12/27/2022 0 Comments Dosbox for mac os x![]() Windows native games from Win3.x-9x weren't impacted by Smaker issues. One downside until VPC 3.0 was Connectix didn't support hardware audio acceleration so you were stuck with Adlib/low-end Soundblaster audio for non-Windows, VPC 4.0+ brought near-perfect SB16 audio support for 500+Mhz PowerMac G4 owners but not all games/applications on the DOS side worked with it unless run from within a DOS window inside of Win9x or exited to DOS to keep the audio driver loaded-you couldn't create a boot disk as the Connectix/VirtualBox driver relied upon Win9x, there were ways to use the Creative Labs DOS 6/Win3.1 era driver but Connectix didn't support it-same goes for trying to load a generic CDROM driver for DOS usage too.Ĭommon problems you'll see with VirtualPC is "Smacker" animation/multimedia of some early to late-90s games would only work via Adlib/SB Pro on any version of VPC due to Connectix/Innotek(VirtualBox) driver. (OS X DOSBox has the same missing mouse/dropped mouse click issue that Windows users suffer)īochs is slightly better than DOSBox if you're running 386/486 1MB Sirrus Logic VLB graphics era software, last I remember audio was experimental Adlib but it worked better than DOSBox in some areas of usage.īack in the 266/333Mhz iMac era I ran DOS games under VPC 2.1.1 to 4.0, the trick was enable CPU compatibility via Scripts menu if a game used CPU timing-Connectix many years ago had a how-to online & in the user manual describing what to do. Keep in mind DOSBox development has stalled, EA/GOG for example are using a community forked "gaming" build which fixed the frame-rate bug and input(mouse/gamepad/joystick) bug that impacts any OS newer than Windows Vista/7. I'll endeavour to try DOSBox on my G3 iMac later and let you know how I get on.ĭOSBox on non-x86 processors isn't that good, CPU timing issues impact ARM & PPC CPUs with games more than anything. My lack of success doesn't mean it wont work for you - it depends entirely on the game you're trying, and given the low cost of an iMac or eMac, what have you got to lose?īear in mind a G4 eMac has more capabilities than a G3 iMac and the iMac will require the special build of DOSBox.įrom memory, I think I had the same luck with MS-DOS in VPC, plus I think I struggled to get programs into it (had to create floppy disk images) - DOSBox is better in that respect, as you just drop your software into the appropriate folder.Īs an aside, PPC Macs are much better at emulating game consoles than a PC - maybe consider those as an alternative to get your retro fix? Just tried it again this morning on my 1.67Ghz Powerbook - again, it opens and works but with stuttering and CPU running at 100% I've only ever tried to run Fasttracker in DOSBox which is music software that plays back sequences of wav files and can easily run on a 386 8Mhz PC - in this task it roundly fails on anything but a high end G5. I use an Apple CRT(in my case the 17" ADC display) with my Cube that I mentioned above.Ĭlick to expand.Despite being a slender piece of software, DOSBox is still trying to emulate the X86 architecture - something PPC Macs don't excel at. A CRT will scale gracefully over a large range of resolutions. On an LCD, you either end up scaling the resolution(which looks like crap) or get dramatic "windowing" if you run at native resolution. Many old games are meant to run full screen and only have a resolution of 640x480. A 1ghz or 1.25ghz MDD combined with a Geforce 4Ti would be quite a formidable rig.Īll of that aside, a CRT is a smart display choice IMO for old gaming. My main old gaming machine these days is a Cube with an 800mhz upgrade card and a Geforce 3 GPU. If you're running GPU-intensive games, there's a lot to be said for building a hot G4 tower. ![]() I'd suggest that-if you buy an eMac-you get one that can boot natively into OS 9 as many games will run better in their native OS than in "classic" mode in Tiger(Classic comes into its own on DP systems, but that's not the case for either the iMac or eMac). If you're interested in playing old Shareware and the like, you're probably out of luck but most major games of the 90s are available for the Mac. ![]() The other thing you can do is find the Mac version of games. As much as I like Dosbox, VPC is a much more polished program. ![]() Otherwise, though, I'd very much steer you toward using MS VPC and running Dos/Win 3.1 in it. ![]() I've never played with Dosbox on PPC, but it's a fairly lightweight program and I expect you might be alright(has it been built for PPC?). ![]()
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