DOSBox is a multi-platform, open-source, completely-free program that lets you run DOS programs on just about any platform. (Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Linux, OS/2, BeOS… etc the only OS it doesn’t seem to support is DOS itself – for obvious reasons).

It has full sound and mouse support (yes, some DOS games used mice) – and you can use it to run your favorite old DOS games. This includes the better-than-any-of-the-countless-copies game Scorched Earth (the classic aim-your-tank and fire-your-weapon at someone else… with lots of weapons and variations…)

Those who grew up in the Gardner household in the days of the Sperry will remember Castle!. You can now get your fix of being a spade symbol walking around an ASCII Castle and pursuing such things as the “@” snake. The game is just as tough as it was then, so don’t get your hopes up.

How to get DOSBox running on your Mac

1. Go download DOSBox
2. Drag the DosBox application from the disk image that will open into your Application folder.
3. In the Finder, Go to your “User Directory”
   • the easiest way for me to tell you how to do this is to say – “Under the ‘Go’ Menu, select ‘Go To Folder’ – and in the Dialog box, type ‘~’ and hit enter” – or to click on the icon with a house next to your login name in the side of your window (if that icon is there.)
4. Create a folder inside your User Directory called “DosGames”
5. Go download a good quality DOS Game (links at end of article.)
   • I suggest you start with Scorched Earth – or perhaps Warcraft I (if you are asked for an install password for Warcraft I – you can get it from this Blizzard support post
6. Move the game you downloaded into your DosGames folder.
   • (You probably downloaded a .zip file, and it expanded itself into a folder. Just click the magnifying glass in Safari and it will find the folder for you and show it to you in the Finder.) Note, if you download Castles – it will expand to “Castles.1984″ – rename the folder to “Castles” to be DOS friendly… Remember – only short file names
7. Start DOSBox. Double click on the application.
8. Mount your Games folder. It’s really easy.
   • In DOSBox – just type “mount c ~/DosGames/” and it will mount the games folder you made as your C drive.
9. Go to your “C” drive and find your game.
   • Type “C:” hit enter, then type “DIR” hit enter – and see what the name of your game folder is. Type “CD ” where is the name of the folder want to go play… Then type “DIR *.exe” and it will show you the things that you can actually run. Type the name of the .exe file (without the .exe) and voila!

Where to find Games

There are plenty of sites online that host Abandonware games. If one site only has a demo of the game you are looking for, dig around and another one may have the full version. These games are so old, nobody cares that they are being given away for free… They are called “AbandonWare” for a reason.

http://www.abandonia.com/
http://www.classicpcgames.com/
http://www.dosgames.com/
http://www.oldgames.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware#Games