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How to play DOS games in Bizhawk (documentation thread).

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Posted: 11/3/2025 5:34 PM
(Edited: 11/3/2025 11:17 PM)

EZGames69

He/They

Publisher, Reviewer, Expert player (5336)

🇺🇸 United States

Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2805
Location: 🇺🇸 United States

I'm making this thread to document some ways in which I understand how to run DOS games in BizHawk's DOSbox-X core, since it's rather confusing for the average person, especially if you are unfamiliar with DOS computers in general. I'd also recommend anyone who has more knowledge on this process to feel free to chime in the replies for any additional steps you can make if some games require more set up work. These are the 3 methods I am aware of:

Using an existing formatted files created out of preinstalled files This one is pretty straight forward. If you find the game already in either an ISO format, a Bin+Cue format, or there is a ".ima" file in the game folder, then loading these into Bizhawk should work.
Pre-installed files not converted to the ISO format. I have found for most games, they come in a folder with several different files. Mostly EXE files and the like. These will not load in Bizhawk on their own. They will need to be converted into a format such as ISO. There is this bash script for linux that was used to convert these files into an ISO format that you can use here (although make sure you install xorriso when you do this, as pointed out by Dimon12321 in the reply to the script linked).
Insallation disks This one is the most confusing. It involves installing the game using installation disks and then exporting the HDD after installation and then treating that exported file as the rom itself. This will also involve creating a verification movie file that does the installation. To do this, you'll need to open up the Multi-Disc bundler in bizhawk and load in all installation disks into the menu in chronological order. Save as an .xml file and run in bizhawk. From there you will create a verification movie file that runs the commands to start the installation process. Once that is done, you will open the DOS menu on the Bizhawk window and select "Export Hard Drive Disk". From there you will treat the resulting .hdd file as a rom.

This is all I have for now. This thread is mostly to start some documentation on how to load DOS games into BizHawk. If there's anything I missed please feel free to share in the replies.

[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing

Posted: 11/3/2025 5:59 PM

slamo

Advisor, Expert player (2760)

Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 421

Just a few additions: 1. It's very rare to find pre-installed games already on an ISO, almost always ISOs you find online are official CD distributions and come with an installer, although sometimes you can get away with running the game files directly from the ISO. 2. If you're not submitting a TAS you can just use your favorite ISO creator to make the image. Otherwise these instructions should be followed closely. The bash script will dump a list of files and hashes, you should copy this list and keep it for your submission notes so others can sync the movie. 3. Installation is not just limited to floppy disks, CDs were distributed as well. Use redump to find known good CD dumps and goodolddays to find known good floppy disk dumps.

Posted: 11/8/2025 8:45 AM

feos

Emulator Coder, Site Admin, Skilled player (1277)

Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11866

I created a windows package for making ISO! https://github.com/TASEmulators/iso_maker/releases/tag/windows_v1

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Posted: 2/13/2026 1:15 AM

phoenix1291

🇨🇭 Switzerland

Joined: 7/17/2012
Posts: 569
Location: 🇨🇭 Switzerland

3 mai 2023: DOSBox-X Testing Resident Evil 1 on a Windows 95, some glitches but working with a Voodoo 1

Link to video

My Citra 3DS rerecording movie files test repositery: https://cutt.ly/vdM0jzl Youtube playlist "Citra Tests": https://cutt.ly/AdM0wg9 http://www.youtube.com/user/phoenix1291

Posted: 21 days ago
(Edited: 21 days ago)

MUGG

Editor, Expert player (2419)

🇩🇪 Germany

Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 4068
Location: 🇩🇪 Germany

I will be happy to learn more about getting DOS games to run under Bizhawk. One thing I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be a verification movie for DOS games and the installation process is part of the main run. So that installation process will have to be optimized depending on the game. Apparently, games can be loaded as a floppy image (IMA / IMG / etc.) in A: and then the game could be installed via "INSTALL.EXE" or similar, or if no installation is required it can be run using "boot a:". Or if the game comes as an ISO, I've seen xcopy be used to move files from D: to C: Questions: 1) If the game doesn't come as an IMA file / IMG / or anything that can be mounted directly, game files will have to be put as a custom, reproducible ISO via this tool? 2) Is it not possible to create a custom IMA or IMG to be possible to load in A:? 3) With ISOs, is it not possible to run the game directly (boot d:)?

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Posted: 20 days ago
(Edited: 19 days ago)

Dimon12321

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🇷🇴 Romania

Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1437
Location: 🇷🇴 Romania

MUGG wrote:

One thing I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be a verification movie for DOS games and the installation process is part of the main run. So that installation process will have to be optimized depending on the game. Questions: 1) If the game doesn't come as an IMA file / IMG / or anything that can be mounted directly, game files will have to be put as a custom, reproducible ISO via this tool? 2) Is it not possible to create a custom IMA or IMG to be possible to load in A:? 3) With ISOs, is it not possible to run the game directly (boot d:)?

You can have a verification movie for a DOS TAS. Why not? Especially, for late DOS games which come on CDs and take some time to install. 1. Yes. In fact, most DOS games are shared installed already. For lightweight DOS games, the process is either short or almost negligible. 2. Yes, it is. At least, an .img file. However, it will work in the same way as a disk image (.iso), but on a much slower speed. Unless you find a custom program which creates packs files to have a DOS installation later. What's the point of this, I don't know. 3. Yes, you can. However, the game shouldn't save any files, or else you may see either DOS "Memory allocation error" or the game's custom error.

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