DOSbox works fine on mac mini/intel OS 10.4.11

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jwoolman
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DOSbox works fine on mac mini/intel OS 10.4.11

Post by jwoolman »

This seems like the right place to post, in case there are any other macheads out there who are unnaturally fond of old DOS games and looking for tech support. The DOSbox site had only mentioned compatibility with G3's as far as I could see and didn't mention specific OS versions, so I wasn't sure if it would work on my mac mini/intel but tried anyway.

Now I am SO happy because of DOSbox and classicdosgames! I have the DOS Monuments of Mars games, as well as a pile of other old DOS games, but haven't been able to install any of the Apogee games on any of my mac Windows/DOS emulators since they went to DOS 6 and can't find my old DOS 5 disks to see if I can use them to set up a DOS 5 volume in Parallels or VM Fusion (which allow for just about any Windows version, so maybe also any DOS). But DOSbox 0.73 for OS X worked right away in Tiger/OS 10.4.11/1.83 GHz on my mac mini with Intel inside- just downloaded it from the DOSbox site, double-clicked on the application icon, and there I was back in DOS. Used the command

mount c /Applications

and that made my mac Applications folder (where I put MoM) my c drive. I downloaded MoM directly from classicdosgames to avoid more trauma, since otherwise I would have to figure out again how to get disk images of MoM back on my mac mini (hard disk crash a few weeks ago, long and sad story).

Then just navigated to the mars folder in DOS and was off and running. All the color and clicky/zappy noises were just as I remembered from my old 486 and 4-color monitor! Plus the speed was perfect.

Have to get back to work, alas, but later I will try it out on my G4 in OS 10.2.8/Jaguar and eventually in OS 10.3.9/Panther on a G4 and G5 to see what happens. If it works in Tiger, though, it will probably work in earlier cats, er, mac operating systems. I don't know if the Intel processor (which the mac mini has but the G4s and G5s don't) has made a difference, but we shall see.

I should mention that I've had a lot of experience with pc emulators on macs, and am so far quite impressed with DOSbox. Macs have been able to run DOS and Windows in emulation for ages -- I used to use Virtual PC and SoftPC to run DOS/Windows games back in the 1990s. Today's faster macs are especially great for such emulators, and I personally find it's easier to do a lot of things with emulators because downloading and many file management operations are often quicker/easier on the mac side, so I can flip back and forth as needed (plus I can be running apps on the Mac at the same time, and the clipboard is usually shared). I've even run both the DOS/Windows version of a game simultaneously with the mac version to compare them directly - now, there's a trip! Let's just say the music wasn't exactly synchronized (but sounded better on the mac). Another surreal experience was when a friend phoned me for help with his real Windows 3.1 machine - Windows and its apps launched quicker on my mac, even though I was downloading a lot of stuff and printing things out at the same time on the mac side (and this was a mac that allegedly wasn't a multitasker).

Note for mac'ers or others: If you've forgotten what little you knew about DOS commands, just google "dos commands" and you will find many helpful lists with more explanations than in DOS help. I was astonished to see how much I did remember, though!
Last edited by jwoolman on July 23rd, 2009, 11:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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DOSGuy
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Re: DOSbox works fine on mac mini/intel OS 10.4.11

Post by DOSGuy »

I'm not surprised that it works, but it's nice to know for sure. I'm glad it's working out so well for you. :)
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mrbh
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Re: DOSbox works fine on mac mini/intel OS 10.4.11

Post by mrbh »

Thanks, jwoolman. your instructions worked perfectly on my iBook G4 (osx 10.4.11).
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