its a good project. If you need any beta testing doing, feel free to message me. Beegee7730 05:55, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

THIS IS the application I was expecting in Homebrew scene! Thanks for such a good job! raribeir 03:27PM, 14 May 2009 (GMT-3)

DosBox on Wii. I didn't really expect that. Great stuff, just plain great. Gonna be great with mouse driven games. Thanks alot. --Shadow1w2 08:28, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

[Request] Add Compatibility with M.A.M.E. for DOS

This IS awesome! Thanks a lot for this!

I guess we all love DOSBox Wii for we want to play our old games on our new Wii.

Nevertheless, I found that most of my favourite point-and-click adventures can be played through ScummVM (e.g., Monkey Island 1,2,3 - The Dig etc..), while most of the games I would like to play on DOSBox Wii didn't work (e.g., Duke Nukem 3D, Descent, Terminal Velocity, Raptor, Cannon Fodder (yes, it works but is unplayable due to pointer hangs and unfortunately the same happens using the Amiga version with UAE port for wii), etc...).

After this sad experience, I said: Who cares?!?!? I will use the MAME for DOS with DOSBox Wii!!! But again, no luck. :(

I, and I'm sure most of us, will be very happy if I could play all of my favourite arcade games using the DOS version of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (aka M.A.M.E.), am I right? :D

So Please, is it possible to make MAME work on DosBox Wii?

This would be the definitive solution for all the arcade-players like me!

Ippino 13:14, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

MAME has really high system requirements, so it will run worse than SDL MAME for the Wii. --Jonson?! 18:29, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Well the problem is...nothing can be worse than SDL MAME ! And I'm not talking about slowness, not even ONE game is working to me. Ippino 19:47, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Bugs

Does anyone else have problems with sound? Every game I tried worked to some degree of success, Digit! for example played sound effects fine, but the background music was very quiet, with occasional spurts of loud noise. Otherwise great job! Looking forward to some speed improvements if possible, but there's certainly enough power to get some DOS action going! - Shambler —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shambler (talk • contribs) Current revision as of 03:20, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Yes, we are still having problems with sound. Speed is a bit slower than normal because DOSBox has no PowerPC dynamic recompiler. CarlKenner 13:26, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

I seem to have a directory browsing bug. I do:

mount d sd:/

so I can browse the files on my SD card. That works fine, but when I go into a directory, like:

cd apps

after that I can no longer back out to the main drive. Trying:

cd ..

or

cd\

just gives an error that it can't go to that directory. I can go into deeper directories like d:\apps\dosbox\ and then back out to d:\apps\ but I can't get back out to d:\

However, when using the little DOS frontend program I described below here, I can then back out to the d:\ drive just fine.... --Mr. Reaper 22:47, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Here's another small bug;

Whenever I boot the program I have to unplugg and replugg my wireless usb keyboard sensor to get it to work! I don't know if this is just because of my type of keyboard, but I found it to be very irritating.. --TheBLUEBIRD 23:22, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

You have to wait for the usb driver to load up in order for the keyboard to work. i have to wait 3 to 6 seconds for the keyboard to take input. Ratix 01:11, 3 August 2009 (UTC)Ratix

Any plans on a frontend/GUI?

Not everyone (like me) has a USB keyboard, either from having older PCs and/or using laptops.Nintendo Maniac 64 04:24, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Back in the old DOS days, there were many simple and complex frontends for DOS.... I've searched around to see if there are any good, easy ones and so far one of the smallest, simplest I've found is "The DOS Controller." Try Googling: "dc-sk.zip" and you'll find it easily. Just stick it in sd:\DOSBox\dc\ and add an entry at the bottom of the [autoexec] section in the sd:\DOSBox\dosbox.conf file that says: c:\dc\dc.com and it will start automatically when you run DOSBox. You can then use the mouse (wiimote) to browse folders and files and run the exe's for the DOS games you want by double-clicking them. The wiimote mouse control seems kind of weird though; if you can't move the moust cursor any farther in one direction, you have to move it off the screen in the other direction first.... --Mr. Reaper 20:09, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Turns out this doesn't really work anyway since the games I wanted to play need keyboard input to hit the "enter" key just to even get into the game (Duke Nukem 2 and Jill of the Jungle to name a few). An on-screen keyboard like what QuakeGX has when you hold a button could fix this.Nintendo Maniac 64 06:15, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Yes, we do need to implement some method of doing keyboard input with the Wii Remote. Currently you can only control the Joystick and Mouse if you don't have a USB keyboard. I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement the frontend we have on the other emulators, since DOSBox uses SDL.

