crazii
Command & Conquer freezes - FreeDOS in x86box with SBEMU -> It could potentially be useful for debugging.
I've discovered that it's possible to run FreeDOS in x86box with SBEMU. It seems like a good environment for debugging.
For instance, I successfully installed and launched game Command & Conquer. However, after completing the first mission, right before the statistics menu where you're supposed to enter your username, the game freezes.
I've encountered the same issue on a real PC as well.
If I set the emulation to SB16 in x86box or disable SBEMU on a real PC, the game continues normally.
Hi @ThingUroboros. Thanks for the report, and the suggestion.
I've been trying to get an automated CI/CD test to work with QEMU (with hardware-assisted virtualization through KVM), but that has proven to be a bit unreliable. Your suggestion to use 86Box with its high accuracy in emulating actual specific hardware is a good one. Of course, full and accurate emulation does take up more CPU resources. But if that at least would result in more reliable emulation, as well as a means to emulate more output devices than just HDA and ICHx AC'97, that might indeed be worth it.
I'll have to dig into the 86Box documentation to find out to what extent it has a proper API to allow it to be used in a CI/CD pipeline.
Your help would absolutely be welcome! Having automated tests for basic functionality and compatibility would allow us to immediately detect any breaking changes in any commits and Pull Requests.
Would you be willing to help me out with that?
In the meantime, can you perhaps also test this with older versions of SBEMU? Notably beta 4 and beta 3, even though those are quite old at this point? Just so we can establish a baseline and rule out that this issue you reported is a regression in later versions.
Thanks again, and Happy New Year!
