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DOSBox is still alive, with a new bug fix release available

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DOS lives on! Not just in our hearts but thanks to DOSBox [Official Site] you can continue playing some serious classics and a new update is available with some fixes.

Here's what's changed:

  • Fixed that a very long line inside a bat file would overflow the parsing buffer. (CVE-2019-7165 by Alexandre Bartel)
  • Added a basic permission system so that a program running inside DOSBox can't access the contents of /proc (e.g. /proc/self/mem) when / or /proc were (to be) mounted. (CVE-2019-12594 by Alexandre Bartel)
  • Several other fixes for out of bounds access and buffer overflows.
  • Some fixes to the OpenGL rendering.

Compatibility for this release should be no different to 0.74 and 0.74-2, so you should be able to upgrade without seeing any issues appear. They're also still working on the next major release with DOSBox 0.75, but some bugs are currently holding back a release.

I love DOSBox, before OpenXcom became fully playable for the classic X-COM experience I used it quite regularly. Cannon Fodder is also a rather guilty pleasure of mine, a true classic. What are some of your favourites you still play thanks to DOSBox?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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namiko Jun 28, 2019
Quoting: denyasisOutnumbered was one of my first games as a child on our green screen 8086. I still remember the music of the TV station. Treasure Mountain and Gizmos and Gadgets were also a blast. My parent recently found our old floppies and copied them over (along with Lemmings!).

Ps, if your using the num pad, you can "hover" over Telly by jumping over him and just going back and forth with the 7 and 9 key. It made 5yoa me very happy. You couldn't do that in Treasure Mountain (the elves could steal you gold) or Gizmos and Gadgets (I think you'd get hit).
Right, the "math one" is "Super Solvers: Outnumbered!" and the "reading one" is "Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue".

I'll try out the other games you mentioned, too. :)
Phlebiac Jun 28, 2019
Quoting: namikoRight, the "math one" is "Super Solvers: Outnumbered!" and the "reading one" is "Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue".

Oh wow - been about 30 years since I've last seen those!
mos Jun 29, 2019
Quoting: dreamer_
Quoting: mos
Quoting: TheSHEEEPQuite frankly, DOSBox is not a good example of how to develop software, but it's the only thing we have doing what it does
https://github.com/stsp/dosemu2
also, unlike $subj not a horrible resource hog. you won't need an i9 to play anything decent. IF it works for your game at all, that is. DosBox has a lot of quirks thats true.

DOSBox is not that big resource hog TBH. It can run most games comfortably, as long as you configure it properly - this is the tricky part (use exclusively output=opengl or openglnb, avoid setting cpu.cycles, do not go overboard with forced scalers, never use frameskip, etc). But DOSBox has terrible defaults and it's documentation gives an impression that you need powerful CPU (maybe by 2001 standards).

Good to know there is an alternative, though - I'll check out if I can add dosemu2 support in steam-dos :).
Believe me, I wasn't born y'day, not re configuring dosbox anyway))) I've meddled with diff games/configs/builds, even tried Voodoo emulation (a couple of variants of it).
You DO need a powerful CPU, for anything heavier than, say, doom that is. It's almost official dev policy - they aren't bothered with performance I think. Nor their hardcore fanbase btw - look at relevant threads on vogons - they're more happy dabbling with shaders that add various 'oldie' looks (and ofc levy even more stress on your rig) than improving speed.
Projectile Vomit Jun 29, 2019
The very first Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord because it was my very first PC game. Still holds up.
Purple Library Guy Jun 30, 2019
If we didn't have Ur-Quan Masters I'd probably be using it to play Star Control 2.
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