Boxer, carried forward

DOS games on a Mac should still feel like Mac apps. Boxer wraps DOS software in click-to-play gameboxes, with a Finder-friendly library and sensible defaults for sound, graphics, and controls. This is the thec0de.com continuation of Boxer, built on MaddTheSane's fork of Alun Bestor's original.

4.2.0 Beta

The current beta is a universal Intel and Apple Silicon build targeting macOS 12 or newer. It includes the original Epic Pinball, Ultima Underworld, and X-COM demo gameboxes, with an optional first-run copy into your games folder. You can import your own DOS software separately.

This beta is ad-hoc signed, not Developer ID signed or notarized. macOS may require manual approval on first launch. Intel Macs, macOS 12-25, and the owner's M3 Pro have not yet received hardware qualification; the target alone is not a compatibility guarantee. Older Boxer builds remain available at boxer.thec0de.com.

What changed

• Restored Boxer's established net.washboardabs.boxer app identity.
• Applied the saved-gamebox-path and shell-readiness fix from upstream pull request #82.
• Kept the original sample demos and bundled DOS Toolkit, including Gravis Ultrasound patches. Existing MT-32 support remains available.
• Added a fork-specific two-glove app icon; the upstream icon files remain untouched for historical builds.
• Stopped checks against the old upstream development update feed; the in-app Releases link opens thec0de Boxer site instead.
• Updated Help > About to credit Alun Bestor, MaddTheSane, thec0de.com, and the DOSBox team. Report a Bug opens this fork's issue form.
• Fixed the Keyboard Preferences Accessibility instructions and settings link for modern macOS while keeping the macOS 12 path.
• Modernized the Xcode build workflow for the current toolchain.

See the 4.2.0 beta notes for details and known limits. This is a maintenance beta, not a DOSBox Staging engine rebase or Boxer 5.0.

Build from source

Initialize the included dependency submodules and use Xcode 27.1 with its Metal Toolchain and CMake. The command below reproduces the unsigned Release build used for this beta on Apple Silicon; adjust the CMake path if needed.

git submodule update --init --recursive
CMAKE='/opt/homebrew/bin/cmake -DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5' \
NCPUS=2 MAKEFLAGS=-e xcodebuild -workspace Boxer.xcworkspace \
  -scheme 'Boxer CI' -configuration Release \
  -destination 'generic/platform=macOS' -jobs 2 \
  MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=12.0 CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO \
  COMPILER_INDEX_STORE_ENABLE=NO build

The repository also retains the historical Boxer Standalone and Bundler targets. Their older documented OS minimums are not a promise that this new 4.2 beta runs on those systems.

Bugs and contributions

Please open a bug report with your Boxer build, macOS version, Mac model, and steps to reproduce. If Boxer saved a report in ~/Library/Application Support/Boxer/Crash Dumps/, review it for personal paths before sharing it. Please do not upload games, ROMs, serial numbers, or private files. Pull requests with focused fixes and reproducible tests are welcome.

Credits and license

Alun Bestor created Boxer. MaddTheSane maintained and modernized the fork that this continuation builds on. The DOSBox and DOSBox Staging teams built the emulator beneath it; many other contributors made this project possible. Our 4.2 beta work is credited to thec0de.com without erasing that lineage.

Boxer is licensed under GPLv2. Keep the license and notices with redistributions. The corresponding source for each published beta is linked from its release page.