{"slug": "dosbox", "name": "DOSBox", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 7, "commenters": 25, "warners": 1, "score": 9.043, "rising": -0.96, "first": "2025-11-14", "latest": "2026-10-21", "why": "I got it up and running in dos box - it still runs smooth as butter", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 17, "compare": 3, "warn": 1}, "spark": [2, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I got it up and running in dos box - it still runs smooth as butter", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "dosbox.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.dosbox.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["DOSBox"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 792084864, "item_id": 49505304, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505304", "by": "paulryanrogers", "date": "2026-08-31", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a big fan of DOSBox.", "excerpt": "Haiku OS has gone up to 6y between releases. While not entirely inactive in that time, lurkers who aren't as motivated to dig for signs of life could reasonably conclude the project is inactive. For example, I'm a big fan of DOSBox. And while the core project still has some code check-in's from time to time, its last release was 7ya. Now I use and follow forks because they're consistently releasing useful features an", "context": "", "use_case": "DOS emulation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Haiku R1/beta6 has been released"}, {"id": 777745536, "item_id": 48609096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48609096", "by": "andai", "date": "2026-06-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I don't think you can get much better than the synth in DOSBOX", "excerpt": "Many moons ago, I emailed Mr. Prince, and he replied! > What is the sound card the DOOM sound track was composed on? It sounds different on each one. So we wanna know, how was it \"meant\" to sound like :D It was a Sound Blaster 1.0, which first came out in 1989. Creative Labs released almost a version of that card each year, but so many people had bought the 1.0 that the bulk of gamers had that model for several years", "context": "Doom composer Bobby Prince (quoted email)", "use_case": "OPL2 FM synth emulation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died"}, {"id": 772208144, "item_id": 48263009, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48263009", "by": "wpnx", "date": "2026-05-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I got it up and running in dos box - it still runs smooth as butter", "excerpt": "I got it up and running in dos box - it still runs smooth as butter: https://github.com/phyous/DOS-1.0", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft open-sources \"the earliest DOS source code discovered to date\""}, {"id": 767638000, "item_id": 47977375, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47977375", "by": "dude187", "date": "2026-05-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used dosbox to install Windows 3.1", "excerpt": "This post is very timely, as I got the itch to setup and play simtower literally last week. I used dosbox to install Windows 3.1, then installed simtower in that. It's not the native window manager integration you'd get in wine, but worked very well. Some ui glitches but nothing that affected usability. Worth noting I'm running Linux", "context": "", "use_case": "Running old DOS/Windows software", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 752290961, "item_id": 47018185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018185", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2026-02-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "DOSBox in particular allows adding widgets to control things", "excerpt": "I use TUIs almost daily on my android phone, either some Linux application in Termux or a DOS application in DOSBox. Both have some extra on screen controls to add special keys, and DOSBox in particular allows adding widgets to control things (including invisible buttons, that are fun to add in some cases over parts of the screen in DOS to give an old game or application touch controls).", "context": "", "use_case": "running DOS applications", "switched_from": "", "story": "Building a TUI is easy now"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 773737616, "item_id": 48358601, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48358601", "by": "badsectoracula", "date": "2026-06-01", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "vanilla DOSBox isn't able to run the game", "excerpt": "Last time i checked (and DOSBox hasn't made an official release since then) the vanilla DOSBox isn't able to run the game i made for an MS-DOS game jam a few years ago[0] because it doesn't implement RDTSC properly (that the game uses for timing). All currently developed DOSBox forks work properly. Also the forks add some additional niceties, e.g. DOSBox Staging has some very nice CRT filters that basically make game", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows GOG DOS Games on M-Series Macs"}]}], "who": [{"by": "s-macke", "context": "reverse engineering old games", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49564927", "date": "2026-09-04"}, {"by": "andai", "context": "Doom composer Bobby Prince (quoted email)", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48609096", "date": "2026-06-20"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["dos emulation", "running dos software", "dos emulation testing", "code/data block analysis", "playing dos games", "opl2 fm synth