DOSBox is a
free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
emulator
In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...
. It supports running
programs primarily
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
s that are otherwise inaccessible since
hardware for running a compatible
disk operating system
A disk operating system (DOS) is a computer operating system that requires a disk or other direct-access storage device as secondary storage. A DOS provides a file system and a means for loading and running computer program, programs stored on th ...
(DOS) is obsolete and generally unavailable today. It was first released in 2002, when DOS technology was becoming obsolete. Its adoption for running DOS games is relatively widespread; partially driven by its use in commercial re-releases of games.
Development
Before
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...
, consumer-oriented versions of Windows were based on
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
.
Windows 3.0 and its updates were
operating environments that ran on top of MS-DOS, and the
Windows 9x series consisted of operating systems that were still based on MS-DOS. These versions of Windows could run DOS applications. Conversely, the
Windows NT
Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...
operating systems were not based on DOS. A member of the series, Windows XP, debuted on October 25, 2001, and became the first consumer-oriented version of Windows to not use DOS. Although Windows XP
could emulate DOS, it could not run many of its applications as they ran only in
real mode
Real mode, also called real address mode, is an operating mode of all x86-compatible CPUs. The mode gets its name from the fact that addresses in real mode always correspond to real locations in memory. Real mode is characterized by a 20- bit s ...
to directly access the computer's hardware, and Windows XP's
protected mode
In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units (CPUs). It allows system software to use features such as Memory_segmentation, segmentation, virtual mem ...
prevented such direct access for security reasons.
MS-DOS continued to receive support until the end of 2001,
and all support for any DOS-based Windows operating system ended on July 11, 2006.
The development of DOSBox began around the launch of
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...
—a Windows NT system—when its creators, Dutch programmers Peter Veenstra and Sjoerd van der Berg, discovered that the operating system had dropped much of its support for DOS software. The two knew of solutions at the time, but they could not run the applications in windowed mode or scale the graphics. The project was first uploaded to
SourceForge
SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...
and released for beta testing on July 22, 2002.
Features
DOSBox is a
command-line program, configured either by a set of command-line arguments or by editing a
plain text
In computing, plain text is a loose term for data (e.g. file contents) that represent only characters of readable material but not its graphical representation nor other objects ( floating-point numbers, images, etc.). It may also include a lim ...
configuration file. For ease of use, several graphical
front ends have been developed by the user community.
While the DOSBox project hopes that one day the emulator will run all programs ever made for the PC, the goal is not yet reached, and as of the latest version the primary focus has been on DOS gaming. The basic version does not support
long filename
Long filename (LFN) support is Microsoft's backward-compatible extension of the 8.3 filename (short filename) naming scheme used in MS-DOS. Long filenames can be more descriptive, including longer filename extensions such as .jpeg, .tiff, an ...
s, most versions of DOS do not support them, and filenames must follow the
8.3 name.extension pattern: a maximum of 8 characters for the name and up to 3 characters for the
extension. Otherwise, filenames will be altered to fit the pattern.
There are versions available on the DOSBox website that support long filenames, at the cost of possible incompatibility with some older programs.
The focus of the vanilla version is on gaming, and features such as support for
Ctrl-Break may be missing.
Some of the alternative versions support features not present in the vanilla version such as
APM APM, apm, or Apm may refer to:
Technology Computer technology
*Active policy management, a discipline within enterprise software
*Advanced Power Management, a legacy technology in personal computers
* Apple Partition Map, computer disk partiti ...
power off, direct parallel port passthrough for printing, and support for East Asian characters.
Because DOSBox accesses the host computer's file system, there thus is a risk of DOS malware exploiting the emulator's security vulnerabilities and causing damage to the host machine, although these vulnerabilities continue to be patched with new DOSBox updates.
Users can also capture screenshots and record videos of DOS sessions, although a
codec
A codec is a computer hardware or software component that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder.
In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder o ...
is required to play the videos.
It is also possible to record
OPL sound card and
MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
commands, as well as save sound output on a
WAV file. Keyboard keys and the buttons of a game controller can be mapped to other keys and combinations thereof.
OS emulation
DOSBox is a full-system emulator that provides
BIOS interrupts and contains its own internal DOS-like
shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
. This means that it can be used without owning a license to any real DOS operating system. Most commands that are found in
COMMAND.COM are supported, but many of the more advanced commands found in the latest MS-DOS versions are not.
