After two years of development, the project Dosbox Staging 0.81 has released its latest version. Dosbox Staging is a multiplatform MS-DOS emulator designed to run old DOS games on Linux, Windows, and MacOS. It is written in C++ and distributed under the license gplv2+. Unlike the original dosbox, which has seen only minor changes in recent years, Dosbox Staging is developed by a separate team.
The main goal of Dosbox Staging is to ensure the smooth functioning of old games on modern systems. While a separate emulator called dosbox-x focuses on hardware emulation, Dosbox Staging aims to provide a user-friendly product and simplify the involvement of new developers by using GIT instead of SVN. It also strives to expand functionality, primarily orienting itself towards DOS games and modern platforms. However, supporting outdated systems like Windows 9x and OS/2, as well as emulating equipment from DOS times, are not part of the project’s objectives.
In the latest release of Dosbox Staging (0.81.0), the following features and improvements have been implemented:
- Implemented emulation of monitors based on an electron-ray tube that does not require manual tuning.
- Processed code to support VGA, enabling full emulation of constructive deployment and double scanning.
- Added options for integrated scaling, allowing users to expand the image to full screen, use arbitrary coefficients of partial ratio, and emulate monitor controls to stretch pictures vertically or horizontally.
- Provided the ability to create screenshots in multi-flow mode, with the default ratio coefficient correctly set.
- Improved video capture performance by approximately three times.
- Added support for 3DFX Voodoo 1 emulation.
- Improved work with ROLAND MT-32 sound devices and MIDI support.
- Made significant improvements related to mice and joystick support.
- Implemented several DOS commands, including for, move, tree, setver, and vol