Anything else like DOSBOX out there?

fustercluck

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2002
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I've always hated Dosbox, like they tried to make it as difficult to use as possible. Anything else out there that can emulate dos games?
 

Maleficus

Diamond Member
May 2, 2001
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I never had a problem with dosbox, I don't play that many dos games tho :\
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
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Depends on what you want to play, i couldnt be bothered with dosbox so i just used virtual pc 2007 to run a windows 98 umm window and played simcity 2k in that. Its amazingly easy to set up and use, i was really surprised as running an OS in a window sounds hella complex.

I dont know of any direct alternatives to dosbox, windows 98 is dos with a makeover basically so whatever you are trying to play may work on virtual pc.
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
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Originally posted by: wankawitz
I've always hated Dosbox, like they tried to make it as difficult to use as possible. Anything else out there that can emulate dos games?

Heh, DOSBox is no hardware than using actual DOS, perhaps a bit less even. It adds to the nostalgia feel!
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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Some things in Dosbox are counterintuitive (especially setting up things in dosbox.conf for the first time), but there is nothing even remotely as good available for general DOS games. The 0.7x versions have better game compatibility than a lot of actual DOS systems from those days. The only thing I would like to see in it at this point is a save state function.

You can use a front end like D-Fend Reloaded to make game profiles, so you don't have to keep typing in the same stuff into it.

Virtual PC has SB16 support and may be an alternative, but its speed and game compatibility leave a lot to be desired from what I've seen.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
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81
Originally posted by: wankawitz
I've always hated Dosbox, like they tried to make it as difficult to use as possible. Anything else out there that can emulate dos games?

Dosboxes difficulty is the inherent difficulty of DOS. Anything that emulates DOS well is going to also carry that difficulty. I think you need to take a good 2 hours and get to understand it if it's something you use on a regular basis.
 

GundamSonicZeroX

Platinum Member
Oct 6, 2005
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DOSBox isn't hard to use. As others have said, it's no harder than using DOS itself.
Maybe you should look up a few DOS tutorials? You could also do like Maximilian and set up a Virtual Machine with Win98. ;)
 

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,649
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DOSBox is easier to use than actual DOS. Nothing hard about it. There is a lot to discover with it though. You can tweak a game to perfection with pretty much any system IMO.
 

fustercluck

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2002
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Eh, easy to use if you know how to use DOS i guess. Shouldn't be too hard to make the interface a lot better though.

SCUMMVM from lucas arts is much simpler to use, but only works for Lucas Arts games of course.

Dosbox is especially difficult to use if trying to run a game from the CD rom drive as I am doing. Even after getting the CD loaded up in Dosbox which is a battle in itself, most of the things on the CD don't work correctly or at all.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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You need to use the CD switch for it, like "mount d d:\ -t cdrom". It won't actually read as a CD drive otherwise.

I agree that Dosbox can be overly hard to use in some places, but it's well worth learning it if you play a lot of DOS games.
 

Sam25

Golden Member
Mar 29, 2008
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Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
DOSBox isn't hard to use. As others have said, it's no harder than using DOS itself.
Maybe you should look up a few DOS tutorials? You could also do like Maximilian and set up a Virtual Machine with Win98. ;)

How exactly do you setup a virtual machine with Win98...perhaps a guide I could read online?
 

TidusZ

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2007
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I use it to play MOO2, it took me like 5-10 minutes to read through the tutorial on how to mount a game and increase game speed, then I was playing w/o problem. I imagine there is some advanced stuff you could do but it hasn't been necessary for me. Works like a charm.