Believe it or not, you don’t actually have to use DOSBox with the command line interface. While some of you might still prefer to use the MS-DOS commands in order to launch games and run applications- hey, it makes the whole thing feel more authentic- there’s very likely a few of you who just want to play some old school games, and don’t want to bother with having to remember and key in a long list of commands.

If you’re one of the people who fall into the latter camp, you’ll want to look into getting a GUI(Graphical User Interface) frontend for your installation of DOSBox. That way, rather than having to interact directly with the command line, you’ll be able to simply point, click, and play. Sounds pretty good, right? Even better; it’s incredibly easy to get yourself set up with a frontend. You’ve just gotta find one that works.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is decide on which frontend  you want to install. DBGL comes highly recommended, but D-Box is also a good choice- though a bit more complex than DBGL. If you’d care for some reading, there’s a fairly comprehensive overview of the available DOSBox frontends on the DOSBox Wiki.   Ultimately, it all comes down to the GUI you’re most comfortable using- read up on and play around with a few of them, and figure out which one suits you best. Once you’ve downloaded your GUI, it’s time to move on to the next step.

Nine times out of ten, it’s a simple matter of download, access, and install. The real trick comes in troubleshooting the program, learning the interface, and playing away. Pretty much all of the frontends come with a copy of DOSBox integrated directly into the executable- so your current version of DOSBox isn’t even strictly necessary. That said, try to stick to frontends that include the latest release, if possible.

And that’s all there is to it. Happy gaming.

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