Download and Play MS-DOS games via DOSBox games emulator

Do your ever get into that sentimental mood that you want to see and play all those DOS games (now retro games )you used to play as a kid? I’m talking about those games which made you addicted to the computer and technology in the first place! Well, playing DOSBox games might be the solution.

Well, when I used to be a school kid we had all these superb, state of the art computers there and we used to study DOS and its basic commands. What I want to say here is that if there were no DOS games at that present time I would never understand any of that DOS gibberish today.

No, I’m not a DOS expert today, but the desire to play a game made me understand some basic computer principles such us how to copy data, extract data, store data on 1.44 inch floppy, how to do simple text file editing and understanding of basics of DOS commands and its syntax without any effort.

It is going to be more than two decades since I executed my first DOS command and today I am still enjoying executing commands on a command line but using a Linux Operating System. GUI is nice and useful but CLI is fast and effective and I never managed shake it off completely

Linux is a very powerful operating system and running old DOS retro games is literally a piece of cake when using a DosBox simulator. The majority of DOS games are now scattered everywhere on the Internet in form of abandonware and waiting for a free download.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to download DOSBox games emulator and other dependencies
  • How to download and play various DOS games on Linux
Download and Play MS-DOS games via DOSBox games emulator
Download and Play MS-DOS games via DOSBox games emulator
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Any Linux distro
Software DosBox games emulator
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Install DOSBox on Linux




In order to play a DOS game on a Linux Operating System, we first need to install the DOSBox simulator. If you are using Ubuntu or any other Debian based distribution, simply use the apt command below to install the DOSBox package.

$ sudo apt install dosbox

For certain games, you will also need Wine. The unrar and unzip utilities will also come in handy, in order to extract games from the downloads. Execute the command below to install those packages.

$ sudo apt install unrar unzip wine

Download and Play DOSBox Games on Linux

NOTE
A great place to download DOS games is from bestoldgames.net!

Below, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite DOS games, and the commands that you can use to download the game and start playing it right away. To download the games, we rely on the wget command, so get ready to do a bit of typing in the terminal.

Warcraft 2

  1. Download Warcraft 2:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/warcraft-2.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip warcraft-2.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Warcraft\ 2/
    $ dosbox  WAR2.EXE -fullscreen
    

    Warcraft 2 on Linux
    Warcraft 2 on Linux

Dune 2

  1. Download Dune 2:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/dune-2.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ mkdir Dune2
    $ unzip dune-2.zip -d Dune2
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Dune2/
    $ dosbox DUNE2.EXE -fullscreen
    

    Dune 2 on Linux
    Dune 2 on Linux


Mortal Kombat 2

  1. Download Mortal Kombat 2:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/mortal-kombat-2.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip mortal-kombat-2.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Mortal\ Kombat\ 2/
    $ dosbox MK2.EXE -fullscreen
    

    Mortal Kombat 2 on Linux
    Mortal Kombat 2 on Linux

Transport Tycoon DeLuxe

  1. Download Transport Tycoon DeLuxe:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/transport-tycoon-deluxe.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip transport-tycoon-deluxe.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd TT_deluxe/
    $ dosbox TYCOON.EXE -fullscreen
    


    Transport Tycoon DeLuxe on Linux
    Transport Tycoon DeLuxe on Linux

Simcity 2000

  1. Download Simcity 2000:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/simcity-2000.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip simcity-2000.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Simcity\ 2000/
    $ dosbox INSTALL.EXE
    $ dosbox SC2000.EXE -fullscreen
    

    Simcity 2000 on Linux
    Simcity 2000 on Linux

Tomb Raider

  1. Download Tomb Raider:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/tomb-raider.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip TombRaider.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd tombraid/
    $ dosbox SETUP.EXE
    $ dosbox TOMB.EXE -fullscreen
    

    Tomb Raider on Linux
    Tomb Raider on Linux

Doom 2

  1. Download Doom 2:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/doom-2.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip doom-2.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Doom2
    $ dosbox deice.exe
    $ DOOM2LZH.exe
    $ dosbox Doom2.exe -fullscreen
    

    Doom 2 on Linux
    Doom 2 on Linux


Worms+

  1. Download Worms+:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/worms-plus.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip worms-plus.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Worms\ +/
    $ dosbox WORMS.BAT -fullscreen
    

Civilization

  1. Download Civilization:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/civilization.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip civilization.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Civilization/
    $ dosbox CIV.EXE -fullscreen
    

    DOSBox games - Civilization on Linux
    DOSBox games – Civilization on Linux

Grand Theft Auto

  1. Download Grand Theft Auto:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/grand-theft-auto.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip grand-theft-auto.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ wine grand-theft-auto-install.exe
    $ dosbox ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Grand\ Theft\ Auto/gtados.bat -fullscreen
    

    Grand Theft Auto on Linux
    Grand Theft Auto on Linux

Battle Chess

  1. Download Battle Chess:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/battle-chess.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip battle-chess.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Battle\ Chess/
    $ dosbox CHESS.BAT -fullscreen
    

    Battle Chess on Linux
    Battle Chess on Linux

Hexxagon

  1. Download Hexxagon:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/hexxagon.zip
    



  2. Extract the game:
    $ unzip hexxagon.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Hexxagon/
    $ dosbox HEXX.EXE -fullscreen
    

    Hexxagon on Linux
    Hexxagon on Linux

Crazy Cars 3

  1. Download Crazy Cars 3:
    $ wget http://www.bestoldgames.net/download/bgames/crazy-cars-3.zip
    
  2. Extract the game:
    $ $ unzip crazy-cars-3.zip
    
  3. And play the game:
    $ cd Crazy\ Cars\ 3/
    $ dosbox CC3.COM -fullscreen
    

    Crazy Cars 3 on Linux
    Crazy Cars 3 on Linux

Closing Thoughts




In this tutorial, we saw how to install DOSBox on Linux, and use the program to play a variety of DOS games. The games listed here are just a few of our favorites, but there are hundreds of others that can be found online and downloaded. As seen here, the process for playing them is pretty much always the same: download, extract, and then launch the .exe file with DOSBox.



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