What would be the point? You'd be emulating DOS when you are already in DOS.

As I explained, the point would be emulate CGA and EGA graphics through VGA output, making it possible to play these games on a TV.

But why do you want to run dosbox under dos then?

Don't know if SDL is available for dos, that'd be the first problem i guess.

Because I have a dos based notebook full of emulators that run perfectly through a vga to scart cable on TV and arcade machines (this is NOT possible to do with s-video or composite outputs).

I can play some DOS games throught it, but some others not, specially those ones not designed to show graphics through VGA (CGA, EGA, Tandy).

Isn't their a hx dos package that get dosbox running on dos.

Why don't you use MESS for those non-VGA games?

MESS emulates pc dos? I didn't know that! 🙄

I think it emulates early PCs, such as the Amstrad PC512. It needs system disks, which you can obtain through WinImage. There's a DOS version that is no longer updated, last release was 0.89. I don't know how advanced the PC driver is, but it's worth trying.

It can be downloaded from the official MESS page.
It can emulate SOME games through the following drivers:

-EURO PC (CGA)
-PC MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter, CRT only, no CGA)
-PC XT VGA (sperimental, meaning most games won't work)
-PC CGA

All of the above with Adlib/Soundblaster support.
Read the MESS documentation for keyboard issues.
You can't use virtual hard disks, yet you may use floppy images (you can't mount directories as in DOSBox); you can create such images using WinImage.

In order to have sound support you need your audio board drivers for DOS to be installed and active.

Can i please have a link to the hx dos package for dosbox. I heard somewhere on a topic that someone got dosbox running on a p166 in pure dos with the hx dos package.

http://www.japheth.de/HX.html

My old All-in-Wonder Pro seemed to be capable of outputting everything to a television screen straight from bootup, including text mode. (Granted, I never tried running CGA or EGA games after hooking it up to a TV, but text mode isn't VGA either.)

It used to make me wonder what all the fuss was about with getting Linux and whatnot working with TV cards.

From what I can remember from my DOS gaming days, neither CGA nor EGA should be a problem, VGA is supposed to be backwards compatible with them. But I do remember butterfly saying that Hercules wasn't. More info at:

UniCGA CGA emulator for Hercules

You are talking about the software side. The physical signals (refresh rates) are very different. Funny enough, text mode on a VGA card is more or less like the VGA 640x400 graphics mode on the signal side.

I don't know how to be technical about this but, as to what I can remember, modern VGA's aren't fully compatable to older VGA's.
I remember trying an old PC demo version of X-Men Children of the Atom, or a similar game, getting the screen split in four screens, each one overlayed by sprites from eachother.
I can also remember a few more games used to do that but I can't remeber which ones.

Jorpho wrote:

It used to make me wonder what all the fuss was about with getting Linux and whatnot working with TV cards.

That's probably about TV capture cards, not cards doing TV output (which do not require any software).

JAL

jal wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

It used to make me wonder what all the fuss was about with getting Linux and whatnot working with TV cards.

That's probably about TV capture cards, not cards doing TV output (which do not require any software).

TV output _requires_ software. TV output is normally done by external encoders, which require initializing, mode setting (PAL vs NTSC), etc... Now, some card's BIOSes may do that stuff at boot (probably only when a TV is connected), but even then, BIOS is software.