Thanks mguiddy. When the guide is stable, I vote that it be moved to the DOSBox guides forum.

Wow, great job! Thanks mguiddy! MiniMax, there should be a link to this in the Wiki as well.

Hello, Good day gentlemen. Yes, I was thinking exactly the same as you.

Kudos to mguiddy for putting a lot of effort into doing this Macintosh guide. 😎

Oh, I forgot: One thing that might be useful to add is how to mount a floppy (if it's possibly and meaningful to do so on a Mac)

Thanks for the comments.

Regarding floppy drives, no new Macs ship with a floppy drive (I think they stopped including them with the old iMacs). There are external USB drives if one needed floppy support but I'm not 100% sure how they would work (I think like a USB thumb drive, automatically mounting an icon on the desktop when inserted). I have added what I think the solution would be to the FAQ.

There is something I haven't been able to figure out in DosBox, which would be very helpful as an addition to your guide: configuring MIDI devices. I use external MIDI devices, and would quite like to configure DosBox under Mac to output to them instead of the CoreAudio default, but for the life of me I can't figure out how.

I have no experience with MIDI devices under any OS but looking at the options in the *.conf (OSS, ALSA, win32, etc) file makes me think there needs to be specific calls, functions, or whatever they are called (my programming experience is limited to a few chapters after "Hello World" 😁) do not exist in the source for outputting to midi devices on OS X (only GNU/Linux (I should say platforms that use OSS or ALSA) and Win32 platforms). The only solution would be to find programmer to add the needed whatevers or to buy one of the devs a Mac.

EDIT:
I just thought, after reading a thread you started here, have you changed the Default Synthesizer in Quicktime's Preferences? I figure you did but just thought I'd cover all the bases.

The QuickTime synth doesn't work with MIDI modules, though; QuickTime can't output via real MIDI, as far as I can tell. 🙁

DosBox *does* have a CoreAudio option for OS X, but I can't find any way to configure it; by default, it sends its output to the QuickTime softsynth, which I don't want. (I have my real MIDI devices sitting right next to me, I'd be glad to use them.)

well... so sorry to say that. i did all the process. but i dunnno how to run the game. could any1 please tell me how.. 😅

I have the same problem (no option to send MIDI to external midi hardware) and I know others do as well. I have posted about this before and there has never been any resolution. Can we get some decent OSX docmentation on MIDI so we can use our hardware sound modules? I love DOSBox 0.70. It is working perfectly for me... except this one issue.

As far as I know, you need CoreMIDI support to output MIDI sound to external synth hardware.
Unfortunately, DosBox seems to be lacking this.
ScummVM does support CoreMIDI, btw., so that might be an alternative for at least some games.

[edit: added "CoreMIDI support" to the wishlist thread]

ddc0oi wrote:

I have the same problem (no option to send MIDI to external midi hardware) and I know others do as well. I have posted about this before and there has never been any resolution. Can we get some decent OSX docmentation on MIDI so we can use our hardware sound modules? I love DOSBox 0.70. It is working perfectly for me... except this one issue.

I can only repeat what I said a couple of days ago: None of the core developers has a Mac on his/her desk, so figuring out how to do this or that on a Mac requires that someone with experience in using DOSBox on a Mac steps up to the plate and offer to write the documentation.

That said, I believe DOSBox takes the easiest route possible when it is instructed to play MIDI. It simply passes the MIDI-instructions to the device listed in the midi-section of the DOSBox configuration file:

1[midi]
2# mpu401      -- Type of MPU-401 to emulate: none, uart or intelligent.
3# device      -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.
4#                This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.
5# config      -- Special configuration options for the device. In Windows put
6#                the id of the device you want to use. See README for details.
7
8mpu401=intelligent
9device=default
10config=

I have no idea what the device setting should be on your Mac with your MIDI-hardware. Somewhere in your Mac you must have some kind of control-panel that tells you what you have. Maybe the DOSBox command mixer /listmidi can give you a hint.

Once you have succeeded in getting DOSBox to pass the MIDI-instructions to your MIDI-device, you can use whatever methods your Mac provides for recording MIDI-sound.

Dear Sirs,

I am a big fat n00b.

I’m a mac user with a G5 running osx 10.3.9 . I just dl’d the new DOSBox 0.70, excited to play some of the old obsolete games gathering dust on my harddrive. So far, I’ve been unsuccessful.

Let me preface this with saying that I’m writing this in the spirit of someone who appreciates that I’m getting something free from volunteers. My n00b criticisms are meant to be constructive. In fact, if it would help the core developers, I’d be happy to donate my old MAC cube G4 to them if it would help with mac compatibility. (I live in LA).

