DOSBox-X: DOS Emulation on steroids

The ultimate way to emulate DOS games on Windows, Mac, & Linux.

I love “retro gaming.”

One of my favorite of the “retro” gaming platforms, is DOS. The sheer quantity of stellar DOS games is, simply, off the charts. I am especially fond of the VGA + SoundBlaster era of DOS gaming (see my roundup of my favorite games from that era).

The best way to enjoy DOS games (as with all retro games) is always going to be… on actual hardware and software from that time frame. But that simply is not an option for most people. And, even for those of us who collect and use older computer hardware, being able to run these games on modern hardware is so handy.

So, what’s the best emulation option? VirtualBox? VMWare? DOSBox? QEMU? All good options. All with benefits. But there’s one that’s the obvious winner here…

DOSBox-X. Hands down.

DOSBox-X takes the (already most excellent) DOSBox… and adds a whole boatload of features. Including:

• Drop down menus for doing the vast majority of things you’d need to use config files, and command line options for.

• A graphical configuration tool.

• Save states.

• Easy drive image mounting.

• Improved Windows 3.x support, CWSDPMI inclusion and a bunch of other handy things to make running DOS and early Windows software easier and more accurate.

Check out the graphical configuration tool:

So many features that you’d need to dig through the configuration file to set… right there. All in a pseudo-Windows 3.1 style. Just for kicks.

By default, DOSBox-X reports itself as MS-DOS version 5.0 (just like regular DOSBox):

DOSBox-X has binaries available for Linux (including Raspberry Pi), Windows, and macOS.

Performance is stellar. Compatibility is crazy good. For playing 386, 486, and early Pentium… there’s really nothing better. Outside of having an actual 486 or Pentium PC, of course.

Here’s a screenshot of Wolfenstein 3D running in DOSBox-X. Why? Because… why not?