How to Use Your iPad to Play DOS Games

 

How to Use Your iPad to Play DOS Games

For months now, Apple has been removing limitations on game emulation on iOS and iPadOS, and now DOS emulation may be obtained on Apple mobile devices without the need for jailbreaking. With iDOS 3, one of the original DOS emulation programs available on the App Store, you may quickly launch a game.

iDOS 3 Is Required; What Is It?

The free and open source DOS emulator DOSBox serves as the foundation for the iDOS 3 program. The software is simple to use, has a lovely retro front end, and only cost me about $1. Thus, the first step in this process is to download and install the program.

Obtaining iPad Games for DOS

Getting your game files on your iPad is the next step. With iDOS, you can use a variety of file setups, including gaming disk images. Nonetheless, moving a game's installation folder on your iPad is the simplest method. Specifically, the directory holding the ".exe" executable file that you would launch to launch the game.

I used my GOG copy of Jazz Jackrabbit in this instance. All I needed to do was locate the "Jazz.exe" file's folder in my computer's installation folder, then transfer it to my iPad. On a Mac, you can choose "Show Package Contents" by doing a right-click on the application package.

Because the.exe file in this instance was located under Content > Resources > Game, I moved the full contents of the "game" folder to the "Jazz" folder on my iPad.  There are countless ways to get the files onto your iPad. You have several options for transferring the files: use iCloud, email it to yourself, use USB flash drives, or AirDrop it from your Mac. As long as you remember where you store the game files, it makes no difference where you save them.

Running Your Game

We may now launch the game on your iPad since your game folder has been saved there. iDOS 3 has two modes: portrait and landscape. When your iPad is held in portrait orientation, a virtual keyboard and a fictitious historically accurate computer will appear.

While some DOS games require a CD to be installed, in this instance we simply wish to mount the folder as a drive. Thus, press and hold the floppy disk and choose "Folder."

Now choose "Open" after navigating to the folder containing the DOS game files you saved.

The game folder has been mounted as a virtual disk in iDOS, according to the notification that appears. We therefore wish to switch to that drive next. Using the on-screen keyboard, type "D:" and press the Enter key.

Now that we have switched to drive D, all you have to do is type the executable's name and hit Enter. That is "Jazz.exe" in this instance, but it obviously varies depending on the particular game.

The game is currently in motion, but how can I control it?

You can use the virtual keyboard in portrait mode to control your game. To view an on-screen gamepad with buttons assigned to certain keyboard keys, hit the little gamepad button.

When you rotate the iPad to face landscape, a small menu bar will appear at the top.

To make it stay, use the small pin icon; to make it appear, simply tap the top border of the screen. Here, you may see an on-screen simulated gamepad, keyboard, and mouse by tapping on buttons.

Configuring Peripherals

To be honest, touch controls are not the best for gaming. You will want something more user-friendly, unless it is a turn-based 4X game like my beloved Master of Orion.  The good news is that a keyboard and mouse are still compatible with iDOS 3 and may be connected to your iPad in the same way as for any other purpose. 

But for a lot of games, you will want to pair your iPad with a Bluetooth game controller. I utilized an Xbox Series X controller in my instance. The controls and buttons are connected to the keyboard keys by default. You can set the function of each button individually by tapping the Bluetooth icon in the small quick bar.

Press the relevant key on the virtual keyboard while holding down the button on the controller you wish to rebind.

You may use your gamepad as a real controller for certain DOS games by tapping on the settings gear in the iDOS 3 fast bar and selecting "Settings." Some DOS games also supported joysticks or gamepads.

The gamepad option can then be enabled under "optional inputs." Just keep in mind that, because back then, each game calibrated the joystick or gamepad separately, you would need to set them up within the game itself.

Though most of the time I would not bother with this because old DOS games seldom ever included any kind of analog joystick control, it is still a nice choice.  The bare minimum required to launch a DOS game on your iPad is that knowledge. I love playing my enormous collection of GOG DOS games on my incredibly portable MacBook Air, but being able to play them on my iPad creates a ton of new opportunities for me to put off completing my real work. It makes me really happy!