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Our 4.2 beta builds on Boxer by Alun Bestor and MaddTheSane's maintained fork. It keeps your familiar Boxer app identity, applies a gamebox session reopening fix, and uses an updated build setup. The original Epic Pinball, Ultima Underworld, and X-COM demos are included, with an optional copy into your games folder.
- Restores the
net.washboardabs.boxer app identity and related helper identities rather than using a contributor's test identity.
- Includes the saved-path and shell-readiness correction from upstream pull request #82. The basic gamebox close/reopen path passed; every historical saved-path variation has not been tested.
- Includes the original three sample demos and the optional first-run sample-copy flow.
- Introduces our two-glove fork icon, with a small Pi on each cuff, while preserving the original icon assets in the source.
- Help > About credits Alun Bestor, MaddTheSane, thec0de.com, and DOSBox; Report a Bug opens our GitHub issue form.
- Keyboard Preferences now names the correct macOS settings pane and links to Accessibility permissions without showing
(null).
- Stops automatic update checks against the upstream development feed. The in-app Releases menu now points to this Boxer site.
- On first launch, macOS may ask you to approve this build using Open Anyway; it is not yet notarized.
- Tested from the exact release ZIP on an M1 Mac with macOS 26.6.2: DOS prompt and keyboard input; the bundled Epic Pinball demo reached its menu, closed, and reopened to the menu. Intel, macOS 12–25, and an M3 Pro have not yet been hardware-tested.
- Download matching GPLv2 source and pinned dependencies, see the public source tag, or verify both download checksums.
Thanks to original creator Alun Bestor, MaddTheSane for carrying Boxer forward, and the DOSBox and DOSBox Staging teams for the emulator beneath it. The source and download preserve their license notices and credits.
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MaddTheSane's last downloadable build. This universal beta supports Apple Silicon on macOS 11+ and declares macOS 10.14.4 as its Intel minimum. It is the earlier-generation choice, not the current thec0de beta.
- Adds native Apple Silicon support to the 64-bit Boxer line.
- Fixes shadowed directories in newly created game wrappers, as described in the upstream 4.1 notes.
- Upstream lists a known crash when quitting Boxer after running DOS.
- This beta is not Developer ID signed or notarized. Modern macOS may require manual approval to open it.
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This earlier 64-bit Intel build was a separately compiled community copy kept for older Macs. Its app declares OS X 10.10 as the minimum; 10.10–10.14 is our best-fit range, not a guarantee on every Mac. It is not a newer alternative to 4.1.
- The old 2020 Intel build was our Xcode 12.3 build for macOS 10.15 Catalina and later. It remains archived but is redundant beside 4.1 for most people, so it is no longer a main download choice.
- This 2.0.0 copy has a historical Mac Developer signature, not current Developer ID distribution signing; newer macOS versions may require manual approval.
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- This is a security update to fix a vulnerability in Sparkle, Boxer's automatic updater.
- Best fit: OS X 10.6–10.11. Later macOS versions are not qualified for this original release.
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- This is a security update to fix a vulnerability in Sparkle, Boxer's automatic updater.
- Important: This version is for OS X 10.5 users only. Users on OS X 10.6 and above should download Boxer 1.4.0 or later, which contains a more comprehensive fix for the security vulnerability.
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- Developer-signed for OS X 10.8’s Gatekeeper.
- Improved configurations for Battlespire, Blood and Alien Incident.
- Fixed The 7th Guest being incorrectly detected as playing MT-32 music when set up for General MIDI.
- Improved mouse-locking to unlock properly when activating Exposé or the Cmd+Tab app switcher, and to prevent locking over the menu or dock when in fullscreen.
- Fixed extra drives appearing in drives list when running a duplicated gamebox.
- Fixed DOS window getting resized incorrectly when there was insufficient screen space to show the window at its minimum size.
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Improvements:
- Gravis Ultrasound audio emulation now correctly supports stereo.
