11.20
The following tutorial explains how to download a DOS game, save it to your hard drive, run it using DOSBox (free software that plays old DOS games) software.
Follow every step exactly and only proceed to the next step after you have read, understood and fully performed the task, otherwise you may miss an important step and your game will not start. I recommend reading the entire set of instructions first before proceeding with the individual steps.
Step 1: Download a DOS game
Save the downloaded game (usually a .zip file) to a folder on your hard drive (example: c:\games\gamefile.zip). Now proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Extracting a .zip file
Info: Most of the games are distributed in .zip archives. The files within theses archives need to be extracted to a new folder on your hard drive. Try double-clicking the .zip file you downloaded. If it doesn’t open you need to install WinZip software.
Winzip Software which is free to try. Go to www.winzip.com, download the trial version and install it on your PC. When the setup is done, you will be able to open .zip archives by double-clicking them in your windows file manager.
When you open a .zip archive with Winzip, you will see the Winzip window that shows all files within the .zip file in a list. Please don’t click anywhere in this list, since you want to extract not just a single file from the archive, but all of them. This is done by clicking on the “Extract” button at the top. A new window opens that asks you where you want to save the files from within the .zip archive. Please select an existing folder on your hard drive or create a new one at a place of your choice. After selecting the destination folder, select “use folder names” (this will restore the original sub-folders of the files) and click on “Extract”. Winzip will now copy all files from within the .zip archive into the specified destination folder. That’s it, basically there are just 3 clicks needed to extract a .zip archive.
What to do: Extract the files within the archive to a folder of your choice (we call it game-folder from now on in this tutorial). This folder should be different from the folder where you saved the .zip file in step 2 (example: c:\games\pacman\).
IMPORTANT: Do not use more than 8 letters for the game-folder. Also don’t use spaces or special signs. Only letters and numbers are recommended.
Step 3: Download and install a DOS Emulator (DOSBox)
Info: Few older DOS games can be played on modern PCs without using “emulator” software. Some games might start without an emulator under Windows, but you might experience problems like hearing no sound, no mouse is available or the game is simply too fast to play. If you have already tried to start the game directly under Windows and it did not work as desired, you should try to use the DOSBox emulator which you can download and use for free. An emulator makes sure that the sound and graphics work and that the speed of the games is normal. I recommend DOSBox since it’s the best free software out there. The following instructions are based on DOSBox.
What to do: Go to the DOS Emulator Page, download DOSBox-Installer.exe and save the file to your hard drive into a folder of your choice (example: c:\dosbox\). Now start the file and install the software. If you want to uninstall DOSBox later on, you can use it’s uninstall function to remove it from your PC.
Step 4: Starting DOSBox
Start DOSBox. You will find it in your Windows Start Menu in a new folder after you installed it successfully. Two new windows will open now. The one with the blue start screen is the window where you enter all following commands. The other window will stay in the background, don’t close it.
Step 5: Find the needed keys on your keyboard
IMPORTANT: If you are using a standard US-keyboard, you can skip this step and proceed to step 6.
If you are using a non-us-keyboard, you will realize that some of your keys are a bit mixed up. When you press one of these keys, a different letter or sign will appear on the screen. This can be the case for “ z ” , “ \ “ , “ / “ , “ : ” and others. You can find the correct keys by trying (press a key and see what letter/sign appears on the screen, then delete the signs again) but also with the following two tips:
1) Press CTRL + F1 to open the DOSBox Keymapper which shows where the correct keys are located. Take a look at the graphic and try to find the correct keys by pressing keys and checking what letter/sign will appear.
2) For ” \ “, try the keys around the Enter key. For ” : “, try the Shift key in combination with the keys around the Enter key.
Keep this in mind for the next step.
Step 6: Creating a virtual drive c:
Info: Your game-folder now needs to be “mounted” as a virtual drive c:. Virtual means that the files are not really there, but DOSBox will pretend that they are located under c:\. When you go to c:\ and view a list of the files, the files and folders of your game-folder will show up. This is needed to run your game.
IMPORTANT: Always press the Enter-Key after typing one of the following commands to execute it.
What to do:
Example: If your game-folder is c:\games\pacman\, type in the following command mount c: c:\games\pacman\
(then press the Enter-Key to execute the command)
If you did everything correctly, you will get the following message (for example 1): Drive c: is mounted as local Directory c:\games\pacman\
Step 7: Go to drive c: and find the start or setup-file of the game
Type the following command to switch to drive c:
c: (then press the Enter-Key to execute the command)
After successfully switching to drive c: you will see c:\>
With the next command you will be shown a list of all files and folders in the game directory. Each game has its own individual requirements. Some games have their own installation or setup file that you need to run first. Others can be started right away via a start file. To find a setup file, you should look for executable files like “install.exe” “setup.com” or “config.bat”. Each game has different file names, so you need to be sure to find the right one.
Type:
dir /p (then press the Enter-Key to execute the command)
You will see the directory list now. If you find a setup file, run it, configure the sound and graphics, save the settings and then run the game start file, which is usually something like “pacman.exe” “run.exe” or “start.bat”.
Starting a file, no matter if it’s the setup file or the start file is always done by typing the filename and pressing enter. An example:
pacman.exe (then press the Enter-Key to start the file)
The game should start now.
If it’s necessary to go into a subdirectory like c:\subdir, type:
cd subdir (then press the Enter-Key to execute the command)
To go back one directory (back to c:\), type:
cd.. (press the Enter-Key to execute the command)
On the last page of this tutorial you will find some useful keys and information for DOSBox that you should try out to get better game play and fix possible problems (For example, if the game is too fast, cd-rom-, sound- or mouse-problems, etc.).
Step 8: Special keys and DOSBox manuals
Usefull keys in DOSBox:
ALT-ENTER Switches to fullscreen (and back)
CTRL-F1 Opens the keymapper
CTRL-F9 Exit DOSBox
CTRL-F10 Capture/Release the mouse (if you need to use the mouse within DOSBox).
CTRL-F11 Slows down the speed of the game
CTRL-F12 Increases the speed of the game