Anyway, if you want to start individual DOS applications from the homebrew channel, you can copy your apps/dosboxwii folder to another folder in the apps directory, then copy a dosbox.conf file into that directory and edit it to include things in the autoexec section. sd:/dosbox will be automatically mounted as D: and the new folder in the apps directory will be mounted as C:, although you can unmount them if you want with mount -u and then mount them however you want. Don't forget to change the xml file to show a different name in Homebrew Channel. This doesn't solve the need for keyboard input in some games though. CarlKenner 03:59, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Mapping the most common keys to some unused buttons on the Wiimote would go a long way. Like "1" = "Escape" and "2" = "Enter" would let most games get configured and started. Additionally, it could be useful to have "-" = decrease frame skip and "+" = increase frame skip. [edit: and unless the sideways wiimote is going to be set up to work as a gamepad, the directional pad should be mapped to the cursor keys on a keyboard: up, down, left, right] --Mr. Reaper 06:09, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

But then this prevents the ability to use a sideways wiimote as a joystick.Nintendo Maniac 64 06:15, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

But the wiimote currently doesn't work as a joystick anyway... (just the nunchuck and classic controller do). Well, if the sideways wiimote is made to work as a joystick, then the +/- buttons should be for escape/enter. --Mr. Reaper 06:32, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

You could use a shareware version of Norton Commander 5 :) --Elisherer 12:14, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

One suggestion might be to have a frontend similar to Snes 9x GX come up first that has options like the following:

• Dos prompt (leads to what we have now)
• Programs (takes you to a menu where you can select programs/games that you have already programmed a string of commands into DOSBox. This also allows for the option of custom key bindings.)
• Setup (pretty obvious)

If you wanted a standard "home menu" then you could give it the following options:

• Dos Prompt (return to dos prompt)
• Menu (return to above suggested menu)
• Loader (return to loader)
• Wii Menu (return to wii)

I don't now how feasible this all is, but with the addition of an onscreen keyboard this could completely remove the need for a USB keyboard. I also like the idea of custom key bindings as this would allow for more complex games like X-Wing to be useable with only a classic controller.TheTome 06:11, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Classic controller would be cool, with custom key bindings (maybe for each game?) Beegee7730 06:23, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

A menu when you hit the Home key would be great. The optional controls and bindings will be rather stagering in order to support custom controller only support. A list of keys and mouse and joystick inputs with a drop down selection for analog inputs including a "none" selection to nullify any troublsome controls. Keys could be easy configurable with press key to map functions. Waggle to press a key would be interesting too, but very much an extra. As for a frontend, I think it would be nice to have a menu within the Home key menu that lists configurable shortcuts. Say if you click on one it'll reset the emulator and input a batch of commands thats set in an ini file or the like. For easy and quick app switching. Maybe even store control and cpu cycle/frame skip preconfigurations. Though for now at least we can find Dos menu apps to streamline it too. Would be fun to make a Wii styled retro Dos app frontend just for fun though. Might be insanely confusing however. Oh and support for digital pad to Virtual Joystick analog mapping would be great too. Say for those crazy enough to use an arcade stick or any other possible reason to map digital to analogs. --Shadow1w2 08:23, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

Windows 95!

As soon as i downloaded this i put windows 95 and windows 3.1 on my wii! very easy to do! who needs linux? best dam program ever! Aujakev 4:02 May 18, 2009 —Preceding undated comment added 01:06, 19 May 2009 (UTC).

How well does Win95 run on the wii? And how about old Windows games? Hmm... and how about Internet Explorer 5?? --Mr. Reaper 23:05, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

I dont know about internet explorer becuse i dont have the internet a my house (and there is no network support), but windows 95 runs very well. you have to type in lot of comands but the end result is amazing! I only ran games like mine sweeper and solatare, but I'll try to run games like the Halo 1 Demo, and if that ran fine, im goinging to try the sims 2! it's worth a shot right? Aujakev 2:56 PM, 19 May 2009 (UTC) —Preceding undated comment added 20:00, 19 May 2009 (UTC).

