So here I am, cleaning up the computer room a bit, doing something that should have been done long ago: removing any software (primarily games) that are too ancient or otherwise cruddy to work on my state-of-last-year's-art Windows XP game machine. As part of that process, I'm looking up install info on older games that I remember as being cool, when I come across an old DOS game. I do my search, and... well, nothing directly about running it under XP comes up, but all sorts of things come up about using DOSBox to get it running.
DOSBox (which you can download here) is a program to provide a DOS-like environment (and I apologize for anybody who's reading this that doesn't know what came before Windows), mainly to run old games in. Now, being the sort of geek that I am, if there's anything cooler than a computer, it's a computer with more than one operating system on it... and if there's anything cooler than that, it's a computer running multiple operating systems at the same time... and if there's anything cooler than that, it's making such a setup work in a way that's fundamentally wrong in some respect. That's why I picked up a Linux kit for my PS2 originally... so I could revel in the glory of NetHack on a state-of-the-art game system.
DOSBox has a universal binary for Mac OS X. I am now using my mid-powered Mac Mini with the ultra-polished user interface to run crusty old command-line programs from the early '90s... and loving it. Time hasn't been kind to these games in general, but it's still a fun walk down memory lane... sometimes marveling at some of the effects game makers were able to pull off with very limited resources, sometimes cringing at the terrible voice-acting, but definitely having a blast.
Oh, and if you want to try out DOSBox yourself, but don't have a repository of old games cluttering up your room, I'm sure you could find a nice abandonware site somewhere...
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So, does DOSBox handle processing speed at all? One of my favorite old games was Ancient Art of War (rock-scissors-paper on a battle map). I found a copy and actually got it to run, but the program ran so fast on the processor that the computer would win the game before I had time to enter a single command.
Same with Sid Meyer's Adventure Construction Set. Great game, but it also ran at CPU speed rendering any chance to play an old adventure of mine useless.
I haven't played with it yet, but I believe it does support a "cycles" setting... I haven't had to touch it as of yet for these CD-era games. If I ever decide to delve down into the floppy era, I might... :)
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