It seems that some bright spark has written an emulator that allows you to play these old DOS games on almost any computer.

Here are some photos of my students playing the games in the classroom.

Dos Games on PhotoPeach

Download games and dosbox

To get these games go to http://dosgames.com/g_edu.php and download for free. Then you’ll have to go to http://dosbox.com/ to get the emulator.

Installation

Installation is quite simple.

1. On a windows machine create a folder under c:/ called DOS or DOSGAMES.  On a Mac create a folder in your base user directory. (~/user/yourlogin/)
2. Put all the zipped files into that folder and unzip them – let them unzip into the folder they specify. By default Maths Rescue will unzip into 1Math and Word Rescue into 1Rescue.
3. Then run the dosbox command. Once you’re in dosbox you will have to mount the drive. [Actions are inside bold square brackets]

Windows screenshot: mount c c:/dos [Enter] (or whatever you’ve called your folder – I’m assuming DOS here)

MAC screenshot: mount c ~/dos

Once you’ve mounted the C drive the commands are identical. Actions are in [square brackets!]

[1] Change to the C drive: C: [enter]

Then you have to install the games.

Change to the install directory:

1. 1rescue for word rescue: cd 1rescue [enter]
2. 1math for maths rescue: cd 1math [enter]

Then you type in the install command: install [enter]

You will go through a series of screens and each time you have an [enter] option – don’t worry about the other options just hit the enter key for each screen.

Screen 1

Screen 2

Screen 3

Screen 4

To get back to the C:/ prompt you type in cd.. [enter] and then go through the same process to install the second game.

Game Play

[1] Change to either maths or word rescue directories

Math: cd math [enter]

Word: cd word [enter]

[3] Type the command to activate the games

• Maths Rescue: mr1 [enter]

• Word Rescue: wr1 [enter]

[4] Take note of the keyboard commands – for most DOS games the Q button is your quit key. Both these games have automatic save.

[5] Once you’ve quit the game you have one final command: exit [enter] and then you’ll be back into your normal computing environment.

And that’s about it – hope you enjoy a chance to relive those games and your students enjoy them too. After two days about 1/2 my students are no longer asking me what they need to type up in order to mount the drive and play the game. I expect by the end of next week no one will be asking – but parents will be asking how to get these games. <G>