Compared to DOSBox, DOSBox-X is much more flexible and provides more features. Look at the DOSBox-X Wiki for more information about DOSBox-X and usage guides. We also hope that DOSBox-X (along with DOSLIB) can aid in new DOS development.

DOSBox-X emulates a PC necessary for running many DOS games and applications that simply cannot be run on modern PCs and operating systems, similar to DOSBox. However, while the main focus of DOSBox is for running DOS games, DOSBox-X goes much further than this. Forked from the DOSBox project, it retains compatibility with the wide base of DOS games and DOS gaming DOSBox was designed for.

DOSBox-X is also a platform for running DOS applications, including emulating the environments to run Windows 3.x, 9x and Me and software written for those versions of Windows. By adding official support for Windows 95, 98, Me emulation and acceleration, we hope that those old Windows games and applications could be enjoyed or used once more. Moreover, DOSBox-X adds support for DOS/V and NEC PC-98 emulations so that you can play DOS/V and PC-98 games with it.

Compared with DOSBox, DOSBox-X focuses more on general emulation and accuracy. In order to help running DOS games and applications, Windows 3.x/9x/Me, as well as for the purpose of historical preservation, testing and continued DOS developments, it is our desire to implement accurate emulation, accurate enough to help make new DOS developments possible with confidence the program will run properly on actual DOS systems. DOSBox-X includes various features for different purposes (some of them ported from other projects), which are implemented as incremental changes since it was forked from DOSBox SVN Daum.

DOSBox-X provides many ways to tweak and configure the DOS virtual machine, as we believe a better way to emulate the DOS platform is to give users all the options they need to emulate everything from the original IBM PC system all the way up to late 1990's configuration, whatever it takes to get your game or software package to run. Our goal is to eventually make DOSBox-X a complete emulation package that covers all pre-2000 DOS and Windows 9x based system scenarios, including peripherals, motherboards, CPUs, and all manner of hardware that was made for PC hardware of that time. Below are screenshots of some DOS programs and games running in DOSBox-X.

What's New:

  • DOSBox-X will now check both the current directory and the .config directory in your home directory for DOSBox-X logo PNG files. It is now possible to configure one set of PNG files as a default for all uses of DOSBox-X from your user account. (joncampbell123).
  • src/gui/render.cpp: Added missing ifdef conditional on C_METAL to enable building on macOS platforms without Metal support. (herrnst)
  • Fixed Metal support detection: add framework linker flags to configure check (maron2000)
  • Fixed window position not centered even when windowposition option is set to do so. (maron2000)
  • Fixed MSCDEX device name padding for short names (maron2000)
  • When DOS games use the Adlib FM chip to do "digitized speech", DOSBox-X does emulate that correctly, and it also correctly emulates how low the volume is on the sound card output. However to make it more audible, a new option "adlib pcm boost" has been added. If set, and the Adlib emulation detects that the guest application is playing PCM audio through it, the audio levels of the FM output will be amplified to make the digitized speech much more audible. (joncampbell123)
  • Fixed mapping of TTF to match with guest codepage when launched with output=ttf. (maron2000)
  • Limit window size of TTF output to 2/3rd of the screen in both dimensions so that the window is not TOO large on the user's screen. (joncampbell123)
  • Fix segfault in TTF output code caused by codepage mapping when the TTF output is not active. (joncampbell123)
  • Fixed clip_paste_bios option change was not reflected. Also, default is changed to "true" for Windows due to some characters fails to paste when set otherwise. (maron2000)
  • Replaced some deprecated functions in dosbox.h. (maron2000)
  • Fixed colors in the screenshot of macOS SDL1 build were wrong.(maron2000)
  • Fix savestate restore crash in POD_Load_DOS_Files during live file slot teardown (catbalony)
  • Fixed mouse cursor display in DOS/V Japanese mode (nanshiki)
  • INT 13h AH=48h: Fixed LBA detection (maron2000)
  • Fixed read/write errors on last sectors of disk image (maron2000)
  • Int 13h: Added option to enable/disable 48-bit LBA support (maron2000)
  • Fix VHD file geometry detection (maron2000)
  • Fixed crash when printing out multipages to printer (Windows) (maron2000)
  • printer.cpp: Fix occasional missing page break after line wrap (maron2000)