I've tried getting Windows 95 installed and running, but haven't had much luck even on the PC port of DOSBox. A step-by-step walkthrough would be much appreciated if you are so inclined. Theviolator 3:45 PM, May 19, 2009 —Preceding undated comment added 20:47, 19 May 2009 (UTC).

Here you go. Walk through --Aujakev 21:29, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

I have not found a way to create an .img file of anything other than a floppy disk. I've found utilities for Linux that can create .img files from hard drives, but this does not appear to be an option when running Windows. The closest I can seem to get is a Virtual PC .vhd file or a Virtualbox .vdi, neither of which are supported in DOSBox.

[edit] Nevermind, I was able to find one pre-made, and substituted my actual Windows 95 key. I still can't find a way to make one from scratch, though. Theviolator 8:38 PM, May 19, 2009 —Preceding undated comment added 01:37, 20 May 2009 (UTC).

I follow the Aujakev walkthough for windows 95, but after the Windows95 logo the program hangs, all becomes nothing more than a black screen =(, I boot w95 from a 2GB USB pendrive (about 200mb free or so), I even tried run it from my SDbut I got the same result. I'm using a 200mb w95.img version. Thanks --TunaLover 20:30, 20 may 2009 (UTC) —Preceding undated comment added 21:02, 21 May 2009 (UTC).

windows 95 takes 10-12 mins after boot. --Aujakev 14:13, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

This whole windows 95 thing is a bit tricky IMO mainly because any game that uses a 640x480 resolution will not be outputted on the screen. if there was actual footage of win95 running in 640x480 resolution i would believe, but without an actual vid its kinda pointless. If anything an attempt to use windows 3.11 might be impressive. Ratix 07:42, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Aujakev: I corrected that Windows 95 link you posted earlier so it goes to an informational page

Theviolator: For .img creation, try http://www.winimage.com/

Also, I was wondering: Isn't Windows 3.1 listed as not working in the current release (DOSBox_Wii/Compatibility_List)? So how can Windows 95 work?--Q-pa 17:36, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Mounting discs images

I've tried to mount a disc image from my sd card, but I can't get it to work like in my PC version of DOSbox. For that matter I can't mount anything that isn't in the C:\ directory.--FUNKAMATIC ~talk 00:19, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

why not try to have a shorter file name for some files? because i think if you have 8 characters or more the name is changed for dos formatting. example: Phantasmagoria = phanta~1 or something like that. Ratix 07:37, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Possible configuration

set cycles to 6000

when using the keyboard change cycle up and down to 200 each time to adjust on the fly

set CPU CORE to simple

set sound buffer to 2048 and pre buffer to 80

change soundblaster to sb16

frameskip to 2

for easy configuration use txtEdMod Ratix 01:11, 3 August 2009 (UTC)ratix Reedit by Ratix 21:56, 22 November 2010 (CET)

Other ports

- Epitech port that can run at full rate and have a nice virtual keyboard (no need of USB keyboard) : http://gamelab.epitech.net/fr/projets/projects2012/196-dosbox-wii

How exactly is this virtual keyboard accessed? Nothing other than a ghostly cursor exists as user input without a real keyboard. Zandro 08:39, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

link no longer works. Ratix 22:01, 22 November 2010 (CET)

issue/suggiestion

Re "The C: drive will automatically be mounted to sd:/DOSBox/ if loaded from apps/dosbox-wii/". Dosbox wii is in that location yet it sd:/DOSBox/ is still mapped as D:. Anybody else getting that too? it's the dosbox wii 1.0

Also it would be really great to be able to use keymapper. I see that the keymapper file is being saved to sd:/DOSBox/, but I've had some issues with it. 1) it would be great if access to keymapper was available from dosbox wii's menu (when pressing the home button). 2) it doesn't seem to work right and crashed on me once. For example if I map nunchuck left to left cursor and nunchuck up to up cursor, pressing nunchuck up and left together doesn't press anything. buttons A B C and Z are either button 0 or 1, which decreases number of buttons that can be mapped (I'm not sure if this one's fixable). The onscreen keyboard missed many keys - like enter (which is pressed automatically) and for example ~ (like the sign used in dos with long filenames). In general it would be great to look at dosbox wii from the point of usability without a usb keyboard. -- Spec 22:23, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

It has been like that since the release of dosbox Wii. never really minded putting all my stuff in there. Ratix 22:40, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

key bindings

Would it be possible to bind keys to the wiimote/classic controller/nunchuk/gccontroller? Not every game has Joystick functionality.

