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Trying to play old PC game on mac using DOSBox - some help please

dwarfcricket

dwarfcricket

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2009
28
0
I'm trying to play an old PC Game on my Mac (Mac OS X 10.5.8) using DOSBox, however, it says "This program requires Microsoft Windows."

Is there ANY chance for me to play this on my Mac? I'm not so good when it comes to technology such as this, so please try to be as specific as possible :D Is there a different program similar to DOSBox that I can download to support this game?

THANKS!
 
D

doh123

macrumors 65816
Dec 28, 2009
1,304
2
dwarfcricket said:
I'm trying to play an old PC Game on my Mac (Mac OS X 10.5.8) using DOSBox, however, it says "This program requires Microsoft Windows."

Is there ANY chance for me to play this on my Mac? I'm not so good when it comes to technology such as this, so please try to be as specific as possible :D Is there a different program similar to DOSBox that I can download to support this game?

THANKS!
Click to expand...

DOSBox can only run Dos programs...

that game apparently is not a DOS program...

to run Windows apps, you will have to use something that is Wine based...
Wine isn't usually terribly easy to get configured for a specific program, because its a program by program basis of troubleshooting and figuring out what needs to be done to get it to work. Luckily winehq.org has an AppDB (Application Database) that people enter reports and such so there is often info on wether or not a game works good with Wine, and how to get it to work.
How to use Wine? well you can compile Wine from source (or Macports) which leaves it all command line usage. I have a product called Wineskin you can use thats focusing on taking Windows apps and make them look and work like Mac apps. (http://wineskin.doh123.com/). Or you can go a good paid and supported route like Crossover Games
 
dwarfcricket

dwarfcricket

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2009
28
0
doh123 said:
DOSBox can only run Dos programs...

that game apparently is not a DOS program...

to run Windows apps, you will have to use something that is Wine based...
Wine isn't usually terribly easy to get configured for a specific program, because its a program by program basis of troubleshooting and figuring out what needs to be done to get it to work. Luckily winehq.org has an AppDB (Application Database) that people enter reports and such so there is often info on wether or not a game works good with Wine, and how to get it to work.
How to use Wine? well you can compile Wine from source (or Macports) which leaves it all command line usage. I have a product called Wineskin you can use thats focusing on taking Windows apps and make them look and work like Mac apps. (http://wineskin.doh123.com/). Or you can go a good paid and supported route like Crossover Games
Click to expand...


Okay so... I'm surfing around on the Wine website, and I have absolutely no idea what to download - which version, I mean. Does it really matter? Is it more of a touch and go situation?

I don't really want to pay for anything, because there is only this one game that I am itching to access. Though my efforts might be futile considering how much of this I am unfamiliar with... :(
 
MacKeeper-fan

MacKeeper-fan

macrumors member
Jun 30, 2010
48
0
Boxer plays MS-DOS games on your Mac. It’s based on the robust DOSBox emulator, with a lot of magic sprinkled on top.

Run DOS programs from Finder. Wrap your games into tidy gameboxes that launch like Mac apps. Painlessly install games from CD—then bundle the CD with your game so you don't even need it in the drive.

Don’t struggle with mounts and emulation settings; don’t nurse a greedy games database; don’t bang your head against a DOS prompt; just play your games. Boxer takes away the fuss and leaves the fun.
 
B

bkap16

macrumors member
Jan 11, 2009
81
0
dwarfcricket said:
Okay so... I'm surfing around on the Wine website, and I have absolutely no idea what to download - which version, I mean. Does it really matter? Is it more of a touch and go situation?

I don't really want to pay for anything, because there is only this one game that I am itching to access. Though my efforts might be futile considering how much of this I am unfamiliar with... :(
Click to expand...

You don't download it from the Wine website. Wine is a Linux program that happens to work on Mac. So you get it the same way Linux users get their programs- through a package manager. You have two options with this: Macports and Fink. Macports is run by Apple and has much more up-to-date packages. But, it uses the old ports system- it downloads and compiles everything from source so it can take hours to actually install the program. Wine releases a new version every 2 weeks, so it's a bit of a pain to do this. Also, Macports doesn't have a stable GUI so you're almost certainly going to have to do this from the command line. Fink is a Mac version of the Debian Package Manager, which uses binaries so it's much faster but it's also not as up-to-date.

As far as which version to choose (stable vs. development), go with development. There aren't usually any regressions, and the "stable" is kind of an arbitrary point. For instance, version "1.0" came out after 15 years of development, and the marker for what would be version 1 is that Photoshop CS 2 should work near-perfectly out of the box. Right now, they're actually working on releasing another so-called-stable version, 1.2, so they're busy fixing the few regressions they did have.

Oh, and when you use the package manager, you'll want to get the wine-devel package. In Fink, just find the package in Fink Commander. In Macports, open the terminal and type "sudo port install wine-devel".
 
dwarfcricket

dwarfcricket

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2009
28
0
bkap16 said:
You don't download it from the Wine website. Wine is a Linux program that happens to work on Mac. So you get it the same way Linux users get their programs- through a package manager. You have two options with this: Macports and Fink. Macports is run by Apple and has much more up-to-date packages. But, it uses the old ports system- it downloads and compiles everything from source so it can take hours to actually install the program. Wine releases a new version every 2 weeks, so it's a bit of a pain to do this. Also, Macports doesn't have a stable GUI so you're almost certainly going to have to do this from the command line. Fink is a Mac version of the Debian Package Manager, which uses binaries so it's much faster but it's also not as up-to-date.

As far as which version to choose (stable vs. development), go with development. There aren't usually any regressions, and the "stable" is kind of an arbitrary point. For instance, version "1.0" came out after 15 years of development, and the marker for what would be version 1 is that Photoshop CS 2 should work near-perfectly out of the box. Right now, they're actually working on releasing another so-called-stable version, 1.2, so they're busy fixing the few regressions they did have.

Oh, and when you use the package manager, you'll want to get the wine-devel package. In Fink, just find the package in Fink Commander. In Macports, open the terminal and type "sudo port install wine-devel".
Click to expand...


THANK YOU. That was very helpful :)

Now - I've installed MacPorts, and I've installed Wine, and I'm the right directory for the game, however when I attempted to install and/or run the game (via the terminal), I get this response: "16-bit/DOS support missing"

GAHHH, so does this mean all my efforts have been futile? :(
 
D

doh123

macrumors 65816
Dec 28, 2009
1,304
2
using Macports will give you normal command line Wine.. same as if you manually download the source code and build it yourself.

Thats not the easiest way to get things to work... I'd suggest using a tool made for Macs.

Wineskin (http://wineskin.doh123.com/) is one I make. You can use it without having to compile anything yourself (although you can if you want to), and I focus on making it good for gaming. You'll still have to learn some stuff, but I have written up a lot of documentation.

There are others that make similar stuff, but I do not like them too much, which is why I started Wineskin...
 
L

LOLaMac

macrumors regular
Jun 2, 2009
109
0
If you don't mind me asking, what game is it? If it is for Windows 3.x, you can try installing Windows 3.1 in DosBox.
 
Slux

Slux

macrumors member
Apr 27, 2010
85
0
I think I had a similar problem when I installed Wine via macports.

Instead I ended up using WineBottler. It seems pretty robust so far.
 
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