QB45 & DOSBox question

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PacificDragon64
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Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:08 pm

QB45 & DOSBox question

Post by PacificDragon64 »

Hi ALL !

I am new to this blog and new to QB programming. I searched the blog but couldn't find info on my question.

I am going to be making a 16bit BBS door game. Programming involves mostly serial I/O and ANSI graphics, simple stuff.

Can i program, link and compile under DOSBox or do i need to program on a pure DOS machine ? I am running WinXP SP3.

Looking forward to this blog and QB !

Thanks in advance !
MikeHawk
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Re: QB45 & DOSBox question

Post by MikeHawk »

Yes you can use DOSBox to test, compile and execute QuickBASIC 4.5 programs (lately I've been using a combo of NotePad++ and DOSBox to test programs and it works fine).
PacificDragon64
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Re: QB45 & DOSBox question

Post by PacificDragon64 »

Awe that's great. I dreaded the thought of having to setup a DOS machine. Is there any flavor of DOSBox that works best ??

Thanks MikeHawk !!
MikeHawk
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Re: QB45 & DOSBox question

Post by MikeHawk »

I’m using 0.72 and 0.74 (both Win32), there are some differences with some games, but all in all it doesn’t make much of a difference. However, regardless of the version, when it comes to QuickBASIC games there seem to be some sound issues (Super Stack comes to mind), some interrupts that are not handled properly (I think there’s a thread covering mouse interrupts issues somewhere around here), and ASCII characters being tied directly to keyboard mapping like Microsoft did with Windows XP’s command line (I recall it being different under pure DOS, but I could be wrong).

By the way, you could simply try running QuickBASIC under Windows XP's command line, it used to work fine if I recall.

Worst case scenario, you could also attempt installing FreeDOS in a virtual machine, but I never really toyed with VMs so I can’t tell you if it’s reliable or not, I’m just throwing ideas out there.

99% of the time, DOSBox will do the job just fine.
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burger2227
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Re: QB45 & DOSBox question

Post by burger2227 »

Serial input/output may not be possible on XP or Windows 7 as ports are blocked.

INPOUT program may help get port access however.

It is also possible with QB64 in some circumstances.

http://qb64.org/wiki/Port_Access_Libraries
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Ricky99
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Re: QB45 & DOSBox question

Post by Ricky99 »

MikeHawk wrote: Sun Jul 22, 2018 6:59 am Yes you can use DOSBox to test, compile and execute QuickBASIC 4.5 programs (lately I've been using a combo of NotePad++ and DOSBox to test programs and it works fine).
Thank you very much
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