DOSBox -- A DOS Emulator Designed For Old DOS Games
Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 10:11 PM by Randall
I'm not a big computer gamer. I usually buy my computer games out of the cheap bin at Big Lots years after they came out because chances are good that I will play a game for a couple of hours and never touch it again. Once in a great while, however, I discover a game I really like and then I want to play it forever. One of those games is Master of Magic.This game was published in 1993 for DOS. Supposedly, it can be made to run in XP if you jump through the right hoops and hold your tongue just right, Unfortunately, I've never been able to make this work. But the game just runs in DOSBox.
DOSBox is an open source DOS machine emulator. It emulates CPU:286/386 realmode/protected mode, Directory FileSystem/XMS/EMS, Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics, a SoundBlaster/Gravis Ultra Sound card for excellent sound compatibility with older games. There's no need to install DOS and fight for memory space or install drivers for sound or graphics -- those are all emulated. I copied Master of Master to a directory on my hard drive, pointed DOSBox to it (with pretty normal looking DOS commands) and ran it. It ran fine once I fiddled with the speed of DOSBox and pushed it up to near the maximum my CPU can handle. (Read the readme file. You really do need to read it.) It was great to be able to play Master of Magic again without having to spend weeks of spare time trying to make it work on my XP system.
DOSBox will run a lot of old DOS games as the Game Directory of the DOSBox site shows. Versions of DOSBox are even available for Linux and Mac OSX. It you have an old DOS game you'd like to play or see one out on the web that you want to try (some are now freeware), try DOSBox. On a modern, fast computer, most old DOS games will play fine in DOSBox -- the exceptions being first person shooters and other real-time highly graphical games which may be too slow to enjoy. DOSBox will also run many old DOS applications, although that is not the real intent of the program. The next version reportedly will even run Windows 3.1.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Operating System: Windows (also
Linux, Mac OSX)
License: Freeware (Open Source: GPL)
Price:
Free
Version Reviewed: 0.63
Web Site: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/
See
Screenshots