DOSBox 0.73, emulation status update
After the release of DOSBox version 0.73, I was asking myself why the emulation status page wasn’t updated yet and kept reporting the own features of version 0.72. Actually mine was a rhetoric question because I knew that sooner or later, as already happened in the past, the page would have been updated with the current status of the several subsystems of retrogamers PC/DOS preferred emulator.
Today I have realized that finally the emulation status has been matched to the last release, and considering that I find extremely interesting to closely follow development of an emulator like DOSBox here below I post the comparison of subsystems as they were reproduced in version 0.72 (on the left) and how they are in the current release (on the right). The first two attached images include all the systems, while the following ones work as a specific compare for every section.
DOSBox primary core is the CPU instructions emulation engine, and how it’s possible to see from the following image there weren’t major changes passing from version 0.72 to 0.73. The only noteworthy difference is the addition in the last release of 386 microprocessors prefetch feature emulation, useful for compatibility with games designed to profit by it.
As I’ve remarked in my interview to developers, DOSBox 0.73 most important improvements and changes are the ones brought to the graphic section that now offers real EGA hardware emulation next to the one integrated in the VGA code, support to four different SVGA chipsets for games predating the introduction of VESA universal standard and a special VGA mode (”VGA only”) for software that exploits graphic hardware in uncommon ways.
Sound too has been heavily revised, with the implementation of a new advanced core for the FM synthesis OPL chip (used on the earlier Adlib and Sound Blaster cards) that joins the preexistent one derived from MAME, support to RealSound standard in the emulation of the internal speaker (a standard that for what concerns myself has always been something to pity) and the addition of BIOS-level DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) emulation on Tandy platform.
DOSBox “Miscellaneous” part includes things like the system timer, DMA channels, input peripherals (mouse/keyboard/joystick), ISO images and network play. In this case the switch from version 0.72 to 0.73 hasn’t seen any change except for the MS-DOS CD-ROM control driver MSCDEX, that now includes several disk detection schemes.
The DOS operating system section, in the end, has remained largely unchanged apart from minor fixes and improvements to the memory subsystem and the execution of Batch files for which there are traces only in the emulator attached documentation.
The percentages reported by DOSBox developers next to any single feature clearly demonstrate that the emulator has reached a remarkable maturity, which thing means a high compatibility level with the most complicated and diversified game stock ever existed (that is games for MS-DOS and similar systems). Of course this doesn’t mean that there is no more work to do, and all the emulation community is very interested in future developments of the virtual machine that brought back to life classic PC videogames.
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I was trying to figure out if there was a major difference and this was well put togther. You did a great job at comparing the two of them.
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Thank you. I thought it would have been interesting to look at the differences between the two DOSBox versions, especially considering how much time it takes to release an upgrade for the emulator…
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