Affiliate spotlight: DOSBox

Today we're launching the first GOG.com Affiliate Spotlight, showing off some of the sites that are helping out GOG.com and supporting classic games. The first partner we'd like to show some love to is DOSBox.com!

DOSBox is a freely available, cross platform emulator that allows you to run DOS programs. A number of games at GOG.com run on DOSBox software, and we couldn't be more thankful for that. The first version of the emulator appeared on Sourceforge when Harekiet and Qbix decided to make it open source. Just a year ago, Qbix announced that the DOSBox emulator had been downloaded 10 million times! We've taken this opportunity to ask Qbix some questions about DOSBox and GOG.com - read on to check out the interview, and be sure to visit their site!

Can you briefly explain what DOSBox is for any GOG.com users who aren't familiar with it?

Qbix: DOSBox is a small program that acts like an old computer with DOS. You can use it to run DOS games and programs on modern systems that don't have DOS installed.

You've probably heard this question a million times, but in brief, can you tell us how the DOSBox project began and why you decided to do it?

Qbix: Harekiet and I have known each other for a long time (since kindergarten). Harekiet started working on DOSBox around the release of Windows 2000. There were other solutions at the time, but they didn't allow for graphical filters or running the games in windowed mode. I joined him fairly early in the process. Harekiet had coded some small emulators before and wanted try something bigger. DOSBox was initially freeware. I coded the linux support while Harekiet focussed on the Windows part. After some time we decided that it would be interesting to make DOSBox open source and we put it up on sourceforge and that is when it slowly, but steady become popular.

What was your first computer or gaming system?

Qbix: My first computer was a 386 SX 25 MHz with 2 MB RAM and a 105 MB harddrive. If you are familiar with older versions of DOSBox this number might ring a bell. This pc is actually still being used for testing games which have problems under DOSBox.

Do you remember the first games you played back in the “old days”?

Qbix: Alley cat, Airborne Ranger, CD Man, Wing Commander 2, Monkey Island 2 and I spend a lot of time on "Die Schicksalsklinge", without being able to read German at the time :). Because of that I never managed to finish the game.

What do you think of all these recent remakes of retro games?

Qbix: For me part of the charm of the old games is how they look, especially when comparing them with other games of that time. Adventure games usually had very nice graphics. On the other hand I really like playing Final Fantasy remakes on the Nintendo DS. The 3D makes it a whole new experience. The storylines of old gems have already proven themselves. In books and movies it is quite common to reuse a basic story, so I think those remakes are a natural thing to happen.

What was your reaction when we approached you and mentioned GOG.com for the first time?

Qbix: Keeping the oldies available and playable is my personal goal with DOSBox. In that light GOG.com is a great initiative as it addresses the issues of classic games being unavailable to buy. The alternative is that games are either not available or using illegal copies. I am pleased that you chose DOSBox to help keep the old games playable.

Any specific games that you'd love to see in the Good Old Games catalogue?

Qbix: Origin games - they really made worlds. I'd love to see Wing Commander series, Crusader series, Ultima series and System Shock on GOG.com someday.

DOSBox is basically a hobby for you, right? What do you do for living?

I study physics for most of the time :)

Are there any future plans for DOSBox that you can reveal?

Qbix: Currently the built-in menu is getting a big update, so maybe DOSBox will finally become userfriendly :)

Thank you for your time Qbix!