I would also really like to remap the joystick buttons, like on the classic controller make A do what B does and make B do what X does. Also REALLY needs to make the D-pad do the same as the analog stick. For games without analog joystick support, the D-pad would be MUCH better. Nintendo Maniac 64 21:22, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I have been reading this wiibrew wiki for a while, but have never made an account. I finally made an account for the SOLE purpose of seconding this request. In the wiimenu, there needs to be a wii controller button. Once clicked, it should have a list of different wii controllers, when selected, you should be able to set each button to represent a keyboard button/mouse button. The d-pad and analog sticks of each controller should be able to be set as either keyboard buttons or mouse strokes. Also, being able to set the the wiimote pointer as a mouse, and to be able to disable that would be useful. And as long as we're talking requests, in the wiimenu there ought to be a program browser that helps you create settings for a dos program (via a wizard or something) or load a dos program with the settings previously created, without having to type in all the crap at the beginning -- basically, once I've got it up and running, I don't want my keyboard anywhere near my wii. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Larlarlabar (talk • contribs) 13:25, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Just make batch files for each game with the settings you want. I'm pretty sure you can create one and each batch file should make dosbox run at a decent pace for the games.

Say you want to play tapper but the game runs to fast. make a batch file like tapper.bat inside the file you have the specific settings you want in order to get the game to run at the approximate speed. Ratix 22:08, 22 November 2010 (CET)

First let me thank the devs for an awesome program and port to the Wii. My question is a follow-up to Larlarlabar's and Ratix' explanation. I've already successfully used the keymapper to assign keyboard keys to the wiimote which worked flawlessly and i've created batch files to start some old dos games which i had lying around. Since Dos games rarely use the same keyboard keys i had to use the keymapper every time i ran a different Dos game to assign its various buttons. For example, if you want to run Commander Keen 1 you'd have to assign the arrow keys (movement), ctrl (jump) and alt (use pogo stick) to the wiimote. So my question is: Is it possible to create Dos-game-specific batch files in which the keyboard keys are automatically assigned to the chosen wiimote buttons with some sort of command and if yes, how would said batch file have to look like? To reuse the example above, let's say i want to let the batch file automatically assign the movement keys to an analog stick, ctrl to wiimote's 1 and alt to wiimote's 2...

I googled the hell out of this topic but couldn't find a solution or tutorial. I also read the Dosbox Wii readme (especially chapter 7) several times but couldn't quite figure it out. Thanks for reading and maybe replying... As old as Dos (talk) 10:29, 26 February 2013 (CET)

I believe I may have unintentionally found a way to solve your problem of having different key mappings for different games. I wanted to bind keys to the wii mote because I don't have a USB keyboard, but I hadn't thought to try the key mapper until I read your post. Of course this was tricky because to active the mapper you need to press Ctrl + f1 by default and with no Ctrl on the onscreen keyboard and no USB keyboard it's impossible to achieve this key combination on the wii. So I went on my pc version of dosbox, activated the mapper, changed the "mapper" function to simply f4 without the mod1 checked (mod1 added the left Ctrl), saved and exited the keymapper, and then copied the "mapper-0.74.map" file from my pc dosbox folder to my sd card where the dosbox.conf file was. That allowed me to use the mapper and assign keyboard functions to my wii mote and numchuck. (On a side note it seems the dpad will map but won't actually work hence the numchuck.)

Now once I had done that I decided to follow some advice from a post above here by CarlKenner in the section entitled "Any plans on a frontend/GUI?" about launching different dos games straight from the homebrew channel by copying the dosbox-wii folder to another folder inside of apps and changing the meta.xml file and possibly the icon.png to make them distinguishable in the homebrew channel and adding lines to the auto exec section of dosbox.conf. When you open dosbox from this secondary "app", it mounts c: as the folder inside apps that boot.dol is loaded from in this instance and inside that folder you should make your dosbox.conf file the way that is best for that game and your mapper-0.74.map should be there too and then you just need to map your keys for each game one time. And of course you can make as many copied dosbox-wii folders as you like for different games.