- The “Close window after exiting” option is now gamebox-specific rather than user-specific, so it will apply for everyone who runs that gamebox.
- If you close the program panel yourself while at the DOS prompt, it will now stay closed in future for that gamebox.
- Simplified error messages when importing Windows-only and Mac-only games.
- Tweaked Cmd-key handling to avoid inadvertent DOS keyboard input when pressing one of Boxer’s hotkeys.
- You can now paste non-ASCII characters, such as most European accented characters, into DOS programs that support them.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed volume being muted by default (whoops).
- Fixed mounted drives not getting remembered for next time if you quit by using the
EXIT command.
- Fixed bug with “Close window after exiting” option where the window would close immediately if you launched the default program from the program panel.
- Added missing keyboard shortcut for “Hide Others” menu option (Cmd+Opt+H.)
- Updated application help to correct some outdated info and broken links.
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New features:
- Volume control slider in the statusbar and menu, with Cmd ⌘+⇡/⇣ shortcuts. (CPU speed shortcuts have been moved to Cmd ⌘+Opt ⌥+⇡/⇣.)
- Save screenshots to the Desktop with Cmd ⌘+Shift ⇧+S.
- Fast-forward games with Cmd ⌘+Opt ⌥+⇢.
Improvements to gameboxes and importing:
- Gameboxes remember all the drives you had mounted last time, even when the drives aren’t part of the gamebox. This makes it super-easy to keep an external folder mounted as a drive, e.g. for sharing documents or utilities.
- Closing the import window while it’s running an installer lets you finish up the game import immediately (instead of stopping the import.)
- Missing gamebox icons are regenerated next time you launch the gamebox.
Smarter input handling:
- You can now paste text from OS X into any DOS program.
- Your keyboard’s media keys can now be used to pause, resume and fast-forward the emulation.
- More useful keys added to the Send Key menu.
- Mouse-button shortcuts now work better for games that require a left-then-right-click or right-then-left-click (e.g. Cannon Fodder, Ultima Underworld.)
- Added detection for Turkish and US International keyboard layouts.
- Switching your OS X keyboard layout while Boxer is running will also switch the DOS layout if possible.
More helpful help:
- Help guides for patching games and installing game expansions.
- More helpful advice when trying to import games that are inside Windows installers (e.g. GOG releases), and better help for Windows-only games.
- More helpful advice when trying to import a Classic Mac OS game or hybrid MacOS+PC disc.
- Clearer warnings when trying to run a Windows-only program from the DOS prompt.
Bugs squashed:
- Fixed arrow-keys and function-keys occasionally getting stuck when “Ignore OS X hotkeys while a game is running” was enabled.
- Fixed CPU-speed keyboard shortcuts not repeating properly when held down.
- Fixed broken import of GOG release of Rayman.
- Fixed hang during import of GOG release of Betrayal at Krondor.
- Fixed missing music in GOG release of Dragonsphere.
- Fixed GOG games starting up with the wrong configuration when launched immediately after importing.
- Fixed soundcard-related crashes in Alien Breed: Tower Assault, Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel and others.
- Configuration fixes for Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True.
- Improved detection of Blackthorne and Ignition.
- Fixed Game Inspector program list appearing blank if the default program wasn’t in the list.
- CD audio playback is now paused properly while the emulator is paused.
- OS X 10.7: Fixed windows restoring with the wrong position after being quit in fullscreen.
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Improvements to keyboard input:
- Numeric keypad support for Macbooks and Apple Wireless Keyboards: Press Cmd+U or hold down Fn to make 789/UIO/JKL act as a numpad.
- Toggling Numlock now displays a notification bezel.
- Send Key menu now indicates the current Numlock and Scroll-lock status.
- Insert key on non-Mac keyboards now properly acts as Insert key in DOS.
Improvements to the DOS prompt:
- You can now paste text into the DOS prompt to execute DOS commands. (Pasting into DOS programs will arrive in a future update.)
