11 Facts About DOSBox

DOSBox is a free and open-source emulator which runs software for MS-DOS compatible disk operating systems—primarily video games.

Development of DOSBox began around the launch of Windows 2000—a Windows NT system—when its creators, Dutch programmers Peter Veenstra and Sjoerd van der Berg, discovered that the operating system had dropped much of its support for DOS software.

DOSBox is a command-line program, configured either by a set of command-line arguments or by editing a plain text configuration file.

DOSBox is a full-system emulator that provides BIOS interrupts and contains its own internal DOS-like shell.

DOSBox is capable of running DOS programs that require the CPU to be in real mode or protected mode.

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The emulated CPU speed of DOSBox is manually adjustable by the user to accommodate the speed of the systems for which DOS programs were originally written.

DOSBox uses the Simple DirectMedia Layer external library to handle graphics, audio, and input devices.

DOSBox has become the de facto standard for running DOS games.

DOSBox was named SourceForge's Project of the Month in May 2009 and again in January 2013, making it the first project in the website's history to receive two Project of the Month awards.

DOSBox has been both the most used DOS emulator and, because of the straightforward process of making the games work on modern computers, the most popular emulation software for developers re-releasing legacy versions of their games.

Bethesda Softworks has recommended DOSBox and provided a link to the DOSBox website on the downloads page for The Elder Scrolls: Arena and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.