Posted April 26, 2025
high rated
Hello, I have noticed that some GOG games that use DOSBox are being updated with DOSBox Staging, which is excellent because it is much more up-to-date and specifically aimed at pure DOS gaming. Currently, the pack sold containing Mortal Kombat I, II, and III still uses DOSBox. While they may work, there are some issues present in Mortal Kombat II and III.
Mortal Kombat II plays at 50 frames per second (FPS), which is not the correct frame rate for the DOS version. It uses mode 13h, and the target refresh rate for that mode was 70 Hz. Running at 50 FPS on a 70 Hz mode is not ideal. Some games that used mode 13h operated at 35 FPS.Thirty-five frames per second (FPS), being half of 70 FPS, provides a good frame timing. While the game may not feel as fast as it would running at 70 FPS, it will still feel smoother. In contrast, 50 FPS feels noticeably choppy, especially for a game designed around mode 13h.
Mortal Kombat 3 is highly sensitive to hardware timing, which is one of the reasons why the DOS version does not work properly on Windows 95 and why a specific Windows 95 version was created. On Windows 95, the DOS version of the game often crashes. This sensitivity also affects performance in DOSBox: the character selection screen becomes extremely fast, and the tower selection is even faster. Reducing the cycles to between 30,000 and 40,000 partially mitigates the issue, but the behavior remains less than perfect.
DOSBox Staging manages to solve these issues with Mortal Kombat II and III. Even Mortal Kombat III runs quite close to how it would on a Pentium 90.
While it is relatively easy to change from DOSBox to DOSBox Staging after the game is installed, it would be preferable if DOSBox Staging were used by default.
Mortal Kombat II plays at 50 frames per second (FPS), which is not the correct frame rate for the DOS version. It uses mode 13h, and the target refresh rate for that mode was 70 Hz. Running at 50 FPS on a 70 Hz mode is not ideal. Some games that used mode 13h operated at 35 FPS.Thirty-five frames per second (FPS), being half of 70 FPS, provides a good frame timing. While the game may not feel as fast as it would running at 70 FPS, it will still feel smoother. In contrast, 50 FPS feels noticeably choppy, especially for a game designed around mode 13h.
Mortal Kombat 3 is highly sensitive to hardware timing, which is one of the reasons why the DOS version does not work properly on Windows 95 and why a specific Windows 95 version was created. On Windows 95, the DOS version of the game often crashes. This sensitivity also affects performance in DOSBox: the character selection screen becomes extremely fast, and the tower selection is even faster. Reducing the cycles to between 30,000 and 40,000 partially mitigates the issue, but the behavior remains less than perfect.
DOSBox Staging manages to solve these issues with Mortal Kombat II and III. Even Mortal Kombat III runs quite close to how it would on a Pentium 90.
While it is relatively easy to change from DOSBox to DOSBox Staging after the game is installed, it would be preferable if DOSBox Staging were used by default.