For a long time, Apple computers weren't considered to be for gaming. Today, the iPhone and the iPad are among the most important game platforms, and the iMac, thanks mostly to Valve, is becoming a serious gaming machine. Nevertheless there have been many DOS games that Mac has never been good at running.

We've known many emulators, some of them are obscure and hard to work, others may work but have an ugly presentation. Here are two of the best emulators for DOS games I found:

DOSBox

This is one of the best free DOS emulators for OS X. When you launch the program you'll find it with the black DOS interface with a Z:/ drive and an emulated version of DOS 5.0 running. From here you can install your programs and make them run. Even if it works properly, and considering you remember your DOS commands, the UI is not pretty.

Boxer

Because of that, Boxer was created. This emulator was built on top of DOSBox but is much easier and pretty to use. 

First of all, you'll have a gallery with all your games, an iPad-like library and you can access directly with a double click (once you have installed the game). This gallery structure is just a Mac Folder you can access directly from the finder, so you won't need a specific program to be open to access it. The program originally comes with four games: Commander Keen 4, Epic Pinball, Underworld and X-Com.

Installation 

The installation of new games is perhaps the best thing about this program.

• First of all you need to click in “Import a New Game”. This will open a drop space
• Drag-and-Drop the Folder or disc image of your game
• Once you dropped the folder, the program will select the best possible executable to install the program.
• It will make a copy of the game in the program's folder and create an icon in your gallery.
• To run the game you have to double click the icon.
• The first time you may have to select the file to launch the game, but the program will remember that.

Even if you have a terminal window accessible by one click, you won't need to use it.

Playing

The program lets you use your mouse (both buttons) and it will capture your cursor with a click but you can liberate easily by pressing Ctrl+click. It also gives the option to use a joystick locking your mouse. It has four different renderings: original, fast smoothing (MAME), Fancy Smoothing (HQx), and with added TV Scanlines. The aspect ratio can also be changed.

What to play

Once you have the program up and running the question comes to know what to play. You may have some discs hidden away in a drawer (good luck finding a floppy disk reader) or you may find your favourite classic on-line. There are many sites that have collection of ancient video games cataloged as Abandoned Games. http://www.abandongames.com is a good place to start. You'll find all kinds of games, from  Duke Nukem 3D to  Doom, to my favourite  The Secret of Monkey Island and The Oregon Trail.

More Emulators

But even if Boxer is a really good and also pretty DOS emulator, it’s not the only that works for Mac. There's a long list of emulators for almost all kinds of platforms. Some for games, like ScummVM others for handheld devices like the Einstein Emulator and even for different Mac versions like Mac-on-Mac.

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