DOSBox for Android is a rip-off of the original developer's work, it shouldn't even be mentioned by a gamer who cares for his/her passion....

Which Android DOSBox are you talking about? I see several listed, at least one of which has satisfied DOSBox's GPL license by publishing their source changes and so forth.

Yeah, afaik Dosbox' license doesn't forbid it being published commercially as long are the source is provided. There is at least one free DosBox version on Google Play though, I don't know if the sources are included with the commercial versions. Haven't managed to have a decent experience even with the simpler games in the free version though, while the games launch the input options are pretty lacking (of course, trying to add absolute mouse movement rather than relative to 20 year old games might not be possible, but I've heard some of the commercial DosBox releases seem to have implemented that at least partially).

Actually in Dosbox turbo it's marked as an experimental feature, however it usually works. Tried four games by so far (UFO, Settlers 2 Gold, Heroes of MM2 and Warcraft) and it failed only in Settlers 2, I could play the rest with native touch screen control.

Hmm by this logic we should dissolve academic research institutions and be jailed for writing theses whose thoughts credit and build on their predecessors.

The potential to play a game you have purchased already (meaning you have already paid your dues to the developers) on your phone instead of your computer doesn't really do much except provide you personally with a more portable means of accessing games, for instance, tonight I got legacy of kain blood omen working via a playstation one emulator on my sony xperia play 4g (ok so admittedly I had to do a LOOOOOT of tinkering/coding/messing to make it happen, the phone itself was simlocked to a provider that doesn't even function in my country (we have ways)) So now I have a portable way of reliving a highly influential game of my youth, I also managed to get soulreaver working too. Just a shame that it will be a while before it will be possible to get soulreaver 2, blood omen 2 and defiance working on the damn thing, as in, a newer model (I hear that HTC have managed to get licensed by sony to design a similar phone down the track somewhat!!). The point is whether I play blood 1 whole unit on my phone or my pc it doesn't do anything to HARM the developer. I take the point further and suggest that they should get on board with this and market their entire games catalogue even if they sold their old games for $5.00 I'd definitely buy more than a few!! So who are we ripping off? Things may only go forwards but that doesn't mean there isn't a potential for developers to reap the rewards for their past efforts, show me a working c64 emulator with Jackattack and I'd bow to you! :)

For the person asking for the full android platform running on a native windows machine (IE, NOT emulation) then give bluestacks a try.
it runs just about every android program with no problem, and comes prepacked with access to the amazon store.
you can change the display from phone, large phone or tablet. some games are hard to use without a touchscreen, but if you want a native windows android experience, then look no further.
its free, and in beta right now, and i can personally vouch for its stability. hell, bluestacks will run games even my droid 2 global wont.
there can be slowdown from time to time, but they are constantly improving it.
give it a shot.
im surprised how little attention its recieved outside of people looking for ways to make multiple accounts for the referral bonuses in Rage of Bahamut.
www.bluestacks.com

The point was that some of the Android ports might violate the terms of GPL for Dosbox by not sharing their modifications to the Dosbox source code. GPL software are meant to be freely modified and re-distributed by other BUT if you redistribute your own version you also have to distribute the source code for your modifications. Since there's no money involved it's like a gentlemen's agreement among coders and it is considered really bad form violate it. If one of the andoid dosbox doesn't doesn't share the source code then it is in violation of the GPL and deserves to be fed to the sharks at http://gpl-violations.org

Charging money for GPL software is ok, but they have to share the code as well.

Yes, as far as I can see, aDOSBox, and AnDOSBox are fine, as they clearly state how you can get copies of the sourcecode.

Turbo DosBOX states that it is licensed under the GPL, but doesn't specifically state on the website how to obtain the source. However giving the developer the benefit of the doubt, I assume he would email it on request.

The only one I have seen which is blatantly illegal (and it should be noted that the GPL is a legally enforcible licence, not a "gentleman's agreement") is DOSbot (named in Google Play as "Play PC Games on your Droid"). In the description, the programmer states that it is based on the open source DOSbox, but that his code is not open source. This does not meet the terms of the GPL, and he is therefore guilty of copyright infringement.