emulation"], "compared": [{"slug": "wine", "name": "Wine", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "dosbox-x", "name": "DOSBox-X", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "boxer", "name": "Boxer", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "dosbox-staging", "name": "DOSBox Staging", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48356603", "title": "Windows GOG DOS Games on M-Series Macs", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47015138", "title": "Reverse Engineering Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon for DOS from 1990", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005509", "title": "Building a TUI is easy now", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50159726", "title": "Why Windows 11 still ships with Windows 95's memory manager hidden inside it", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969699", "title": "QBasic in the Browser", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848955", "title": "Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"compare": 1, "warn": 1, "neutral": 4, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 803021443, "item_id": 50188840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188840", "by": "vee-kay", "date": "2026-10-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it contains DosBox", "excerpt": "AFAIK, you can run Civ1 (and other 16-bit games & applications) on Windows 10/11 in 3 ways: 1. Run CivWin on WineVDM: WineVDM, also known as OTVDM (Old 16-bit Windows Virtual Machine), is a compatibility layer that allows users to run many legacy 16-bit Windows applications on modern 64-bit Windows systems. CivWin is the Windows re-release of Civ1, that's recommended due to its high resolution support (e.g., you can ", "context": "", "use_case": "DOS emulation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Windows 11 still ships with Windows 95's memory manager hidden inside it"}, {"id": 799515200, "item_id": 49969700, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969700", "by": "vahidce", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I checked it against thousands of real programs running in DOSBox", "excerpt": "QBasic was where a lot of us wrote our first code. I wanted that blue screen back, so I rebuilt QBasic 1.1 from scratch to run in the browser. Open a .BAS file from 1994 and it just runs: the graphics, the PLAY music, even the speed. I checked it against thousands of real programs running in DOSBox. No install or sign-up needed. My hobby these days is asking Claude to generate complex QBasic programs and then running", "context": "", "use_case": "DOS emulation testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "QBasic in the Browser"}, {"id": 797632897, "item_id": 49852056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49852056", "by": "_trampeltier", "date": "2026-09-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the Step5 software came in a special DosBox version with it.", "excerpt": "Siemens Field PG. It is a rugged Notebook for PLC programmers. At least in the last version until last year, the \"Field PG M6\" was possible to buy the Notebook with a special serial port for old S5 PLCs ant the Step5 software came in a special DosBox version with it. The Field PG has also another special port called \"MPI/Profibus\" for S7 PLCs, 2 Ethernet ports and a DVD drive. https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/", "context": "", "use_case": "running DOS software", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?"}, {"id": 793038833, "item_id": 49564927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49564927", "by": "s-macke", "date": "2026-09-04", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "or a modified DOSBox to determine all code/data blocks", "excerpt": "I use a step-by-step approach: 1. For each topic, write a result Markdown file in `spec/`. 2. Identify the file formats. 3. Reverse Engineer and extract all assets, followed by manual review. This works in 90% of the cases. 4. Determine the compression/packing used for the executable. Most binaries used one of roughly five common executable packers. 5. Unpack the executable manually. 6. Use an ancient free IDA-Pro fo", "context": "reverse engineering old games", "use_case": "code/data block analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Porting my 1993 Amiga game to Godot, with an LLM reading the 68000 assembly"}, {"id": 792084864, "item_id": 49505304, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505304", "by": "paulryanrogers", "date": "2026-08-31", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a big fan of DOSBox.", "excerpt": "Haiku OS has gone up to 6y between releases. While not entirely inactive in that time, lurkers who aren't as motivated to dig for signs of life could reasonably conclude the project is inactive. For example, I'm a big fan of DOSBox. And while the core project still has some code check-in's from time to time, its last release was 7ya. Now I use and follow forks because they're consistently releasing useful features an", "context": "", "use_case": "DOS emulation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Haiku R1/beta6 has been released"}, {"id": 791738209, "item_id": 49483638, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49483638", "by": "d3Xt3r", "date": "2026-08-28", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "what's the advantage of this vs just playing in DOSBox?", "excerpt": "This is cool, but what's the advantage of this vs just playing in DOSBox? Usually ports like this add a bunch of QoL features (like save states, bug fixes etc). Take the port of Prince of Persia for example, has a bunch of nice QoL features whilst not straying