Dosbox - play old DOS games
Intro
Dosbox is a DOS-emulator pretty much complete with everything (one can even record screenshots and/or video ingame!).
Download and install
Download and install dosbox. On most linux systems it's most likely in your repository so a quick emerge og aptitude should fix that problem.
On Windows one can download the newest version off sourceforge (0.70 as of now).
dosbox download page Should lead you right there; select the Windows - win32 installer.
Setup config file
Firstly decide where you want to store your dos-applications and create that dir.. like /home/$user/dos or just \dos under windows. Create the config file:
Z:> config -writeconf "/path/to/dosbox.conf"
This will create a generic config file - edit it with your favorite editor; it's just a normal textfile.
I only had to add a few lines which would automatically mount my dosdrive and enter it. At the very end of the config file, add something like:
mount C "/path/to/dos-dir" c:
Where one of course substitues the path to the real path.. like /home/$user/dos on linux or \dos in windows.
I also had to change the keyboard layout to Swedish, since the default American keyboard doesn't really work for me.
In case you wonder why Swedish; there is no Danish layout atm, and the Swedish one is about 100% likewise to the Danish one.
I just changed the option keyboardlayout (in the dosbox.conf file) to use the Swedish charset instead (sv).
keyboardlayout=sv
Keyboard shortcuts
Should be worth noting some shortcuts can be used to make life easier
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
| ALT-ENTER | Full screen |
| CTRL-F5 | Snapshot (define this dir in dosbox.conf!) |
| CTRL+ALT+F5 | Start/stop Record video of the dosbox session |
| CTRL-F7 | Decreases frameskip |
| CTRL-F8 | Increases Frameskip |
| CTRL+F9 | Stop (terminate) the dosbox session |
| CTRL-F11 | Slows down the game |
| CTRL-F12 | Speeds up the game |
You can find much more about keyboard shortcuts here DosBox official FAQ
Download games (abandonware)
Now all you need to do is to find some games!
I host a few of my favorites myself you can grab if you want:
Else there are lots of abandonware sites flowing around the net - it's just looking for them.
I'll list a few here which I think is worthy of mentioning:
osel.sk - Dont have alot of games, but it's a nice site
Screenies
