

Boxer: The DOS game emulator that’s fit for your Mac. - Auguste
http://boxerapp.com/

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aaronbrethorst
_Let’s maintain the convenient fiction that you won’t just google
“abandonware” and avail yourself of the many websites for pirated DOS games
instead._

Seeing Dark Forces really brings me back.

edit: after reading through the thread, I realize I'm the 3rd or 4th person to
say that Dark Forces "brings me back." Sorry to add so little, but it's also
fascinating that so many of us have such fond memories of that one game.

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pohl
Ah, they have Dark Forces on the downloads page. I just played through the
first level, and memories came flooding back.

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bjelkeman-again
Very nice. Good that I still have the original X-Com box lying around.

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xtacy
I like Boxer/Dosbox, but why does it burn my CPU though it doesn't/shouldn't
require much processing power?

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maggit
It simulates a computer entirely in software, which is expensive. This is
different from for example Virtualbox which virtualizes a computer, and still
executes most of the instructions directly on the processor.

~~~
pmjordan
Modern preemptive multitasking operating systems send the CPU to sleep when
there's no work to be done. In DOS, the currently running app or game usually
just used every available cycle (aside from interrupts handled by the BIOS or
DOS) for its own purposes. I don't know if Dosbox has some kind of limiter in
place, but if not, the game/app will eat every single cycle it can unless it's
specifically designed to wait for the vsync interrupt.

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xtacy
You're right, but DOS emulators are usually configured to run at a slower
speed than the host CPU. If not, the games usually run very very fast :-)

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nanoanderson
At least one of those screenshots is going to pull some heart strings for
people who played games way back when.

I became a PC gamer at the tail end of DOS gaming, when Command & Conquer was
only available on DOS and Dark Forces was released to mild acclaim. That shot
of Dark Forces brings me back…

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DLWormwood
Dark Forces strikes me as an odd choice, since at that time period, LucasArts
had in-house Mac porting developers. Dark Forces, Loom, and even Sam & Mac got
classic Mac OS ports that supported better graphics resolutions than the DOS
games of that time period. Pity it was mostly based on the work of one key
developer who moved on after a couple of years…

EDIT: Citation Needed… <http://www.aarongiles.com/history/index.html>

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bradly
The site is dragging quite a bit right now, but you can download from their
Bitbucket page <https://bitbucket.org/alunbestor/boxer/downloads>

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zavulon
I couldn't find this info on the site, so how is this different from DosBox?

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mhiceoin
i am guessing that it is a DosBox wrapper, to make management and running of
games, both easier and prettier. :) No more mounting and all that crap.

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Torn
Seems like it's indeed a frontend for DosBox:
[http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/DOSBoxFrontends#Mac_OS_X_Frontend...](http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/DOSBoxFrontends#Mac_OS_X_Frontends)

Boxer should at least acknowledge DoxBox on their homepage IMO, feels to me a
bit like taking DosBox's glory for themselves?

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abestor
(I'm the developer of Boxer.)

You're right - Boxer's homepage did actually acknowledge DOSBox until a couple
of days ago, when I rewrote most of the copy and in the process took it out. I
now realise this was caddish of me, and have added the acknowledgement back
in.

It wasn't my intention to take credit for DOSBox's work; it’s an excellent
emulator and responsible for 90% of what Boxer does. However, it's also
extremely painful to use on the Mac - and I wanted to avoid the suggestion
that Boxer's user experience was like that of DOSBox’s.

As airolson noted, DOSBox is also prominently credited within Boxer itself.

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zackola
Epic Pinball! Woo! Donated 10. Should probably give some to DosBox too :)

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yeahsure
Oh no! Now I'll _have_ to play Maniac Mansion again! :-)

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nathos
you may be better served by ScummVM for that: <http://scummvm.org/>

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swah
Brings back memories. I suppose at the time my dream was to understand how
those games worked. And I think I still couldn't write one today...

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swah
Great product - it even helps you go through the installers. I had to change
from A: to D: for installing Stunts though! (I had a copy...)

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abestor
Let me know (via the Send Feedback link in Boxer's app menu) where you got
your copy of Stunts from - I'll check it out and see if the import process
needs tweaking there.

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invertedlambda
An underrated game I've never been able to find again was Hyperspeed by
Microprose. Super awesome. Anyone know where to find a copy?

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swah
Lemme just grab a copy of Bananacom so I can download some games from the
local BBS.

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swah
The incredible machine anyone?

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lanstein
Thexder still hates me.

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jbellis
That game is _hard_.

Thexder HD was released on PSN recently, btw.

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adamtmca
Just installed the original C&C. Thanks!

