DOSBox

If you still have some really old applications that previously worked only in DOS on your machine and you still want to use them on your Windows system, you have to have an emulation utility. Among the tools available for that specific purpose, DOSBox might be exactly what you need.

This is a DOS emulator which enables you to run the classic applications you used to play with when you were younger, thanks to the incorporated SDL library. This particular component is designed to provide you with an interface for accessing graphics, sound as well as input devices.

DOSBox is able to successfully emulate 286 and 386 processors in a real and protected mode, as well as Directory FileSystem, eXtended Memory Specification (XMS) or Expanded memory specification (EMS). The supported graphics range from Hercules, Tandy and VESA to CGA, EGA and, of course, the familiar VGA.

As one would expect, DOSBox is not too demanding when it comes to system resources yet it is not one of the lightest tools either, CPU and memory usage ranging from low to moderate. It works pretty smooth, yet you should know that if an error is encountered, it will simply stop and exit without warning.

Taking all of this into consideration, DOSBox is a useful application which can help you in reliving the fun of playing old-school games, such as Volfied, SkyNET, Duke Nukem and Doom, and the list goes on.