I have spent several hours slogging through these guides and find them almost impenetrable. A great example is the official OSX DOSBox guide here OSX DosBox Guide Another is the official DOSBox wiki. Neither have been updated in over a year and a half. But the real problem, the difficult and systemic problem these guides all share, is that they assume I understand what they mean when they say “start by mounting a drive as either the root / or /volumes, then do a dir on /Volumes to get the short name of the CD”. I understand virtually none of that. Like, I have to relearn the word “mount”. What is a directory vs a volume? What’s a root? Your basics are my ancient greek.

This particular pictorial guide from two years ago is the most intelligible I’ve found anywhere. If this was updated and made more comprehensive, it could be your official guide. But it leaves many of my questions unanswered.

1. I’m not sure I understand the purpose of .conf files. Is this how DOSBox remembers my preferences? If I don’t do this, do I have to do all the mounting over again every time?

2. In various parts of this website, I’ve found confusing references to the Preferences folder. I notice I have a DOSBox preferences folder sitting next to the program. Inside are two folders labeled INTeL and PowerPC. Is this something I need to worry about?

3. Here: Generic "DOS-Game" for testing... …is a freeware game available for the testing of DOSBox. Although I have not done so successfully yet, I think that installing and running this (or something similar and standardized) should be a part of every user guide. (ok, not a question)

4. What’s a Binary? Do I need one? During my search for answers, I found this: http://www.randomsequence.com/articles/instal … x-10.3-panther/ Do I need to worry about this?

5. What is a Frontend for? My impression was that it’s a program intended make DOSBox easier to understand and practical to use. On the DOSBox wiki, four are listed for OSX, but only one link still works. I dl’d Petit dosbox, but I can’t make it do anything. Is this something I should worry about?

6. My games are in folders, not on a CD. Every guide references mounting a CD drive. Do I need to burn my folder onto a cd in order to get them to work?

7. What in the world is all this about??? Help installing DOSbox 0.70 on Mac OS X This worries me very much.

Most sincerely,

NJ

To give you an idea of the level of my panicked ignorance, here was my initial reaction when first trying to read the "60 Seconds Guide" :

1. Create a directory for your game, e.g. "C:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame".

OMGWTF!?!? WHAT'S A "DIRECTORY"!?

(if you are on an Mac with MacOS X, use "/Users/your-login-name/Documents/DOSBox stuff/MyGame")

Uh oh. "Use"? Use what?? HOW??? WHAT'S A "DIRECTORY"!?

2. Insert CD in drive.

Uuuuhhh.... What if I... don't have a cd?

3. Start DOSBox.

This I can do!

4. In DOSBox, mount up DOSBox's emulated drives C: and D: […]
Show full quote

4. In DOSBox, mount up DOSBox's emulated drives C: and D:

Z:>mount C "C:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame"
Z:>mount D "D:\" -t cdrom -ioctl

(assuming that D:\ is your real CD/DVD drive. If you are on an Mac, replace "D:\" with "/Volumes/name-of-your-CD")

Alright, you lost me after "In DOSBox". What is this "mounting"? And why did you start writing in calculus?

Note 1: Always use C and D for the emulated drives.

No argument here.

It doesn't matter what your real drives are.

Thank god for that.

If your DOSBox stuff is in F, then do a mount C "F:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame". If your real CD-ROM drive is E:, then do a mount D "E:\ -t cdrom -ioctl".

...Beg pardon?

Note 2: Unless you are 200% sure what you are doing, DON'T EVER CHANGE the way you mount the C-drive (unless you are prepared to reinstall the game).

HOLY $#*!!! I'm 200% UNSURE of what I'm doing!!! WHAT IF I F-UP THE "C-DRIVE"!? I just promised I would always use it!

5. Install the game from D: to C: […]
Show full quote

5. Install the game from D: to C:

Z:>D:
D:>install

(or "setup", or whatever the command to start the installation is called. Check your Manual/Installation Guide for MyGame for the exact command to use)

Manual? What manual? I don't even have the cd...

6. Configure sound, configure graphics, ... […]
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6. Configure sound, configure graphics, ...

(when you configure sound and are asked about stuff like IO/IRQ/DMA/High DMA addresses, please verify that you use the same values as listed in "%ProgramFiles%\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf")

7. Start game.

D:>C:
C:>dir
C:>mygame

(or "run", or "play" or whatever the command to start the game is called. Check your Manual/Installation Guide for MyGame for the exact command to use)

I could do that. Or, I could simply bleed a chicken into some mashed up eye-of-newt, smear that on my keyboard and chant a few incantations. What could be simpler?

You need to know a litte bit about MS-DOS to use the whole thing. DOSBox is a DOS emulator and DOS is a thing of the 80ies (actually a thing of the 70ies): with typing in text and no clicking or even a mousepointer.

