start dosbox in cga mode.

I've had the same problem under pure DOS as well.

It turns out that the game uses Int 21 for keyboard input, which in turn calls Int 16. On the other hand, the game redirects Int 09 to its own routine and adjusts Int 16 accordingly, but only functions 0 to 2. But if you have an enhanced keyboard, DOS' Int 21 will call Int 16 functions 10h to 12h instead, which are not adjusted. The solution was to use the SWITCHES command in the CONFIG.SYS to tell DOS not to assume an enhanced keyboard.

I did not know that running DOSBox in CGA mode also gets rid of the enhanced keyboard emulation. 😉

Thanks for your help! 😀 😀
I've tried cga mode so far, and it worked well.

But I think I will also give NewRisingSun's solution a try - it sounds much too interesting to ignore it. 😉

> I did not know that running DOSBox in CGA mode also gets rid of
> the enhanced keyboard emulation.

This was split when it was required for some games to use int16/enhanced
keyboard functions in the dos keyboard input routines, as it was expected
to have an effect on some games.

> But I think I will also give NewRisingSun's solution a try

This switch isn't supported by dosbox.

For lost souls... that came here years later

Besides that the solution in DOSBOX is put DOSBOX in CGA MODE... in REAL DOS add this line to config.sys:
switches=/k

And works on hercules, cga, ega, vga, etc. No problem entering names

I arrived at the solution because NewRisingSun post