This version is highly recommended for the Sierra games. For those that tried the preview of this release that Qbix was kind enough to give us, you may recall that this version seems to greatly improve the SoundBlaster problems in certain Sierra SCI games. See the following Quote box for the changes and new features.
You can grab it here. http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
Along with this release I have also been going through the SHP installers to fix issues that have been brought to my attention and to add new features and improvements. I have added a new DOSBox routine that not only checks fro the presence of DOSBox in the default location for the installers ("%ProgramFiles%\DOSBox"), but if it finds an existing copy, it will check the version. If it finds an older version, it will move it to a folder with its version number (i.e. "%ProgramFiles%\DOSBox-0.73" or whatever the version number is) and install the new version in the SHP default. This also will update DOSBox for all of the games installed with the SHP installers. Since the SHP installers use minimal config files, there should be few to no conflicts with the use of the new DOSBox.
The reason for this is to encourage everyone using the installers to update DOSBox without deleting or overwriting their old version. Remember, it is always best to use the latest version of DOSBox for maximum compatibility.
New features/improvements:
* Several small game specific fixes/hacks/support. (Offensive, Roadhog, GTA installer, Kingdom O' Magic soundcard detection, Pirate booter, Armored Fist installer)
* Add the S3-specific 640x480 256 color mode. (fixes regression in "Wooden Ships and Iron Men" and "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream")
* Fix a stack overflow that could crash DOSBox.
* Add fake microphone input. (fixes Talking Parrot)
* Modify adlib turn off code, so that it doesn't turn off in cases where the same sound is repeated over and over again.
* Several small fixes to the CDROM audio code.(HOMM2, Redneck Rampage and others)
* Several improvements to the CDROM emulation code. (fixes Alpha Storm and GT Racing 97)
* Some small CPU fixes that might fix something.
* Handle opcode 0xff subcode 7 as invalid instruction. (fixes dif-2 & others)
* Some hercules fixes. (Testdrive)
* Improve support for blanked parts that wrap around to the start of the screen. (fixes Magic Circle demo and Sid&Al)
* Remove old OPL cores as the new ones seem to work very nicely.
* Modify movie recording code so that the movies aren't corrupt when you exit DOSBox without stopping the movie.
* Change RGB3x scaler to look more pretty.
* Improve initial register values compatility of the GUS.
* Added autodetection for Gameblaster. (games can find it now)
* Change render preferences a bit to be more compatible with Windows 7.
* Add DOS fixes to terminate program. (fixes Fortune Teller)
* Add FFREEP. (fixes Trucks)
* Improve FPU ST80 in C mode when writing zero. (fixes Antigok)
* Add special int10 scanline function. (fixes mz700 and probably lots of games that mess with them)
* Fix scrolling in rarely used video modes. (fixes Orphee)
* Modify game specific hacks a bit so that Kick off 3 works again.
* Lots of fixes to the INT10 video parameter table. (Seven spirits of ra and others)
* Add VGA blanking in machine=vgaonly. (used by Alien Carnage)
* CGA, PCJr, Tandy: Add video blanking, change display start latch timing, sync pulse width correction.
* PCJr, Tandy: implement vertical retrace interrupt.
* PCJr, CGA: line-by-line video emulation.
* PCJr: support on-screen change of color modes 4medium to 16low. (used by Ghostbusters booter)
* Hercules: Add green and amber monochrome support.
* All machines: only update the video timing when needed. (Jungle Hunt, others that synchronize to the video screen might profit)
* Several small DOS fixes.
* Some UMB related fixes. (The Legacy without UMB)
* Fix version number of DSP for SB 1.5. (fixes a few games)
* Several VGA emulation improvements. (Allertone football manager)
* Some Tandy fixes. (Mech Warrior)
* Small improvements and fixes to the OPL emulation.
* Add low level Tandy DAC emulation.
* Some EMS fixes. (fixes Mortal Kombat and others)
* Change SoundBlaster DSP reset mechanism, add sb irq acknowledge logic. (fixes stmik-based applications)
* Some interrupt pointer location modifications. (fixes Tinker Tales)
* Some fixes to the BOOT code. (fixes Last Mission)
* Respect write-only file information. (fixes Champions of Zulala)
* Some RTC fix. (fixes Tully Bodine and others)
* Improve mouse emulation to work better with Water World.
* Hopefully fix the translation of the configuration file.
* Speed up and fixes for the recompiler core. (pitfall2 pcjr)
* Change memory start location. (fixes 7th Guest installer)
* Several fixes to the batch file handling. (Shift and use the typed first %0 instead of the parsed %0)
* Improve file redirection and redirected line ends. (fixes Phantasmagoria 2 DOS installer)
* Fix compilation with new MAC os X version.
* Add 16C550A FIFO support to the serial port emulation.
* Improve modem emulation to get higher speeds.
* Change default samplerates to 44100, blocksize to 1024 and prebuffer to 20, so that hopefully certain soundcards produce more fluent sound playback.
* Add some rarely used, but for some games critical flags to the internal commands.
* Add -userconf flag, so that the userspecific configuration can easily be used together with -conf configfile.
* Improve internal timing with repeating timers (especially with the dynamic core).
