DOSBox Staging

dosbox-staging is DOS/x86 emulator focusing on ease of use. Based on DOSBox;

This is an unofficial build of dosbox-staging from the upstream source at https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging using the snapcraft config from https://github.com/popey/dosbox-staging-snap.

Vision

dosbox-staging is an attempt to revitalize DOSBox's development process. It's not a rewrite, but a continuation and improvement on the existing DOSBox codebase while leveraging modern development tools and practices.

Goals

• Improve the out-of-the-box experience for new users.
• Encourage new contributors by removing barriers to entry.
• Fix, cleanup, and integrate several notable community-developed patches that are not included in the SourceForge-hosted project.
• Implement new features and quality-of-life improvements.
• Prioritize DOS gaming, while welcoming general improvements (such as for productivity software) that don't impact game emulation quality or code-maintainability.
• Strike a balance between emulation quality, speed, and usability.
• Deliver a consistent cross-platform experience.
• Leverage ongoing DOSBox development.
• Focus on supporting up-to-date, current Operating Systems and modern hardware.

A summary of technical and feature differences is here. https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging#summary-of-differences-compared-to-upstream

Planned features are recorded in the backlog https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/projects/3

Non-goals

• Supporting old platforms such as Windows 9x, OS/2, and Mac OS X 10.4 (and earlier). If you want to run DOSBox on retro platforms, then your best bet is to use DOSBox.

• Perfecting DOS-era hardware emulation. The PCem and DOSBox-X projects prioritize this goal.

• Being the fastest DOS emulator on x86 hardware. Users interested in emulation speed should look at dosemu2.

• Acting as a general-purpose DOS operating system. For that, there's FreeDOS.

Relationship to DOSBox

dosbox-staging is separate from and not supported by the SourceForge-hosted DOSBox project or its development team, the DOSBox Team.

We acknowledge and are thankful for the work shared by all DOSBox contributors.