from the original: https://github.com/NagyD/SDLPoP", "context": "", "use_case": "playing DOS games", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: SkyRoads (1993) \u2013 the DOS classic, ported natively to macOS and Linux"}, {"id": 788758530, "item_id": 49297408, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49297408", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2026-08-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "with DOSBox as a virtual machine both for building and running", "excerpt": "There is this fork that is easy to build: https://codeberg.org/tkchia/GW-BASIC There are some binary releases there from 2022, but I did not try those. The binary I built from source has worked very well. Never tried to build the DOS source, but I really enjoyed playing with the toolchain they included with the MS-DOS 4 source code release. It's pretty much a complete, MIT-licensed (but binary only) Microsoft toolcha", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Donkey.bas is 45 Years Old \u2013 131 line of Glory"}, {"id": 777745536, "item_id": 48609096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48609096", "by": "andai", "date": "2026-06-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I don't think you can get much better than the synth in DOSBOX", "excerpt": "Many moons ago, I emailed Mr. Prince, and he replied! > What is the sound card the DOOM sound track was composed on? It sounds different on each one. So we wanna know, how was it \"meant\" to sound like :D It was a Sound Blaster 1.0, which first came out in 1989. Creative Labs released almost a version of that card each year, but so many people had bought the 1.0 that the bulk of gamers had that model for several years", "context": "Doom composer Bobby Prince (quoted email)", "use_case": "OPL2 FM synth emulation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died"}, {"id": 774512017, "item_id": 48407001, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48407001", "by": "protocolture", "date": "2026-06-04", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Considering putting a small launcher together with some images of different games in doxbox for him to play.", "excerpt": "Interesting timing. I am looking to set up a raspi with Debian and running Gizmos and Gadgets, and some other old educational games. Probably going to use my Callisto 2 case in the short term. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4846997 Considering putting a small launcher together with some images of different games in doxbox for him to play. Maybe some old mac ones too.", "context": "", "use_case": "Running retro games", "switched_from": "", "story": "Retro-Tech Parenting"}, {"id": 774084784, "item_id": 48380299, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48380299", "by": "vkaku", "date": "2026-06-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I seriously wonder how many APICs are exposed in the DOSBOX code even", "excerpt": "Pastebin links here in case someone's getting Vogons issues. https://pastebin.com/9sgW9dVu https://pastebin.com/3rG2eiWD I seriously wonder how many APICs are exposed in the DOSBOX code even... Would be a fun exercise to do this and wake up real mode on all cores. I know it's easy to get to long mode after that: https://github.com/guilt/KOS/blob/master/os/src/x86/realprot.S", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Multicore suppport for DOS is real \u2013 partly"}, {"id": 774004066, "item_id": 48375254, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48375254", "by": "sedatk", "date": "2026-06-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "You can try it out in DOSBox here", "excerpt": "Forgot to add, I also developed a BlueWave-compatible offline-reader called Wolverine that worked for all Fido-style networks: https://github.com/ssg/wolverine It was quite popular in Turkey in the 90's. You can try it out in DOSBox here with some random HitNet packages: https://github.com/ssg/wolverine/releases/tag/2.32", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History"}, {"id": 773749425, "item_id": 48359339, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359339", "by": "grobibi", "date": "2026-06-01", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "its back https://github.com/Solid7s/Boxer-Plus", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows GOG DOS Games on M-Series Macs"}, {"id": 773737616, "item_id": 48358601, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48358601", "by": "badsectoracula", "date": "2026-06-01", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "vanilla DOSBox isn't able to run the game", "excerpt": "Last time i checked (and DOSBox hasn't made an official release since then) the vanilla DOSBox isn't able to run the game i made for an MS-DOS game jam a few years ago[0] because it doesn't implement RDTSC properly (that the game uses for timing). All currently developed DOSBox forks work properly. Also the forks add some additional niceties, e.g. DOSBox Staging has some very nice CRT filters that basically make game", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows GOG DOS Games on M-Series Macs"}, {"id": 773713616, "item_id": 48357101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357101", "by": "haunter", "date": "2026-06-01", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "the vanilla original one is probably the least interesting one", "excerpt": ">install DOSBox for Mac Mind you there are countless DOSBox forks out there and the vanilla original one is probably the least interesting one. Nowadays the three most popular one would be DOSBox-X, DOSBox Pure, and DOSBox Staging https://dosbox-x.com/ https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x https://schelling.itch.io/dosbox-pure https://github.com/schellingb/dosbox-pure-unleashed/ https://www.dosbox-staging.org/ h", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows GOG DOS Games on M-Series Macs"}, {"id": 772208144, "item_id": 48263009, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48263009", "by": "wpnx", "date": "2026-05-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I got it up and running in dos box - it still runs smooth as butter", "excerpt": "I got it up and running in dos box - it still runs smooth as butter: https://github.com/phyous/DOS-1.0", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft open-sources \"the earliest DOS source code discovered to date\""}, {"id": 770100898, "item_id": 48131306, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48131306", "by": "ticulatedspline", "date": "2026-05-13", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "easy enough to run via dos-box", "excerpt": "Mother of all games. Played so much SE when I was younger, one of my all time favs. This version is ok but I prefer the original which is easy enough to run via dos-box, emulators of similar ilk or even online in a few places: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Scorched_Earth_1991 https://dos.zone/scorched-earth/ https://www.playdosgames.com/play/scorched-earth I loved turning the explosion to the max and launching Nu", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Scorched Earth 2000 is back"}, {"id": 767638000, "item_id": 47977375, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47977375", "by": "dude187", "date": "2026-05-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used dosbox to install Windows 3.1", "excerpt": "This post is very timely, as I got the itch to setup and play simtower literally last week. I used dosbox to install Windows 3.1, then installed simtower in that. It's not the native window manager integration you'd get in wine, but worked very well. Some ui glitches but nothing that affected usability. Worth noting I'm running Linux", "context": "", "use_case": "Running old DOS/Windows software", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 763034963, "item_id": 47689685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47689685", "by": "TacticalCoder", "date": "2026-04-08", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "compiling and running (in DOSBox)", "excerpt": "> I really enjoyed the demoscene back in the 90s. Was never a part of it but I was always fascinated by the effects and music and ascii art that these guys created. It was quite something... I take it there are quite a few hotshots on HN who used to be in the top groups. I was in a group and we were writing small intros for BBSes with a couple of friends and then we'd get infinite leech/upload ratio on those BBSes. B", "context": "", "use_case": "running DOS tools", "switched_from": "", "story": "Razor1911. A demo 40 years in the making"}, {"id": 757611088, "item_id": 47350693, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47350693", "by": "5-", "date": "2026-03-12", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "seems to work for me in dosbox", "excerpt": "previously (1982): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangjie_input_method#Early_development i think this is a dos port of it? http://www.cbflabs.com/down/show.php?id=62 seems to work for me in dosbox", "context": "", "use_case": "Running DOS programs", "switched_from": "", "story": "High fidelity font synthesis for CJK languages"}, {"id": 757126096, "item_id": 47320381, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47320381", "by": "sedatk", "date": "2026-03-10", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "DOSBox's TrueType fonts threw me off.  It looks great of course", "excerpt": "That's a beautifully written post. Almost like a book. I love it. Also, it made me notice that how much I missed the artistry of computer magazine ads. There was something magical with the experience of reading a computer magazine that I don't experience on any media anymore. Beautiful ads was part of that experience. How the tables have turned now. That said, DOSBox's TrueType fonts threw me off. It looks great of c", "context": "", "use_case": "running DOS software", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS"}, {"id": 753123825, "item_id": 47070239, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47070239", "by": "Rayosay", "date": "2026-02-18", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "I found it much easier to work with than DosBox's debugger", "excerpt": "Spice86 has a pretty good built-in debugger. I found it much easier to work with than DosBox's debugger. Spice86's DOS emulation isn't as good as DosBox's yet, but it's getting better all the time. https://github.com/OpenRakis/Spice86 I second LowLevelMahn's recommendation for IDA 5 Free. It's a good disassembler for DOS applications and helps me navigate what I'm looking at in the Spice86 debugger. It also runs very", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Reverse Engineering Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon for DOS from 1990"}, {"id": 752942497, "item_id": 47058906, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47058906", "by": "suprjami", "date": "2026-02-18", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "OpenXcom adds a whole heap of wonderful conveniences to UFO/X-Com. It's probably my favourite open source game engine clone thing. https://openxcom.