About DOS-Box

I grabbed a copy of DOS-Box. It is working under WinME, Athlon CPU, but it is not working properly. I get a continuous streaming "SDL Lock Failed" error in the background, and I get stuttering sound and poor performance in the game, although it is (marginally) playable this way. Since WinME is not verified for DOS-Box as compatible, I can't really complain. I expect the performance on other Windows operating systems is much better.

WinME does not support Expanded Memory function, which is why MOO does not work. I had MOO1 working under Win95 and Win98 over the years, though, on machines ranging from a Pentium 75 to a P2 300. That's where I saw the animations running fast, but emulators and other options may not see that.

I know, I know. Why am I running WinME? Well, that's a long story. I've had no problems with it doing what I want EXCEPT in the area of getting Xcom and MOO to run, which is why I've never been motivated to back up to 98 again. There was no need, so I didn't bother.


There was one other problem for DOS-Box. I could not take a screenshot. Dumping the screen to the Windows clipboard with PrntScrn failed. What came out was a garbled mess. Are you able to take screenshots? If not immediately, perhaps after tweaking DOS-Box a little? If you can't take screens, that would be problematic for tournament or SG play, obviously. Let me know.


As for getting the game to run, I will have to rely on you and Zed, and perhaps others, to assemble easy to use instructions for getting up and running in XP or Win2000. I should be able to provide that for Win98 and Win95B. I plan to install Win98 on the P1 166 I'm trying to assemble. Since Descent, Xcom, and MOO will all play well at that speed, and will play better at native speed on a slower box than through an emulator on a modern PC, I still intend to go forward with that plan for myself.

I did take a few minutes to poke around in MOO while I had the game open, though. 640 resolution DOES look worse than I remembered. It's been about four years since I played any of the old games at that resolution, but it still felt good to revisit an old friend. It will be good to play again. Won't be too much longer now...


- Sirian