DOSBox-X

Getting nostalgic about the really old applications or games that you used to play when you were younger on a DOS system? Good news! DOSBox-X is an open-source DOS emulator that allows you to enjoy them all on your modern Windows PC (XP or later).

DOSBox-X is a fork of DOSBox and, similar to the latter, it can emulate a PC and a configuration needed to launch and enjoy MS-DOS games that the latest Windows OS editions do not support.

With embedded SDL libraries (SDL1 and SDL2), DOSBox-X also adds support for DOS applications, including emulating environments to install and use Windows 3.x, 9x and ME and software written specifically for these outdated versions of the operating system. In other words, it is capable of emulating systems to host all types of DOS applications, not just DOS games.

Unlike DOSBox, DOSBox-X adds support for East Asian systems and languages, such as NEC PC-98, AX, and J-3100 or native DOS/V service emulations. It is compatible with SBCS languages and DBCS languages, allowing you to translate its various user interfaces, menus, and so on.

The “HELP /ALL” reveals a list of the DOS commands that you can use and an explanation for each. Note that DOSBox-X features more commands that are missing in DOSBox (e.g. VOL, LABEL, ATTRIB, PROMPT, MOUSE), as well as support for CONFIG.SYS commands.

There are various customization options available to you, allowing you to choose and change the behavior of the emulator. For instance, you can skip the splash screen or the welcome banner, modify the text in the title bar and change the CPU cycles to use for optimized speed.

You can configure DOSBox-X to start in a specific screen area and on a display of your choice, should your PC have more than one. You can also choose the aspect ratio to preserve and, what is more, the new virtual drive Z ca be easily customized by adding it any files and concealing or erasing content on the disk.

As shown above, there are various additional features that DOSBox-X comes with compared to DOSBox. First of all, it is designed to launch DOS applications, not just games and comes with official support for Windows 9x and ME. Aiming towards general emulation, DOSBox-X provides support for any configuration of DOS and Windows 9x.