The current version of Dosbox (0.74) was released over three years ago now. There doesn't seem to have been even a minor patch available in all that time. Has the project stalled or is it just very slow going?

Re: DOSBox SVN Builds.

Thanks! So they're still working on it but not putting out official releases?

DOSBox SVN Daum by ykhwong for Windows, OSX, and Linux

Last updated: 2013-11-17
SVN base version: r3848

you can download it from here: http://ykhwong.x-y.net/

DOSBox is mature software based upon emulating computer gear that's rather ancient at this point. I wouldn't expect them to be doing much more work. The real question is why they haven't bothered to give it a 1.0 release as it's been feature complete for years.

Mostly because there is still quite a few compatibility issues http://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?letter=a and also because of the problems in, for example, sound blaster emulation (I'm currently playing Mater of Orion 2 which has intermittent sound problems).

Its good to hear they are still working on it. I was getting a bit concerned too

Ah, that's good. Even more encouraging is that the releases are constant, if not frequent.

That site seems to be hosting a modded build.

The site points to this as the clean SVN.

Yes, EmuCR is based on the official SVN whereas Taewoong's build integrates external sources for more advanced features including built-in support for 3dfx Glide rendering, Roland MT-32 audio, printer output, etc.; GOG uses Taewoong's builds for DOS Glide games (e.g. Tomb Raider).

I think they should release an official version with save state.

I don't know, maybe its their plan to go for 100% emulation before doing other stuff, but still...

I know there is a version out there with save state, however, an official build would be great.

Its going to help with those game without save anywhere options... maybe this will help increase gog sales too.

Absolutely, yes. New SVN builds come out every now and then, while other coders are working hard on their own build to add very complex things like 3dfx complete emulation and ISA/PCI/ATA emulation.

The future of DOSBox is brighter than you think, while I still think there should be a semi-official fork to write a Windows-focused emulator including the aforementioned features. If I knew how to code, I would have done this by myself already. But I can't code shit.

P.S. I don't give a flying fuck about save states, and you should too. Why? Because DOS games have their own savestate routines or they don't have any. If you want to save in a game that isn't designed to save, you cheat. You cheater.

Interesting.

I'm not the kind of save every five minutes type of guy, but I'm not the fan of zero sum game or Nintendo Hard either, where a misclick or miscalculation and you re-play the original 30 minutes portion of the game.

And not all kind of cheat works. For example (while a NES game here) the racing part of Battle Toads, no matter how many hundreds of live you have, if you stuck, you stuck.

Windows has, very, very little in common with DOS. There would be some time savings, but not much. And the newer you go the less benefit you'd receive. The last version of Windows to even have DOS at all was Win ME, or whatever NT 4, can't remember which one was last to receive an update.

Win 3.1 OTOH, is basically just a GUI for DOS without a whole lot else added. You'd be better off whipping out an ancient copy of 3.1, assuming that whatever it is won't run on Win 9x.

I disagree about the save states. A surprising number of DOS games didn't have any method of saving, which meant you had to beat the thing in one go, or not bother. It's a cheap way of making a game harder and really annoying if you're just wanting to play for a bit before getting back to work.

There are good reason for save states:

Lets face it, we play DOS games because it was fun back then, and it still fun today. But we (at least me) are not the teenagers of yesteryear. A little bit of help is nice. Besides, I don't necessarily want the challenge, but just enjoy the experience. The first time I play Legend of Kyrandia, not only there was no internet for me back then (it wasn't that big yet at where I live in Malaysia) so its all no walkthrough. And it was a badge of honor to finish game with zero walk thorough. I but still bought LoK recently. The music was awesome, and the graphics was cool. I want the experience.

A save state can be useful for games such as Lost Viking. While enemy can cost you one hit point, other mistakes are fatal and you can't complete the game. Electric shock and spike is a good example. Or wrong jump. And you have to restart the level again. It was fun when I was 16 or something. But now I'm more than twice the age.

The same with Syndicate Plus. How I wish it have in-mission save just like Magic Carpet 2. But it does not.

Besides, if save state is good enough for game resuming (instead of current game state save and reload like a cheating software back in the DOS days) then its good because you can save and resume game anytime, since we adults sometimes have matter to handle.

Anyway, maybe GOG should donate for an official build with save state and host it here - just for security purposes.