Play DOS games
Ever wanted to revisit classic games from the ’90s? DOSBox enables you to play games written for MS-DOS and, while it’s possible to tie it into PlayOnLinux, it’s far simpler to just install it natively:
$ sudo apt-get install dosbox $ mkdir -p ~/dos/c DOS games reside in their own folder and you can source a wide variety from abandonia.com. Download a game in Zip format, then extract its contents into the dos/c folder you created in your Home folder.
Now type and hit dosbox Enter to launch DOSBox in its own window. Next, enter the following command for it to mount your / dos/c folder as its own C drive:
$ mount c /home/ username/dos/c
$ c: Type and hit Enter to dir verify you’re in the correct spot. You’ll see folders for each of the games you want to run. Type
(for example, cd dirname for Civilization) to switch cd civ1 directory to the folder, then type
again to identify the game dir file itself (‘civ’ in the case of our Civilization example). Finally, type the file name, and hit Enter to launch, and play, the game.
If prompted, choose ‘VGA (256 colors)’ for graphics and SoundBlaster for sound. DOSBox should also work with any basic USB controller recognised by Linux, as well as your mouse and keyboard. When you click inside the DOSBox window, your mouse will be captured permanently. Press Ctrl-F10 to release it back to the main desktop, and visit dosbox.com for a full guide to playing DOS games on your PC.