Free
Boxer plays all the MS-DOS games of your misspent youth, right here on your Mac.
There’s no clots of configuration and baffling DOS commands between you and your fun: just drag-drop your games onto Boxer, and you’ll be playing in minutes.
Boxer takes your CDs, floppies and bootleg game copies and wraps them into app-style gameboxes you just click to play. They’re self-contained so you can back them up or share them with friends. No mess, no fuss.
If your nostalgia demands more, then decorate your games with gorgeous icons and admire your collection from your very own Finder games shelf.
Boxer is powered by DOSBox’s robust DOS emulation, which means it’ll play almost any DOS game you throw at it.
MS-DOS HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD.
Boxer is designed to look, feel and work beautifully: just like everything else you love on your Mac.
That means Boxer fits hand in glove with OS X: you can launch programs and gameboxes straight from Finder, search your collection in Spotlight, add extra drives in DOS just by drag-and-drop.
And if you run into trouble, there’s comprehensive built-in help just a click away.
Free
DOSBox is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library which makes DOSBox very easy to port to different platforms. DOSBox has already been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, BeOS, Linux, MacOS X...
DOSBox also emulates CPU:286/386 realmode/protected mode, Directory FileSystem/XMS/EMS, Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics, a SoundBlaster/Gravis Ultra Sound card for excellent sound compatibility with older games...
You can "re-live" the good old days with the help of DOSBox, it can run plenty of the old classics that don't run on your new computer!
DOSBox is totally free of charge and Open Source.
Free
Running DOS games has never been easier...
D-Fend Reloaded is a graphical environment for DOSBox. DOSBox emulates a complete computer including the DOS commandline and allows to run nearly all old DOS based games on modern hardware with any of the newer Windows versions.
With DOSBox there is no need to worry about memory managers or free conventional RAM, but the setup of DOSBox is still a bit complicated. The configuration of DOSBox via textbased setup files might be difficult for beginners. D-Fend Reloaded may help and create these files for you. Additionally the D-Fend Reloaded installation package contains DOSBox (including all language files currently available), so there is only one installation to be run and no need to link D-Fend Reloaded with DOSBox manually.
Easy start:
The D-Fend Reloaded installer provides everything you need to run old DOS games (D-Fend
Reloaded GUI, DOSBox, language files, FreeDos commandline tools). During the first start of D
Fend Reloaded everything is set up automatically.
Searching and sorting games:
D-Fend Reloaded contains many service tools to keep the overview even in large game archives.
Games can be filtered by categories like genre and year of publication, you can also conduct find
as-you-type searches. For every game you can setup a data folder for manuals etc.
Creating new profiles:
Besides using the normal profile editor, new profiles may be added by the profile wizard. Additionally templates for different game types are integrated which need only the name and the path of the game as input.
Managing profiles:
D-Fend Reloaded collects all information regarding a certain program in its profile (program directory, screenshot directory, manual directory, icon file etc.). Therefore complete games may be deinstalled using D-Fend Reloaded and games can be copied from one installation to another. D-Fend Reloaded is also able to build installer packes to transfer games to other computers. (To use this feature you need NSIS.) Additionally complete games can be packed to zip and 7z files by the builtin zip support for archiving or transfering.
Language support:
DOSBox and D-Fend Reloaded are multilingual. The installer package contains all currently available language files. D-Fend Reloaded automatically sets up the DOSBox keyboard layout which refers to the language choosen for D-Fend Reloaded.
Compability:
D-Fend Reloaded can read D-Fend and DBFrondend config files. D-Fend Reloaded is completely compatible with Windows Vista (in particular it runs without admin rights).
More highlights:
Games can be installed from zip files without any configuration..
D-Fend Reloaded may be installed in a portable operation mode (for USB-Sticks etc.).
Besides DOSBox you can also use ScummVM as emulator.
Also Windows-based games can be managed in D-Fend Reloaded.
With the integrated Bochs-FAT-Image-Creator you may create floppy and harddisk images to be used with DOSBox directly from the D-Fend Reloaded GUI.
D-Fend Reloaded can create images from CDs and floppy disks which can be used as drives in DOSBox.
Importing any zip file:
Many people have archived their good old DOS games as zip archives. D-Fend Reloaded can import this zip archives directly and in my cases there is no need for any configuration at all (if D-Fend Reloaded has a matching auto setup template for the game). The easiest way of adding a game from a zip file is just dragging the zip file to the program window.
D-Fend Reloaded portable:
You may install D-Fend Reloaded in a portable operation mode on a USB stick. In the portable operation mode the base directory will be stored relative to the program folder. (And all other directories are stored relativ to the base directory.) This enables D-Fend Reloaded to find its files independendly from the drive and directory it is run from. There is also an PortableApps installation package of D-Fend Reloaded.
ScummVM support:
In D-Fend Reloaded you cannot only manage your DOSBox based game but also your ScummVM-based games.
QBasic support:
If you have installed a QBasic interpreter, you can also define a *.bas file as a program file in the profile editor. D-Fend Reloaded will call QBasic with the bas file a parameter inside DOSBox.
Using virtual harddisks:
Compared to D-Fend, the mount dialog has been extended representing all features of DOSBox. Additionally, the D-Fend Reloaded package contains the Bochs-FAT-Image-Creator. With this tool you may create harddisk and floppydisk images to be used with DOSBox. (Of course, this commandline tool may be controlled from the D-Fend Reloaded GUI directly.)
Reading CDs and floppy disks:
The content of CDs and floppy disks an be read and stored as ISO or IMG files. This drive images can be used in DOSBox as virtual drives.
Screenshots, sounds and videos:
D-Fend Reloaded has a screenshot, sound and video manager for previewing and saving the captured images, sounds and videos. The images can be stored as jpeg, gif, png and bmp images and the captured wave sounds can be encoded to mp3 and ogg format.
Update checker:
The Update checker can manually or automatically (at program start up) looks for updates and offer to download and install them.
Usage of Windows-based games:
You can also manage and start your Windows-based games via the D-Fend Reloaded user interface. This allows you to manage all your games (old and new ones) in one place.
Free
ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical adventure and role-playing games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed! ScummVM is a complete rewrite of these games' executables and is not an emulator.
ScummVM supports a huge library of adventures with over 250 games in total. It supports many classics published by legendary studios like LucasArts, Sierra On-Line, Revolution Software, Cyan, Inc. and Westwood Studios. Next to ground-breaking titles like the Monkey Island series, Broken Sword, Myst, Blade Runner and countless other games you will find some really obscure adventures and truly hidden gems to explore.
You can find a full list with details on which games are supported and how well on the compatibility page. ScummVM is continually improving. Among the systems on which you can play those games are Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, PS Vita, Switch, Dreamcast, AmigaOS, Atari/FreeMiNT, RISC OS, Haiku, PSP, PS3, Maemo, GCW Zero and many more...
FreeBoxer plays all the MS-DOS games of your misspent youth, right here on your Mac.
FreeDOSBox is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library which makes DOSBox very easy to port to different platforms. DOSBox has already been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, BeOS, Linux, MacOS X...
FreeRunning DOS games has never been easier...
FreeScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical adventure and role-playing games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed! ScummVM is a complete rewrite of these games' executables and is not an emulator.