- DOS prompt now unpauses when drag-dropping new drives into the window.
- Fixed REVEAL command ignoring the path you specify, and improved its error messages.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed regression in 1.2.1 that caused crashes during gamebox startup.
- (Hopefully) fixed occasional hangs when starting up a DOS session.
- Fixed savegames not getting saved correctly in Seasons of Sakura and 3 Sisters’ Story.
- Fixed MT-32 detection for GOG.com release of Battle Chess II.
- Prevented OS X’s own Ctrl+F7 shortcut from interfering with the DOS window.
- Changed the default games folder location back to [home folder]/DOS Games. This does not affect existing games folders.
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Rendering fixes:
- Eliminated screen-tearing in fullscreen and windowed mode, woohoo!
- Fixed crappy fullscreen performance on certain Mac models.
Game compatibility fixes:
- Fixed crashes and broken CD imports when importing GOG.com games that contain BIN+CUE images (affected Dungeon Keeper, Castles II, Redneck Rampage and others.)
- Fixed CD copy protection in the GOG.com release of Pro Pinball: Timeshock.
- Fixed hang when switching CDs in Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars.
- Fixed crash when launching Comanche 3 installer.
- Fixed hang when launching FIFA ’94 installer.
- Fixed CD copy protection in abandonware rips of Steel Panthers 2.
- Fixed juddering animations in Commander Keens 4–6.
Input fixes:
- Updated Joypad integration to improve joystick mode switching.
- Fixed keyboard lag in other applications when Boxer was busy and “Ignore OS X hotkeys while a game is running” was enabled.
- Fixed (thankfully rare) issue where keyboard stopped responding after quitting Boxer, when “Ignore OS X hotkeys while a game is running” was enabled.
- Improved mouse pointer behaviour when “Use seamless mouse pointer” is enabled.
- Fixed keys sometimes getting ‘stuck’ if Cmd was pressed while they were held down.
- Fixed controller axis mappings for Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS stick.
Other fixes and tweaks:
- Removed choice of DOS Games folder location when launching Boxer for the first time. This now defaults to Documents/DOS Games, though the location can still be changed later from the Preferences window (or moved/renamed in Finder.)
- Fixed bug in Inspector panel that was preventing changes to settings from getting saved occasionally.
- Fixed notification icons and bootleg cover art being scaled incorrectly on OS X 10.5.
- Boxer now always auto-pauses in the background while waiting at the DOS prompt.
- Made help pages look tidier and prettier.
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Roland MT-32 support:
- Emulates the Roland MT-32/CM-32L Sound Module, beloved of Sierra and Origin fans everywhere. Big kudos to the Munt project for their emulation! Emulation requires MT-32 or CM-32L ROMs, which aren’t legal to bundle with Boxer. Drag your own ROMs into Boxer’s Audio Preferences to enable the emulation.
- Displays secret game messages from the MT-32’s LCD in a spiffy bezel overlay.
- Detects if you’ve got a real MT-32 plugged in, and pipes MT-32 music to that automatically. No configuration needed: just a MIDI-to-USB cable.
- Autodetects MT-32-compatible games: just tell the game to play MT-32 music and you’re all set.
Easier CD-swapping for multi-CD games:
- Adding a new CD will replace any previous one, using the same drive letter. No more shuffling drives around when you need the next disc!
- The Drives Inspector displays inactive CDs along with the currently-active one, so you can swap back and forth between CDs quickly.
(You can also cycle through CDs with Cmd+Shift+left/right.)
- Extra CDs can be imported into the gamebox from the Drives panel while playing, making them always available to swap between.
Much more reliable importing from Good Old Games:
- Custom DOSBox emulation settings are now imported along with the game files, to ensure the game works as it should: no need to fix sound settings or mess with drive mounts.
- These settings are used to pick the right program to launch automatically, so you can get playing straight away.
