IS DosBox or Bochs possible on the DS ?

[DanTheManMS]

Funny you should mention Duke Nukem 3D... >_>

Also, since I missed this the first time around, Rise of the Triad also has a native port to the DS, no DOS needed.

DSLinux does exist, but it's rather limited, and in order to get the best performance out of it you have to have some sort of RAM in slot-2. I mostly use it for web browsing, where IMO it excels in speed and usability.

However, as DOS has no sourcecode, I'm guessing something like FreeDOS would have to be ported if the same approach was to be used, right?

[Akoi Meexx]

Yeah, but I wouldn't even attempt to run a game on FreeDOS after porting it to DS, let alone expect anything to run well.

[lorddeathmark]

It IS possible to emulate DOS on a DS.
The memory problem means NO REAL MODE.
So anything running on a 386 is pretty much unloadable.

I was able to run 2400ad for DOS, but TONS of apple II games run using an emulator. Often times games published on IBM compatibles got a port to apple II and a few other popular systems from the time.

Apogee games seem to be the real exception from the period, the Texas based publisher didn't have the access or need to port most of their work.

A very wise GPF once told me that the way to get a game to run right is to port it, using a specialized program that loads the original game files. His version of Flashback is a prefect example. As is ScummVM for DS.

The memory problem is made more complex by the 3rd party memory extenders that would have to supported along-side the Opera expansion. Considering the trouble that alone would cause makes the DSi a far better candidate. Here's hoping.