If you just got a brand new Windows 8 tablet and disheartened to find out that none of your favourite DOSBox games from GOG worked, like I was, then here's something that *might* help you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqzKe7APHKI

And you can find the zip & instructions here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7hdpqzi9qhs15aa/3E7wqVRJ5i

Basically it lets you play mouse-controlled DOSBox games on a touch-only device without any external mouse plugged in.
I made it primarily for my own private use, so please don't expect fantastic support (the source code is also in the same dropbox folder if you'd like to solve any problems on your own). I only have one Windows 8 tablet device to test (Venue 8 Pro) so I have no idea if it works properly or not on other machines.

I hope somebody finds this useful. Happy gaming!
:)

Nice, informative post.

Even though it doesn't apply to me, I'm sure it will help others.

A small update...

There's been a few usability and compatibility tweaks, so it now works with ScummVM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7nPIa_6x2E

The updated binaries and instructions are in the same dropbox folder.
ScummVM executable that ships with GOG installer may be outdated and not have OpenGL option which is required to work with my fix. If that's the case, you can just grab the latest ScummVM from http://scummvm.org/

Here's a list of titles on GOG.com that are compatible with ScummVM.
http://www.gog.com/mix/games_compatible_with_scummvm
(I only tested a few SCI based titles and Lure of the Temptress)

All the SCI titles (eg Sierra's Quest series) on GOG seem to use DOSBox, but using ScummVM instead has a few advantages. If you're on a touchscreen device and going to use my fix, then you also benefit from 1-to-1 touchscreen control (as opposed to trackpad-style control).

Great work! I don't have any touch screen devices that run windows and I'd naively assumed that touch screen input registered as mouse input.

Maybe someone ought to collate the threads for these into one thread? Seen around 5 of similar ones in last few weeks....

You're welcome! As for the keyboard problem, I also ran into similar problems using the virtual keyboard (or bringing up charms menu or any system-level stuff) in certain orientation. In my case, it's portrait mode that gives me the problem (which is not much of an issue for me since I don't play in portrait). HOWEVER, if I rotate the tablet 180 so that it's in the "other" portrait mode, then it's fine for some reason. So out of 4 orientations only 1 has the problem.
Maybe this could be a solution for you - try the other landscape orientation and see if that allows you to bring up the keyboard.

I'll look into it further, but I'm not holding out hope that it will be solved soon.


EDIT:

Okay, I think I see what's going on. Windows 8, upon detecting that the monitor rotation is set to zero, and that it has an OpenGL window that matches the desktop resolution and covers the whole screen, kicks into legacy mode that blocks any Windows 8-themed animations from running (including virtual keyboard). My tablet's monitor rotation is zero when it's in portrait mode, and for you I'm guessing it's in landscape mode.

Anyway, I updated the binary with a fix. It seems to work on my tablet. Please re-download let me know if it works.

Wow! That was fast! Yup, the new dll fixed the keyboard (and charm) problem I was having. Awesome job - makes dosbox games using just the touchpad perfect.

Thanks!

Just a friendly bump! This works extremely well!! Thank you Jayel for making DOSBox work on my Asus T100 tablet! I've had an absolute blast playing Master of Magic while commuting to work. Awesome!!

Thanks a lot this is great

Wow, just what I was looking for. Thanks a lot.

Thanks Jayel for SDL fix.

I have followed instruction provided with your file exactly.

Everything is good except one issue. The thing is that it seems that dosbox thinks that my screen size is bigger/smaller that game window. This gives that if I move my finger to the topleft corner, the cursor follows behind centimeter or two and therefore cannot reach a corner (my finger have nowhere to move further, but the cursor is still behind). And vice versa - if I move down to bottom right corner, the cursor "runs" in front of my finger and gets to the corner faster than my finger.
In other words the cursor do not follows where I tap exactly, but have like +100 px shift - if I click at the center of the screen the cursor do not move right under my finger, it moves about 50-100 px away to right and down.

Thanks! Works great with Gabriel Knight 1 on a Dell Venue 8 Pro.

Very usable, thank you

Signed up just to say thank you for this. Theme hospital is working brilliantly on my low-end tablet.

I had some trouble at first with the screen just showing up bars of colour and not proper graphics, but it worked perfectly as soon as I turned OFF reduced colour mode.

Thanks again!