nDOS is a DOSBox port for iOS and iPadOS, allowing you to run old MS-DOS games and programs. nDOS is forked from the original iDOS/DOSPad project but updated to use the latest code from the DOSBox SVN source tree. It also contains additional patches and customizations. Please see the Acknowledgements section
2024-05-26 UPDATE: With the Apple's recent news of allowing emulators on the App Store, I'm expecting the original iDOS app to make its way to the app store and be approved (see iDOS update). I don't intend to create a copycat or compete with the original iDOS. If needed, I may try to make merge requests with iDOS and support that project.
I'm a retro computing enthusiast. I especially enjoy gaming from the MS-DOS and early Microsoft Windows era. I'm also a fan of Apple products, especially the iPad. Playing old DOS/Windows games on a touchscreen device like an iPad brings old memories back to life using modern gear.
I also wanted to take on a coding project that would be fun while learning about the Apple SDKs and developing in the iOS ecosystem (even if the project is using an older Objective-C base).
Why is it called nDOS? Because I lack imagination and couldn't think of a better name when I decided to fork this from iDOS 😆. In reality, its was to differentiate the code from iDOS and allow me to try different things.
I'm a full time Dad and professional IT Architect. I am maintaining this project as much as I can when I have spare time, but don't always have a lot of time to commit. Feel free to submit issues or even pull requests. I try to keep the code merged and updated with the latest DOSBox SVN source tree.
I am exploring moving this code to a different DOSBox port, such as DOSBox-X, so you can better run Windows 95/98 games. I haven't spent a ton of time yet reviewing the Objective-C overlay and how much work this might be.
Additionally, I would like to transition much of this to Swift overlay for long-term maintainability.
NOTE: Most of my development testing is taking place on an iPad Pro (4th Gen). While there are build profiles and support for iPhone, I have not conducted extensive testing on iPhone so it may or may not work correctly. The original iDOS project contained support for iPhone, but with the patching and updates I have completed, that platform needs testing.
- Latest DOSBox SVN source revisions merged from the community
- Updates to the code to utilize non-deprecated functions and methods. Eliminates deprecated iOS warnings for the original dospad code. Does not fix DOSBox source warnings.
- UI tweaks for improved experience with some games (e.g. Civilization 1).
- IMGMAKE patch allowing creation of floppy and harddisk images within DosBox. This is a convenience feature for creating images to organize software packages or install other retro operating systems under DOSBox (e.g. DOS 6.22, Windows 2.03). Reference: imgmake
- Patched to support max memory of 383MB. This can be used for running Win9x (although not tested)
- Apple Pencil gesture support
- Additional DOS support commands (such as XCOPY, DOSIDLE, MEM etc). See branch
vfile-additionsfor more information.
Thanks to the @dosbox team for creating a great platform to relive DOS gaming memories. More information can be found at the DOSBox Project Page.
Thanks to @litchiedev for building a version of DOSBox that works on iOS/iPadOS.