DudesLife

Feeling the yearn of yesterday’s gaming but don’t want to dust off the old 486/pentium computer?

If you own an iPad then DosPad for your iOS device may be exactly what you are looking for. While still a beta, DosPad is running a lot of “classic” ms-dos games and apps flawlessly. The install is relatively painless as long as you have a jailbroken iOS device. Just add the Litchie repo to your sources in Cydia and download the free DosPad package. After installation, when you start DosPad, you will be greeted with a retro CRT monitor and keyboard (which can be changed to joystick or gamepad as the need arises). Though called “DosPad”, it works for iPhone and Touch also. On my first gen iPad, I tested King’s Quest and Turbo C++ 3.0 and I was pleasantly surprised to see them run as well as they did back in the days of beige box 486 computers. I had no problem altering my dos “autoexec” file (done within the DosPad settings) to set paths for the Turbo C compiler. Programs compiled and ran just fine within the emulated MS-Dos environment. King’s Quest also ran beautifully, complete with glorious music and sound, as DosPad emulates the Soundblaster sound card also. My luck ran out when I tried Panzer General, the turn based WWII strategy game. It ran too slowly to be played. Maybe some more config editing is needed or perhaps there are just some games that won’t emulate properly at the speed of an iOS device. So, your milage may vary as to which of your favorite classics you will be able to play, but probably most everything pre Windows 95 is going to have a good chance of running nicely. I highly recommend DosPad for some serious classic gaming or just as a novelty to show your friends.

More info on DosPad from the developers here.
Cost: FREE
My Thoughts: Awesome! (still in Beta, your classic gaming milage may vary)