But to help you out of your misery here are a few steps for you to follow:

1) As many other software products too the DOSBox program ships in a disk image container (a file with the .DMG suffix). You download it and depending on your Safari browser configuration it gets mounted automatically or you have to do it yourself by clicking it. Its the same as with any other Mac software.

2) You have to copy the software out of the mounted disk image onto your harddisk. This is the same as with any other software: drag the DOSBox icon (the square brown/yellow one) into your Applications folder on your harddisk. Depending on your setup you have to type in your password to authorize this step.

3) The DOSBox software reads its preferences from a text file (just like any other Mac software does it aswell). This textfile is placed inside your Preferences folder on your Mac (where all other programs store their settings aswell - its like the registry on Windows computers if that explains things to you).

4) Unlike other Mac software DOSBox doesn't create a preferences file on its own: you have to do that! The reason is simple: there is no proper way inside the DOSbox application to set up all the different things and save them. Inside the disk image DOSBox is shipping in there are two example preferences files. One for PowerPC users and one for INTeL users. You said you have a G5 so the PowerPC preferences file is the one for you. Copy it into the Preferences/ folder of your harddisk. If that is beyond your capabilities I am afraid to help you any further.

5) You can now put a few MS-DOS programs into a folder on your harddisk (let's say into a folder named DOS/ inside your Documents/ folder - ah yes.. MS-DOS users call "folders" "directories").

6) Fire up DOSBox by clicking the icon inside the Applications/ folder. A new window showing a DOS prompt (Z:>) with a blinking cursor should appear. You are inside an emulated machine now and you have to tell it where it can find its files. For the moment you will just see a virtual filesystem with the name Z:. The process of adding another virtual filesystem (the folder named DOS/ in our example) is called "mounting".

7) Mount your DOS/ folder by typing in:

1mount C: ~/Documents/DOS/

and change to drive C: by typing

1C:

😎 If you don't know what to do next then a DOS emulator is probaly not a suitable thing for you. 😀

My n00b criticisms are meant to be constructive

They are most constructive if YOU write a new guide instead of
writing a lot of "OMFG" and "Uhooooo" and whining around.

If Rhoenie hadn't already answered i'd have closed this thread.

Thank you very much for your reply.

Copy it into the Preferences/ folder of your harddisk.

What does the slash after "Preferences/" signify? I located two Preferences folders. One can be found by navigating to my hard drive, then a "library". Another can be found by navigating to my user home folder and IT'S "library". Which is correct?

5) You can now put a few MS-DOS programs into a folder on your harddisk (let's say into a folder named DOS/ inside your Documents/ folder

Again, which "Documents" folder? Does it matter? My instinct is to put it in my "games" folder inside "applications". 'Cause that's where I keep my games. Is that impractical? In the MacOSX Pictorial Guide, the "dos" folder is placed in the user home folder. Is that instruction obsolete?

7) Mount your DOS/ folder by typing in: Code: mount C: ~/Documents/DOS/ and change to drive C: by typing Code: C: If you don't […]
Show full quote

7) Mount your DOS/ folder by typing in:
Code:
mount C: ~/Documents/DOS/
and change to drive C: by typing
Code:
C:
If you don't know what to do next then a DOS emulator is probaly not a suitable thing for you.

I actually got as far as mounting a c drive once before by using the MacOSX Pictorial Guide, but that's where everything fell apart. I typed "dir" and DosBox didn't see that I had anything in my c drive. I typed cd and the name of a folder, and that DID work, but "dir" again netted nothing. I typed "install" and got to an install screen. That was neat, but nothing happened after that. I just went back to DOSBox. I did "install" again a couple times, with a few "plays" and "runs" for good measure, then quit. When I restarted, DOSBox had no idea I had ever mounted a c drive before. I don't know if its me, or DOSBox, or the game I'm trying to play. That's why I suggested that every newbie should be given instructions to install the same freeware game, to help troubleshoot.

See, I'm not ever sure what question I should ask next. I get the impression from reading other clueless posts that that is a common problem. Newbies are so flummoxed that they either post the dreaded "It doesn't work", or simply give up. We don't know enough to even know what to ask. I figured I must be doing something wrong. Like, I don't have a CD. I never did the .config thing. I didn't download a patch or a binary thing. Or I thought maybe O.70 was too new or something. Or maybe I should have a "Frontend"? But that's ANOTHER can of worms.

You think I should just give up? DOSBox isn't for me?

They are most constructive if YOU write a new guide instead of
writing a lot of "OMFG" and "Uhooooo" and whining around.

I promise you that if I ever understand your program, I'll write you a jim-dandy user guide.

