OnLive on the iPad

I'm not normally one to post an article about gaming, however OnLive is not a normal gaming platform...

Unlike the PS3 or X360, OnLive is a gaming-on-demand service that utilises cloud computing to stream games over the Internet. All of the computing power required to play the game is at an OnLive data centre with only a highly optimised video stream being sent to the end user. This means that any device (regardless of computing power) that can access the video stream, can theoretically play the game.

When this technology was first shown at the Game Developers Conference in 2009, it sounded way to good to be true and I didn't hold out much hope for it actually working in the real world. However this week at E3 OnLive was demonstrated being played on an iPad and I have to say it looks great. When watching the video below don't focus to heavily on the controls, but keep in mind these are high end PC games being streamed (and played) directly from the iPad over Wi-Fi.

Although the OnLive rep stated they current have no plans to bring the service to the iPad, it does show how versatile the service could be when connecting to new hardware platforms.

OnLive is already available in beta across parts America and it is believed BT have just signed a deal to bring the service to the UK, which could fit nicely with the FTTC rollout. After seeing it in action I will certainly be keeping a close eye on this technology.

Boxer - The Ultimate DOS Emulator for Mac

I have previously written a guide on how to run DOS games on your Mac, using DOSBox. The process is free and works great, however it is not 100% user friendly, as it requires some DOS experience to get a game installed and running. 

Thankfully, Boxer is here to take away the fuss, but leave the fun.

Boxer uses DOSBox as its emulation engine, however adds a "Mac like" drop and drag user interface, which makes installing and running DOS games simple. Once downloaded you simply drag the "Boxer.app" to your Applications folder. 

When you start Boxer you will see a shelf with your available options. To install a Game you simply drag the CD or game folder to the "Drop games to install" shelf icon. This is where Boxer does its magic. Not only does it handle the installation process but it also configures the game so it should work first time without any additional set-up. Once installed a game icon will be added to your shelf. 

To help get you started Boxer comes with four sample games for you to try. Unsurprisingly these can be found in the "Sample Games" folder.

That's it, not a command line in sight. To try Boxer for yourself head over to their download page.

Run DOS Games on your Mac

There are some awesome old DOS games out there; Theme Hospital, Theme Park, Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, SimCity 2000, Sam and Max, Little Big Adventure, Syndicate Wars, to name a few. Even by todays standards these games are great fun to play. Unfortunately getting a modern PC or Mac to run them can be a troublesome task.

Now this issue can be solved easily using DOSBox, which is available for Windows and Mac OS X (even Snow Leopard). This article will guide you through installing, setting-up and running a DOS game on your Mac.

The Process

1. First you need to download DOSBox (currently on v0.73). To install simply copy the DOSBox application to your Applications folder (just like you would any other Mac application). DOSBox is a completely self contained application, meaning you can uninstall it easily at anytime by dragging the DOSBox application to your Trash.

2. Create a folder called "DOSBox" on your Mac where you will store your DOS Games. For example in your Documents folder which can be found at "/Users/your-username/Documents/".

3. Insert your Game CD and start DOSBox.

4. Once at the command prompt you need to tell DOSBox which of your real folders and real drives to use as the emulated DOS drives. To do this run the following two commands:

Z:\>mount C "/Users/your-username/Documents/DOSBox" 
Z:\>mount D "/Volumes/name-of-CD" -t cdrom

I suggest you always choose to mount drive C as your hard drive and drive D as you CD drive.

5. Next you need to switch to drive D and run the install/setup program.

D:
install.exe

In the above example I have used the "install.exe" command, however some games use a different installation program, such as "setup.exe" or "install.bat". If "install.exe" does not work you will need to type "dir", this will list all the files on the CD so you can pick the correct installation application (you are most likely looking for one with the extension .exe or .bat).

6. The game installer should now run. Follow the game's installation wizard and at some stage you should be prompted to pick an installation directory. This will create a new folder in the location you set for your mounted C drive. If the installer prompts you to pick a sound card I recommend you select "Creative Sound Blaster" or its nearest counterpart.

7. Now you simply need to start the game. To do this switch to drive C and navigate to the game folder that you created in the previous step during the installation. Finally, run the games startup program.

C:
cd\GAME
GAME.exe

You will need to replace the "GAME.exe" with the specific games startup program name. Like before this can be located by typing "dir" to list the folders contents. For example Theme Hospital is "HOSPITAL.exe", however some games my use the ".bat" extension.

8. The game will now start. Each time you want to run the game you will need to first mount the C and D drives (step 4) and then start the game (step 7).

The image below shows the run process from start to finish. 

Advance Configuration (Optional)

The final two changes I recommend making are to enable full screen mode by default and configure DOSBox to run the mount and game startup commands automatically.

1. Open the file "DOSBox 0.73 Preferences" located at "Users/your-username/Library/Preferences/" using a text editor (such as TextEdit).

2. Change "fullscreen" to equal "true".

3. Next, scroll to the bottom of the document and type the following commands under "[autoexec]":

mount C "/Users/your-username/DOSBox/"
mount D "/Volumes/name-of-CD" -t cdrom -ioctl
C:
cd\GAME
GAME.exe


Remember to change the commands to match the game you are loading.

4. Finally, save the file.