A laundry-list of other improvements and bugfixes:
- No more switching Spaces by accident! OS X’s own function key and arrow-key hotkeys are now suppressed while playing, in all OS X versions. May require a tweak to your Universal Access preferences: see Boxer’s Preferences panel for details.
- Added options to Mouse Inspector to modify/disable Boxer’s Ctrl+click and Ctrl+Opt+click mouse button shortcuts, to fix games that give these key combos their own behaviour.
- Improved game startup times.
- New look-and-feel for program panel to fit in better on Lion.
- Tweaked fullscreen scaling to reduce stretchmarks.
- Added friendly explanations when a drive could not be mounted or unmounted.
- Game import can now be cancelled while it is scanning a game folder.
- OS X 10.5: Suppressed “This game appears to be ignoring your joystick” warning when Gamepad Companion or ControllerMate are running.
- OS X 10.7: Fixed mouse disappearing ‘behind’ the Inspector panel in seamless mouse mode.
- OS X 10.7: Fixed drives disappearing from Drives panel when dragging them around.
- OS X 10.7: Fixed occasional mis-importing of CDs.
- OS X 10.7: Fixed spurious drive-added/drive-removed notifications when starting a game.
- Fixed incorrect D-pad directions on Playstation 3 controllers.
- Fixed trackpad taps not getting registered in certain games.
- Fixed crash at startup when scanning disc images that have unreadable files (affected some releases of Theme Hospital.)
- Emulation fixes for Siege, The Incredible Machine, Wizardry VII, Car & Driver, Cannon Fodder, Broken Sword, Jetfighter 2, F-14 Tomcat, Terminators 2029 and Rampage, Elite Plus, Ignition, The Pandora Directive, Mechwarrior, MDK, A.T.A.C, B-17 Flying Fortress, Dogfight, Harrier Jump Jet, Angel Devoid, Screamer, Turrican II, The Lion King, Wolfenstein 3D, Geekwad, Return of the Phantom, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Dawn Patrol and Xenon II. (phew!)
- Game import fixes for Super Tetris, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Quarantine, System Shock and Wing Commander III.
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Joystick improvements:
- Better controller mappings for:
- Logitech Dual Action, RumblePad 2, and Fx10 series gamepads
- Logitech Formula Force, MOMO Racing and G25/G27 series wheels
- 3rd-party XBOX 360 controllers
- CH Flightstick Pro throttle emulation works better with gamepads and displays the current throttle level on-screen.
- Per-game option to disable joystick emulation, to avoid interfering with external tools like Gamepad Companion.
- If a game seems to be ignoring your joystick input, Boxer will remind you to turn on joystick control within the game.
- Reduced axis deadzone from 25% to 20% to make sticks more sensitive.
- On most controllers, buttons 5-8 are now also bound to the four DOS joystick buttons.
- Improved gamepad detection to more reliably apply twin-stick racing wheel layout.
Better disk handling:
- The program panel now discovers programs located on ISOs and floppy-disk images, and can set them as the default program for a gamebox. This makes it much easier to play games that have left all their programs on the CD.
- Drives are scanned for available programs in the background, resulting in quicker gamebox startup.
- Added support for .IMG and .VFD floppy-disk image formats.
- Fixed floppy-disk images hanging on PowerPC Macs.
Fixes for 10.7 Lion:
- Fixed nasty fullscreen lag under Lion.
- Fixed occasional Lion crash when tapping the DOS window’s close button on a trackpad.
- Disabled restore-windows-at-startup in Lion, to prevent numerous startup bugs and general misbehaviour.
General fixes and tweaks:
- New bezel notifications for switching to fullscreen, pausing, adjusting CPU speed and adding/removing drives.
- Flicker-free fullscreen transitions, smooth crossfades in program panel, and other cosmetic improvements.
- Automatic configuration for Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies and Metaltech: Earthsiege.
- Disabled blur effect behind Inspector panel in preparation for App Store compatibility.
- Removed Growl support, now that it has been superseded by built-in bezels.
