Introduction: How to Use DOSBox for Beginners

By

Hello! This is my first instructable. Today I will show how to run Wolfenstein 3D and other DOS games with DOSBox. DOSBox is a DOS emulator created with SDL, the Simple Directmedia Library. Download DOSBox here: http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1

Step 1: Download DOSBox

DOSBox is open source and free. Get it here: http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 and use the installer.

Step 2: Creating the Game Folder

Go to the root of your main hard drive (Mine is C:\) and create a folder. I called mine "dos".

Step 3: Start DOSBox

Starting DOSBox isn't really that hard. All you need to do is click the icon. When DOSBox is started, a window will pop up. Press Alt+Enter at any time to make it fullscreen or exit fullscreen.

Step 4: Mount the C:\dos Directory

Type this into DOSBox: mount c c:\dos

Then press Enter or Return. It will display the message "Drive C is mounted as local directory c:\dos\." After that, type c: and hit Enter to enter the c:\dos directory.

Step 5: Enter the Directory Containing the Game

Type dir into DOSBox to view the directories inside c:\dos. Then type cd [directory name here] to enter the directory. In this case it's cd WOLFEN~1

Step 6: Enter the Exe File Name and Play the Game!

Type dir, find the exe file name, type it in and you're away! Enjoy!

Step 7: (OPTIONAL STEP)

To get to your games faster, you can edit the options.bat file at (default) C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74

Anything added to the bottom row will automatically execute every time DOSBox is started. Type the commands you would normally type here to access your games faster. For example, if your game folder is C:\dos, then

mount c c:\dos
c:

dir

The above lines will automagically mount your dos folder as C:\ and take you directly into the folder. Then it will show you your list of directories so you can just cd one and play your game!

Bonus tip: Tab will autocomplete what you're typing.