I’ve had wonderful memories when as a kid, I spent several blissful years with my IBM PC XT clone experimenting with Dos programming and played cutting edge games
like Ultima IV , Wizardry, Autoduel and Star Control. The iDOS emulator ported by Fast Intelligence was able to deliver an unmatched wave of nostalgia and within a day of installing iDOS on my Ipad, I was trying out some of these classics again – mostly just to see them again in all their glory - 256 VGA colour and adlib sound. There wasn’t even a need to jailbreak to get the programs to work.
DOS 2.0.1 re-appeared on the Appstore as a free app after first appearing on 26thOct as iDOS 1 (price $0.99) which got pulled within a day for not meeting App policy requirements. Sad to say, history repeated itself and iDOS 2.0.1 disappeared just as quickly.
To the amazing folks at Fast Intelligence, I just have this to say:
Thank you for creating this emulator. It shall be on my Ipad for a very long time.
To those who decided to pull it:
We are an endangered breed, those of us who were fortunate to see the birth of the gaming industry through Dos. You were never there and if you were, you never understood.
(screenshot of Ultima IV taken from Abandonia.com)
Wow. I wish I had known. I
Wow. I wish I had known. I would REALLY like a DOS emulator. I have several pieces of software that I want to use on my iOS devices that only works on DOS.
Brief history: in the 90's, Thaddeus Computing, the parent company of iPhone Life published The HP Palmtop Paper, a magazine dedicated to the HP 200LX DOS Palmtop. Believe it our not, we STILL have a business buying, reselling, repairing, and accessorizing the HP 200LX. There are companies and individuals that still prefer the DOS solution, particularly the one offered by HP. Check out www.palmtoppaper.com where you can also find archives of all the issues and hardware and software we sell for the 200LX!
Dosbox
Well it's not the end of the world for dos emulator fans. Dosbox is available on Windows and Linux. Android users can also get their hands on adosbox. But those platforms aren't really the focus of iphonelife so I'm not going into those platforms here. Perhaps on my own blog. The community of dos fans and hobbyists isn't really significant and I think Apple really shouldn't have stopped this app. Will check out the palmtoppaper.com site. iDos is still apparently now on Cydia, but I'm not too sure about Iphonelife's position on jailbreaking.
Yes, there are other DOS
Yes, there are other DOS emulators, but I would love to see one on iOS devices.
iPhone Life magazine is agnostic about Jailbreaking. However, we have decided for now for the magazine itself, not to publish Jailbreaking articles. It causes more problems then worth, especially for the vast majority of our print readers. Information about Jailbreaking is better suited for the web.