Retro-DOS

Turn your Android device into a classic PC. Retro-DOS runs the MS-DOS games and software you already own, and now installs and runs Windows 98 as well.

This version is a rewrite. The interface has been rebuilt from the ground up as a native, single-screen launcher: faster to start, faster to move around, and readable on a handheld at arm's length.

WINDOWS 98

A step-by-step walkthrough installs Windows 98 from an installation CD image you already own. It makes the hard disk, boots the disc, and takes you through Setup and its restarts a step at a time, telling you what to expect at each one. Once installed, Windows starts from your library like anything else -- with a mouse, sound, and the whole desktop.

This is the same Windows support DOSBox-X itself provides, with the setup procedure from its own documented guide built into the app instead of left to you.

CHANGE THE DISC WITHOUT STOPPING

A game that spans two CDs, or an installer that asks for disc 2, no longer means quitting. Open the menu and swap the disc or the floppy while the machine keeps running -- in DOS, and inside Windows too.

YOUR LIBRARY

Point the app at a folder and it scans it into an A-Z library. A game is normally a folder of its own files; where a title ships its own dosbox.conf, its settings are used as they are rather than guessed at. Disc images have a shelf of their own, and so does Windows. Cover art can be fetched for titles it recognises.

SET UP IN FIVE STEPS

A first-run walkthrough covers what a DOS game is, where to put one, and how to tell it worked -- then gives you something to run straight away. A bundled DOS environment boots to a command prompt, so the app is useful before you have imported anything.

TUNED FOR TOUCH

An on-screen pad with triggers, an on-screen keyboard whose keys stay held for classic key combinations, and controls you can remap without leaving the game. External gamepads work too.

THE MACHINE, ON TABS

Graphics card, processor, memory, sound and DOS version are laid out as tabs named after DOSBox-X's own menus -- so anything you read about DOSBox-X applies here, and the first thing to try when a game will not start is easy to find.

FEATURES

- DOSBox-X emulation of x86, VGA and Sound Blaster

- Windows 98 installation walkthrough, and Windows 98 guests

- Swap CDs and floppies while the machine is running

- A-Z library with cover art, disc and Windows shelves

- Import folders, floppies and CD images through Android's own folder picker

- On-screen pad and keyboard, plus external gamepad support

- In-game control remapping and shared clipboard

- Per-game machine settings, on tabs

The app asks for no storage permission: you grant it the folders you choose, and nothing else.

NO COPYRIGHTED SOFTWARE IS INCLUDED. Retro-DOS supplies no DOS, no Windows and no games. Add your own legally owned software, and your own Windows 98 CD, to start.

Retro-DOS is built on DOSBox-X, which is free software under the GNU General Public License. The emulation is theirs; the launcher around it is ours. Complete source, for the app and its build:

https://github.com/CrownParkComputing/Retro-Dosbox

https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x