How I Play Classic Windows and DOS Games
6#Windows #DOS #Gaming #VirtualBox
Full steps can be found at https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0050.html
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Setting Up the VM and Software
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01. Create a Windows XP virtual machine in VirtualBox (https://youtu.be/mPOmPusoELk)
02. Make sure VirtualBox Guest Additions are installed
03. Shutdown the VM
04. In the Virtualbox interface, right click the Windows XP VM ≫ Settings
05. Select Storage
06. Select the hard disk dropdown to the right
07. Click the Create button at the top
08. Change the size to 500 GB ≫ Click Create
09. Click OK to accept the settings
10. Make sure the Windows XP VM is selected and click Start ≫ Normal
11. Once inside Windows XP, go to Start ≫ Run ≫ type diskmgmt.msc ≫ Press Enter
12. Inside Disk Management, locate the 500 GB virtual hard disk ≫ Right click ≫ Format...
13. Set the following values:
Volume label: Games
Files system: NTFS
Allocation unit size: Default
Perform a quick format: Checked
14. Click OK
15. Once the disk is formatted and initialized, right click it again ≫ Change Drive Letter and Paths...
16. Click the Change... button
17. Set the drive letter to G ≫ Click OK
18. Download DOSBox https://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/files/latest/download
19. Install DOSBox to G:\_DOSBOX
20. Locate the game installation media
- If the game is a CD-ROM image mount the CD-ROM in VirtualBox by selecting Devices ≫ Optical Drives ≫ Choose a disk file... and selecting the image
- If the game is a physical CD-ROM put the disc in the host computer and mount the CD-ROM in VirtualBox by selecting Devices ≫ Optical Drives ≫ Host Drive
- If the game is contained on floppy disk images mount the floppy disk(s) in VirtualBox by selecting Devices ≫ Floppy Drives ≫ Choose a disk file... and selecting the image
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Installing a Windows Based Game
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01. Once the installation media is mounted in VirtualBox install the game normally making sure to set the installation path to a sub-directory inside G:\Games\
02. If the installer doesn't automatically create a shortcut on the desktop, navigate to the installation directory in File Explorer ≫ right click the game .exe ≫ Send To ≫ Desktop (create shortcut)
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Installing a DOS Based Game
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01. Create a sub-directory in G:\Games\ to copy the game to
02. Once the installation media is mounted in VirtualBox navigate to it in Windows Explorer
03. Copy the files from the game media to G:\Games\%game%
04. Navigate to the desktop ≫ Right click ≫ New ≫ Shortcut
05. Click the Browse... button ≫ Navigate to the DOSBox .exe file and select it ≫ Click OK ≫ Click Next ≫ Click Finish
06. Right click the new shortcut ≫ Properties
07. Edit the shortcut properties as follows
Target: G:\_DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe -userconf "G:\Games\Hugo's House of Horrors" -noconsole
Start in: G:\_DOSBOX\
08. Click OK
09. Double click the shortcut to launch DOSBox with the game mounted to the C:\
10. Launch the game normally by typing the exe name and pressing Enter
The DOSBox configuration file is located at %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\DOSBox and can be edited to set preferences such as the resolution and redering method
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