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written by CuteFloor
This is an introduction to how to play old DOS games using DOSBox. If you're new to DOSBox, don't worry. It's not as difficult as it may appear. Just read this tutorial carefully.
First of all, this tutorial has been written for the current version, DOSBox 0.72. Please check if you don't have an old version.
You may wonder why 'those old' games won't work properly in Microsoft Windows and why you need DOSBox, even though they may have worked pretty well on older Windows versions. Basically, that's because Windows 95/98/ME based on a modified MS-DOS version, so the games were able to run natively there. Newer Windows versions base on Windows NT, which got a completely different system core. So, the DOS environment must be emulated, but the built-in functionality is too limited to do that properly.
DOSBox is a portable emulator which emulates a complete DOS environment including common hardware of an IBM PC compatible computer from back then. Unlike runtime environments like DOSEMU or the command line interface in Microsoft Windows, DOSBox is a complete x86 emulator which emulates the processor and everything else you need, too. So, DOS based games will 'think' that they're executed on a real DOS machine. DOSBox is free software and available for several operating systems.
At least, you need DOSBox, of course. You can get the latest version there: http://www.dosbox.com
You can use DOSBox on every machine above a 500 MHz CPU. But the faster your machine is, the better DOSBox will work.
You also need some DOS games. If you don't still have any old ones, you can get some legally at http://www.dosgamesarchive.com or http://www.dosgames.com.
If you use Microsoft Windows, you can execute the installer which will create the necessary shortcuts. On other system you'll probably know what to do. After that, DOSBox isn't ready yet:
You need a configuration file. On Microsoft Windows, there will be created one by the installer. You can open it via the start menu. On other systems you'll need to create one by yourself. In that case just run DOSBox and type in the following line:
config -writeconf /path/to/your/new/file.conf
After that you can close DOSBox by typing in exit.
After you opened the configuration file in your favorite editor, you'll notice a lot of settings separated into different sections. Most of them are already fine. You only should change a few things:
The [sdl] section:
fullscreen=true if you want DOSBox to start in fullscreen;
output=overlay if you got an accelerated graphic card (that's the case of modern systems), otherwise keep it at surface.
The [dosbox] section:
If your games abort in case of insufficient memory, increase the value at memsize. Keep in mind that this value is meant in MB and will be catched from your real memory, so don't set it too high. In most cases the default value works fine.
Don't forget to set captures= to the path, where you want to store your captured videos, screenshots and wave files, for example: captures=D:\mystuff\dosbox\captures\. Otherwise they will be stored nowhere.
The [cpu] section:
core=dynamic and cycles=max to get the best performance in most cases. If DOSBox runs badly with these settings, try to set core=auto or even core=full instead. In case your game runs too fast or choppy, try a numeric cycles value like cycles=3000.
The [render] section:
If you got a slow PC, you can increase the speed by setting frameskip=1. DOSBox will skip a frame before drawing one. That means, you'll see 35 fps instead of 70 fps, but you get more CPU power for the plain emulation. This option only affects DOSBox itself, you don't influence the games' own framerate.
The [autoexec] section:
If you used DOS before, you'll probably remember the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. It included the commands which were started at boot time. In this section, every command will be executed when DOSBox starts – like the AUTOEXEC.BAT file did. At least, it should contain the following lines (you can add more if you want):
mount c "D:\mystuff\DOS games\"
(this will mount your games folder as drive C: in DOSBox)
mount d E:\ -t cdrom
(this will mount your CD/DVD drive E: as drive D: in DOSBox)
These are the most common settings. You can get more at the DOSBox Wiki.
You have to execute DOSBox with the path to your configuration file in order to use your above defined settings. In case you use Microsoft Windows, you simply can use the shortcut at the start menu. If you created a shortcut to DOSBox yourself, use a command like this:
dosbox -conf "c:\my programs\dosbox\mysettings.conf"
A few things you should know:
In DOSBox, you got some basic DOS commands:
dir to list the current directory content
cd dirname to go into a subdirectory
cd.. to go back to the parent directory
c: to switch to drive C:, if it's available
filename to execute a FILENAME.BAT or FILENAME.EXE (for example setup to run SETUP.EXE)
exit to quit DOSBox
You also got some special keys in DOSBox:
CTRL+F5 to save a screenshot
CTRL+F6 to record the sound output into a wave file
CTRL+ALT+F5 to start/stop recording a video
CTRL+F9 to kill DOSBox
CTRL+F10 to capture/release the mouse
ALT+RETURN to switch between windowed and full screen
If you want to learn more about DOSBox, then try a look at the DOSBox Wiki.
Indeed, there are graphical frontends for DOSBox to do most of this. But they will still require you to setup a working DOSBox environment. So, it doesn't hurt to learn the basics to understand how everything works. More about this at the DOSBox Wiki.
Most games don't detect the sound card automatically. You have to run SETUP.EXE, SETSOUND.EXE or INSTALL.EXE in the game directory before you run the game for the first time. Use a Sound Blaster 16/Pro/compatible or Adlib driver.
Some old games don't detect the sound card properly if the emulated system is too fast. To slow down DOSBox, look at the Configuration chapter how to set a lower cycles value. Setting cycles=3000 in the [cpu] section should do the job in most cases.
If the CD was mounted using the mount command, some games may have problems to detect it properly. The most secure way is to create an image of the disc (DOSBox supports the .ISO and .CUE/.BIN image formats) and to mount it like this:
imgmount d "C:\mydisc.iso" -t iso (described in the DOSBox Wiki)
If your game CD got additional audio tracks, you have to use the .CUE/.BIN image format, because it's the only supported one which can store them properly. Please refer to the .CUE file and not to the .BIN file at the imgmount command.
If you copied the game files from a CD, there's a big chance that they're write-protected. In that case, mark all files and clear the read-only attribute in their file properties.
Most games will work fine with DOSBox, but there still are some few games which cause problems. Look at the DOSBox games database for more information about a specific game. If you don't find anything related to your problem, try to slow down DOSBox (described in the Configuration chapter), because most of the old games were developed for slow systems.
Edit your configuration file (described in the Configuration chapter) and try a bit around with the cycles option in the [cpu] section. The higher this value is, the faster will be the emulation. In case this value is higher than your CPU can handle in realtime, the emulation will be slowed down and the sound will stutter. That's why you have to find out the right value yourself.
That's because the videos are encoded with the ZMBV (Zip Motion Block Video) codec. In Windows, you need to have the ZMBV codec installed to watch them. Fortunately, it's shipped with DOSBox, so you just need to execute the codec installer from the start menu. After that, you can watch these videos with your favorite player or recode them to a more common video codec format.
On other platforms you can use MPlayer or FFmpeg, the ZMBV codec is fully supported there.
If your friends like to play DOS games, tell them about DOSBox and this tutorial. If you got a DOS related website or weblog and you think, this may help others too, then you can link to this page, of course.
You also can help to improve this tutorial by telling me what you think about it or what problems you got :)
Copyright © 2007–2008, CuteFloor
Documentation and translations licensed under a Creative Commons BY 3.0 License
Images and technical implementation licensed under a Creative Commons BY-ND 3.0 License