Content-Type: |
TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII |
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Fri, 14 Nov 2003 10:07:52 -0500 |
MIME-Version: |
1.0 |
X-To: |
|
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
NY Times
_________________________________________________________________
November 13, 2003
Keeping That Whippersnapper in Touch With Grandpa DOS
By CHARLES HEROLD
For years, users of Macintosh and Linux computers have been able to
play games or run software written for Microsoft's DOS operating
system by using DOS emulation software. So when Microsoft released
Windows XP, which removed the underlying DOS code from the Windows
operating system, it suddenly became easier to run DOS software on a
Mac than on a Windows PC. While XP does include a way to run some DOS
programs, in many cases it will crash or the sound will not work.
Microsoft may have abandoned DOS, but not everyone has. A free DOS
emulator for Windows called DOSBox, available at
http:// dosbox.sourceforge.net, lets you continue to enjoy that old
software.
DOSBox allows you to specify a drive or folder as your C: drive and
then use it to run most DOS games with full sound and surprisingly
few glitches. Fans of Cannon Fodder or Gabriel Knight: Sins of the
Father can play these games in all their glory. Originally those
games occupied the whole screen, but DOSBox will allow you to run
them in full screen or in a window.
It's not just old DOS games that won't run on Windows XP; some old
games designed for Windows 3.0 also won't run with Microsoft's newer
operating systems. This could someday result in a minor paradox: a
Windows emulator for Windows.
_________________________________________________________________
xv
ic|xc
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
|
|
|