In addition to its internal shell, it also supports running image files of games and software originally intended to start without any
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
. Besides emulating DOS, users can also run
Windows 3.0 and applications designed for it, as well as versions of Windows within the
Windows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a line of discontinued Microsoft Windows operating systems released from 1995 to 2000 and supported until 2006, which were based on the kernel introduced in Windows 95 and modified in succeeding version ...
family.
When the DOSBox application is opened, it automatically
mounts to a virtual, permanent
Z:
drive that stores DOSBox commands and utilities.
The reasons for the virtual drive are related to security,
but the user can mount a different drive letter in the emulator to a directory, image file, floppy disk drive, or CD-ROM drive on the host to access its data. A configuration file and its
AUTOEXEC section can be used to respectively configure DOSBox settings and execute DOS commands at startup.
Hardware emulation
DOSBox is capable of running DOS programs that require the
CPU to be in
real mode
Real mode, also called real address mode, is an operating mode of all x86-compatible CPUs. The mode gets its name from the fact that addresses in real mode always correspond to real locations in memory. Real mode is characterized by a 20- bit s ...
or
protected mode
In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units (CPUs). It allows system software to use features such as Memory_segmentation, segmentation, virtual mem ...
.
Since DOSBox can emulate its CPU by interpretation, the environment it emulates is completely independent of the host CPU.
On systems which provide the x86,
ARM, or other
RISC
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...
instruction set
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, s ...
s, however, DOSBox can use
dynamic instruction translation to accelerate execution.
[ The emulated CPU speed of DOSBox is also manually adjustable by the user to accommodate the speed of the systems for which DOS programs were originally written.]
DOSBox uses the Simple DirectMedia Layer external library to handle graphics, audio, and input devices. Graphically, it can use the DirectDraw
DirectDraw (ddraw.dll) is an API that used to be a part of Microsoft's DirectX API. DirectDraw is used to accelerate rendering of 2D graphics in applications. DirectDraw also allows applications to run fullscreen or embedded in a window such as m ...
or OpenGL
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...
API
An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...
s, and can also use bilinear interpolation
In mathematics, bilinear interpolation is a method for interpolating functions of two variables (e.g., ''x'' and ''y'') using repeated linear interpolation. It is usually applied to functions sampled on a 2D rectilinear grid, though it can be ge ...
and scale graphics for computers with modern displays. Graphical emulation includes text mode
Text mode is a computer display mode in which content is internally represented on a computer screen in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of ''character cells'', ea ...
, Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
, CGA, EGA, VGA, VESA
VESA (), formally known as Video Electronics Standards Association, is an American standards organization, technical standards organization for computer display standards. The organization was incorporated in California in July 1989To retrieve ...
, S3 Trio 64, and Tandy. Sound emulation includes the PC speaker
A PC speaker is a loudspeaker built into some IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven (dynamic) speaker. More recent computers use a tiny moving-iron or pie ...
, AdLib, Gravis Ultrasound, Sound Blaster
Sound Blaster is a family of sound cards and audio peripherals designed by Creative Technology, Creative Technology/Creative Labs of Singapore. The first Sound Blaster card was introduced in 1989.
Sound Blaster sound cards were the de facto stan ...
, Disney Sound Source, Tandy, and MPU-401
The MPU-401, where ''MPU'' stands for MIDI Processing Unit, is an important but now obsolete interface for connecting MIDI-equipped electronic music hardware to personal computers. It was designed by Roland Corporation, which also co-authored the ...
. However, because DOSBox does not come packaged with Gravis Ultrasound drivers, they need to be installed separately for full support.[
DOSBox can simulate serial null modems using the ]TCP/IP
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...
protocol and IPX network tunneling, which allows for DOS multiplayer games using one of them to be played over local area network
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...
s or the Internet. It can also simulate the PC joystick port, with limited options being to emulate one joystick
A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Also known as the control column, it is the principal control devic ...
with four axes and four buttons; one gamepad
A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. They are typically the main input device for video game consoles.
Features
Some common additions to the standar ...
with two axes and six buttons; two joysticks each with two axes and two buttons; a Thrustmaster Flight Control System joystick that has three axes, four buttons, and a hat switch; and a CH Flightstick with four axes, six buttons that can be pressed only one at a time, and a hat switch. Newer joysticks and gamepads will need to use one of these configurations to function.
Reception
DOSBox has become the ''de facto'' standard for running DOS games. ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun
''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017.
History
''Rock Paper Shotgun'' ...