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Joysticks, Baby!
- Emulates four kinds of DOS-era joysticks: regular joystick/gamepad, Thrustmaster FCS, CH FlightStick Pro or racing wheel.
- Plug-and-play support for Mac-compatible USB and Bluetooth game controllers, with instructions for getting your 360 or PS3 controller working in OS X.
- Native Joypad support: turn your iPhone into a gamepad, with custom layouts for each DOS joystick type.
- A new Inspector panel for tweaking joystick settings while you play.
OS X 10.7 Lion compatibility:
- Supports Lion’s new-and-improved fullscreen mode.
- Limited support for Lion's new resume features: quit while playing, and Boxer will start up with the same game next time.
- Boatloads of Lion-specific bugfixes, large and small.
Other fixes and improvements:
- Hold [fn] to override Boxer’s Ctrl-click and Opt-click shortcuts: so they’re sent directly to DOS instead of simulating a right-click/middle-click.
- The Mac’s display is now prevented from going to sleep while a game is running and unpaused.
- Added an option in the cover-art dropzone’s right-click menu to do an image search for the current game.
- Expanded help for Inspector window panels.
- Fixed a couple of crash bugs when closing the DOS window.
- Improvements to game importing, and configuration fixes for a zillion more games.
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Improvements to game importing:
- Physical CD-ROMs are now ripped as disc images during game importing: fixes copy protection in many games and makes CD audio into a part of the gamebox.
If you’ve had copy protection trouble with a game you imported from CD, try importing it again now.
- Better progress messages, option to skip lengthy CD rips, and various other tweaks to game import UI behaviour.
Better PowerPC compatibility:
- Fixed corrupt graphics in CGA and Tandy emulation modes on PowerPC Macs.
- Reverted default CPU speed back to 3000 cycles, to improve PowerPC performance and fix timing issues in several old games.
If you find that any of your older games now run too slow, please send me a bug report!
Fixes to mouse and keyboard handling:
- Mouse input is now enabled for all games, not just ones that ask for the mouse. Fixes mouse control in Space Crusade, Fantasy Empires, Precision Simulator and others.
- Tweaked three-finger tap gesture to prevent accidental clicks and work more like OS X's own single and double-taps.
- Fixed mouse getting unlocked whenever the window size changes.
- Tweaked how key repeats are handled, fixing misbehaviour in some games when holding down a key.
Shoutouts to my MT-32 bros:
- Added documentation for making games play through a real MT-32: search for “mt32” from the Help menu.
No MT-32 emulation yet, for now Boxer only supports the real thing.
- Optional MIDI delay for early-model MT-32s to fix lockups and missing instruments (see documentation for details.)
- Fixed CoreMIDI output leaving notes hanging when you pause or quit.
Other nice things:
- Per-game option to close the window once the game exits to DOS. Off by default but can be toggled from the Game Inspector panel.
- Fixed crashes when launching programs from Finder while a DOS session is open.
- Doubleclicking a gamebox in Finder while it is waiting at the DOS prompt will now start the gamebox’s default program.
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Improvements to game importing and disk-image handling:
- Support for mounting and importing from .IMA floppy-disk images.
- Better importing for many Good Old Games releases: standalone .GOG disc images are now properly recognised and imported as .ISOs.
- “Auto-Pause in Background” option is now ignored while importing a game, to allow lengthy installer operations to complete unattended.
- Extra volumes no longer appear in Finder when Boxer is importing from a disk image.
- Newly-imported gameboxes with duplicate names now get a different suffix to avoid them looking like sequels.
Input fixes and tweaks:
- Fixed Shift keys sticking when pressed simultaneously (sorry pinball game fans!)
- CapsLock state is synchronised correctly at startup and when switching back to Boxer.
- Added F11 and F12 shortcuts to Send Key menu.
- Changed speed up/slow down CPU shortcuts to Cmd-Up and Cmd-Down.
