Web User - UK (2019-11-13)

Weekend Project

Subscribe to Web User at subscribe.webuser.co.uk 13 - 26 November 2019^61

NEXT ISSUE HowTo...Makeanymobiledevicemoreaccessible

On sale^

Wednesday

27 Nov

1

Tryingtogetoldgamesthatwere

writtenforMS-DOStorunona

modernPCcanbefrustrating.DOSBox

(www.dosbox.com) softwareaimsto

emulateDOSandopensin a familiar

lookingblackwindow,similartoa

Commandprompt,^1 withinstructions

on howtorunthesoftware.

2

Eithercopytheoriginalgametoyour

harddrive,inserttheCDordownload

a filefromwww.dosgamesarchive.com.

Mountthefolderthegameis in by

typingmountin theDOSbox,followed

bythedriveletteranddirectory.For

example,mount c c:\gamemakesthe

GamedirectoryyournewC:drive.^1

3

Type c: to switch to that drive or

game, then dir to see the files.

You should now be able to install or

run your game. Switch to full screen

by pressing Alt+Enter. Edit the

configuration file to change settings

and speed up or slow down a game by

using Ctrl+F11 or Ctrl+F12.

MINI WORKSHOP | Get old PC games running using DOSBox

issues but some have a few glitches and
may run a little slow. Not all the games
come with a manual so you may need to
do some research on the web to find out
how to play them.

Emulators and remakes
There are several ways to enjoy non-PC
games – one is to use an emulator to play
the originals, or you can opt for a remake
instead. There are emulators for all past
systems, from the ZX Spectrum and
Commodore 64 to the PlayStation, and
the games that run on them come in the
formofROMs,whichyoucanfindwith
thehelpofGoogle,thoughdownloading
andplayinga gameyouneverboughtin
thefirstplaceis understandablyfrowned
uponbythegamespublishers. Whileremakesoffera simplerwayto
enjoypastgames– youjustdownload
andinstallthem– theyaren’talways
faithfulcopies.A lotofremakeswill
“improve”onthegraphicsandsound,
andadddifferentelementstothegame
play.We’rea bigfanofCrozzaRemakes
(bit.ly/croz488) whichhasa lotof
excellentmodernversionsofclassic
games,suchasAsteroids,ManicMiner,
DonkeyKong,PacmanandMarioBros.

Playoldarcadegames

YoucantransformyourPCintoan

arcademachinethatplaysalltheold

classicsusingMultipleArcadeMachine

Emulator,orMAMEforshort(www

.mamedev.org). It’sveryeasytouse– just

unziptheprogramtoa folderonyour

harddriveandaddthegamesyouwant

toplaytoMAME’sRomsdirectory.The

MAME site has a collection

of free legal ROMs at

mamedev.org/roms but

you’re unlikely to be familiar

with any of them. If you

want to play the classic

titles, you’ll need to search

elsewhere. When you run

the emulator, it lists all the

installed games available

to play and you can choose

the one you want.

If you don’t want to go

to the hassle of installing

anemulatorandfinding

ROMsforit, youcanalso

trytheInternetArchive’sInternetArcade

(bit.ly/intarc488), whichcontainsover

1,700arcadegamesyoucanplayin your

browser, includingDefender,Paperboy,

Q*Bert,Tron,MarbleMadnessandTetris.

Youcanplaythemin a windoworin

full-screenmode.

Crozza Remakes offers a large selection of
classic games you can play on Windows 10

Internet Archive’s Internet Arcade lets you

play games such as Zaxxon in your browser

MAME is the best known emulator for

running old arcade games

(^11)