Remember - "Free" does not mean "without price". The GPL allows you to charge a fee for providing a copy and does not set a limit on how high that fee can be. It is just that if you do sell something which is based on another work licensed under GPLv2, then you have to provide the source code. If the person who bought your program so chooses, they can distribute it with or without further modifications without charge.

I've had great success using DosBox Turbo to run Master of Magic and Master of Orion 2 on my Asus Transformer Pad 300 but having an issue with Heroes of Might and Magic II. The problem is that the game has disc copy protection so anytime I start the game directly from the heroes.exe file it give me the disc missing error message and says I can only play multiplayer. The problem is that the gogwrap.exe file which works around this issue when launched within Windows can't be used in dosbox because it isn't a dos based program. Any ideas on how to work around this issue?

Check the relevant .conf file on the windows installation. It should be mounting the cd image and using that, but I'm not sure if DosBox Turbo supports mounting of images.

You are correct. I just needed to mount the CD image. I was SORT of able to get it to work. I got it to get past the disc check but the music doesn't play because I could only get the .gog file to mount but not the .inst file. Not sure why.

You can use Free Heroes 2 to run the game. Install HOMM II on your PC and copy game files over to Free Heroes install on your Android device. You can download it from the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.fheroes2

I've tried all 3 DosBox on Android extensively and have done much research on their history, and here are my thoughts:

aDosBox
This is the grand-daddy of them all. It's free. But it is no longer supported. Yes, I know you get what you pay for... and in this case, you get a semi-usable DosBox. Don't expect to run too many cpu-intensive games on this one.
Pros
===
* Free

Cons
===
* Slow!!!!
* Based upon older 0.74 DosBox
* No advanced features such as IPX Emulation or MIDI

anDosBox
This was the first usable DosBox port for Android. There was some controversy when it first came out, because the author refused to release sources (even for those who paid for it). Eventually the author relented, and started releasing source for paid customers (after a 2 week waiting period, which I'm not sure the GPL allows). This used to be many people's favorite Dos Emulator, because at the time, there was no other competition. It is reasonably fast; however, lacks many features and options of the newer DosBox Turbo. One thing I need to point out, is the author of this DosBox clone also makes a GamePad add-on called gamekeyboard (at an extra cost). He has programmed his gamekeyboard to "break" when being used on DosBox Turbo. I consider this very shady behavior. Especially, since the author originally blamed DB Turbo, when all along he designed his KB to break down.
Pros:
===
* Reasonable speed
* Faster than aDosBox
* Easy to use

Cons:
====
* Must pay additional $2.99 for the GamePad add-on
* Lack of options compared to DB Turbo
* Slower than DB Turbo.
* Based upon older 0.74 DosBox
* No Profile Manager.
* No MIDI
* No IPX Networking (ie. Multiplayer gaming)

DosBox Turbo
This is the newest DosBox port for Android. It is, what I consider to be, the best port of DosBox for Android. Its based upon the newer SVN DosBox code, has almost every option available via Preferences, and supports the most external devices (ie. Xbox360 controller, Xperia Play, etc). Unlike anDosBox, it has a free Gamepad add-on (that I also use with OnLive!) and has a really cool Profile manager to manage all your game profiles. In my testing, the newest versions are a lot faster than even andosbox. I emailed the author about the sources, and he sent me a copy the next day with no waiting period.

Pros:
===
* Fastest Dos Emulator for Android (many times faster than aDosBox)
* 20-30% faster than anDosBox
* Free GamePad
* Profile management
* based on lastest SVN DosBox
* Keymapper
* Highly Configurable
* MIDI Sound Emulation
* IPX Networking (Multiplayer Gaming)
* Updates often

Cons:
===
* The GamePad add-on only supports Android 2.1+ devices.

Update: Benchmark Comparisons
anDosbox 1.2.4 vs Dosbox Turbo 1.2.0 vs aDosBox 0.25
DosBox Turbo 1.4.2 vs aDosBox 0.25 Speedtest
DOOM Timedemo benchmark comparison

Topic's gone stale, but could you or anyone post a sample .inst that works in DosBox Turbo? The CD version of Return to Zork only loads if I imgmount the .GOG file directly. Need to see if mine is formatted correctly for Android's liking.

There's similar discussion @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1560266&page=12 , where a .cue (.inst = .cue) file is shown to appear exactly like mine. (He was having issues of his own)