Unfortunately, I'm not convinced the ScummVM team is ready to do this.īoxer seems to be the shining example of what could be done to improve ScummVM on the Mac. And while I would love to contribute to the interface front-end, it would require a departure from the 'one-interface for all platform' ideology and embrace platform specific APIs. I know that the most common reply in this thread will be something to the tune of 'ScummVM is opensource.if you want to see something happen, do it yourself.' I understand this there seems to be a tight leash around what is not strictly engine code. I'm presenting this as constructive criticism and not some insult to ScummVM, the ScummVM team or its fans. But I do believe that now that support for many of the most popular 80s and early 90s games exist, some front-end love is in order. ScummVM's engines are top notch and, honestly, I think that's the most important. If I have time this week I'll elaborate further in a separate post, keep an eye on the dosonmac tag.While I really much love the ScummVM project and how far it's progressed, there's something I very much hate about it: the interface. The VOGONS (Very Old Games On New Systems) forum has a thread dedicated to this. DOSBox emulates a generic SoundBlaster card and a custom S3 Trio graphics card. It is possible to drivers to get better performance, graphics, sound etc. Now you have a basic Windows 3.x installation running on your Mac! It's somewhat of a surreal sight:

If you intend to use DOSBox just to run Windows 3.x, add these lines right after your mount line so Windows starts when you start DOSBox, and DOSBox quits when Windows does:.

Under this, enter the following line to help Windows and DOSBox locate files:.

Enter the exact line you entered above to map your disk image or folder to drive c. At the very end of the file is where your custom AUTOEXEC.BAT code can be written.

Quit DOSBox then open the file you just created in your favourite text editor.

Within DOSBox, enter the following (in one line):Ĭonfig -writeconf '/Users//Library/Preferences/DOSBox Preferences'.

To save yourself the trouble of writing out that nasty mount line each time you start DOSBox, and to allow yourself to tweak some performance options it's best to create a preferences file. Windows in the day needed a printer, any printer, to display some fonts properly.

When you get to the printer installation step, click the 'Generic / Text Only' option and hit.Choose 'Let you make the modifications later', because DOSBox won't use any boot files Windows creates anyway. You'll be asked if you want to make any changes to AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS.Because we're dealing essentially with a folder not a real file system, 'Permanent' virtual memory won't work. When you're asked about virtual memory, leave it with the default 'Temporary' option.

When you're asked, don't worry about using the option to search your drive for existing applications, there aren't any! Leave the option to install printers checked though.Choose 'Custom Installation' with your arrow keys during the DOS-based part of the installation.The Windows 3.x installation process is fairly self explanatory, but just a few helpful pointers: Now you can navigate to your Windows installation files and start the setup process:.

Obviously if you created a folder, reference that instead:

If you created a disk image, mount it in Mac OS X, then fire up DOSBox and map your image to c.

Create another folder within your dosbox folder or your disk image called setup for example, then copy the contents of each Windows 3.x floppy disk into it.

Alternatively if you want to keep things neat and tidy, you can create a dedicated disk image using Disk Utility.

Create a folder in your home directory that will serve as you C: drive in DOSBox.

Grab yourself a copy of DOSBox and install it.

For people interested in running Windows 3.x, DOSBox provides generic emulated hardware that you can easily install software for. You don't need to worry about setting up your own copy of DOS from scratch, saving you the trouble of configuring AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, and all the graphics and audio for a huge slew of devices is already set up. While it is akin to comparing minnows to sharks in features, the latest Mac build of DOSBox (0.72) weighs in at 10MiB, compared to VirtualBox 2.0.4's 34.6MiB or VMware Fusion's 247.6MiB.ĭOSBox also has some distinct advantages other than filesize if you just want to run DOS. As I mentioned in the previous post in this mini-series, one of the options for running Windows 3.x on Mac OS X is using the excellent little DOSBox DOS emulator.

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