Play DOS games on your Mac

Boxer is an OSX application that allows you to run DOS games trouble free.

Unlike DOSBox, Boxer makes running DOS games user friendly. You don’t need to know anything about DOS, as Boxer holds you hand throughout the process, from installing to running your DOS games.

As well as simplifying DOS emulation, Boxer looks good too. It can create a bookshelf-style folder for your game collection, and the application overall is attractive and fits perfectly with the OSX look.

Installing a game is really simple. Once you’ve downloaded a DOS game, simply drag the folder into Boxer, and it will walk you through the installation process. You are still very much in control of the process in DOS, but Boxer gives you instructions for everything at the bottom of the interface. Expert users can still use DOS as they remember it!

When a game is running, there’s a neat optional interface where you can tweak performance. For example, you can choose a processor speed like 486 or Pentium, depending on the age of game. Boxer chooses this automatically, but if it happens to be wrong changing it is easy. Full screen can be toggled with Command & F. Remember that in the old days you often needed manuals for controls, but luckily Boxer has some good suggestions of online DOS game libraries.

Emulating DOS may not be everyone’s idea of fun, but if you want to relive those memories of 90s PC gaming, Boxer makes it really easy.

Improvements to game importing: * Physical CD-ROMs are now ripped as disc images during game importing: fixes copy protection in many games and makes CD audio into a part of the gamebox. * If you’ve had copy protection trouble with a game you imported from CD, try importing it again now. * Better progress messages, option to skip lengthy CD rips, and various other tweaks to game import UI behaviour.Better PowerPC compatibility: * Fixed corrupt graphics in CGA and Tandy emulation modes on PowerPC Macs. * Reverted default CPU speed back to 3000 cycles, to improve PowerPC performance and fix timing issues in several old games. * If you find that any of your older games now run too slow, please send me a bug report!Fixes to mouse and keyboard handling: * Mouse input is now enabled for all games, not just ones that ask for the mouse. Fixes mouse * control in Space Crusade, Fantasy Empires, Precision Simulator and others. * Tweaked three-finger tap gesture to prevent accidental clicks and work more like OS X’s own single and double-taps. * Fixed mouse getting unlocked whenever the window size changes. * Tweaked how key repeats are handled, fixing misbehaviour in some games when holding down a key.Shoutouts to my MT-32 bros: * Added documentation for making games play through a real MT-32: search for “mt32” from the Help menu. * No MT-32 emulation yet, for now Boxer only supports the real thing. * Optional MIDI delay for early-model MT-32s to fix lockups and missing instruments (see documentation for details.) * Fixed CoreMIDI output leaving notes hanging when you pause or quit.Other nice things: * Per-game option to close the window once the game exits to DOS. Off by default but can be toggled from the Game Inspector panel. * Fixed crashes when launching programs from Finder while a DOS session is open. * Doubleclicking a gamebox in Finder while it is waiting at the DOS prompt will now start the gamebox’s default program.

Changes

• Improvements to game importing: * Physical CD-ROMs are now ripped as disc images during game importing: fixes copy protection in many games and makes CD audio into a part of the gamebox. * If you’ve had copy protection trouble with a game you imported from CD, try importing it again now. * Better progress messages, option to skip lengthy CD rips, and various other tweaks to game import UI behaviour.Better PowerPC compatibility: * Fixed corrupt graphics in CGA and Tandy emulation modes on PowerPC Macs. * Reverted default CPU speed back to 3000 cycles, to improve PowerPC performance and fix timing issues in several old games. * If you find that any of your older games now run too slow, please send me a bug report!Fixes to mouse and keyboard handling: * Mouse input is now enabled for all games, not just ones that ask for the mouse. Fixes mouse * control in Space Crusade, Fantasy Empires, Precision Simulator and others. * Tweaked three-finger tap gesture to prevent accidental clicks and work more like OS X’s own single and double-taps. * Fixed mouse getting unlocked whenever the window size changes. * Tweaked how key repeats are handled, fixing misbehaviour in some games when holding down a key.Shoutouts to my MT-32 bros: * Added documentation for making games play through a real MT-32: search for “mt32” from the Help menu. * No MT-32 emulation yet, for now Boxer only supports the real thing. * Optional MIDI delay for early-model MT-32s to fix lockups and missing instruments (see documentation for details.) * Fixed CoreMIDI output leaving notes hanging when you pause or quit.Other nice things: * Per-game option to close the window once the game exits to DOS. Off by default but can be toggled from the Game Inspector panel. * Fixed crashes when launching programs from Finder while a DOS session is open. * Doubleclicking a gamebox in Finder while it is waiting at the DOS prompt will now start the gamebox’s default program.