DOSBox/DOSPad- better on iOS or Android?

[Obsoleet]

Unlike most, I'm actually not diehard set in hating Android or iOS. I have a HTC Tbolt right now, which has been a piece of trash for nearly 2 years now- and I just ordered an iPhone5. I also have a jailbroken AppleTV2 which is the best thing since sliced bread and you won't take it out of my cold dead hands.

Looking for a tablet I'm mainly looking for 2 things- adblock and good DOSbox support. So I'm between a mythical iPad Mini and a Nexus7.

Between the two OS's, from those of you like me who have tried both iOS and Android, but have experience with DOSbox, which one is better? I'm looking for landscape view, keyboard options ect. and can't find a lot of detailed info on the web.

For me half the appeal to a tablet will be firing up old DOS games on it.

Also for those of you who have iOS devices, how is the adblock support in Cydia apps?

 

[Obsoleet]

Perhaps my post wasn't biased or inflammatory enough towards iOS or Android enough to gain responses.

 

[Monster_Munch]

I don't know anything about iPads but I have an Asus Transformer Prime. I would recommend DosBox Turbo if you want to run Dos games on Android.

With the transformer prime's usb port I can plug in a USB mouse and use it to play Command & Conquer. Performance is OK, but not amazing.

 

[Skurge]

If the app was free I could test it for you on a Nexus 7. Although if Google hadn't screwed me out of my $25 I would get it.

 

[ControlD]

I have DOSPad on my iPad and it's OK but not great. Playing older games like Ultima5 is certainly possible. One advantage to using Android for this is that you really need to be jailbroken to use dosbox on an iPad. I am assuming this is not the case with Android. If you are hoping for an iPad mini you will very likely be waiting some time for a good untethered jailbreak.

 

[Monster_Munch]

If the app was free I could test it for you on a Nexus 7. Although if Google hadn't screwed me out of my $25 I would get it.

aDosBox is free. But it doesn't run as fast or have as many features as DosBox Turbo.

 

[Chiropteran]

How hard is it to use these programs? Lets say I already have several old DOS games from gog.com, already designed to run with DosBox on windows. Is it just a matter of copying the files onto my phone and running them from DosBox Turbo?

Sounds like fun at first, but then I think about how mouse and keyboard driven most of those old games were...

 

[reb0rn]

As soon i buy Nexus 7 (not yet available here) i will try dosbox, scumm vm and psx games, duno if they are easy playable but i hope so

I hope to play rpg/adventures only like FF7, realm of arkania 1,2, lands of lure, ect!

 

[lothar]

I never knew DosBox existed on iOS or Android.
That said...if it requires one buying an expensive $100 keyboard/mouse dock to experience, forget about it.

I will stick to playing Dos games on my laptop/desktop.

 

[Monster_Munch]

That said...if it requires one buying an expensive $100 keyboard/mouse dock to experience, forget about it.

You can buy a USB on the go adaptor for $5 and use any USB keyboard and mouse. Or use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

 

[reb0rn]

I hope rpg/adventure games are playable without keyboard

 

[ControlD]

I hope rpg/adventure games are playable without keyboard

Those games will need a keyboard if that is what the original DOS games used for controls. The DOS emulator will have a soft keyboard that overlays on the screen so you don't need to actually connect a physical keyboard, but you will need to use keystrokes. The games aren't magically going to use touch screen controls unfortunately. I suppose if you are really into playing the old DOS games then a small BT keyboard would be worth looking into.

 

[godrain]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I had to jump in here and throw in yet another recommendation for DosBox Turbo for Android. I've tried all the dosbox emulators and DB Turbo is by far the best in terms of both speed, features, and input capability. On my phone, I can use the excellent touchscreen mouse emulation, or use the virtual gamepad. On my transformer tablet, I prefer to use an external bluetooth mouse, or my built in keyboard/trackpad. The flexibility is wonderful, and the speed is quite amazing for an ARM port. Certainly the fastest ARM port avail. There's also a youtube video comparison of the Android DosBox ports here; however, its using a really old version of DosBox Turbo, the newer versions are quite a bit faster.

Been doing quite a bit of gaming lately playing Fallout and Daggerfall on my Samsung Galaxy S3 on the train-ride to work.

 

[psych2]

I would suspect running old DOS games on Android is easier since the open file system makes it much more easier to copy the original game assets to your device's internal drive.

 

[Obsoleet]

I installed aDosBox and ScummVM on my phone because both are free.. haven't tried much so far because I'm mostly interested in trying it on a tablet or at least a screen like the GS3.

 

[AlienHack]

Halo friends.
Godrajn mention that you use your galaxy s3 with dosbox turbo

I have the samsung note 2 which is almost identical to s3 but with a biger screen.
I have some problems with the dosbox turbo which i cant seem to solve or find a solution to.

Firstly the dosbox turbo touch joystick doesnt seem to work. In general i can run all my games without a problem but i cant use the controllers . As i said the dosbox touch joystick when enabled i can see but it cant be touched. I mean id doesnt work.

The other question i have is wether you can use multitouch.
I mean for exampe can you move and shoot at the same time? I can only do one of 2 things. If i am holding the moving button then no other button can be touched. I must first leave the moving button and then hit the other button.

Thank you

 

[Yahma]

DosBox Turbo user here. I'll have to agree with everyone else that if you are using Android, DosBox Turbo is the absolute best port of DosBox. If you haven't tried it, you are really missing out. Its also updated practically every few weeks with new features. Version 2.0 that was just released a few days ago distances itself even further from all the other Android DosBox ports.

As for the question regarding the virtual joystick. DosBox Turbo has a built-in Virtual Analog Joystick emulation, but most dos games are better played with the keyboard cursor keys. In that case, just use the free GamePad add-on and you'll get a customizable DPAD overlay that maps to the cursor keys, though if you are really into playing DOS games, you might want to consider a mini bluetooth keyboard.