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[Mr Anders]

I've searched for this issue in other posts with no luck, so forgive me if this problem has been answered 5000 times and I missed it.

Whenever I try to play a DOS game, whether on DOSBOX or in WinXP, I can only type numbers. That is, whichever key I press, the game will interpret it as a digit. Furthermore, I can only type the digits in order (1234567890123 etc). If I use shift I can type !@#$%^&*(). For some of the games it's not a big problem, but it makes most of them unplayable.

And no, I have never experienced this issue outside of DOS games - my computer keyboard normally works fine. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Lulu_Jane]

Silly question, but do you have numlock enabled?

[Wicky]

Does this also happen outside the game, ie. when you just start Dosbox and see just the command prompt?

[Eagle of Fire]

It is impossible to help you without more information.

BTW, it really sound like a problem on your side... I've never heard of such a thing. What kind of keyboard do you use? You might be using one which is simply not backward compatible with old software.

[Dave]

Don't know but maybe you can check the DosBox keymapper (Pressing CTRL + F1 inside dosbox) and the respective tutorial of DosBox 0.74.
You may find useful info.

http://www.dosbox.com/DOSBoxManual.html#KeyMapper

[Ohne Mitleid]

Originally Posted by Mr Anders

... If I use shift I can type !@#$%^&*(). For some of the games it's not a big problem, but it makes most of them unplayable...

Come to think of it, this has happened to me before, but only within DosBox after playing a particular game (I don't remember which game). When being brought back to the DosBox command prompt, some of the special characters (referenced in your post as " @#$%^&*()") didn't display correctly. This was simply solved by exiting and restarting DosBox.

Also, I don't recall having played a game that required those characters for either gameplay or text input. It just seems a little odd to me.

Originally Posted by Eagle of Fire

It is impossible to help you without more information.

This is too true.

@Mr Anders: Unless you could provide a specific game or recount the circumstances when/how this occurred, everyone can only suggest "guess" solutions to a problem that seems to be quite unique.

[barracuda_1]

maybe check your config.sys of dosbox;

check http://www.csulb.edu/~murdock/numlock.html

or if you are working on a notebook check your FN lock

[The Fifth Horseman]

DOSBox doesn't have a config.sys equivalent.

[Mr Anders]

I guess this isn't a common problem then. Thanks everyone for the feedback so far. Here's some more specific information per your questions:

Yes, typing into the DOSBOX command prompt is also only numbers.

To be clear, it's not mapping each key to a certain number. The typed number will always be the NEXT digit in sequence, or the related symbol if I hold shift/capslock. I can still use the arrow keys correctly, however.

I'm using the keyboard built into a lenovo ideapad.

I'm not a computer expert, but I'm pretty sure that this is unrelated to NumLock or Fn.

Here are a couple of examples. I haven't tried to play too many games yet for reasons which are hopefully evident.

Advanced Civilization - when I play it in XP, the keyboard works normally fior a little while, usually 10-30 mins, after which I can only type the numbers in order. The game is still playable because you only use the keyboard to name save games. In DOSBOX I can only type the numbers from the beginning.

King's Bounty - in XP I can type exactly one letter correctly, which selects a character or loads a game. Since this is a keyboard-only game, its unplayable in this state. DOSBOX doesn't even give me that first keystroke correctly.

Railroad Tycoon/1830; same issue, only can type numbers. 1830 is barely playable if I am careful.

Let me know if there's anything I'm forgetting. I'm trying to articulate the problem as best I can. Again, this has never come up in any other aspect of using my computer.

[Wicky]

This sounds similar like a program recognizing the shift-key pressed as if you'd like to type 123 when it reads !"§ on screen.
If that happens then you are in problems deep, on the other hand, DosBox is a stand-alone executable that has it's own keyboard driver. If downloading the newest DosBox and forfeiting all previous configs should not help, then I would not exclude the possibilty that you are infected with a trojan/keylogger. Reinstall Windows and install DoxBos in first place to see if the problem is fixed and then drop me a line.