DOS Emulation: Which Method Reigns Supreme?

Strictly-speaking modern x86 computers running Windows should be compatible with any software written for the very first MS-DOS PCs starting with the original IBM PC and its clones. In practice, it's unlikely you'll get these classic games running, or at least running correctly.

Which is why those of us who love classic DOS games have to make use of DOS emulators—software that aims to give these games the correct environment so they'll run as intended. As with all emulation, emulating DOS is never perfect, but how can you get as close as possible?

DOSBox: The Default Choice

If you buy a DOS game from GOG.com , it's almost certainly running through the incredibly popular DOSBox emulator, which is a huge reason that we can still play MS-DOS games so well on modern computers. The cool thing about DOSBox is that you can have specific settings for each game, and bundle a copy of the emulator with every individual game.

You don't have to use it like that, however. You can also just run DOSBox, mount a folder and run a game the same way you would on an old DOS computer. DOSBox also makes it easy to adjust the clock cycles of the emulation, so that certain games that rely on clock cycles for game speed won't break.

DOSBox is awesome, but it was made to work well enough while being convenient and easy to use. Its mission isn't absolute accuracy. So games may not look, run, or sound quite like they did on the original hardware, but for most people it's more than close enough, and that's how I enjoy games like Jazz Jackrabbit on my modern computers.

DOSBox Staging: The Modern Successor

While development of DOSBox has never officially ended, and one of the original authors, Peter "Qbix" Veenstra, has stated on the Vogons forum in 2024 that they are still working on DOSBox, it's been a while since the last release. As of this writing, it's been more than half a decade since the last stable release.

Since DOSBox is open-source, there's nothing stopping other developers from creating DOSBox forks and doing their own thing. DOSBox Staging is one of these forks, and has the specific goal of being a "modern continuation" of the DOSBox project.

Things have moved on quite a bit since 2019, and DOSBox Staging has numerous features that fill in the gaps DOSBox had not yet addressed, Authenticity is the name of the game, and here you'll find emulation of old graphics chips like the Voodoo 1, S3 video cards, and accurate emulation of various sound cards, which wildly change how the music and sound effects in games sound. Perhaps one of the most impressive features is the CRT emulation feature, taking advantage of modern methods to emulate what CRTs looked like, if not their true performance.

DOSBox Staging is designed in such a way that you can simply port your existing DOSBox configurations over for your existing DOSBox games, so "upgrading" should be painless and straightforward, giving you an easy way to make your DOS games look and run more like they did on original hardware.

DOSBox-X: The Purist's Playground

DOSBox is almost universal, DOSBox Staging brings more authenticity, if not precise accuracy, and DOSBox-X is aimed at accurate emulation of hardware quirks and minutia. DOSBox-X is more flexible, can be configured with much more granularity, and you can even run DOS-based Windows operating systems like Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 on top of it! Here's Windows 98 running using DOSBox-X!

The project's stated mission is to emulate DOS so accurately that new DOS software can be developed using DOSBox-X with the confidence that it will work correctly on real DOS running on original hardware.

PCem and 86Box: Full-System Emulation

DOSBox and its variants emulate a DOS environment, but they're not true virtual machines like PCem and its fork 86Box . Of the two, 86Box focused more on accuracy, but both solutions emulate an entire IBM-compatible computer, down to specific hardware like a 486 or Pentium CPU.

This means you install a real version of MS-DOS or something like FreeDOS —an open-source DOS alternative that will run on real original hardware, or on something like PCem. When it comes to accuracy, this is a step above DOSBox and its forks, but, of course, you're giving up some of the conveniences of DOSBox emulation by virtualizing a whole computer.

Real Hardware Alternatives: Vortex86 and Other Embedded CPUs

The most accurate way to "emulate" DOS is by not emulating it at all. That seems obvious, but there are options besides buying old retro PCs on Facebook Marketplace. Those old computers are on life support, and even if you did buy all the parts, chances are something's going to die soon. Building a period-correct PC is of course a rewarding hobby in and of itself, but what if you could buy a new computer that was compatible with DOS and all those wonderful games?

That's where something like the Vortex86EX and ITX-Llama come into the picture. These processors were originally created for industrial embedded systems running old DOS software, or other operating systems that require classic x86 PC compatibility, but the growing retro gaming movement has given this hardware new purpose. The Vortex86EX can mimic something like a 486 or Pentium II PC running at up to 500Mhz. You can use period-appropriate sound cards and AGP graphics cards, and build a new PC that will run MS-DOS with perfect accuracy, but with more performance than you're likely to need.

There are also implementations of embedded versions of CPUs like the 386 and 486 with devices like the Pocket 386 , but while fun, these types of product are much lower end than the Vortex86EX solution.

Sadly, none of these are exactly cheap, so maybe buying or scrounging old PC parts from a garage sale is the way to go in the short-term after all.

So What's the Best Choice?

I've listed these options in order of increasing accuracy and authenticity, but to be honest even plain old DOSBox is a great solution. While I've toyed with the idea of building a retro PC from parts most people would throw away, I haven't taken that step yet and while the prospect of an ITX-Llama with a Vortex86EX is appealing, the price gives me pause—I am open to a review sample though, in case you're reading this Retro Dreams !

Personally, my own solution has been to combine DOSBox and DOSBox Staging with a real CRT monitor, running on my handheld PC.

I'm not a total stickler for perfect accuracy, but I think the most important part is correct presentation of the visuals, and the one thing no emulation can do right yet is CRT, though they really are working on it .

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My advice is to try your games with the cheapest and easiest method first, and then decide if you're satisfied with the results. If not, move up to the next tier and try again, there's no need to shell out hundreds of dollars in the search for DOS perfection right out of the gate!