Run legacy business applications using DOSBOX

DOSBOX is an emulator program that emulates an IBM PC computer running DOS operating system. Think of it as virtual machine for running DOS based applications.

Although developed to primarily run old DOS games on new hardware, DOSBOX can be successfully used to run also legacy DOS business applications on your latest Windows 10 computer.

A few month ago I announced that I open-source my old software. As part of the process I wanted to capture screen shots and videos showcasing the applications. DOSBOX helped successfully with this job. By using DOSBOX I was able to run again 20 years old software.

The following videos were captured from old VMASOFT software running under DOSBOX:

Above: MCGA - DOS based graphics library running under DOSBOX

Above: Physics - SVGA based DOS application running under DOSBOX

As weirds at may seem, there are still many DOS based applications out there running on old hardware. Their owners have to keep obsolete machines into production since those applications are not running on the latest hardware or operating systems. DOSBOX may prove a viable solution to these situations.

DOSBOX in a web browser

There is even possible to run DOSBOX in a web browser. For more details about that option and the technology behind it, please check my other article.

VMA

13 Apr 2017