Pisomojado wrote:

To give you an idea of the level of my panicked ignorance, here was my initial reaction when first trying to read the "60 Seconds Guide" :

Damn!!! And I was so proud of that guide 😮

Pisomojado wrote:

OMGWTF!?!? WHAT'S A "DIRECTORY"!? […]
Show full quote

1. Create a directory for your game, e.g. "C:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame".

OMGWTF!?!? WHAT'S A "DIRECTORY"!?

(if you are on an Mac with MacOS X, use "/Users/your-login-name/Documents/DOSBox stuff/MyGame")

Uh oh. "Use"? Use what?? HOW??? WHAT'S A "DIRECTORY"!?

Note the similarity between "C:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame" and "/Users/your-login-name/Documents/DOSBox stuff/MyGame" ?
So the "use" part tells you to "Create a directory (which you Mac-users seems to call a folder - why not a cabinet? Or a container? Sweet child has many names) for your game, e.g. (a folder named) "/Users/your-login-name/Documents/DOSBox stuff/MyGame".

Pisomojado wrote:

2. Insert CD in drive.

Uuuuhhh.... What if I... don't have a cd?

Then I suspect that you either

1. Have obtained the game illegally (which your later comment about a total lack of manual confirms).
2. That you have a legal copy downloaded to some folder on your hard drive. In that case you can skip inserting the non-existant CD.

Pisomojado wrote:

4. In DOSBox, mount up DOSBox's emulated drives C: and D: […]
Show full quote

4. In DOSBox, mount up DOSBox's emulated drives C: and D:

Z:>mount C "C:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame"
Z:>mount D "D:" -t cdrom -ioctl

(assuming that D:\ is your real CD/DVD drive. If you are on an Mac, replace "D:" with "/Volumes/name-of-your-CD")

Alright, you lost me after "In DOSBox". What is this "mounting"?

When a rider mounts his horse, the horse gets a rider.
When you mount an emulated drive in DOSBox, DOSBox gets an emulated (hard) drive. Until a folder (or a volume) is "mounted" in DOSBox, DOSBox is not aware of, and can not access, your real folder/volume.

And why did you start writing in calculus?

OMGWTF!?!? CALCULUS?? AS IN MATH?? THERE IS NOT EVEN A SINGLE DIGIT IN THERE. WHAT IS THIS CALCULUS?????

Pisomojado wrote:

If your DOSBox stuff is in F, then do a mount C "F:\DOSBox stuff\MyGame". If your real CD-ROM drive is E:, then do a mount D "E:\ -t cdrom -ioctl".

...Beg pardon?

I believe that we can agree, that at this point in the guide, I can safely assume that you have launched DOSBox, an DOSBox is in control of your keyboard?
And that the term "do a mount ......." implicitly refers you to write those commands into the DOSBox window?

Pisomojado wrote:

Note 2: Unless you are 200% sure what you are doing, DON'T EVER CHANGE the way you mount the C-drive (unless you are prepared to reinstall the game).

HOLY $#*!!! I'm 200% UNSURE of what I'm doing!!! WHAT IF I F-UP THE "C-DRIVE"!? I just promised I would always use it!

As I said - unless you are prepared to reinstall the game. IF YOU F-UP THE "C-DRIVE", then you re-install the game. Simple as that. Until you mount the C-drive in DOSBox, there is no C-drive. After you mount it, the C-drive equals your "/Users/your-login-name/Documents/DOSBox stuff/MyGame" folder. If you f-up the MyGame folder, delete it, recreate it, launch DOSBox, mount it, and reinstall.

Pisomojado wrote:

5. Install the game from D: to C: […]
Show full quote

5. Install the game from D: to C:

Z:>D:
D:>install

(or "setup", or whatever the command to start the installation is called. Check your Manual/Installation Guide for MyGame for the exact command to use)

Manual? What manual? I don't even have the cd...

Now, whos fault is that? Yours or mine?

Pisomojado wrote:

6. Configure sound, configure graphics, ... […]
Show full quote

6. Configure sound, configure graphics, ...

(when you configure sound and are asked about stuff like IO/IRQ/DMA/High DMA addresses, please verify that you use the same values as listed in "%ProgramFiles%\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf")

7. Start game.

D:>C:
C:>dir
C:>mygame

(or "run", or "play" or whatever the command to start the game is called. Check your Manual/Installation Guide for MyGame for the exact command to use)

I could do that. Or, I could simply bleed a chicken into some mashed up eye-of-newt, smear that on my keyboard and chant a few incantations. What could be simpler?

Nothing in life is free. You pay with money, or you pay with time. What do you choose? For $150 an hour, I will provide personal assistance and consulting on any subject of your choosing, including the feed and care of DOSBox.