[Banjo]

I’ve just discovered Magic DosBox. I’m a *huge* DOS game fan (I lived and breathed Sierra adventure games in my teens) and am excited to get my favourite games running. I use DosBox a *lot* on my PC (and other devices, even) so being able to use it from my couch via Android TV is very important to me.

I’ve got a couple of questions, though:
1) The major issue I have with Magic DosBox is not being able to use a remote or controller to navigate the UI at all! My device doesn’t have a touchscreen, and while my physical mouse does work it’s a huge pain to have to switch between it, my keyboard and controller just to start a game. I saw a video on your channel showing an “control UI with controller” option but that’s not present in the version of MDB I’ve got. Was it removed? Is it a planned feature?
2) General Midi requires a soundfont… I use Patch93’s SC-55 2.2 soundfont on my PC version of DosBox, but noticed it doesn’t sound quite the same on Magic DosBox (e.g. in Doom). What could be the reason/solution for this?
3) I see people are sharing their mgc configurations, which is awesome. Can we also share our mapping? I spent a lot of time setting up my controller for certain games and would like to save, backup and maybe even share that work.

[admin]

Hi,

Unfortunately, google removed feature which we used for blue cursor in android 6 or 7. Just now is not finished new console mode, so unfortunately, you really must connect mouse…

Magic dosbox supports two midi via soundfonts and mt32 (munt library). If you use sound font then you can switch to another of the sound is not good. I think sound fonta were discussed here on forum in the past. I use GeneralUser_GS_SoftSynth_v144.sf2

There is no automated mechanism for sharing mgc files. But we have forum section “mgc file sharing”, people share their layouts there, I will be very happy for any new:) You must upload ngc file to some file sharing server and put download link in your post. But you can send mgc file on my email and I can upload it to ftp of this web and will be there forever.

[Banjo]

Looking forward to the return of console mode, then! Just being able to use a controller to move the cursor instead of a mouse will fix the issue, IMO, even if it’s not “full Android TV compatibility”.

I’ve grabbed the font you suggested and it works well, but is there a reason (I presume so) why a soundfont sounds “worse” on Magic DosBox than on my PC, though? For example, the Patch93 SC-55 one I mentioned sounds much better on PC but music sounds “off” (missing notes?) on Magic DosBox when I run Doom with it. We have full GUS support so not a huge issue, just curious.

Sharing MGC files is awesome and it’s great to see people uploading those here, but what I wanted to know was: do MGC files include stuff like gamepad button mapping and mouse settings too, or just the dosbox configuration (cycles, memory, midi, executable, etc.) settings?

[admin]

Google constantly blocks here and there features, that breaks existing functionalities. They call it “improving security” and they bricked previous console mode. Oh well, I can try some quick fixes…

Maybe it sounds worse due lower mixer quality. On pc is quality set to max – 48 000, mdosbox by default sets 16 000, due performance.

Mgc file is full export, it contains everything.

[Al ex]

Hi Banjo, and welcome!

Make sure you set both midi and audio mixer resolution to 48 kHz. Anything below 44.1 kHz will result in distorted and overall bad sound.
This has close to zero impact on performance, so I would recommend using at least 44.1 kHz in every game.

[Banjo]

Thanks for the welcome, Alex… and the tip. I am used to setting my audio to 44.1 khz on PC, but when I did it on Magic DosBox for the PC speaker in Space Quest 1 as a test, it slowed down the emulation quite a lot. If that shouldn’t be the case (and I was surprised because that’s far from a demanding game), I assume I set something else differently (since I had to turn off “auto” to change the audio rate) so will have a play.

Admin: my Nvidia Shield was a Christmas present so I’m still getting used to Android (my phones/tablet are Apple). I’ve always disliked how Apple feel *they* know best how you want to use your devices, and was hoping Android was more “open”… however while it is, Google still seems to want to control everything and it honestly seems worse than when I last had an Android device years ago. 🙁

[Al ex]

The Shield was way ahead of its time back in 2015, and shouldn’t have performance problems. ?

PC speaker bitrate is fine at 11025 kHz. It sounds weird in 44.1 CD quality anyway.
I was being a bit unclear, too: for general midi / soundfonts, you’ll only need to set mixer rate to either 44100 or 48000, as there isn’t a bitrate option for that.
Only if you’re using MT32 emulation, you’ll have to adjust the MT32 bitrate as well. MT32 also has a tendency to slow down emulation. Other than Soundblaster/Aflib, sound won’t skip, but cause kind of a rubberband effect instead. This will only happen if you deliberately overload your cpu though. ?

[Author]

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