Setup dosbox and play skyroads
To install, we only need to run one line.
sudo apt install dosbox
Now let’s move onto configuration. First, make a directory where our games will be stored. ~
refers to our home directory, and this directory is /home/mecha
mkdir ~/dos-games
The config file for DOSBox will not be created until the first run, to run it simply enter DOSBox into the terminal. Typing exit into DOSBox will exit and free up the terminal again.
dosbox
If you want to edit the config file, you can find it at the following location. Keep in mind the version number may have changed since this tutorial was published. I use the nano text editor for editing files in the terminal.
nano ~/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74-3.conf
In here you’re able to change quite a few different settings including the screen size, mouse sensitivity and so much more. There are probably too many options to go over for this tutorial so if you want more information to be sure to check out the documentation page on the DOSBox config file.
For Mecha Comet please update graphics rendering API:
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=480x480
windowresolution=480x480
output=opengl
Installing Games
Let’s try skyroads,
Now in the terminal, you can just run a single line to move and unzip the zip file we downloaded. In this example, I am using skyroads so make sure you replace this with the same name as your game/download.
To move and unzip the file, simply do the following command.
unzip ~/Downloads/skyroads.zip -d ~/dos-games/
Playing Games
Now for the best part of the tutorial and that is launching Mecha Comet DOSBox and playing the games you have just downloaded.
- Once you have downloaded and unzipped the game, running the game is straightforward. To do this you will need to open up DOSBox, and you can do this simply by entering the following into the terminal.
dosbox
- Next, we need to mount the folder of where our game is installed to. In this example I will mount the letter c to our directory of the game we’re going to play, Skyroads.
mount c ~/dos-games/skyroads
- Now we need to change directory to the c mount we just created. You can do this by simply entering the letter followed by the semicolon into the DOSBox window.
c:
- Then run the exe by simply typing the name of it. Skyroads for example you just simply need to enter skyroads as the exe is called skyroads.exe
- Once that is entered the game will launch, and you should be able to play it like normal.