'' positively remarked on the project's continual reception of updates, its influence on PC gaming, and some front ends designed to facilitate using it. Freelance writer Michael Reed lauded the quality of scaled graphics and the project's overall focus on compatibility and accurate emulation, but criticized the lack of both save states and user-friendly control over the emulator during runtime, even with the front ends available at the time of his review. DOSBox was named SourceForge's Project of the Month in May 2009 and again in January 2013, making it the first project in the website's history to receive two Project of the Month awards. On the SourceForge website, it reached 10 million downloads on July 21, 2008, and was downloaded more than 25 million times as of October 2015.
Usage
Since January 2011, the developers of the Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
compatibility layer
In software engineering, a compatibility layer is an interface that allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With s ...
have integrated DOSBox into Wine to facilitate running DOS programs that are not supported natively by the Wine Virtual DOS machine.
Since January 2015, the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
has added thousands of DOS games to its software library. , the DOS library contained 6,934 games. The collection is provided for "scholarship and research purposes only".
Forks
* Em-DOSBox uses Emscripten
Emscripten is an LLVM/Clang-based compiler that compiles C and C++ source code to WebAssembly, primarily for execution in web browsers.
Emscripten allows applications and libraries written in C or C++ to be compiled ahead of time and run effi ...
to convert the emulator's C++ code to JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior.
Web browsers have ...
, making the games playable in a web browser.
* DOSBox-X aims to be compatible with all pre-2000 DOS and Windows 9x based hardware scenarios.
* DOSBox Staging aims to be a modern continuation of DOSBox; with modern coding practices and advanced features.
* DOSBox Pure is a libretro
RetroArch is a free and open-source, cross-platform frontend for emulators, game engines, video games, media players and other applications. It is the reference implementation of the libretro API, designed to be fast, lightweight, portable and ...
core that implements DOSBox, with some additional features such as state saving and rewind.
* jDOSBox is a pure Java x86 emulator based on DOSBox. It was created to run all DOS games as well as DOSBox, but in the browser (before Java applets were discontinued). In addition, it will boot up Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP, ReactOS and some flavors of Linux such as DSL.
Commercial
DOSBox has also been both the most used DOS emulator and, because of the straightforward process of making the games work on modern computers, the most popular emulation software for developers re-releasing legacy versions of their games. id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
has used DOSBox to re-release vintage games such as ''Wolfenstein 3D
''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a 1992 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen for DOS. It was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfenstein'', and is the third installment ...
'' and ''Commander Keen
''Commander Keen'' is a series of side-scrolling platform video games developed primarily by id Software. The series consists of six main episodes, a "lost" episode, and a final game; all but the final game were released for MS-DOS in 1990 and ...
'' on Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...
's Steam
Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
. In the process, it was reported they violated the program's license, the GNU GPL, by not packaging the license text; the breach, which was reported as an oversight, was promptly resolved. Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. Activision Blizzard currently includes three operating units: Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and King (company), King.
Founded in July 2 ...
has also used it to re-release Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher founded in 1979 by Ken Williams (game developer), Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is ...
's DOS games. LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...
used it to rerelease '' Star Wars: Dark Forces'' and '' Star Wars: TIE Fighter'' for modern machines on Steam and GOG.com. 2K Games
2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. The company was founded as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports sub-labels. The nascent label incorporated several developme ...
producer Jason Bergman stated the company used DOSBox for Steam rereleases of certain installments of the ''XCOM
''XCOM'' (originally called ''X-COM'') is a science fiction video game franchise featuring an elite international organization tasked with countering alien invasions of Earth. The series began with the strategy video game '' UFO: Enemy Unknown' ...
'' series. Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a Division (business), division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of Z ...
has recommended DOSBox and provided a link to the DOSBox website on the downloads page for '' The Elder Scrolls: Arena'' and '' The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall''. It also included DOSBox with both games in ''The Elder Scrolls Anthology'' release.
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
' Origin client uses DOSBox for the platform's DOS games,[ including Electronic Arts titles such as '']Syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Etymology
The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndic ...
'' and ''SimCity 2000
''SimCity 2000'' is a City-building game, city-building Simulation game, simulation video game jointly developed by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Fred Haslam of Maxis. It is the successor to ''SimCity (1989 video game), SimCity Cla ...
''.
See also
*
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dosbox
2002 software
BeOS software
Cross-platform free software
DOS emulators
Free software programmed in C++
Free software that uses SDL
MacOS emulation software
Linux emulation software
Portable software
RISC OS emulation software
Solaris software
Windows emulation software
X86 emulators
Free emulation software