Compiling in DOSBox

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This article only applies to the DOS/QuickBasic 16-bit version. It is not relevant for the current 32/64 bit Windows/Linux/Mac/etc versions

DosBox from http://dosbox.sf.net/ is a DOS emulator that provides better compatability for many DOS games. Users of Windows XP may find it useful, and for users of Mac OS X or GNU/Linux it is the best way to run DOS programs.

Compiling the old DOS version of the OHRRPGCE in DosBox is very similar to Compiling in Real DOS, with a few minor differences, unless, of course, you ignore the DosBox set up commands (like "mount c c:\"), in which case it's exactly like it.

After you are done Getting Quickbasic, and have installed the OHRRPGCE source code in C:\OHRRPGCE\ then run DosBox.

Mounting[edit]

From the Z:\> prompt you first need to mount your hard drive. How you do this varies depending on your operating system.

Windows[edit]

mount c: c:\

GNU/Linux[edit]

mount c: /home/username/name-of-fake-c-drive/

Mac OS X[edit]

mount c: /users/username/name-of-fake-c-drive/

Compiling[edit]

After you have mounted your C drive, you can change to it, and compile the OHRRPGCE sources as normal.

Z:\> C:

C:\> cd \ohrrpgce

C:\OHRRPGCE> env-set

C:\OHRRPGCE> compile

Differences[edit]

  1. Compiling in DosBox is noticeably slower* than compiling in real DOS or in Windows's command-line. Be patient.
  2. Normally, error messages from compiling each source file are appended to the file compile.out. Because of a bug in DosBox, these error messages overwrite each other, so only errors from the last file compiled are visible.

* - Mike: Example: It takes roughly 15 seconds to compile the OHR without DosBox. With DosBox, it balloons to roughly 5 minutes. I'm not entirely sure, I usually grab a sandwich and hope it's done by the time I get back. :)

See also[edit]