Play DOS Games on Modern Hardware

Have you ever felt like going back and playing some classic DOS games, only to find you can't run them? Worry not, this Instructable's for you. I wanted to play the classic DOS game Ascendancy (by The Logic Factory) so I decided to figure out how to get it working.

I'll go over two different ways to play the games. Feel free to watch the video tutorial, or follow along with the steps below.

Method 1 supplies:

• DOSBox
• Some classic DOS game files (Can be found in a number of places, including Abandonia and archive.org)

Method 2 supplies:

• A modern web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, etc.)

1. The first thing you need to do is download and install the most recent version of DOSBox.
2. The next thing you need is some DOS games. I'd recommend creating a folder at the root of your hard drive and dropping the game files in there. For example, I use C:\DOS to hold my DOS games.
3. Run DOSBox

Now with DOSBox running, you'll notice you're on the Z: drive and don't have access to your local folders. The first thing to do is mount your drive using the following command (replace C:\DOS with your DOS game folder path if it's different):

    mount c: C:\DOS

If you're playing a game like Ascendancy, which requires a CD to play, you'll want to also mount the drive running the CD. I use Virtual Clone Drive to emulate a CD-ROM drive with the appropriate game disk image, so it shows up on my PC as the D: drive. As such, I'll just mount the disk image using the following command

    mount d: D:\

Alternatively, if you want to mount a disk image directly, you can use the following command (replace [PATH\TO\IMAGE with the path to your image file and make sure it's either an iso, bin, or cue filetype]:

    imgmount d: [PATH\TO\IMAGEFILE].[iso|cue|bin] -t iso

Optionally, you may need to install your game. Directions vary, but in my case it was:

    D:\Install.bat

Then run through the install wizard to copy files over. Finally, change directory into your game folder (for me it was C:\ASCEND in DOSBox) and run the game's EXE file:

    C:
    cd C:\ASCEND
    ASCEND.EXE

With that your game should be running. If you're running into trouble, you can do some troubleshooting, or try method 2 which is far simpler.

Also, to avoid having to manually run commands every time you load DOSBox, I'd recommend adding the commands into your dosbox-[VERSION].conf file located in your AppData\Local\DOSBox folder. Just add whatever commands you want at the end of the file under the line that looks like:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

The config file also has lots of parameters you can tweak to get your games running smoothly. Personally I change the CPU cycle parameter from auto to a fixed number or max, depending on the game. You'll need to fiddle with it to see what works best for your hardware.

Now for the easy method! Go to archive.org's DOS game library:

1. Go to archive.org
2. Click Software in the navbar
3. Click MS-DOS games

Alternatively, go directly to https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games

Then just find and load your game:

1. Search for the game you want and, assuming it's there, open its page
2. Click on "click to begin"
3. Watch it load right in the browser for you!

Press escape to get your mouse cursor back when you're done.

Note: Saving might be an issue when playing in the browser, but for the games I've tried it's worked out that saves are stored for my local machine. As long as you play in the same browser on the same hardware, you should be able to save and load between play sessions (for some games).