How to play old DOS games on PCs using DOSBox

rahul1117kumar

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Thanks to the rapid advances in technology, almost all gadgets like computers and gaming consoles have become extremely powerful. Not just that the software and programs that power them are now immensely feature loaded, and getting better by the day.

If we talk specifically about video games , modern-day gaming titles include a plethora of features such as high-definition graphics, over the network gaming and achievements that can be synced to online accounts.

But as advanced as today's gaming titles are, they just don't have the appeal that simple games of the DOS era had. After all, who can forget the good old days of Bio Menace, Dangerous Dave and SkyRoads . They just don't make them like that anymore, which is sad, right?

Not so much, as it's very much possible to play old DOS games on your PC. All you need is a simple software application called DOSBox.

What is DOSBox and why use it?

DOSBox is emulator software that, as the name suggests, emulates the DOS environment inside your existing operating system. Thanks to compatibility with a wide array of graphics and audio cards (as well as on-board solutions), DOSBox works fine on just about every system.

The reason DOSBox should be preferred is because it supports countless classic games and can even run DOS-based applications. In addition to this, DOSBox is free and open-source software. It's been ported to other platforms like Mac OS X and Linux as well.

How to use DOSBox to play DOS games on PCs?

Step 1: Download DOSBox from its official website and install it.

Step 2: Once that's done, create a folder where you want to put your old DOS-based games . Make sure that the folder for games and the folder where DOSBox is installed are in the same disk partition (e.g. C:)

Step 3: This is where the real fun is. Once you run DOSBox, you need to 'mount' the game folder (or directory) inside the emulator to run it. This can be done by dragging and dropping the game's executable file into the DOSBox window. In addition, you can also enter specific commands to do it. A sample mount command would be something like this:
mount c c:\mydosgames

Here, c: is the drive letter of the disk partition where DOSBox and game folder are located. In this example, 'mydosgames' is the name of the folder in which the old games are located.

Step 4: Now that the folder is mounted, you need to the folder where the game you want to play is located. Suppose the name of the game that you want to run is 'BioMenace' (without quotes). You'll need to enter the following command:
c:\cd biomenace

The above command will change the directory to the one where the BioMenace game is located. Just run the executable file and you're good to go.

http://m.timesofindia.com/tech/gami...-on-PCs-using-DOSBox/articleshow/53685742.cms
 
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