I fear that I do not quite understand what you mean by that.

I think you're all starting this discusion from the wrong point of view:

Most people don't know what DOSBox is - because we're in a time when most people have no idea what the REAL DOS was.

I think the simples way for teaching people how to use dosbox would be a tutorial (one they cannot avoid).
Most people who dowload these games nowadays are teenagers who never used DOS and just wanna play a quick game. Most of them will just wanna download and play. And trust me - majority of them doesn't read reviews, readme files, technical support,...
So now they found out (because they couldn't run the game) that they need DOSBox.
But after instaling it they will most likely try to run the game again (like DOSBox would be some update - like DirectX - after installing the game works). It doesn't - so they run it, but don't understand it. Most of the poeple will give up at this point, because they think the keyboard is just for typing messenges over msn and a cheap alternative to a good joystick.
As the easiest method is the drag-to-dosbox this might still be comprehandable by most people - so that's what they should learn!

After they install the DOSBox they should have to watch (or during instalation) a quick tutorial telling them they should drag the game executable file to the DOSBox executable file (probably all shown with pictures).

Otherwise - there's no hope for people to learn! Trust me - I work with young children (ages between 6-15) and I see how they react and think about computers. They think the monitor (or LCD) is the computer, the mouse something you work on it with and the CPU and the keyboard some overproportionate appendages. Sad - but true!

I'd like to see the Pause button to work right - ie like on normal old hardware, freezing the program but not the whole emulation. (In some games this would help to rip out the background MIDIs)

You should be able to go to a folder in windows explorer and launch dosbox so that it is already mounted to that particular folder. Or better, make it start the way VDMsound does, with a mention on the right-click drop-down list. :sick: :Brain: :D

1. If dosbox.conf doesn't exist it should look for dosbox.ini. That way you don't have to rename the file every time you want to edit it.

2. Maby some NortonComander look-a-like interface which looks for .exe and .com and .bat files in a choosen folder (C:\DOSGames\). And then user can simply click on it and that runs a game.

3. After the drive is mounted and if you rename files from Explorer you get and error in dosbox. Maby one command that refreshes the mounted drive.

As for 2, DosBox is fully compatibile with Norton Commander of olde.

By the way, I think they should fix that stupid Sound Blaster bug. (in some games, DosBox crashes totally when the SPU is configured to Sound Blaster 1)

I think it will great if dos box can memorize the drives, not to put cd<.....>
type that and you are in it will be much great :cheers:
ou and some1 can tell me were can i get a signature :help:
i'm new here :D

I think they should improve the keyboard layout support. Having a German keyboard makes it hard for noobs to find the backslash. (hmm ... on the other hand - german people playing with dosbox normally have experience with the real MS-DOS and so they might be used to search for the "z" on the "y" key and to get a "\" with "<" and the ":" with "ö")

But anyway...

Another IMPORTANT thing is the support of OSses that are not made by Microsoft. I have a PowerBook G4 running Tiger with a German keyboard layout. There seems to be NO way to have :

1. a right mouse button
2. a working CTRL key
3. a chance to type "/" or "\"

That makes it impossible to mount volumes.

What about an external "autoexec.bat". -> A textfile in the DOSBox directory where you can add you autostart items like mounting volumes or launching progs and games with a simple menu ?

Cheers,

swiss

PS: If someone figues out how to get the "/" on a Macintosh please let me know.
PPS: BTW what do Linux users think of DOS Box ???

I'd just like there to be a good tutorial on how to get it running better.

Seems like at least 50-75% of the games I play run horribly o.O

It really depend of what computer you have. I would never recommend someone with a CPU lower than 1gigahertz to use DOSBox and expect it to run any game fine.