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allan.nyholm

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 22, 2007
2,317
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Aalborg, Denmark
Hi,

Found out via a friend that Boxer is available in a 64-bit version for use with e.g Big Sur.
here.

In case someone would like to try and have longed for a working version of Boxer since the old Boxer app doesn't work with '64-bit only' systems such as macOS Big Sur
 
Hi,

Found out via a friend that Boxer is available in a 64-bit version for use with e.g Big Sur.
here.

In case someone would like to try and have longed for a working version of Boxer since the old Boxer app doesn't work with '64-bit only' systems such as macOS Big Sur

Interesting. I learned that Boxer developer abandoned it and went to work for GOG, or GOG decided to implement his software in their game library. So now that its in 64bit version, does it offer any advantages other than running in a modern MacOS?
 
Interesting. I learned that Boxer developer abandoned it and went to work for GOG, or GOG decided to implement his software in their game library. So now that its in 64bit version, does it offer any advantages other than running in a modern MacOS?
I admit to only just having installed it without trying any games with it. The interface is the same down to the DOS Games folder icon in your Home directory.

Tomorrow, I'll download some DOS games and take it for a spin. Sorry for not giving out much information than the initial thread I made.
 
Interesting. I learned that Boxer developer abandoned it and went to work for GOG, or GOG decided to implement his software in their game library. So now that its in 64bit version, does it offer any advantages other than running in a modern MacOS?
As a follow up to this I just installed Pinball Fantasies to this particular Boxer 64-bit and it works a treat.
Very happy to see that this worked.

I did just notice that I also have these Pinball games available in my own GOG Galaxy application on the Mac. Still, I hope to use Boxer to play some of the games that GOG Galaxy won't let me install on macOS - that I can download on a Windows machine and move over to play using Boxer. Superfrog and two Alien Breed games are among those I personally would love to have working outside a Windows environment.
You'll see the interface too. I can't remember the old Boxer app and its interface(toolbar)
 

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Does this also work on M1 Macs?
Good question, I have yet to try as I'm without a M1 Mac. I wonder if the way it emulates would fall under what macOS on a M1 Mac does to the rest of the applications that are non-native to M1 Mac, but are Intel based.
 
who is maintaining this? just one guy?
Since I found WINE I no longer need this but still interesting
 
who is maintaining this? just one guy?

As stated on the website MaddTheSane forked Boxer and does some work on it to maintain compability with the latest macOS versions (as he does with a lot of OpenSource software). The github repository is linked on the website under "Source".
The user theC0de just compiled it and forked the original website to make it more available.
 
This is great, because I've used Boxer to play old computer games from my childhood and do "Let's Play" videos of them!
This one I made over nine years ago on my 2009 polycarbonate MacBook running Mac OS 10.7 Lion at the time, using the appropriate version of Boxer.
 
Just wanted to chime in and say, much to my amazement, Boxer seems to work just fine on my MBP16 with the M1 Max chip. I have no idea how it works but I'm guessing Rosetta 2 is doing its magic? I cannot attest to how well games play, I actually use Boxer for a more bizarre purpose: I used to have to support 80C186 firmware from the late 80s / early 90s that is compiled under MASM, Microsoft C, and a bunch of other DOS based tools. Boxer worked well for that, and out of curiosity I tried installing it on my new MBP16 and was blown away that it worked. I was still able to build this ancient code.
 
What's currently the best way to play DOS games?

Boxer seems to have been abandoned since 2016 with the person(s) that are continuing developing it still in beta.

Any real-deal emulator out there that you guys can recommend for new Apple silicon?
 
Hi,

Found out via a friend that Boxer is available in a 64-bit version for use with e.g Big Sur.
here.

In case someone would like to try and have longed for a working version of Boxer since the old Boxer app doesn't work with '64-bit only' systems such as macOS Big Sur
Thanks. Will give it a try in my macOS Catalina.
 
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