older DOS GAMES HOW ?

dear smart peopole.
i have a bundle of very nice older dos games,my computer
is xp,i am 100% sure that there must exist a way how
to make them work on my xp,so PLEASE tell me how
i thank in advance,samuel schwartz

Have you tried DOSBox?
http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1

It will play nearly every DOS game.

If you're familiar with playing games in DOS at all, DOSBox shouldn't be difficult.
If you're not good with the command line, try one of the front ends, like D-Fend Reloaded.

ScummVM is easier, but it doesn't support as many games.
Here's the game list of the latest release, which is 1.7.0
http://scummvm.org/compatibility/1.7.0/

If you decide to give DOSBox a shot, download D-Fend Reloaded. Not only will it install DOSBox, it also provides a good front-end that utilizes an install wizard for your games.

D-Fend Reloaded: Overview

i am sorry,i know a whole bunch of dos games,plus i know dos
very well,i have a older computer also,with 25 dos games
installed on it,and now you say a person who knows DOS
the dosbox,is not such a problem,but by me this is 2 different things,if you dont know very well,dosbox,its use
is a waste of time,1st i must create a file,"dosbox.conf"
also what to write in it,my present problem is i have a game
wich installs only 2 files,to a folder,1 is a tiny file
containing information,about the sound,the 2nd is a,(run.bat),file wich runs the game from a cd-rom,and now by using the dosbox,this is very hard to do,i will explain
the game folder,lets name it,<GAME>,now to tell dosbox where
to find it,you must type"mount c c:\game" "(C:),cd game,run"
but the game will not run,because dosbox does not know from
the cd-rom drive,now to tell dosbox,i must write
"mount d d:\ -t cdrom",then mscdex will run then the CD will
play,but to write both,dosbox does NOT take it,this so far
is big big problem,can you PLEASE HELP ?
samuel schwartz

Try D-Fend-Reloaded, it will walk you through all of the required steps, and it also creates the .conf for you.

DOSBox is actually pretty easy to use. The vast majority of games will run just fine with the defaults. The main thing is mounting the folder you want to use as the C: drive for DOSBox. There are very few things that you will need to mount more that a C: drive and CD or floppy. Mount commands can be done by conf file, batch file or command line. The advantage of using the conf is that using it, DOSBox will automatically mount the same folders when you start it. Once you have your drives mounted, you can treat the prompt just like DOS.

If you can't be bothered to learn how to mount drives, you can just create a shortcut to DOSBox on your desktop. Dropping a folder on the shortcut will mount that folder as C:. If you drop a game's DOS executable on the shortcut, DOSBox will mount the EXE's folder as C: and start that game, if you have already run the game's audio/video setup program.

If even this is more than you want to deal with, just use a frontend as Island suggested. I prefer DOSBox Game Launcher. It has a lighter footprint and does not have to be installed. And unlike D-fend Reloaded it does not touch the Registry. D-fend Reloaded litters itself all over the Registry. It also works as is on Linux and Mac since it is written in Java.

Don't do that.
DOSBox creates that file on its own. Don't try to create your own dosbox.conf when you're first starting out.

Also, unless you decide you want to tweak things later on, you don't have to edit the dosbox.conf.
It's convenient to put your mount lines at the end of it, but you can also just type them in at the Z: prompt, which is better when you're testing them out anyway.

If you can't locate the DOSBox.conf that DOSBox created, check here
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf#Creation_and_Location


You may have already seen this, but here are some examples of using the mount command.
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT


Have you tried entering the two mount commands from the Z: prompt before trying to run the game?

mount c c:\game
This tells DOSBox that C:\game is your C drive.
What DOSBox sees as C: is what your computer sees as C:\game

Usually a game will have its own folder and not be dumping its files to what it thinks is the C: drive. So I'm wondering if you actually have a folder named C:\game\game

mount d d:\ -t cdrom

That should work if your CD drive is D:
If it is E: then you'd type
mount d e:\ -t cdrom

What game are you trying to run?
With some older games, you can copy the contents of the CD to a folder on your hard drive, then mount that folder as the CD drive in DOSBox.

Or try the official 60 second guide to getting your game to run in DOSBox.

I agree, Vogons has some very nice write-ups. But for the uninitiated, even those with DOS experience, DOSBox can be daunting. That's why a well written Front-End like D-Fend Reloaded is so useful.

Once you've seen the job it does, then you can branch out into native DOSBox.

That link was in response to Jenny's post on information from the Wiki. The 60 second guide was written for DOSBox newbies and is a better quick start. Samuel claims to be familiar with DOS, so it should be very easy for him to pick up on using DOSBox. But you are right for those that don't want to bother, a frontend can be useful.