- > >
- C64 games
The DOSBox shortcuts listed in step 10 above work to adjust the game speed. On Mac The DOSBox method listed above should work well on just about all operating systems, but Mac users can also try. This can be avoided by installing the game from DOSBox, with everything mounted as it will be when running the game. In order to install a game in DOSBox, you must mount both the folder where the game will be installed to and the disks or folder that has the install files. To install a game from a CD, put the CD in your drive and start DOSBox.
About 3800 C64 games are available or will be soon published on MyAbandonware. A very small part compared to the 20000+ games released by TOSEC (The Old School Emulation Center) and 25000 listed by Gamebase 64, but you can already spend days playing the Commodore 64 games we have. This quick how-to will help you run C64 games on Windows, Mac or Linux.
How To Run A Game In Dosbox Machines
Although C64 emulation is less popular than DOS emulation, a strong community is still active on websites like C64.com or Lemon64.com. Several emulators are available, although the vast majority of them are now inactive project.
Commodore 64 emulators
Several emulators are still active, though two of the list below are just front-ends and use existing emulators:
- VICE: stands for 'Versatile Commodore Emulator' and sometimes called WinVICE, VICE supports tons of operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X...) and also provide emulation for almost all Commodore computer systems. A very solid emulator with tons of options, recommended. Note: select amd64/x64 version without SDL.
- CCS64: an ongoing project started in 1995, still active but Windows only. CCS64 is a shareware without limits, if you enjoy it, please register your version to support the author.
- C64 Forever: an easy to use VICE front-end for Windows, with a free and a paid version for advanced users.
- Hoxs64: a more recent C64 emulator, supports Windows XP and up.
- Gamebase: a nice front-end and database program to play games on various platforms, including the Commodore computers.
As VICE is the most versatile emulator, this page will use it for the tutorial. Other emulators are quite similar and should not pose any problem.
Running C64 games in VICE
Note: This tutorial is focused on Windows, but it's almost the same on other operating systems.
VICE comes with several emulators for the various computers released by Commodore. Most of the time, you will just want to run the Commodore 64 emulator, named x64.exe (or x64.app on Mac).
After downloading a C64 game and unzipping it, you will usually find one .NFO containing game information, and one or more files containing the actual game code. Game files can be stored in various formats:
- .d64, disk format: the most popular format for games, some of the later games where released on several disks.
- .tap or .t64, tape format: tapes where quite popular too, around 7000 games were released in this cheap and slow format, according to C64Tapes.org.
- .crt, cartridge format: cartridge were fast, but very expensive, less than 400 cartridge games are listed by C64-Wiki.
- .prg, plain program file: program files that can be loaded immediately, not a physical format per se.
Look for the game file or the first one if the game is on multiple disks. Most of the time, multiple disks are named GAME0.D64, GAME1.D64, and so on.
Drag and drop into VICE
Most C64 games can be launched in just a few seconds with a simple drag and drop of the game file, or the first file, into the VICE main window, where you can see the Commodore 64 prompt screen. Alternatively, you may select File > Smart attach Disk/Tape, then select the program name to run in the image contents.
Simple drag and drop of Chip's Challenge d64 file into WinVICE window. Works the same on Mac.
Click on the picture to see a bigger GIF.
Games with multiple disks will prompt you to insert disk number two or more at some point. Use the File > Attach Disk Image to attach the required disk, then press a button to continue.
Running games in VICE is quite straightforward most of the time. If you have trouble to run games, try to edit options in Settings > Peripheral Drives. If you really need help, best place to ask politely in the Emulators forums on Lemon64.
What is mounting?
Mounting is a process that makes a storage device (hard disk, CD-rom, CD- or DVD image) accessible within an operating system or within certain software like DOSBox.
Automatic mounting
If you use DOSBox a lot, you'll probably want to automate the mounting of the virtual DOSBox drive. You can do this by editing the dosbox.conf file.
- Open the configuration file:
- Windows 7: Press CTRL + ESC (or click the start button), type in dosbox and the options file should appear in the search results, click it
- Windows 8: Press the Windows key + Q, type in dosbox and the options file should appear in the search results, click it
- Scroll down to [autoexec]
- On a new and empty line, type in mount c c:gamesdos
- If your games folder contains spaces, you have to put quotes around the folder path, for example: mount c 'c:gamesdos games'
- On a new and empty line, type in c:
- Save the configuration file
- Restart DOSBox if it's running
See the installation manual of Tomb Raider in DOSBox for an example. This (and other stuff from this page) also can be found on the DOSBox wiki in the Basic Setup and Installation section. An extensive list of all configuration options in the dosbox.conf file can be found at the dosbox.conf page on the DOSBox wiki.
Mounting of a CD-ROM drive
Perhaps you've got a CD-rom lying around with a cool DOS game on it. Installing of the game in Windows doesn't work, but you can do that in DOSBox instead. Mounting of a CD-rom drive (in this example the i: drive) goes as follows:
- Type mount d i: -t cdrom and press enter
- If the game needs a CD label for installation, type mount d i: -t cdrom -label CDLABEL and press enter (replace CDLABEL with the label of your CD)
If the mounting of your CD-rom doesn't work, you can try and create an ISO image of your CD with, for example, CDBurnerXP and mount that image. Also see the installation manual of Tomb Raider in DOSBox.
How To Run A Game In Dosbox Machine
Mounting an image (ISO, CUE, IMG)
There are several options to mount an image with DOSBox.
You can mount the ISO directly in DOSBox:
- In this example, the ISO image game.iso is in c:games
- In DOSBox, type imgmount e c:gamesgame.iso -t iso and press enter
- In DOSBox, type e: and press enter to go to the image
You can also mount the ISO as a CD-ROM drive in your system and mount this CD-ROM drive in DOSBox:
- Mount the image to your system with Virtual Clone Drive. In this example the virtual CD drive will be F:
- In DOSBox, you mount the virtual F: drive as a normal CD drive in DOSBox with mount d f: -t cdrom and press enter
- In DOSBox, type d: and press enter to go to the mounted image
More information about mounting an image is here.
How To Run A Game In Dosbox Mac Os
My games folder contains spaces
How To Use Dosbox
If the folder name of your game has any spaces in it, you must enclose the path and folder name in quotation marks, i.e. 'd:DOS Games'. Otherwise you can not mount that folder.
What's wrong with mounting my C: drive?
It's perfectly possible to mount your entire C: drive in DOSBox with mount c c:, which means your entire C: drive will be available as C:. This is however not recommended to put it mildly. Because it also means that DOSBox has access to all your files, including your operating system files. DOSBox doesn't ask or warn you if you're about to delete entire directories, so you can seriously mess up your computer. Also, if you launch a DOS virus, it may be able to reach your system files and do some harm there. Or even worse, it starts low level formatting your hard drive. So, if you want to mount your C: drive, create a folder on it for your games and mount that folder, for example mount c c:gamesdos.
More information
How To Install Dosbox Games
More information on mounting drives in DOSBox here.