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Reverse Engineering Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon for DOS from 1990"}, {"id": 752290961, "item_id": 47018185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018185", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2026-02-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "DOSBox in particular allows adding widgets to control things", "excerpt": "I use TUIs almost daily on my android phone, either some Linux application in Termux or a DOS application in DOSBox. Both have some extra on screen controls to add special keys, and DOSBox in particular allows adding widgets to control things (including invisible buttons, that are fun to add in some cases over parts of the screen in DOS to give an old game or application touch controls).", "context": "", "use_case": "running DOS applications", "switched_from": "", "story": "Building a TUI is easy now"}, {"id": 752288849, "item_id": 47018053, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018053", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2026-02-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "(well, DOSBox)", "excerpt": "I built a TUI application for MS-DOS (well, DOSBox) recently, just using the few functions in MSC 5.1's included graphics library (plus a few simple BIOS calls) and what a joy compared to web interfaces or any GUI library I have used. Having a fixed screen size and known, limited, character set is at least developer-friendly. Of course there existed more advanced libraries as well, but for a simple TUI just a few fun", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Building a TUI is easy now"}, {"id": 751097536, "item_id": 46943596, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46943596", "by": "spocchio", "date": "2026-02-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with DOSBox for browsers", "excerpt": "You could already play it \"easy and without installation\" with DOSBox for browsers: https://dos.zone/grand-theft-auto-1997/", "context": "", "use_case": "browser-based DOS emulation", "switched_from": "", "story": "A GTA modder has got the 1997 original working on modern PCs and Steam Deck"}, {"id": 744193584, "item_id": 46512099, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46512099", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2026-01-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "DOSBox is a great virtual machine", "excerpt": "DOSBox is a great virtual machine. Some versions will give you SVGA (VESA) modes matching modern screen sizes. You have audio and even network access if you must. Super stable APIs that will never change. And it self-hosts compilers and editors (up to latest versions of Emacs and at least versions of vim from earlier this century) so anywhere your code can run you can also modify and recompile it. (In practice I edit", "context": "", "use_case": "DOS development environment", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 737649008, "item_id": 46103063, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46103063", "by": "mananaysiempre", "date": "2025-11-30", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "As I\u2019ve already said in my initial comment, this is not the whole story. (I acknowledge it is the official story, but I want to say the official story, at best, creatively omits some of the facts.) NTVDM as it existed Windows NT (3.1 through 10) for i386 leveraged V86 mode. NTVDM on Windows NT (e.g. 4.0) for MIPS, PowerPC, and Alpha, on the other hand, already had[1] a 16-bit x86 emulator, which was merely ifdefed ou", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows drive letters are not limited to A-Z"}, {"id": 735422608, "item_id": 45963913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45963913", "by": "einpoklum", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It seems Bard's Tale 3 can be played on the DosBox emulator:", "excerpt": "It seems Bard's Tale 3 can be played on the DosBox emulator: https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=188&letter=B ... which is available for many platforms, including Windows and Linux: https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 although the latest version of DosBox seems to be from 2019, so maybe others can suggest a more actively-maintained emulator.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Rebecca Heineman has died"}, {"id": 735406882, "item_id": 45962930, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45962930", "by": "int_19h", "date": "2025-11-18", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Age of Wonders 1 used to work. That patch that you need to get it running on Win10+ was originally made for Wine: https://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=1&tn=4694 Is that not sufficient these days? I might take another look; this is one of those games that I intend to keep running one way or another until I die.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders"}, {"id": 734864562, "item_id": 45929035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45929035", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2025-11-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "possibly DOSBox or QEMU+FreeDOS for the user interface to be less distracting", "excerpt": "Yes. The main reason I do not want to take notes on paper is the lack of instant backup and sync. These devices seem to have the same drawback. Maybe you could have networking enabled, but only in the background and without any software at all that could distract, just a background service syncing files? I used to have a laptop running FreeDOS for distraction free hobby programming. Used a USB floppy drive and moved ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Writerdeck.org"}]}