I hope this helps you and anyone lacking a USB keyboard to a) save different key mappings for different games and b) map keyboard functions to the wiimote without having a USB keyboard (to activate the mapper with Ctrl + f1 is a bit difficult without a Ctrl key on the onscreen keyboard :-D)Raviv (talk) 18:11, 18 March 2013 (CET)

Complements/Suggestions

This new version is really good! The onscreen Keyboard is very responsive and quite simple to use.

However, it is missing vital keys.

F1 through f12, Control, Shift, Alt, and Delete, Arrow Keys (Trust me, these may not seem needed, but they are.)

Also, Midi devices don't appear to work (only tried one game, Hocus Pocus.)--Namo 00:43, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Key Mapper Solutions

For anyone who is frustrated with the ability to only map two different functions to your wiimotes and classic controllers using keymapper, I have a solution for you!

• Step 1: open dosbox.conf
• Step 2: go down to the controller section, and find the buttonwrap setting
• Step 3: make the buttonwrap value = false.

Done! You will now be able to use every single button on your classic controller, wii mote, and nunchuck. It is worth noting however that I am yet to find a way to use the right joystick on the classic controller for anything. Currently, the left joystick sits as default joystick, and the d-pad acts like the joystick's hat. Hope this helps!!! TheTome 08:46, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

DOS32A

For those interested, using dos32a instead of dos4gw really seems to help compatibility issues with dosbox. With it, I've successfully started Descent (opening logos only), and I've gotten Rebel Assault to work. It's also given me a small speed increase in numerous games.

You can get dos32a here[1]

Instructions on its use here[2]

Enjoy!TheTome 08:36, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

test

is the anyway someone could try to boot LiveAndroid, a live disc version of the Open Source Android OS. here's the download -- http://code.google.com/p/live-android/downloads/list --[[User:Calthephenom|<font face="Copperplate Gothic Light"><font color="black">Calvin</font><font color="red"> Likes Cooies</font></font>]] [[User talk:Calthephenom|<font face="Impact" color="grey">~talk</font>]] 06:04, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

WTF does LiveAndroid have to do with DOSBox Wii? --bg4545 05:05, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

i was just assuming if you can boot windows 95, you can boot other OS's as well --[[User:Calthephenom]] 19:43, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Nope. Older versions of Windows run on DOS; you can't run other OSes. --bg4545 20:41, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Wii mouse special handler.

When the wiimote goes off screen it does not work right.

Say if a button is on the corner of the screen. you place your cursor over it then off the screen.

It looks like the mouse is over the button but its not really. you click and click and click but it does nothing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gamax92 (talk • contribs) 05:09, 29 January 2011 (CET)

IPX Tunneling Support

I was wondering, would it be possible to add IPX tunneling support for games like NetKeen (Multiplayer Commander Keen Deathmatch) or other games that run online multiplayer? Da GPer 07:24, 27 February 2011 (CET)

Dosbox includes IPX tunneling support, it just doesn't work in this build because SDL-wii has broken UDP code. Wouldn't be hard to fix. Tueidj 13:45, 27 February 2011 (CET)

Do you know if it will be fixed by the next version or if its possible to get a version that has it fixed? Da GPer 13:55, 27 February 2011 (CET)

No and no. --Tantric 18:26, 27 February 2011 (CET)

SMB Support

As the headline suggests, I was wondering if there are any plans for SMB mounting support in the future. Awesome job thus far, people! --Herman2000 17:31, 25 January 2012 (CET)

1:1 scaling / original output mode for 300x200 + 320x240 VGA/VESA modes

I've noticed that recent versions of other emulators such as Snes9x GX have implemented very accurate scaling, as well as original (240p) output support. It would be a fine thing if DOSBox Wii were to do the same for all modes between 300x200 and 640x480, with optional 240p support for resolutions <= 320x240. Kerframil 00:54, 28 July 2012 (CEST)