- Cursor now vanishes correctly after unpausing when "Follow mouse when Unlocked" is enabled.
Other fixes:
- Boxer now prevents you from choosing to keep your games directly in an OS X system folder (Documents, Applications, your Home folder etc.) Subfolders of these are still fine of course.
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Yeah baby! I’m sick of release candidates, let’s roll!
UI tweaks:
- Added Cmd-P to pause, with option to auto-pause while minimized/in background.
- Reintroduced Cmd-Left and Cmd-Right shortcuts for nudging the CPU speed up/down.
- Reorganised menus to collect these options into a new Emulation menu.
- Three-finger tap on trackpad to simulate clicking the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously (requires multitouch trackpad.)
General improvements and fixes:
- Preliminary support for developer previews of OS X 10.7 Lion.
- Fixed dock and menu not hiding when entering full screen mode quickly.
- Fixed mouse not unlocking properly when Cmd-Tabbing, and cases of mouse buttons getting stuck.
- Fixed Ctrl, Alt, Shift and CapsLock occasionally getting stuck when switching applications or using global shortcuts.
- Cleaned up some mistakes in application help.
- Added auto-configurations for Royal Flush Pinball and Case of the Rose Tattoo.
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Shelf art a-go-go
- Enlarged games folder shelf background up to 4000x4000 pixels (depending on your Mac's maximum texture size), to avoid running out of shelf for big games collections.
- Shelf background will also be applied to all subfolders in your games folder that contain gameboxes of their own.
- The background image can be found at [Home]/Application Support/Boxer/Shelf Artwork/, and replaced with your own if you prefer.
More help, vicar?
- Comprehensive searchable application help, bundled with Boxer and available from the Help menu.
- Help buttons on various windows to assist with game importing, rendering options, sound card settings etc.
- Acknowledgements and full license legalese.
Other improvements and fixes
- Fixed game importer erroneously rejecting .CDR disc images.
- Improved importer's game detection to catch more Windows-only games.
- Fixed "Import new games" droplet sometimes not getting created.
- Cancelled imports will no longer show up in the Recent Documents menu.
- Preferences window now remembers what panel it was on last time.
- Fixed an occasional crash when closing game window.
- Improved installation process for Fable.
- Added auto-configuration for Privateer 2.
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UI and behaviour improvements:
- 10.6-only: Ctrl+arrows Spaces shortcuts will be remapped to Cmd+Ctrl+arrows while a DOS window is active, to prevent them interfering with game controls.
- Added 512x512 versions of 3.5" and 5.25" floppy-disk icons for bootleg cover art, to complement existing hi-res CD-case artwork. (Will only apply to newly-imported games.)
- Added new Send Key menu shortcuts for special keys like Pause, Insert and Num Lock.
- CD-ROMs mounted in OS X will not be auto-mounted in DOS if the current gamebox contains bundled CD-ROMs of its own, to keep the Drives list tidy.
Bugfixes and emulation tweaks:
- Fixed severe flickering in fullscreen mode on Intel GMA950 Macs (older Mac Minis and Macbooks).
- Fixed transposed < and § keys on European keyboards.
- Made keyboard layout detection more liberal to better handle 3rd-party keyboards.
- When changing the name of a newly-imported gamebox, launching the game or closing the window will commit your changes instead of discarding them.
- Reimplemented aspect-ratio correction so that all graphics modes are now scaled consistently to 4:3.
- Fixed skinny videos in Privateer 2.
- Fixed garbage characters when quitting Need for Speed.
- Fixed copy-protection check for Warcraft II, the fix for which may help other games with picky CD-checks.
- Improvements to installer detection to fix occasional bad guesses of default installer.
- Added auto-configurations for Jetfighter, Rogue, Castle Adventure and Below the Root.
*These are the minimum system versions declared by the apps; actual compatibility may vary by Mac and macOS version. For the author's additional details, see MaddTheSane's 4.1 Beta release notes.
Design by 40watt - Modded by Gr33k