Tried the nice search feature of the forum?

Access to device names LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4 in DosBox

Yes I saw that ^^^, but that meant compiling from source etc. (Which I have no idea how to do)

Was just wondering if there was an easy way to do it or if anybody knows of anything else I can use?

Thanks,

P.S. Sorry if my search didn’t turn up something that your know is there.

Well searches for lpt1, parallel port etc. bring up more interesting stuff.
Also see hal's stuff at
http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/

Thanks looks most usefull.

Ill give it a go now, thanks for your help.

Definitely start with HAL9000's CAD Edition. I'm running PADS Perform DOS v6.0.1 in it at 1024x768 and can print from within PADS.

For a discussion of PADS Perform and PADS-PCB, read:

Forum - DOSBox Games/Apps
Discussion Thread - PADS Perform + DosBox and ANSIPlus

Forum - DOSBox General
Discussion Thread - Use DosBox NOT Virtual PC, Pg. 3

DOSBox and Parallel Port:

Download the official DOSBox v0.70 from:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=52551

Then, get the DOSBox 'CAD Edition' from HAL9000 at:

http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/

It has Vasyl's SVGA code to run up to 1024x768, the color palette fixed so you won't need ANSIPlus, and of course the Parallel Port code so you can print from within your application.

Run the official version's installer. Then copy the CAD Edition's files into the installed DOSBox directory, overwriting the DOSBox .exe and .conf files.
(I moved the DOSBox directory from C:\Program Files to C:\Programs so that the name would be no more than 8 characters and there wouldn't be any spaces. That way I could put my other DOS applications there for post processing and insure there wouldn't be any problems with path names).

Don't forget you'll need to get PortTalk v2.2 from Beyond Logic for printing,

http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm

To load PortTalk v2.2:
Just copy porttalk.sys to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers, double click on the porttalk.reg file to load it, reboot, and HAL9000's CAD Edition does the rest. With the HAL9000 CAD Edition, you shouldn't have to use AllowIo.exe.

In dosbox.conf's [parallel] section, put:

[parallel]
parallel1=reallpt directlpt:378

DOSBox's Status Window should report something like:
The port at 0x378 was detected as ECP port.

Video Support:

For the video, hopefully your application supports either the Tseng Labs ET4000, the Paradise VGA, or the S3 Trio32 - 64 (86C732 - 764) chips. If so, set dosbox.conf's [vga] section to one of:

[vga]
svgachipset=et4000
videoram=1024

svgachipset=pvga1a
videoram=512

svgachipset=s3
videoram=2048

That will let you run at 1024x768 or at least 800x600.
The setting for the S3 Trio64 chip is the default.
My application didn't have any S3 or VESA support, so I used the et4000 setting.

Memory Support:

If your application uses a DOS Extender such as the Phar Lap 386|DOS-Extender, set dosbox.conf's [dos] section to:

[dos]
xms=true
ems=false
umb=true

If your application uses EMS memory, set:

[dos]
xms=true
ems=true
umb=true

(try umb=false if you have EMS memory problems)
(also, there is currently a problem with EMS memory in certain programs)

[autoexec]:

In dosbox.conf's [autoexec] section, put something like:

[autoexec]

mount c c:\pads
path=Z:\;c:\;c:\files;c:\cam;c:\lib;c:\logfil;

SET environment variables=appropriate for your application
rem example:
rem ** sets PADS Perform defaults **
SET PPCB=C:\;C:\FILES;C:\CAM;C:\LIB;C:\LOGFIL;

C:
cd C:\
C:\PPERFORM.EXE /S

With this mounting, DOSBox's C:\ = the physical drive's C:\PADS. So the real C:\PADS becomes the "Drive Root" in DOSBox. Therefore, the DOSBox statement "C:\PPERFORM.EXE /S" = "C:\PADS\PPERFORM.EXE /S" for the physical drive. This is considered safer than just making the real root be the DOSBox root.

Substitute your application's names for the PADS names.

Good Luck.

After you get your application running:

If you want to try to improve the speed of DOSBox, you should read the following pages:

FAQ/Application runs much too slow
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php? … s+much+too+slow

RunningResourceDemandingGames
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php? … eDemandingGames

Chapter 9. How to run resource-demanding games: in DOSBox Readme.txt

SpecialKeys
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php? … age=SpecialKeys

dosbox.conf/cpu
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php? … sbox.conf%2Fcpu

Another useful feature of DOSBox is the Keyboard Mapper, read:

Chapter 6. Mapper: in DOSBox Readme.txt

If you want to use command line options to automate starting DOSBox, read:

Chapter 3. Usage: in DOSBox Readme.txt

This is an update for anyone running Windows Vista and / or a notebook PC:

I recently had to get PADS Perform DOS v6.0.1 working in a new notebook computer. It is an HP Pavilion dv9429 which has an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-64, 2GB DDR2, and Windows Vista Home Premium. I have a desktop PC with Win XP SP2 with DOSBox, PADS Perform, and PortTalk already working.

Basically all I did was copy the C:\PADS directory and my C:\Programs directory (which has the DOSBox and PortTalk directories) to the notebook's C: drive. Then I copied my Desktop Shortcut to start DOSBox / PADS Perform to the notebook desktop. I installed PortTalk as detailed before; copying porttalk.sys to the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers directory, double clicking porttalk.reg to install in the registry, and rebooting.

PADS Perform worked the first time. I didn't have to change anything. So DOSBox and PADS Perform DOS work fine in Windows Vista. The performance was very good. However, there is one problem related to the notebook PC. It doesn't have a parallel port, and apparently many new ones don't. So in the DOSBox Status Window, it reports that it couldn't detect a parallel port. Makes sense. But that means it isn't possible to print from within PADS Perform on the notebook, unlike the desktop PC where printing works fine.

Unless ... does anyone know of a driver which can intercept LPT1 calls and translate them to the USB or Ethernet ports, or some other way to trick the notebook and Windows Vista to get the parallel port calls to the USB or Ethernet ports?

There is the virtual printer patch but I don't know if that suits you needs. (ESC/P-printer that prints to picture files or to a Windows printer)