DOSBox

DOSBox is a free and open-source program for emulating Disk Operating System (DOS) in Windows and other operating systems. DOSBox can work in FreeBSD, Fedora, Gentoo Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2, RISC OS, Debian, Solaris 10, BeOS and others. The program is written in C++ and its source code is published under the GNU GPL. The emulator is primarily designed to run old DOS games on modern personal computers.

DOS is, without exaggeration, a whole era in the development of operating systems. Everybody probably remembers or at least heard about the black screen, square cursor and "C:\>_" prompt, where you could enter commands that were processed by the COMMAND.COM interpreter. DOS was one of the most popular operating systems for IBM-compatible personal computers from about 1981 to 1995. At that time, games such as Doom, Quake, Dune, Elite, Wolfenstein 3D, Arkanoid, Supaplex, Pac-Man, Prince of Persia and so on were released. Of course, many of these games already have modern remakes, but if you want to get a little nostalgia or see how it all started, DOSBox is a great program to run old games on a modern PC.

Emulator settings are available through a configuration file, and a built-in keymapper lets you reassign keys and joystick buttons. DOSBox can emulate IBM PC compatible x86 processors, a file system with the ability to mount host directories as disks, the graphics modes Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA and VESA, and the sound cards AdLib, PC Speaker, Tandy, Sound Blaster, Gravis UltraSound and others. The program can also emulate IPX networking and serial modem connections over TCP/IP.

DOSBox allows you to play old DOS-based games on modern computers, recreating nostalgic gaming experiences.

A game is started by mounting its folder as a drive with the MOUNT command and running its executable from the DOS prompt.