[BFeely]

What are the current limitations of the 2.93 DOS version? Testing it in DOSBox it appears to only support 16-color text mode, no SMZX or unbound sprites. That said, the latest build of DOSBox-X doesn't seem to support SMZX mode on the original DOS versions either.

[GetDizzy]

If you switch to the SVGA renderer (should be possible from the F2 menu or a config.txt option) you should get SMZX and unbound sprites afaik. It defaults to the EGA renderer.

fwiw I can't get the SVGA renderer to work on my actual DOS machine (see recent bug report), but it apparently does work in DOSBox from what I've heard.

[BFeely]

As for DOSBox-X (the fork I tried it with) I left a bug report since I confirmed it wouldn't do SMZX mode in the old 2.69c DOS version: https://github.com/j...x-x/issues/4764

[Lachesis]

DOSBox and other emulators (and most real video adapters...) do not support SMZX at all. The new DOS port has two renderers: EGA (text mode, default) and SVGA (graphics mode). To get SMZX and unbound sprites support, you need to run MZX with "video_output=svga"—either in config.txt or as a command line argument—or you need to use the F2 menu to switch to the SVGA renderer at runtime. The SVGA renderer is a bit slower than the EGA renderer, which is why it's not enabled by default.

Other limitations:

• The only sound card supported currently is the Sound Blaster 16, and reportedly it might be totally broken on some or all real hardware.
  
• MZX tries its best to convert long filenames (LFNs) to 8.3 short filenames (SFNs) where possible, but a lot of modern games use filenames that don't resolve to unique SFNs. You might have to get a DOSBox fork (such as DOSBox-X) that supports LFNs and enable them. Apparently the latest version of DOSBox-X also has troubles running MZX with audio enabled, though.
  
• I've encountered graphical bugs when MZX tries to render expensive frames using the SVGA renderer on real hardware which sometimes make the UI layer completely invisible.

[hseiken]

I think the editor might be malfunctioning at least in dosbox. Alt+t to test any board including freshly cleared board causes my dosbox to just hang to a black screen and become unresponsive.

Not sure what this means as I'm just a small town bird lawyer.

[Lachesis]

hseiken, on 26 May 2024 - 05:41 PM, said:

I think the editor might be malfunctioning at least in dosbox. Alt+t to test any board including freshly cleared board causes my dosbox to just hang to a black screen and become unresponsive.

I can't reproduce this bug, but a couple things you could try:

• Disabling audio to prevent MZX from paging during the audio interrupt (music_on=0 in config.txt or as a command line option). The next release will disable paging so if this prevents your crashes, your issue is already fixed.
  
• Increasing the amount of RAM available in DOSBox in the DOSBox config file. 16MB should be more than enough for most games.